Visits to National Parks, rainforests, volcanoes, mountain ranges, canopy tours, wildlife refuges and Pacific coast beaches are all part of USAO’s trip to Costa Rica May 18-26. Deadline for enrollment is Jan. 28. For more information, or to reserve a spot on the trip, contact Weber at 405-574-1295 or e-mail at sweber@usao.edu.

Individuals wanting to experience rainforests, volcanoes, mountain ranges and all the other sites of Costa Rica during USAO’s trip to the country in May need to finalize their plans soon. The deadline for enrollment is Jan. 28.

The trip is scheduled May 18-26 and will be of particular interest to individuals interested in culture, diverse ecosystems and exotic plant and animal life, said Dr. Stephen Weber, professor of music at USAO and trip leader. The trip is open to members of the community as well as USAO students.

Students and individuals under 23 should plan to pay around $1,800 for the trip. For people over 23, the cost is around $2,100. Trip costs include airfare, all meals, hotels, ground transportation and entrance to all sites on the tour.

“The trip includes visits to National Parks, rainforests, volcanoes, mountain ranges, canopy tours, wildlife refuges and Pacific coast beaches,” Weber said. “In addition to all the fascinating sights on the tour, participants will get to plant a tree in the Costa Rican rainforest, experience Costa Rican folk music and art and even interact with children at a Costa Rican school.”

The tour is organized and operated by Education First Company, which provides an educational approach to travel abroad experiences. “These trips, sponsored by USAO, provide our students with excellent opportunities to experience other cultures, to further their knowledge of other parts of the world, and to interact with our alums and members of the community that travel with us,” Weber said.

It’s now official that vacationing at one of Recreo, Costa Rica’s luxury villas may very well make you happier! Costa Ricans are consistently ranked as the happiest people on earth. Read more in the latest NY TImes article “The Happiest People” by Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D Kristof below…..

“Hmmm. You think it’s a coincidence? Costa Rica is one of the very few countries to have abolished its army, and it’s also arguably the happiest nation on earth.

There are several ways of measuring happiness in countries, all inexact, but this pearl of Central America does stunningly well by whatever system is used. For example, the World Database of Happiness, compiled by a Dutch sociologist on the basis of answers to surveys by Gallup and others, lists Costa Rica in the top spot out of 148 nations.

That’s because Costa Ricans, asked to rate their own happiness on a 10-point scale, average 8.5. Denmark is next at 8.3, the United States ranks 20th at 7.4 and Togo and Tanzania bring up the caboose at 2.6.

Scholars also calculate happiness by determining “happy life years.” This figure results from merging average self-reported happiness, as above, with life expectancy. Using this system, Costa Rica again easily tops the list. The United States is 19th, and Zimbabwe comes in last.

A third approach is the “happy planet index,” devised by the New Economics Foundation, a liberal think tank. This combines happiness and longevity but adjusts for environmental impact — such as the carbon that countries spew.

Here again, Costa Rica wins the day, for achieving contentment and longevity in an environmentally sustainable way. The Dominican Republic ranks second, the United States 114th (because of its huge ecological footprint) and Zimbabwe is last.

Maybe Costa Rican contentment has something to do with the chance to explore dazzling beaches on both sides of the country, when one isn’t admiring the sloths in the jungle (sloths truly are slothful, I discovered; they are the tortoises of the trees). Costa Rica has done an unusually good job preserving nature, and it’s surely easier to be happy while basking in sunshine and greenery than while shivering up north and suffering “nature deficit disorder.”

After dragging my 12-year-old daughter through Honduran slums and Nicaraguan villages on this trip, she was delighted to see a Costa Rican beach and stroll through a national park. Among her favorite animals now: iguanas and sloths.

(Note to boss: Maybe we should have a columnist based in Costa Rica?)

What sets Costa Rica apart is its remarkable decision in 1949 to dissolve its armed forces and invest instead in education. Increased schooling created a more stable society, less prone to the conflicts that have raged elsewhere in Central America. Education also boosted the economy, enabling the country to become a major exporter of computer chips and improving English-language skills so as to attract American eco-tourists.

I’m not antimilitary. But the evidence is strong that education is often a far better investment than artillery.

In Costa Rica, rising education levels also fostered impressive gender equality so that it ranks higher than the United States in the World Economic Forum gender gap index. This allows Costa Rica to use its female population more productively than is true in most of the region. Likewise, education nurtured improvements in health care, with life expectancy now about the same as in the United States — a bit longer in some data sets, a bit shorter in others.

Rising education levels also led the country to preserve its lush environment as an economic asset. Costa Rica is an ecological pioneer, introducing a carbon tax in 1997. The Environmental Performance Index, a collaboration of Yale and Columbia Universities, ranks Costa Rica at No. 5 in the world, the best outside Europe.

This emphasis on the environment hasn’t sabotaged Costa Rica’s economy but has bolstered it. Indeed, Costa Rica is one of the few countries that is seeing migration from the United States: Yankees are moving here to enjoy a low-cost retirement. My hunch is that in 25 years, we’ll see large numbers of English-speaking retirement communities along the Costa Rican coast.

Latin countries generally do well in happiness surveys. Mexico and Colombia rank higher than the United States in self-reported contentment. Perhaps one reason is a cultural emphasis on family and friends, on social capital over financial capital — but then again, Mexicans sometimes slip into the United States, presumably in pursuit of both happiness and assets.

Cross-country comparisons of happiness are controversial and uncertain. But what does seem quite clear is that Costa Rica’s national decision to invest in education rather than arms has paid rich dividends. Maybe the lesson for the United States is that we should devote fewer resources to shoring up foreign armies and more to bolstering schools both at home and abroad.

In the meantime, I encourage you to conduct your own research in Costa Rica, exploring those magnificent beaches or admiring those slothful sloths. It’ll surely make you happy.”

To see the article go to: www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/opinion/07kristof.html

Recreo Plant a Tree Volunteer Opportunity

Once almost completely forested, the country of Costa Rica saw vast clearings of land during the 1970s and 1980s to create cattle pastures for beef exports. With one of the worst rates of deforestation in Latin America, by 1990 only 21% of the country remained forested. However, with ambitious environmental policies and commitment, Costa Rica has become the only tropical country to radically reverse the effects of deforestation, doubling the amount of forest in just two decades! Reforestation in the tropics is a powerful means of carbon offset because the trees grow quickly, and carbon offset measures can have a relatively rapid effect. According to the Tropical Science Center and Programa Amigable con el Cambio Climatico, a single tree in tropical zones fixes an average of 1 to 2.2 tons of carbon during its 20 to 30 years growth. If two trees are planted, the fixation time for the same amount of carbon is cut in half. Unfortunately, travel-related activities often produce substantial greenhouse gases. According to a United Nations report on Climate Change and Tourism, “Carbon dioxide emissions from the [tourism] sector’s transport, accommodation and other tourism activities are estimated to account for between 4 and 6% of total emissions [worldwide].” For most travelers, air travel produces the vast amount of carbon emissions. Therefore, the largest component of a traveler’s carbon offset calculation is based on from where they are traveling. Suggested Number of Trees to Plant for Carbon Offset of Round Trip Flights:
Canada 2
United States 2
Mexico 2
Central America 1
South America 2
Europe 4
Japan 6
The Recreo Plant a Tree program is $25 per person for a native species of tree, laminated tree tag to commemorate the event and a certificate with a picture as a keepsake of your contribution. Trees will be planted within the Recreo estate at your choice of the many available locations. Thank you for helping Costa Rica re-forest!

For more information please go to www.recreocostarica.com

For more information please go to www.recreocostarica.com