An Organic Experience

What would a student trip to Costa Rica be without seeing the Don Juan Organic farm. Don Juan is the Lebron James of Organic Farms and he has his 2 acre farm looking perfect everytime we stop by.



Costa Rica is not a place you come visit to go on a food tour. But if you have any interest in having one of the best lunches you can imagine than Don Juan is a must stop. His farm is located about 5 km outside of the town of La Fortuna near the Arenal Volcano. The best part about his farm is that it is run by the family. It is used by local schools to give kids the education on how an organic farm works. The students get a chance to pick the same fruits and vegetables they will eat for lunch. The highlight of the trip is always the sugar cane. With a set of volunteers the kids get to make their own agua dulce (sugar cane juice).


Don Juan has the competition pretty tough to get the kids attention considering most of the kids are coming from zipline, rafting, and volcano tours. Don Juan is the man with the farm and he does an incredible job of keeping the attention of the kids and making it one of the top educational experiences in all of Costa Rica. Along with the ziplines and rivers a student travel trip should always involve some education and the Don Juan farm is an amazing stop in Costa Rica.

Tourism drops 8% in 2009

According to an article written in La Nacion. The tourism sector of Costa Rica took a drop of 8% in the year of 2009. For obvious reasons everyone expected a drop with the world wide recession and even the Swine Flew playing a roll in less tourist. In my personal opinion it could have been a lot worse and I think many people in the tourism industry that was not in extremely deep going into this year probably survived and is ready for this next year.

The number of tourist that entered the country were down 167,000 from 2008. In 2009 1.9million foreigners entered the country as compared to over 2 million in 2008.

I happen to think this was great for the country. I have been working in tourism down here for 9 years and there are plenty of people who have many more years than I working in tourism. The changes I have seen in the last 9 years are amazing and at such a fast speed that I can only imagine what this country looked like 20 years ago. The point that Im trying to make is that the people and natural beauties is what made this place the tourist destination it is. If you take the economic growth of the tourist section really fast it affects both the people and the natural beauties. When people find out they can make money in tourism and big money they tend to do it. Anyone knows that making big money fast can change some of your dailing habits and how you live your life. Im not saying the Costa Rican has turned into a country full of greedy snobs. All Im saying is that this is an excellent situation for the people here and extremely fast growth would not benefit anyone.

The second is the obvious that has been talked about for years and that is the more tourist, the more foreigners developing land, the more the natural beauties take a risk of being affected. Yes, 25% of Costa Rica is protected but every piece of bio-diversity on this planet is connected and just marking off your boundries does not make you a protecter of the environment. It is important that this developement be built very conscience of how their project will affect the nearby areas and its surroundings (air, soil, where materials come from, ect.)

So with this said, I feel the 8% drop in tourism is a chance for the industry to keep its feet on the ground and recieve this excellent blessing of opportunity of economic and natural wealth with a solid plan and mindset for the best future possible for everyone.

Ideas for Traveling Green

When thinking of your family vacation to Costa Rica or a student travel trip to Costa Rica think of all the things that can be done so not only you can enjoy the trip but the beautiful natural beauties around you can enjoy also. First of all try and use the same towel and linens during your stay at a hotel. The average hotel room consumes more than two hundred gallons of water per day. Using the same water and towel can save up to 40% of the usage of water in the hotel.

It seems that on some vacations that you can't leave anything behind. Well if you are coming to Costa Rica it is a casual dress from start to finish and its never really cold so PACK LIGHT! Every additional ten pounds per traveler requires 350 million gallons a jet fuel per year. This is enough to keep in flight a 747 for ten years.

The idea that a disposable camera can be recycled is garbage. More than half the camera ends up as trash. Since we have the digital camera now and you can get them for almost around $100 bucks make the investment. There are over 686 million rolls of film still developed every year which have hazardous chemicals to them.

The luggage tag on your suitcase although seems like a very small piece paper is still a waste. If every American before their flight used the original luggage tag from the bag instead of taking the tag the airlines have on their counters we would save 60 million sheets of paper each year. Also when making the purchase of your airline ticket you dont have to print it out. They call them e-tickets for a reason and again if every American did not print out their e-tickets there would be a lot of paper saved.

Bring your own!!! What I mean by this is dont forget your toothpaste, shampoo, bodywash, ect. The hotels offer the little bottle samples but you dont need them unless you really forgot yours. A 300 room hotel in Las Vegas uses over 150,000 plastic bottles a year.

When you leave your home let it take a rest. Dont forget to unplug your appliances, stop newspaper and mail. This is energy that does not have to be used if nobody is home.

Bottled water. The water in Costa Rica is some of the cleanest water you will find on the planet. Check with your guide and dont be afraid to fill up a bottle water and not have 100 empty plastic bottles laying around the car.

I know if you do some of these small things it can make a big difference. You will surely still enjoy your trip and the natural surroundings that are putting on the spectacular show will thank you for it and your kids and their kids will have a chance to enjoy the same trip. Buen Viaje!!!!!!!!!!

information taken from "the green book" www.readthegreenbook.com

Why Student Travel in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a country that first of all is close to the US. It is a two and a half hour flight from Miami which is closer to Miami than most parts of the US. Student travel in Costa Rica has grown over the last few years for and it is not only because of the natural beauties of volcanos, waterfalls, and beaches. Costa Rica student travel is supported very much by the locals of Costa Rica. It gives the rural Costa Rica a chance to take part in tourist activities. This works as an incredible income for the local families and allows for different parts of the tourist industry to get a cut of the pie and not just large hotels and larger tour operators. The people of Costa Rica are educated and extremely hospitable to tourist groups. With a little training almost any rural town in Costa Rica can become an incredible experience for any student group. The activities that the locals can offer can range from staying in homes in rural villages, cooking classes, dance classes, taking a few Spanish classes, or just an all out soccer game of locals vs tourist. There is one particular town that our company works with that is called Sitio de Mata and it is amazing how far they have come in making the rural experience truly an unforgettable event. Everytime a group shows up it seems that they have improved in some way. The attention to detail and service is at a 5-Star level in a rural setting which makes it truley a real Costa Rican experience. With a student travel trip to Costa Rica make sure you involve a local experience wether it be a few nights in a home or just stopping by for lunch and a coffee its surely worth hanging with the locals a bit.