It's been about a month now since I've moved to Costa Rica and besides learning SO much Spanish, I've learned so much more about the country and the culture here. An assignment for one of my spanish classes was to pick a topic to write interview questions about and ask Costaricans, aka Ticos. I wanted to pick a topic I was already passionate about so naturally I picked sustainability in Costa Rica! My first blog post I wrote from here in Costa Rica was about the sustainable lifestyle I've noticed since I've lived here (if you missed that post click here to read!) but I thought learning from the local Ticos would bring more insight. I asked my mamática, my papático, and my tiotico and compiled all of their answers. All the questions and answers were in spanish so bear with my loose translations for you all (:
1)What does sustainability mean to you?
For my family it means an equilibrium between human life and nature. There needs to be a balance between tourism, utilization of natural resources, and nature.
2) What sustainable habits do you practice?
My family practices many daily habits including recycling, composting, and reusing plastic products such as soda bottles and grocery bags. They use reusable grocery bags as much as possible and have reusable water bottles. In the garden they also have giant barrels to collect rain water so they can water their plants. My tiotico also made it clear that he was very against pesticides in his garden as well as on the commercial agriculture level. In general, most Ticos rely on solar energy to power their home. The only exception being that they all have gas stoves for cooking.
3) How can you become more sustainable?
Essentially what my host family said was everyone needs more education about the environment, they more we know the better! Also, looking for and using green companies is a good way to improve. Costa Rica has companies with CST (Costa Rica Sustainable Tourism) certificates which are good to look for when booking hotels and transportation.
4) Why do you think its important to be sustainable?
My host parents both immediately said "because we don't have another planet!". In the Tico culture, it is common sense to want to be green and they seemed almost shocked that this was even a question. My tiotico mentioned that water pollution is also a large issue and he believes it it important to be able to provide clean water for every person.
5) Is it a priority for you to be sustainable?
Yes! It is a very high priority for everyone in my host family. Although to me, it seems like less of an effort to prioritize and more of the fact that it is really just how they live their lifestyles. Being green is a day to day normal habit.
6) Do you think being green is everyones responsibility?
My family said OF COURSE, but my tiotico also mentioned that it is the responsibility of the government also. They government has the responsibility to teach the public about the environment and to implement greener policy which is beyond control of most citizens.
7) Do you recommend being more sustainable to your friends and families?
My mamática said she definitely practices green habits with her family and friends but it is important to her to stress being sustainable to all of her host students as well. She has been hosting students for ten years and feels the need to share her sustainable habitats with every student.
8) Do you have recommendations for travelers in your country to help be more sustainable while traveling?
My host family stressed many rules that many tourists seem to forget like do not feed the wildlife and don't leave your trash on trails and at the beach. My mamática was also surprised at the amount of students she's hosted throughout the years who don't have refillable water bottles and end up purchasing many plastic water bottles during their time here. She thinks having a refillable water bottle is a must.
All in all, my family lives a very sustainable life style and that seems comparable to most families living here in San Jose. Learning the cultural view of sustainability from another perspective opened my eyes to how many habits I tried to enforce as "green habits" back home are just normal daily habits here. Most sustainable habits Ticos have are cultural habits and don't even realize how green they really are.
Thank you for reading and I hope you learned as much form the Ticos as I did! If you have experience with sustainability while traveling or abroad I'd love to hear from you! Shoot us an email or tag us on instagram. Until next time!
XX, Erin