La Paz

The La Paz Water Gardens are located in the Alajuela Province towards the pacific coast of Costa Rica. The Water Gardens have a variety of exhibits of rescued wildlife. Before visiting the La Paz Waterfall the group toured a majority of the exhibits. The tour began with the birds, where we saw toucans and parrots among other species. After we toured the butterfly and sloth exhibit, then the monkeys and snakes and lastly the jungle cats. Throughout the tour the exhibits were very interactive. For instance we were all able to hold toucans during the bird exhibit. Also, in the jungle cat exhibit we were able to shake a piece of rope to “play” with the jaguar (however the jaguar wasn’t in the mood to play). Once we finished all the exhibits, we went to the waterfall gardens. In total we saw 3 waterfalls, each one get a little wetter than the last. Learning about the various species of wildlife was very interesting. I really enjoyed the butterfly exhibit learning that the monarch butterfly is called a monarch because of the gold trim it has on its cocoon which is actually a warning to predators that it is poisonous. The biggest surprise about the waterfall gardens was learning that each of the animals was rescued from homes where locals had tried to take in these animals as pets (someone actually tried to make a puma there pet…what?). In addition, all of the exhibits displayed the variety of wildlife existing in Costa Rica. The wildlife, although native to Costa Rica, was exotic to me. The interactive nature of the exhibits helped me realize how Ticos have to interact with these exotic creatures (depending on where they live). The theme of Ticos having to work with their environment, in this case specifically the wildlife keeps reappearing. The La Paz Water Gardens are important to Costa Rica because they help preserve nature as well as educate people on the importance of it. This excursion was included to demonstrate the richness of Costa Rica’s biodiversity and the importance of Costa Rica continuing to participate in sustainable development to preserve this biodiversity.