You often hear about sustainable tourism and it has almost become cliché, but what does it mean and how can we participate are common approaches I hear about from guests.  Without going into detail, sustainable tourism helps local communities to retain their culture and environment through effective and efficient use of resources that they control and manage. This brings positive benefits to the local community through preserving their way of life so they do not have to turn to other forms of income from their resources, or worse yet, dissolve the community in search of outside jobs.  Of course environmental preservation is important in all of this as well, and eco-tourism focuses on experiencing the environment in its natural form and leaving it in as good or better condition as when we arrived.…

Anyway, community-based tourism is not much different except that it specifically offers the “..opportunity to access without barriers the essence of rural life, and to explore natural landscapes and the least visited natural areas, hand in hand with excellent campesino hosts..” (ACTUAR http://www.actuarcostarica.com). I recently went out with the ACTUAR group (The Costa Rican Community-based Rural Tourism Association) to visit the Casa de Las Mujeres to get a first hand glimpse of Bribri life. The trip starts off with a drive from Puerto Viejo to the Yorkin river where you take a trip in a dug out canoe through spectacular scenery and then you arrive in Yorkin, which is a small town within the Bribri indigenous reserve.  There you meet up with a Bribri guide and take a hike through organic banana and cacao plantations, swim in the refreshing pools of the Yorkin river and learn how chocolate is made and enjoy a traditional Bribri meal. At the Casa, you will hear inspiring stories of the Bribri lifestyle and experiences.  I came back very excited to share this experience with our guests and other people. These types of tours, and there are many more, allow the Bribri and other indigenous cultures, to preserve their way of life. 

However, our friends Barry and Nancy at the Bridge http://www.elpuente-thebridge.org are also providing a wonderful service. Our guests have enjoyed going over there on Thursdays to help prepare for the soup kitchen and meet some of the families (and Barry and Nancy of course). Here is a quick summary of their efforts from their 2007 annual report:El Puente – The Bridge is a human services organization operating in the Puerto Viejo de Talamanca area, on the Caribbean shore near Panama.  We provide educational assistance, food assistance, and microloans mainly to indigenous people in the southeastern part of Costa Rica.  Our goal is to help people help themselves to self-sufficiency.  In four years of operation, we:

• assisted 82 children in attending 7 schools in the cantons of Limón and Talamanca;   
• made 28 microloans (and are now looking for a full-time manager for this program);   
• provide supplemental meals to about 150 people through a Community Kitchen operating three days a week;
• provide seven families with a weekly bag of food in a work-for-food program;
• developed a public Job Board to help young people find work.

 As of this report,  we are also:

• conducting a Job Survey with over 180 employers from Manzanillo to Cahuita with the assistance of long-term volunteers;
• continuing to develop a “green fund”, in the USA, intending to provide graduates of our microloan program with guaranteed loans administered through a Costa Rican bank for larger projects, such as: water systems for small groups of families, building a schoolhouse, building a medical clinic;
• continuing the Education, Microloan, and Food programs, and performing other community service activities as they arise.

 We are a non-profit organization in the USA.  See us at http://www.elpuente-thebridge.org 

We love to support efforts like this because they help retain the natural and cultural environments that make the So Caribe of Costa Rica so special. So, on your next trip to the region, make sure to check some of these community-based efforts out and we’ll guarantee you’ll have a good time and be exposed to some of the wonderful places and people of our area while helping out at the same time.

Cathy Carroll.