Another American traveller and I made our way to Costa Rica on Saturday, first stopping in Libera for a night. The buses here in Costa Rica are absolutely horrific, and it really wasn't reasonable to try to get to Monteverde in one day, so we have broken our trip up. Yesterday, we made our way to Monteverde. Tommorrow, we're headed to La Fortuna. I figure that I'll spend a couple of days there and go to El INVU to pick up my stuff from the SIT school there.

Coming back through Costa Rica again, I find myself looking at it more through the lense of Central America, rather than through the lense of Mexico, as I had previously. I have found myself reflecting a great deal on the role of tourism in developing countries, and what kind of tourism is helpful and unhelpful. I've had a lot to think about, as many travellers complain about the changes brought on by tourism - one would almost think that they wanted Latin America to remain poor simply so that they could have a cheaper, "more authentic" vacation. But, while I think that Latin Americans have every right to enrich and develop their communities through tourism, I do question whether tourism doesn't sometimes destroy that which people originally came to see.

And, of course, I'm faced with the question of who is actually benefiting from tourism. Many times, it seems that most of the businesses who are exploiting the "eco-tourism" phenomenon are foreigners anyway. It seems that, more often than not, it is Americans, Israelis and Europeans who are setting up shop in Central America and making their fortunes through their ability to buy up properties and businesses. The local people, it would seem to me, don't gain very much by this development scheme. At best, they get some jobs - but that's not exactly empowerment, is it?

(And just a note on "eco-tourism": This is the most abused and absurdized term ever. Every little hostel and coffee shop puts the word "eco" on their product or service and pretends that their patrons are serving the local community, protecting the environment and just generally doing good, when that's simply not the case.)

And, as always, I'm also concerned with the spread of an assumption that all First World people not only know English, but should be addressed in it, even if they are attempting to speak Spanish. Not only does it prevent foreigners from coming to know the local culture, but it also affects the local culture in a very extreme way in the long term. How could it fail to?