Uniqueness is key in avoiding economic hardship - Opinion

I found this most excellent article that tells it best about "why study abroad?"

Uniqueness is key in avoiding economic hardship - Opinion

Massage Modalities

Massage modalities are important, but as this article explains they are tools to be used by the intuitive practitioner. This is the reason we based our school here in Costa Rica, to help expand the minds and souls of our students. So far it has worked quite well.

The First Dimension of Touch

There are seven specific dimensions of touch which create structurally and energetically effective work. Contact is the first dimension.

by David Lauterstein

It is not the educational intention but it is the meeting which is educationally fruitful. --- Martin Buber

The Spell of Modalities

There is a spell about the land of bodywork. The spell is that modalities are powerful and vast and that practitioners should be consumers of these modalities if they want to be powerful, successful therapists. In the market culture the product or service to be consumed is given more importance than the individual person who is consuming it. This turns the truth on its head. In bodywork the people - therapist and client - are the source of healing. The modality is of secondary importance. Nonetheless, most massage/bodywork training is modality training. Let us wake up from the spell of believing that modalities heal people - that cranial work is powerful, Reiki sublime, NMT great, Rolfing fantastic. Not true. Modalities have zero power. The healing power in bodywork is who is giving it and who is receiving it. You who are a bodyworker and your client are the source of healing. Modalities are tools at best, brainwashing at worst. Andrew Taylor Still stated "the body contains all the healing substances it needs." Each therapist with a good basic education and the simplest desire to help others by touching them, has all the healing energy - ideas, feelings, movements - he or she needs to help. A truly caring individual has more power than all the modalities combined. If I have the choice of an advanced practitioner who is full of himself vs. a basic practitioner who genuinely cares, I will go for the care. Because, if love is present, we open up and, if it's not, we don't. Perhaps love is that which opens. I may not be able to teach a student to love. I can't require it for their grades. But that doesn't make it any the less primary. It is harder to educate the character, the person of the therapist,who to be in the therapeutic relationship, than to just tell them what to do. Nonetheless, caring deeply remains our first concern and chief resource, technique a distant second. How can we rigorously develop theskill to love? How can we be rigorous in the study of this incredible primary content of our work? This on-going column is an attempt to help us answer these questions. First, we must all wake up from this spell and declaim loudly the primary role of deep care in massage. It is the reason why people are so attracted to this profession. Tragically, some schools and workshop marketeers are consistently selling off this precious birthright for the false idol of modality instruction. On the contrary, our source and destination continues to be the ever mysterious and wondrous LIFE and LOVE itself. To break the spell of modality worship the best tool I have come up with is to better understand the seven dimensions inherent in touch.

The Seven Dimensions of Touch

For years I've been receiving work from students and colleagues. And from this receiving it seems to me that, regardless of modality, there are seven specific dimensions of touch which create structurally and energetically effective work. The literally multi-dimensional experience of touch is the foundation which existentially precedes and underlies all bodywork techniques and modalities. For each upcoming column we will explore in detail one of each of these seven dimensions.

Contact - The First Dimension of Touch

The first element or dimension of touch occurs when we lay our hands upon someone. Just laying down a hand establishes a point or area of contact. Remember from geometry, a point has one dimension. So in this rigorous, geometric sense, the first level of touch is one dimensional, the laying on of a hand. But how powerful this is! In the one dimension of basic contact is summed up everything so eloquently depicted in Michelangelo's famous painting in which God and Adam are about to touch. The power of this picture is that it depicts with incredible power the creation of life. When we touch, in this first dimension, life itself is created. Because in the moment and in the space when and where two people touch, a new thing is created. This is the relationship. Two people share their lives by touching. And a third thing is created. How can we honor and further empower this incredible opportunity? First of all, we must believe it's real. Structurally, when two beings touch, it is an interesting physical occurrence. Energetically, however, it is a miracle. When two conscious beings touch, the combined vibration of these two beings, what Martin Buber called the I-Thou relationship, begins. This is the incredible power inherent in the first dimension of touch. There are two aspects to this dimension. The first has to do with location. Where do we decide to initiate contact? Where do we decide to first lay our hand down and why? If where we first make contact becomes habitual and not the result of a sacred decision, then we've lost an incredible opportunity. To make this decision we need knowledge of anatomy, especially musculoskeletal. Often we can tell if a therapist is competent simply by where they first place their hand. If it's, for instance, halfway down the back, this may give us the sense that they are beginning in the middle, not knowing or valuing the beginnings and endings of things, in this case the spine and muscles associated with it. Knowledge of appropriate boundaries and the individualness of this is also necessary. In one person the face might be the best place to start, in another the last. Refine your intuitive knowledge of the individual in terms of where might be the most lovely entry way to the massage for this person on this day.

The energetic aspect of the first dimension of touch has to do with conscious and intuitive decisions regarding how we touch the person. Do we use a lot of pressure or none at all? Do we bring a lot of energy into our hands or a modest amount? Do we touch with firmness, love, consolation, curiosity, etc.? The vastness of meaning conveyed by touch is daunting. Let us inhabit this vastness, enjoy the majestic and mysterious aspect of keeping the question open - how shall we meet?

Psycho - mechanics and the Organization of Awareness

Since energy follows awareness, the refining of the energetic aspect of basic contact involves the organization of awareness. For the first dimension, then, the question is not just where and how do you place your hand, but equally where do you place your consciousness? The Einstein of modern bodywork, Ida Rolf, spoke of many bodies as being "randomly" organized. Pointing out that children, for example, learn to walk by hook or crook, stumbling awkwardly across a room in search of the nearest grabable structure, she underscored the almost totally unmet need for movement education in our society. In massage school we attempt to address this need through the teaching of biomechanics, in which efficiency of posture and breath are emphasized. Accompanying biomechanics training, of course, is also the specific choreography of hand and body movements constituting the modality which the student is learning. (How beautiful a choreography it can be!) In our society and in our massage schools there is a yet deeper choreography that we can bring our attention to. This is the equally important choreography of awareness. In our regular schooling we are not taught directly how to think, nor how to access with alertness and curiosity the awareness of our own thoughts, movements, or feelings. People are left, as with the mostly non-existent movement education, to structure their awareness of themselves and the world around them with no systematic guidance. As a result, most of us grow up not just with "random" bodies, but also with "random" minds. Particularly under stress, people are often just reactive, on automatic, displaying about the level of psychic organization of your average pin ball machine. What are the steps then toward an appropriate choreography of awareness, a psycho-mechanics of massage? First of all we must literally and figuratively pay attention to the "matter at hand". This focused state may be described as "interface" (this terminology, by the way, is drawn from Zero Balancing). Working at interface involves the energy and structure of the therapist meeting with the energy and structure of the client. Generally, this meeting takes place where our hands, elbow or other part we are contacting with touches the body of the client. It may also be, as in the case of a stretch, where our force has the most impact. For instance, in a hamstring stretch, we are not usually touching the hamstrings directly but our structural and energetic impact will be experienced there. Interface is a more direct way of focusing during a massage than intention - since intention implies a cerebral directive. With interface, your attention is literally centered on the place and the moment where the two of you, client and therapist, bodily and consciously actually are meeting. The act of centering on interface itself is a radical organizing of consciousness. For, until we've centered on something, there is no point of reference around which our consciousness is organized. Without centering, we are like a body without gravity - floating with no reference point for up, down, forward, back. With a center, a home for our awareness, we can become aware of when we are focused and when we're not. As in meditation, then, where the awareness may be centered on one's breath at the tip of the nose, or on the hara just below the navel, healthy psychomechanics in bodywork involve working at the interface where our structures and energies meet. But, as in meditation, it is not the goal, nor is it truly possible, to remain unalterably centered at interface. As in meditation, your awareness may wander - at times to your movements, at others to your emotions, your thoughts or sensations. And, as in meditation, your job as a therapist is basically to bring your awareness back "home", to center. The role of home is not that we always stay there, but that it is a place to which we return. So frequently, during a session, we bring our wandering awareness back again and again to interface and so, bit by bit, our clients experience our commitment to be truly present with them, not just in body but in spirit as well. The psychomechanics of bodywork differ from meditation in this one very important respect - part of therapy involves conscious problem-solving. Therefore, the wandering of our awareness is more relevant and, at times, necessary. We need to be ready to access all of ourselves in order to be fully present. In the words of the French essayist, Jacques Riviere, "(the sincere man) stops at each level of himself and chooses what he needs to form his truth." For instance, I may be doing shoulder work and staying mostly at interface when I have the insight that the client's pain they described in their history may be more appropriately relieved through specific work on the supraspinatus than the general trapezius work I had planned. I then access my anatomical "data banks" visualizing the precise origin, route and insertion of supraspinatus. Then I bring myself from my mind, as quickly as gracefully as possible, back to interface and work there with heightened clarity and relevance, having accessed my knowledge. Similarly, I may bring my awareness to my emotions, when during a session I might feel, for example, anger. Is this my anger at a event earlier in the day, or am I "picking up" on the held-in anger of my client? If so, what might be the appropriate feeling content of my touch? Once I've sorted that out, I come back to interface and to a hopefully deepened, clearer emotional communication between myself and the client. During a session, I may also notice unnecessary tension creeping into my body or my breathing. People pick up not just on what we preach with our hands, but, perhaps more so, on what we practice with our whole bodies. It is vastly important to set a psychophysical example for one's client. Trying, for instance, to relieve shoulder pain without freedom in my own shoulders is therapeutically hypocritical. So I bring my awareness to my tension, let go, breathing, moving back now a freer person and returning gracefully to interface. There is such elegant integrity in modeling in our bodies/beings what we hope for our clients. That way as they get healthier, so do we. Finally during a session I may fall into the mistaken frame of reference that I am doing therapy to the passive client, that it's all up to me. In this case, we've created what Buber would call an I-it relationship. In order to restore the I-Thou, I access my spiritual sense, the knowledge that we are in a deep way connected in this world. Then I bring this acknowledged kinship- with-all-life feeling back to our interface. The delicate ballet of awareness in which we inhabit mostly interface, while circulating in appropriate ways through our mind, emotions, body, and spirit - this is the dance of therapy, the psychomechanics of bodywork.

Conclusion

In summary, we can look at therapy as beginning with this first dimension, basic contact. In this contact where we touch, how we touch, and how we organize our awareness is most of what creates the therapeutic effect. The belief that modalities are the source of our power as in "I hear that NMT is really good" or "What does Trager work do" is a widespread fallacy. In our market economy, many people try to sell you their product and try to convince you that you need it. The underlying social belief is - only what you don't yet have is worth having. The truth is the opposite. We already have everything we need. To paraphrase osteopathy's great founder, Andrew Taylor Still, you the therapist contain all the healing power you need. When one caring person touches another, healing (the experience of a new wholeness) takes place. Healing is in the nature of people getting together. We don't need modalities, we need each other. The power is in each one of us. Let us organize our awareness and touch and enjoy this incredible capacity to really meet one another. To paraphrase Martin Buber, "It is not the therapeutic intention but it is the meeting which is therapeutically fruitful." Touching with an appropriately organized body, mind, emotions and spirit is fruitful. It is creative and it is an honor to be in a profession where truly meeting is the point.

This and That about Costa Rica

I love Costa Rica! It is the best place on earth to open a study abroad Massage School.

Weird & wonderful facts about Costa Rica

The Tico guide for beginners

Costa Ricans are proud of their national identity. While on the surface they may seem similar to other Latin cultures, they actually have their own special idiosyncrasies.

Food & drink

• The first weird and wonderful fact is that Ticos (local slang for Costa Ricans) often give coffee to their babies and children!
• Great Costa Rican foods include: gallo pinto ("painted rooster"), which is rice mixed with black beans and often eggs;
  
  Olla carne, which is beef and rice in a delicious broth with many kinds of exotic root vegetables and chorreadas, sweet corn pancakes with sour cream.
• Traditional ice creams come in interesting flavours like wild blackberry, peanut, coconut, green mango and even sour cream.

People

• It might shock you to see a lot of Costa Ricans carrying around machetes. This common purpose tool is used for absolutely everything in rural areas and it should not worry you!
• Most adult Costa Ricans under 30 use the internet, and over 50,000 Costa Ricans use the social networking site hi5.com alone.
• The National Learning Institute (INA) provides free classes to Costa Ricans in all types of job skills, and many other organizations exist (e.g. IMAS or INS) to offer social welfare to poorer people. Somehow the country manages to provide these services while still maintaining taxes at a much lower rate than in the US!

Language

• Younger males often pepper their speech with the word " mae," which is derived from a word for "stupid." A typical statement might be, "Mae, mira que estos maes están jodiendo, mae." Literally, "Stupid, look how these stupid guys are bothering people, stupid."
• The government hopes to make English a "national second language," as in European countries. Over 100,000 Costa Ricans already work in jobs, such as in hotels or tech support call centres, where English is the main language.
• There is in fact a whole region of Costa Rica, the Atlantic province Limón, where English is a common language. This is thanks to the Jamaican ancestors of many Limonenses who settled there to work on the railroad and banana plantations. There are also large numbers of Nicaraguan immigrants and smaller populations of Colombians, Dominicans and others.

Getting around

• Nearly all Catholic churches in the country face west. This can be very handy as directions are usually given using compass directions, for example: "100 metres east of the university."
• Every town has its own plaza, or little park, in front of a Catholic church. Bigger cities have many such parks, and in most towns a soccer field is close by.
• There are usually no street names in Costa Rica so people get used to giving directions in relation to landmarks. In rural areas people will describe their official, legal address in ways such as "pink house just north of the big tree," or even "200 metres south of where the cow is tied up."

Trivia

• At 7am every morning, all Costa Rican radio stations play the national anthem. Many also play it again at night.
• The preferred music of older Costa Ricans is Cumbia. Younger Costa Ricans often favor Reggaetón dance tunes, although there are a great variety of tastes represented.
• Costa Ricans have a fondness for 80s action movies. Films starring Chuck Norris or Jean-Claude Van Damme get frequent showing on local TV.
• On Costa Rica's various patriotic days, young schoolboys dress up with traditional hats, shirts, red scarves and painted on moustaches. Girls sport traditional braids and coloured skirts. Oxen are also featured prominently.
• Costa Rica ranks at the top of lists for the world's best surfing, sports-fishing, dive spots and great mountain hiking. Costa Rica is considered the top spot for expat retirement, but the relocation process can be confusing.

By Paul Marin
Monte Alto Real Estate Company:www.montealtorealestate.com
At Monte Alto Real Estate we do all the paperwork, all you need to do is choose your favourite property. Our new residential project offers premium properties at below market prices.

Skeletons

Today was the day to get the skeletons out of the closet and dust them off and prepare them for classes next week. As you can see Fred is a very friendly skeleton, especially for a guy that is cut in half!

Massage Class

We will be setting up the new web site this weekend, woot woo, the best one yet.

New Room

We have been renovating the school room and it is looking great. I am very excited to see it when we get done. We have made many modifications since our last session, because we were able to see what we needed to change. It will be perfect when we get it done, just in time for the Costa Rica summer, or dry season.

Shoulders

I found this article in Massage magazine article archives and thought it was great. Because we teach "Integrative Massage", we try to target specific areas to be worked on and use as many different "tools" from our toolbox to try to help our clients.

Research: Soft-tissue massage for shoulder pain

Soft-tissue massage improved range of motion, reduced pain and improved function in people with shoulder pain, according to a research study.

“A trial into the effectiveness of soft tissue massage in the treatment of shoulder pain” was conducted by staff at Auburn Hospital and Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Sydney, Australia.

Twenty-nine subjects who had been referred to the Concord hospital for management of shoulder pain participated in the study. Their medical diagnoses varied, but impingement, rotator-cuff tear and unspecified shoulder pain were the most common diagnoses.

Fourteen of the participants were randomly assigned to the control group, where they were placed on a waiting list for massage and received no treatment for two weeks.

Fifteen of the participants were randomly assigned to the massage group, where they received six sessions of soft-tissue massage around the shoulder for two weeks. The massage included the lateral border of the scapula, in full shoulder flexion; posterior deltoid, at end-of-range horizontal flexion; anterior deltoid, at end-of-range hand-behind-back; and pectoralis major, in the stretch position. Each session lasted 15-20 minutes.

Active range of motion was evaluated for flexion, abduction and hand-behind-back movements before and after the study. Pain was assessed on the Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire, and functional ability was assessed with the Patient Specific Functional Disability Measure, both before and after the study period.

Subjects in the control group showed no significant improvements from the beginning to the end of the two-week period. Subjects in the massage group showed significant improvements in all measures, with a mean improvement of 22.6 degrees in flexion; 42.2 degrees in abduction; and the ability to reach a mean of 11 centimeters further up the back. Subjects in the massage group also reported decreased pain and improved function.

“This randomized, controlled trial has shown that soft tissue massage around the shoulder in subjects with shoulder pain of local mechanical origin produces significantly greater improvements in pain, function and range of motion than does no treatment over a two-week period,” state the study’s authors.

“The fact that these patients improved with such a wide range of diagnoses points to the potential generalisability of the effects of this massage in patients with shoulder pain of local mechanical origin.”

—Source: Auburn Hospital and Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Sydney, Australia. Authors: Paul A. van den Dolder and David L. Roberts. Originally published in the Australian Journal of Physiotherapy 2003, Vol. 49, pp. 183-188.

This article originally appeared in Massage Magazine, (800) 872-1282; www.massagemag.com.

Home Stay

I am convinced our home stay program is one of the best things about coming to Costa Rica to study massage. I found this article on home stays and could sure relate to it. We have the best home stay coordinator, being a home stay mom for over ten years, and she loves to share with our students.

1) Appreciate

Be sure to express your appreciation for your host family’s hospitality at every opportunity.

Be sure to express your appreciation for your host family’s hospitality at every opportunity.

Sincere smiles and profuse thanks go a long way towards smoothing out early interactions, and the more you consciously and visibly appreciate what your host family does for you, the more they will be inclined to create and share fun experiences with you in the future.

Good times are contagious, and a positive outlook can go a long way.

2) Relax

Stress is also contagious, and the beginning of a home-stay will definitely be a high stress time for everyone involved.

Make a conscious effort to relax, smile and be at ease around your host family, and they will relax in turn.

3) Immerse

The most successful home stays, like the most effective language study programs, are fully immersive.

Although you might be tempted to hang out with people from your home country from time to time, make the effort to totally commit yourself to the local culture instead.

You might find that homesickness and culture shock pass quickly without a fellow traveler around to remind you of home.

4) Laugh

Don’t take yourself too seriously!

No one will expect you to have mastered every cultural intricacy as soon as you arrive, so if you botch an introduction or mistakenly pour the salad dressing into your soup, just laugh about your mistake.

Nothing breaks down cultural barriers like a mutual gigglefest.

5) Respect

Maintain a respectful attitude, especially when interacting with older people.

Constantly give attention to how your actions and demeanor impact other members of the household, and strive to model culturally appropriate behavior at all times.

6) Gift

Never arrive for a home-stay empty-handed, and make an effort to acknowledge host family milestones with a culturally appropriate gift.

The best gifts are those with a connection to your home culture, such as a local handicraft or regional delicacy.

For example, as a Vermonter, I always travel with maple sugar candies.

7) Ask

If you’re unsure about something, just ask!

Even if you don’t share a common language with your host family, a simple question like how to bathe will be easy for them to answer.

Be proactive and cheerful about your questions and needs.

8 ) Chill

Travel is often a high-energy activity, but home stays are different. Don’t expect your host family to constantly entertain you.

Instead, take the opportunity to chill out and observe the daily rhythms of the household and community.

9) Risk

Take chances, and try things you might not attempt at home. Try cooking a meal for your host family, or sing a song at the local festival.

Even if you aren’t a chef or a singer, making the effort to step outside your comfort zone and attempt something new is a great recipe for personal growth – and your host family will appreciate the effort.

10) Remember

Keep in touch with your host family after you return home. A thank you note is the bare minimum.

Share photos, exchange New Years cards and really make the effort to maintain your friendship.

A deep and enduring international friendship is one of the most valuable things in life. With luck, your home stay will be just the beginning of a warm and lasting relationship.

Monte de la Cruz

We spent the day in Monte de la Cruz. Always a favorite with our students it is a cool place to see.

Monte De La Cruz- Costa Rica

How to get to Monte De La Cruz, Costa Rica

If you grow weary of the hassles, pollution, and grit of San Jose or Heredia, Costa Rica and want to go for a nice walk in the countryside, you can take a bus and within thirty minutes be in the mountains. Monte De La Cruz is simply a nice way to quickly shed the frustration of the city life below and just relax in the clouds. Fields, horse riding trails, waterfalls, and mountains are all at Monte de la Cruz.

This is the sign that you get off of the bus near. It shows the way to Cerro Redondo and is not difficult to locate.

Directions to Monte De La Cruz:

Option A: Take a local bus from San Jose or Heredia to San Rafael. The local buses will have the name of the place that they are going to clearly written on their fronts. Just find a bus going to San Rafael and get in. This bus trip should cost around 300 Colones.

From San Rafael take another bus to Monte De La Cruz. You can catch this bus next to the big yellow church. This church is a landmark, you can not miss it. San Rafael is not a big town, you will be able to navigate through it easily. The cost of this ride should be around 200 Colones.

Option B: Take a bus from Heredia directly to Monte De Le Cruz. This bus stops next to the National University. There is only one main street that goes by this university, so just ask for directions to it and you can find a bus stop. These buses come every hour and are bright purple and have Monte De La Cruz written on its front. The cost of this trim is only around 350 Colones You can also take a bus from the university to San Rafael and then go on to Monte De La Cruz from there.

After you get a bus that is going to Monte De La Cruz you ride it until you get up into the mountains. You can get off of the bus when you come to the sign that is photographed above which is at a fork in the road. The sign below is at the fork. It is not difficult to locate, and the bus usually stops here to pick up passengers anyway.

Once you get off of the bus you can either follow the sign and hike up to Cerro Redondo or to a waterfall and nice hiking trails on the opposite side of the road. To go to the water fall, walk back along the road for 100m and cross through an opening in the fence and walk by some cows and horses until you get to the river. There is a bridge that crosses the river and below it is the waterfall. There are also plenty of hiking trails that go through here.

Monte De La Cruz is a really beautiful way to escape from the less than charming cities San Jose and Heredia. When in Costa Rica, this makes a good little day trip. You can get there, have a picnic and be back in the city in two hours. Monte De La Cruz is beautiful.

If you have any more information on this part of Costa Rica please comment below.

This is the sign that is at the fork in the road where you get off the bus. Just pull the string to let the driver know that you want to get out.

Costa Rican cows in the agricultural pasture that you walk through to get to the waterfall and the forest.

The river near the waterfall. This is a great place to hike in Costa Rica and it is very close to San Jose Get out of the city and come here.

Wade from Song of the Open Road Travel Blog
Heredia, Costa Rica
January 26, 2008

For more photographs of Costa Rica pleas go to Traveler Photographs.com

World Travel

One of our graduates travels around the world as a stewardess on private yachts. She also does massage all around the world. Another big plus for being a massage therapist, it goes everywhere with you, as long as you take your hands that is.

Visit Today

Visiting the last Paradise on Earth - Costa Rica
I've been traveling and writing about places I believe others would love to visit, to unwind from their busy and hectic schedules. Most recently I visited Costa Rica, a place which can be best described as one of the last paradises on earth. The last paradise on Earth?

Certainly, Costa Rica is one of the ultimate destinations and not just for vacationers. This small country of 50,000 square kilometers between the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean is about the same size as Switzerland. Not only ecotourists and retirees praise it for its abundant fauna & flora - the country has no military, no nuclear power plants, the highest literacy rate in North America, no winter and lots of culture.

Whether you want to go adventure touring, honeymooning, or hiking, surfing or rafting - Costa Rica has everything to offer.

Adventure Tours, Honeymoon Packages, & Nature Hikes
Relax and dream about Costa Rica. You have many options like guided mountain tours, the best birdwatching in the world, rainforest canopy tours, whitewater rafting, wind surfing, fly fishing tours etcetera.
Enjoy your wedding and/or honeymoon with one of the many available Honeymoon Packages. See interesting places like Tortuguero, Drake Bay, Corcovado, Puerto Viejo Sarapiquí and Cahuita at the Caribbean Coast or Playa Flamingo, Gulf of Papagayo, Playa Hermosa, Potrero, Conchal, Tamarindo or Langosta at the Northern Pacific.

--- Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica - "Region of the Turtles" --- The small village of Tortuguero (translated as "Region of Turtles") lies on the northeastern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, approximately 50 miles north of the principal Port of Limon.
The region surrounding Tortuguero is called the Tortuguero Plain, which is a vast low lying area of little topographic relief still covered by a large expanse of tropical rainforest.

--- Drake Bay - MANGROVE AND BIRD ISLAND TOURS ---
Drake Bay is one of the most remote and natural settings that tourists will encounter in Costa Rica. The abundance of wildlife, (particularly birds), combined with great accomodations and friendly people make this one of the most spectacular and memorable places to visit.
This is truly an outdoor lover's paradise. Hiking, fishing, scuba diving, snorkeling, sea kayaking, and sunbathing are just some of the many outdoor activities here.

--- Playa Conchal ---
Located 2 kms from Playa Brasilito, Playa Brasilito and Conchal make up a unit seperated by the rock headlands of Punta Conchal. Its name is derived that the sand is made up of millions of cruched shells that constitute a rare environment. along the 1,5 km long beach, manzanillo-, madero negro-, brasil-, and some ear trees can be observed. The beaches are drenched in sunshine, this being one of their most valued attractions.

And many more…

For Travellers:
In this Central American paradise you will find what you are looking for. If coming for the first time, learn the entry requirements from consulates, embassies and travel agencies.

Costa Rica Climate and Weather
Don't worry about the weather! Costa Rica offers the best climate in the world. Like many tropical countries, Costa Rica experiences two seasons, wet and dry, rather than the four seasons of temperate regions. The dry season verano (summer) lasts from about December to April. The rest of the year tends to be wet and is called invierno (winter).
Here you can find the so called Green Season, when it usually rains in the afternoon, leaving the rest of the day for you to enjoy the outdoors. Even during rainy season there is a daily average of 5 hours sunshine.

Some hotels, tour operators, and car rental outfits offer green season (May-November) discounts.

At the end of your stay, you will be fascinated with this country of endless beauty! Here a list of what awaits you: Flora and Fauna Tours, National Parks, Volcanoes, Rainforests, Dry Tropical and Cloud Forests, Wilderness Lodges, Surfing, Wind Surfing on Lake Arenal, one of the world's top five wind surfing spots, Deep Sea and Inshore Fishing (Sailfish, Marlin, Roosterfish, Mahi-Mahi, Yellow-fin Tuna, Grouper Tarpon and Wahoo), Freshwater Fishing for local rainbow bass, Scubadiving, Snorkelling, Whitewater rafting, Canopy Tree-top rides, Arial Trams, Sky-walks on Hanging Bridges or Souvenir shopping in one of the popular craft towns.

All the information you need on Costa Rica can be found on the web site, www.1-CostaRicaLink.com

Have a pleasant stay in one of the last paradises on Earth!

Thanks
Lucky

Sounds like the best place for a massage school ha? That is what we thought too :)

Sometimes there is no replacement for a good old fashioned Swedish Massage! When the students at our massage school begin clinicals they have been well trained in Swedish Massage. The clients that frequent our clinic have come to appreciate the massages they give them. Relaxing is the biggest compliment our students receive.

Swedish Massage

Therapeutic massage has been a popular form of health treatment for ages. While there are many styles of massage therapy, Swedish massage is the standard of massage treatment offered in spas and sports facilities all over the country. Swedish massage can help to relax, rejuvenate, and nurture your mind and body.

What is Swedish Massage?

One of the most popular styles of massage available today is Swedish massage. In 1812 at the University of Stockholm, a Swedish physiologist named Pehr Henrik Ling created the foundation of this style of treatment to promote health by increasing blood circulation and stimulating the body’s healing abilities. It is now known that Ling’s greatest influence came from a Chinese friend who was a master of Martial Arts and Chinese Tui Na massage. While this influence of Chinese Tui Na massage therapy is evident in Swedish massage techniques, the direct lineage is rarely mentioned. A Dutch practitioner named Johan Georg Mezger later developed a reduced set of Ling’s techniques to form our modern style of Swedish massage; it is Mezger who adopted the French names commonly used to denote the basic strokes.

Swedish massage is the most common style of massage in the Western world. It is a full body massage, and is performed on a nude client who is draped with a sheet to provide covering. Oil, cream, or lotion is applied to the skin to reduce friction and allow the smooth strokes that are characteristic of Swedish massage. Essential oils may be combined with massage oils to create an additional aromatherapy affect during the treatment.

What are the Techniques of Swedish Massage?

There are five main techniques used in Swedish massage:

• Effleurage: these are long guiding strokes over the surface of the body, used to warm up the body before deeper techniques are utilized. When massaging the limbs, the strokes are made toward the torso to help guide blood back to the heart. This is the most relaxing technique of Swedish massage.
• Petrissage: these are kneading motions that tenderize muscles with rolling and squeezing movements. This technique can be useful for extracting toxins trapped within muscles and other soft tissue by enhancing circulation deep within the muscles.
• Friction: deep pressure concentrated on single fingers or a thumb and used in a transverse or circular movement to break apart adhesions between muscle fibers.
• Tapotement: rhythmic percussive techniques used to relax muscles that are in spasm. There are many different hand shapes used in this invigorating technique over the entire body.
• Vibration: oscillatory shaking movements applied to the limbs or an organ that reverberates through the entire body to loosen adhered joints and muscles.

Most massage therapists incorporate a variety of technique into their massage sessions. This expansion has lead to several derivatives of Swedish massage, most importantly sports massage. Sports or deep tissue massage uses slower stokes with stronger pressure to manipulate deeper layers of tissues within the body. These techniques are often less comfortable than the standard Swedish movements. However, positive therapeutic results can be achieved with these techniques by breaking up scar tissue and adhesions in muscles and connective tissues.

Benefits of Swedish Massage

Swedish massage can be very beneficial for the mind and body:

• Swedish massage promotes relaxation: The soft flowing movements of Swedish massage can gently guide your mind and body into a state of deep relaxation, stripping away levels of tension and agitation from your mind. These changes to your mental state can help you better manage stress, fatigue, anxiety, and depression.
• Swedish massage relieves muscular tension, stiffness, and pain: Whether from neglect or overuse, Swedish massage can relieve muscular discomfort. This improved muscle tone will allow greater flexibility, improved athletic performance, and faster healing of injuries.
• Swedish massage improves circulation: The better your blood flows through its vessels, the better your body functions. Improved circulation from Swedish massage can assist in the healing of injuries, the removal of toxins from your muscles, and clearing up swelling or edema in the limbs.
• Swedish massage improves your immune system: The combined effect of decreased stress and muscular tension with efficient blood circulation is a stronger immune system. The additional stimulation upon the skin by the flowing techniques of Swedish massage stimulates the skin’s natural resistances to infection.

Swedish massage can be a method for both relaxation and improving your health. Seek a properly trained massage therapist to experience a revitalized mind and body today!

(This article was taken from alt MD, Smart Alternatives.)

Osa Peninsula

One of our directors spent two months in the Osa Peninsula teaching yoga classes and doing massages. The Osa is a beautiful and very remote place, and for the first few weeks he enjoyed it. Having to worry about stepping on or having a snake fall on you gets nerve racking after awhile.

Travels in Geology: The Osa Peninsula — a different side of Costa Rica

“PURA VIDA!” large block letters proclaimed as I ducked in from a late afternoon downpour into the terminal at San Jose International Airport. Above my head rose a three-story rainforest mural, topped with exuberant cardboard faces pointing to fake wildlife from a wooden gondola. I had just arrived in the Disneyland of ecotourism: Costa Rica.

The beaches on Osa are truly a paradise — but bull sharks, deadly snakes and strong currents make swimming risky.

Nate Burgess

Even if you don't see a tapir in Corcovado National Park, you might happen upon its tracks.

Nate Burgess

If you plan to hike into Corcovado National Park by beach, watch out for high tide. The rugged, uplifted coastline has several jagged points that can leave you stranded.

Nate Burgess

Hatching is tough for baby sea turtles. This little hatchling was already dead on the beach when found — it apparently got lost on its way to the ocean and dried out in the hot tropical sun.

Nate Burgess

The jungles of Osa are filled with many unusual plants and animals. Bet you haven't seen a tree do this before.

Nate Burgess

These skulls at a Corcovado ranger station show the astonishing diversity of creatures in the area. (Those aren't human skulls - they're monkeys.)

Nate Burgess

As Central America’s most popular tourist destination, Costa Rica draws millions of visitors each year. Tour buses in the Central Valley zip along hairpin turns, bringing eager families to coffee plantations, plunging waterfalls, active volcanoes, botanical gardens and canopy tours. Sun-bleached 20-somethings flock to Costa Rica’s famous surfing beaches. More idealistic (or cash-strapped) visitors often volunteer to do short-term environmental internships with groups such as the Student Conservation Association or — in my case — the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle (“WIDECAST”) program.

I was headed for a two-week stint saving sea turtles on the beaches near Carate on the Osa Peninsula, one of Costa Rica’s more remote and undeveloped areas. This volunteer experience was my ticket to experience the spectacular biology and geology of one of Costa Rica’s most unique regions.

The Osa Peninsula is a strip of land between the Gulf of Dulce and the Pacific Ocean in the far southwestern corner of the country. Corcovado National Park, a large area of preserved rainforest at the core of Osa, is world-famous for its biology, containing the highest levels of biodiversity north of the Amazon. Visitors can expect to see a canopy and understory filled with macaws, monkeys and a rainbow assortment of frogs and lizards. If you’re lucky, you may stumble across a tapir or native jaguar — two of the rainforest’s more elusive inhabitants. The dark sands around Corcovado National Park also provide nesting sites for thousands of olive ridley, greenback and hawksbill sea turtles each year.

Beneath this rich veneer of life, local geology is quite stunning. The peninsula is a historically rising and falling landmass that represents one of the more recent additions to the Central American isthmus, having last emerged from the Pacific Ocean about 2 million years ago. Adjacent to an active subduction zone, Osa continues to experience some of the highest uplift rates in the world. Rivers and waterfalls flowing out into the Pacific Ocean cut dramatic channels through rising upland areas, seaside cliffs and black-sand beaches.

Osa is also famous for its gold deposits. In fact, the panning industry was one of the few forces driving expansion of the tiny regional economy in the 1930s and again in the 1970s and 1980s. I met several colorful characters that arrived on the wave of the most recent gold rush during my stay. One man — the director of the collective transportation service between the towns of Puerto Jimenez and Corcovado — described to me how he was a religion professor from Harvard who had lost his tenure and decided to move to Osa. Though I am still incredulous, he did talk a lot about the synoptic gospels for an average gringo jungle-dweller. Unfortunately, illegal mining and panning practices within Corcovado National Park have also created ongoing environmental problems.

Even if you aren’t enticed by the lure of gold, the mélange lithology of the area makes for some great rock collecting. Cobbles of limestone, sandstone, and assorted igneous rocks abound in streams and beach debris. My backpack became about 25 percent heavier from rock collecting alone.

One downside to the rugged, uplifted landscape is major inefficiency getting around. Costa Rica is only about the size of West Virginia. However, traveling by bus from the capital city of San Jose to Osa took me more than 10 hours — with only one bathroom stop! Considering the trouble, I recommend spending the extra money (about $150) for a one-hour Sansa or Nature Air flight from San Jose to Puerto Jimenez. After spending the night in the town of Puerto Jimenez, I hopped on a truck rigged with massive river-fording tires — the cheapest and most efficient transportation in the region — for a 3-hour ride to Carate and Corcovado.

As a final note, while the ocean is certainly alluring, Osa is not a swimming or surfing destination. Strong tides, deadly snakes, bull sharks and crocodiles all pose significant threats. Moreover, the absence of reliable electronic communication and ground transportation makes your prospects grim in the case of an emergency.

Despite the risks associated with a rainforest experience, Osa is definitely worth the trip. A remote and dynamic terrain of coconut palms and waterfalls, ocean cliffs and active ocean trenches, gold panners and breathtaking wildlife, Osa presents a refreshingly untouched side of Costa Rica.

Nate Burgess

Burgess is a contributing writer to EARTH.

Originally Posted: 17 Feb 2009

NEVER OUT OF WORK

Did you know that as a massage therapist you would never be out of work? Just where and to whom would they outsource massage to? A robot or what? And they could not outsource your job to another country, now that would not work very well would it? I believe it is a good time for anyone to go to massage school and begin their new career!

SPORTS MASSAGE THERAPIST

The joys of massage are multiplied when you get to unpuzzle problems athletes are having with their bodies. We like to give the students a "challenge" when we are working on sports massage and see if they can figure out what might be going on with their client. This article gives a great description of Sports Massage and what it involves.

Sports Massage - Why Become a Sports Massage Therapist?

Become a sports massage therapist and help athletes reach optimal performance.

Check out this Sports Massage Video

Serious athletes will go to extreme measures to insure that they can perform to the highest standards and meet the challenges of competitions. Workouts, proper nutrition and great coaching can all be wasted if an injury sidelines a player. By engaging a skilled sports massage therapist, individuals and sports teams are making an investment in the health of their athletes.

Pursuing a career as a sports massage therapist will allow an individual to become an important part in the success of individuals and institutions. Look on the sidelines during any college or pro football game and you will see a trainer working on players to keep them limber and fit. This activity doesn't just happen during a competition. Keeping muscles fit with massage therapy is crucial to preventing injury and maintaining peak performance levels.

Maintaining a high level of fitness requires a lot of work and can present some challenging obstacles. Muscle strains, pulls and aches commonly occur for professional and amateur athletes alike. A sports massage therapist can help reduce the frequency and severity of these ailments. And that's just the start of the benefits.

Extensive training can lead to muscles that are rigid and lack flexibility. These muscles may look terrific but they are susceptible to injury and may hamper performance. A well-trained sports massage therapist can detect irregularities and, by employing appropriate techniques, help to restore flexibility and elasticity to muscles and lessen the stresses that can cause problems.
When muscles are tight circulation is constricted and when blood is not reaching all areas of the muscle properly the tissues are missing out on vital nutrients that are essential for muscle repair. By using massage to loosen muscles waste and toxins are eliminated from the tissues where they could otherwise build up and cause damage.

Incorporating Sports Massage into Fitness Programs

By incorporating a sports massage therapist into an overall fitness program, athletes can insure that muscles remain supple and healthy thus insuring the maximum effectiveness during training and top performance during competition. Regular massage during training is essentially a maintenance program and helps insure that optimal results are achieved during training by promoting flexibility and avoiding debilitating injuries.

Sports massage can be a crucial component during a specific athletic event. A brief massage session prior to an event will increase the blood flow to the muscles and reduce tension. This will improve flexibility and performance. Massage applied during a sporting event can address any tightness or cramping that may occur and promote recovery from prior activity. After the event, massage helps the athlete to relax and assists in the repair of tissues slightly damaged during the event.

Even with all of the preventive measures taken to avoid muscle damage, it is inevitable that extreme levels of activity will result in aches, cramps strains and pulls. Sports massage is an excellent method for rehabilitating damaged muscles and insuring that training is not disrupted due to severe injuries.

Benefits of Sports Massage

One thing is certain, building a relationship with a sports massage therapist will be of great benefit to an athlete or anyone else interested in maintaining good physical conditioning. A massage therapist that is familiar with your routines, your goals and the tendencies of your muscular system will be able to help you stay fit and perform effectively. By pursuing a career as a sports massage therapist, you can be part of a winning team and a key contributor to a healthy and competitive future.

NEW LOGO

Our new super marketer is on the move. We have finally gotten our new logo completed and are about to post our new web site! To say I should have done this three years ago is an understatement that I will just leave to another day.

When we opened the school we knew we had the best program out there. What we did not know, I mean absolutely nothing about, was marketing. In other words, sure we have the best massage therapy program going, but if people can't hear about it it is for naught.

Enter our new marketer. She has done this for years and took right off with the school. She had great ideas and improvements that our students will benefit from for years to come. Hopefully the word will get out about the best kept secret in Costa Rica, there is the premier massage school hidden in the hills of Central Costa Rica!

RESPECT NATURE

If there is any lesson we have learned living in Costa Rica it is respect nature. We have seen time and time again people come here and think they are at a theme park or something. It is hard for them to imagine that there is no one there to pull them out or anything. This is a second world country and you are pretty much on your own here. You must be responsible for you! When our students head to the beach or any other adventure we always council them to be careful, watch yourself and watch your back. That is life in the jungle and it should be remembered and respected, or the following article tells what can happen. It is pura vida, just act responsibly.

Father and son from U.S.
reported victims in surf

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Two U.S. citizens, father and son, became trapped in the surf at Parrita Sunday morning. The son died and the father was missing.
The Fuerza Pública said it joined a search with the Cruz Roja for the father, whose age was given as 85. The police said they received the alert at 10:15 a.m.

Both men are believed to be named Campbell, but the Fuerza Pública has no additional identification.

Police said the two men were swimming near the Super Sol in Parrita Centro when the mishap took place.

The U.S. State Department reports that from 12 to 14 U.S. citizens died in water accidents in Costa Rica every year.

COSTA RICA EXTREME FOODS

I have not personally tried any of the following foods, but Rick loves chicherones. Other than that don't really plan on trying any of them either. Many of our students have tried one or more and did not take any home, if that tells you anything.

What NOT to Eat in Costa Rica

• by Stephanie Casanova
• 03.10.09
• 11:29 AM GMT+8

• Filed in Costa Rica

Costa Rican locals have grown up with a variety of different dishes, some of which North Americans might find odd. For those tourists who are travelling to Costa Rica and have a queasy stomach or do not enjoy tasting new cuisines, here is our list of Costa Rica’s top five less-than-popular culinary oddities.

#5) Chicharrones (fried pig skin): These hot, salty and oily snacks do not seem odd at first glance, however it can be difficult to eat the skin of a pig knowing it was rolling around in its own filth before being fed to you. Fried pig skin in Costa Rica looks like a large pork-flavoured potato chip, however it tastes and feels more like a greasy slab of pork-flavoured fat.

#4) Vino de palma (palm wine): Palm wine is the fermented sap of the “palma de corozo” tree, and too much of it will give you a burning sensation, induce temporary blindness, and kill more than a few million brain cells- not to mention give you one of the worst hangovers of your life!

#3) Ceviche de pulpo (octopus ceviche): Sushi and seafood lovers may disagree, however it may take a moment of mental preparation to put this raw octopus in your mouth. It has a rubber texture and is fairly tough to chew, and the slimy feel of it sliding down your throat will likely give you the shivers.

#2) Huevos de tortugas (turtle eggs): Although turtle eggs are believed to increase virility and make you better in bed, it is simply ethically wrong to eat the eggs of endangered sea turtles. It is very rare to see turtle eggs on a menu; however the taste of species extinction and environmental insensitivity will haunt you with every bite!

#1) Mondongo (tripe soup): This hot, steamy bowl of boiled intestines is certainly not for the average tourist. If you can forget about what you are eating and where it has been, the chewy, stringy, spongy texture will likely remind you and you might end up tasting it twice!

You will very seldom find these items on a typical menu, however if you come across them make sure to read the description before ordering!

~Stephanie Casanova

Arenal Volcano

Arenal Volcano National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Volcán Arenal) is a Costa Rican national park in the central part of the country, forming the Arenal Tilaran Conservation Area. The park encompasses the Arenal Volcano, the most active in the country, which had previously been believed to be dormant until a major eruption in 1968. It neighbours Lake Arenal, which is the site of the country's largest hydroelectricity project, the Lake Arenal Dam.

The park also contains a second volcano, Chato, whose crater contains a lagoon. It is also called Cerro Chato (literally Mount Chato) as it has been inactive for around 3500 years–coinciding with the creation and growth of Arenal itself. The site has accommodation in the form of the Arenal Observatory Lodge and also the Museum of Vulcanicity, as well as a ranger station.

The park lies within the 2,040 square kilometres (790 sq mi) Arenal Tilaran Conservation Area, protecting eight of Costa Rica's 12 life zones and 16 protected reserves in the region between the Guanacaste and Tilarán mountain ranges, and including Lake Arenal. The park is most directly accessed from La Fortuna, but is also easily accessed via Tilarán and the north shore of Lake Arenal.

We love visiting Fortuna and take our students to visit on one of our weekend trips.

SLOTHS

In researching before opening our school in Costa Rica we relied on many articles like the following. It convinced us the was the place for us to open our massage school!

From Sloth Watching to Orchid Sniffing: A Real Cool Job

Okay, now that we’re up here what am I supposed to take pictures of. I mean, why did you bring me up here anyway. I suppose you want me to shoot photos of leaves and sky and who knows what else,” ranted Philip. In a few short hours I had come to realize that my client was mostly bluster and jest and his critical manner not really at a sign of displeasure.The incident described above took place back in the days when half the people in Dominical had never heard of Internet, and those who had weren’t quite sure what it was all about. For me it was something out of science fiction, but I had an inkling that it would one day be very important. Phillip was designing what may have been the first Internet travel guide, and for that he needed photos.

Phillip was a large man, well over 100 kilos (220 Lbs.,) a marked contrast to his girlfriend, Michele, about half that size. As far as I could discern Michele’s primary function was that of camera bearer, which wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. His photographer’s backpack contained four state-or-the-art cameras, eight lenses, 150 rolls of film -- digital cameras were little more than a fantasy back then -- and weighed in at approximately 35 kilos (77 Lb.) Tiny Michele handled the task admirably.“Oh come on Phillip,” I began, searching for words. “Don’t you feel the magic of the canopy? I mean we’re as high of the ground as a 12 story building. Until a few years ago this entire ecosystem was virtually unknown to science. Don’t you feel anything? I mean it’s so different. On the ground your reality is only a hemisphere; up here it is a sphere.” I knew I was rambling, but I couldn’t think of anything clever.Phillip let out a big sigh. “You expect me to photograph feelings?” he queried with a smirk.

That was the moment when I saw it, and an instant later so did Michele. Phillip was railing on about needing subject matter for photos. Michele lifted her hand, pointed and opened her mouth, but no sound came out. I prepared my next words carefully all the time telling myself: “Don’t blow it Jack. You only get a chance like this once in a lifetime.”From Michele’s strange stance, Phillip deduced that something was up. He lapsed into silence. I went for the kill. “Well, I don’t know Phillip. What do you have in mind?” I began as casually as I could muster. “Will that sloth do, the one just over your shoulder? Maybe Michele could hug it while you take her photo. Can you put that on your Hinternet or Interjet or whatever you call that star wars stuff you work with?”

I never saw a large man pivot so quickly. Eyes glued to the sloth he snapped orders to Michele: “Canon 5680 (or whatever it was,) 70 mm lens.” He held out his hand. Seconds later, with all the effeciency of a dental assistant, she slapped a fully loaded and assembled camera into his palm, ready to shoot. And shoot he did. The sloth worked its way out onto a branch, Phillip shouted an order, a different camera landed firmly in his hand as the first was retreived. Phillip never took his eyes off the sloth. Three rolls of film later, he was still snapping away. Not surprisingly, he didn’t notice when five fiery-billed aracaries (small toucans) had landed in the tree. This time Michele didn’t trust her voice, she poked him in the ribs and pointed.

Reluctantly he removed his gaze from the sloth and contemplated the toucans; a brief moment of hesitation, another shouted order and, like magic, another camera appeared.

I spent two more days with Phillip Greenspun and Michele, all of it memorable, but that experience in the canopy is an afternoon I will never forget.
Guiding ecological tourists is the most thoroughly enjoyable occupation I can imagine. It is a really cool job. It is like getting paid to have fun, and I often find myself enjoying the tour as much or more than the tourists. Of course there is lots of effort that isn’t always evident to the visitors, but the act of guiding and teaching about the rainforest is so gratifying that the all the extra work is soon forgotten. This is in large part due to the fact that ecological tourists tend to be some of the nicest people on earth. They come here to see and learn and take away only their memories.

Even after sixteen years experience as an ecological tour guide, I don’t consider myself to be really good at it. Granted I can show you a sloth like Phillip and Michele’s that practically taps you on the shoulder and says “Hey man, look, here I am.” I can take you to a tree that is too big to hug. And, I can get you 40 meters (130 feet) up into the canopy and back down, all in one piece. But I have great difficulty finding a sloth that doesn’t care to be found. For that you need a top ecotourism guide, one who grew up in the rainforest. We have six at Hacienda Barú National Wildlife Refuge, Danny, Deiner, Freddy, Juan, Pedro and Ronald, and I take my hat off to them. I’ve lived at Hacienda Barú for 34 years but I still see twice as much wildlife when I go out walking with one of these guys.

I’ve come to appreciate that the difference is not in visual acuity, but has more to do with image enhancement. “See that sloth over on the far side of that tree,” said Juan casually, not bothering to lift his binoculars. His finger indicated a gray mass located at a point where two branches crossed.
I raised my binoculars. “I don’t think we’re looking at the same thing.” I replied.

“Yes we are,” he assured. “You’re looking in the right place. Look again.”
I did. “Juan, my friend, I think you’ve finally gotten one wrong.” I was still peering through my binoculars. “That is nothing more than a bunch of dry leaves. Look at it with your binoculars.”

Juan smiled patiently. “You know,” he mused, “I’ve never been able to understand why you confuse sloths with dry leaves. Sloths are living, furry mammals. Dry leaves are dead pieces of trees. What?s similar about them?”
“Well ... they’re both gray,” I offered lamely.

“There,” he pointed, “look again. You ever see a bunch of dead leaves scratch its head?”

I knew I’d been beaten, but I raised my binoculars anyway, had a look, then turned and gave Juan an apologetic shrug. “Sorry buddy. Let’s just pretend I never said a thing. Okay?”

Juan’s eyes and mine record the same visual signals and transmit the same information to the optical nerve. The difference is in the brain. His brain enhances the image into a male three-toed sloth, complete with wavy hair, and mine into an unidentified gray mass that is probably dried leaves. That doesn’t mean I haven’t gotten better at spotting sloths; I have. But I don’t even play in the same league as these guys.

Not all signals are visual; all of our senses give us clues about our surroundings. Once, while walking through the jungle with a small group of visitors, an image popped into my mind. Some of you older readers may remember when the words “drugstore” and “soda fountain” were nearly sinonimous. Back in those days, while you were waiting for the pharmacist to measure out your prescription and type up the label, you sat down at the soda fountain and had a cool drink. They had malted milks, strawberry sundaes, chocolate bananas, flavored cokes and all kinds of neat stuff. Lime cokes were my favorite, but my sister prefered hers with vanilla. The soda jerk -- they really called him that -- would put a squirt of flavoring into a glass, fill it with coke from a spigot, throw in some ice and a straw and serve it with a smile. I can almost taste it now. Anyway, that is the image that popped into my mind while we were walking through the jungle, the soda fountain at our corner drugstore.

“What’s that smell?” I asked stopping to sniff.

“Chocolate!” offered one of the visitors.

“No that’s not it,” I replied, sniffing the air again, trying to refine the image. The soda jerk was squirting flavoring into a coke glass. It was my sister’s glass. “Vanilla, that’s what it is vanilla!” I nearly jumped for joy. We followed the scent into the breeze. I had never seen a vanilla plant, but there was no mistaking the smell. We soon discovered the vine-like orchid with creamy yellow flowers climbing on a small snag. The odor near the plant was overwhelming, and we all marveled at its beauty. I later learned that in the wild the vanilla flowers are polinated by a bee that lives only in the rainforest but is largely absent from plantations. Domestically grown vanilla plants are usually pollinated by hand using a tiny brush. I also learned that we have at least two species of wild vanilla at Hacienda Barú. That first whiff on the breeze triggered a long forgotten image and initiated a learning experience. Now we can show you vanilla plants in the Hacienda Barú orchid garden, but somehow it isn’t the same as my first experience with the sweet smelling blossoms.

As we have seen, guiding is not only a teaching experience, but also a learning one that is often as enlightening for the guide as for the guest. The tropical rainforest is the most biologically diverse ecosystem on the planet, and guiding people through it is truly gratifying. Everytime I go into the forest I see something I have never seen before.

These are a few of the reasons the ecological guiding profession is so important both for the for the international traveler and the local economy. Visitors learn about the rainforest, and with that knowledge comes a greater appreciation for tropical nature and the precarious state in which it exists. At the same time ecotourism provides jobs and stimulates local economies, all of which further incentivates people to conserve Mother Nature’s treasures.
With all of these wonderful thoughts in mind, I would like to leave you with something to ponder.

The other day I gave a lecture to a group of visiting university students. During the question and and answer session a bright young lady asked me if our operation of Hacienda Barú is sustainable. “Of course it’s sustainable,” I shot back, a little annoyed at the question. “We started with 330 hectares (815 acres,) half of it rainforest and the other half degraded pastureland and rice fields. Over the last 27 years, have converted 95% of it into wildlife habitat. We will eventually carry out low impact development on less than 5% of the land. When we started, Hacienda Barú provided jobs for three people. Today it employees 34 people. We have returned a great deal more to Mother Nature and to local communities than we will ever take away. I call that sustainable. I don’t know what you call it.”

The young lady wasn’t the least bit shaken by my retort. “Yes Mr. Ewing, I understand what you are saying, and I think the work you have done in habitat restoration is admirable, as are your accomplisments in educational and ecological tourism, but in determining sustainability it is important to consider of all aspects of what you do. During your talk you mentioned that 16,400 people visited Hacienda Barú in 2005, about 80% of them from foreign countries. Those people flew to Costa Rica in airplanes that burn fossil fuels. How many tons of carbon dioxide were emitted into the atmosphere by those planes? Is there enough rainforest at Hacienda Barú to remove all of that carbon? Perhaps I should have asked if any human endeavor is sustainable as long as we remain addicted to petroleum.”

She left me speechless. I didn’t have an answer and still don’t. Is human civilization like a balloon being inflated, each breath bringing it precariously closer to the bursting point? Let’s hope it’s not that bad. Maybe it will be more like a car running out of gas. The passengers won’t die in a crash, they will only have to get out and walk.

Article courtesy of Jack Ewing