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Bahia Aventuras and Thinking Beyond Borders – Bringing different cultures together

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Bahia Aventuras and Thinking Beyond Borders – The Ideal start to a Gap Year Program
In September 2009 Bahia Aventuras teamed with Thinking Beyond Borders for the second year in a row to help facilitate the best gap year program in the world!  Thinking Beyond Borders gap year program is designed for students to explore international development through global service learning and academic study.  The organization has the mission:
To empower youth as agents of proactive change by developing consciousness of global issues.
To translate learning into action.
Thinking Beyond Borders program orientation in Uvita – Bahia Ballena, is an opportunity to prepare for eight months of service learning and traveling throughout South America, Africa, Asia and the USA.  During the orientation students begin exploring the curriculum by learning about various development issues and why they are immediate problems in each country.  They also learn how to travel in a culturally sensitive manner, how to communicate with people when you don’t speak the same language, and how to immerse yourself into a new community.  Finishing out the orientation, students learn the safety protocol, including how to prevent minor illness, general traveling “do’s and don’ts, and good conduct to keep yourself healthy and safe.  The orientation program challenges students to develop new perspectives on themselves and the world. Set goals to reach new levels of personal and global consciousness. Identify strengths and pinpoint areas to improve. Engage in team building and leadership activities that unite this incredible and talented group of individuals.

In September 2009 Bahia Aventuras teamed with Thinking Beyond Borders for the second year in a row to help facilitate the best gap year program in the world!  Thinking Beyond Borders gap year program is designed for students to explore international development through global service learning and academic study.  The organization has the mission:

  • To empower youth as agents of proactive change by developing consciousness of global issues.
  • To translate learning into action.

The Ideal start to a Gap Year Program

Thinking Beyond Borders program orientation in Uvita – Bahia Ballena, Osa, Costa Rica is an opportunity to prepare for eight months of service learning and traveling throughout South America, Africa, Asia and the USA.  During the orientation students begin exploring the curriculum by learning about various development issues and why they are immediate problems in each country.  They also learn how to travel in a culturally sensitive manner, how to communicate with people when you don’t speak the same language, and how to immerse yourself into a new community.  Finishing out the orientation, students learn the safety protocol, including how to prevent minor illness, general traveling “do’s and don’ts, and good conduct to keep yourself healthy and safe.  The orientation program challenges students to develop new perspectives on themselves and the world. Set goals to reach new levels of personal and global consciousness. Identify strengths and pinpoint areas to improve. Engage in team building and leadership activities that unite this incredible and talented group of individuals.

Bahia Aventuras and Thinking Beyond Borders

Together with Bahia Aventuras Team Members and local community leaders, the Thinking Beyond Borders students attend workshops about local community economic development.  Connect with nature and create powerful experiences while participating in whale watching, snorkeling, and dolphin encounter boat tours in the Marino Ballena National Park.  Learn yoga and surfing while living for 10 days where the rainforest and the ocean come together.  They hike through primary and secondary rainforest, swim under waterfalls, play beach soccer and reflect on the journey to come while watching the sunset over the famous Punta Uvita Whale Tail.

Check out the album of Thinking Beyond Borders 2009-10 student photos from the 11 day orientation in Costa Rica!

The importance of building REEF resiliency

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Coral reefs are naturally resilient ecosystems, adapted to recover from battering storms that frequently strike the tropical areas where they occur. However, reefs today face many more threats than the occasional hurricane—intensifying global stresses like climate change and ocean acidification are accompanied by increasing local threats from coastal development, destructive fishing practices, careless tourism, and pollution.
It has been shown that both local and global stresses can significantly degrade coral reefs. But how do these different pressures interact? Could acclimatization to a stressful environment actually increase corals’ ability to withstand future stress? A recent paper published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS ONE) provides evidence that such wishful thinking is mistaken.
Rising ocean temperatures can induce coral bleaching, a phenomenon in which corals expel the symbiotic algae that provide an essential portion of their nutrition. Corals may recover their algae and survive if conditions become favorable again, but the stress can reduce their growth rates. Based on studies of coral growth in four locations on the Meso-american Reef around a mass bleaching event in 1998, the conclusion of the recent PLoS ONE paper is evident from its title: “Local Stressors Reduce Coral Resilience to Bleaching.” The study found that coral growth rates at sites that were relatively free from local stressors recovered in two to three years, while growth rates in sites with higher local stressors remained suppressed for at least eight years.
Studies of coral reefs in locations as diverse as Australia, the Coral Triangle, and Bonaire all present similar results: corals are most able to recover from large-scale threats like rising ocean temperatures, water quality decline, and storm damage when they are healthy to begin with. Building reef resiliency by reducing local stressors is the best strategy we have to help them withstand the global threats that will take longer to curtail and are already taking effect.
With data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showing record high ocean temperatures this summer, and a new study in the journal Nature indicating that the past decade has seen more frequent hurricanes than any time in the past 1,000 years, it is clear that we must act quickly to bolster reef health and build robustness.
Experts from around the world are advocating networks of effectively managed marine protected areas, coupled with widespread education, poverty alleviation, and alternative livelihood creation, as essential components of a global approach to saving coral reefs.
Although reducing carbon dioxide emissions will be necessary to limit the detrimental impacts of climate change and ocean acidification, the long-term survival of coral reefs depends on our action now to alleviate local pressures and support healthy, resilient reef ecosystems.
*Adapted from the Coral Reef Alliance

The Marino Ballena National Park and Cano Island Biological Reserve are home to some of Costa Rica’s most beautiful coral reefs.  Locals and visitors alike can enjoy some of the best Costa Rica Snorkel and Diving Tours.  The importance of maintaining our beautiful Coral Reefs cannot be understated.

Coral Reefs are naturally resilient ecosystems, however, our coral reefs today face many threats such as, intensifying global stresses like climate change and ocean acidification.  These threats are are accompanied by increasing local threats from coastal development, destructive fishing practices, careless tourism, and pollution.

It has been shown that both local and global stresses can significantly degrade coral reefs.  Studies based on coral growth have found that coral growth rates at sites that are relatively free from local stressors recovered in two to three years, while growth rates in sites with higher local stressors remained suppressed for at least eight years. Studies of coral reefs in locations as diverse as Australia, the Coral Triangle, and Bonaire all present similar results: corals are most able to recover from large-scale threats like rising ocean temperatures, water quality decline, and storm damage when they are healthy to begin with.

Building reef resiliency by reducing local stressors is the best strategy we have to help our coral reefs withstand the global threats that are already taking effect.  It is clear that we must act quickly to bolster reef health and build robustness. Experts from around the world are advocating networks of effectively managed marine protected areas, coupled with widespread education, poverty alleviation, and alternative livelihood creation, as essential components of a global approach to saving coral reefs.

The long-term survival of coral reefs depends on our action now to alleviate local pressures and support healthy, resilient reef ecosystems.

*Adapted from the Coral Current 2009 Autumn Edition – Coral Reef Alliance

Responsible Marine Tourism Practices

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Bahia Aventuras, the KETO Foundation, and the Association of Marine Tour Operators of the Marino Ballena National Park, in Uvita – Bahia Ballena have been working together over the last few months in the development of Responsible Marine Tourism Practices. Through many meetings, discussions, and trainings, drafts of the standards were developed, reviewed, and revised in a consensus-building process.  Development of the standards for Planning of Boat Tours, Boat Maintenance, Training of Boat Captains and Guides, Community Responsibility, Navigation, Whale watching, Snorkeling and Scuba Diving, is only the beginning.  Next, is the implementation phase and then field-testing.  Many local companies are still in the process of adopting the standards and will work together with the KETO Foundaton and the Association of Marine Tour Operators of the Marino Ballena National Park to evaluate their overall effectiveness, attainability, and affordability.
Leading the way in accomplishing the standards is Team Bahia Aventuras.  Establishing a plan for each category, Bahia Aventuras will be implementing the rigorous standards in 2010  to achieve the most Responsible Operation of Marine Tourism possible, and continue providing visitors the best and most sustainable boat and nature tours in Uvita – Bahia Ballena, Osa, Costa Rica.

Bahia Aventuras, the KETO Foundation, and the Association of Marine Tour Operators of the Marino Ballena National Park, in Uvita – Bahia Ballena have been working together over the last few months in the development of Responsible Marine Tourism Practices. Through many meetings, discussions, and trainings, drafts of the standards were developed, reviewed, and revised in a consensus-building process.  Development of the standards for Planning of Boat Tours, Boat Maintenance, Training of Boat Captains and Guides, Community Responsibility, Navigation, Whale watching, Snorkeling and Scuba Diving, is only the beginning.  Next, is the implementation phase and then field-testing.  Many local companies are still in the process of adopting the standards and will work together with the KETO Foundaton and the Association of Marine Tour Operators of the Marino Ballena National Park to evaluate their overall effectiveness, attainability, and affordability.

Leading the way in accomplishing the standards is Team Bahia Aventuras.  Establishing a plan for each category, Bahia Aventuras will be implementing the rigorous standards in 2010  to achieve the most Responsible Operation of Marine Tourism possible, and continue providing visitors the best and most sustainable boat and nature tours in Uvita – Bahia Ballena, Osa, Costa Rica.

A Brief History of Uvita

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Uvita in the 1950s
Around 1957, a young man by the name of Fernando Cruz arrived to Punta Uvita. He was accompanied by his wife Leonor and son Carlos Fernando (Cai Cruz). The family settled near the entrance to Punta Uvita, known then and for many years later as, “La Pachanga” (The Party). The family started buying properties and therefore acquired a large amount of land, a little less than 900 hectares. The principal objective of the Cruz family was to create a large hacienda and cattle farm called Hacienda Bahia as well as an airplane business and continue with the vision to develop other businesses or at least have a tranquil and safe refuge.
Uvita in the 1960s
By 1962, the family passed away and all of the Hacienda Bahia was under the control of son, Cai Cruz. At the time, Cai Cruz, did not have the sufficient capacity to control his families assets. One day during a flight in one of his families planes there was an accident near the mountain summit called Kamuk, on route to San Jose, and Cai Cruz was killed.  Afterwards, the state banks took control of Hacienda Bahia.  Later, during the 60s and 70s, ALCOA the world’s current leading producer and manager of primary aluminum, was attempting to excavate from San Isidro de General – Perez Zeledon the primary material for aluminum products, Bauxite.  In a larger plan that involved  ALCOAs purchase of Hacienda Bahia, was the development of a road between San Isidro General – Perez Zeledon and Uvita Bahia Ballena and the eventual construction of a small port at Punta Uvita for the exportation of Bauxite and other products.  ALCOAs development plans were highly viewed as anti-patriotic and the pressure of Costa Rica’s largest student strike on April 24, 1970 combined with ecologist lead strikes helped lead to the ending of the projects.
Uvita in the 1980s
Later in 1980 the Hacienda was invaded by more than 90 families, the majority of them coming from the Aguirre county – Playa Matapalo to Quepos.  Afterwards, the Institute of Agrarian Development, bought and parceled lands, which gave form to the community we know today as Uvita Bahia Ballena, Osa, Costa Rica with more than 600 inhabitants, and a student population of more than 200.
See photos from the 1970s strike:
http://costaricahoy.info/opinion/foro/la-batalla-contra-alcoa/9118/

Around 1957, a young man by the name of Fernando Cruz arrived to Punta Uvita. He was accompanied by his wife Leonor and son Carlos Fernando (Cai Cruz). The family settled near the entrance to Punta Uvita, known then and for many years later as, “La Pachanga” (The Party). The family started buying properties and therefore acquired a large amount of land, a little less than 900 hectares. The principal objective of the Cruz family was to create a large hacienda and cattle farm called Hacienda Bahia as well as an airplane business and continue with the vision to develop other businesses or at least have a tranquil and safe refuge.

Uvita in the 1960s & 1970s

By 1962, the family passed away and all of the Hacienda Bahia was under the control of son, Cai Cruz. At the time, Cai Cruz, did not have the sufficient capacity to control his families assets. One day during a flight in one of his families planes there was an accident near the mountain summit called Kamuk, on route to San Jose, and Cai Cruz was killed.  Afterwards, the state banks took control of Hacienda Bahia.  Later, during the 60s and 70s, ALCOA the world’s current leading producer and manager of primary aluminum, was attempting to excavate from San Isidro de General – Perez Zeledon the primary material for aluminum products, Bauxite.  In a larger plan that involved  ALCOAs purchase of Hacienda Bahia, was the development of a road between San Isidro General – Perez Zeledon and Uvita Bahia Ballena and the eventual construction of a small port at Punta Uvita for the exportation of Bauxite and other products.  ALCOAs development plans were highly viewed as anti-patriotic and the pressure of Costa Rica’s largest student strike on April 24, 1970 combined with ecologist lead strikes helped lead to the ending of the projects.

Uvita in the 1980s

Later in 1980 the Hacienda was invaded by more than 90 families, the majority of them coming from the Aguirre county – Playa Matapalo to Quepos.  Afterwards, the Institute of Agrarian Development, bought and parceled lands, which gave form to the community we know today as Uvita Bahia Ballena, Osa, Costa Rica with more than 800 inhabitants, and a student population of more than 200.

Uvita’s Local Photographer Capturing Nature’s Finest

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Ronald and Travis Bays became friends through the work Travis was doing as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Micro Enterprise Development Program in 2005. Ronald had never touched a camera before meeting Travis.  One day he asked Travis if he could use his digital camera to take photos of the beautiful animals and plants in the community.  He said sure.  Three days later Ronald returned the camera with amazing photos.  Afterwards, Travis asked him if he had any interest in starting a small business.  Ronald said yes, but that he had limited business skills.  Together they worked on a proposal to get a small grant to purchase him a professional camera.  Since obtaining the camera Ronald has polished his small business skills and photographic techniques, producing postcards, calendars, tee-shirts and posters, becoming the Bahia Aventuras professional photographer. [Read more…]

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Bahia Aventuras S.A.
Uvita, Bahia Ballena,
Peninsula de Osa, Costa Rica
info@bahiaaventuras.com
Office: +506 2743-8362
Mobile: +506 8846-6576
Mobile: +506 8706-9637 (24 hours )