The last week has been a hive of activity on board Khulula. Firstly, we had the photojournalist Jen Edney on board working on a story. We first met Jen on St Helena Island in the MIDDLE of the Atlantic Ocean. Such is the constantly moving and reuniting with unexpected people in the sailing world. We are always running into folks and their boats that we expected to never see again.

Secondly, we went on a bit of a garbage awareness spree around Jaco and Herradura Beaches in Costa Rica. About a month ago, we made contact with the folks at Terra Nosta, a non-government environmental protection group in Costa Rica, and asked them whether we would be able to co-ordinate a school talk and maybe a beach clean-up with them to help spread our message of ocean conservation and the negative effects of plastics. Terra Nosta works on many different levels trying to protect the incredible natural environment Costa Rica is lucky to have. They push to pass laws making people accountable for their trash (Ley GIR), they organize beach clean-ups, help prevent overambitious foreign development projects (for which they are many) and generally help fight the good fight.

Giovanna and Angelith at Terra Nosta took the bit between the teeth and ran with it. After a quick phone call from Golfito, when we arrived in the country, the pair got right to making sure everyone was aware we were in the country and that Costa Ricas’ beaches, despite their perfectly marketed image, are just as dirty as everywhere else in the world. We in return would help promote Ley GIR and try and convince local people to take notice of the pollution on their beaches and ACT.

So last Tuesday, the fantastic Best Western Jaco Beach hosted us for a presentation to speak to the local college kids about plastics and how they are the future ambassadors for environmental work in Costa Rica. Through a translator we were able to give our presentation and present some of our findings. I think the students enjoyed the presentation greatly and we were very happy to see even a few of the hotel guests slip in during the talk.

Talking to the hotel manager afterwards, I was struck by how much she cared and how she really wanted to do the right thing. Hotels and lodges in Costa Rica can volunteer to be added to national environmental rating system to highlight their conservation efforts. Much like how resorts/hotels/motels etc are rated on a 1 – 5 star star rating worldwide, Costa Rica has employed the same system to help bring more awareness to resorts which are working to lessen their impact of the environment. They are rated on a 1 – 5 “Leaves” system, which each resort can proudly market. So now, when people come to visit Costa Rica they can ask for the “Leaves” rating at the resort and see if they are supporting an establishment that is working to improve our environment.

Terra Nosta went all the way to the top with our next event. On Thursday, Feb 18th, we were greeted at 7am by reporters from La Nacion, Costa Ricas’ biggest daily newspaper, and by Channel 7, Costa Ricas’ biggest television news station. After doing interviews with both sets of reporters, we had to dig out our shoes (which Hugh hasn’t worn since November), jeans and button-up shirts for a huge press conference they had organized at the very flash Las Suenos Resort and Marina.

Inside the incredible deluxe Las Suenos Marriot, we were greeted by the gamut of Costa Rican press. Two radio stations doing live reports, three television stations and numerous other newspaper and magazine reporters all waiting for hear about Costa Rica’s beach and pollution studies. In conjunction with CIMAR at the University of Costa Rica, Terra Nosta and OceanGybe, the message that Costa Rica has huge pollution issues and they need to act of them was delivered to the press. It was an odd experience for us to be sitting behind microphones answering questions about pollution, rather than out on the beach collecting it.

Costa Rica suffers from the same problem as many other places in the world. The people living near the beaches in Jaco, Hermosa, and Herradura were fairly aware of their polluted beaches and tried to keep them clean, but they are in the vast minority. The bulk of Costa Ricas’ population lives in San Jose, in the central valley of the country, and are unaware of the repercussions of their polluting ways. San Jose and surrounding area are in the middle of the watershed of the river Grande de Tarcoles, which drains directly into the Gulf of Nicoya and some of the most beautiful beaches in the country. Boating up the river looking for crocodiles with Eco-Jungle Adventures, the problem is immediately evident. The riverbanks are absolutely COVERED with plastic trash that was washed down from San Jose. At the beginning of every rainy season, all the trash that has been carelessly dropped in San Jose flushes out into the sea and onto the beaches. We were told scary stories of rivers of garbage heading out to sea and beaches that you could not even walk on because of all the trash.

So how to reach out the people in the cities ? This is one of the major points the folks at Terra Nosta and CIMAR are trying to find a solution for. Since 80 % of all trash in the ocean comes from land-based sources through transportation mechanisms like rives and snow-melt, it a very important point. The link between urban trash deposition and rural beach wash-up could not be more direct and more important in highlighting.

Costa Rica has been extremely proactive in declaring many of its’ offshore islands as nature reserves, but these are in fact some of the most heavily polluted beaches in the country. How? Well, at the beginning of the rainy season, the “trash river” heads offshore and directly into the protected islands, were there are no dedicated volunteers cleaning the beaches. So turtles are forced to wade through bottles, syringes, soccer balls and lighters to lay their eggs in protected reserves; protected fish and birds are surrounded by plastic food mimickers and are at huge danger.

With good people like Terra Nosta and CIMAR fighting for Costa Ricas’ future, they are making headway but we can all do our bit by supporting hotels that are proactive, cleaning our home beaches and passing along the good word to anyone who will listen.

Thanks to Terra Nosta, Los Suenos Marriot, Best Western Jaco Beach, Los Suenos Marina, CRT Team, Swiss Travel and Eco-Jungle Adventures for showing us your country and all your work in fighting the good fight.

Side Note: OceanGybe continues to be a completely self-funded expedition and we are always looking to work with different groups all around the world to help bring about awareness. If you can help with environmental contacts, financial support or a kind word please contact us and we will reply as soon as we get to land.