Is Progress Always a Good Thing?

Tuesday, March 12

This morning Bob and I set off early to take a long walk before the sun got too hot. It was a lovely blue-sky day with only a few scattered white clouds. At the end of our block, there is a road that heads east out of town. I had never walked that way before. Bob had followed it only a short way. This two-lane road was in excellent shape, unlike many we have seen in Costa Rica - well-paved, with painted center lines, guard rails and wide shoulders where walking would be safe and easy.

Country road out of Atenas, Costa Rica. (Photo by Bob)

The scenery along this road out of town quickly became rural in nature, and we marveled at the lack of traffic on this beautiful road. The scenery was lovely, with vistas across to the mountains north of town and lush woods and pastures on either side.

About a mile and a half later, we discovered the reason for the lack of traffic. The road ended temporarily at a pass through the hills that was still under construction. Dump trucks loaded with dirt were carting their contents to a landfill on our left. Up ahead, a huge cut had been created through a hill to create a pass through the mountains. We estimate the cut in the hill to be 80-100 feet. Clearly, this was a challenging engineering feat.

Approaching the pass and temporary end of the road. (Photo by Bob)

We climbed a ridge near the excavation site and watched a front loader fill truck after truck with dirt. We could see that the road had been completed from the other side too, and all that remained to complete and open this road was to finish the work on the pass. We could see from using Google Earth that this road would connect Atenas with Route 1, the Pan American Highway. It would be a shorter, safer route to the east (San Jose) and to the west (the beaches).

We heard later that this part of the road had been closed for two years. And we could see why. In addition to the feat of carving out this pass, there remained steep hills on both sides with bare dirt exposed. The risk of muddy landslides during the rainy season would be great. There was still work to do in securing these steep cuts in the hills, perhaps with vegetation or sheets of fine metal mesh.

On the return walk, we began to notice large patches of land that were either landfill created from the excavated hill or land cleared by deforestation. We could hear chain saws working in some areas. Suddenly we saw what must have been the developers' vision - the conversion of these lovely pasture lands to shopping malls, house and condo developments, souvenir shops and the like. The most poignant example of this was seeing two horses. - a mare and her still suckling foal - standing on cleared rocky earth where once their pasture stood, looking forlornly around them. There was not one blade of grass to be seen anywhere.

This mare and foal have lost their pasture land to road construction. Will they survive? (Photo by Bob)

We began to understand the impact that this road would have on Atenas. Many more trucks and buses would use this route to get to and from Atenas and beyond. Many more tourists would come here and many more ex-pats would move here. Traffic, bustle, noise, and pollution in town would increase multifold. And most of the beautiful, unspoiled scenery along this route would disappear and be replaced with buildings, some nice and some tacky. This is what happened in the 1950's in the United States when we began to upgrade the road system in our country. And this is what is just beginning to happen in Costa Rica.

Contemplating this change I wondered, would I choose to sacrifice this unspoiled beauty for the opportunity to have better, bigger, faster, safer roads? As Bob would say, I am the original "both/and" woman. I want the good safe roads, and I want the unspoiled land too. Is this possible - here in Costa Rica with their lack of regulation and planning? Is it possible anywhere? Is Progress always a good thing? When does it get to be too much - unnecessary, and only serves the greedy?

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