Today we visited La Paz Waterfall Gardens and it was amazing! It showed me what a sustainable relationship between people, land, and commerce can actually look like in real life. The park protects the rainforest and wildlife while also creating jobs and bringing in tourists from all over the world. Instead of destroying the environment to make money, they use the natural beauty of Costa Rica as the main attraction and work to preserve it. Walking through the trails and seeing all the waterfalls and animals made it clear that nature is not something they take for granted here.

I also noticed that the animals at La Paz were cared for. Many of the animals were in enclosures, but it was not just for entertainment. A lot of them had been taken from the wild and kept as pets before being rescued by wildlife organizations. Since they had become too dependent on humans or were injured they could not safely return to nature. Instead La Paz gives them a protected environment where they can be cared for while also helping educate visitors about wildlife conservation and the importance of respecting animals in their natural habitats.