Sustainability and the Environment: "A Postcard from the Volcano"

Under the gold of the opulent sun, and in the shadow of the volcano, the adventurers awoke in the heart of their first field trip. They had gone through Tiliran, had seen the Tilapia farms and been battered by the rain and wind at the feet of the giant windmills. Beyond these gates and the windy sky, they headed into volcano country, toward the National Park called Rincon de la Vieja. Rincon de la Vieja, roughly translated into English, means "Corner of the Old Woman." And here I was trying to be all poetic. 

The look of things, from the hotel 

These adventurers were preparing for a long hike through the park today, in order to get a lay of the place and to see what they thought about it. All of this was for a purpose; see, there are some rumblings about maybe building a geothermal plant inside the boundaries of the park as a way to harness some of the volcano's energy in a clean and sustainable fashion. This is great because it's a nice alternative to burning fossil fuels, but it's a kind of dangerous precedent to set-- if you start making it okay to build things inside National Parks, it might not take too long for a big old Trump Tower to pop up in there. 

So that was the objective of the day: hike the park, and get a feel for the place before weighing in on the possibility of building an energy plan inside its borders. 

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single packed lunch, so the first thing the adventurers did in the morning was to throw the old loaf of bread and pound of tea into their backpacks, along with some sweet deli meat, PB&J, homemade Guac, and hummus. 

It looks really nice; whoever set this buffet up is super talented 

Once they had all their rations prepared, the adventurers set out into the park to see what all the fuss was about. On their hike, Adam took the opportunity to remind the students of one of the themes of the first field trip: Agua es Vida. The very water in the river that they were crossing now would soon make its way all the way down into the Gulf of Nicoya, which they would speedboat across in only a few days. So, theoretically, if they dropped a stick or some sunglasses or a GoPro or something in this water here, they might be able to grab it from the boat as they sped across the Gulf a few days later.

Water unites the whole world, guys. 

Some Colorado natives discover the Colorado River 

Amanda plays an ambitious game of Pooh-Sticks 

Now I don't know if you've visited the Corner of the Old Woman before, but this place is pretty unique. It reminded the photographer a lot of old Yellowstone, with little mud pools and hotspots and that sort of thing, which is of course exactly why the idea of a geothermal plant makes so much sense. All the adventurers were feeling super adventurous, but they were still pretty careful not to accidentally step into any of these hotspots and fall all the way through to China or something. 

The adventurers felt like they were on the surface of Mars for a minute here

It's a thin spot in the earth 

While the adventurers were just chilling and learning about the hot-spots from Adam, and about all the different kinds of extremophiles and archaebacteria that lived in there, a beautiful and rare Ornate Hawk Eagle soared over them from above. It was this type of creature that the adventurers were concerned for; the noise and commotion of the geothermal plant, even if on the outskirts of the park, would certainly disrupt the behaviour of little animals like this one. 

Ornate, isn't it?

When they'd looked at just about all of the hotspots and mud pits that they could find, the adventurers embarked on their hike into the forest. They kind of felt like they were all alone in this big old park, except for the dozens and dozens of pasty tourists who seemed to be coming from around every corner. That was something else they knew they had to think about: tourism is a gigantic part of the Costa Rican economy; would a geothermal plant inside the borders of the park dissuade tourists from attending?

They had to balance the cost of energy with the income of tourism. This was complicated math. 

Adam leads the way into the mystical forest. 

Emma and Meg discover a tatter of buttress roots peaked into a tree

A spider monkey put on a little show - another species that would be affected by the theoretical plant 

After an hour or so in the forest, the adventurers found themselves on a dry plain, which felt more like the Serengeti than Central America, at least to those of them that had been reading Hemingway Africa stories all morning. It was an interesting ecosystem to observe, but a reminder that Costa Rica is a land of contrasts. This was not the cloud forest they had left only a few days earlier. 

Sam and Adam make their way across the frying pan

 Mabel, Emma, Meg, Adam, Chandler, and old Sammy boy are not quite but almost ready for a picture

 The adventurers were rewarded for their trying journey, as most adventurers usually are. At the end of their long and difficult hike, they found out that the trail just sort of happened to lead them to a picturesque waterfall, which was a pretty nice surprise, you know?

Dan's pointing at the waterfall to make sure they all see where it is 

Meg becomes a part of the waterfall

The adventurers were learning that Rincon was a pretty magical place, and what they said of it became a part of what it was. They contemplated the idea of a geothermal plant inside its boundaries, a way to save the world from burning fossil fuels but a possible disruption of a unique ecosystem, and a dangerous precedent to set. 

They would have to think about this a little while more. For now, they left just their footprints inside the beautiful park, and what they felt at what they saw. The rim of the world, the corner of the old woman.  

The adventurers in Rincon, as quick as coyotes on a hill