Recap of Turrialba

Marc spent nearly two weeks in the Central Highlands of Costa Rica in Turrialba, a large town that is a bit off the beaten path and not central to many Costa Rican itineraries. The purpose of the trip was to teach a short course on Water and Climate Change economics at CATIE, an agronomic research station that is also home to the Latin American Center for Environmental Economics and Policy (LACEEP). Marc and two other colleagues put together the program for this course and delivered a series of lectures on the theme to about twenty university or graduate-level scholars from a variety of Latin American and Caribbean countries. They also worked on a group project developing a research proposal, an exercise that was not easy but led to some interesting ideas and discussions.

CATIE itself was a very pleasant place to be during July / August. Located at about 2000 feet above sea level, it was pleasantly cool, especially in the mornings and at night, and we were able to easily forego air conditioning and live with windows wide open throughout the day and night. The campus is a rich natural wonderland holding birds and other interesting animals. Marc enjoyed running up into the hills surrounding Turrialba, sometimes climbing to over 3000 feet over a few miles (not to mention seeing an armadillo). That is good strength training in preparation for the Chicago marathon later this fall. It certainly was easier to run there than in Chapel Hill during the heart of summer.

The most impressive experience of the two weeks occurred just days before Shuwen arrived to join for the vacation, when it rained non-stop for about 30 hours. It rained more in 24 hours than it has in the 70 year record for this town, a total of 428 millimeters (about 17-18 inches). There was water everywhere, landslides brought traffic to a halt on several key roads, and bridges were washed out throughout the valley and surrounding hillsides. The day after the event, Marc went on a long run to survey the impacts and found numerous roads totally blocked where the hillsides had basically slid down onto the roads; trees were uprooted all over the place, and crews were hard at work repairing the damages. The worst part of this from our perspective was that it made for a cancelled whitewater rafting trip on the river; there was simply too much debris in the river for safe rafting.

Instead we settled for a drive to the Guayabo National Monument, a civil engineering world heritage site (we had no idea there were such designations). The highlight of this monument is an underground aqueduct that still functions today, with a sedimentation tank and a horizontal baffle system to slow flow and aid the purification of drinking water. The ruins of a large town are dispersed around this aqueduct, and include a number of house foundations and roads leading from the site and in various directions. These ruins were only rediscovered a little over 100 years ago, since they had been covered by a large amount of mud and vegetation (consistent with our observations of what happens to things that are left unmaintained in this jungle climate). After a tour with a friendly and knowledgeable guide who pointed out basilisk lizards among other things, we had a lunch in a small hotel near the monument, saw a butterfly garden filled with blue monarch butterflies, and then went on a driving expedition around the Orosi Valley. Our driver was clearly challenged by this request, and we often ended up on small roads that appeared to lead nowhere, climbing up and down steep slopes surrounded by coffee and chayote (a local squash) plantations, but occasionally finding the small churches and picturesque look-outs that we were after. We also witnessed the annual pilgrimage to Cartago, which brings a large part of the population (some say half, but we don’t believe that) of the country to the old capital city to pray at the cathedral of Cartago. The roads were thick with pilgrims, and the going was slow, but interesting. Our driver seemed to know a huge number of walkers as well.

Shuwen also managed to visit the town a bit more than Marc, once she arrived, and went on a bike ride up to view Turrialba from above, as well as to seek out a serpentarium (which was closed unless sufficient, i.e. 2, people appeared, which Shuwen was not, unfortunately). At least she got some exercise in the process, and a fun break-neck ride downhill on her way home with the 1-speed bike she had.

All in all, the trip to Turrialba was enjoyable and productive (Marc and his colleagues hatched several potential research ideas while meeting together and planning the course, and practically developed sufficient material for a semester-long course in the US). We hope to return to Costa Rica in the future for many reasons, and work often provides the perfect motivation to do so.