Dispatches from the Field & Project Summaries
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 10 – La Cusinga Eco Lodge, Costa Rica
March 25, 2010
After hearing about La Cusinga’s good work from members of the local community, it was time for us to speak with the people most closely involved in making the lodge what it is: the managers and the staff. It was clear to us all that La Cusinga staff are very invested in the lodge and its mission. Lodge administrator Cindy Thiele called the La Cusinga “a paradise” and “much more than just a job.” She told us how inspiring it is to work in such a beautiful natural environment and how much she appreciates the opportunity to involve guests and the local community in environmental education and other sustainability-related projects. Similarly, La Cusinga’s chef, David Mahler, who came to Costa Rica from San Francisco, takes pride in creating delicious menus using organic ingredients from the lodge’s own gardens and farm. Our entire team agreed that the food at La Cusinga was some of the best we had anywhere in Costa Rica.
It’s also clear that La Cusinga invests a lot of effort in its employees and sees them as members of a special lodge community. Jason Retana, who describes his role at La Cusinga as “a bit of everything,” explained how he was once given a three-month leave of absence to learn about birds, trees, and other ecological topics from a visiting professor from England.
Not surprisingly, La Cusinga has been a labor of love from the very beginning. John Tresemer, La Cusinga’s founder and manager, shared the story of how he first came to Costa Rica as a 20-year-old college student from the United States more than 30 years ago and wound up staying. At the time the site that is now La Cusinga was being threatened by proposed aluminum stripmining and the planned construction of a deepwater port, as well as by slash-and-burn deforestation. To make a long story short, John got involved in fighting the project and, with the help of his parents, ended up buying the land that is now La Cusinga. “Instead of this becoming an ecological disaster area it’s now an example of ecological stability,” he said. John was also instrumental in initiating marine conservation in Costa Rica and establishing Ballena Marine National Park and other protected areas near La Cusinga.
After wrapping up our final interviews with La Cusinga staff, including General Manager Geinier Guzmán, who spoke about La Cusinga’s recycling, waste management, and other sustainability efforts at home, we set off down the road to another tiny airport for another Nature Air flight. With all we had to accomplish in our limited time at La Cusinga, our departure from the lodge was a bit later than planned. We arrived at the airport at Palmar Sur just 10 minutes before our flight. As we piled out of the vehicle and started unloading our bags, a Nature Air official came over, ascertained that there were four of us – the number of passengers he was missing – and started tagging our bags – no ID check, no asking our names, no nothing. We were the right number of people, we were foreigners, and we had luggage. He thrust our boarding passes at us and off we went.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 9, part 2 – La Cusinga Eco Lodge, Costa Rica
March 23, 2010
One of the most important aspects of La Cusinga’s sustainability efforts is its involvement with environmental organizations and the local community. During our morning in Uvita we visited Escuela Líder La Flor de Bahia, a local primary school with which La Cusinga has a close relationship. Our arrival was serendipitous for one teacher who happened to be practicing English greetings with her class of fifth graders. As we passed through the school gate she popped out of her classroom and invited us in to speak with the students, who rarely had the opportunity to try out their language skills on native English speakers.
After running through “How are you? What is your name? Where are you from?” and so on for a while with the students, we found an empty classroom where we could film an interview with computer science teacher Ronny Duarte, who spoke of the importance of environmental education and conservation. 
The school’s partnership with La Cusinga includes field trips to the lodge, where students learn about ecology, forest protection, natural resource conservation, and sustainable agriculture. La Cusinga has also helped the school set up a recycling program. Two of the fifth graders, Noah and Nelson, showed us the recycling station and demonstrated how they sort trash.
Back at La Cusinga we spoke with Ronald Villalobos Hoffman, the director of ASANA (the Association of Friends of the Nature of the South-Central Pacific), a regional environmental organization that works on environmental education, biodiversity monitoring, and protected areas conservation. Villalobos explained that La Cusinga has been of great help to ASANA and other organizations working on the protection and conservation of the area. The lodge coordinates work with local schools, provides a location for workshops and training programs, and assists with efforts to control illegal activities that threaten the environment. In addition, La Cusinga guests have the opportunity to volunteer with ASANA’s sea turtle hatchery program.
One of ASANA’s major efforts is the establishment of the Tapir Path Biological Corridor between the Savegre and Terraba Rivers along Costa Rica’s southern coast. La Cusinga has been very supportive of this project, and the lodge’s private reserve represents a significant tract of protected land that provides a refuge for tapirs, jaguars, birds, turtles, crocodiles, and other threatened species.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 9 – La Cusinga Eco Lodge, Costa Rica
March 23, 2010
La Cusinga Eco Lodge is a stunning place where sustainability goes hand in hand with excellent service and opportunities to explore some of Costa Rica’s most pristine rainforest and marine environments. It merits much more than a single day, but unfortunately one full day and a few hours the following morning were all the time we had to film the lodge and its community projects, but by splitting up into two teams for some of the time we made the best of it.
Having arrived after dark the night before, we got our first good views of La Cusinga in the morning. Built to blend in with its natural environment, the lodge sits on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by a 250-hectare private reserve of mostly primary rainforest. Numerous trails lead through the forest and down to the beach; toucans, monkeys, and other wildlife are commonly seen. The howler monkeys were particularly active, starting up their raucous noisemaking well before dawn.
After breakfast John set off to shoot the grounds, the facilities, and the surrounding forest. Rob, Ryan, and I headed to the nearby town of Uvita, where La Cusinga General Manager Geinier Guzmán had arranged for us to visit some of the local organizations partnering with the lodge. First up was a boat trip in Ballena Marine National Park, a protected area that La Cusinga was instrumental in establishing. The boat tour company, Bahia Aventuras, has also worked closely with La Cusinga to develop sustainable tourism practices and train its guides. Our tour took in the rocky coastline around La Cusinga, dramatic offshore rock formations, and a trip out to deeper water to see a pod of spotted dolphins frolicking in the waves.
Our interview with Bahia Aventuras owner Walter Brenes later that morning was a study in persistence. We scouted out a good filming location on the front porch of the company’s office – only to find the interview constantly interrupted by trucks rumbling by with materials for construction up the road. Giving up, we drove back down to the beach and selected a new spot– only to have people continuously wandering through the scene, including a man with a baby carriage who wandered into the background and stopped, oblivious to the filming. Through much trial and error we finally got the interview done and headed back to La Cusinga for a late lunch.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 8 – School for Field Studies, Costa Rica
March 22, 2010
Our last day with SFS was a field trip day for the students, which offered a great opportunity for us to experience what the program is all about. Together with Gerardo Avalos and Ola Russell we followed the student bus as it set off shortly after 6:00 a.m. for Carara National Park, near the coast about an hour and a half from the SFS Center. Upon arrival at the Tárcoles River, we boarded launches for a trip downriver. Almost immediately we began spotting some amazing birdlife: nesting tiger herons, great blue herons, roseate spoonbill, caracara, osprey, egrets, cormorants – even a pair of scarlet macaws flying high overhead.
We disembarked at a beach near the mouth of the river, where the SFS students found seats on driftwood and rocks for an outdoor lecture about pollution of the Tárcoles River basin. This is the essence of SFS programs – experiential, on-site learning that gives students first-hand insight into environmental issues, their causes, and potential solutions. The beach was no pristine swimming beach – it was covered in garbage that had drifted downstream from communities in the Central Highlands. Plastic bottles, rubber tire tubes, and even a couple of dolls’ heads littered the sand. The trash, however, didn’t stop a wealth of birds from congregating in the area around the beach. In addition to the ubiquitous egrets there was a large group of wood storks wandering the beach, several pelicans bobbing in the water, and black and turkey vultures perched in the trees. I even spotted a small colorful bird with a long, unusually shaped tail. Gerardo later identified it from my photo as the turquoise-browed motmot, the national bird of Nicaragua.
After the class on the beach, the SFS students – with our team following in another launch – headed back upstream and then down a side channel that led into the mangrove forest. We disembarked again at a wooden boardwalk, where the students found seats on the platform for another lecture, this one on river and mangrove ecosystems.
Following the lecture, the students headed back to the town of Tárcoles for a picnic lunch on a local beach, where we interviewed a couple of them about the SFS experience. Junior Jay Creech from the University of Southern California and senior Helena Manzella from Muhlenberg College were both enthusiastic about the opportunity to do field research and learn about issues from the people involved, as well as the chance be part of a collaborative community with other students and professors from different disciplines.
After lunch the students went on to Carara National Park for an orientation hike, while we interviewed Giovanny Soto, coordinator of public use programs and interim director of the park. SFS works closely with the national park on research projects that are jointly established according to park needs. Every semester the school holds a symposium at which students present papers or other research that the park can use in its management plans.
Unfortunately we didn’t have time to explore Carara ourselves, as we our time with SFS was coming to an end. Instead, we headed back to Atenas, arriving back in time for a late lunch in the SFS dining hall and a few final minutes of filming. Then our transfer van arrived and we said goodbye to Gerardo and Ola and set off down the road toward new adventures in sustainability at La Cusinga Eco Lodge.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 7, part 2 – School for Field Studies, Costa Rica
March 22, 2010
Following our morning visit to the El Pino coffee farm, we headed back down the winding road to film some scenes of downtown Atenas. Like most Latin American towns, Atenas is centered on a main park or plaza where much of the action takes place. Rather unusually, the various paths through the park were captioned with inspirational messages – mottos to live by. However, as the only Spanish speaker on the team, I suspect I was the only one to appreciate this oddity.
After shooting downtown for an hour or so, we arrived back at the Center for Sustainable Development Studies in time for a late lunch in the dining hall, followed by an interview with Director Gerardo Avalos. We were filming an introduction to SFS with Ola Russell at the main gate to the Center when the SFS students returned from a field trip to San José. Of course filming a documentary is never a matter of just pointing a camera at the subject, pressing record, and being done with it. I had no idea before joining the team just how many takes would be required to get things right. Between fumbled words, background noises, distracting insects, and other interruptions, filming introductions and interviews was often quite a lengthy process. After several attempts, Rob and Ola finally got the introduction nailed down – only to have the student bus drive up, engines rumbling, back from a field trip to San José. So much for that successful take! Eventually, however, the introduction was completed, and the guys moved on to filming the students in class and doing various farming chores around the Center.
With all the students back at the Center, dinner that evening was a lively affair. Afterward, many of the students headed into town to participate in a soccer match with local residents – just one of the many ways in which SFS students have the opportunity to interact informally with the Atenas community.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 7 – School for Field Studies, Costa Rica
March 19, 2010
Gerardo Calderón and his family run a shade-grown coffee farm, Finca El Pino, on a hillside not far from the town of Atenas in the central highlands of Costa Rica. We visited the farm with staff from the SFS Center for Sustainable Development Studies, which has been working with El Pino and other members of the local coffee producers’ cooperative since 2005. SFS helped three of the nine farms in the cooperative to obtain organic certification, and for the past year and a half or so SFS Professor Achim Häger has been conducting research at the Calderón family farm, studying the environmental benefits of various plants and agroforestry methods. The research gives SFS students hands-on experience with scientific research and sustainable agriculture, and provides information that the Calderóns can use to improve their production.
At the farm, Gabriel Calderón (son of Gerardo) took us on a tour of the plantation. Hiking the trail on the steeply sloped hillside was like entering a special kind of jungle. The Calderóns have chosen to grow a diversity of plants that goes well beyond the requirements for organic certification. In addition to providing shade for coffee plants, the other trees and bushes protect against erosion and attract beneficial insects that pollinate the coffee plants.
After our tour through the coffee plants, Gabriel and his father demonstrated how they sift and process the coffee “cherries” before bagging them for sale. Our visit ended with typical Costa Rican hospitality as Gerardo’s wife, Sole, served us homemade bread and lemonade. Ryan – the only coffee-drinking member of our team – also sampled the farm’s coffee and pronounced it delicious.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 6, part 2 – School for Field Studies, Costa Rica
March 18, 2010
After a short flight from Tamarindo we arrived back in San José, where we were met by a driver from the School for Field Studies (SFS) Center for Sustainable Development Studies. From San Jose it was about a 45-minute drive into the Central Highlands to Atenas, a medium-sized town known for its fruit production. The SFS Center occupies a hillside spot overlooking the Rio Grande Valley a couple of miles from downtown Atenas.
SFS operates unique experiential study abroad programs for college undergraduates through its five field stations in Costa Rica, Mexico, Australia, Kenya, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Each center has a different environmental focus. SFS programs provide students with hands-on learning opportunities in field research, conservation, and community-based development. In Costa Rica, students live in dormitories at the Center for Sustainable Development Studies and attend classes in the Center’s indoor or outdoor classrooms, as well as off-site in field locations. We stayed in the dormitory’s intern wing and took most of our meals in the Center’s dining hall with the students.
When we arrived at SFS we were met by Gerardo Avalos, the director of the Costa Rica program, and by Ola Russell, who had flown down from the school’s head office in Massachusetts in order to facilitate our visit. They gave us a tour of the Center’s grounds, including the orchard, organic garden, and chicken coop – all places where students have opportunities to participate in sustainable farming activities.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 6 – Leatherback Trust, Costa Rica
March 18, 2010
Our last morning with Leatherback Trust began with a boat trip on the Tamarindo Estuary, a mangrove forest ecosystem that essentially serves as the filter for the entire Playa Grande area. Mangroves stabilize coastal lands and are important feeding and reproductive habitats for a wide range of bird and aquatic species. We visited the estuary with a guide named Enrique, one of many Playa Grande–area residents who used to collect leatherback turtle eggs for food but now make a living through conservation-oriented activities.
Enrique took us up the Tamarindo River deep into the heart of the forest, where red mangroves spread their fantastic root systems, camouflaged crocodiles lurked in the river and on its banks, and countless birds including ospreys, hawks, herons, and kingfishers perched in the trees and along the shore. As we headed back to our disembarkation point, we passed a tree filled with howler monkeys. Suddenly, Enrique began imitating their sounds – so realistically that the monkeys responded as if he were one of them!
We finished up our time in Playa Grande with an interview with Rotney Piedra, a biologist and the director of Las Baulas Marine National Park. From there it was off to Tamarindo Airport for the flight back to San Jose and on to new adventures with our next project, the School for Field Studies.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 5 – Leatherback Trust, Costa Rica
March 9, 2010
Our second day with Leatherback Trust was Turtle Festival Day at Playa Grande, with local residents turning out in force to watch the parade wind down the main road through the village to the Las Baulas Marine National Park headquarters. The parade featured students from the region and beyond (including the Bullis Charter School group from California) holding banners with conservation-oriented messages. “I AM THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD BUT I AM IN DANGER OF EXTINCTION,” read one. “NO TO EXTINCTION. LET’S SAVE THE LEATHERBACK TURTLE,” said another. The parade was followed speeches, skits, and musical numbers by local people of importance and the different school groups.
After the festivities we interviewed Laura Jaen, a guide at Las Baulas National Park and president of the women’s association of Matapalo, which works to promote environmentally sound behavior and education. Afterward Rob and Ryan headed off with some of the researchers from Leatherback Trust to watch them excavate a former nesting site and count the number of eggs for an estimate of how many turtles had hatched there.
We wrapped up the daylight hours with an interview with Jim Spotila on the beach at sunset. As Jim recounted his experience working with turtles and his experience in founding and directing Leatherback Trust, we attracted the attention of a beachgoing tourist, who came up and stood listening to Jim’s story. He turned out to be a visitor from Canada who overheard Jim’s comments and wanted to express his sincere gratitude for the work that Leatherback Trust is doing. “Your work is the reason we decided to stay here rather than over in Tamarindo,” he told Jim. “We appreciate everything you’ve done to keep this place undeveloped and safe for the turtles.” After everything we had seen and heard during our time at Playa Grande it was gratifying it was to hear such a spontaneous endorsement of Leatherback Trust’s work.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 4, part 2 – Leatherback Trust, Costa Rica
March 8, 2010
Conservation begins with education. That’s why Leatherback Trust has made education and voluntourism two cornerstones of its work at Playa Grande. The organization hosts numerous student programs each year and offers volunteer opportunities for adults through Earthwatch. As it turned out, our time with Leatherback Trust coincided with the annual visit by the sixth graders of the Bullis Charter School in Los Altos, California.
Shortly after our arrival at Playa Grande we headed for the elementary school in the nearby village of Matapalo for a ceremony welcoming the Bullis students. The school band played, some of the Matapalo students performed folkloric dances, and the Bullis students presented gifts they had brought and received a Matapalo School banner signed by students. While at the school we checked out the computer lab funded and organized by Leatherback Trust and interviewed the school principal, who spoke about the critical importance of environmental education.
After visiting some of the beaches with Jim during the afternoon, we spent the evening at Leatherback Trust’s research station hoping for a chance to film a turtle laying its eggs. Together with national park guides and local residents, Leatherback Trust researchers and volunteers patrol the beaches every evening for at least four hours during the nesting season (October-February), watching for turtles. Our team joined in for some patrols and discovered just why all the researchers are so physically fit. Walking up and down the beaches for four hours every night is quite a commitment.
Unfortunately no nesting turtles appeared that night – the season was drawing to a close so our chances were reduced – but we did receive word late in the evening that hatchlings had been spotted emerging from a nest on Playa Ventanas. Together with Jim we rushed there and spent about an hour about 15 tiny turtles poking their heads out of the sand and emerging from the nest and then “swimming” down the beach in the direction of the ocean (more or less). An absolutely incredible experience!