Pacaure White Water Rafting

Everyone is back safe and sound from a great day of white water rafting down the Pacaure River. There were some class 3 and class 4 rapids today. We left San Jose at 6:30 am and returned around 5:45 pm. Breakfast was served at Exploradores Outdoors and we ate lunch on the river.











Tomorrow (Sunday) we are off to the OSA peninsula. The bus leaves at 6:00 am for the 5+ hour trip to Sierpe. We will travel by boat down the Sierpe river and out to Pacific Ocean to our accommodations in Drake Bay.

Tentative Schedule

Friday, May 30, two Classes – Team time, blog time

Saturday, May 31, Pacuare River 6:20 am LEAVE (Change of Clothes)

Sunday, June 1, Leave for OSA 6:00 am LEAVE (Flash Light)

Wednesday, June 4, Drive back from OSA

Thursday, June 5, Leave to La Selva Research Station, Caribbean (BRING MU T-SHIRT)

Monday, June 9, Return to San Jose

Tuesday, June 10, Class, Lunch, Class

Wed, June 11, Evals., Group Reports, lunch, Final Exam

Thur, June 12, Poas Volcano and visit to La Paz water falls (no swimming) (BRING MU T-SHIRT)

Fri, June 13, Free day, packing, Farewell Dinner

Sat, June 14, Depart CR – 0 dark 30

Shifting Sand

Today we were going to go to the Osa, but because of the Tropical Storm, we postponed the trip to Sunday and are spending today on Business Classes and team research for their final presentations. The weather seems to have improved and in a day or so the water should clear in Ocean, so we are optimistic that the Osa trip will be great!

Rain and More Rain. . .

Rain continues for the third day in a row with no let-up. A tropical storm is causing all sorts of havoc on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. Some parts of the north in Guanacaste are shown to be flooded on the TV.

Our plans were to leave for the Osa tomorrow (Friday) but - as always we have to go with the flow and have tentatively decided to leave on Sunday after the storm is over and we are able to assess the situation. Also we have tentatively rescheduled the white water rafting trip for Saturday. Since the rain is mostly on the west side of the mountains we feel certain that the rafting should not be significantly impacted. The river is on the East side of the mountains. We will continue to assess the situation.

Our First Weekend

Friday afternoon we traveled to Arenal and checked into the Rossi 1/2 star hotel. All enjoyed the hot springs and dinner at Baldi. The hot springs are heated by the Arenal Volcano which is continuously active. Some students braved the extremely hot water in one of the spas' pools.










Saturday started by visiting one of the hydro-electric facilities that feeds the power grid for Costa Rica. Most of the electricity is generated using water power. We first inspected the man-made dam and then the machine house approximately 2 Km away. Water is dropped over several hundred feet over the distance to created more energy to turn the turbines. Students were able to see the turbines actually running during our visit.


Most of the students rode horseback down to the La Fortuna waterfall. 165 steps down into the gorge presented a great opportunity to experience nature close up. The problem was walking back up the steps.












As stated, Arenal Volcano is active. One of the recent eruptions left one side of the Volcano riddled with lava rock. The Arenal National Park was set up to preserve the site.

Sunday, we crossed Arenal Lake by boat and made our way to the Monteverde National Park which is a cloud forest. The roads are terrible to put it mildly. We checked into La Casona de Monteverde at the entrance to the park in anticipation of doing zip lines through the forest after lunch and of our night walk in the Monteverde National Park that night as well as the next morning. Weather (rain) made it uncomfortable for all.

After Monday morning's (6:00 am) walk we left Monteverde to return to San Jose.

Cafe Britt

Today, in the morning, we visited Cafe Britt, one of the largest commercial producers in the country. Some of the sights included how coffee was grown, picked, processed, and packed. Lunch at Cafe Britt was wonderful.

We returned to San Jose for class in the afternoon.

Coffee Links

We had a lot of questions today about sustainability and coffee. As you recall, we said we'd post some links to get you started. You should research other sites for your post. Here are some starts:

Fair Trade (Global Exchange)
Transfair
Upcoming Miami University Coffee Conference
Organic Trade Association- Coffee
Sustainable Coffee Farming

Coffee and Survival Spanish

Coffee is one of the industries that we focus on during our Costa Rican trip. As you can see our bus ride to Naranja to visit the premier coffee grower in the country is very comfortable given the condition of the roads. Coffee plants are everywhere and students were able to talk with Daisy Rodriquez, the owner of Del Cafe Tal, about the entire production process of the golden bean that is shipped all over the world.












Drying racks for the harvest and students listening and asking questions about coffee production. Harvest season is January - February depending on the weather.

Our class in the afternoon consisted of "Survival Spanish."

CINDE

I know you all were glad to get the chance to change your money today. I hope you noticed that the rate of 512 per dollar was WAY better than the 454 per dollar at the airport. Did you notice that they were selling dollars at 525. Not much of spread is it?

The visit to CINDE was superb. They do a great job of dispelling the "banana republic" myth and explaining why CR is such an attractive place for multi-nationals and small businesses alike. Please check out their website for more useful information. You asked some very good questions. I hope this helped change our framing of their economy.

Grading Scheme

Hey folks, here is the grading scheme we discussed today:

Grading for BUS 399

Class Participation
Veritas Class Participation 5%
Field Trip Participation 5%
"Good Citizenship" 5%

Blog Posts of Experience 20%
Min of Once Per Week
Pictures AND Text
"What I Learned/Found Interesting"

For the three industries coffee, bananas and tourism:
Blog Posts for the three CR Industries
5% for each Posts and Report, for each Industry (Total 15%)
Min of 4 Posts Describing your Experience with the Industry, while in Costa Rica. Emphasize Research on Coffee in Week 1, Tourism in Week 2, and Bananas in Week 3.
Posts should be personal reflections, but should reference the following guideposts:
Overview of Industry (World and Costa Rica) and Sustainability Issues with Industry

Team Final Paper & Presentation of your recommendations (10%)
Select a company and industry in the US of your choice (must be approved by May 23).
Provide an overview of the industry.
What are the sustainability issues in the industry?
What recommendations would you make concerning these issues?

Final exam (tent. June 11) and Mid term (tent. May 29) (20% each)

May 18, 2008

All arrived as scheduled in San Jose on Saturday. We were picked up at the airport and taken to Veritas University where the students met their host families.

Sunday involved orienting the students to San Jose.