Today, we said goodbye to our host families and made our way to La Fortuna. The main stop along the way was The Best Pineapple Tour. Even though I am allergic to pineapple and could not actually eat any, I still learned a lot from seeing how the farm operates and how much work goes into it. The tour guide, Daniel, was very engaging, asking us questions and explaining the growing process. He even taught us small details about choosing a good pineapple, like how the crown should be green and how, when the flower is 100% open, all of the pineapple’s eyes become flat. The tour showed how farms are beginning to combine agriculture and tourism to create new sources of income.
Instead of only making money from selling pineapples, the farm now earns additional revenue by giving tours to visitors. This represents a larger shift in younger Costa Ricans’ interests from traditional farming to tourism work. Tourism can provide more economic stability than agriculture because farming depends heavily on weather and crop success. Tourism jobs also involve skills like digital marketing, technology, customer service, and speaking foreign languages, which may feel more modern and appealing to younger generations. While it does not directly relate to the pineapple farm, our Uber driver told us one of the reasons he switched to driving Uber full time was so he could improve his English. Since he drives tourists around every day, he gets to practice with people from all over the world. I thought this was a really interesting example of how tourism creates new opportunities.
Another thing I found interesting was learning that the farm employs many workers from Nicaragua to help with the agricultural labor. This shows how physically demanding farm work can be and why many younger Costa Ricans may prefer jobs connected to tourism instead. However, there are also risks. If fewer young people continue farming, traditional agricultural knowledge and family farming practices could slowly disappear. Costa Rica could also become too dependent on tourism, which can be unpredictable during natural disasters or global health crises. We saw this during COVID when tourism activity declined dramatically, and many businesses struggled financially.
Overall, I think it is really interesting how businesses like this pineapple farm are able to profit from something they are already doing. By opening their farm to visitors, they are educating tourists while also supporting local families and the economy.
