Taking the Scenic Route to Tortuguero

May 4, 2016 | vivitronv

I swung myself up over the side of the narrow ten passenger boat, that would take me into the unknown or at least to “the lesser known.” The boat wobbled unevenly as I made my way to my seat and I immediately noted the absence of life jackets and paddles, as well as the beer in the hand of our “captain” as he fired up the engine. It was 9AM and this was already shaping up to be a ‘Captain Ron’ experience. He had all his eyes but less teeth than Grampa Simpson.

It's not that difficult to get there..... — It’s not that difficult to get there…..

In all my time in Costa Rica, I have stuck to visiting places that can be reached by car and maintain some resemblance of civilization. This time, however, I wanted a little more adventure. I had always heard about Tortuguero, a small community on the northern Caribbean coast. It was in the middle of nowhere or as the locals say, “the anus of the world”. Therein lies Tortuguero’s appeal: its proximity to the ocean and the surrounding rainforest, and the fact that it is only accessible by plane or boat. I would soon

realize that just the journey to Tortuguero alone would highlight the trip.

The journey to get to the boat had started in the capital city of San José on paved roads and then continued through a side-winding, hair-raising mountain pass. The route forms a part of a majestic national park, but the scenery is difficult to enjoy when you have to be prepared for landslides, rain, fog, or a broken down vehicle at every turn.

After a couple near misses, we came down the mountain pass and hit the hot and sticky Caribbean lowlands. From there the towns became fewer and fewer, the paved road eventually dissipated into gravel, then dirt, and finally, we were at a small boat landing in the middle of a banana plantation.

We pushed off from the boat dock and made our way down a narrow waterway with the rainforest

teeming on all sides, muddy waters, and crocodiles sunning themselves on the shore. The waterway was littered with rocks, trunks, and submerged tree branches. Some of the trunks that had been brought to shore had tribal faces carved into them, almost as if to warn the boaters of their trespassing. From the incessant Cicada bugs to parakeet canopy chatter, the sounds were amazing… The only thing not Jurassic about this experience were the missing dinosaurs.

Everything was going well until we had to make a tight pass between two tree trunks. Our boat was about halfway through when there was a big clunk and the motor killed. An eerie, dead silence shuddered through the boat. The casual chatter came to an abrupt halt. We were stopped dead in our tracks, no paddles/lifejackets, and muddy waters with who knows how many predators. I was recalling the tribal carvings and wondering if this was a trap when I heard a splash. Our “captain” had just abandoned ship. Maybe he knew something we didn’t know?

Instinctively, I was waiting for an ensuing crocodile attack, however, the captain emerged the splash, standing in water that was barely knee deep. How could this be? We had just seen Jesus Christ lizards that could run on the surface of the water, but this was unprecedented. Was he an X-men living in exile? He must be on a tree branch or something, I thought, but then he walked right up along side the boat and began washing the place where the clunk had happened. “I don’t like it when they critique me.” he chuckled, as he passed by on his way to the front of the boat, whereas as if were the routine, he grabbed the front of the boat and pulled us through the rest of the pass.

After a while it turned into a guessing game as to how he would navigate the hazards. I began to notice how he instinctively stayed away from the sandy side of the canal and kept us close to the rocky edge. You could tell he had some experience, or at least instincts when it came to this waterway. I’d find out later that the water level was at a record low, and that only suffering one engine killing clunk was actually pretty impressive.

Shortly after that, we exited the narrow waterway and entered a more traditional river way. We began to notice scant signs of civilization along the banks which were mostly boat landings surrounded by a few homes on stilts. We pulled into one of the landings to drop off some passengers and the silence was deafening. There were no noisy motorcycles, or loud busses that I had grown accustomed to in my town. There was peace and quiet. This would continue as we made our

way to Tortuguero, with the exception of a few single engine fishing boats, we were the only ones making a wake. The fisherman all used canoes and the most sophisticated ones had small electric motors to drift in and out of the river inlets and marsh areas.

When the captain docked us in Tortuguero, we could all let out a sigh of relief, this officially concluded our adventure for the day. I cherished that sigh as I knew it would only last a few days until we got back on the boat to journey out of Tortuguero and back to the paved land.

Tortuguero itself was rather boring in comparison to the arrival. Here are some pictures from the stay:

Power lines over the river, only source of electricity for town

My First (Official) Cultural Exchange

March 10, 2016August 13, 2019 | vivitronv

I was excited for the 1:30am wake up call. It didn’t matter much since the anticipation was so great to begin with I knew I wasn’t going to sleep much anyways. Today was day 1 of the Costa Rica – Wisconsin high school exchange. 18 hours from now we’d be in a snow frosted parking lot, temperatures in the teens, and students darting off the bus into their host families arms not only to greet them after months of emails and phone calls but to receive hats, gloves, and winter jackets, all scarce in the tropics.

For me this was a homecoming exchange in the fact that my alma mater and hometown was playing host to this exchange. With them providing the families that would adopt the visiting students for the next two weeks and inviting them to school for a few days, the exchange had its firm foundation from which to work from. Even my parents were delighted to be hosting their son and daughter in law for two weeks. From there students could explore their surroundings and see all that snowy Wisconsin had to offer. It didn’t take long for us to hit the ground running.

Just our second night we hosted a welcome event for the exchange families and community to come together and get to know the students. Very few anticipated the number of interested community members that would turn out for this event and almost

no one expected the local newspaper to be there taking pictures and interviewing. I was however very proud of the group as they showed no fear in making a small presentation about Costa Rica to the audience and even treated them to a mini salsa recital.

With cultural exchange activities and English language practice being our objectives we took in everything I’d been lacking since my childhood and then some. Sledding and ice skating were at the top of our list but even activities such as ice fishing were prominent memories for the group. And by group I include myself and a lot of the host parents/siblings as not all of us grew up ice fisherman. We pretended to stand on the ice and look knowledgeable during the demonstration to not lose face in front of the students. Between these events, schools visits and family time the experience ended up turning into one of a lifetime.

I couldn’t help but notice the bonding going on between the local and visiting students. Watching them explain how to skate or how to get maximum velocity on a sled was emblematic of the whole experience. Every day the students would get together to share stories and funny experiences they had. The amazement of the lack of rice and beans present in a Wisconsinites diet, the wonderment of how cows stay warm in the winter and how ice could form so strong that someone could walk on it, let alone drive a car on it were just some of the conversations had between students and their hosts.

Some people wondered why we chose to come in January. Costa Ricans know what summer is all about but why not choose spring, or fall? Well to begin with we were limited

due to the summer break in Costa Rica being Dec/Jan but to find the most diversity and biggest departure from the norm winter is what it has to be. None of the Costa Ricans had seen snow before this trip and I don’t feel a bit of regret facilitating this experience. Wisconsin does not have coffee plantations, volcanos, rainforests, or beaches that are within an hours drive of each other so we have to get creative with own nature and natural beauty. Sure you’ll find a big enough cultural difference but the difference in climate is literally the icing on the cake of a winter exchange to Wisconsin.

I don’t believe the impact of this experience really set in until it was actually over. We had gotten into this routine and we felt like it was never going to end. But it did and the realization was almost instant. When we boarded the bus to head back to the airport my

phone began to explode with host parents and students expressing their gratitude and happiness with the experience. As that was going on the Costa Rican parents were anxiously messaging us about travel plans and flight arrivals. 14 hours after bidding farewell to Wisconsin the students were back in the arms of overjoyed parents.

I think back now to the first meeting I had with parents in the fall and all their quizzical looks and even the parent who point blank asked me if I had children (I don’t). Leaving that meeting casted some doubt on how I could ever convince a parent it was safe for them to send their child with me to a foreign country and to stay with a family they had never met before. I could stand before them and give as much assurance as I could but until I have my own no one is really giving me the benefit of the doubt which is why host families make the exchanges so magical.

Whenever I talk to students and host families I can’t stress how important they are in the success of an exchange. Months and years later a student doesn’t remember falling while ice skating or building a snowman but they do remember who they were with. You might go on vacation or take an educational tour but there is no better way to learn about the place you are visiting than experiencing it with a local. These bonds, created with the goal of learning one’s culture stay with us much longer than a week spent at an all inclusive resort where asking for a cerveza from the wait staff qualifies as culture.

With technological advances students and families can live the experience through each other, even if they are not actually on the exchange. Every school we visited and every

activity we did there was an opportunity to snap a photo and share it with all of the Costa Rican parents. Watching a hockey game, participating in class, or even eating at food court, parents were able to see what we were up to and that was very reassuring for them. Combining that with the pre-trip communication they had with their host family via email and video calls everyone felt confident with the trip and this was the backing I needed to convince parents my empty nest was not a cause for alarm.

At the end of the two week whirlwind trip I could have slept through four alarms having maxed out all the energy in my body. As I write this now a month has gone by since the exchange ended and recalling all these fond memories provokes the same excitement all over again. This inaugural exchange couldn’t have gone better and I’m hopeful to carry over these positive vibes to many more exchanges in the future.

Tiptoeing through the trap of a tourist mecca….

August 5, 2015 | vivitronv

We all have a fairy-tale fantasy of vacationing on an exotic beach.

Sipping juice from coconuts with the cute little cocktail straws as we watch the waves wash over the white sands. Relaxing in the harmony of finally getting away from it all.

That is until your paradise is interrupted by a scream. And then another, and another.

I was living that fairy-tale fantasy, and while the screams fortunately were neither a shark attack nor a coming tsunami, it was just the start of a strange day in which I got a firsthand look at a bad combination of nature and tourism.

After the first few screams, I could see tree branches waving wildly back and forth despite the otherwise calmness of the day, so I decided to check it out. And I wasn’t alone. By the time I got to where the commotion was, the whole beach had congregated in the area to watch the show.

A group of monkeys had climbed down from the trees and had stolen a backpack from one of the tourists on the beach. They were up in the trees going through everything. Watches, cell phones, books and panties all fell from the tree as the monkeys carefully examined everything, eventually discarding anything that wasn’t edible.

For a first-time visitor to Manuel Antonio National Park, this was quite entertaining. However, this ended up going on all day – screams coming from up and down the beach, large gatherings, followed by photos and laughter. It was like we were in the middle of a circus run by monkeys.

By the end of the day nobody could leave anything unattended on the beach.

It might sound fun, but it is having a damaging effect on the beach’s monkeys. Monkeys are not accustomed to chips and crackers, and they have lost all fear of humans, making them aggressive and unpredictable at times.

It’s a delicate situation, as this national park depends on the revenue from the visitors to protect not only this park, but other less visited parks in Costa Rica. As a result, it has catered to the tourists by building changing rooms and providing picnic tables for people to have lunch. And that has led to the animals becoming accustomed to a different diet, one that is harming their health.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s great tourists can come and see animals in the wild, but it’s too bad money-making opportunities are preventing better measures from being taken to not damage that very same environment.

With the massive tourism to the 5.5-acre park – about 150,000 visitors a year – money talks in the beach towns around it, as well. The day before our visit to the park (which charges $3 for Costa Ricans but $16 for foreigners), my wife and I had gotten an exhausting introduction to that, starting with a Spanish man pleading desperately with us.

“Just give me one opportunity, one opportunity! Come on man, one opportunity!” he said, hands up in the air.

Trying to get the two of us into his restaurant for dinner, he had eyed me up pretty quickly and had the sales pitch prepared.

He began to speak to us in English, highlighting that his restaurant was the only one in town that included all taxes in their prices. Then, after showing us the menu, he began to make remarks in Spanish to my wife – who he apparently thought was my tour guide or escort – suggesting that if she got me to eat there, he would give her a free drink.

His patience quickly grew thin, though, and he yanked the menu out of my hands to give to a bigger group of tourists walking down the street.

Unfortunately, this became the theme of the weekend. Everyone we talked to was working for some kind of commission and was ready to tell us anything to get us to buy at exorbitant prices. Even when checking into the hotel, they had to walk us through their tour packages before they would give us our keys to our room.

It was hard to even walk down the beach without being hassled. If I looked too long at a surfboard, they’d come after me. If we stopped under a beach umbrella to fix a sandal, we were frowned upon. Even sitting underneath a tree, beach chairs were placed strategically to tempt people to take a load off and start the meter.

The only conversation we had with a local that didn’t end in a sales pitch was with one who happened to be from the same town as my wife. Had that not been the case, I’m sure he would have been all over us to rent a beach chair.

As we departed the park area to head back to San Ramon we passed by many luxury hotels, condos, and restaurants, all touting the beauty of being one of the most beautiful beaches and national parks in the world.

I’m not going to say I didn’t enjoy my weekend – despite all the less desirable aspects of a tourism buildup the park is still quite beautiful. However, I think will take my coco juice and sippy straws on to the next beach, where hopefully, I’ll feel like an outside observer instead of the center of attention.

I don’t think this is the right beach for me…

Returning to the U.S. is no Foregone Conclusion

May 30, 2015 | vivitronv

People almost never ask me if I will leave Costa Rica, but they really should.

As upwardly mobile as society is, nothing is ever set in stone, and I’m no exception. I’ve cliff-hanged about my intentions of staying in Costa Rica many times. But no matter how many times I’ve wanted to stay, something has always come up and forced me to leave.

Recently, I was put on the spot by a visiting colleague of mine from the United States. It was her first time to Costa Rica, and she decided to come visit me and my family her first night here.

She started with a softball: So how does a twenty something year old gringo end up in tropical Costa Rica?

I get asked this question about as often as it snows in winter, so this was an easy one. This time, I chose to go in chronological order: The first time I was in college, the second time I was volunteering, then I met my

They even have pizza in Costa Rica, what's not to love? — They even have pizza in Costa Rica, what’s not to love?

girlfriend, started a business and married my girlfriend and rode off into the sunset.

It was my best explanation yet. It included all the highlights, the tense, do-or-die deal-breaker moments and the realization of my new life. Had I had a pen and paper, this would have been the first draft of my autobiography.

At the end of my tale, which she had shown great interest listening to, there was a brief pause, followed by her question: “So when do you plan on going back to the U.S.?”

I was mildly startled by the question. “What kind of question is that?” I thought.

“Of course I plan on… I mean in a few ye-ye-years… This will all… eh, eh… When I get a job with CEO pay!” I finally blurted out to dodge the question.

I didn’t know why that was so hard to answer. I should have been prepared. Wondering why I wasn’t kept me thinking the rest of the night.

I came to the conclusion that it was quite a loaded question.

Had I planned to go back, I couldn’t expect people to think what I’m doing here is serious. It would seem this almost 10-year voyage that led me here would be for nothing. And if I didn’t go back, would I be running from the American dream?

I’ve never thought much of what other people think of me, but this was heavily influencing my answer. How I answer might cause people to form a different opinion about me.

The question reminded me of a couple I met once in Costa Rica. They had been married for 15 years and had no children, and every year they are still asked about having children.

They had no children because they didn’t want any – and I’m sure they decided that a long ago and that it is a non-issue for them – so I imagine they, too, are caught off guard when the question comes up.

I wonder if they ever make up an excuse just so people won’t think it is so different. Maybe that should be my strategy, too. Maybe what I am doing is a little too off the norm and people unconsciously assume this will all end.

Well, here’s one reason that’s a faulty assumption.

From 2004 until 2013, I never had a single address for more than 10 months at a time. Whether I was at college in Minnesota, teaching English in Spain, riding out the recession at home or traveling throughout Central and South America, I never had any intention of settling down.

So you would think that now after over more than two years in one place and one year of marriage I would be itching at the sides to make a change, if only to go back to the United States. But that thought has never really crossed my mind.

I still travel back a few times a year, and I have a place here for my parents to stay whenever they want to visit. Plus, with technology, a video call is never more than a moment away. If I do get lonely there is more than enough family to go around.

Over the years, I’ve been “adopted” into many families and married into one whose family tree is bigger than a sequoia. I don’t know in what moment the question became irrelevant but other than in the CEO salary scenario, I think I am pretty well settled in.

My colleague really stumped me that first night with that innocent, curious one-liner, and my answer probably wasn’t satisfying at the time. But redemption was served up fresh the next week, when my colleague, now back at work, messaged me: “Oh my gosh, Costa Rica was so wonderful, I can’t believe I was only able to stay for a week.”

I’m sure now she doesn’t even recall asking me that head-scratcher in the first place. Maybe that is why no one really asks. Spend any amount of time here and you’ll forget you had that question for me in the first place.

Refreshed image!

May 16, 2015 | vivitronv

To all our followers, fans, and friends:

You may have noticed a new and improved logo appearing on our web and social media sites. In addition to a new webpage design we thought it was time after almost 3 years in business to change things up a bit. Now you’ll see a clean fresh image to go along with our same mission: Providing travelers with immersion experiences in Costa Rica. Thanks to all who participated in our previous poll, ¡Pura vida!

Costa Rica Frika – Eyes Wild Open

Escorting students brings me a guilt trip

March 5, 2015 | vivitronv

Note: This post was originally written in January 2015 for a local newspaper in Verona, WI.

It is with immense guilt that I admit this.

I am an enabler.

I open doors for people, allow them to walk through and then get out of the way. Even though I can’t control what happens after that, I still feel a responsibility for setting off that chain of events that has an irreversible effect on one’s life.

The most recent incident happened with a group of 14 University of Minnesota construction management students who spent two weeks in Costa Rica.

Bear in mind, my role was purely logistical. I put a roof over their heads, meals on the table and made sure they experienced what Costa Rica had to offer. Costa Rica did the rest.

But still I feel guilty.

They experienced the beaches and rainforests. They culturally immersed themselves so much that in two weeks they could not only tell you where coffee comes from but how to ask locals for help finding a bathroom. To top it off, they completed a capstone course to put the finishing touches on their collegiate careers.

But then they had to go home.

I recall my first visit to Costa Rica, how painful and heartbreaking it was to leave after six months. I can’t imagine how it would have felt after only two weeks.

This particular trip had gotten off to a rough start. Within 20 minutes of arrival we were forced into a local shopping mall to wait for some students who arrived on a different flight at the same time but were stranded on the tarmac. (Apparently there weren’t enough gates; who would have thought you could land 15 planes in an hour at an airport that serves a country the size of West Virginia?)

As a result, my Costa Rican chocolates melted in the shuttle bus and our highly entertaining Costa Rica trivia game garnered only an emergency contact card as a prize. In an unrelated note, it was also uncovered how old I am, as only half the group knew who Scottie Pippen was.

We cruised through the Costa Rican countryside and came within view of San Ramon just as the sun began its descent behind the mountains surrounding the town. The anticipation was building as only moments separated the group from their first “real” steps into this foreign land.

Could we drink the water? How do we greet the locals? Will we eat with our hands?

In order to calm their nerves, I had strategically devised a pizza delivery combined with an NFL playoff game to avert a full-on culture overload. However, come Day 2, we were back to immersion.

We began with both the most majestic and erie canopy tour I had ever witnessed. Imagine

That might be a monkey... — That might be a monkey…

a foggy, old abandoned ghost town, but instead of buildings you have trees and branches that appear at a moment’s notice as you’re flying through the rainforest canopy suspended by a cable.

For a first-time rainforest experience, this couldn’t be beaten. From there, we lunched at a local family’s home and toured their farm. Many were impressed that this family could produce almost all the food they needed just from their plot of land.

After lunch, I scheduled an orphanage visit to show the students what a typical Costa Rican orphanage looks like, knowing that they would later design an addition for another one. Despite the intent of our visit, our focus would be deterred shortly after meeting the children.

“Gringos! Gringos!” they greeted us excitedly. Since I had expected this to happen, I somehow assumed the students were expert balloon animal makers. But it turned out only two students could make them and a few others had the actual lung capacity to inflate the narrow suckers.

We weathered the chaos and the bigger takeaway had to be brightening the children’s day.

These experiences provided many conversation-starters as we wound down the day at the hot springs fed by the Arenal Volcano. With plenty of mental and physical exertion, I knew this group would be craving for more.

And so it would continue. I couldn’t do enough to satisfy the group’s appetite.

We visited the impoverished community of Bajo Tejares, where the students would prepare a construction proposal for a women’s empowerment group, then went to the orphanage site where we finally achieved a cultural breakthrough with the children via the construction of some highly technical paper airplanes.

Salsa lessons, taste testing coffee batches at the local processing plant, cultural museum visits, and even a weekend excursion to the beach were wholly chewed and swallowed. As was lunch and dinner at Soda Xinia’s (Soda means a small restaurant that serves local foods, and in this case, it was the patio at the home of Xinia, a housewife by day, master chef at a moment’s notice).

All of this concluded with the successful presentation of two construction proposals to help

our local partners – Mujeres de Cambio women’s empowerment group and the orphanage – advance their missions and serve the community.

Wow! Getting that all down on paper does make me feel a lot better.

I should have felt proud for all the experiences they had. But I feel guilty I was only able to hold that door open for two weeks. And that only 14 students had a chance to walk through that door.

I am confident, though, that they have jammed that door open, broke the closer and, some I’m sure, have even removed the hinges and turned that door into a hallway.

What a difference Guatemala makes Part 3

February 8, 2015May 9, 2017 | vivitronv

This blog typically is directed at all things Costa Rica however I had the unique opportunity to spend a week in Guatemala (a neighboring Central American country to the north of Costa Rica). This is the final part of a series of posts that will cover my week long trip. You can read part one here and part two here.

It was about 9:30pm and I was just about to doze off in my hotel room. The next day we had to depart at 6:30am in order to get to our village visits so I was looking for one of those “early to bed, early to rise” nights. With the TV on low and my consciousness slowly fading into dreamworld I was promptly started by the sudden ringing of the room phone.

“Hi Dustin, please come meet the group in the lobby. There has been a change in plans.” Well this had interesting written all over it. Living in Central America you become used to things that would never be a concern in the US. As a University Construction Management student I remember reading through construction contracts and chuckling about acceptable reasons for finishing a project past its due date. Hurricanes, war, strikes, political protests. Yeah, like those things were ever going to happen so much that it would disrupt a construction project. Well those things are very real here.

Most places only have one route to get there. If there are detours they are a good 3-4 hours. So any of these things could quickly throw a monkey wrench into everything. Sure enough there was going to be a strike the next day that planned to block all the highways leaving Guatemala city. Why were they blocking the streets? Who were the culprits? You might be a little surprised to hear that the government hasn’t been paying their doctors since July.

This might seem unheard of that a government would not pay their employees. Actually last year in Costa Rica teachers went on strike for one month because some of the teachers were not getting paid. Some. They interrupted the school year for one whole month before the government got their act together. And there were various days when roads were blocked in protest. In the end all everyone got paid, even for the month they were on strike and there was no reduction in vacation time or extension of the school year due to the strike. Everyone won except the senior students who had one less month to learn and prepare for the national exam that they needed to pass in order to graduate, but I digress.

Who knows how the Guatemala doctors will fare but I was not the least bit surprised by the situation so when our departure time got pushed up to 2:30am in order to avoid the blockade I thought well at least we would avoid the morning rush hour. I have to say though it could have been worse.

That same night on the news we heard of some schools that weren’t being allowed to teach because some neighborhood gangs were threatening them that there would be violence if they didn’t pay them 15 thousand dollars. I never figured out why they wanted that money but it probably wasn’t a very good reason. Nevertheless I’m very content that the most I’ve had to deal with in Costa Rica are peaceful marches and roadblocks.

Throughout the course of these posts a lot of things have swung in Costa Rica’s favor however one obvious advantage Guatemala has over Costa Rica is its transit system. The main highway that runs through Costa Rica connecting Nicaragua and Panama is primarily a two lane road, one lane for each direction. If you’re lucky you might have a passing lane on some of the steep uphill climbs but keep your guard up because those lanes are closed in random spots from mudslides that happened years ago that the government has never repaired and doesn’t plan to repair them. Not so in Guatemala.

All the main highways going in and out of the city are 4-6 lanes and there are always additional passing lanes for the uphill sections. Mudslides are just as common as in Costa Rica but when they happen the government is there to clean it up quickly and re-open the lanes. They still have too many cars in the city but what big city doesn’t have traffic issues? My only concern was feeling sick from inhaling all the fumes sitting in idling traffic. Besides that the only other issue I had with the roads were the number of speed bumps. This is really the only way to control speeding in Central America but it was a little over-exaggerated here. Usually when you get to a school zone you have one bump at the beginning of the school and one at the end however in Guatemala they would have like four. And for the manual car drivers, they were spaced just far enough apart so you would have to shift from first to second gear just for a second before arriving to the next bump.

Weather/Geography

Both weather patterns are quite similar with a rainy season and a dry season at pretty much the same time of year. Guatemala is in the hurricane zone whereas Costa Rica is

Cooler climate, but excellent look out points in Guatemala

not. From what I saw the majority of Guatemala is drier than Costa Rica (similar to the Guanacaste region). They have higher elevations and are situated further to the north so it can get colder than in Costa Rica. When I was there the last week of January there were some places that got below freezing at night. That never happens in Costa Rica. Due to this it wasn’t surprising to not hear much talk about beaches. One of the crown jewels of Costa Rica, however if you ask a Guatemalan about beaches they’re likely to tell you about the beach trip they took…. to neighboring country El Salvador!

Economy

In the short time I spent in Guatemala I would have to say tourism and agriculture are a big part of the economy, which is quite similar to Costa Rica. Both countries grow lots of coffee too. One thing I noticed in Guatemala is there are not a lot of industrial coffee processing. A lot of the coffee is sun dried whereas in Costa Rica they have mechanical ovens that can dry the coffee quickly in addition to sun dried. The sun dried process takes a few days but the quality is better. In this sense Guatemala might be a little more of a “I’ll get to it mañana” country than Costa Rica. Other than that you will see a lot of corn being grown in Guatemala. We planted fruit trees in some of the rural villages we visited to help diversify their diets because everything they were eating was corn based. You’ll see corn in Costa Rica too, but sugar cane, bananas, pineapple, etc all have their growing zones as well.

To conclude my little Costa Rica-Guatemala series I’d like to talk about the culture. My wife is Costa Rican and her and her parents joined me on this trip. It was very interesting to see how they interacted with the locals and to hear their opinions about the culture. They shared some of the same reactions as to why they would live so remote but were very curious to learn about how they lived. My in-laws grew up on farms and were able to teach the Guatemalans about farming. Some of them knew so little that they weren’t even sure how to plant trees or seed a garden properly (not that I knew any of that either, but at least I know I have the resources if I ever plant my own garden).

I have to say both cultures pride themselves on their friendliness. The Guatemalan accent is very sweet and inviting and even though the Costa Rican accent is distinct it is filled with “honeys, sweeties, and cuties”. There seemed to be an ongoing battle between who could be the most polite and sweet.

One astonishing thing that is echoed throughout many Central and South American

countries is the cleanliness of their formal dress. Living in mud huts in dry and/or rainy conditions it is beyond belief how they maintain their traditional dress spotless. We visited villages on a Sunday and everyone had on their sparkling Sunday best.

This concludes thoughts and reactions after a week in Guatemala and how it compares to living in Costa Rica. Despite its flaws I’d still choose Costa Rica over Guatemala however the experience traveling there was refreshing and exciting. It makes you thankful for what you’ve got too. Costa Rica is a step above the rest. What I saw in Guatemala compares to Nicaragua and Panama living conditions. I’ve never been to Honduras or El Salvador but I would assume they are similar to Guatemala too.

As for getting back to sleep after resetting my alarm for 2am it didn’t really happen. The adrenaline switch was on and shortly I would be on my journey.

UPDATE: The Fire Volcano (volcan del fuego) located just 45km from Guatemala city began erupting heavily today. They closed the international airport this afternoon so we just lucked out having flown back on the third.

What a difference Guatemala makes Part 2

February 6, 2015May 9, 2017 | vivitronv

This blog typically is directed at all things Costa Rica however I had the unique opportunity to spend a week in Guatemala (a neighboring Central American country to the north of Costa Rica). This is part two of a series of posts that will cover my week long trip. You can read part one here.

One thing that can’t be denied in Guatemala is that it is a relatively poor nation. The main reason I’d traveled here was to help the poor people. When most people think of third world poverty they think of lack of food, money, clothes and shelter. Guatemala has all that and more when it comes to poverty.

Poverty. It exists all over the world and Central America is not the exception however Costa Rica is better off than Guatemala. Costa Rica has not had to endure civil wars, genocides, hurricanes, droughts, nor ancient civilizations that have chosen some of the most remote places to live in the country.

In Guatemala to visit the most needy villages we had to ride in the back of a pick up truck over an hour up a mountain on a dirt road (that is impassable during the rainy season). I

We could cross this river - in the dry season... — We could cross this river – in the dry season…

was soo curious as to why someone would live so far away from everything. Were they forced to flee to the mountains? Was the soil better? I was so puzzled that in one of the villages I straight up asked the Pastor why he lived so isolated. His response was quite simple in that this is where he grew up and this is where his parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc all grew up. So at some point many centuries ago this was prime real estate???…

This is the shakiest bridge I've crossed in Costa Rica — This is the shakiest bridge I’ve crossed in Costa Rica

Costa Rica doesn’t have an ancient civilization history. The country was often avoided because it was so jungly that early settlers avoided it at all costs. In Costa Rica if a place is too isolated nobody lives there. Granted people do live in rural areas but they have electricity, water, plumbing, and an access road to their homes. In rural Guatemala none of this is true. It is common for people to access their homes on foot, collect water from the stream, no electricity whatsoever, and a bathroom is literally unheard of and not well understood.

One of the projects on the mission part of my visit to Guatemala was to help build homes for low income families. The “homes” are more like storage sheds about the size of my bedroom. One feature not included in any of the homes was a bathroom. I asked about this and I was told that the people don’t make good use of them. They are so used to peeing and pooping whenever and wherever (literally like animals) that they didn’t see a use for them. I was told they once built some outhouses for the families but they ended using them as a storage room. This rocked my world and gave poverty a whole new meaning for me.

The villages are so isolated from everything that they don’t even realize the importance of a bathroom. There was no knowledge, no education. Parasite infections are so common here that people need to take medicine every six months because the water is so contaminated and hygiene is bad. What seemed so obvious to me was knowledge that simply hadn’t occurred to the local population. I’m sure if everyone peed and pooped in an outhouse and washed their hands there would be a significant improvement in the overall health of the villages. Knowledge is power and I hope efforts are made again to introduce bathrooms into the villages. Once bathrooms are a commonplace the next issue to tackle would be trash disposal.

You can't see the school next door in this pic — You can’t see the school next door in this pic

Everyone knows it is bad to litter and you are likely to get a ticket if you are caught doing it. Whenever I see someone litter I know that they know they are damaging the environment. In some parts of Guatemala trash is strewn so freely it will make you sick to your stomach. In the remote areas there is no trash collection however almost nobody burns their trash either. Some homes I visited it almost seemed like the trash was laid out in the yard as if they were trying to grow a garden or something. This was so prevalent that I couldn’t imagine people were doing this on purpose, they just didn’t know better.

With the remoteness of these villages you have to think that it wasn’t too long ago that trash began arriving to their communities. Probably not until aid groups started coming trash was mostly organic. Even talking to the Pastor he said he might go into the main town once or twice a month (a place where you could buy things that would produce non-organic trash). There they have trash cans and campaigns to keep the town clean.

In Costa Rica the worst thing I have seen is people driving out into the country to dump construction garbage or old appliances and that is mostly because the government will not readily collect that kind of waste. Besides that the big cultural change that is trying to be made here is to get people to recycle. So in that sense they are one step ahead of Guatemala.

The sanitation issues in Guatemala are alarming but the solution is not that difficult to solve. It may take time but what the villages are lacking is education. They could really improve their health and quality of life by improving just these two things. One thing that has been really beneficial to Costa Rica is not having to fund an army. Instead they have been able to invest in education and that has had a lot to do with the fact you can drink the water and find bathrooms in everyone’s homes.

It’s likely that some of these cases still exist in Costa Rica but with all the traveling and volunteering I’ve done in the country I have yet to come across anything like the remote villages of Guatemala. To speculate, maybe in Guatemala for every 5,000 families living in this kind of poverty you might have one in Costa Rica. That’s why you don’t see a lot of poverty alleviating organizations in Costa Rica as there are other Central American countries that could really use the aid.

Stay tuned for part three of this series which will conclude the differences between Guatemala and Costa Rica.

What a difference Guatemala makes Part 1

February 4, 2015 | vivitronv

This blog typically is directed at all things Costa Rica however I had the unique opportunity to spend a week in Guatemala (a neighboring central american country to the north of Costa Rica). This is part one of a series of posts that will cover my week long trip.

A lot of people assume all countries in this part of the world are all alike: poor, underdeveloped, politically unstable, hurricane prone etc. Having lived in Costa Rica awhile now I would like to share some differences I noticed between the two countries. (note: In Guatemala I spent half my time as a tourist and the other half as part of a mission team working in rural impoverished communities).

1. Guatemala has cheap tours (compared to Costa Rica). I wanted to cry. I spent two nights in Antigua, Guatemala, a UNESCO heritage site and probably the most touristy city in Guatemala yet I felt like everything was a steal in comparison to Costa Rica. They had many tours that were outrageously cheap. Volcano hikes, boat trips, bungee jumping, and just plain old market shopping where you could find prices half of what they would be in Costa Rica. I looked dumbfounded at the price sheet and not in a million years could I offer tours that cheap. We went to hike a volcano and had round trip transfer (1hr each way), park entrance, and tour guide all for about $15 a person. A tour like that runs about $30 in Costa Rica not including transportation.

2. Costa Rica I think has better bang for its buck than Guatemala. Sure you pay a little more but you get friendly, outgoing, English speaking drivers/guides. I’m not saying that Guatemalans are mean or unfriendly but they are more timid in nature. You as the tourist have to initiate conversations with them and once they feel comfortable with you they will start to open up and tell you all about their country. You should also know a little bit of Spanish as the English is not as good as it is in Costa Rica. Our guide gave a huge sigh of relief when she found out everyone in our volcano hike group spoke some Spanish. I don’t think the tour would have been as engaging if they would have had to speak English. I also wasn’t that impressed with some of the nicer restaurants I went to in Antigua.

I complain a lot sometimes about restaurant food in Costa Rica being expensive however I have a theory. Despite being expensive the portion sizes are enormous. I think restaurants raise their prices and then justify it by serving more food which I think is fair so really my gripe is not with the price but rather with how they are encouraging an obesity epidemic. I didn’t feel the same in Antigua.

One nice restaurant that I went to and ordered a cheeseburger that was about the size of a typical kid’s meal burger and I got some french fries that were good but I only got about half that I would get at any Costa Rican restaurant. On top of that the rum and coke I got tasted quite watered down and was served in a glass slightly larger than a shot glass. For full disclosure purposes I should note that we received a 10% discount to eat at this restaurant because it was owned by the hotel we were staying at. So technically we were “recommended” this restaurant, however it may have been a desperation tactic to get people just to eat at their restaurant.

The best overall meal price-for-quality had to have been a pizza that I got at a fast food joint in Antigua. It was pretty decent pizza that I got for about half of what I would normally pay in Costa Rica. Actually, I got a medium supreme pizza and 2 pepsis for the same price as my kid’s burger and half fries from the previous restaurant.

These were some observations from the tourist part of my trip and are not meant to be generalizations about the country as a whole, just my little piece of Antigua and the surrounding area. Stay tuned for upcoming posts comparing the culture, economy, weather, sanitation/health, infrastructure etc of Guatemala and Costa Rica!

Now some pic comparisons: