Day 1: Liam Lillard and Matteo Mazzie

Liam: Starting at one in the morning, we boarded a 6 1/2 hour flight to San Jose, and painstakingly sat for an extra hour and thirty minutes for the connecting flight. After we left the airport, we boarded a bus and met our Envoy instructors, John Michael and Pablo. The bus ride was also very long, but felt quicker than the flight because I caught up on sleep that I lost. Our last mode of transport for the day was boat. It was nice to see the jungle and rainforest, but we were once again traveling for hours. When we arrived at Tortuguero we were assigned our rooms and roommates (mine is Mateo). Persevering through a long day of travel, the group staying at Miss Miriam’s hotel started to explore the area. We walked in 2 directions and ended at a bench, where we played games. We met up with the other group and found somewhere to eat dinner.

Matteo: I was luckily able to get a bit of sleep during the long plane/bus rides today. We eventually arrived at a location on a large river, and moved downstream to Tortuguero, taking in the sights of the undisturbed rainforest around us. Dominated by dense thickets of palms near the river shore and towering spindly trees filled with cicadas inland, the forest seemed impenetrable, similar to the common portrayals of the “untamed jungle” teeming with violent wildlife ready to be conquered by mankind. But one of our envoys guides Pablo shared that from his Costa Rican perspective, nature isn’t something to be feared of battled against, but a distinctive and comforting aspect of his identity. I wondered here how this viewpoint has shaped unique Costa Rican conservation efforts for the better, and how the countering state of mind mentioned earlier continues to be a prevalent obstacle for climate policy in other parts of the world.