Our Costa Rica Gift Of Happiness: Open Letter To Costa Rica And Happy Videos

Deb and Barbara: As a sign-off to this blogging week and to our 8-day travel diary of our trip to Costa Rica, we want to take this chance to just say a few more words.

We said it many times during our visit, but we were honestly amazed at just how much effort was being put toward eco-sustainability by Costa Rica in general and the hotels we stayed at in particular: Arenal Springs Resort earning its 4-leaf status and El Silencio Lodge and Spa and The Harmony Hotel earning their 5-leaves. Costa Rica obviously prides itself on these efforts—and the efforts pay off in the abundant wildlife, epic scenery, and pristine beaches that adorn your magnificent country.

However—and this is a big however—please, please keep it up! It could be very easy to embrace eco-tourism as an economic boon, but then cater to the whims of the modern age by mowing down your beauty to make way for roads, hotels, condos, and gallerias. Please resist this common failing.

Because it is your wild and diverse eco-systems alongside your environmental triumphs that make your country so very appealing and unique to the very tourists you want to attract.

Believe us, we know it is and will be hard. We are pleading with our current Canadian government to understand and embrace this forward-thinking philosophy, but instead they try to convince us that tar sands are good and eco-consciousness is baaaaaad. We’re not good with absolutes, but we will say it here: they are wrong. And if they don’t realize that soon, they/we will keep destroying this fragile balance in our own beautiful and largely wild country.    

For Costa Rica, we hope endless dairy farms won’t replace your forest and jungle, that more medical problems will be solved by the healing secrets in your flora, that you will continue to enlighten and lead the world, that you will show us how it’s done. And continue to show us that it CAN be done.

On our trip, we met a journalist who told us that for new development in Costa Rica, the government often doesn’t spend the extra money necessary to insulate the overhead wires, which can then kill wildlife as a result. If your electrical wires are electrocuting the monkeys and sloths so characteristic of your wilds, then we hope you will make the short-term investment necessary to coat those wires that will protect those creatures and your long-term ecological growth (just like your efforts that saved the turtles). One of the ironic moments on our trip was watching the howler monkeys cavort in the trees just above a sign announcing a condo development. Of course, people need places to live and stay, but so do the native animals—and so far you seem to be serving both needs quite well. Don’t forget, you won’t need all those condos and hotels if you mess too much with the unique sites tourists come to see. And also, your people won’t be so happy (see the Happiness Index) if their pristine country is overrun (or run) by the superficial needs of outsiders.

We dearly hope you will continue to charm many many generations of indigenous, local, and international guests as you charmed us with your distinctive balance between nature and man. You humbled us already. We long to be humbled again and again and again by the courageous policies of your country and your heroic nature sentries. 

When tourists ask for “a view of the ocean”, what they really want in Costa Rica is to preserve “a view of the ocean”. A view of an ocean that is clean and pristine and untouched. That’s why we came. That’s why we will come back.

Yours very sincerely, Deb and Barbara

Videos!!!

This is from El Silencio Lodge and Spa where Andrey, the eco-concierge, took us on a tour of the grounds. We’re sampling organic herbs from their greenhouse garden.

This is from the 3-hour hike through the rainforest around El Silencio. Andrey showed us 3 waterfalls—this one being the largest: La Promesa Falls.

This is us during our visit with the Maleku tribe. We are discussing language with José, our gracious host.

Turtle Turtle

You can watch as many of these videos (or as few) as you like. The first 3 videos are short snippets (between 1 and 2.5 min long) of the turtles emerging from their sandy nest and trekking down to the sea. Notice how they need to rest along the way!

The last of these videos is the full journey from nest to sea and runs a cool 10+min. Reader’s choice.

You can still enter for your own Costa Rica Gift of Happiness here!


And a late PS: Please feel free to ask us any questions you might have about our experience. Now we might actually have some time to answer!

Our Costa Rica Gift Of Happiness: Day 7, Turtles On A Mission

Deb: Just when we thought the trip couldn’t get any better, we were told by our concierge that there was to be a turtle hatching in Playa Ostional Wildlife Refuge this morning and that we could go and experience this wonderful hatching in person. We set out at 5:50am! Yup.

We were in transit with Eliot and Mindy, a lovely couple from Allentown, N.Y., who proved to be fun, kind, and interesting people. After a half-hour drive, we arrived at the ocean nursery in time to see the little turtles poking their little turtle heads out of the sand. We fell instantly in love. Just to give you perspective, they are no bigger than the palm of my hand.

Volunteers lined the shore digging sandy paths for the turtle sojourn and keeping predators at bay. Vultures circled and lurked (as vultures are wont to do), but to no avail. The humans rallied to the tiny turtles’ defense as they made their way to the sea. Some too weak or tired died along the way and volunteers buried them in the sand. But oh … the ones who made the trek were little champions, instinctively moving toward the tide that would carry them out to their ocean home to start the second part of their minutes long life.

I really do not have the words to express how sweet, how moving, how humbling, how miraculous it was to see nature at its complicated best. It is something the four of us will never forget as we rooted for our wee charges.

Barbara: It’s so true: words can’t really capture how extraordinary this experience was for us. Not just the actual reality of witnessing it, but even the anticipation before we went. When I was growing up, my dad preferred documentaries to regular TV—much to my adolescent dismay—but all those episodes of Wild Kingdom and National Geographic specials must have winnowed their way into my soul because I’ve become an adult wildlife documentary geek. So after years of watching docs on turtles, I was completely verklempt at the possibility of watching an honest-to-goodness hatching and water “migration” in real life.

These little hatchlings—and the gorgeous photos (thanks, Phil!) do not capture how truly tiny and vulnerable they really are (I mean their heads are about the size of the tip of my baby finger!)—emerge once a month (their parents having journeyed here to lay their eggs on the full moon nights) to make the treacherous journey from nest to sea.

The turtles are considered delicacies and were once fished almost to extinction until about 25 years ago when they became protected by the Costa Rican government. After these measures were taken, their numbers did rise sharply, although it seems they’ve recently plateaued—probably due to the changing acidity of the seawaters (hello, global warming). It does bear reminding each other that conservation methods DO work. So well, in fact, that the locals are now allowed to take a certain number of eggs each month for breeding (to eat).

By the way, these are Olive Ridley turtles, but leatherbacks and greens also nest here. Volunteers ward off predators as they aim for the water (and we 4 guarded our fair share of hatchlings this morning), but the real epic travail comes once they make it through the waves into the open water because they must skim the surface for 5 days before they can submerge to safer depths. Sharks and seabirds and fish await these tasty, helpless treats. Sadly a mere one out of every thousand turtles makes it through alive. Which is why we need to protect the babies on at least the first part of their precarious journey.

The babies that emerge after 9am can be scorched due to the heat off the sand, so volunteers gather these later hatchlings and put them into pails of water, protecting them from the sun until about 5pm. At this point, they’re released from the nesting area to find their way into the sea. We were told two theories for why they need to be released from the higher sands: 1, that they may need to build their muscle strength and coordination before they hit the water, and 2, (most likely) that they need to tune into the Global Nesting Position, or GNP (um, okay, I just made that up), during the trek to the sea in order to key into where they will one day be returning to nest. Which will be in 15 years. One volunteer described the amazing experience of helping National Geographic’s yearly turtle count during the time when thousands of turtles arrive on a full-moon night (sometime in June or July) bearing fluorescent seaweed on their backs, then wading to shore, nesting with audible outtakes of breath (like loud sighs), eyes literally weeping, and then loudly and rhythmically drumming the sand over the eggs with their fins. So there’s my next wish-list ecological adventure!

Phil: It’s a good thing we humans don’t have to endure the same right of passage as these poor sea turtles. Just imagine babies dropping onto the floor of the maternity ward and having to somehow make their way home on their own. We’d be extinct by now. Looking at these tiny little turtles through the lens of my camera, it struck me how alone they are with no one to guide them.

Colin: It’s like getting art funding in Toronto. Ba doom ba!

But all joking aside, it was an amazing display of fortitude and courage.

Deb: We set our hearts and compasses on one little turtle who I named Tico. I cannot honestly say that the group sanctioned that. However, we followed this feisty little fellow from birth to sea, tracking his every crawl, and it was so heartwarming. He was a mover and a shaker, turtley speaking. On a mission was this little guy. He hit the sea like a pro.

But our last little turtle (who we named Scott, for Ridley Scott) sadly had more than his share of challenges. He slept in and as a result missed the high tide. His best efforts were thwarted by the receding waters and our friend, Mindy, finally lifted his tiny self up, fins flapping, and carried him out to sea. As we left, we were hoping and praying that one of our little guys will be that one in a thousand.

Barbara: In other news, we had a glorious last day here by the pool, eat eat eating and sipping healthful tonics. Deb, Barbara, and Phil finished the day with 90-minute bamboo massages. Deb’s massage turned into two hours. Colin did not want to partake. As he said, “After ten minutes, massage irritates me.” We finished our time here with another delicious Costa Rican meal and a lovely Chilean red and are now going to bed, happy and rested. A big thank you to the heavenly Harmony Hotel!

PS For those of you who want more info about our hotels or tours or experiences here in Costa Rica, you can find the links by clicking on any of our posts that feature bolded blue typeface. This different typeface always indicates a corresponding link!

Deb and Barbara: In the next few days we’re going to post videos of our trip that were too tough to download here, including wonderful footage of Tico, Scott, and their buddies as they fought the odds. So please stay tuned for that.

You can still enter to win your own Gift of Happiness here at the Facebook site.

At the Turtle Reserve -- full moon setting....

...as the sun rises. Volunteers gather.

Eggshells litter the beach. A lone vulture lurks.

Phil taking video.

On the drive home with Mindy and Eliot, we see a tree full of monkeys!

Walking (and shopping) the little town outside The Harmony.

Lunch! (tuna poke, mmmmm)