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The hotels are rated on a level of 1 to 5 ‘leaves’ for their eco- practices and sustainability. Many of the hotel’s architectural designs wrap around the natural environment, such as dinning rooms that have trees rising through the roof. Most of the hotels use natural design materials and cleansers, and sell eco-friendly gifts made by local artisans, in their gift shops. On a personal level, eco-tourism means that you can visit the country and have a good time, but you can’t trash the environment, endanger animals, steal plants or be obnoxious. Costa Rica is not Cancun.
What I found most surprising about going on an eco-vacation is that it wasn’t boring. Costa Ricans know how to put the fun in Eco. Each day brought a bounty of new information and physical activities. After I managed to not become an appetizer for the crocodiles, I signed up for a white water rafting activity. To be honest, small boats, rushing water and big rocks is generally not my thing, but I signed up to save face with my group. To my surprise after 15 minutes of very intense instruction, our group willingly climbed into a raft, went down river and lived to tell about it.
The next challenge was the canopy zip-line activity. Basically, we walked into the jungle, climbed up towering platforms, were individually harnessed onto an overhead cable, pushed off the platform and glided at top speed above the rainforest. This activity goes on for about three hours. Does that sound like fun to you? Costa Ricans seem to think that’s fun and believe it or not, after a while I did too.
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