The Ara Project, based in Alajuela, breeds Scarlet (Ara macao) and Great Green macaws with the sole intention of release into the wild.  Find out more and donate at: www.thearaproject.org

We are now re-introducing Greens here with the hopes that once a sustainable population is established, they will eventually meet up with the wild population and re-create the Caribbean corridor.  A reintroduction has never been attempted officially with the Great Green species, so the Talamanca area is witnessing the first release of these birds in the world!  The first release consists of ten birds, nine of which have been released since August and are doing extremely well.

The success of this release is not solely dependent on the macaws; the community must be supportive of this effort if it is to be successful.  We are encouraging people let us know if any macaws are in your area.  This lets us know not only how they are using the release range, but also helps us identify birds that can fly farther and faster than we can keep up!  With the help of reports, we have estimated they have established a range of 41 square kilometres!  People can also help the macaws by planting fruit trees such as the almendros, and enjoying the birds from afar.  They do best when left alone, and we hope people watch out for anyone trying to harm the birds.

Thank you so much for your support and interest in the Ara Project and the macaws!  Please feel free to contact us at any time:
colline@thearaproject.org  (506) 8524-4675
allan@thearaproject.org (506) 8971-1436

Colline W. Emmanuelle is the Education & Community Outreach Manager for The Ara Project. She is originally from Baltimore, Maryland and has been involved with the Project since February 2011. In addition to macaws, Colline’s favourite animals include anteaters and yeti crabs.

There are 100′s of kids in Talamanca that need help to purchase their school supplies. School starts in February, but we do the drive now so you can have the opportunity to purchase the gift of education for a local student and then present to the conscientious person you want to honor with that gift.

Levels of donating:
• You can donate the actual materials that kids need by dropping them off at ATEC. Contact tmatecadmi@gmail.com if for the official list of supplies needed.
• US$1+ buys some pens or a notebook.
• $35 buys all of the school supplies for one kid for one year!
• $66 buys all of the school supplies for one kid for one year AND their school uniform AND SHOES!
• Or you can adopt a 1.5 kids or whole bunch of kids!

If you’re in Puerto Viejo drop off your donations of supplies or cash at the ATEC office.  Or if you can’t make it there, you can make a credit card donation at the Puerto Viejo Satellite donation page and Puerto Viejo Satellite will cover all the fees so that 100% of your donation will make it to the kids.

The restaurant is was one of the recipients of the “Aportes al Mejoramiento de la Calidad de Vida” prize for 2011.

Other awards were given to a community leader in Alajuela, a team of veterinarians from the Universidad Nacional, a group of clowns and a recycling program.

The awards were decided on by a committee from Costa Rica’s ombudsman and from the public universities.

More: La Nación: Autoridades premian aportes para mejorar la calidad de vida

A big thank you to the Puerto Viejo School kids, who spent their unscheduled day off from school with us in the unrelenting heat. Way to go!

These community events do not only rely on the people to come out and spend their day picking up trash, we also need the local businesses to get involved. I am happy to say that the support from the local businesses was amazing! It is truly a great feeling to have companies and organizations like ATEC, Banana Azul, Cantik, Coco Loco Lodge, El Diamante, Exploradores, Farmacia Amiga, Interbus, Koki Beach Restaurant, Supermercado Old Harbour and Terraventuras which all pulled together to help make the event a great success.

Special thanks to Terra Nostra for coming to support us for this day! Their insight of how important the clean-up of our beaches is, was very inspiring. They instructed us on not just picking up trash, but also on how to sort trash correctly. I guarantee you I will never look at trash the same way again.

After collecting all this trash it had to go somewhere. Well that was when Reci Caribe and Municipalidad de Talamanca took over. After the trash was sorted correctly all the recyclable items were documented and then loaded onto a truck and were sent to the local recycling center, all the remaining trash was transported away by Municipalidad de Talamanca to a local land fill.

All the collected trash collected at this beach clean up is going to be reported to the Ocean Conservancy and the data is going to be added to their world wide program “International Costal Cleanup 2011”.

Residents and local businesses of Puerto Viejo really proved that even the smallest communities can make a difference when everyone works together. Once again great job everyone! Lets all continue to keep our beautiful beaches clean!

You can see more photos and more information about the results at the facebook album.

Article by Nina Neidhart. Nina is the general manager of Gecko Trail Adventures, a Puerto Viejo based tour company which offers packages, transportation, tours and activities throughout Costa Rica. They specialize in helping clients to set up a customized and authentic experience of the real Costa Rica. More information at GeckoTrail.com.

Local tour company Gecko Trail Adventures is organizing a beach cleanup day on Sept 30 with local school kids.

Lead by example! Keep the beach clean.

The company strives to actively participate in community projects that promote a sustainable development of the local area. In this effort, they encourage their employees to look beyond their day-to-day tasks and work on projects benefiting their community. One of these endeavors is the beach clean-up they are organizing with children from the local school along with staff from Gecko Trail Adventures and Hotel Banana Azul for September 30th.

The project was made possible thanks to supplied donations from local businesses and various providers Gecko Trail Adventures works with. The trash collected will be counted with the help of Terra-Nostra. The results will be reported to Ocean Conservancy to be able to have a document that governments, organizations and companies can use to check the Waste World Marine Index.

If you find yourself in the Puerto Viejo area on September 30th you are very welcome to join them. The meeting point will be at the beach in front of Hotel Banana Azul at 8:00am.

Article by Gecko Trail Adventures. Gecko Trail Adventures started 3 years ago with 2 staff and a tiny tour desk in a local hotel. The main objective was, and still is, to offer good quality and reasonably priced tours to clients that wish to visit the Caribbean as well as all other areas of Costa Rica. Today they employ 14, local Caribeños as well others from around Costa Rica and around the world, who devote themselves to ensuring that everyone has the best possible experience while visiting this beautiful country. Their goal is to provide customized services that fit each client’s needs, and in this way utilize local guides and small companies and hotels to be able to offer an authentic Costa Rica experience. More information at www.gecktrail.com.

I spent about half a year living in Hone Creek, a small town 5km inland from Puerto Viejo, as a volunteer with ANAI. The organization’s objectives lie mostly within the realm of river and stream monitoring and environmental education, though in reality it is involved in a multitude of related activities. The field station in Hone Creek takes 25-35 trips a year,between February and May/June, to sites all over Talamanca, for 1-5 days each. The trips take place in many different places, from the border at Sixaola to Limon, from the coast to higher up in the mountains than most people knew existed, even into Panama.

Many of these expeditions take place high up in the watersheds, in places very few people see, where human impact is minimal to none, to get samples of fish near their breeding grounds, where the indicators of stream health are most present and significant. On these expeditions, 3-5 ANAI staff, usually a couple volunteers, and about 4-8 locals, all participate in biomonitoring to improve the health of the water systems in the region.

Everyone, including the volunteers, are directly involved in the work, and aren’t left standing and watching on the side. Fish are collected and identified, along with shrimp, eels and macroinvertebrates (larvaeof flying insects). Visual assessments are taken, water is tested, pictures are taken, and at the end of each day, a delightfully large cache of information has been made to be used in various ways. The information is put into a database and compared to previous years, then given to the local government, the Costa Rican government, the University of Costa Rica (which volunteers sometimes work with as a partnership), UNESCO, and other NGOs working in environmental management. Academic articles are also published from time to time in peer-reviewed journals. The field work can be physically demanding, but then again most rewarding things aren’t easy, right?

These expeditions serve as environmental education courses almost as much as they serve the goal of biomonitoring. The ANAI staff teach as they go, to the local people hired to help carry gear (and participate) as well as to any volunteers with ANAI at the time. These “courses,” at least in my opinion, are infinitely more helpful, practical, and interesting than the majority of courses in a classroom because everyone has the opportunity to ask questions all dht”ay long, see firsthand what the studies look like, and not worry about tests to pass or homework to do. The work is fun, the information is very interesting, and therefore learning becomes an enjoyable and interactive experience that doesn’t feel forced. After all, who could complain with being outside all day, learning about watersheds and tropical ecology?

The website is http://anaicr.wordpress.com and any inquiries can be made to Maribel Mafla, who lives permanently in Talamanca and co-runs the field work, at mmafla@anaicr.org (Spanish only) or to Diego Lynch, the President of ANAI, who lives in San Jose, at diego@anaicr.org (English or Spanish). They are happy to take phone calls at 2756-8120.

Article by Kevin Wells. Kevin is a 25 year-old Biology/Spanish college graduate currently living in Talamanca. His current work is in the field of forest ecology and wildlife conservation, but is involved in other related projects. He is from Eugene, Oregon, USA, and is therefore well adjusted to the rain. Kevin welcomes any questions or comments, and can be reached via email at kjwells86@gmail.com

As of June 5, the program account had a deficit balance of 24,127 colones and generally runs short about 75,000 colones each month unless there are special donations or fundraising events to cover the difference.

The lifeguard program receives no government support, it is supported only by donations from supporting businesses and individuals.

Please see the www.Cocles.org page for the latest information on the program and which businesses are regular supporters.  Let local businesses you see on the list know that you appreciate their support for the program which has saved many lives in its almost 10 years of existence.

To make a donation, the donation page gives options for how you can support the program through regular monthly donations or via a one-time bank deposit or credit card donation (Puerto Viejo Satellite will process any donations received and pass them on to the program).

The mouth-watering smells were surpassed only by the taste of this internationally diverse buffet supplied by parents and available to visitors at modest prices. The event was organised to raise funds for further expansion and improvements at this well respected non-profit school.

Those attending were treated to a varied musical and dance programme featuring, amongst others, soloist Ed Mundo accompanied on the electric piano by Silvia, his wife, who is also music teacher at the school. Ed’s voice and the music filled the newly built classroom with wonderful renditions of a Bolivian song “Kapuri” followed by “Alfonsine y el Mar” and finishing with a melodic “Granada”.

However, the fun had only just begun! A Flamenco group of pupils gorgeously costumed in black and red, showed rhythm and flair, which suggested extensive rehearsal and their obvious enjoyment was matched by that of the audience.

Other acts included pupils singing ambitious and spirited versions of pop songs, enthusiastically performed to toe-tapping beats.

The evening was well attended not only by parents and friends but also by well-wishers showing support for this worthwhile cause. Centro Educativo is a non-profit organisation committed to continuous improvement of the educational standards offered to the children of this area. To achieve this, facilities need to be constantly upgraded and expanded.

Can YOU help build the next classroom?

Absolutely any Donation is helpful: just think what a difference it could make to these pupils schooldays if every person in the Puerto Viejo area gave a small amount of money!

If you can help with a donation, please email the school secretary, Stephanie Achenbaum at the following email address: asocepp@ymail.com or contact the school by telephone at 2750-0754.  You can also follow them on facebook.

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

THANK YOU on behalf of all the children at Centro Educativo in Playa Chiquita!

The lifeguard who performed the rescue at Cocles of Bonnie W.

“I was swimming when, suddenly, I realized I was very far away from the beach,” Bonnie said. “I tried to swim back to shore but I seemed to be stuck. I could feel myself getting sucked back further and further away from the shore. I started to panic.”

Bonnie was caught in a rip current — a powerful, narrow current of water that flows rapidly away from the shore, often at speeds in excess of 5 miles-per-hour (8 kilometers-per-hour). It is estimated that rip currents are responsible for about 80% of ocean drowning.

While a rip current often measures 200 feet (62 meters) to 2,500 feet (762 meters) in length, they are typically less than 30 feet (9 meters) wide. As a result, a person can often escape one by remaining calm and swimming parallel to the beach until the current loses strength. Once out of the rip current, they can then swim towards shore. However, many tourists unfamiliar with rip currents panic, and risk become exhausted and drowning.

“Had the lifeguard not been there, I could have drowned,” Bonny said. “I am so grateful to the lifeguard and the Playa Cocles Lifeguard Program.”

This sign explains how the flag system works to alert you to ocean conditions. A red flag indicates that it is too dangerous, stay out of the water. A yellow flag indicates that you should not go in above waist level. A green flag indicates safe swimming.  Note that the blue flags seen on some beaches are an indication that the beach has been certified under Costa Rica’s “Bandera Azul” program for excellent water quality and beach cleanliness. It does not indicate ocean conditions.

Cocles Beach is the only lifeguard-patrolled beach on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. Managed by volunteers, the program receives no government funding and relies on donations from local businesses, residents and tourists. That funding is often in short supply and the program has been temporarily suspended in the past when it was unable to raise the money needed to pay the lifeguards, who are paid ₡11,000 per day (approximately US$22).

The minimum monthly bill for running Playa Cocles Lifeguard Program is ₡660,000 (approximately US$1,320), which pays for two lifeguards a day. Its lifeguards have rescued more than 1,500 swimmers at Cocles beach since the service began.

Every donation helps – please support the Playa Cocles Lifeguard Program by making a donation (PayPal accepted). Local business owners in Puerto Viejo can also sign up to provide regular monthly support for the program. For more information, please email Eddie Ryan at La Costa de Papito.  More information is available on the Cocles Lifeguard Program website.

Tips:

• Avoid rip currents by always swimming between the red and yellow flags.
• Do not swim alone. Have someone on the beach looking out for you.
• Avoid beaches that are not attended by lifeguards.
• If you find yourself caught in a rip current, stay calm. Conserve your energy by floating or treading water.
• Don’t fight the current by trying to swim back to shore directly against the rip – you could become exhausted and drown. Instead, try to swim parallel to the beach. Once you are out of the current, swim towards shore.
• If you cannot escape the rip, draw attention to yourself: face the shore, wave your arms and yell for help.
• If you see someone who is caught in a rip current, alert a lifeguard. If there is no lifeguard, throw them a floatation device or surf board. Do not go in after them!

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.