Exploring tropical ecosystems and sustainability with UTSI

The Uvita Tropical Studies Institute (UTSI) has really perfected our 11 day Costa Rica eco-adventure program. In just eleven days we visit a diversity of tropical ecosystems and stay at world class facilities which highlight sustainable practices. This program is ideal for high school or college age students. Programs can be modified according to trip leaders' interests. With a group of ten or more, in-country costs for two professors/teachers are included in trip price. Contact andrew@utsi.org for prices. We have also added a community service option with our terrific partners in Uvita, the local youth education center, Forjando Alas (Building Wings) https://www.facebook.com/ForjandoAlas . Here is a summary what we did on one of our recent trips

Day 1: Group is met by UTSI representatives and bus at Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica. We are shuttled to nearby hotel in Alajuela: Hotel La Guaria. Here, the group has a chance to wind down from the trip and then we were off for a  nice dinner at Jalapenos resataurant in Alajuela.  We enjoyed ice cream cones and a walk among the mango trees of the central park in Alajuela and it was off to bed

Day 2: Seven AM and we are on the road for La Fortuna de San Carlos, ultimate destination: Rancho Margot www.ranchomargot.com. Crisp clear skies enabled excellent views of mountains and volcanoes surrounding the central valley. Then it was on to San Ramon, the city of poetry where the urban fast paced world of San Jose gives way to the more quaint rural life which typifies the Costa Rican countryside. From there it was straight north through fertile agricultural areas with their soils enriched by ash from the towering Volcano Arenal. Although the volcano has been inactive for the past three years, it remains mystifying as it moves in and out of fog and cloud cover. Luckily, clear skies continued which afforded a nice look at the volcano a we circled around it to reach Rancho Margot.

 After a delicious farm fresh lunch at Rancho Margot . we settled into our luxurious bungalows. A quick nap and we were off on a tour of Rancho Margot. My friend Don Juan Sostheim has created a real showcase of sustainable technologies and local food production. Power is derived from water powered turbines, water is heated with compost, animal wastes are processed in biodigestors which extract methane for cooking, vegetables are produced in soil enriched with earthworm compost made on site, the list goes on and on. Along the way we observed numerous plants and birds of interest.

Day 3: Today, we spent the morning hiking in Volcan Arenal National Park. We hiked to the old lava flow from the 1998 which affords a spectacular view of the volcano. After the lava fields, the trail descends into a lush, primary rainforest featuring some enormous trees. From there it was off to the Baldi Hot Springs resort for an afternoon of swimming and relaxing in the volcanically heated water.

Day 4: We grabbed an early breakfast in anticipation of a 6 AM departure for the University of Georgia's campus at San Luis, Monteverde http://www.externalaffairs.uga.edu/costa_rica/. As the crow flies, the two places are actually quite close. But, what separates them is the Eternal Childrens Rainforest preserve, a massive stand of protected rain and cloudforest. But, we are not crows so its a 5 hour bus ride for us. Halfway through, the road turned to dirt and the group got a real taste of rural Costa Rica. Dusty and tired we arrived to Monteverde and headed down the mountain to UGA San Luis.
After a home-cooked lunch we were off on a guided hike of the nearby forest. The ecosystem around San Luis is an ecotone, or transition between two ecosystems. In this case, it is a transition between the cloud forests of Monteverde and the tropical dry forest of the northwest or Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. We were enchanted by the distinctive BONGGGG!!!!!! sound of the three wattled bell bird. Next, we spotted an emerald toucanet, a first for me.
                                                                          Day 5: Today we headed back up the mountain to Monteverde. We were off to Monteverde National Park for a guided tour. With their high powered monocular scopes and trained eyes, they pointed out an endless array of biodiversity found in this distinct cloud forest ecosystem. White faced monkeys, two-toed sloths, and the Resplendant Quetzal were all spotted. The afternoon allowed for free time and shopping in Monteverde.

 Day 6: Today, it was an early breakfast and then back on the bus to head west and south to Uvita de Osa, to UTSI's field station at Finca Carolina. Seeing the multitude of crocodiles along the Tarcoles is always awe inspiring. We made it to the cabins just before a heavy afternoon rain shower. Here, the group would have a chance to really connect with Nature as they left their cell phones turned off and experienced life without electricity and even without the internet!!!! Candle light and LED headlamps, and the shrieks of young people in the real rainforest at night for the first time filled the air.

Day 7: After waking up early to the sounds of howler monkeys we were off on a brief guided tour of Finca Carolina's agroforests www.utsi.org.

The group was then met by our horseback guides and 18 horses and we begun our equine adventure! La Union, the road on which Finca Carolina is located asscends several hundred meters and provides spectacular views of the Marino Ballena National Park's Whales Tail formation: the signature of the Uvita area. From there, we descended the mountain to the beach. Despite a few scared riders and a  couple of ornery horses, we arrived at Finca Carolina sore, but happy and exhilirated.


Day 8: Today was a day to dive deeper into the marine ecosystems found in the Uvita area. A morning boat tour with Dolphin Tours https://www.facebook.com/dolphintours revealed the beauty of the Marine Ballena national Park. We spotted bottle nose edolphins and enjoyed snorkeling along the shores of the Whale Island or Isla Ballena. That evening we travled to Ojochal where we learned about the efforts being made at Reserva Playa Tortuga http://reservaplayatortuga.org/ to protect the Olive Riddley sea turtle. They also conduct environmental monitoring of water quality and sponsor environmental education programs for the area's youths.

Day 9: After breakfast, the bus picked us up and we headed down to La Cusinga, another stellar
example of real ecotourism. http://www.lacusingalodge.com/. Here we enjoyed hiking their well constructed hiking trails through lush rainforest as we descended to Playa Arco, one of the best kept secrets in Costa Rica. We explored caves on the beach, swam and rinsed off in a waterfall which crashes onto the beach. After a delicious lunch, we were off on another hike-this time to the giant Ajo trees, Caryocar costaricense. At approximately 800 years old, they are some of the oldest trees in the Uvita-Ballena region.

 

A Crested Guan in Cecropoia tree at La Cusinga

Day 10: A trip to the beaches of Costa Rica would not be complete without an attempt at surfing. My good friend Tito and his team of instructors from the Uvita Surf Camp
http://www.uvitasurfcamp.com/ did a tremendous job of getting these students comfortable on surfboards and riding waves in no time. We then boarded the bus for a quick drive up the road to Hacienda Baru, http://www.haciendabaru.com/just north of Dominical. Heavy afternoon rains forced us to move our zipline canopy tour to the next morning

Day 11: We enjoyed an adventure at Hacienda Baru soaring through the rainforest canopy on their zip line tour. Collared peccaries and sloths were spotted along the guided naturalist portion of the tour. After lunch, it was back to Alajuela, where a tired but satisfied group of students and their teachers would depart the next day for home.

If you would like to lead a group of students on a trip like this, get in touch with me at andrew@utsi.org.

Living fences. Learning to think like a Permaculturist

         Ubiquitous throughout the Costa Rican landscape are fences. Nearly everyone has one as the fence is the clearest demarcation of one's private property. I recently did a Permaculture design for a client with a fenced-in property. As everyone knows, the primary purpose of a fence is to keep animals and unwanted people out of one's property. In the case of this client it is essential to have a fence as the neighboring horses would love to enter the property and devour all of the coconut palms and fruit trees that I have been planting. One central element of Permaculture is that any given element within a farm or home design should provide many functions. The existing fence on the property was built from concrete posts and four strands of barbed wire. This is highly utilitarian no doubt as these concrete posts will last for many years. So you may be wondering what other functions can a fence provide?
           In the process of Permaculturally retrofitting this fence I changed it in two significant ways. First , between each fence posts we planted a post of Madero Negro (Gliricida sepium, family Fabaceae). Here in the tropics we are lucky that certain tree species can be propagated by literally cutting a branch and sticking it in the ground. As a member of the Fabaceae family, Madero Negro has a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria called Rhizobia. The Rhizobia remove gaseous Nitrogen from the air and convert into a form that the plants can uptake. In exchange, the plant provides the bacteria with sugars that it needs to live and reproduce. Thus, plants in the Fababceae family have leaves that are high in Nitrogen. As these posts begin to grow I will be able to coppice them, or prune them every two months and their abundant leaves will provide a Nitrogen rich mulch for the growing fruit trees. Additionally, when one prunes the branches, the trees slough some roots off or allows some roots to die. The roots are where the Nitrogewn fixation is occurring and therefore this sloughing off of roots also imports Nitrogen into the soil. But, that's not all there is to the benefits of this plant. Madero Negro leaves can be harvested and placed around one's home to kill fleas and ticks. It also makes attractive purple flowers which can be cooked and eaten. The trees create both microclimates which contribute to ecological diversity by opening distinct niches and provide an edge effect which also contributes to ecological diversity.
         To compliment the Madero Negro I next added passion fruit vines (Pasiflora edulis family Passifloraceae). As this is the lowland tropics we used the yellow variety known here as Maracuya. This delicious sour fruit makes very refreshing fruit drinks known here as refrescos. Scientific research has revealed that Passion fruit contains a wide variety of compounds with medicinal properties. The lovely passionfruit flowers are an important nectar source for many insects and will help to invite beneficial insects into the landscape. They also attract hummingbirds which are always a welcome site in any landscape
         So, with a slight change of perspective and the addition of two plant species we have changed the fence from providing one function to providing many functions including, biological Nitrogen fixation, creation of edge effect, production of a natural insecticide, edible fruits, beneficial insect attraction and nectar provision, shade, medicine, and the list goes on and on. This is Permaculture folks!  

Earthen Oven Construction

During the past week I had the pleasure of building an adobe oven with a group of eager Permaculture students. We built the oven as part of the Practicum portion of the Permaculture Design Course that we just hosted. I highly recommend to anyone interested in building their own adobe oven to pick up Kiko Denzer's book called Build Your Own Earthen Oven (Hand Print Press, 2007). This book guided another group of friends and volunteers and I to construct an oven in 2004 at Finca Carolina. Anyone familiar with Finca Carolina has probably tasted the delicious pizzas that come out of that adobe oven.
Based on years of experience with our own adobe oven I realized two design improvements that would improve functionality and flow of the oven. One was to have a grill in close proximity to the oven where I can put the hot coals after removing them from the oven. Secondly, I realized that a reinforced doorway is needed in order to prevent damage to the clay from placing and removing the door.
We were lucky enough to have an existing outdoor kitchen with a grill and a concrete floor large enough to house this large oven. A local builder helped us to first construct a cinder block box. The box was filled with rocks, concrete debris,gravel and then finally sand. On top of that sat a floor of refractory bricks onto which we marked a 36" circle. This would be the eventual diameter of the oven. We then made a dome of wet sand and covered it with wet newspaper.
Upon that we began to add our various layers of mud. The first layer was a 5" of a clay and sand mixture. See Kiko's book for details about determining correct proportions. This was followed by an insulating layer the same thickness and components but with straw. Finally, the whole oven and cinder block box was plastered with an earthen plaster.
After about two weeks the oven will be ready to begin burning small fires inside. Once the oven is dry and hard it will be ready for pizza and bread baking.