Day 11

Hola!

Today we had an early start, as we headed out for EARTH University at 6:45 am. We traveled on a scenic road through the mountains, passing volcanoes and rivers on both sides of the bus.

Esteban told us a few facts about the scenery and he mentioned that the roadway is the only way to get through the National Park to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. As a side note, the helicopter scene in Jurassic Park was filmed in this mountainous region of Costa Rica. Although the views were breath-taking, there have been several disputes over the construction of roads in this area because many accidents occur due to natural disasters such as mudslides. However, the Costa Rican government does not want to get involved in the potential destruction of the National Park.

After roughly 3.5 hours of driving through the park, we finally arrived at EARTH University in San José. The university is unique in a sense that it is a private but non-profit institution, founded in 1986 by the Costa Rican government. Can you honestly believe that the university houses only 400 students from about 20 countries across the Caribbean, Africa, South and Central America? We met with two fellow sophomore tour guides and from the school who showed us around the campus and explained what their university is all about. EARTH University strives to educate its students about the importance of social, environmental and economic development to create a bright, sustainable future for generations to come. In order to achieve this goal, the university requires all third year students to complete an environmentally focused project in any country of their choice. This project must serve a mutually beneficial purpose to both the student and the society, which will then be considered as an internship experience. After learning the basic facts about the university, our guides led us on a tour of the medicinal botanical garden.

One of the interesting plants we saw was the "Miraculous Fruit." Our guides explained that if you boil the fruit of this plant for 1 hour, it can be used to relieve hangovers instantly.

The insides of this plant produce a red pigment that can be used as sunscreen!

There were lots of other medicinal plants that the guides introduced us to, including mint.

We had a lunch break around 12:30pm, and afterwards we walked over to the agricultural nurseries for the second part of our tour. Along the way we found several cacao trees, and got a chance to actually try some of the raw cacao! Even though the insides looked slimy and gross, the taste was surprisingly sweet and sour. We enjoyed these so much that the guides had to crack open another cacao plant just to feed us all!

After a delicious snack, we arrived at the nurseries where the students showed us various techniques they use to grow all kinds of plants. One of the interesting irrigation techniques was the bio-intensification process which sets the plants up in a circular format, and prevents bugs from eating them by using basil on the outskirts of the circle.

Another technique they use is a drip irrigation system that gives the plants only the amount of water they need which conserves water and eliminates the possibility of fungi killing the plants.

The students of EARTH University also created "Hanging Sausages," as seen below, contain substrates (dirt) and plant seeds along with 2 evenly spaced out bottles of 650 mL of water that give the plants their source of energy.

At the final stop of our tour, we saw where compost is gathered and learned about how it provides nutrients to the plants. Mother Nature must have known we were close to finishing the tour, so it started to rain accordingly! We all ran to the bus and drove back to one of the buildings where our tour guides gave us the biggest surprise of the day: an original song!! We took a video of their hit single "I Know" that you can watch below. We demanded an encore performance which they gladly agreed upon! Overall, it was a very informative and educational day here in Costa Rica!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxLiq6aqnhE

Pura Vida! :)

Leanne Precopio '14 and Yevgenia Pogorelova '14