Green Holidays

Take a step back in time when you go to South America – it is worth it’s weight in Gold!

Travelling to places because of their current beauty is a great choice for a vacation; and taking a holiday to a location rich in history is another great idea. So why not choose a place where both of these are plenty?

Peru holidays have it all wrapped up.

They have colonial towns, snow-capped mountains, ancient mountain cities, stone-paved Andean pathways, strange petroglyphs, beautiful people and of course – centuries of Inca Gold!

photo credit: timsnell

Wherever you go in Peru, you can’t help but wonder at the history of the place. How and why the people of this land made such wonderful buildings, temples and pathways in the mountains? How so much of it is preserved today, and how did they build Macchu Pichu without horses and wheels?

The wildlife in these mountains is also worth taking a closer look at – like the huge variety of hummingbirds that feed on the colourful cloud forest flowers. The native Chinchillas are all over the place as well as a variety of birds enough to keep even the non-twitchers happy.

Why Peru?
If you are going to take a vacation – you may a well make the most of it while you are there.

Seeing as most visitors would have had to travel by plane to get to South America in the first place, you should really make the effort to make the stay a long and busy one – cramming in a little bit of everything while you can.

Why take 2 short trips to one place when it makes eco sense to take a longer, slower trip in the first place.

Not only will you save on the fuel needed to get there, but you will get a feel of the culture better over a longer period; try all the foods on offer; get to know more about the local people as well as learn and practice a new language.

Talk about a new meaning for All Inclusive holidays!

You might be dying to walk the Inca Trail – but you don’t want to actually die!

You might not believe that 1 in 10 serious mountaineers actually die every year from altitude sickness; so if they can be affected by this strange affliction – then what makes you think you won’t?

And as we all know – avoiding dangerous situations in the first place is not only the best way to keep your adventures as eco friendly and as people friendly as possible – but makes for a better holiday than having to call out the emergency services and spending a while in recovery or hospital!

First Steps:
The first thing to think of is whether you are at risk in the first place.

So if you are trekking anywhere under 10,000ft you are probably ‘OK’ – but when you start going above this height (places like the Andes, the Himalayas, Kilamanjaro and Mount Kenya) you should really know the symptoms of mountain sickness in yourself and your climbing friends.

This is expecially true if you are flying into this height from sea level, catching a train into the mountains or driving to very high locations as you haven’t acclimatised yourself to the different physiological challenges of less atmospheric air and the extra strains it puts on the active body.

The main thing to remember at all times is that altitude sickness can strike quite fast, may only have a few seemingly random symptoms, can affect even the most fit and experienced climbers or trekkers, and can and does kill people.

So take it seriously.

photo credit: discosour

How To Avoid It:
The best way to avoid getting ill from mountain sickness is ascending very slowly when at high altitudes – preferably acclimatising slowly on arrival.

Following recommended climbing ‘rates’ is also a good plan – at about 1,000ft a day – or as slow as your slowest walker. And of course this means after you have acclimatised to being at 10,000ft in the first place.

Not planning a ‘rush climb’ is another key factor, as most stories of problems are from people who ignored earlier symptoms as they felt that they ‘had to get to so and so before stopping’. As a result they pushed too hard and their bodies reacted badly.

And make sure you are planning for stops along the way, take frequent breaks and always know where your descents are incase you need to get lower. It is better to arrive healthy in 5 days than have to stop after 3 and get air-lifted to a hospital!

Some of the earlier symptoms of altitude sickness could be mistaken for something else, or ignored if people don’t want to ’cause a scene’ – but if you are at height, you should always assume that it is altitude related and consider stopping for the day or descending slightly until the symptoms disappear.

Bearing in mind the headache you get is your brain swelling up, and the cough is due to fluid flooding your lungs – I think anyone in their right mind should think about descending anyway!

I have found a new way to learn a language – and it’s great!

Having used all the ‘standard’ language courses before and having got bored or completely lost less than half way through – a friend lent me her CD only course telling me that it was totally different to any other language course.

So I had to give it a go.

And it was SO different that I feel that I have learnt so much more about the language than from any other course that I have ever set eyes on.

Nouns, Nouns & More Nouns:
Most other language courses focus on a common phrase and then add loads of nouns on to it to make it seem fun. So for example you may learn the phrase ‘I would like….’ then you have to learn a page of words including tea, coffee, sandwich, milk, orange juice, soup and cheese etc. They may even show you a few ‘sizes’ like: a bottle of wine, a tin of tuna, a packet of chips, etc.

However, you are only really learning the 1 important phrase.

They then take you through the following chapters: ‘Where is the…’, ‘Ordering food’, ‘I live in a….’ and ‘In a Supermarket’ all in the same theme of common phrase then loads of nouns.

Verbs Are Great!
However, this course spent more time on the verbs and conjugating them. Now at school the thought of ‘conjugating verbs’ was enough to make almost anyone groan – but not so here.

We were taught how verbs can work for you in a sentance in a way that nouns can’t. You can learn 200 nouns for food – but you can still only say the same sentances (I would like a…/Can I have a…/I don’t want a…) – whereas with this course I don’t really need the noun to be understood.

For example I can say: I don’t want to buy that today, but I would like you to buy it for me tomorrow; or, Why don’t you want to come with me today, but you want to go with him tomorrow.

As you can see I can string together long sentances to express myself without a cup of coffee or some cheese even in the sentence! Yes, learning nouns is very useful in the long run – but to understand the verbs is to actually speak the language.

The Language:
Pronunciation is also a key to learning a new language as the stress on the wrong part of the word can render the word useless. It will either mean nothing to the listener – or worse – mean a totally different thing!

So the fact that this course is totally audio is great. Sitting in my car or at home and just listening to the voices on the CD is so helpful. There is no need to keep stopping and starting the CD in bits here and there – it just flows as though it is a conversation.

And the fact that there are also 2 students with him is really useful as a sort of ‘benchmark’ for yourself. Do you get the answer before they say it – or do they get it totally wrong? I found myself shouting at one of them as he just couldn’t get it right when I found that bit quite easy – but I suppose we all learn different bits faster.

The course was by Michel Thomas, andwas 8-part and is used as an introduction to the language as part of a more exstensive language course – but I feel that I have learned so much already.

I can’t wait to move on to the next level!

Why not try some new recipes to save money on the road?

There are plenty of new dishes you can try when you travel overseas – but when you are on a budget – or living in a remote location – you might need to try some new things!

There are a lot of new foods available in the countries that you are probably travelling through – so why not take advantage of them when you are working you way through a continent or working on a volunteer project.

Forget your normal ways of eating – and embrace the new!  Maybe this will involve taking a cooking book with you or just taking a few classes on cooking times and sauces!

The Standards:
Now, there are many combinations of foods that you could come across when cooking overseas – although to be honest most of them will be focused on rice!

However you might not have a fridge for most of it – so you need to be aware of how best to store fresh food – and how to limit what you buy in the first place!

Depending on how far away from stores you are – your menus will vary immensely.  I mean if you can get you hands on fresh veg almost every day, then buy as little as possible each day – but when you only get fresh supplies every so often – then you need to get creative!

Storage Skills:
Something in the kitchen almost as important as the cooking is the storing!

If you don’t look after your ingredients or use them in the right order – then you are wasting them.  So you need to think ahead as soon as you get raw materials.

Thinking of basic recipes can really help you – but learning how to create new recipes and to store things to get the best shelf-life out of them is key to making you food go further and saving on waste.

Food doesn’t normally come with more than a few days freshness when picked and left on the kitchen table – especially in tropical climates.  And even in the fridge, dairy products and watery vegetables don’t pass the week really.

So you need to work out which things can be used fresh, which need cooking before storing and those which can be treated in some way to preserve them for many months – and many of these things you will find already in use by the local people.

photo credit: andrewrennie

Local Skills:
There are many ‘specialist’ foods that have evolved not due to their great taste – but because they are locally found foods and this is the way they need to be cooked or stored to best serve the communities they are found in – and learning a bit about them won’t do you any harm!

For example ‘stir-fried’ food was used in China where they didn’t have a lot of fuel for cooking over a long period of time – so they invented a food that took just minutes to heat up. 

Many colder European countries needed to grow all the root vegetables they needed for the year in their short growing season – so they learned to pickle a huge amount of them to last them through the cold winters when nothing would grow – like sauerkraut!

And if you didn’t have a car or supermarket – or a lot of money – wouldn’t you eat things that was found close to home and that you could make last a long time!

Stores where you visit might sell brands from back home – but you don’t need to buy them….

Thinking ahead to what you enjoy on holiday can influence your savings!

Did you think that your savings just sat in a drawer at the bank the whole time – earning you interest by just being there?

No, of course not.  Your money is sent all around the world by your bank or financial company and invested into all sorts of ventures from gold to technology, and from energy to vaccinations.

But what if your bank is funding things that you disapprove of?  Have you even asked them who they lend your money to?

Why Should You Care?
Well, firstly – you surely don’t want to be giving your money to any company that isn’t environmentally friendly do you?  Or a company that abuses people or landscapes? 

Would you give your money to a company that clears forests, pollutes waterways or displaces communities? Or one that abuses people, destroys homes and causes illness and disease?

What if you are spending money each month donating to charities which are using your money to fight certain developments – yet your savings are helping to fund the other side.

One set of funds is destroying a habitat – and you other money is trying to clean up the pieces!

What Could You Be Doing?
Well, you could be responsible for destroying the very places that you want to visit in the future. 

Your funds could be clearing landscapes for farming, energy exploration, transport connections, and any number of other technologies without you really knowing that you are doing it.

photo credit: L Gnome

If you were only looking at the financial returns at the end of your term or for when you retire then you are missing the point of the word: investment!

What is the point of investing in purely your own financial future – when the rest of the world is still being changed beyond your control.

So what you should be doing is making sure that the companies you invest in are doing what you want them to be doing.  Check with your bank where they are sending your money before you give it to them.

You try to only travel with ethical companies and you buy products that are fair trade and sustainable – so why not check where all your money is going in the bank!

You could be paying an oil drilling company to cut holes in the Amazon with your pension – and also giving to a charity to try to relocate all the people and animals that used to live where an oil well is now situated.

And if you want to ever see those orangutans in the wild – make sure your savings account isn’t funding oil palm plantations!

You can do a lot of things with your money – so plan to spend it well!

Could Supporting Local Bee Farmers Help Reduce Demands On The Environment?

We need to think big these days – and certainly look to be sympathetic to the developing world – who are living in conditions similar to those that we were only a few 100 years ago.

They are mainly subsistence farmers or herders who live on what they can grow and the little that they can sell.  They have to rely on resources that are local to them and are as good as free – just as those in the US and Europe did not so long ago.

Now, unfortunately – we are painfully aware that living like this is not going to be possible for the millions of people now currently living in the developing world.

The climate is changing to make herding and farming virtually impossible in some areas; the population has risen to ridiculous and unsustainable numbers making a few trees for the family firewood become a whole woodland for the expanding village; and the demands of the (comparatively) richer individuals are stripping whole countries bare of resources, taking land and water from local people and dumping waste in their backyards.

So – What Can We Do?
Well, as we know what is currently ‘damaging’ to our planet – we can use our buying power to make the right choices.

Just as back home – what you buy determines what manufacturers make – the same applies to internationally traded goods.  Although the honest truth sometimes slips by us:

If you keep buying illegally logged hardwoods (ie. by not opting for FSC approved alternatives) you are actively supporting the destruction of the rainforests and the extermination of orangutans, jaguars, and the endless number of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and plants that depend on them.

If you keep buying any old fish or seafood that you like the look of (rather than opting for MSC approved sustainable alternatives) you are actively supporting the extinction of many endangered species that are being over-fished.  You are also actively supporting the wasteful and destructive nature of bottom-trawling and long-line fishing that are killing off more than just the fish you get to eat; this includes all sorts of birds, mammals, other fish and sea creatures.

I could go on with this list – but sometimes we don’t think or the end result of our ‘easy’ food choices.

Alternative Living:
So back to the bees: They reproduce extremely fast, do all the hard work themselves and don’t need a huge amount of space to grow. What a great alternative to cattle and dessicated crops! But they need someone to buy the honey.

And so, if a family has chosen to ‘farm’ these insects rather than farm something illegal or damaging to the environment – then shouldn’t we support that?

All across the globe we are trying to help communities to become more self-sufficient and sustainable by introducing bee-keeping, fairtrade specialist products and co-ops so that they don’t have to plunder their local area just to survive. 

We are also helping to make sure that they have access to biomass heating, solar cookers, water purifiers and education and skills so that they don’t have to depend on limited rainwater, local forests, bushmeat and food handouts.

So, make sure that you support these efforts back home with your shopping choices.  If they are making something that you don’t buy – then they won’t be sustainable alternatives, will they?

If they are saving the rainforest and it’s endangered wildlife buy manufacturing fairtrade honey, organic coffee or FSC approved furniture – then you had better make sure that you buy it over the ‘not so eco friendly’ alternatives.

If not – then they will have to go back to living off the land – even if that means killing another tiger, clearing some lush forests or over-grazing their land with cattle.

Your choice!

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Why travel miles from home to stay in a half empty or overcrowded hotel – when you can mingle?

By staying in a local home, not only can you get to know a bit more about the country you are visiting and what the local people really eat and drink when at home – but you can get the real thing!

Popping out of your hotel for a day trip is all well and good if you are supporting local trade and communities – but what if you could live in that community without being a ‘group tour’.  Just you as an individual, experiencing what it’s like to live in the peaceful Chinese mountains or in a bustling European city.

There are 5 main ways that you can easily achieve this – and most of them will cost you a lot less than a package deal – and you will gain a whole lot more than a tan!

1) Homestays

Basically, you live in someones home for a small cost – basically like an exchange student.  They provide all your food and drink (by arrangement) and you usually get your own room and all the trimmings.

This is great if you are trying to learn a language or work in the community yourself as you will see family life and get to see how things really happen.  And even if you don’t understand everything said around the dinner table – you will know that they will go out of their way to make your stay the best they can.

2) On The Couch!

There is a growing industry at the minute for a slimmed down version of the Homestays – and that is where you arrange to sleep on someones couch for a night or more.  That’s it. 

The idea is that you join the ‘community’ first, so peopole can come and stay on your couch if you let them.  You can be as flexible as you want, so your can give them the couch and breakfast only, or you can take them on tours of the city and show them a good time!  So pick your ‘couch’ with care!

3) Farmstays:

Similar again to a homestay, but rather than just learning the language and some polite manners – you get to learn a skill or two as well.

Whether you are working on a cattle ranch in Australia, a vineyard in Argentina or a citrus farm in France, you get to work the land, hone your skills and possibly meet people from all around the world!

4) Foreign Language Stays:

Not many of these around, but you can book yourself into a hotel in most areas of Europe that is affiliated with a language school – and just talk to everyone all day.

To get people from Spain or Italy to actually meet and converse with English speakers is what these schools are hoping, so they literally put you up in a hotel for free as long as you sit in the sun and chat to their students!

5) House Swap:

Although you won’t get to meet the people who live in the house, you will be right in their community and fending for yourself with what they have left you there!

This option is one of the most ‘green’ if you like as both the houses would have been empty for the 2 weeks you and the homeowners were away, but you each filled them - so that is 2 less hotel rooms needed to be built in the whole scheme of things!

Or, you could just stay home……..

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Instead of waiting until you have booked your green holidays – get planning now!

Think of all the time you have available now to learn something new or start saving for! Even if you don’t know when you will book your next trip – it’s never to late to start thinking about the things that will come in handy when you do.

For example, if you love South America or South-East Asia – then you know you will get there eventually even if you have a few local short breaks in between. And you know that you will want to spend longer there than normal vacations as you love the place. And you know that anything to do with the language, culture or wildlife of those places will interest you.

So, what are you waiting for?
You will never get time back, so why waste it watching that repeat on TV again when you could be reading about a nations history? Why wash the dishes staring out of the window when you could be working through an audio language course while your hands are wet?

And it’s not just the little things you could be achieving. Say for example you enrolled yourself on a distance learning TEFL course and spent a few hours a month completing that rather than searching for an elephant on Farmville!

Or took flying lessons, diving lessons, a photography course or rock climbing adventures. If you practice all these things in advance you can get so much more out of your green adventures – and you will regret it as I have seen people who are in the beautiful Maldives filled with endless coral and passing dolphins and turtles – but they are in the pool taking starter diving lessons rather than out there experiencing the real magic beneath the waves!

Just a few horse back lessons before you leave can build up your confidence for that sunset canter along the sandy beaches on the Caribbean, or a long trek up into the rainforests and mountains of the Andes.

Write Your Plan:
Get yourself a sheet of paper, and create a sort of spider diagram to highlight the places, people, wildlife, or experiences that you love or want to see or experience.  Keep adding to the flow as you think of things.

For example, writing ‘Canada’ could lead to ‘Rockies’ which could lead to ‘skiing’ or ‘horseback riding’; or it could lead to ‘Wilderness’ which could make you think ‘camping skills’ and ‘kayaking’.  Either way, if you read up on these things or gained the new skills needed before you arrived – your trip would become 100 times better.

I wouldn’t want to try setting up a tent for the first time in the middle of nowhere – and I certainly wouldn’t want to try to eat plants or mushrooms in the ‘wild’ having only just brought the book!

Once this diagram is complete, turn it into a 1 or 2 year plan – effectively finding out how long these things take to learn and planning backwards.

So, learning to dive might take around a week if you do it intense, whereas learning Chinese from scratch could take at least 6 months for general conversation – or more.  Fit these in around your existing plans and your work load to find out the best plan for you.

The First Steps:
The easiest first step is a trip to the library.  You don’t need to spend any money or risk any investment – just go grab some books about the things on your list and start reading.

It’s possible that you thought you could learn hieroglyphics yourself – but after reading the first book, you know you need help – or a lot longer!

Same goes for certain countries – what if you thought you liked a certain region and then found a better one – or you found out something about a region that you didn’t know about before and want to learn more!

Everyone has a spare 15 minutes a day to start reading stuff – so take the first step as soon as possible, and get learning!

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Hello again, and I hope you haven’t been caught up in all this airline trouble at the moment!

No doubt if you had booked a quiet trip by train across Europe, it could have been affected by thousands of other holidaymakers who couldn’t get on a plane! 

Your quiet out-of-the-way hotel could have been besieged by families waiting for a ferry or coach to turn up!  It could make for some really interesting articles but wasn’t much fun I’d imagine!

Anyway, lets get on with those already in the system – starting with a great post about travelling around the States using car-shares rather than the hassle of hiring one yourself or dragging your car across the country!  Follow the tips offered by Byteful Travel in How to Get Paid to Travel 1,000 miles: Craigslist and see if you can go on a great plane-free car-sharing friend-making adventure!

If you are traveling north to Canada instead then why not take a peek at the photos in Mark H’s article: Wicked But Stunning (Jasper National Park, Canada) where you can see images of pure tranquility! And imagine if you a life there for next too nothing – wouldn’t that make it all the more magical?

Eco Living Advice wants to share with you some destinations on the other side of the Atlantic with 7 Eco Friendly Tourist Destinations in the UK, showing that you don’t need to travel across oceans to see some great sites – you have plenty right where you are now!

And if you want to take along some pretty unique clothing and accessories when you travel – maybe for yourself (laptop bag) or for others (hair bands and wallets) – then take a look at some of the links which Gabriella White has in the post 100 Amazing Upcycling Ideas Anyone Can Do and maybe give one a try! It makes using all your rubbish so easy – and you get something totally unique virtually for free!

However, if you want a taste of a country without actually going there, take a look at the huge choice given by Rowena Hebert for travel literature that summons up the taste and feel of exotic or distant destinations that could interest and inspire you: 100 Novels That Let You Travel The World Without Leaving Home. I have added a few to my reading list that I hadn’t heard of before……

……but if you want to see rather than read, then take a look at Daniel Jones’ list of Top 100 Travel Photography Blogs and see some amazing shots – and like me you might wonder why you aren’t doing your own travel journal like this!

And finally, Jerry Rogers offers up a huge list of links for the student and includes a small section on green travel links 100 Essential Blog Posts for Students Going Green, and you might even find something else inspiringly green that you weren’t really looking for as well!

So, get reading and change today for the better…….

I watched a film last night that really was quite something – and it involved a quite amazing man!

It is a film about a man from Slovenia called Martin Strel, who loves endurance swimming, and who has decided to swim the giant rivers of the world to highlight water pollution in the regions.  He has already swam the lengths of the Danube in Europe, the Mississippi in North America and the Yangtze in China – and set his heart on being the first person to swim the full length of the Amazon!

You might think that this devoted eco-saviour was the epitome of youth and finesse, with multi-national backing (or rich parents). 

He certainly is someone who doesn’t mind a challenge, but in the words of his own website:  ‘Martin is also a rather overweight, horseburger loving Slovenian in his fifties who drinks two bottles of red wine a day… even when swimming.’

The Man Himself:
The film is certainly a bit kooky and makes you feel as though you are right in the thick of the action, but I really was amazed at the character of this man!

The things he did and has done is really like no one else I have ever heard of – and if the whole thing wasn’t an elaborate set up – he really is a truly amazing individual.

You follow his life in the run up to the trip to the Peru starting point, where you see him striding around his local town (and other cities) in just his speedo’s; you see him mixing with the kids in his local pool, sitting in a cave and then mixing with some of the ‘It’ crowd of his country.

He certainly spans the generations and social classes with ease – but says very little.  Many a moment is spent watching him smiling at the crowds.  And when he does speak it is usually something quite funny!

How he managed to keep swimming for up to 12 hours a day for the 10 weeks it took him is a miracle.  And in one scene you see him arrive in a town after a days swimming to a huge crowd.  Now, it would have made sense to wave a bit, then go and sleep all night after a shower and a hearty meal – but no, he’s there for the people.  He joins them (still in his wetsuit) for a long parade through the streets in the dark!

The Swimming:
The length of the Amazon River is like swimming across the whole Atlantic Ocean – except there are no piranhas in the Ocean!

His health would really be put at risk from the water itself – not just the endless swimming and virtually the whole day being wet!  There were many assistants to spot dangers like flesh-eating fish, giant anacondas and alligators as well as whirl pools and whole trees caught in the flood!  As well as doctors to make sure that he didn’t become infected with parasites, bacteria and other tiny invaders!

He also had to contend with second degree burns from the tropical sun reflecting off the water onto his face!

Of course, no ordinary swimmer could complete this challenge.  Martin is a well known marathon swimmer and spends over a year training for such events – he spent 3 on this one though!

The Result:
By combining such a mammoth adventure with a charismatic lead character as well as the most beautiful backdrop – they were onto a winner.

If only this film does manage to help the environment in some way, as well as the people who rely on the river – then it was worth one mans extraordinary effort…..

….and the least you can do is watch it!