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Excerpts about community-based ecotourism

from The New Key to Costa Rica, 17th edition, by Beatrice Blake, published by Ulysses Press of Berkeley, California

• Living Cultures in the Hills
• Yorkín River Trip in Talamanca
• Turtle Watching at Ostional Wildlife Refuge
• ASEPALECO
• Reserva Los Campesinos

Living Culture in the Hills

The hillsides surrounding the Central Valley are full of tradition. You can learn to make bread in an adobe oven, visit local potters, see how sugarcane juice is pressed and boiled to make delicious tapa de dulce, visit local schools, try on the gigantic papier maché masks that local dancers wear for fiestas, learn how the Quitirrisí indians weave baskets and hats from the fibers of the estococa plant, eat delicious local food and experience the process of toasting, grinding and savoring coffee in the back yard of the lady who picked it.

El Encanto de la Piedra Blanca (506 228-0183, codececr@racsa.co.cr, www.codece.org) in San Antonio de Escazú, and Nacientes Palmichal (506 418-4335, sanjoserural@racsa.co.cr, www.nacientespalmichal.com) in Palmichal de Acosta can set these tours up for you, or contact ACTUAR, the umbrella organization for community tourism (email: beatrice@keytocostarica.com , phone: 011 506 248-9470). These tours offer a fun way to see the real Costa Rica.

Yorkín River Trip in Talamanca

We awoke early to a hearty campesino breakfast at Las Calateas, our lodge in the hills near Cahuita, owned by a cooperative from the village of Carbon Dos. Soon we met Benson Venegas, director of ANAI and our tour leader for the day. ANAI was one of only seven organizations worldwide to win the Equator Prize, recognizing their efforts over the last 25 years in conservation and poverty reduction. Benson accepted the award at the Johannesburg Summit in August 2002. We were lucky to have him as our guide to the Bribri indigenous territories.

He took us to the Bribri town of Bambú, where we crossed a wide river in a dugout canoe, and started hiking, through lush tropical countryside, toward the isolated village of Yorkín. We hiked past a country school, where kids were playing soccer, and Benson got soccer-loving Dan involved in the game. He made a goal!

Soon we heard the voices of two men from Yorkín, almost yodeling over the crest of the next hill. They had come to take us on the next leg of our trip in their dugout. The water in the river was low, after a long dry season, and we were going against the current. Our boatmen were straining every muscle in their bodies to keep us from running aground on the rocks, as they maneuvered the boat with the help of strong poles, and their life-long knowledge of the river. Finally we reached Yorkín, where we swam in the delightful river, accompanied by several kids from the village who kept our kids entertained. We walked to the Casa de las Mujeres for a delicious lunch, which included fresh palmito.

The cacao tree is sacred to the Bribri tribe. In their mythology, the cacao tree was made from the sister of their creator, Sibu. After many years, cacao farming is being revived in Talamanca. The women showed us a fresh cacao pod, and let us suck the fruit around the seeds. They showed us how the seeds are dried and fermented, then toasted and ground to make the bitter hot chocolate favored by the Bribri. Their organic banana and palm heart plantations are also cultivated in harmony with the forests that cover half of their territory.

After the presentation came one of the highlights of the trip for me. Bernarda Morales, head of the Stibraupa Women's Group, asked us about ourselves and what we thought of their project. One member of our group said that visiting Yorkín and seeing the conservation efforts there gave her hope for the future of the planet, whereas before she had been very pessimistic. Another person said that he could see that the values he grew up with in the city were not necessarily the best ones, as he had formerly believed. We were all glad to be there in that moment of sharing.

Going downstream in the dugout was quite a bit faster than going up because the current was with us. We bounced through some rapids before joining the bigger river and arriving again in Bambu. From there we traveled to Shiroles, where we stayed at the Finca Educativa (373-4181), a well-appointed lodge and educational center which also runs trips to Yorkín and other villages like Amubri and the Cabecar village of Cachabri, where a local shaman shares his knowledge of healing with medicinal herbs.

To visit Yorkín, call ATEC (750-0191, atecmail@racsa.co.cr; ANAI.(750-0020, 253-7524, anaicr@racsa.co.cr) or ACTUAR, email: beatrice@keytocostarica.com , phone: 011 506 248-9470, www.actuarcostarica.com).

Turtle Watching at Ostional Wildlife Refuge

The sunset from Lagarta Lodge was magnificent—delicately colored clouds billowed over the misty mangroves and beaches that stretch for miles north of Nosara. We could see at sunset that the Nosara and Montaña rivers were swollen from previous rains. Playa Ostional, the turtle beach, lay across those rivers. In the dry season it’s easy to ford the rivers with four-wheel drive, but in November there was a risk that even the sturdiest SUV could become a boat.

Around 9 p.m. we got the word that the rivers were down and we could go. We jumped in a car and drove in the darkness down the narrow winding road from Lagarta Lodge, and then north from Nosara. When we got to the first river, a man with a strong flashlight met us. We parked and he guided us across the river on a hanging bridge. We all loaded into a cattle truck for a breezy drive down country roads to another river which we forded in the truck, reaching the village of Ostional in about 20 minutes.

The Refuge office was alive with young people from the village, who took our $6 entrance fee and introduced us to José, an intelligent and very well informed high school senior, who became our guide. Just five days before, there had been a huge arribada, with an estimated one MILLION Olive Ridley sea turtles (lepidochelys olivacea) arriving over several days. Their name comes form their olive-colored shell, which measures about 30 inches long.

Turtles nest at Ostional year round, but the arribadas are more predictable from July through December. The turtles generally land at night, but during an arribada they start arriving around 2 p.m. and keep coming until 7 the next morning.

Even though the arribada was past, we were able to see five turtles at different stages in their nesting process. We watched as they dug holes about 20 inches deep on the beach and deposited about 100 eggs each. They then covered their nests and camouflaged the spot by spreading sand over it with their flippers.

The first arribada occurred at Ostional in 1959 and has happened regularly since then, usually occurring during the last quarter of the moon. As scientists studied the turtles, they found that eggs laid by the first wave of turtles were often excavated by turtles that arrive later, or by the strong surf at high tide. If excavated eggs are left to rot on the beach, they can contaminate healthy eggs as well.

Turtle eggs are thought to have aphrodisiac properties, and are a favorite boca at Costa Rican bars. The scientific studies mentioned above served as the basis for Ostional to become one of the only communities in the world where turtle eggs are harvested and sold in a sustainable way. Since 1987, the Integral Development Association of Ostional (ADIO) governs the harvesting and marketing of the eggs, and hires a biologist to monitor the health of the turtle population. Each of ADIO’s 240 members is allowed to collect eggs for 10 to 15 hours during the first 36 hours of each arribada. After that, it is their responsibility to protect the nests.

When the turtles hatch, 40 to 55 days after the eggs are laid, women and children from the community accompany the baby turtles as they clamber toward the sea at dawn, protecting them from dogs and birds. Tourists can accompany them.

Seventy percent of the income from the sale of turtle eggs is distributed among ADIO’s working members. The other 30 percent goes to beach protection and patrol, scientific research, scholarships, and support of the community’s schools, health center, sports teams, churches, and environmental education and social welfare programs.

During our tour, it started raining again and we were pretty wet by the time it was over. We got back in the truck and rode to the river we had easily forded a few hours before. It was too high to cross, even for the monster cattle truck. But by then the skies had cleared. The few remaining clouds had been given silver linings by the rising moon.

In the dark, on a country road, we entered a true Costa Rican moment, where there is nothing else to do but be where you are. We all got to know each other a little better as nature’s timetable took over and we waited for the river to go down.

Visiting Ostional: Olive Ridleys seem to be much more stable and plentiful than the critically endangered leatherbacks at Playa Grande, where numbers have dwindled from 1340 in 1990 to only 69 in 2002 (find out more at www.leatherback.org) compared with 500,000 to a million per month at Ostional.

Any hotel in Nosara can arrange a turtle tour for you, or you can arrange it yourself by contacting ADIO (682-0470, adiotort@rasa.co.cr). Be sure to pay the $6 entrance fee and go with a local guide ($12-$15).

As in all turtle tours, it is best to wear dark colors and bring a large umbrella or a lightweight poncho. Don’t use flashlights—the guides will have lights covered with red cellophane. No pictures can be taken, but there are photos, slides and postcards of the turtles for sale in the ADIO office. Vehicles, camping and campfires are not allowed on the beach.

Getting there: it takes about 2.5 hours to drive to Ostional from Santa Cruz, about 3 hours from Tamarindo, on bumpy roads. It’s only 25 minutes from Nosara, if the rivers are low enough to cross. Check with local people before setting out.

ASEPALECO

The car ferry ride across the Gulf of Nicoya to Playa Naranjo was a “trip”, with seagulls screaming overhead and pelicans skimming the water’s surface as the ferry glided by the verdant islands of the Gulf. From Playa Naranjo, it was a short drive west to Lepanto, where we stopped at El Sol Naciente, ASEPALECO’s cultural center. Six beautifully costumed young ladies greeted us and performed traditional dances from different parts of Costa Rica. After a delicious lunch featuring locally raised shrimp, we set off for the village of Montaña Grande where we saddled up on small, gentle horses for the ride up to the Karen Mogensen Reserve. Bushes with yellow flowers arched over the trail as we climbed. In about an hour we could see the islands of the Gulf, then we descended into the hidden valley at the top of the mountain, and saw the red roofs of Valle Escondido Lodge below us.

Luis Mena, biologist extraordinaire and one of the principal movers behind ASEPALECO, told us that when he was growing up, he had heard about the farm in this hidden valley, but that it seemed “as far off as Africa”. In the early 1990s, he visited the campesino couple that had homesteaded on the farm for 50 years. They were getting old and wanted to sell. Luis saw that several rivers that supply drinking water to the whole peninsula were born on the farm. Before she died, Doña Karen Mogensen heard about the farm and offered to bequeath money to ASEPALECO to buy it.

The old farmhouse is still there. The wood stove is made of rocks and ashes, and the kitchen is just as it was in the old days. Now there are attractive wooden cabins near the farmhouse and a lovely open air dining room. Doña Mary cooks when guests are there, and polishes the old stove with ashes each time she prepares a meal, adding to the stove’s burnished glow. The meals were delicious, and we slept well in the quiet cabins.

In the morning, Don Arnulfo, who knows the area like th back of his hand, led us on a 90-minute hike down into the gorge. The steep trail had cement steps built into it all the way down. Some one had gone to a lot of work to make the trail safe and secure. When we reached the Río Blanco, we walked upstream over some slippery rocks until we could see the jewel of the Karen Mogensen Reserve, Catarata Velo de Novia, an incredible 60-footwaterfall that spreads out over a curved cliff like a lacy bridal veil. Below the falls, there is a pristine swimming hole with the most amazing green crystalline water, a testament to ASEPALECO’s work in assuring the water supply for the surrounding area. Doña Mary had prepared us a picnic lunch which we enjoyed on the rocks by the swimming hole.

On the hike out to the village of San Ramón, we met the two campesino brothers who had carefully laid 1327 cement blocks into the trail from the cabins. You could tell that this was a labor of love for them, and that they were totally involved in ASEPALECO’s vision for the health of their community.

To set up a trip to Cerro Escondido, contact ACTUAR, email: beatrice@keytocostarica.com , phone: 011 506 248-9470, or ASEPALECO, asepalec@racsa.co.cr, (506) 650-0607.

Reserva Los Campesinos

After a 4-hour trip to the coast, we arrived in Quepos, near famous Manuel Antonio National Park. Our destination was not the beautiful but over-visited beach, but an isolated community about an hour and a half inland. In Londres, about 30 minutes from Quepos, we changed from our 15-seater bus to a 4-wheel drive taxi to negotiate the 45-minute trip to the village of Quebrada Arroyo and Reserva Los Campesinos. After a delicious dinner we retired to our spacious cabins, over looking a forested gorge. The railings on the porch emphasized the natural shapes of the branches used in their construction.

In the morning, Don Miguel, president of the Vanilla Producers Association, talked of the history of the village. They had been successful in raising chocolate until monilia started ruining the cacao pods. Then they had a successful business raising vanilla and making extract, until another disease wiped out the vanilla crop. He showed us beautiful crafts that villagers had made out of the vanilla pods, still sweet smelling after eight years. Now they are starting to raise vanilla again, only organically, and are supplementing their farm earnings with income from their cabins and tours.

Miguel and his friend Misael led us up through the Los Campesinos Reserve, stopping often to tell us the uses of different flowers, trees and plants. Almost everything is used for food or medicine--and Miguel and Misael even showed us which plants they used to make into toys when they were kids. The wide, round leaves of one tree make terrific pinwheels. Miguel deftly shaved off part of the stiff hairs on "monkey's comb" pods with his machete, making monkey faces on the pods to give to the kids.

Halfway up the trail, at the edge of a deep gorge, is an "andarivel", a sturdy metal box suspended from a cable. Four people can fit inside the contraption, which zips 75 feet across to the other side of the gorge, controlled by ropes and pulleys that Miguel and Misael handle. It was a quick and exciting ride.

Not long after that, we reached the covered lookout at the top of the ridge, from where you can see the coast south of Manuel Antonio. I asked Miguel if he had ever imagined that all the things he learned working beside his father in the countryside would someday be so fascinating to foreign tourists. " I never imagined it," he said. "Never." What an incredible way of preserving culture!

Pineapple grown in the village awaited us when we came down, and then we were off across a narrow 380-foot suspended bridge that offers a view of the village's spectacular waterfall. At the other end of the bridge is a large waterfall-fed swimming hole, refreshingly cool after our long walk. We were in paradise! Our lunch featured heart of palm, which we had seen freshly harvested that morning. Reluctantly we left Reserva los Campesinos, and made our way back over the steep, muddy roads to our little bus.

To visit Los Campesinos, contact ACTUAR (email: beatrice@keytocostarica.com , phone: 011 506 248-9470).

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