Today began our first day of explorations and travels within San José. San José is the largest city in Costa Rica and is also the capital. Our tour guide says nearly 80% of CR population is concentrated in this city. That's crazy to me. But that does explain the terrible terrible traffic here in the city. The number of people who have almost hit us and number of horns that have been honked is beyond me. Whole I don't have a lot of experience driving in NY or Chicago, I can only imagine traffic here is comparable.
I started off the morning well. Started with the typical talking to CJ, getting ready, and going to get breakfast. But that's where things got a little weird. There are 81 of us on this trip. Meaning the line for food is quite extensive. I had gathered my food and placed it on a table. After placing it, I proceeded to gather a beverage to enjoy with breakfast. Just for me to come back to my table with my food gone. The individual who was serving as a waitress had gathered my plate and discarded of it before I even had the chance to try any of it. So I went back in line and got some more food. Speaking of, the food here is amazing! I was a little concerned when I found rice being served at breakfast this morning, but this trip is all about culture and trying new things. Let's just say I was extremely impressed. All meals here have rice and mixed vegetables mostly consisting of carrots, corn, broccoli, and zucchini. I have not yet hated anything I've enjoyed with my meal.
Okay, now let's transition into some of the activities that happened after my breakfast fiasco. We toured a group here in CR called IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture). We started with a panel of four highly ranked individuals within the embassy who talked to us about their work and what they enjoy most. We learned many interesting facts about Costa Rica including their biggest commodities being cocoa, bananas, pineapple, and coffee. After this panel, we had a Q & A and we took a photograph together.
We were then split into three groups to tour the facility. My group, group A, started at Casa Tipica Rural. This was a older house that was placed in facility that had clothing, textiles, and carts from some of the rural areas in the country. Following this, we went to the Forest/Garden of America. This was probably my favorite stop. Within this small area of property, they had one of each of the 35 countries in the Americas national tree. I was excited to see this as there were many trees here that you wouldn't ever see in Northern America, within the states, and many of them had fruit on them. We saw what is known as a candle tree, a lemon tree, café (coffee), pineapple, mango tree, and a banana tree. They even planted smaller flowers for helps in pollination of these trees, which resulted in butterflies finding some of these flowers. We were able to see caterpillars building cacoons for their transition.
The third stop was called the "Fab Lab". Here they showed us some of their technologies to help Costa Rica and Agriculture. In the lab they had screen printing, their work with women development including fire fighter training, and their work with hydroponic systems. Our fourth and final stop before lunch was Cimag. They referred to this section of the facility as their "opposite of museum" this is because while museums look back at the last, Cimag was all about looking forward at the future. The innovative technologies that they had for education were amazing. Cimag's focus is on showcasing new technologies. Withing this sector they showed us self sustaining plants and solar panels that are in place for cleaner, renewable energy. Not only this, geared more toward the educational side, they had a n agricultural Minecraft game. Similar to regular Minecraft and your ability to build and create. Their game also has the same features except they are geared toward agriculture, as in, you get to build, create, and maintain your own farm through this gaming system. This is a cool way to utilize the things students enjoy into an educational platform. (No, their version doesn't have the Zombies in it.) Another cool innovation they had was in the use of Legos. They had two ideas when it came to Legos and their development. Similarly to mine craft, they could have students build a 3-D farm to meet the needs of the climate they are challenged with or they could make robots. The robots they had on facility were cool. They had these robots that were suppose to represent cattle. They had wheels which allowed the cattle to roam and the cattle could make noise and facial expressions. One cool thing they showed us was that the cattle could recognize colors. When placing a blue Lego in front of the cattle, it was happy and made drinking noises, as if it were enjoying water. When a green Lego, representing grass, was placed in front of the cattle, it was happy and made chewing noises, as if it were eating the grass. The red Lego that represents meat resulted in the cattle getting quite upset and not making any noise, but instead kicking it's back feet upward. Another technology they had was called the Farm Bot. This was a technology that allowed farmers to share ideas with one another through the internet. But it was also a program that you could set up for your plants. Similar to an auto-tractor, the Farm Bot could plant and irrigate fields of plants, without you ever having to touch a single plant, it also includes a moisture sensor. This project is about a 2 year project and can be used to detect issues crops may be having in the field including moisture retention, nutrient levels, and more. Finally, they had virtual reality relating to farming. This is an educational tool as students will be able to take the knowledge they have learned and apply it onto a virtual field. This allows for students to be able to see the results of their actions without directly impacting our fields. They also showcase other important issues such as honey bees and their value and what we can do to keep them safe.
At the conclusion of Cimag, we enjoyed a nice lunch and loaded the busses soon after. We traveled into the city and toured the outside of a few historical buildings. We got to see a couple of the government buildings and what use to be an old prison and war shelter. One of the former presidents of the country encouraged the building to remain standing and to remain with the bullet holes in it to represent the hardships they went through in the war and the promise to never have to do that again. I was surprised to learn that CR doesn't have a military.
This tour lead us to the Jade museum. This museum reminded us that if someone values something enough, there is no amount of effort they are unwilling to put in. CR in the 19th century craved Jade to build sculptures and other things. CR, however, did not have any Jade sites in the country. Costa Ricans would have to travel many miles to get to the jade they craved. Many beautiful sculptures and creations were made as a result of the jade. Some of the jade was use to hunt, some for furniture, some for sculpture, and some for tattooing. Many pieces were in the shapes of animals or important famous people during the era. One of the most significant pieces is the Mujer chamán. This is one of few sculptures that represented a woman, but is significant because it shows that women did hold positions of power in the 19th century.
Our final destination was the theater. Here we learned about the more physical human forms of art including dance, music, poetry, and more. One thing that is cool about this theater is that the floors move up and down by a crank-like system in the basement of the theater. We were also able to see many paintings. One painting that stood out to me was painting by an Italian artist during the time. In CR they didn't have art, so they received the piece from the Italians. However some aspects of the painting are not completely accurate, as this painting was derived from someone who had never stepped foot in the country and was going based off of letters written to him by the citizens of that time. Three things that are not exactly accurate include coffee being grown by the beach, coffee is grown at much higher elevations, a street light on the beach/land coast, with no wiring, and the representation of bananas is upside down compared to how they naturally grow. We even saw baby Jesus in the manger. I love the constant reminders of Jesus Christ and our God.
Between the museum and the theater, we had time to stop at a local pastry shop. I was able to use my CR money and found that my pastry was less than $1 (usd). However, it was quite good and very moist. It was a yellow cake, with a creme layer between the two sheets and a thin topping of strawberry puree sprinkled in granulated sugar. Muy Bein.
From there we went to the hotel and chilled about 1.5 hours before dinner. Dinner was mixed vegetables, green rice, chicken, and a roll. There is not a thing here that I have eaten that I have been disappointed in. However, the beverages are not my forté. We had some kind of watermelon juice last night and some kind of pineapple juice tonight. I am not a fan of either of these fruits, but no one can say that I didn't give them a try.
We concluded the night with a debrief where we talked about the things we thought were impactful and the things we didn't want to forget as a reflection of our day.
Your continued support, thoughts, and prayers while I am on this adventure are appreciated. Oh, the best news yet! I was talking to one of my leaders and she said we should have a pretty high chance of seeing a wild sloth while on the trip!!!!!!
Commenti