by Laura Sagot
Photos by Luis Angel Espinoza
Your travel choices make difference
Welcome to Central America a piece of paradise. Here you will have the opportunity of enjoying a perfect climate, crystal waterfalls, high biodiversity active volcanoes, great snorkeling, mountains full of wild adventures and peaceful and quiet mangroves.
The big question. What do airplanes, restaurants, hotels, T.V., newspapers, food, shampoo, sun block, have in common? They are all
major contributors to the green house effect. Today many tourist and hospitality managers around this area are working to make a lower impact to our nature.
The switch to sustainable tourism in the area does not mean that the prices will be higher and unfordable. There are great hotels and restaurants that have great rates with green practices that help the impact of traveling and conserves our jewels for the future generations.
Costa Rica Toucan
Hospitality businesses are making a big effort to less the impact of the tourism, like hiring staff that live in the surrounding areas. Training and educating employees in different areas like foreign languages, culinary and biodiversity. At the same time hotels and restaurants are more involve with the community.
Linking their business with the locals like letting the tourist the opportunity to visit local farms, exposing local art in their locations, let musician's the opportunity to play their music. These changes are an unforgettable experience resulting a wonderful holidays far from crowds and everyday rush which offer a close contact with nature and people, with their culture, wisdom, customs, and habits.
Among the region there are many hotels and chains that have great rates and social sustainable practices for the green-ecotourism. Each day many are becoming more aware of this new way of living and try to reduce the negative impacts in order to preserve the natural resources .Sustainable is something that 1 wish that all companies should do.
Many of the business in the area have a sustainable certification giving by the government and have different scales. These practices can lower the problems like global warming, hazardous waste, loss of rain forests, endangered species, acid rain, the ozone layer; the municipal waste crisis can feel out of our control. Also us as customers can make little changes to help nature.
Save water: How much time do you spend in the shower every day? When you brush your teeth, shave or wash up in the sink, do you turn the faucet on and off? A family of four can save by month 1800 gallons of water just by taking a shower of 5 minutes a day and turning of the faucet. There are other great ideas like reusing the towels and blankets.
Eat local foods: Here in the tropics one have an unlimited of spices of fruits and vegetables, new flavors and exotic food. It is fresher. Taste better. Keep us in touch with the culture, the seasonal food, and the people. It is least expansive. It is better for Mr quality and pollution, do you know the environment damage of transporting food from one place to the other and the energy lost of cooling it.
La Paz Waterfall
Separating garbage: it is yet another way to help nature and people. Recycling is a great practice to clean the planet. Reprocessing used materials to make new products and packaging reduces the consumption of natural resources. Do you know that recycling one ton of newspaper saves 17 pine trees? Let's star using the 4 containers, paper, plastic, glass/metal, and the compost bin.
Using nature friendly cleaning products. Many common commercial and cleaning products contain chemicals that depending on the dose and explosion especially in children could be harmful and make adverse effects for instance in rivers, oceans and the flora. By using these products we do not have the toxic issues and many allergies that we can prevent. 1 cannot imagine you watering you plants with bleach but we are.
Thank you for visiting the rain forest and thanks to all workers who preserve it and care about these issues. The world is ours and we have to enjoy it. Nature is to be enjoyed, cherished, and reverenced.
