Apr

15

ATEC Plans 70km Trans-Talamanca Fundraising Trek

April 15, 2008 | Tags: Community News, Helping Out | Leave a Comment

For more than ten years ATEC’s guide, Zenon from Alta Talamanca, has offered the “Trans-Talamanca Trek,” a 70 km mountainous challenge.

Casa Esperanza FrameAlong with being an experienced guide on the ancient trail though the Talamancas, Zenon is a community organizer in his small town of Coroma where construction on the “Casa de Esperanza” was started in 2004. The Casa is a dream to give the kids from his small community a head start. The frame of the Casa was built in 2004 with a grant from Glenn Scarborough but then the floods in January 2005 wiped out all the work he had done, along with wiping out any extra time or hope to keep it going.

“Many of our kids don’t speak Spanish,” Zenon explained, “many don’t have the basic concepts of mathematics or even counting. If we can give them a head-start before they leave home to attend school, they will have more confidence and more success.”

Now Glenn and Zenon are revitalized to re-initiate the project. “If we can raise $1,100,” Glenn said, “we can re-build the Casa, get school supplies and books to them, and the kids of Coroma will have a chance to be prepared when they are ready to head off to go to school in Amubri”.

As a way to help raise funds to complete the building and buy the supplies for our neighbors and the children of Coroma, ATEC is offering an opportunity to experience an amazing trek across the continental divide in the Talamanca Mountain range, through pristine original growth rainforest and cloudforest, with a Cabecar native and experienced guide from Coroma, Talamanca. Led by Zenon, this 70km journey would take you up the Caribbean slope through wonderful and dense forest landscapes, past rarely seen rainforest waterfalls, over windswept peaks as high as 2700 meters and to the indigenous community of Ujarrás on the Pacific slope of the Cordillera de Talamanca.

Proceeds from this trip will be dedicated to helping finish the building and purchase supplies for the Children’s Center, La Casa de Esparanza, in the community of Coroma.

Non-hikers are also welcome to donate. All donations will be completely transparent and posted through ATEC’s email list during the fund drive and on Greencoast.com after the deadline.

The trip is planned for early May, it takes between 5 and 15 days and it ain’t easy. Write to atecmail@gmail.com to sign up, with questions, or to donate.

If you’d like to donate with a credit card, Puerto Viejo Satellite is offering to process credit card donations and cover all bank fees so that 100% of your donation will go towards the project. You can do so on the Donate Page. 

For more on this: Greencoast News: Fundraising Trek for “Head Start” Program in Alta-Talamanca.

Apr

15

Environmental Inspectors Shut Down Construction at Several Hotels

April 15, 2008 | Tags: Economic Development, Environment | 6 Comments

Environmental Court Confirms Logging is Occuring in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge
Inspectors confirm logging is occuring in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge. Photo courtesy La Nación.

The inspectors from the environmental tribunal who arrived in a large group last week have shut down several construction projects.

The construction on a new hotel in Puerto Viejo was shut down with the inspectors saying that the construction was infringing upon the restricted maritime zone of Playa Negra. The property, owned by a lawyer whose name has not been reported, was apparently about to start operations.

Two other hotels, both located in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge protected zone, had their expansion construction projects halted.

At the hotel Villas del Caribe at Playa Cocles, inspectors said that the expansion of the hotel was not respecting the maritime zone boundaries. The hotel was apparently also using coral to line paths and gardens.

The inspectors also shut down the construction of a concrete building by Hotel Almonds and Corals (located between Punta Uva and Manzanillo). Apparently 2,500 square meters of forest had been cleared to build the project which is located at the entrance to the hotel.

The hotel is denying that the construction project is theirs.

The chairman of the Tribunal, Jose Lino Perez, lamented the disorder found in the area. “The Wildlife Refuge is not being respected. There are houses inside, logging and construction in public areas occuring without permits,” he said.

Still, Perez said the situation is not as serious as in the Pacific, where the same court closed three hotels with 380 rooms.

“Here there is less investment and it shows. Yet our intervention is timely to ensure that the tourism development begins to take off in the area is sustainable. We must try to preserve this paradise.”

Reporting from: La Nación: Tribunal Ambiental frena obras en Limón.