For me, one of tourism’s greatest achievements is the improvement it has brought to education. We have more schools than before, the standard of education has risen, and young people can choose from a much wider range of training courses.
Those opportunities matter, but tourism also gives the same young people a misleading picture of life. They see visitors relaxing, wearing holiday clothes and spending money. Some begin to copy this behaviour without understanding the complete story.
Tourists are here for two weeks. Our children forget that during the other fifty weeks of the year, those same people are working hard at home.
A holiday is not an everyday lifestyle. Copying only what happens on the beach does not prepare a young person to build a future.
That future will not be easy. Poverty is still widespread in this region, partly because so much land has moved into foreign hands. Local people sometimes feel as though they have become visitors in the place where they were born.
The rising cost of living makes this more difficult. Prices in the tourism areas have increased, so women often travel to villages further away just to buy food and household products at prices they can afford.
But tourism has also created opportunities for women to work independently. I am one of several local women who started a small shop. It has become a real livelihood for me, not just something I do in my spare time.
Running my own business gives me an income and more control over my life. The money also supports my family. Other women sell handicrafts and souvenirs they make themselves, combining local knowledge with an opportunity created by visitors.
When you buy a souvenir from a local woman, you are helping her business, her independence and the family that depends on her.
Large shops may offer more products or look more modern, but much of the money spent there leaves the community. Buying directly from us means that the benefit of tourism reaches local households.
I hope visitors enjoy Manuel Antonio, but I also hope they look carefully at where they shop. Choosing something made and sold by a local woman is a small decision for a tourist and a meaningful one for us.