Sustainability and the Environment: "When a Migrant, Do as the Migrants Do"

Anytime that you ind yourself in Nicaragua, you should be doing as the Nicaraguans do. By this I mean: you should be exploring the many different methods of trying to conserve the last great forests in the country. One of the ways that they do this is through PSA farms, which is a system in which landowners are paid a modest sum of money every year to allow forest to regenerate on their property. Adam happened to know about a nice little PSA farm right near the border of the Indio Maiz in El Castillo, so one day the adventurers took the old boat-boat-boat out to the farm to interview the family there about their experiences with the PSA program. 

The people that they talked to were a typical Nicaraguan family, and they told the adventurers about their own personal experience with the PSA program and they way that they handle interactions with local families. Even though they were not particularly educated in the fields of biology and sustainability, the family told the students that they fully understood the importance of the forest; they knew that Nicaragua was getting dryer, and that they needed to regenerate the forest if they wanted the old climate to return. 

There seemed to be some bad feelings and friction with the PSA program and the local NGO that oversaw it, and the family was not sure that they were going to continue with the PSA program, so the adventurers made a mental note to try to get to the bottom of all of this as more information presented itself.

The adventurers quiz this nice old woman about her PSA property

After their discussion about the ins and outs of the PSA system, the adventurers asked the nice old woman if she would maybe take them out for a little walk in the woods and show them her forest that she was regenerating. She said yes she absolutely would, but first they all decided to take a group picture, just in case they never made it back to see this family in Nicaragua again (they probably wouldn't.)

What a happy bunch of adventurers 

Well the nice old woman seemed reluctant at first about taking a bunch of college hooligans around all through her woods, but as soon as she put her rubber boots on and picked up her machete, she got super stoked about it, and they headed up through the farm and into the forest. 

You can see where the family has burned to make room for their farm; here, we see the meeting of pasture, farm and forest

Well the intention was to just go in and take a quick stroll around the forest, but the nice old woman decided to give these adventurers a real treat, and so she took them on a two-hour-long jungle bushwhacking adventure, climbing down waterfalls included. It was a big surprise and one of the best days of the trip, if you ask the photographer, and all of the adventurers were pretty stoked they finally had a reason to use their rubber boots.  

Erica is contemplating climbing up this waterfall; she's hesitant because all the water seems to think going in the other direction is way better 

Here's the AFTER picture; all alive and well, plus a lot of extra sweat, which is nice 

 When they got back to the mainland, the adventurers decided that enough was enough, and it was really time that they went and explored this giant castle a little bit, just to make sure there weren't any pirate ghosts in there or anything. 

Sunset is the best time to explore possibly haunted castles, did you know that? Of course you didn't 

El Castillo sits on the bank of the river at the place where it is shallowest, and this is not by accident, but by design. See, when the pirates of the caribbean were traveling up the river, they would always have to stop and portage their boats here, or go out and try to steal some new boats farther up the river, or things like that. So the people who lived along the river decided that this would be a pretty sweet place to build a castle fortress, so that they could protect the town from the pirates and maybe try to shoot a couple of them down with their cannons when they passed by up the river. 

That was back in 1648, and so the castle has fallen in on itself just a little bit, kind of let itself go, but it's still a pretty awesome place to go and look around in for a little while. And it's also probably haunted, but the adventurers didn't see any ghosts like at all the whole time. 

Eilish seems to have gotten trapped in some sort of castle pit type thing 

Okay, yeah these guys definitely got trapped 

Tessa, Erica, Hannah and Leah are trying to get their picture into Old Castles Magazine or something like that

With their time in El Castillo drawing to a close, the adventurers had this secret desire to do something super awesome as a way of saying goodbye to the beautiful Nicaraguan town. Lucky for them, the instructors had something super awesome already planned for them. See, there's this secret path that runs from El Castillo and across the border into Costa Rica; it's the path that the Nicaraguan migrants use when they're sneaking into Costa Rica to find work, and it's totally illegal, but it's definitely super awesome. The adventurers decided that the best way to understand the life of a migrant was to walk around in their shoes, so early in the pre-dawn hours, the adventurers set off into the dark of the future. 

You have to start at 4 am if you want to make it into Costa Rica by sunrise. 

The world is a much blurrier place at 4 in the morning 

Ah, that's better, everybody sharpened up around 6 

Like everything in Nicaragua, the trail was super dry, and the same instructors had been up to their knees in mud this time last year. Even still, it was a pretty breathtaking excursion. 

The horses are watching the sunrise 

 When they reached the border, the adventurers glanced around to make sure there were no policemen around, and then they slipped across into the beautiful country of Costa Rica. 

It's good to stand around in the road in a big group as soon as you sneak across a border 

Leah is prepared to hide behind this leaf if she has to. Aislyn is super bold and not scared of nothin. 

After they crossed the border back into Nicaragua and sat down for a quick breakfast that the big strong TAs had been carrying, the adventurers had a discussion with their guide, who as a young man had done this little hike a number of times, and knew the hardships of the migrants well. 

When they finished breakfast, the cool adventurers packed their things up and set off again into the misty pastures and patchy forests, back into the town of El Castillo that sat beside the river, always on the lookout for pirates. 

Early morning holds all the promise 

On their final night in El Castillo, the cool instructors put together a little talent show for the adventurers, and it was a pretty awesome time. Everybody came up with a pretty great talent, and the instructors dressed up as monkeys and sang a song by the Monkees and swung around the rafters, and that was pretty great too. 

He's just tryin to be friendlay! 

Emma, Rachel, Eilish, Channy, and a bunch of other students teamed up to write fortunes for everybody, which was an awesome talent. That's Sam the monkey in the background.

The next morning, the adventurers packed their bags and left El Castillo forever, at least until they come back someday. While they were waiting at the immigration office, a bunch of river otters came over to say goodbye to them, and that was pretty magical.

Hello from the otter side

 I bet you're pretty sad to see the adventurers leave such a beautiful place, but don't worry; they're on to some pretty exhilarating spots. And if you get too sad, just look up here at the otters again, and you'll be happy.