Sunday, September 30, 2007

9-24 - 9-30 Puntarenas & Puerto Calderas

Puerto Calderas: About 2-1/2 hours east of San José is Puerto Calderas on the Pacific Coast. It is a significant port for import of such goods as iron, vehicles, paper, banana, bagged cement, fertilizers, salt and fruits as well as bulk salt, corn, soy, wheat, malt, rice, fertilizers, sand. On the export side (formally a minor share of total traffic, but now almost 1/2) are fruits, vehicles, banana, bagged cement, and cattle--including but not limited to...
I interviewed both the Director of Port Security and the Assistant Director of the Port regarding my project. These were the first interviews I have had at a workforce level, and so the information was very useful. I got a tour of the operations there and was quite impressed with the modern facilities. This port has been privately owned and operated since 2006. The major financial interest is Colombian.

I have been recording all of my interviews on cassettes. The Institute has provided work-study students to type the transcripts. Yet, I am falling behind as the tapes take about 4 hrs. to transcribe. What to do? Not sure yet, but hope to resolve this week.

Puntarenas. I am told that Puntarenas was once Costa Rica's busiest ports. That's not so anymore since the port facility at Calderas was established. Frommer's Costa Rica guidebook (2007) says of Puntarenas that it "... has yet to shed its image as a rough-and-tumble port town" (p. 256) despite efforts to attract visitors and clean up the beaches. This appears to be an accurate assessment, yet it is relatively close to San José if one yearns for a view of the ocean.

Food. I was told to have a Churchill on the way back. It is a combination of milk, ice cream and fruit. However, I had just eaten a yummy corvina (see below), and had no room. Perhaps next time.

Wow...Oct 1 tomorrow. I'm here 2 months. Where has the time gone??

Monday, September 24, 2007

TLC (Tratado Libre de Comercio)/Free Trade Agreement

As I have mentioned in a previous post, October is the referendum on the DR-CAFTA Trade Agreement. Costa Rica is the only country that has not ratified it. The news and the protests are gearing up here for the people vs. the No people. Even a taxi driver will try to pull you into a conversation about the subject. On Sunday, there were demonstrations on street corners and vans riding around town blasting propaganda through microphones. More soon...

9-30-07: Well, the referendum is a week away and the demonstrations more noticable. Paradoxically, while all this is going on, COMEX (The Ministry of Foreign Commerce) is meeting with representatives of the EU (European Union) to develop the AACUE, or a trade agreement between the EU and Central America. I was invited a summary meeting of the state of the negotiations to date in Herradura last week.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Travel

My schedule does not give me much time for tourism; however, to not see some of the country while I'm here would be ridiculous. Right? (yes)

San José: 9-22/23. Decided to check out some museums while here: The Gold Museum--an unbelievable collection of gold dating from the Pre-Columbian era; The Costa Rican Museum of Art, the National Museum, and a museum that displays a collection of coins, etc. dating back many years. In regard to the latter, I was amused to see that some of the coins and bills I still have from by business life here 20 yrs. ago are now museum pieces. While they have no value in exchange, I am sure they will be a nice gift for a young Costa Rican who is starting a coin collection. I also visited a Butterfly Garden--amazing all the varieties that were there. ...lovely.

Manuel Antonio: 9-14/9-16. The 14th was Costa Rican Independence Day. In celebration, there were parades. Additionally, runners carried a torch from the Nicaraguan border to Panama to celebrate the occasion. The "neat" thing was to see the entire event emulated within the elementary schools. Another torch was carried by school children who ran along and passed it from pueblo (town) to pueblo. It was so cute to see the school children (in their school "uniforms") perched along the road, waving the Costa Rican flag.

Manuel Antonio is on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. I decided to go there, rather than Limón (see below for "why"). It is a tourist-attracting place with lovely vistas and the celebrated Manuel Antonio National Park. Unfortunately, the area is showing the signs of too much development, I am told. About a month before I went, I was told that there was a tsunami alert there due to the Peruvian earthquake. People were literally running with their suitcases to the mountains. I was advised to stay higher up--in the mountains, if I decided to go. As it turned out, there was a tremor at 3 am. on Sunday, the day I was to leave...pretty scary.)

The park is definitely a "must see." I managed to take more a few more pictures of monkeys, to include the perezozo ("lazy," in Spanish)--a monkey that lumbers along so slowly, that it takes about 20 minutes for it to move about a yard. Crabs and grasshoppers that are beautifully colored, and iguanas that were not, were prevalent. I was told that a boa constrictor ate a small animal (a rabbit-like-looking rat the size of a small pig--name of which I cannot remember) the week before. It swallowed it whole, as the story goes. Glad I missed that... By the way, check out "Food," updated below.

La Fortuna: 9-1/9-2. I spent two precious days with friends on a trip 2-1/2 hrs. northwest of San José. We visited several volcanoes--the quite impressive Poás and Arenal. I'm told there are 110 volcanoes in Costa Rica. We also bathed in some lovely hot springs near La Fortuna--in the pouring rain, by the way, and visited the Arenal Rain Forest...lovely. I'm finally figuring out how my daughter's digital camera works: Got some some lovely rainforest shots, but the white-faced monkeys would not pose long enough for me to capture a picture of their great "mug." With 5% of the world's biodiversity here, there is much reason to take pictures, although I have not taken many yet.

Next trip? ...don't know yet. On the Caribbean side, Limón has been in the news an active place for dengue- carrying mosquitos due to the heavy rains this year. I was considering tying in a trip to Limón to visit JAPDEVA for an interview (see column on left). However, I'm adverse to taking unecessary risks while here. Better to get the interview in San José? So for further travel, I may consider a trip to Guanacaste Province located on the Pacific side. There it is drier; therefore, it is more of a "no worries" area for mosquito -borne diseases. Iwould also love to go to the Golfito, down toward Panama--we'll see; it's a long trip.

Significant trivia: One-quarter of the world's tree species are here in Costa Rica. Yes, Costa Rica is quite biodiverse.





Saturday, September 8, 2007

Sept. 3 - 7; Sept. 10 - 14

Sept. 3-7, aside from teaching responsibilities, I accomplished 3 high level interviews with the following organizations: INCOP, FUNDES, and PROCOMER. INCOP is the Port Authority for the Pacific; FUNDES mission involves working to develop small to medium-sized businesses internally. PROCOMER continues where FUNDES leaves off to assist companies with their exporting activities. Several themes are emerging specific to my research focus which have implications to logistics, human resource development, and infrastructure development within the country and the region. I'm taping the interviews (in Spanish), and the Institute is assisting me with student workers who are typing transcriptions for me. I don't know what I would do without the Institute. They've been instrumental in opening all the doors for me.

Sept. 12: (highlight): I was invited by a professor in the Economics Dept. to give a guest lecture to his class. I focused on transnational company trends specific to their supply chain "factors of production" choices. I tied in the importance of these trends to Costa Rica's economic development. This was fun to do.