A Costa Rica Eco-Hike or Eco Tico

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a hike: blue skies with spongy white clouds scattered overhead and a light refreshing breeze. But instead of taking off for hidden trails and picturesque rivers, the Santa Eulalia Gang, aka The 10:27 Club, donned gloves, grabbed big plastic bags and headed down the main road picking up rubbish. Our goal was to clean the ditches and gutters of detritus and in the process hopefully inspire our neighbors to be more aware of where they toss their trash.

As proud residents of such a naturally beautiful country, Ticos are rather casual about throwing things on the ground. It seems as though they think, "out of sight, out of mind," not realizing or choosing to ignore the fact that all those plastic bags, candy wrappers, cardboard boxes, soda bottles, computer cases and other garbage don't magically disappear. Alas, when the rainy season arrives, it all gets pushed down the ditches and into the rivers and ultimately into the ocean, where trash from around the world now forms a huge toxic plastic "island" known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Estimates on its size range from twice the size of Hawaii to twice the size of the state of Texas. As it leaves countries on the Pacific Rim -- from Japan and the Philippines in the east and from all along the West Coast of the United States -- debris is caught up in the North Pacific Gyre, a clockwise movement of four prevailing currents in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, where it slowly breaks down into even smaller polymers that provide a deadly soup for the ocean life there. Since the Gyre comprises the largest ecosystem on Earth, some 20 million square kilometers, we're talking some serious ecological damage.

So the Santa Eulalia "Drinking Club with a Hiking Problem" decided to take matters - and trash - into our own hands, literally. We knew we couldn't save the world but we might be able to save our little pristine corner here in Costa Rica. A little disorganized in the beginning (as we are wont to be), the gang soon developed a system: Stephen was Plastic Man, Layne and Carmen were talking Trash, Sue carried the Aluminum and Glass bag and I was in charge of Paper goods. Marcial, Bonnie and Chris had primary pick-up duties, delivering the goods to the appropriate bag handlers and occasionally taking on bag-handling duties as well.

It was slow going; we were amazed at just how much "stuff" there was to pick up, especially in front of and across the street from the local high school where the kids convene between classes to munch on candy and sodas and often drop the packaging where they sit. Along one stretch of concrete gutter we discovered a sludge-like liquid in the bottom in which plastics and other debris were immersed. We couldn't face picking that up as the sludge smelled of sewage so Stephen dragged most of it out with a stick so at least it could dry - and perhaps send a message to the litterers as well as the household with the poor septic system.

As the road leveled out near Bonnie and Stephen's house, they decided to call it quits for the day; it was hard work! The rest of us had every intention of going on but once we took a break for a few bites of delicious mango that Marcial had found, we concluded we had done enough for one day and it was time to relax. Our neighbor Juan had donated the bags and was coming in his pickup truck to take them for appropriate recycling but when he arrived with a bottle of tequila, limons and salt in hand, it was time for a Tailgate Party, Tico style!

Now that's a Tailgate Party!

This puppy fell in love with Sue - and she with it!

Our plan for the next clean-up hike is to bring along a sign as a means of public education: Let's Keep Santa Eulalia Clean! ¡Vamos a mantener Santa Eulalia limpio!

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Day One

2/10/10:

Day numero uno in Costa Rica. Like most things in life, if it seems too good to be true, it just might be. Our little apart-hotel doesn’t quite measure up to our expectations. But to use another trite expression: there’s good news and bad news.

The good news is the day dawned (well, at 9 a.m. for us) beautiful and sunny with a magnificent tropical breeze that had Layne singing its praises. The bed was comfortable enough even if the pillows weren't. The Internet is blazing fast and the television has dozens of English-speaking channels. The place is quite clean and the patio and balcony are charming. Still, we were disappointed in the kitchen, which is pretty minimal (but then, I don’t plan to cook much) and the bathroom has a questionable shower system. But if we wanted a typical Tico experience, then we’ve come to the right place!! And the price is right.

Our trip down went very smoothly, despite a delayed flight from LAX to Phoenix that had us running down the concourse to make our connection. But fortunately, they held the plane for us and some 8 other passengers. At LAX, we had a scary beginning as the US Airways ticket agent insisted that because we were scheduled to return to the USA on our 90th day that we would need a visa, only available from the Costa Rican embassy! The rule is that tourists can stay a maximum of 90 days so we felt we were fine and indeed, after checking with a supervisor, the agent noted our record as validated and we were on our way. For the next trip, we may plan to return on day 89 just to avoid such drama. Once in Costa Rica, our passage through immigration and customs was muy pronto (very fast). Apparently, that’s one advantage of coming in at night as on previous trips, it was a slow and confusing process.

Now we have been out for a walk with a two-fold mission: get our passports copied and get a bite to eat since we arose too late for breakfast at the Roma, our apart-hotel.

Talk about being in a foreign country! Oh yeah, it certainly is that. The map the hotel agent provided was, as she had cautioned, not very accurate so after a wrong turn or two and negotiating the utterly hazardous sidewalks, we finally found a place to eat, although not the one she had suggested. Thank goodness for my minimal Spanish; we managed to communicate our wishes to the friendly clerks and wait-staff.

As we retraced our steps, we saw where we should have turned earlier and continued on down that street toward the busy University area where numerous familiar names appeared: Papa John’s Pizza, Taco Bell, McDonald’s, etc. (Watch for the inevitable fattening up of the Costa Rican population.) There was a major bus and taxi stop there in front of the University, so after wandering farther down the hill, we returned to the taxi stand and with my broken Spanish asked the driver if he knew where Apart-hotel Roma was. With his affirmative answer, we were quickly back at our hotel, the taxi climbing the steep hill to our temporary home far quicker than we could have. And the tab was less than $1.

Our neighborhood here is a truly typical Tico one: many corrugated red roofs, houses connected to each other, San Francisco-style, fast and noisy traffic, especially buses and motorbikes (what? No muffler laws?), occasional honking horns and barking dogs, metal bars on windows and lots of kids and adults walking around. We have a small market on the other corner and a meat market across the street. Much to my surprise and perhaps due to my taking two Excedrin P.M. instead of my normal one, the traffic noise didn’t bother my sleep last night. It seemed to die down considerably after about 10 p.m. and although it started up early again this morning, I managed to sleep in until close to 9 a.m., of course, that’s only 7 a.m. for us on West Coast time.

Stay tuned for more of our adventures. I’m still trying to figure out a name for a blog, to avoid having to send my notes to huge email lists, but so far, I’m uninspired.