We and 15 North Coast students hopped in the back of six pickups and headed for our site in the mountains. The students took their oath of English only that they would speak NO Spanish during the three draining months the course is in the field. And the course began. During the course, we encouraged the students to include some conservation message in all their tours. What came out of their mouths, however, did not solve too many environmental problems.
Deforestation is problem.
A foreign tourist like my mom, for instance, does not cut trees in Honduras. So telling her that a cessation of cutting will solve the problem leaves her participation home. The course had ended. The last week of March RARE Center staff who had been in the guide training programs in Honduras, Baja California Sur and Yucatan, Mexico, convened to evaluate our program. There we forced ourselves to examine our assumptions.