Want to savor a remarkably rich, bio-diverse slice of Mother Earth without leaving your teeth marks all over it? Come to Costa Rica. Explore its otherworldly verdant valleys, drink in its local food and culture. Then leave without leaving behind a traditional touristic calling card. You’ll feel better, and the folks who live there will feel better about having future travelers come pay a visit.
A company called Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality specializes in facilitating such journeys. Among other things you can:
Travel to Costa Rica’s Turrialba region up in the mountains and tour a sugarcane plantation. See how they produce specialty sugars and savor the fair trade product. Use the Hacienda Tayutic Guest House as your home base. It’s a five-room boutique hotel that’s laidback and luxurious.
Consume the perfect cup of coffee in what’s perhaps the planet’s perfect setting: Finca Rosa Blanca Coffee Plantation & Inn. Tour the 40-acre organic coffee enclave and see how they harvest, clean, dry and package the beans. The plantation is 4,000 feet above sea level, the prime altitude for cultivating coffee. The 13-room eco-luxury inn that’s your base of operations features a spring-fed swimming pool, waterfalls and a hot tub.
Lean to fashion tortillas and get a foodie rush at a local spice farm. The Arenas Del Mar Beachfront & Rainforest Resort is the launch pad for a trip to Petatillio, home for many of the hotel’s staff. There, they’ll teach you how make the food staple the old-fashioned way. When you’re finished enjoy the flat fruits of your labor along with a cup of Costa Rican coffee or agua dulce (sweet water). At the hotel itself they’ll take time to explain the ingredients that go into your meal, ingredients like the pejibaye, a fruit from the heart of the palm tree that’s used in soups and salads.
Eat right, travel right and do the right thing. Costa Rica is a good place to start.
(Image: DoctorWho)
