Entry 2: 5-20-11

Cabo Blanco
Today we went on a hike in Cabo Blanco to the waterfall. I have a huge fear of heights and was questioning whether or not I wanted to come along. But I wanted to take a leap of faith and conquer my fear. I had support and encouragement from all of the girls on the course.

As we began our journey to the waterfall we walked across steep hills, climbed over fallen trees and crossed through slippery rocks. I was so terrified and scared that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the waterfall. But I kept on pushing and just tried to embrace the beauty of nature surrounded around me. I saw trees from yesterday’s hike like the monkey ladder vein and the ceibo (pot belly) tree. I even saw a few Harlequin land crabs on the way to the waterfall. With all of the beautiful plants and trees around me I felt calm and not as afraid. Once we crossed over a river stream and walked a couple more miles we were finally at the waterfall. The waterfall was so beautiful and peaceful. It felt great to finally say I had hiked to a waterfall. It was such a wonderful experience to share with my group!

Entry 1: May 16, 2011

Banana Tour in La Selva

On May 16 we went to Chiquita located in La Selva which was a banana plantation. We watched a short video about the history of Chiquita before we went sightseeing around the plantation. Chiquita’s three main objectives were to have long term biodiversity, environmental education and empowering women. I thought these objectives were a great way to implement and educate their community how they can be sustainable.

After the video we went on a tour to see how the processes of bananas are grown. I really enjoyed the tour because we actually saw the workers in the plantation re-planting the banana trees and cutting them down and packaging them. I thought it was cool when I saw one of the workers with a pulley on a cord running through a path with a train of bananas on our tour. The hard work I saw from the workers made me appreciative and more educated on the process of how bananas are grown and the workers dedication coming out every day to work in the plantation. During the tour one of our instructors, Marcelo, asked everyone how many banana trees do we think are in the plantation?  What was so funny about this question is that the answer was zero, because the banana trees are not a tree but actually an herb. I thought this was a cool fact to take away with me on my visit at Chiquita.

We went in a gift shop at Chiquita that included hand-made crafts such as folders, bookmarks and notebooks made out of banana fiber. The hand-made crafts were made by one of the micro-business made available through Chiquita. All of the crafts were very unique. We took a group picture at the end of our visit to remind us of the beautiful plantation and the memories we all shared.