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

Why Student Travel in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a country that first of all is close to the US. It is a two and a half hour flight from Miami which is closer to Miami than most parts of the US. Student travel in Costa Rica has grown over the last few years for and it is not only because of the natural beauties of volcanos, waterfalls, and beaches. Costa Rica student travel is supported very much by the locals of Costa Rica. It gives the rural Costa Rica a chance to take part in tourist activities. This works as an incredible income for the local families and allows for different parts of the tourist industry to get a cut of the pie and not just large hotels and larger tour operators. The people of Costa Rica are educated and extremely hospitable to tourist groups. With a little training almost any rural town in Costa Rica can become an incredible experience for any student group. The activities that the locals can offer can range from staying in homes in rural villages, cooking classes, dance classes, taking a few Spanish classes, or just an all out soccer game of locals vs tourist. There is one particular town that our company works with that is called Sitio de Mata and it is amazing how far they have come in making the rural experience truly an unforgettable event. Everytime a group shows up it seems that they have improved in some way. The attention to detail and service is at a 5-Star level in a rural setting which makes it truley a real Costa Rican experience. With a student travel trip to Costa Rica make sure you involve a local experience wether it be a few nights in a home or just stopping by for lunch and a coffee its surely worth hanging with the locals a bit.

The Tico's Monkey

Image by Daniel Greene via Flickr Quick Facts:

- Squirrel Monkeys live in the Tropical Forest in the Canopy

- Brain to Body mass is 1:17 which is the largest of all primates
humans have a ration of 1:35.

- They live in groups of up to 500.

If I had to pick a monkey that best represents to people of Costa Rica I would have to go with the Squirrel Monkey. First of all they happen to be the smallest monkey in Costa Rica. Most Ticos happen to be not extremely large although with the arrival of Wendy's and other fast food chains this could change. When on a family vacation or traveling with your students I suggest taking the extra effort to try and see these monkeys. One sure bet is that they will make their way to the park of Manuel Antonio at 4pm everyday jumping ridiculous lengths and free falling to and grabbing onto branches the size of an eyelash. Another reason why I like to call this the Tico's monkey is that it is the most passive monkeys. I feel this is quite fitting for a country that doesnt have an army and for a country that has a reputation of the people being very peaceful and kind. Probably the most interesting fact about this monkey is that is that it is endangered. There are an estimated 1500 monkeys left in Costa Rica and this is the only area where these monkeys can be found making it endemic to Costa Rica. So if you have the chance to pass by Manuel Antonio make sure you pass by and visit a species that might not be along too much longer. We can hope that it is and their are associations doing much to help and if you want more information you can visit www.ascomoti.org.

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The New Highway from San Jose to the Pacific

With over 34 years of waiting it seems that the famous Caldera highway is now open. If we do the math the highway stretches 77km and if it took 34 years that would make the average of almost every 2 km took a year. They followed all the proper standards for road construction with 1 guy working and 4 guys watching. It took 34 years for the first week to have people still complaining when it was open. The main complaints I have heard so far is that the extra emergency lane for ambulance and fire rescue is only usable if you plan on rescueing somebody in a vehicle no bigger than a Harely. Another complaint was that the steep cliffs that have been cut through the mountains had softball size rocks fall into the road becuase of heavy winds. This could make it very interesting for the rainy season and lets hope it does not turn into a nightmare of landslides like Cerro de La Muerte highway. All in all the highway is still much much nicer than the other option of getting to the coast. The highway measures 77km and literally cuts your time in half of driving to the Pacific Coast. The cost with all the tolls comes to a total of $3.47 which most people are happy to pay to get to the beach before sunset after a long day of work. There are still some people that are not that happy to pay. The local communities where this highway blasted through has some of the locals not too happy. They are asking for stop lights which might not happen but they are also upset that they have to pay the tolls of which a lot of them might have to travel to San Jose daily for work and spend 20% of their daily salary on tolls. With all of this said the highway will open up amazing opportunities for this country and it seems that mostly everyone thinks it was worth the 34 year wait.

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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