Making headlines in La Nacion, a national newspaper in Costa Rica

Three weeks ago, 3 of us from Geoporter took a trip to San Jose, a 3.5 hour car ride to meet with a reporter from La Nación, a national newspaper in Costa Rica to talk about the Geoporter Program and the projects we are working on here. Saturday, June 8, (which happened to also be World Oceans Day) an article came out in La Nación about one of the Geoporter projects: Monitoring Whales in Marino Ballena National Park.

Today, Monday, we are starting a series of three workshops to prepare additional guides and captains how to use GPS for monitoring whales in this project.

We are stoked about this article and one of the key things to remember is that the guides and captains in Bahía Ballena are the ones recording the observations and making the maps! What a great group of individuals to work with and

Here’s a link to the article: http://www.nacion.com/2013-06-08/Guias-y-boteros-usan-GPS-para-seguirles-la-pista-a-las-ballenas-en-Osa.aspx#formulario_encabezado

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Pura Vida from Costa Rica

You know it’s been a good couple of days when you lose track of exactly what day of the week it is. My trip down from San Jose to Uvita and Bahia Ballena was wonderful. I met two other travelers, Adam and Myrna, from D.C. who were planned to spend some time down in Drake Bay. The conversation we had made the ride go by quickly. When I arrived in Bahia Ballena, I encountered a small problem. There was a slight mix up in the confirmation of my payment for the ride. I had some help from Bahia Aventuras to sort out the situation.

 

I’m living with Ronald, Sugey, and their kids Maria Paula, Ronaldo, and Natalia. They have been wonderful to me and I feel at home. They provided me with a little dresser to put my things in so I’m not living out of my bags, have made incredible meals and provided me with a comfortable bed. I like having a roommate again, this time Maria Paula is my roommate.

The last few days have been busy on the GEOPORT project too. I’ve met with Travis and Ronald to discuss some the projects that we would like to complete. Each project will have some different tasks to complete, but it’s a good start. The projects involve working with:

  • The tour boat operators and mapping the ballenas (whales) in the ocean. Four tour boat companies have interest. They are Bahia Aventuras, Pelican Tours, Dolphin Tours and Pacific Whales and Kayak Tours.
  • Ronald, Rafa and other community residents to map basura (trash) in the community. This will involve selecting sections of the town and working with the youth and adults to organize some mapping and trash collection events. Where is the trash found and where does it end up?
  • The school in town and working with 5th graders to map trash on football field, the salon communal (common community meeting area) and the park. There’s a new director at the school so we’ll see if there’s interest in not only mapping the trash but also doing other GPS activities.
  • Escuela Verde and the teachers to get students using GPS and GIS. In July when we were down here for the first time, we conducted a training with the teachers. So we’ll see what questions they have.

After organizing all the equipment that I brought down (computers, a projector, GPS units and a camera) for the project, I had to unload and setup everything. I had a lovely office to do this in. It’s the backyard of Travis and Pili, the neighbors of Ronald and Sugey. I’ll also be living with them while I’m down here. I think this is going to become a common office environment. I think I have a few places in town that I’ll making my working area while I’m here.