Today, we ventured our way through the twists and turns of the mountains up to Monteverde. As we were driving up, something I noticed was that the houses started to get further and further apart from each other. In Heredia, the houses are very close in proximity and they are in a neighborhood structure. But, as we went along up into the mountains, I noticed those close proximity communities disappeared and the houses were more spread apart. Another thing I noticed, while it was subtle, was the air getting colder. When we left Heredia, I was sweating buckets but as we got further up the mountain, I could feel it getting chillier and I had to throw on my sweatshirt.
I saw Costa Rica from a new perspective today. When we were in Heredia, I could see the mountains from a far, of course. We would always talk about how beautiful they look and just how we couldn’t believe they were real. And now that we are literally staying in those same mountains now, it’s one of those “Wow, this is actually real” moments. Something that is at a distance seems so unreal or unachievable until you reach it. It is crazy to me how different two places can be in one country. Looking at that community aspect that Costa Ricans have, it seems like in Monteverde, that aspect is brought by the wildlife.
We learned that Monteverde was settled by Quakers who were from Alabama. When they didn’t want to live in the United States anymore due to their military regulations, they found Monteverde which was rich in biodiversity. And so it worked its way up, but started out with them building a school and a cheese factory. I think their influence on Monteverde can be traced back to the pacifist practices that are carried over into how the Quakers took care of Monteverde. They noticed the lands beauty and diversity, but also noticed and didn’t ignore the things that could harm it, such as global warming. And they dedicated themselves to preserving it as many of them went on the study biology, such as our speaker, Don Ricardo.