EcoTeach travelers will help researchers from the University of Costa Rica pioneer the first conservation project involving amphibians in Veragua Rainforest Park. The project is the first of its kind in Costa Rica and Central America.  The project focuses on two critically endangered species of frogs and will attempt to establish artificial breeding sites within the forest that mimic the species’ natural breeding sites.  EcoTeach travelers will help track the number of frogs colonizing the breeding sites, the number of deposited egg masses and the level of predation.  They will record temperature, relative humidity and rainfall and then cross- reference the data with the species’ behavior and activity levels.

When travelers are not working side by side with researchers, they’ll experience Veragua’s 3,400 acres of tropical rainforest that offer breathtaking views of endless mountains, the world’s largest nocturnal-ambience frog habitat, wild flora and fauna, a zipline tour through the rainforest canopy and amazing waterfalls.

Veragua Rainforest Research & Adventure Park is located near the Caribbean town of Limon and was developed in 2004 by a group of local Costa Ricans. The park was born out of a passion for conservation and a desire to promote education and respect for the environment while introducing sustainable development opportunities to surrounding communities.

If this sounds like your type of learning adventure, visit us at www.ecoteach.com!

Do you still have cookie dough in your freezer from last year’s fundraiser?  Tired of magazine subscriptions and wrapping paper?  We were. That’s why we’re excited to offer Tortuga Coffee, www.tortugacoffee.com, and why we’re dedicated to fundraising with a conscience.

Tortuga Coffee works directly with Sol Colibri Coffee in Costa Rica to buy freshly roasted, organic & fair-trade certified coffee.  Sol Colibri Coffee represents hundreds of small, family-owned farms in the Dota region of Costa Rica and keeps all of the labor in their local community from growing to roasting to packaging.

Your group earns $4.00/12 oz. bag of coffee sold. Our easy-to-navigate website, www.tortugacoffee.com, was created to make ordering quick and easy.  Customers simply select your organization from a drop-down menu during the check-out process and your group earns credit for every bag of coffee sold in your group’s name.   Orders are shipped directly to the customer’s home or office.   No inventory, no distribution, no money handling.

To sign up for our fundraiser and learn more about the amazing work being done by Sol Colibri Coffee, contact us at 1-888-894-3603, ext. 10 or info@tortugacoffee.com.

For a long time, EcoTeach has been known for our amazing, hands-on conservation trips to Costa Rica. We are known by many for our work with turtles. We are always looking for new places where we know our student groups will have life changing experiences…and we’ve just found our latest addition in Mexico:  Mayto Sea Turtle Camp and Huichol Sierra Madre. Both are located in the Jalisco province of Mexico and both are extraordinary!

The Huichol Sierra Madre itinerary offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to become completely immersed in an ancient indigenous culture- the Huichol.  Travel to the Sierra del Nayar and stay in cabins built by the community, volunteer at a local health clinic or school, fish with the Huichol, learn their crafts, experience their rituals and play a favorite sport – volleyball.   This itinerary is available year-round.

The Mayto Sea Turtle Camp itinerary is focused on conservation, culture and community service work.  At Mayto, the high season for nesting turtles is July-February – the months where Leatherbacks are not nesting at our Costa Rica projects – and offers a chance to a see a variety of sea turtles.  Spend four nights at the camp and participate in nightly beach patrols, work with the local staff biologist, explore the flora and fauna in the surrounding area, visit a bat cave and perhaps swim with turtles at a nearby beach.  After volunteering at the camp, spend several days in the small, coastal town of San Pancho, go on a jungle tour and participate in service work at the San Pancho cultural center.

Check out all of the details at:  www.ecoteach.com.

EcoTeach is excited to team up with Wild Travelers to share these wonderful Mexico itineraries with our travelers.  Wild Travelers was founded by leaders of several international wildlife and conservation organizations, such as Wildcoast (USA), Global Volunteer Projects (UK), Alexdinamo (MEX), Los Otros Mexicanos (MEX), E.C.O.  (USA), and Save the Rain Forest (USA.)  Wild Travelers has helped promote and enact several progressive environmental regulations that are already making a notable difference.

Many of you are making the decision to buy organic because you know the environmental benefits… better water quality, healthier soils, less toxins in our bodies. But did you know that buying organic can also save turtles? Here’s how:

In conventional, non-organic banana plantations, growers cover the bananas with large blue plastic bags to ensure that the fruit ripens in a uniform way. When the bananas are ready to harvest, the bags are cut down and left on the ground while the bananas are taken to market.

Blue Banana Bags

When the rains inevitably follow, the blue bags are carried from the plantation through canals and to the sea. Bearing a strong resemblance to jellyfish, the sea turtles primary food source, the bags are often mistakenly ingested by turtles. Unable to digest the bags, the turtles die as a result of eating them.

Plastic in our oceans is not a problem only for sea turtles – virtually every marine aquatic and bird species has been harmed by some form of floating plastic in the ocean. Birds, whales, dolphins and fish have all been harmed and killed by inadvertently eating plastic debris.

What can we do to save the animals from death by plastic? We can minimize our use of plastic and avoid products that cannot be recycled. We can “pre-cycle” by selecting packaged foods that, instead of plastic, come in cardboard containers. We can choose wooden toys instead of plastic, use paper bags for groceries (or better yet, bring our own!), use refillable water bottles, and – of course – buy organic bananas.

At EcoTeach, we feel so fortunate to receive updates about and from our former travelers. Some travelers are inspired to go on to college to study marine biology or environmental science, others contact us to find out how they can go back and volunteer at the projects they visited and some are so touched by their experiences that they simply want others to have the same opportunity. We want to share some of these remarkable stories with you.

Honestly, this is why we do what we do!

I have to take the bus to work very early in the morning and it is often full of other people on their way to work. Yesterday there was only standing room and I was glad to stand and hold onto the bars just like we did on the way back from visiting the Bri Bri tribe. I was so happy standing there because I was remembering being soaking wet, sun burned and full of a sense of adventure. Everyday I find something new that reminds me of our trip and I know the same happens to everyone else. From the trees that remind me of the jungle, to smells of fresh fruit or hearing Bob Marley and a million more things. I know that trip changed all of our lives. I still remember the day Marjie (teacher) came up to me and told me about it. I fell in love with Costa Rica and I know one day I will be back.

Pura Vida,
Megan
Scriber Lake H.S., Edmonds, WA

Megan will be working with the students at Scriber Lake H.S. to help them raise the funds needed for their trip to Costa Rica this year. Thank you Megan, and thank you to everyone else who has taken the time to tell us how traveling with EcoTeach has changed their world. And, while we’re at it we’d be remiss if we didn’t remind you that the EcoTeach “How Travel Has Changed Your World” Contest is going on now through the end of April. Write just 250 words or less about that topic and you could win $500 EcoTeach bucks or any of several other prizes. Your odds are great as we don’t have as many entries as we’d like (wink, wink) so please enter today! Check out the contest website at www.ecoteachcontest.com for more details.