Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

The last winter Alaine Berg spent in her native North Dakota was the coldest on record. Fleeing the snow, she moved to Houston in 1995 to work for the Earth Foundation, “the only environmental job in that big polluted city,” she says.

But Houston wasn’t far enough south for her tastes and in 2001, she headed to Puerto Viejo on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.

Why Costa Rica, and why the less-visited eastern coast of that country? Alaine had studied Latin American culture at North Dakota State, and Noble, her “husband figure,” as she puts it, had a longstanding connection to Puerto Viejo, having visited his father there every summer since 1975. So on their one-year anniversary, Alaine and Noble moved to “Old Harbor” – Puerto Viejo.

Almost immediately both became involved with ATEC (Asociación Talamanqueña de Ecoturismo y Conservación, or Talamanca Association of Ecotourism and Conservation; the southern Caribbean coast area is also called Talamanca. ATEC’s office in Puerto Viejo is also a bookstore, internet café, and a place to arrange for eco- and community-friendly tours to nearby national parks and indigenous reserves.

Miss Move Abroad asked Alaine about ATEC and about her life in Puerto Viejo.

Tell me about your involvement with ATEC.
Noble’s Dad, Mel Baker, was one of ATEC’s founders. He wanted to retire from running the show. For a couple of years he looked for someone to run the office, but could find no locals with the right skills who’d do the job for so little money. The position was one 3/4 time job for $400 a month. That 3/4 time job would mean a 36-hour week as the work week in Cost Rica is 48 hours. But the job can be a 170-hour work week when things get going.

Noble and I interviewed for the position over beers at a local restaurant and were both hired to fill the one position, for the one salary. Noble is the computer geek–running the internet café part of the office, and I guess my title is Project Manager. A local woman, Ivette Grenald, is office director, so I work mainly in environmental education. For instance, last year another local lady (Susana Schik) and I had a grant through ReciCaribe, the Association for Recycling in Talamanca. We invited 12 schools and community groups into the recycling center in Patiño, gave presentations on the three R’s and responsible consumerism.

Right now my main projects are with ReciCaribe (working to get another grant to expand the recycling center and do another push of environmental education) and ADELA (the Action for the Fight against Petroleum; www.grupoadela.org). With ADELA we’re trying to put a positive slant on the organization. Rather than keep on saying NO NO!–No to petroleum exploitation, No to pollution–we’re trying to say Yes. Yes to job growth in Talamanca. Yes to a bio-fuel project called Klean Air Fuel, a technology developed by a Costa Rican that uses leftovers from the banana plantations to produce a clean bio-fuel.

With the Talamanca Institute (www.talamancainstitute.com), ATEC is designing courses for visiting students in Sustainable Development, Migratory Bird Monitoring, Sea Turtle Conservation, and even one in Comparative Religion.

Do you travel much, or get back to the U.S.?
Noble and I go back to Texas for three months every spring to help with his mother’s project, Eve’s Garden Organic B & B and Ecology Resource Center (www.evesgarden.org). It’s in the high desert, so we can dry out for while [the Caribbean coast gets a lot of rain and tends to be humid]. Without a little break from here, I wouldn’t appreciate it nearly as much.

What do you like best about Costa Rica?
I love Talamanca. It’s tranquilo [peaceful] and green. With the national park, the wildlife refuge, the indigenous reserves, and the private reserves, 82 percent of Talamanca is protected! And Talamanca has the most cultural diversity in all of Costa Rica. People here are real. For example, I come back from vacation and they tell me I’m fat, or when I vex the women I work with, they tell me. I love my work here and the people who work so hard together to protect this place.

What do you like least about Costa Rica?
I don’t like so much change so fast. Yes, I’m a stranger here too, but I lived here for years before I thought about buying land, and I still haven’t bought land. One of the reasons ATEC formed was to help local people survive with all of this foreign investment coming in. Foreign investment has changed things dramatically and rapidly for the people here.

Foreigners come in and expect gringo-landia. They fall in love with the tranquiloattitude, the amazing forests and the uncontaminated sea. They end up getting pissed about how slow things go, or get frustrated with the mañanaattitude. They fall into the corruption, they try to do things the quick way, use the wrong type of lumber in building, for example, make un-smart choices, get thieved, get fined, and get angry and leave a big chunk of land that they were in love with all destroyed. I’m trying to get over my “holier than thou”-ness. But people need to just come and rent for a while, get to know things, and to learn that there is no paradise on earth.

Any advice for people thinking of moving to Costa Rica?

Oh yeah. Here’s a start.

• Rent first.
• Hire locals and pay fair wages–better than fair even. Support local business.
• Examine your intentions for wanting to invest here. If you’ve got an idealized image–rethink it, or you’ll get disappointed.
• Learn about the area, the language, customs, history–it shows respect.
• Cultural Sensitivity!  English is not the national language.
• If you want to come here and make it just like home–just stay home.