Santa Semana Town and Beach Clean Up

Santa Semana: one of the most important celebrations in the Costa Rican calendar, celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ with processions, feasts, and a time for Ticos to relax from their regular busy lives. For the town of Santa Teresa, the week of Santa Semana brings with it a huge wave of people from San Jose and surrounding towns looking for a break from city life to spend some time in the coastal sun on the many beautiful beaches that Santa Teresa has to offer. While once this pilgrimage was primarily religious based, now many people utilise the national holiday to soak up the sun and enjoy a holiday away from the bustle of their cities by escaping to the sea.

An interesting fact: because many Costa Ricans believe in superstitions, no one swims in the ocean on Holy Thursday or Good Friday. According to legend, if you swim on certain days, you will drown because God is displeased, or you will turn into a fish. Some worry that the earth would become excessively heated during this time, resulting in more earthquakes.

Although many of the original traditions are no longer upheld, the majority of Ticos adhere to religious customs and refrain from drinking alcohol during this time. Traditionally, all bars and liquor stores are closed on Thursday and Friday, and the country is dry, however in the town of Santa Teresa this is no longer the case. The week focuses mainly on eating and enjoying time with families.

How does this impact the environment? Well, with this huge influx of people brings unprecdented amounts of partying, often on the beaches and streets, leaving mountains of trash and rubbish to be cleared up. At Jakera, we support this week by coordinating teams of our student volunteers to clean all of this up in order to preserve our paradise. As well as being an eyesore, this kind of rubbish has a negative impact on the environment, with the possibilty of it being washed into the seas and rivers and contaminating them, and also as a hazard to wildlife. We separate the trash into recyclable and regular rubbish bags to be sorted through by our partners at the Bionics Factory in Cobano. Collecting all this trash under the heat of the sun is not an easy task and we are always so proud of the valiant effort of our students. Besides the incredible postitive impact it has on the environment, it makes it all worth it when we get random rounds of applause and cheers from locals and tourists alike, or shouts of ‘thanks’ when dragging the heavy bags back to the trash station. Sometimes we see posts from random people in the town taking videos and singing our praises, often people are inspired by our hard work and offer to join us and help out, or simply ask us lots of questions to which our students are more than happy to impart their knowledge. We love that our students so quickly understand the positive impact of this work and want to share the things they’ve learned with us on their travels beyond Santa Teresa and back home.