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.

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.

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.

Unfortunately, cooking over open flame stoves is the way of life in many third world countries. That’s why SeaChar, a Seattle based, non-profit group, developed the Estufa Finca BioChar project. SeaChar is researching and building small clean burning stoves. The biostoves, as they are called, use an extremely efficient biomass gasification technology that produces clean heat and gas. The stoves produce 60-75% fewer emissions while co-generating biochar, a fine-grained, porous charcoal that can be used as a soil amendment and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The stoves can be made out of “found objects” like discarded paint cans, pieces of corrugated tin roof, even an Altoids mint tin.

Several months ago, Art Donnelly, co-founder of SeaChar and Arturo Segura, owner of Costa Rican based Sol Colibri Coffee, met at a Seattle Tilth event. Donnelly was demonstrating the biostove technology and Segura became interested in the project as a way to help improve the living conditions for the migrant workers on his farm. Segura also was very interested in using biochar on his coffee farm.

SeaChar and Sol Colibri Coffee have partnered to bring the Estufa Finca BioChar project to the migrant workers of Central America. To be successful, SeaChar will need funding, materials and volunteers to travel to Central America to construct the stoves. Donnelly estimates that the stoves will cost as little as $20 each to build and believes that he can teach anyone to build them. He has been teaching stove building workshops in the Seattle area for six months and has built 65 stoves.

EcoTeach is excited about the Estufa Finca BioChar project and is working with Santos Tours, a Costa Rican eco-tourism company, to provide EcoTeach groups the opportunity to participate in stove building as part of the Highlands Community Service trip in the coffee growing region of the highlands of Costa Rica. If you’re interested in getting involved with the Estufa Finca BioChar project, please contact us at 800-626-8992 or stephanie@ecoteach.com.

Now that is one way that EcoTeach travel can help change the world.

Tell us how travel has, or could change your world in 250 words or less. It’s a short word limit, so make it powerful!

The rules:

• All entries must be original content.
• Maximum word limit of 250 words.
• Each entry may contain one photo.
• Limited to one entry per person.
• Entries must be submitted between March 1, 2010 and 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 30, 2010.

How it works:

Log onto www.ecoteachcontest.com any time from March 1 to April 30, 2010.  Submit your essay and up to one photo and voila, you’re entered! Once the entry period closes, we will open up all the submissions for four weeks of voting, beginning on Monday, May 3 and ending 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 31. Whichever essay gets the most votes wins! Winners will be announced on Tuesday, June 15.

The prizes:

To encourage globally conscious travel, the first and second place winners will be awarded EcoTeach Bucks that can be put toward any of our eco-trips to Costa Rica.  The EcoTeach Bucks can also be applied to EcoTeach merchandise or donated to the EcoTeach Foundation to support a specific project in your name. Five third place winners will walk away with an EcoTeach travel kit!

1 First Place Winner: $500 EcoTeach Bucks

1 Second Place Winner: $250 EcoTeach Bucks

5 Third Place Winners: EcoTeach Travel Kit (includes an EcoTeach T-shirt, EcoTeach stainless steel water bottle and a bag of our organic, fair trade certified coffee from the Sol Colibri co-op in Costa Rica.)

How to win:

Help yourself rake in the votes by spreading the word! After submitting your essay, send your essay link to your friends, family and social networks! Ask for votes on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. If you have a blog, link it there. Let people know how their support will help you change the world!

Remember, the contest launches March 1, so get writing.  Good luck, and as always, happy travels!

This year, EcoTeach and SEE Turtles are teaming up to bring you this opportunity. This 12-day adventure will be hosted by passionate sea turtle conservationist Zander Srodes and led by a highly experienced EcoTeach guide. The group will spend 8 life-changing nights in the peak of Leatherback nesting season protecting beaches along the Caribbean coast, working hands-on with the largest sea turtle species on earth.

This trip is for young adults and college students only. There are two trips – May 28 – June 8, and June 10 – 22. The cost is $1,595 (excluding airfare). More information is available through SEE Turtles or EcoTeach. Book early to reserve your space! Click here to request more information.

College credit is available through Eastern Washington University.

Salve las tortugas!

Getting started with EcoTeach:

• Select your trip dates. Contact us at 800-626-8992 and we’ll help you select dates that work for your group. The earlier you plan, the more likely your specific dates will be open.

• Choose an itinerary. We offer standard 9-day or 11-day itineraries, or we can customize a trip for you.  Do you want to work with sea turtles, observe manatees, stay with a local family, hike through rain forests, do reforestation work or visit an indigenous tribe?

• Put together a group of at least 7 travelers. EcoTeach can accommodate groups of 7-20 travelers.  Depending on the length of your itinerary, your trip is FREE when you put together a group of 7-10 travelers.

• Promote your trip! EcoTeach will set up a web site that keeps your group of travelers informed with your specific trip dates, payment deadlines, itinerary details, flight information, participant registration forms, international travel specifics, flyers to promote your trip, packing lists, etc.

• Know that your trip will have an impact on both the environment and your travelers long after they’ve returned home. Because we’re EcoTeach, and we know that travel can change the world!