Photo by Sabadomasoquismo

PromoBike and Maxi’s Restaurant will again be sponsoring a mountain biking event in Puerto Viejo on the 17th of October.

The event will include a 74km long route and a 38km short route for riders. There will be lots of hydration stations as well as a party planned afterward.

Last years event included a route which went through the Talamanca Mountains and included a total elevation gain of 792m. While this year’s route has not yet been published, riders can expect again to be challenged!

More information is available on the event web page.

The Recycling Alliance has expanded the types of solid waste that it is collecting on the Caribbean Coast. Nearly everything can now be recycled. Recycle for a safer community and environment!

The following clean and separated items are now accepted:

• Glass bottles (topless)
• Aluminum and clean metal cans
• Plastic Bottles Pet (#1)
• and all other plastics; separated and CLEAN: jugs,gallons, food containers, bags from the super markets,
• Tetrapak! AKA Wine boxes or juice boxes and that metal-plastic bags examples: bags from coffee, powered milk, cookie and potato chip wrappers if they are that shiny metal!
• Cardboard, dry, separated, and broken down
• Office paper, dry separated packed in plastic bags, remove staples please
• Newspaper and magazines! Dry and separated
• Car batteries
• Used cooking oil

Collection Schedule:

Mondays: From Cahuita to Hone Creek

Tuesdays: From Manzanillo to Rockin’ Jay’s on the edge of Puerto Viejo

Wednesdays: Puerto Viejo to Black Beach

Thursdays: Collections from Banana Farms

Fridays: 1^st and 3^rd of the month: BriBri, 2^nd of the month: Gandoca, 4^th of the month: to the Indigenous Territory including Volio, Rancho Grande, Shiroles, Suretka, Bambu, Chase

Businesses and individuals can bring their recyclable materials to the Solid Waste Transfer Center in Patiño any time. The Center is open during normal business hours.

The Recycling Alliance is sponsoring an event on Saturday, the 31^st of July at the Super Hone Creek starting at 9AM. The event is the first of several called “Talamanca Reciclando por la Vida” Or “Talamanca Recycling for Life”. It’s a grand opening of a community recycling deposit at the Super in Hone Creek. There will be music and information. Bring in your clean, separated recyclables and learn more about what’s going in with recycling in Talamanca.

Due to the new Integrated Waste Management Bill passed in Costa Rica in May, 2010, separation of solid waste is required for households as well as businesses (see article below…) The Recycling Alliance encourages other communities and community members to create their own community recycling points or “Puntos Verdes.”

More information is available on all these initiatives at www.greencoast.com.

ArteViva is a music and arts festival, as well as a free permanent educational program in arts for the people of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica.

ArteViva 2010 is finally happening! EDACS, the Association that traditionally promotes the festival, has set up an alliance with the Asociación Desarrollo Integral de Puerto Viejo (Puerto Viejo Development Association) in order to organize the Carnaval ArteViva 2010, from the 20th to the 31st of August.

The festival will feature live music with well known national bands, theatre, folkloric dance, art exhibitions, culinary events, sport tournaments, circus, alternative medicine workshops and much more. More importantly we shall involve every educational center in the South Caribbean with workshops and students exhibitions.

Stay tuned for more festival information or go to their website to pledge support. If you have ideas on ways to contribute to the event or would like to sign on as a sponsoring business, you can contact Claudio Ambroso at 8842 1741 from 1 a 6 pm or Stash Golan at 8385 6887 o by email to artenelcaribe@yahoo.com

The Tourism Association of the South Caribbean (CATCAS) is offering free English course to employees of its members. The 3 hour/twice weekly courses begin Tuesday July 13 at 8:30am and will continue Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 3 to 4 months.

El Cámara de Turismo de Caribe Sur les informara a todos los interesados que el curso gratis de ingles practico se iniciara el próximo martes 13 de julio a las 8:30 am. Los clases continuaran cada martes y jueves para 3 o 4 meses. Están gratis para empleados de los asociados de CATCAS.

The courses will take place at Koki Beach Restaurant in Puerto Viejo and will be taught by Steven Polk. Los cursos estaran en Restaurante Koki Beach en Puerto Viejo. El maestro sera Steven Polk.

For more information or to register call 2223 1213 during office hours or email turismocaribesur@yahoo.com. Para más información o para registrar llame a 2223 1213 (hrs de oficina) o envía correo electrónico a turismocaribesur@yahoo.com.

From July 5 to July 18, Cahuita will present a festival named after renowned Calypso artist Walter Ferguson.

The “Festival de la Cultura y el Ambiente Walter Ferguson” will take place from July 5-18 at various locations around Cahuita and will honor one of Cahuita’s favorite sons with music, theater, dance and poetry. Ferguson sometimes called the King of Calypso is known for songs such as Cabin in the Wata and Callaloo.  The festival is expected to become an annual event.

The highlight of the festival is expected to be a Calypso concert at Cahuita’s Central Park on Saturday July 10 starting at 4pm. As well as local Cahuita performers, the concert will feature musicians from Limon and Puerto Viejo.

Download complete festival program. Download festival poster.

Project Green Jungle is having a beach cleanup this Saturday on Playa Negra.

They meet at Caribeans Coffee at 9am.  Free ice cream for all participants courtesy of Caribeans!

Help the environment and treat your tummy!

You can get more details and confirm your attendance on their facebook event page.

Sunday evening there will be a community fundraiser for the Puerto Viejo School at Loco Natural Restaurant.

The event will feature yummy Loco Natural food (of course), entertainment and raffles. It starts at 7pm.

The funds raise will help the Puerto Viejo school with much needed funds for school repairs and construction.

If you can’t make the event but would like to make a donation and help out, you can do so via the Puerto Viejo Satellite community donation page. Go to the form at the bottom, select Other project and enter “Puerto Viejo School”.

This Sunday, May 16, is census day in Panama.

Panama has an interesting census system that counts the entire country in one day. To do so, the government requires that everyone, even tourists, remain in the building where they slept that night until they are given a document confirming they have already been counted.

If you are in the street, you will be ticketed and possibly arrested and detained until counted. This applies to captains of the boats, drivers of minibuses and tourists, everyone.

As such, the entire country shuts down until this process is complete. Sort of like putting the whole country under house arrest, but is the only practical way for the government to count everyone in one day. Most people should be counted by noon, so that businesses can open and life can return to normal.

Shuttle and boat services from Panama to Puerto Viejo will therefore not operate on Sunday morning so travelers planning to leave that day will have to do so later in the day.

Caribe Shuttle which normally operates a morning service from Bocas del Toro to Puerto Viejo has advised that they will pickup passengers who are booked for that service for their afternoon service instead. Hotel pickups will begin at approximately 1:00pm.

Jordan Hernandez, Winner of the 2009 Puerto Viejo Open & Airshow, Photo by Beto courtesy of www.CRSurf.com

The Puerto Viejo Open Pro surf competition is set for May 15th, 2010. The entire event is planned and organized exclusively by local surf instructor and legend Alberto “Beto” Miguel Torres Speranza. This much anticipated event is guaranteed to bring the best of the best in surfing to the area, and will surely prove to be an amazing experience.

The competition began back in July of 06’ and was first dubbed as the “Legalize” Surf Tournament. The idea behind the competition was to simply bring friends together for a day of partying, music and spectacular surf. It soon proved to be a huge success and therefore grew bigger and bigger each year with the support of the community growing as well. Competitors and spectators alike, from all over the world, come together for a day of friendly competition, stunning talent and gorgeous views.

Read the full article on www.Caribizine.com or look for it in the May issue.

Has anyone ever sidled up to you, eyes darting furtively left and right and offered you a baby frog, iguana, parrot, or snake for a ‘very cheap price’ ?

Illegal trade in wildlife is rampant in many corners of the world – and we’re not talking about just off the beaten track here. In countries where there is extensive wildlife and low wages the temptation to resist can be too great for the seller. If you can barely make enough to feed your family you are exactly what illegal exporters are looking for.

It works like this: these exporters turn to local indigenous and low income families to obtain wild animals/reptiles for a few dollars, organise the smuggling for a few dollars more and then sell the remaining creatures that survive the inappropriate transport for a handsome profit. And the end result? ‘Silent Forest Syndrome’, communities bent on capturing wildlife to eke out an inadequate wage and exporters banking the proceeds.

If we can assume that the industry in wildlife will always exist, due to demand coupled with global wealth inequalities, how can the damage to the environmental wildlife populations be contained?

Enter John Brickel and Tom Snyder, founders of Project Green Jungle, a non-profit conservation organisation intent on changing the current picture. With zoological backgrounds and extensive experience these two environmentalists share a passion for conservation through education and responsible commercialisation.

Wildlife and commerce is a connection most of us don’t feel comfortable with. It smacks of caged animals, lack of natural habitat, neglect, cruelty even … after all it’s just plain unnatural isn’t it?

But what if controlled breeding programmes of certain amphibians and reptiles:

• Increases numbers of certain species by reintroduction programmes.
• Benefits indigenous communities financially through capacity building programmes.
• Preserves more natural habitat for wildlife that would otherwise be ruined through traditional agriculture.
• Educates children, locals and tourists on conservation methods.
• Promotes cross cultural communication in pursuit of a common goal.

Then the picture begins to look significantly different.

The advantages of a captive breeding programme of this type are significant and far reaching.

If, for instance, an indigenous community is taught how to breed a certain snake such as the dwarf boa (Ungaliophis panamensis), just one of these snakes will net the community around a years worth of wages when legally sold to a zoo. This means that the community does not need to clear rainforest or jungle to make a meagre living from bananas or maize. Obviously it also makes poaching and the illegal trade of wildlife redundant in that area.

In a captive breeding programme reptiles/amphibians are healthier, transport is less stressful, control is exercised on who they are sold to and not unimportant, price is regulated. The initial investment is minimal, the profit made goes to the local community breeders and up to half of those bred in captivity will be released into the wild.

The educational and cross cultural communication aspects of such a programme are just as significant and may even help determine the future of a large area. If schoolchildren, tourists and locals living in this area become interested and/or involved, the opportunities to exchange knowledge on conservation methods and much more between differing cultural groups are legion. By learning from each other about each other we remove a barrier of ignorance and assumption that will have an important impact on our lives.

Project Green Jungle hopes to achieve all of the above and more! As a non-profit organisation they are concerned with integrating various factors to achieve a goal that is long term and pervasive. And that goal is ultimately a symbiotic relationship between humans, wildlife and the environment.

As Tom put it, “Puerto Viejo and its surrounds is an area dependent on its natural environment and its environment is dependent on degrees of conservation.”

Project Green Jungle believes that this area is “ripe for traditional progress” so that by promoting ecological, social and cultural conservation and preservation the community will create a balance between it and the environment.

To that end, Project Green Jungle are busy on a number of fronts.  Whilst interviewing John and Tom it became clear that this is not a quick ‘flash in the pan project’, but a way of life.

But it could be said that this project does not belong to just John and Tom, the committed and dedicated founders, but to all of us: those who visit this area and those who live in this area, whether indigenous, foreigners or locals. As John said, “ the social aspect of this project is as significant as the conservation aspect, as one is dependant on the other. We are all involved in the development that happens here just because we are here.”

To leave a ‘positive footprint’ means getting involved.   During Earth Days from April 5th to April 22nd,  various activities will take place in Puerto Viejo, ‘from the Reef to the Beach to the Jungle’ to elevate environmental consciousness and have fun while you’re doing that!

There will be:
• Tours to watch a bio survey in progress.
• Tours to Kachabri to meet the people involved and share in some traditional celebrations.
• Kayak tours to Sixaola.

And on Saturday April 17th 2010 there will be a community day where there will be:
• A Beach Clean-up by our younger members followed by a party especially for them and awarding of prizes to the ‘most effective rubbish collectors’!
• Talks by local experts on various environmental aspects of this area.
• An Earth Day party for adults including live bands, food and a raffle with seriously good prizes.

Green Jungle is a project of a non-profit-making zoological organisation and their efforts will benefit us all. So spread the word and be part of Earth Day in April.  Donate, Volunteer or simply Attend and do your bit for our community!

If you would like to make a donation or to offer a prize for the raffle, do contact John or Tom through their website  www.greenjungle.org.

Article by Zoë Courtier. Zoë along with her husband Tom Keller are the proprietors of Geckoes Rainforest River Lodge. Two luxurious holiday houses with private plunge pools in a magnificent rainforest and river setting minutes from Playa Cocles. More information at www.geckoeslodge.com

Photos by David Langs, founder/editor of www.packcamera.com and www.greenphototours.com.