Facebook Page

With the use of Social Media basically for anything and everything now the tourism industry is no exception. Our company here at Costa Rican Resource uses Facebook quite a bit as a way of letting former clients know how we are doing and also a chance for interested clients to get a chance to hear from groups we have worked with in the past. It is a great social interaction and a chance for us as a company to be vocal on some of the important issues we try to show as a company. Some of these issues might involve ways to protect the environment and community service work all around Costa Rica and ways you can help. With this said I invite everyone to visit our Facebook page and to become a fan of http://www.facebook.com/costaricanresource?ref=ts (Costa Rican Resource). We promise to keep you informed on many events of Costa Rica and be on a more personal level with our staff, guides, and former clients.

A nature guides advice

It was about a week ago that one of our nature guides Jheudy Carballo made the comment to me "Im so proud of what my kid did yesterday". I was expecting the response that his son scored 4 goals in a soccer game or he got straight A's on his report card. To my surprise these were not the childs accomplishments. What Jheudy was so proud of that his son did was walk into the grocery store, buy a few items, and tell the bag boy that he did not need a plastic bag. He got into the car holding all the things in his hand and was on his way. Jheudy noticed what his son did and instantly felt good and proud of what his son did.

Jhuedy was proud because he is a naturalist guide that works for our company and has a sincere love for nature and is always looking for ways to protect it. Jheudy looks at the beautiful natural surroundings of Costa Rica as his workplace, his office, and his home and he wants to do everything to make sure it stays that way. Jheudy starts his lessons by teaching at home to his son. Since his son was young Jheudy has taught to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and REJECT. The last "R" of Reject is exactly why Jheudy was so proud of his son. If you dont need the plastic bag then dont take it. Jhuedy was able to see first hand through his son that it is possible to educate the next generation and leave make this planet a much better place.

Americans use around 100 billion plastic shopping bag each year and less than 1% of these bags are recycled. To make these bags it uses around 12 million barrels of oil. It is important to reuse the plastic bags as many times as you can. It turns out that in places such as San Francisco plastic bags are not even an option as the government voted to ban the use of plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and pharmacies. Most people that would use a plastic bag at a pharmacy would use a plastic bag just to carry a few pills.

When you feel you need a bag or you just get tired of walking out of the store with your hands full there is a solution before using a plastic bag. You can get yourself a reusable bag of nylon, cotton, and other materials (one nylon grocery bag requires the same amount of energy as producing 50 plastic bags). Most places will not care if you arrive with your own bag. Also put the recycle logo on your bag and be a marketer for what you are doing.

Congrats to Jheudy not only for being a good naturalist guide and an excellent father but helping set an example on a simplier and greener way to live your life.

Ideas for Traveling Green

When thinking of your family vacation to Costa Rica or a student travel trip to Costa Rica think of all the things that can be done so not only you can enjoy the trip but the beautiful natural beauties around you can enjoy also. First of all try and use the same towel and linens during your stay at a hotel. The average hotel room consumes more than two hundred gallons of water per day. Using the same water and towel can save up to 40% of the usage of water in the hotel.

It seems that on some vacations that you can't leave anything behind. Well if you are coming to Costa Rica it is a casual dress from start to finish and its never really cold so PACK LIGHT! Every additional ten pounds per traveler requires 350 million gallons a jet fuel per year. This is enough to keep in flight a 747 for ten years.

The idea that a disposable camera can be recycled is garbage. More than half the camera ends up as trash. Since we have the digital camera now and you can get them for almost around $100 bucks make the investment. There are over 686 million rolls of film still developed every year which have hazardous chemicals to them.

The luggage tag on your suitcase although seems like a very small piece paper is still a waste. If every American before their flight used the original luggage tag from the bag instead of taking the tag the airlines have on their counters we would save 60 million sheets of paper each year. Also when making the purchase of your airline ticket you dont have to print it out. They call them e-tickets for a reason and again if every American did not print out their e-tickets there would be a lot of paper saved.

Bring your own!!! What I mean by this is dont forget your toothpaste, shampoo, bodywash, ect. The hotels offer the little bottle samples but you dont need them unless you really forgot yours. A 300 room hotel in Las Vegas uses over 150,000 plastic bottles a year.

When you leave your home let it take a rest. Dont forget to unplug your appliances, stop newspaper and mail. This is energy that does not have to be used if nobody is home.

Bottled water. The water in Costa Rica is some of the cleanest water you will find on the planet. Check with your guide and dont be afraid to fill up a bottle water and not have 100 empty plastic bottles laying around the car.

I know if you do some of these small things it can make a big difference. You will surely still enjoy your trip and the natural surroundings that are putting on the spectacular show will thank you for it and your kids and their kids will have a chance to enjoy the same trip. Buen Viaje!!!!!!!!!!

information taken from "the green book" www.readthegreenbook.com

Costa Rica ranked number 3 on the Planet

Image via Wikipedia Just this last week the news came out that Costa Rica was ranked number three on the planet for protecting their land and environment awareness. The ranking was based on Environmental Performance Index (EPI). This is the third report of this biannual study that measures how a country is addressing pollution control and natural resource management challenges. The EPI is split up into 10 different categories of which each country is studied on which are: environmental health, air
quality, water resource management, biodiversity and habitat, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and climate change. This was a study done by Yale University including over 160 countries. The two countries that were ahead of Costa Rica were Switzerland and Iceland. This is a great accomplishment for Costa Rica ranking third compared to the US ranking 61. The US was ranked very well for safe drinking water and forest preservation but really fell with emissions of gases. Costa Rica can be very proud of being so close to the top in a decade in when the country has gone through so much development. The new and up coming countries of China and India are ranked 121 and 123. This study was concluded at the end of 2009 and does not reflect any action that has gone into affect for 2010. Much of the study is based on the amount of money a country is willing to invest in the the environmental concerns of the nation. Not to say that money will fix everything but when money is managed correctly and invested into the environment of a nation it seems that their scores became higher. Chile invest a lot of money into their environment and was ranked a solid 16th while Argentina does close to nothing for the environment and was ranked 70th. One interesting fact in the Press Release of this study is that the countries known to have less corruption in the govt were also seen to have better scores on the EPI. So I leave you with saying dont be afraid to invest a little in your environment it makes for a great gift to anyone.

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