Leaving the States for Good?

Today was another tree planting day and I worked mostly with Topher. He is a yoga instructor at Ipe and he moved to Costa Rica in 2006 because he badly wanted to leave the states. He may be buying property at Fuente Verde but he is not completely sure yet. He thinks that as early as this year the US is going to begin its collapse. He advises that someone with my intelligence and talent shojuld leave and look elsewhere for work/school/life/etc.

I also recently finished reading The Party's Over by Richard Heinberg. The book projects that global peak oil will soon be reached and after that there will be a global collapose of economy and industrial nations like the US will be hit very hard (after, of course, some crazy wars to see if the US can grasp whatever drops of oil it can from other nations. Also, there is some hope in the book if we can change ourselves in time but it seems almost too late according to him). So I will now try and look for reasons why I should not seek life in another nations.

• Family and friends
• "Security" of American life
• Familiarity
• Responsibility

Family and Friends
In terms of family, I am not very rooted in the states. My mother, father and brother live there in different areas. Outside of that I have no extended family permanently residing in that country. My father probably wants to move to India at some point whereas my mom will probably stay. I have no idea with my brother but I am not sure family ties are enough to keep me there. I have much more extensive family ties in Colombia and India.

I am close with some friends but there are amazing people everywhere. I have no girlfriend and there are maybe a handful of people that I would even consider close enough to worry about leaving behind. Perhaps I could even convince a few to come with me.

"Security" of American Life
Life is seemingly more secure in America. Jobs seem easily found and we seem to be told from a young age that we are extremely privelaged to live in such an amazing country. Well I am fairly convinced that all of that will change in the near future. Our "great" standard of life will crumble since it is so unsustainable. I also fear the rest of the world may decide to turn against us and for good reason. Therefore life may be not as secure in America as it appears. Also, there are plenty of other places where it is easy to find work and a decent life.

Familiarity
The country is what I am used. However, since everything is about to change, wehther it be this year, Dec. 21, 2012, or whenever, it will be soon. Also, I am not sure familiarity is even that appealing to me. My trips abroad have been some of the happiest months of my life.

Responsibility
Here is an interesting one. I have yet to write about my opinion on gringos coming here and buying up everything. That entry will come soon. Is it oay for me to leave the area that raised me and set off for better pastures? If all this dommsday USA stuff is true, do I have a responisbility to help my family in their time of need (or will I, in turn, need their help?)? Do I have some patriotic duty to the country that I need to stick it out?

Well both my parents emigrated from their countries so I wasn't really brought up with that mentality. Plus if this shit really does go down, what is that responsibility going to get me? Killed, starved, etc.? I don't think it is worth it.

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There are plenty of reasons to leave the states. Go see a new country, meet new people, more real "security", hatred of US foreign policy, the list is endless. On paper it seems the choice is clear. Find a grad school or job in some place like New Zealand, Europe or some developing nation where alternative energy and sustainability research is real and happening now. Obviously the reality isn't that simple. There are emotional ties that can be stronger than rational ones, but that may be a dangerous path to follow.


In other news, Topher gave me some resources about alternative energy companies. I have wanted to make a resource for WPI students that have a list of sustainable technology companies so that people with good heads on their shoulders (like a lot of the WPI community I have met) don't just get sucked into the normal engineering and technology world and end up being cogs in the machine (my greatest fear that stopped me from going to grad school). Let's see what happens when I get home.

-Ravi

Why WWOOFing Sucks in Costa Rica

Back to work at Fuente Verde. Today Vick and another volunteer, Taylor, came to help Derick and I. Another Ipe resident, Topher, also came. While we were working the topic of volunteer farming came up and I think I finally realize why WWOOF here doesn't really work.

The idea of WWOOF is to allow people to learn about organic farming through working at various farms around the world. All the farmer has to do is provide food and a bed for the WWOOFer. So, if he or she is a good teacher, he or she almost gets slave labor. Since the volunteer is learning, the volunteer does not mind this situation at alll. Everybody wins and the system works very well.

This normally works very well in developed nations such as Austrailia, European countries and the US. However, in Costa Rica, in can cost as low as $1/hour to hire a local worker. These workers are experienced and may give 5 times the work output of a volunteer. Therefore the energy expended to teach the volunteer may seem like a net loss the the farmer. Thus a lot of farms here CHARGE to volunteer, a concept I originally thought ridiculous. It should also be noted that the work ethic of a volunteer may be extrememly variable and they may output little to no work and take lots of energy. Not to mention that mistakes that volunteers make can cost the farms a lot of money.

This is not to say that WWOOFing has sucked for me. I have received the true experience I sought and much more. I simply finally see that in an area where labor is cheap it may be looked on as unfavorable to accept volunteer workers.

Howeer, I still hold that a properly run volunteer program is beneficial to farms though it takes some effort. It is also beneficial to the future of humanity since we need more people to learn how to farm once society changes (a discussion I may leave for a different blog altogether).

-Ravi

The Final Sol and Ella Encounter

As mentioned in the previous entry, Adrian and I had stopped by the Earth Rose on the way back to Luz and Guillermo's. There we found Sol and Ella and right before we were going to leave Ella said she wanted a few words with Adrian.

So a bit of backstory: Adrian was supposed to be the caretaker of the Earth Rose for his whole Costa Rican trip (up until August 4). Sol and Ella showed up saying that they may be caretaking the farm until December (when the owners return). Basically they took the farm over and changed a lot. Some for the better and some for the worse. Adrian did not like this change and immediately made plans to head for Luz and Guillermo's once Angie and Lydia left for the states.

Adrian also has a friend in Costa Rica who was possibly making plans to visit him. He asked Sol and Ella if they would let her stay at Earth Rose since there are plenty of beds there and without much thought they told him that would be okay.

So back to the present. Ella had completely changed her mind about the whole situation. She no longer wanted Adrian's friend to visit, in fact, she no longer wanted Adrian, himself, to be at the farm. She accused him of being self-righteous, lazy and ill-equipped for farm life. She even said that he purposefully did not tell her or Sol information about the farm and she was sick of being taken advantage of.

There may be a slight shred of truth to these accusations. Certainly Adrian was unhappy with the regime change at Earth Rose and may have ben unwilling to work hard. However, it is clear that Ella has her own issues and was taking them out on Adrian. Both Sol and Ella are extremely poor listeners and seem to have a poor grasp on reality. Ella's resort to personal attacks clearly shows her immaturity. I initially thought that they may bring vision to the Earth Rose, but instead I think they will burn themselves out in a few months and leave. They constantly speak of the fact that a team would help them greatly and that they cannot take care of the farm with just two people, yet they refuse to accept WWOOFers. Sadly it seems the poor pattern of the Earth Rose will continue and work done there will have been futile.

Oh the drama of volunteer farming.

-Ravi

Cerre Chirripo

Last Thursday I began my trip to hike to the highest point in Costa Rica. It is now Monday and my journey is over but I did not have time to write about anything. I will see if I can remember everything from this magnificent and physically taxing expedition.

Day 1 (Thursday) - San Gerardo
Thursday was not incredibly exciting. I went into San Isidro to meet up with Adrian and Miranda. After some eating and Internetting, we went out to buy some supplies for our trip. These included peanut butter, jelly, tortillas, granola, peanuts, raisins, crackers and some cookies. Other packed items included extra clothes, a flash light, some money, a first aid kit and my passport. As well as my Lonely Planet book and another. Notable unpacked item: sleeping bag.

After that we hopped on a 2 hour bus to San Gerardo, the town where the national park entrance was. We made our mountain hostel reservations for the following day, something that we were not 100% sure would be possible, and then found a hotel that would drive us to the park entrance in the morning and allow us to leave some bagage behind the front desk.

At that hotel we met a British man who had just done the hike. He told us that it was beautiful, hard and "a bit slippy on the way down." For the rest of the trip we referred to him as Mr. Slippy since it was hilarious that he put it that way and he said that word maybe 4 times in our brief encounter.

Finally we went to the local bar to have a few beers and then went to sleep.

Day 2 (Friday) - The Ascent
We woke up at 5:00am so that Francisco, the owner of the hotel, could drive us up to the park around 5:30. We entered the park at around 6:00am and almost immidiately the rain started. It rained lightly all day with some brief periods of dryness and the occasional downpour. Each kilometer was marked and we were under the impression that the hostel was somewhere around kilometer 12.

The hike was beautiful. The rain made it even better in some ways. We started out in a rain forest/jungle looking are and the foliage and birds all around were breath taknig. The only real problem was that the fog made it impossible to see anything very far away. However, just being in that natural beauty was an amazing experience.

We arrived at the half way point at around 7.5 km and there was a sink were whe could refill water and a picnic table with a roof. Here we enjoyed some tortilla PB and J's with some granola and we met a group of four Costa Rican/French people who told us that the hostel was at around 12 km and that the last 2 km are the hardest part. They also looked at us funny when we mentioned that we would be renting sleeping bags at the hostel.

After leaving, we eventually got to 10km and that was about the time when the entire ecosystem around us changed. Replacing the jungle was shrubbery and meadows. There were also a lot of dead trees which I think were killed from a forest fire that devastated the area. This transition into a new ecology was one of the highlights of the trip for me. It really showed the biodiversity of Costa Rica.

Finally we reached 12km and the hostel was yet to be found. Also, the 2km of hell had not been reached yet. At around 13km we began to wo0nder how long it would take to get there and then the hard part began.

The road became steep and oxygen was not readily available. The rain began to intensify. We desperately wanted to reach cover and relax.

The entire trip we realized that Miranda was not quite in the same shape as Adrian and I. This meant that we had to either go much slower than we wanted to, or go at a comfortable pace for a few hundred meters and then awit. This was not so bad until we neared the end, at which point we eventually went a little faster and finally reahed the hostel at 14.5km. IT should be noted that the slower speed id allow us to enjoy more scenery than we otherwise may have and we did arrive at the hostel pretty much moments before the serious downpour.

Well when we arrived at the hostel we proceded to change into our dry clothes and made some dinner (yeah more PB and J's). There was a tour group of high school aged girls who seemed to have a monopoly on using the small amount of stove space that was available on which ethey made a ton of pasta. Well it seemed that they were throwing a lot of it out so Adrian piped in and asked if we could have what they didn't want. They gave us all their left overs which was almost 2 heaping plates per person. That was pretty sweet. Then we met our roommate, Scott, from Colorado who was here alone and finishing up his Costa Rica trip by doing Chirripo. We also met David and Rose who were engaged and would become our hiking mates the next day. After some card playing, we all went to bed.

Sleeping was not the easiest task to accomplish. Though Costa Rica is quite tropical, when you are around 3400m up, it is freezing. I brought a sleeping with me to Costa Rica, however the Lonely Planet told me that I ciould rent them at the hostel for $1.60. Wanting to keep our packs light, the three of us opted for the rental option. However, wehen we got to the top we found out that they stopped renting stuff a year ago. Luckily the guy running the hostel found us a few extra blankets but it was still difficult to sleep.

Day 3 (Saturday) - The Summit and Descent
After some horrible sleep we awoke around 6:00am and began our ascent to the summit. We were expcting to have anjother rainy and foggy morning but were pleasantly surprised to find a clear, sunny day. The climb to the top was another 400m or so and the walk was 5.1km long.

On the way up we left Miranda with Rose and Dave who seemed to go at a similar pace.

When we reached the top we were at an altitude of around 3820m or around 12,000ft. We had made it and it was glorious. We could see the Caribbean and one side and the Pacific on the other. We could also see glacial lakes and mountanous beauty all around. This made the trip worth it, I can't really describe what this was like.

After a while we had to go back down to the hostel, pack up and head down the mountain. This turned out to bed the hardest part of the journey.

On the way down Miranda wanted to go faster than Dave and Rose, but not quite as fast as we would like. Therefore I had to stay with her because she was in terrible spirits and didn't believe in herself that she would make it and I didn't want something bad to happen to her. However, going at a slower pace than is comfortable is EXTREMELY difficult.

The moral of the story: on any sternuous hike do not go with someone who is in significantly better or worse shape than you. Or, if you do, make sure there is a mutual understanding that either person can go at their own pace. Nothing against Miranda, I am extremely proud of her and she continually offered me the option to leave her behind, but this made the trip infinitely harder for me. However in the end I was stronger for it and the experience was well worth it.

When we reached the bottom we headed back to the hotel, whowered and went out for celebratory drinks and dinner with Dave and Rose. I had two meals and then got to sleep in a warm hotel bed.

Day 4 (Sunday) - The Journey "Home"
The next day we made our way back to San Isidro. Dave, Rose and Miranda made their way to Dominical. Adrian and I went to Luz and Guillermo's. We stopped at Earth Rose on the way to talk to Sol and Ella (I will leave that for a separate blog post).

Now I am back at Fuente Verde for my final week here. TIme is going quickly. Only 3 weeks until I will be back in the USA.

-Ravi

Mounding the Trees

Today was another tree planting day. I did mostly ornamentals but there were some fruit and some Indonesian Basil that I planted as well.

I learned a lesson today after getting my first criticism from my "boss" Derrick. I waqs leaving the trees with flat land around them or even with the land a little indented at times. He told me that it is very important to make sure that there is a mound of dirt around the trees. If the soil is indented it will cause a pool of water since it rains so much here in the tropics. Even if the soil is just flat, the soil can erode and cause a pool as well, so a mound is best. However, he mentioned that if I were planting in an arrid area like the desert, then you would want indentations so that the tree could hold twhatever little water that it got.

We also had a discussion about lunar cycles. He said there is a lot more to learn than the simple Tican motto of doing everything in the 4th quarter. He told me to look up some German author whose name escapes me right now. i am sure I can find it when I return to the states.

Tomorrow I start my journey towards Chirripo. Should be a good "vacation" even though it may be more strenuous than working.

-Ravi

Planting Trees, Killing Snakes, You Know... The Usual

Today I worked with Derrick and another Ipe volunteer named Vick. We planted various trees while the Tican workers chopped wodn pasture grass to give us some room. Then we used the thick pasture grass as mulch for the trees. It was some really good, hard work. This was especially true becase I hiked up to the main road to use the public phone to try and make reservations for the mountain hike on Thursday. That is somewhat taken care of since I finally got through to them and they said if we arrive in town on Thursday we can hike up Friday morning. I am pretty pumped for the hike as it will be my first really large hike. It should take somewhere between 7 and 14 hours to reach the summit.

During my second hike to the public phone, one of the Tican workers came aross a turciopelo or a fer de lance. This is the most poisonous snake in Costa Rica. The worker killed it with a machede and just seeing the dea body was frightening. I am glad I was on planting duty and not chopping duty. I don't quite know what I would do if I came across a venemous snake. Probably freak out.

In other news I am becoming closer with the Tican workers here. The cook, Fanni, and her 4 year old daughter, Erica, generally keep me company in between the end of my work day and the end of the construction workers' work day (between 1:00 and 5:00pm). I am also having some good conversation with the construction workers who stay with me in the tin shack during the evenings. I had one about religion recently, it was pretty interesting. They all seem to think that the fact that American's are buying up threir land is a pretty bad thing (again I will post seperately about this soon)

Overall I am really happy right now. This way of life, though sometimes boring and lonely, seems to keep me more content than any other job I have had. Certainly I am happier now than I was at school. Pura Vida.

-Ravi

A New Mental State

Yesterday was a sort of day of rest for me. This past week has been crazy in all sorts of ways. I have travelled somewhere new almost every day. All I did yesterday was turn some soil and shovel some compost into a green house.

Adrian and I took a walk later and stumbled upon a cool waterfall. We climbed up it and it was awesome. We are going to go back there with a camera some time later.

Today I returned to Fuente Vere and oddly enough met a familiar face at the bus station. Luis, a guy who we met on the Dominical trip, was on the same bus as me and remembered me. I guess his mom just bought him a new house. He used to live in the states and really wanted to go back, but I guess now he is cool with chilling in his home country for a while.

So I didn't really work today besides travel. However, I now find myself in a far more positive headspace than I was last week. I am really getting a lot out of this trip and am starting to realize it.

I started thinking a bit about my future today. Oddly enough this trip may be pushing me back to electrical engineering. I think that I may want to be part of a sustainable community similar to those that I have seen here. If I can be an electricity expert that would be very valuable to such a community. If I focus my study on sustainable technology and increasing the efficiency of useful products then I can do some very worthwhile work.

If the Peace Corps doesn't work out (I still haven't heard from them at all) then I may just apply for grad school. I will hopefully try and go somewhere where I can do some interdisciplinary work with sustainable agriculture and electrical engineering. I think Berkeley would be a really good fit, let's see if I can swing that this time and not chicken out like last year.

-Ravi