Economic Group : End of the First Week

We arrived at San Jose safe and sound on Sunday afternoon. The first thing we noticed in Costa Rica is the weather, which is amazing! It is always in the 70’s and usually rains during the day. It rains all the time here compared to Texas. San Jose is a busy city and the traffic is crazy. The drivers don’t really stop at stop signs, they generally just kind of roll right on through them. We also learned that pedestrians do not have the right of way and they will honk loudly at those who do cross unexpectedly! However, our bus driver, Marcello has been great at navigating around San Jose for us. The food has been great and the majority of our meals have contained some type of rice and beans. We have all enjoyed trying out different kinds of beverages and foods that we are unaccustomed to in America.

Dr. Vargas from CATIE showed us around San Jose and told us about some of the history of San Jose and Costa Rica. We got a chance to visit the Inbio Parque and got to see some of the natural plants and animals of Costa Rica. The park leaders told us about how most people only care to save what they love and love what they know. This gave us a chance to think about what we are doing to save our own environment and what we can do to help. On our visit to Monteverde we got to see a lot of different tourist shops. We were surprised to see that many of the souvenirs were marked with US dollar price tags rather than colones, the Costa Rican currency. However, this gave us a chance to see how much U.S. tourism affects the Costa Rican economy. We have had the chance to visit several different types of hospitality industries and to see what they are doing to cut costs as well as be more environmentally friendly. We have seen everything from water barrels to catch excess rain, skylights and food being served on leaves rather than plates.

Overall we are having a great time seeing the natural beauty of Costa Rica and getting to know our fellow Emerald Eagle Scholars.