Londres, Costa Rica, is a town of about 1000
people inland fifiteen kilometers from Quepos, a larger town on the coast. The predominant tourist attraction of
the area is Manuel Antonio Park which is a twenty minute/₵50 bus
ride from Quepos. The road there
is lined with restaurants, hotels, hostels and houses, all very expensive for
the area and relatively expensive in the Canadian context. A double room in a hostel might cost
$40 and a hotel room $80, a burger $5-10 and a beer $2-3. This is somewhat more expensive than
the rest of the region, but in Quepos a double room at a hostel might cost $20
and a burger more towards $5 than $10.
This is all supported by a well developed tourist industry which means
that most shop keepers speak some English, take US Dollars and that there are
many North Americans and Europeans walking around town. Food is diverse with restaurants
ranging from “Comida Típica” to Mexican or Sushi restaurants.
Londres, on the other hand, does not see many
tourists and does not have the same tourist infrastructure. For one thing, while it is only fifteen
kilometers from Quepos, the road is unpaved and it takes about forty-five
minutes to get there by car or bus.
The two main tourist attractions are horse back tours and rafting down
the Rio Naranjo back down to Quepos.
Even with these, tourists do not normally explore the town or stay in town. As a result, less people speak English,
food is a little cheaper and there are less of the negative consequences of
tourism. A lot of people in town
either work in Quepos or on the palm oil plantations that are endemic in the
province. There is an elementary
school and a high school, although the elementary school has many more students
and some high schoolers are bused to a different school. Overall, the area is pretty laid back
and the people are friendly.
My work so far has been mainly computer work,
updating the website, translating and editing, but there is some field work
with mapping an Analog Forestry plot and setting up a tree nursery. Learning about Analog Forestry is great because it fits in
so well with permaculture and organic agriculture. The gist of it is to restore forests to the same form and
ecological function as native climax forests while allowing some changes in
species composition. This allows
more mainstream anthropocentric plants to be grown in an ecologically
functional system. Of course,
staple carbohydrates like rice or wheat still require an open canopy system,
but that can be incorporated into the AF or permaculture design of the
farm. Overall, it is a great
system for restoring areas that strikes a balance between human and natural requirements.
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El Rio Naranjo is the main river that runs through the town
down to Quepos.
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| One of Milo's Analog Forestry plots planted 18 months ago |
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