Much of our day was visiting a reserve that had a few animals such as Jacquars and small predatory cats in cages, along with butterflies and a few monkeys. These animals were rescue animals. We wandered through the resort and looked at 5 waterfalls. It was stunning. There was a moment where I was alone looking at a huge waterfall and river the water passed through over many different shaped rocks and thought of my youngest daughter Ellery who is also on a nature trip this week in Algonquin Park. I felt a spiritual connection to her knowing we were both gazing and feeling the beauty this earth has to offer and thankfulness spread through me. I have had no connection with her this week being away and this made me feel as though we had seen or done something special together. The ecotourism part of our trip led to discussions on sustainability and is this type of business a good thing for the environment. Although many people could say lots of bad things such as animals in cages, snipping areas of the land for pathways, creating concrete pathways and having a lodge that looks like Disney world and a small hotel on site, I tended to think this was a good idea. It allowed people to experience the beauty, fall in love with it and in this way hopefully it would lead to conservation and other good acts. It also protected the land from other industry. This in isolation is a good thing but we know that Costa Rica like any other country doesn’t work in isolation. It is part of a larger ecosystem. In order for the CR to be able to be a tourist destination, you have to have the wealth elsewhere in the world to pay for it. So, if that is the trade-off then we have to work at reducing the ecological footprint not only in CR but also in areas that have the industry with more renewable energy. You can view Costa Rica in some ways having the history and backbones of a truly sustainable country and the global support through tourism that has created more opportunities for them to move forward in sustainability. Regardless of the motivations and history and how they get to 100% sustainability, the world needs to look at the lessons learned. It is not different than creating an experiment in a lab and then using that knowledge to better the rest of humanity or the world. The key message is spread.