United Nations to look at Stone Spheres

If you've been to southern Costa Rica you probably have heard of the stone spheres made by the ancestors of the Borunca Indians who live in the area. These spheres are from around 400 - 1400AD and are perfectly formed into spheres from what most experts believe was a heating and cooling process. When it comes to tourism I can say Costa Rica is lacking two things that would make this the complete tourism playground. Those two things are snow and pyramids. With the idea of making snow I dont see it happening I think there are a few other govt expenses that have to be attended to first. But with the pyramids we might not get the large temples of Tikal but it is possible to build on what we do have. What Costa Rica does have is the spheres that measure 8ft in Diameter and up to 20 tons in weight. A little less than a pyramid but still enough to get the attention of a very important group of archeologist.

The United Nations is sending down a dream team of archeologist to study the spheres and to decide if the spheres should be considered World Heritage. During their stay this March if they decide that these spheres are worthy of being considered World Heritage this could be a boost in tourism for the particular section. They still dont know what the spheres were used for and most experts think they marked special buildings. My question to that is where the heck are the special buildings they were marking? So if they are right then maybe Costa Rica might have some digging left to do. If they are wrong then maybe a better guess would be that the spheres were created with the idea of beach volleyball (just a guess).

some of the information in this blg was taken from www.amcostarica.com

Bruin Pride International Wide

This past week we operated a student travel trip from a school in Colorado who has the mascot of the Bruins. It was an educational trip that had months in the planning. They asked for a full week of adventure and said they were up for anything. They went with about as much adventure as we could give them in one week. They also wanted to spent time with the locals. After being with the members of the group for one day I was happy to hear that when I asked what their favorite part of the trip was, almost all responded with the homestays.

During the week here in the office we do our best to keep up with the guides on how things are going. There guide for the week was Erik and it was very good to hear that everytime we called Erik his response was "this group is GREAT". The group visited a village where we do homestays called Sitio de Mata and different members of the group stayed in homes of different members of the village. When the Bruins left the village I got calls from different members of the family saying how special the Bruins were. They mentioned that they felt they knew them their whole lives and they could not believe the relationship they developed in just two days.

I had the chance to meet the group on their final day when they were painting a rural school in a rural area of northern Costa Rica. I was curious to see this group because of all the positive things Ive heard about them. When I went to meet them it was raining buckets and it looked as if it would rain all day. My first thought was that they might be a little bummed that it is raining on their last day. But when I met the group it was the same laughing and smiles that Erik described. Nobody gave a hoot about the rain and they were just happy to be going to a school to spend time with the locals. When we arrived to the school we had half the group paint and the other half play duck duck goose with the kids. The kids put on an excellent show for us of dancing and then the Bruins gave some gifts and we made a complete morning out of it. Another interesting thing was that a member from the Bruin group brought letters from the 3rd grade class in Colorado to share with the 3rd graders here. The local kids loved it and they immediately wanted to respond to the letters and send them back to the Colorado 3rd graders.

With all the memories that were made on the adventures I can assure you that with the Bruin group the memories that will last the longest are the ones they left with others during their stay. The gifts they shared, the time they spent, and the smiles they gave will last a lifetime. With this said I just want to say you better be PROUD TO BE A BRUIN!!! Also a short note I know there was an English teacher on the trip and I usually dont proof-read my blog so sorry for the grammar errors, hehehe! PURA VIDA MAE!!!

A nature guides advice

It was about a week ago that one of our nature guides Jheudy Carballo made the comment to me "Im so proud of what my kid did yesterday". I was expecting the response that his son scored 4 goals in a soccer game or he got straight A's on his report card. To my surprise these were not the childs accomplishments. What Jheudy was so proud of that his son did was walk into the grocery store, buy a few items, and tell the bag boy that he did not need a plastic bag. He got into the car holding all the things in his hand and was on his way. Jheudy noticed what his son did and instantly felt good and proud of what his son did.

Jhuedy was proud because he is a naturalist guide that works for our company and has a sincere love for nature and is always looking for ways to protect it. Jheudy looks at the beautiful natural surroundings of Costa Rica as his workplace, his office, and his home and he wants to do everything to make sure it stays that way. Jheudy starts his lessons by teaching at home to his son. Since his son was young Jheudy has taught to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and REJECT. The last "R" of Reject is exactly why Jheudy was so proud of his son. If you dont need the plastic bag then dont take it. Jhuedy was able to see first hand through his son that it is possible to educate the next generation and leave make this planet a much better place.

Americans use around 100 billion plastic shopping bag each year and less than 1% of these bags are recycled. To make these bags it uses around 12 million barrels of oil. It is important to reuse the plastic bags as many times as you can. It turns out that in places such as San Francisco plastic bags are not even an option as the government voted to ban the use of plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and pharmacies. Most people that would use a plastic bag at a pharmacy would use a plastic bag just to carry a few pills.

When you feel you need a bag or you just get tired of walking out of the store with your hands full there is a solution before using a plastic bag. You can get yourself a reusable bag of nylon, cotton, and other materials (one nylon grocery bag requires the same amount of energy as producing 50 plastic bags). Most places will not care if you arrive with your own bag. Also put the recycle logo on your bag and be a marketer for what you are doing.

Congrats to Jheudy not only for being a good naturalist guide and an excellent father but helping set an example on a simplier and greener way to live your life.

Tropical Rain Forest

When we talk about the Tropical Rain Forest, we have to imagen one of the most diverse places on earth.
In compared with other types of forest for example : Temperate Forest From North America and Europe the Tropical Rain Forest has the highest degree of species divercity, that means many different species of plant in one area and to find same families of trees in the same are is some times a hard work, then we are talking about primary Rain Forest, and this is the main factor that makes this wonderfull world unique for many : insects, frogs ,birds,and mammals.
T In the Tropical Rain Forest , trees grows extremely high with straight trunks up to 30 mts, and the same trees are cover by other plants looking for sunlight and the opportunity to live in this mass of green plants, this are the Climber Plants, some of them do not do any harm to the trees but some of them do, taking some years for the process.
Tropical Rian Forest are stratified in layers of vegetations , first herb layer, second low shrubby layer and the last layer called Canopy.
In the first layer there are concentrations of large- leaved plants into the families of . Diffenbachias and climbers plants like Monsteras, philodendron etc.
In the second layer we will find some families of palms, middle high trees and pioneer plants.
One of the typical characteristics of the Tropical Rain Forest Trees ,are their buttresses roots wich are roots that spread out around the tree trunk couple meters before they entering the ground, helping the trees to have more stability and better nutrients absorption.
All this interactions makes this ecosystems very complex and interesting for many biologist from all over the world, and actually we have the opportunity to discover all the wonderfull worlds hiding in this unique place called Tropical Rain Forest.

Article written by: Jonathan Serrano (Costa Rican Naturalist Tour Guide)

Come Prepared!!!

Student travel is one of the most rewarding ways to travel. If you are priviledged enough to be a student or a teacher taking students on trips get the most out of it as you can. One of the most important things I can say for students that are going on an educational trip is to come prepared. I have guided student trips in Costa Rica and the groups that show up that have devoted class time before arriving to the History, Climate, Bio-Diversity, and culture and customs always turn out to be the students that retain the most information and leave really knowing a lot about the country and places they have visited. It is great as a guide to be talking about the History of the country and a student interupts you and says "Wasnt he the president that abolished the Army?". This leaves the job of the guide on the trip not to teach all new facts to your students but to simply put the pieces together and make it all a bit clearer with new bits of information to go along with other bits of information they have already learned. Well what if your teacher is not knowledgable on the country of where you are traveling? This is easy all you have to do is buy a Lonely Planet book and read the basics of each section. Another option is to get intouch with your guide or trip provider and try and start an email conversation or blog with your guide. This will put you on a personal level with your guide before the trip even starts and he can supply information that will be covered during the trip. So before you take off on a student trip do your homework and show up prepared!