Today was definitely my favorite day of the trip so far! We woke up with a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel in Monteverde, and then made our way to the Cloud Forest. The second I saw “Monteverde Cloud Forest” on our itinerary for this trip I couldn’t hold in my excitement. I love hiking, and the idea of seeing wildlife I have never seen before was super exciting to me. While in the Cloud Forest, we experienced how loud and active the rainforest is in this part of Costa Rica. We also discovered the insane amount of biodiversity they protect in this area.
This leads me to our conversation today about economics and sustainability at the Monteverde Institute. Here we learned many things about the initiatives and programs they have developed. I personally enjoyed learning about their energy use, and how passionate they are about protecting the beautiful environment they live in. 99% of the energy in Monteverde is from renewable resources such as: solar panels, geothermal, and wind energy. Another cool fact I learned from both the Cloud Forest hike and the talk at the institute was that Costa Rica has 5% of the worlds biodiversity, and 2.5% of it in Monteverde. That means 50% of the biodiversity in Costa Rica is housed in Monteverde! Biodiversity is how many different species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, plants, and insects are in a specific place.
The thing I have learned to love most about Costa Rica is how passionate they are about conserving their forests, and creating a sustainable country. They do however face many changes while trying to remain sustainable. In my opinion, the biggest challenge is the tourist industry. Even though, tourists bring in lots of money for the country that can be used for environmental protection initiatives, it can definitely negatively affect the environment. With a lot of visitors everyday, this country produces a lot of waste. I believe this needs to be addressed, and I think they could definitely find a better way to reduce waste. One idea could be to flush toilet paper down the toilets. This is crazy to Americans but the Costa Rican plumbing system cannot handle non-organic materials in the toilets. This causes a lot of waste in the trash and the dump.
A fun fact I learned today: The plants in the cloud forest don’t get rained on because they are above the rain line. The moister they obtain is from the clouds rolling through. During our hike in the forest we saw: lots of birds, insects, and monkeys. I also visited the waterfall and suspension bridge. Just as I thought this was as exciting as the day was going to get we went for a night hike near our hotel. This was honestly the best part of my day (even though we all got SOAKED to the bone and had to wear our pjs to dinner). I really enjoyed learning and seeing the amazing wildlife here. From my experiences and knowledge I have gained on this trip, I have really discovered how important sustainability is for our planet.
