“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

It is in amazement that I look back on the last three years, and where this journey of founding an eco-tour company has taken me. Three years ago, on a freezing winter day in January, I was on my way to Costa Rica, a place I had visited many years before and had fallen in love with during a 5 week long visit, back in 1997. I was at the beginning of a 6 month trip of Latin America, which took me from Guatemala all the way down to Peru.  This is the trip where I had both gotten the travel bug, and decided I wanted to study environmental science – a trip that defined the path I took in life.

True, I was aware of environmental degradation in my home county of Israel, as well as the unsustainable consumption of resources going on in the world, but I was at the beginning of my journey. Having just finished four years in the military, I was ready for both adventure and an education.

Nothing really prepared me for both the beauty of the tropical rainforests I visited in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ecuador – and nothing had prepared me for the impromptu visit I made to an American oil field in the Amazonian part of Ecuador. At that point in time I was traveling with Anke, a German environmentalist who was writing her master thesis on the environmental impact of such oil fields in the Amazon. We had observed that close to these flaring fields (I forget if it was Texaco or Chevron) it was eerily quiet, the rainforest birds gone. We had also talked to dislocated indigenous people, on our voyage up one of the mighty Rio Napo tributaries. These poor people were resettled in what looked like concrete (or asbestos?) huts, languishing away from there traditional homes in the rainforest. Many succumbed to alcohol and disease , some working for a pittance at the oil fields. Is this sustainable development?

With my brash Israeli chutzpah, I helped talked our way into visiting the main oil field. We were hosted by some of the American managers, and had lunch with them in an air-conditioned executive dining hall. “Sure, they were for the environment, but how is this poor country supposed to make money?” they told us, and went on to show us the environmental safeguards put in place – including a shiny recycling bin for bottles. Though I did not know the word at the time, I was being green-washed.  The jungle around us was still silent, the pollution and oil will remain in the ecosystem for years.

Traveling through the Amazon on a dugout canoe was an amazing experience - we camped on the bank of the tributary, under the massive canopy, swam in the river during the day, and took late-night walks and observed the different set of wildlife that comes out at dark. Our indigenous guide shared his wisdom with us, and prepared a traditional stomach pain remedy from some leaves he collected from a tree.

I thought to myself, there must be a way to both preserve the rainforest, and provide for the local peoples, no?
Though I did not know it at the time, eco-tourism is one of many ways to benefit both people and the planet. This was the first step in the journey for me - a journey that would bring me back to the rainforest many times - though each time I visit the rainforest, I am amazed all over again by the amount of life it harbors.



Ami

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Ami Greener, Director                                                                                                       
Greener Travel LLC  
+1-202-599-0655
ami@costaribbean.com 
www.costaribbean.com

Last week I returned from Costa Rica after leading an amazing group of 17 people from around the world! We had a great time together for 10 days, as I got to know the group and introduce them to some of my favorite Costa Rica spots. This was more then just a group tour, as during our time in Costa Rica we formed a spacial community. In a trip like this, we all go through many fun and challenging experiences, and so many friendships begin, often continuing past the flight home.

I wanted to share with you a poem by Manny, one of the participants that not only made up nicknames to everyone on the trip, but was often the heart of the party. On our first Friday, most of us were tired from traveling to San Jose, but it was Manny who organized a late night run to the liquor store and an ad-hock toast in one of our suites.

Without further ado, I present the poem he wrote about what makes our trips so special - the people.

Ami

This week it is my honor to post an interesting guest blog post by Abby, who joined our May 2012 Jewish trip:

I recently returned from the Costa Rica Caribbean Experience trip.  I hadn't been out of the country since college, so I thought this would be a fun break before working this summer and an opportunity to work on my Spanglish.  The group was a total of 8 people, a mix of DC (Courtney, Jenn, and Faina), NYC (me, Julie, Steph, and Josh), and LA (Isobel).  The group was all female except for our one pimp, Josh.  We immediately decided that our trip would be a real-life Bachelor, and we'd all fight to the death for the final rose.  Pulling a "Brad Womack," Josh ended up giving the final rose to no one.   

San Jose:  Most of us arrived in San Jose on Friday and spent Shabbat with the Reform Jewish community of San Jose. The service that night was led by the sisterhood. The interesting part was that most of the men were American and their wives were Costa Rican women who had converted to Judaism.  On Saturday morning, a few people opted to take a day-trip to the crater of the active Poas volcano. I kinda did the whole volcano thing when I was 15 in Costa Rica and so I decided to walk around San Jose looking for chahcas for my niece and nephew.  On Sunday morning we left for a day of white-water rafting on the Pacuare river. We were lucky enough to have a very-attractive river-guide, Berto who had no faith that a boat of 6 women and 1 guy would make it down the rapids without anyone falling out. Our boat was appropriately named "Berto's Bitches."  Despite Josh's large size, Berto demoted Josh from lead paddler to the back of the raft because "he's a bad listener."  Ouch!

Puerto Viejo:  Our tour next took us to Puerto Viejo, a Rastafarian surfer town on the Caribbean coast (the locals’ ancestors came over from Jamaica in the 19th century to work in the banana plantations).  This portion of the tour was lead by Junior, a chef whose mother supposedly runs the most famous restaurant in Puerto Viejo.  I'm pretty sure Ami and Junior were gay lovers at some point, because every-other word out of Ami's mouth was "Junior-this" and "Junior-that..."  During our stay, we went to the beach, walked around town, ziplined through the jungle, visited a native village and made chocolate, took a Kosher style Caribbean cooking class, and went on a nature walk to the Gandoca Manzanillo wildlife refuge.  A few dogs began following our group on the nature walk.  Since there were no guys on the trip, I decided the cutest of the dogs, Pinto, would be my new boyfriend. He was very loyal, kept quiet, and followed our group the whole way on the trail. 

Tortuguerro: After Puerto Viejo, we loaded our suitcases on a tiny boat to get to Tortaguerro (Ami told us to pack light, but of course he forgot he was talking to a group of Jewish girls).  To get there, we took a 3 hour boat-ride though a crocodile-infested canal and got about as close as 10 feet away.  Unfortunately I was on the shore-side of the boat and cuddled with Courtney so she would keep me safe from the massive crocs.  The next morning, I opted out of the 6am boat ride to the Tortuguero National Park and met up with the group for the nature walk after breakfast. The girls and I soon learned that the neighboring resort offered couples massages for $40 for 1 hr including boat transportation!  So Courtney, Jenn, Julie and I took advantage of this.  Not gonna lie, it was a little unsettling to be naked next to another girl during the couples massage, but anything for a $40 massage!  At night, Willis, a local guide, took us on a night walk along the beach to try and spot the massive sea turtles coming in to lay their eggs. To our surprise, after 5 minutes we came upon a Hawksbill turtle, one of the most endangered of the sea turtles - truly an amazing sight!     

The Farm (Finca Rio Perla):  The final stop on our trip was a Jewish-owned farm, and these were by far the most rustic of the accommodations.  There were a number of cute dogs on the farm, one who even resembled Pinto. So I decided to replace my boyfriend Pinto with another dog, Toby.  On the farm some of us milked cows (Isobel was fearless!), rode on horses, made cheese, made ice cream, swam in some amazing waterfalls, caught our own red-snapper dinner, and watched Superbad.  It was a great 9 days away from the craziness of NYC with a fascinating and outgoing group of people.  Ami always had every aspect of the trip well-organized, and we always felt like we were in good hands.  To see more pictures from our adventure, check out the trip's fan-page. 

Abby Robinson

(Author of Secrets of Shiksa Appeal) 

Hi!

It has more than a year since I led the first Costa Rica Caribbean tour, (May 2010), and looking back at the year that is past gives me a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment.

It all started by a chance meeting with Paul Siegel, the owner of Finca Rio Perla, who invited me to come down to Costa Rica and visit his amazing farm – and help him with marketing the farm to potential guests and volunteers. Combined with my long love and fascination for Costa Rica since I visited it first in 1997, as well as the fact that in in that stage in my life I was looking to get into the eco-tourism business, this all made perfect sense – and so the 'Experience' was born.

Since then I have been many times to Costa Rica, each visit strengthening my connection to both the local community as well as the various tourism providers (hotels, activity and adventure outfitters) – all in pursuit providing visitors with the most authentic- and ecologically minded- visit to this paradise of a country.

During the time that has passed I have also send many families, couples and groups of friends to visit Finca Rio Perla, as part of their visit to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. This has been a great experience for me – first dealing with the individual requests for more information about visits, then helping them with the logistics of arriving on the farm, and later receiving their great reviews and accolades about their visit.   

I recently came by the following article in the Tico Times (Costa Rica’s English weekly newspaper) about the amazing beaches of the Caribbean region – listing in detail all the beaches south of Puerto Viejo. And honestly, every time I visit these beaches I am taken aback each time by their sheer beauty, and the calmness that ensues after spending some time on them.

July marked the first time that we sent a group to the Caribbean Experience without me escorting the tour – and we used the services of the super-professional Felipe Chacon from Get To Costa Rica. There were five women from L.A., and they stayed on the farm, and visited Tortuguero and the Arenal volcano as well - they all had a great time! 

The fall marks preparations for the winter tours – the first of which we announced last week (December 10-18, 2011), and expanding the experiences we offer our clients - including trips to other parts of Costa Rica and also Panama.

Ami

Director
The Costa Rica Caribbean Experience

Hi!

I am writing this post from my home office in Washington DC – it is a pretty chilly late February night, and it is hard to believe that just a few short weeks ago I was in Costa Rica, galloping on one of the horses on Finca Rio Perla, or enjoying the magnificent sunset on the Caribbean coast.  

In late January I led a small group on one of our “Caribbean Experiences” (the second such tour I lead), introducing a group from DC and L.A. to the farm, the highlands, and to the Caribbean coast.  The weather was just perfect, as we had arrived right after an extended rainy season – it seems that we brought the sun with us!

After grouping up in Alajuella, the small town near the International Airport, our driver for the trip, Julio, took us down to the farm, passing on the way the towering cloud forested mountains of the Braulio Carrillo National Park, making our way to Finca Rio Perla.

It was great to be on the farm with the group – it had been 6 months since I was last on the farm, and it has gone through some major changes – first and foremost, the addition of the new managers of Finca Rio Perla : Andrew, a permaculture specialist originally from the US who has lived in Costa Rica for the past decade, his soon-to-be wife, Daniela, who is a native Tica, and their son Nicolas. Andrew has a MS degree in Horticulture from University of Georgia and expertise in organic agriculture and educational programs, and has started to manage the organic garden and the professional courses & internships that the farm is offering, and Daniela is a Spanish teacher, and will be managing the B&B on the farm as well as offering Spanish lessons to guests and volunteers.

These days the farm staff is quite busy, as they are hosting a three week Permaculture Design Course Course, with over 15 participants from the US.

Finca Rio Perla has also added a spacious handicap accessible room, and the whole area of the Stablo has been supped up – a wooden camping platform for the farm’s comfy tents, bathrooms and showers, a state of the art kitchen, a classroom, a pool table -  as well as stone picnic tables. Nearby, they are building the new Casa Communal house that will host up to 8 volunteers – this will help free more rooms for guests in the main house, the Posada.

Paul, the owner of Finca Rio Perla was on the farm when we visited, as well as several volunteers that usually spend a few weeks to a few months on the farm. Paul really enjoys showing guests around and telling them about his vision  of building a thriving community on Finca Rio Perla -  and indeed, Finca Rio Perla is growing, and is the community.

The group I traveled with really enjoyed the farm, which to myself and Paul is one of the greatest rewards of being in this business – the satisfaction of our guests and tours attendees.

The group enjoyed the amazing veggie food, went on a long horseback ride, swam in the refreshing waterfalls on the farm property, fished for dinner, milked cows and learned how to make Tico cheese and ice-cream-  and enjoyed a thrilling day rafting on the mighty  Pacuare river!chocholate

We did other things on the farm as well - such as planting hardwood trees to offset our travel associated carbon emissions, help with the organic garden, go birdwatching with Andrew – and of course, relax on the hammocks and remember that we are actually on vacation!

Later on, we headed down the coast and based ourselves at Puerto Viejo, the most happening town on the Caribbean. Puerto is the kind of place you get to know quickly, and often do not want to leave - as attested by the more then 40 nationalities represented there. Our group checked into the Cabinas Jacaranda Hotel & Jungle Garden, run by the amazing Vera, and started on the second leg of the trip, which  included a chocolate tour,  a zipline adventure, a great jungle hike in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, and a  sunset "booze-cruise" where the group got to drink some spiked tropical punch and swim a mile off the coast, amongst he gentle Caribbean waves...

Ami

Director
The Costa Rica Caribbean Experience