Samuel Viroslav, our professor for our corporate social responsibility class, which has been dominating our time at ULACIT for more than a week now, had set us away from the classroom this Monday the 26^th of July. This little field trip had begun at 7 am in front of ULACIT’s main entry with 15 students (Verena had stayed home sick) accompanied by Phillip, Leonardo and four guides from Fundecor. Fundecor is an organization dedicated to the sustainable management of Costa Rica’s gorgeous forests. We were soon to learn that this occurs through two avenues, planted homogeneous forests that are tended to much like a farm and then also through extracting certain mature trees directly out of the wild rainforest itself.

Granted, Sam had warned us of the high probability that we would be running into wet and muddy conditions and as such had advised that we wear rubber boots and bring a second set of dry clothes just in case. Maybe I simply got lost in the enjoyment of the day, which had supplied me with two free and delicious meals, but Sam’s warnings had not hit home until the moment the rain started falling. However, in the end our soaked situation ended up adding to the experience immensely! After all, it is a rainforest; what better time to experience it then in the rain?

Slipping and sliding all over the place we traversed through the thick foliage, yielding every so often to fully digest our surroundings. Pure magnificence! It was everything I thought it could be and so much more. I’m still somewhat astounded that Fundecor is able to convince land owners to chose the preserved rainforest option for harvesting timber, because it makes little economic sense. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy they’re doing it, but I suppose my mind is partially twisted from my American upbringing. If this same proposition was attempted in the US, I have doubts that it would be embraced so readily.

by Daniel Nowell

The first official ride was over 470m long and the moment you left the deck there was no way back. You were flying over, sometimes trough the rain forest at a speed of 60-80km/h. The group went zigzagging from one deck to another and this was accompanied by screams of sacredness to someone thinking he could be the Tarzan of the new era. After a total of 8 rides everyone arrived back in the base happily and adrenaline pumped. We got a chance to return once more to La Fortuna where we had spent the night in order to walk around the town a bit and do some shopping in case interested. Then back on the bus on arriving back in San Jose for a new activity packed week. Pura Vida!

by Madli Merila

As I said, beside having fun, we are also studying at ULACIT and we are working on different projects together. The university has special studying rooms and that  makes the process easier. What makes studying even more exiting is the fact that we have  people who have a say in sustainable development as guest lecturers  and that gives us a remarkable input .  

And after a day at school, nothing is nicer that exploring the city. San José has a number of interesting museums to visit, for example National Museum, Museum of Jade and Gold Museum. Today we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design and spent some quality time together. We haven’t  planned anything for tonight, as we have to be fresh and ready for an exciting weekend outside San Jose: visiting the wind farm and Arenal!

by Adela Michea

The Instituto Costaricense de Electricidad (ICE) is the (almost monopolistic) Costa Rican provider of electricity and (used to own) the monopoly for telecommunications. We heard an interesting presentation followed by a Q&S session. We encountered various aspects that were really interesting for me and made me think. Costa Rica generates 95% of its energy demand from renewable energy sources, mainly hydropower – which is extremely low on carbon emissions. The global impact of course is close to zero, but it is still a good example of how even less developed countries can be environmentally conscious. We also went into some discussion about the pros and cons of a monopoly. Many us coming from a business background were very skeptical at the beginning. Jorge Mario Montero (a civil engineer from ICE) brought up some arguments though, which made me challenge my previous knowledge. ICE apparently engages a lot in community and environmental work, which they can afford by being state owned. Furthermore they can think in long term investments, where the first returns will only come in 20-25 years. At the end it seem as if ICE is the best company in the world, which goes a bit too far for me, but I guess they are doing quite good.

For lunch we decided on some almost typical local food – Chinese with chopsticks. ;-) It was delicious, even though it didn´t contain any “gallo pinto”.

After the usual rain shower, I spent the rest of the afternoon (after Spanish class and homework) with Daniel, me hermano nuevo, exploring the neighborhood, where we discovered great green places and a vivid street life. The city reveals us more and more great things with time as we learn to see them. Me gusta!  :-)

by Fanny Artner

So it was halftime and it was also the last course day with Prof. Clarke. I certainly think that he could just keep talking for another two weeks, especially if he didn’t have Mr. Clock, his nickname for me, to stop him. I already miss his interesting stories. He concluded his course with an outlook about possible links for a better future.

In the second part of the day our new class with Prof. Viroslav began. The point of view he is offering is very different and therefore very interesting. I am also looking forward to the planned field trips (wind farm and tree nursery). After Spanish class it was getting hot again. Salsa, Merengue y Cumbia estan no problema para nosotros. Salimos por la noche!

by Daniel Zadra

During the time I was waiting for others to go swimming, I met Daniel who told me he was going to a sloth sanctuary. I decided to join him and a few others. Oscar, our driver, and Fico, our guide, took us to a place not far away from our hotel and we had a beautiful time watching these cute and funny creatures called sloths. There were more than fifteen of them, both babies and adults. You could notice that the baby sloth was much more curious about us than an adult one. The guide let us feed and pet one of the adult sloths which seemed to enjoy it a lot. Time went by fast and we realized we had to go back to our hotel and check out. When I arrived at my room, I found out I still have to pack all my stuff because I didn´t manage to do it during my sleepy morning. I did it as fast as possible but I still came last to our bus. We left for Puerto Viejo de Talamanca ten minutes after.

I have to say that town looked differently in daylight (we were here two days before at nighttime, dining and dancing) but still beautifully when we arrived. After agreeing to meet again at 4 pm we went to look for a nice place for lunch there and we soon found one. As it was my last day in this Caribbean “paradise” I decided to have an extraordinary lunch and ordered shrimps in coconut sauce and fresh pineapple juice. Wow, what a lovely lunch!

I was ready to go to a beach and I did so. Believe me, I have never seen a more beautiful beach in my life. Time passed by quickly and we didn´t want to leave that charming place. And we weren´t alone. When we got to our bus we learned we can stay one more hour. Great! I spent my last hour in paradise sitting on a beach, having Piňa Colada, listening to Latin music and watching people dancing salsa. Suddenly I realized how perfect this actually is and that I want to spend days like this, I wanted to STAY. I felt perfect happiness. And then came the time to say goodbye (probably forever) to Puerto Viejo. For the first time in Costa Rica I felt very sad because I had to leave that place and I really didn´t want to leave. Knowing I don’t have any other option, I got on the bus back to San Jose and let it take me somewhere I didn´t want to go. I felt disappointed and resigned. Few hours later we arrived at Parque de Tibas and I took a taxi “home”. I fell asleep quickly that night and dreamt about Puerto Viejo.       

by Daniela Bartakova

After a few hours of walking we reached Cahuita and looked forward to having a traditional Caribbean lunch. We went to a small restaurant, called „soda“ in Costa Rica. It was a very good choice because the food was very, very good. We adapted to the Caribbean way of life called „zero stress“ and waited a little bit while drinking delicious fresh fruit juices. It was worth waiting, because I really fell in love with the coconut-dishes there and we all enjoyed the food.

Can a day be better than spending it with nice people, seeing amazing landscapes and enjoying special drinks and food that are made out oft he freshest incredients? For me not…

by Kerstin Schnoerch

At one point we of course had to make a “gallo pinto” stop at a gas station to fuel up with energy. As much as this rice-and-beans breakfast seemed weird at the beginning, apparently we can’t have a day without it anymore. Feeling alive again we were ready to reach the banana plantation. At the plantation, which some observed as Banana Disneyland, we got introduced to the magical number 3 – since everything there consisted of 3 parts, had 3 problems, 3 solutions and 3 reasons. Our guide there was definitely an interesting character, that’s for sure. He took us through the history, the harvesting and the packing of the banana plants; talked about different certification they have, like ISO, SA 8000 and the Rainforest Alliance (3 again) and felt a bit annoyed by our paparazzi at the beginning.  

 Although we got to taste some bananas, we still felt hungry and therefore drove to Puerto Viejo. I personally felt enchanted by that small place with its sandy streets, it’s beaches with palm trees and little boats, the music and the rasta hairstyle. Plus I also  learned some (maybe) valuable things – how to kill and cook a langosta and what it means to be relaxed – “0 3= cero (es)tres” – I love it!

We left Puerto Viejo for a bit to drive to our hotel and check in, but we returned for dinner – where we met a perezoso (sloth) and its baby, which totally made my night. Later on we celebrated Harriet’s and Daniel’s graduation at a great place with local music next to the beach. Felt like dreaming … hmmm … maybe it won’t stop. :-)

by Fanny Artner

Milton Clarke´s lecture was very interesting as usual. He discussed the situations you face when working with international organizations, and he drew on his own experience in advising us. He kicked off with a communication exercise designed to show how much confusion can take place as information is passed on, resulting in facts getting distorted. To demonstrate how easily confusion could be created he sent five individuals out of class, without telling them why. They were then given the task of retelling each other a story, one by one, which resulted in fact distortion. To show us that this result was not always a necessary result, he used the remainder of the lecture to tell us about more successful episodes, and how to accomplish positive results.

After lectures Philipp had decided to do a small expectation session, just like we had the first day at ULACIT. The initial expectations for the course mostly concerned the Costa Rican culture, sustainable development, the people on the course, and the Spanish language. This session gave us an opportunity to give our comments on each of the topics, indicating whether they had been accomplished or not, and to reflect on our hopes for the rest of the trip, as we are moving close to our second week here.

All in all another great day, let us just hope the rain comes to an end so that we can enjoy our weekend in Puerto Viejo. Pura Vida!

by Susanne Gjonnes