Our friends at Bradt Travel Guides are working on a Malta guidebook, and this is your chance to have your photo used as their cover!

So WHAT do you win?

1. Your photo could be used on the new Bradt Malta guidebook – talk about bragging rights.
2. Malta Tourism Authority is giving the winning photographer a seven-night trip for two to Gozo, Malta’s sister island. Your flight from the UK + accommodations at the elegant and rustic 5 star Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz are part of the package.

How do I win?

Bradt’s looking for something distinct, so close-ups of Malta’s famous colourful boats are out.   Find something that sums up the diversity and appeal of the Maltese Islands – perhaps one of Malta’s historical sites with the sea, or shots of Valletta’s steep streets.

Take a look here for some ideas on typical guide covers: Bradt guides

Look for photos that are:

• Bold, striking, colourful
• Clean, uncluttered
• Representative of the Maltese Islands
• In portrait format (or can be cropped) with space for the title text

How to enter this contest

There are two ways to enter:

1. By email
   Email your photo to malta@bradtguides.com with the subject ‘Malta Cover’
   Make sure the image is no smaller than 216mm x 116mm and 300dpi
   Be sure to include your name, address and contact information
2. By snail mail
   Mail a CD with your name and address on the CD and title it ‘Malta Cover’
   send it to:Bradt Travel Guides
   23 High Street
   Chalfont St Peter
   Bucks, UK SL9 9QE
   Note that CDs will not be returned.

Deadline
Everything must be received by October 31, 2009!

Additional details and the full terms and conditions can be found here. Note that even though the rules say UK residents only, we got special permission for anyone to enter.

About Bradt
Hilary and George Bradt wrote their first guide on a river barge floating down a tributary of the Amazon. In the 30-plus years since then, the list of books has grown to cover over 130 unique and far-flung destinations: places like North Korea, Kazakhstan, and Ghana. A pioneer in tackling unusual destinations, Bradt was also the first travel publisher to champion sustainable travel and has been credited with helping war-torn countries on the road to recovery.

Note: Bradt reserves the right not to use any image from the competition if it won’t work on a commercial basis. In this event, Bradt will select a winning image to be published inside the book. Malta Tourism Authority reserves the right to use images submitted for promotional purposes.

Photo credit of Malta - photo by foxypar4

I love hearing other travel startup stories. We’re been doing this travel web site thing completely DIY style — hiccups, road bumps, total mess ups, exciting epiphanies and all, and it’s always refreshing to learn what others have done and persevered through.

Recently team GeckoGo had a chance to meet with Sam Shank, founder of TravelPost and DealBase.com. He shared with us a lot of insights learned, as well as how to improve our site. He’s a busy guy, so we were appreciative of his time.

So what’s DealBase?

Ever heard about the great hotel deals that other people keep talking about where you stay in a 5 star hotel for 70% off?

Ever successfully get one yourself?

Those are hard to find eh?

DealBase bring all the hotel deals out there to one place so that you can find that elusive hotel deal and take advantage of it. Their Deal Analyzer compares the deal with the regular hotel list price so you know how much you’re actually saving. As of right now, they’ve got over 33,000 deals posted on their site and lots of filters so you can find the specific block of deals by hotel class rating, location, time of year and more. They currently focus on deals in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean, but are expanding internationally (take a look at these London hotel deals for example)

Check ‘em out!

Thanks Sam!

p.s. We’ve also chatted with and like the guys over at Voyij who also offers flights and vacation deals, so I’m excited to see the deal space advanced by both these teams. What’s more they are on friendly terms with one another. You guys both rock! I’m looking forward to consuming some sweet travel deals pronto!

So Agustina, What is Dolomite Mountains?
We’re a local company – the only one currently based in the Dolomites. We have always specialized in providing unique experiences in adventure travel and we decided to take our 15 years of experience in guiding and creating tours to create the ultimate experience in the Dolomites — which I think is one of the most beautiful natural settings on earth.  We want to do this while making sure our programs are low impact and don’t affect the environment.  We offer both customized guided and self guided trips that go off way off the beaten path so you can enjoy something really unique.

How did you get started?
Since I was young I wanted to see the world and live in other places. So at 19 years I left to go to California to study Fashion Design and Photography where I stayed for a couple of years studying and working. I did not like the fashion business though. From there I went to Toronto where I started working for B&Robinson in 1994. While guiding for them I discovered the Dolomites and settled down. My heart is divided between the Dolomites where I live and have developed my business and Argentina where I grew up fly fishing and horse riding in my family’s Estancia in Northern Patagonia. Being able to combine work, family and fun together has always been my goal.

Why the Dolomites?
The Dolomites offers an incredible variety of diverse landscapes, lush valleys, breathtaking panoramas, and friendly inhabitants. We consider the Dolomites the “Crown Jewel” of the Alps. From soaring peaks to elegant spires to sheer rockface, there are so many opportunities for exploration and adventure. This unique corner of the Alps has a number of different valleys - from the charming Italian atmosphere of the Ampezzo region to the green pastures of the Dolomiti de Sesto to the towering peaks of the Val de Fassa and Val di Zoldo regions. In this region, there’s something for every type of adventure traveler. Combine that with romantic Relais & Chateaux properties and charming rifugios atop mountains, great spa treatments, 2 star Michelin restaurant alongside local authentic cuisine and you’ve got an experience that can’t get better.

Where do you operate?
All over the Dolomites. Before I run a tour though, it’s important for me to check it first to make sure I like it. This way when we’re recommending something on the phone or preparing a trip we know where it is and how best to do it.

Tell me a bit more about the guides who lead your trips
Our guides are passionate mountain enthusiasts who work year round in the outdoor industry and are dedicated to providing our guests an exceptional experience. You will find your guide very familiar with the local terrain, culture, food and customs and conversational in at least one of the principal languages in the region. Most importantly, our guides that are fun to be with.

All our guides have outdoor leadership certifications and continue their education with advanced guiding and leadership courses. They are either UIAGM/IFMGA professional mountain guides or trekking/biking guides.

Your guides definitely seemed passionate about the region and about all these activities! Marica told me she climbs in her spare time, and Luca said he’d just come back from the K2 region. Impressive! Plus it was fun going into a long discussion with Karin and Marica on which brand of climbing shoes were the best.

What are some of the most popular trips?
The most popular trips are the ones you go from one valley to the other similar to what you did. In terms of activities, most people either go hiking or a via ferrata. Also the Rifugio to Rifugio trips are quite popular specially active and younger crowds.

What’s a Rifugio to Rifugio trip?
That’s where you stay up in the mountains hiking and lodging overnight from hut to hut. It’s quite the experience and I recommend you try it at least once while you’re in the area.  The rifugios we use are more like mountain inns with private rooms situated in spectacular locations!

What advice can you give about choosing a guide or trip?
We send a trip questionnaire as soon as we receive the inquiry. And after we do a conference call to get more details and talk with the customer. From there we set up the trip for our guests The guide we choose it depending on how many are in the group, the difficulty and age of the clientele. So just tell us what you have in mind and we’ll guide you to the right experience.

What’s next for you?
Develop the luxury high end (active, gourmet, spa like Rosa Alpina style), the Latin American market (Spanish as I am Argentinean) and Become the N.1 local company in the dolomites !

Well good luck to you and the team, and congrats on your launch!

Dolomite Mountains srl
The Ultimate Active Experience in the Dolomites
Visit their web site
Phone: +39 04367355

Edward Aruna doesn’t stop smiling. Even when he’s on a bone-crunching boat ride. At each wave, our small fibre-glass boat smashes down on to the Atlantic, only to rise seconds later. After a night of dancing in

Freetown until the wee hours Salone-style, it’s a fair bit to take. Mostly he’s laughing at me, but he’s also smiling at the task ahead. In a poor country with few services and where people appreciate face-to-face contact more than any other form of communication, he’s turned ocean-going postman for the day. And it’s all in honour of sea turtles.

Aruna, 39, is delivering appeals to harbour masters up and down the coast. They might be protected by law, but the threatened animals (some of which are critically endangered) face capture in fishermen’s nets, being eaten by villagers keen for their meat or eggs, and losing their nesting sites to new constructions, sand mining and rising sea waters at the country’s 70 major fishing centres strung out along 650km of shoreline.

“I want to lead my life full of challenges so I took this one up,” says Aruna, who has been working at the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone for nearly 15 years, researching and protecting sea turtles at exquisite spots along the country’s coast – including the aptly named Turtle Islands. “I like this work so much – I got so interested.”

Aruna has established that the hot west African country is home to five of the world’s seven species of sea turtle (loggerhead; leatherback; green; hawksbill and olive ridley). He’s also worked with coastal communities – such as the fishermen to whom he delivers letters by boat – to tag and release more than 200 sea turtles since 2003. Backed by international donors, Aruna has hired 30 beach monitors, and helped persuade local communities to enjoy the turtles’ looks instead of their flesh.

Aruna says the efforts have resulted in a drastic drop in the rate of exploitation of sea turtles in the country. However, the programme has only covered half the coastline, and CSSL says some communities are still bent on killing and collecting eggs – a danger for all sea turtles given they are a migratory species.

For more information, or to give a donation to CSSL’s Save A Sea

Turtle campaign, please contact: SLTCP–SL, Conservation Society of

Sierra Leone, 2 Pike Street, Off Campbell Street, Freetown; tel: +232 33 470 043 / 76 645 130 / 077 459 339; email: info@conservationsl.org, seaturtle_sle@yahoo.co.uk, web: http://conservationsl.org/

The plastic bag is highly over specified for the job for which it was designed. Required to serve us for the hour or two it takes us to get our shopping home instead it is expected that the bags will last for hundreds of years. Tragically the Leatherback, the biggest member of the turtle family, is prone to mistaking the discarded bags that litter the world’s oceans with jellyfish - its only source of food. Enter the Turtle Trolly, by Turtle Bags (www.turtlebags.co.uk). Inspired and created in Sri Lanka, The Turtle Trolley is a product of the Turtle Conservation Project in Rekawa, southern Sri Lanka. The gorgeous fabrics are made on hand looms and the bag sits on a lime green fold-away frame with telescopic handle. Say goodbye to the plastic bag and hello to conservation! This month we’re giving away two Turtle Trolleys.  For your chance to win, share a travel tip that helps us perserve our environment!  Click here to share your tip!

THE BEGINNING
by Hilary Bradt

To begin at the beginning. Right at the beginning. In 1964 I saw a performance of the play The Royal Hunt of the Sun at London’s National Theatre. It was about the conquest of the Incas, and the (fictional) relationship between Pizarro and the supreme Inca, Atahualpa. I was completely bowled over by the story. Hitherto I’d known nothing about the Incas and precious little about Peru. I set about reading everything I could about the subject and started planning a trip to South America.

In 1969 I stood at the Gate of the Sun in Machu Picchu and looked down an overgrown path that disappeared into the jungle. Where did it lead? I wondered. I had found only one travel guide that suited my purposes, and it was in my luggage back in Cuzco. The information on South America was scanty, as the book covered the whole world, but it was the inspiration in How to Travel Without Being Rich that mattered.

I hadn’t wanted to travel on my own, but the desire to see Peru — the country that had obsessed me for five years — was stronger than any fear. How to Travel Without Being Rich told me about the trade routes through South America and explained how I could travel by local bus from the Mexican border to Peru and down the Amazon. As a young, single woman I found the hospitality overwhelming and at times a bit alarming, but I learned how to look after myself and became a good judge of whether it was safe to follow up an invitation or not. I stayed with a family in Bogota so poor that they ate potatoes three times a day, and one in Quito where I rode thoroughbred horses and rang for the maid if I wanted coffee. And I had some scary moments alone with men with only one thing on their minds.

In 1973 I married George Bradt in Boston and we decided that instead of having a conventional honeymoon, we would backpack our way through South America, and finance the trip by persuading our friends and relations to give us money rather than wedding presents. To make this more interesting we made a list of what travel experience each present would provide: $5 for a hotel with a hot shower or bribe money for getting out of jail (unused!) to $100 for a day in the Galpápagos Islands. Our friends were generous and we set out with $1,800. We were still travelling – in Africa – four years later.

The writing really started with the wedding list. Whenever we did something special, whether it was a nicer than usual hotel at the end of a long trek, a special meal, or the much anticipated trip to the Galápagos, we each wrote a descriptive letter to the person who had earmarked their present to be used this way – a valuable exercise in ‘painting the picture’ in words. Our first guidebook, Backpacking along Ancient Ways in Peru and Bolivia, was another offshoot of having time on our hands during a long river trip and something to share with other backpacking gringos. And, yes, I found where that path from Machu Picchu went to: it’s now known as the Inca Trail.

Hilary Bradt co-founded Bradt Travel Guides in 1974 with her then husband George Bradt. The original Bradt guide — “the Little Yellow Book”  — came into being after a slow journey by river barge down one of the Amazon’s tributaries. Typed in the small town of Trinidad and printed in Boston, it sold for $1.95! Since then Hilary has authored 13 books, contributed to countless newspaper and magazine articles on a variety of subjects, and lectured worldwide on travel-writing. She swears that her total lack of a sense of direction has stood her in good stead as a guidebook writer: she knows the importance of clear, easy to understand directions.

Now your chance to share back!  Give us your best tips for travelling on a shoestring and your tips could be published in a future Bradt Guides Publication!  Just click on this link and share your tip!  You could also win a Bradt Guide of your choice for submitting your best tips!

Pokin: Hi Ted, Great to get you here today.  Can you tell us a bit about your background?

I became enamoured with the travel industry, particularly with international travel when I took my first trip to Europe and discovered the whole backpacking train.  I spent some time there, went back to study abroad in Spain a year later, spent a summer in Southeast Asia, and after graduating from my undergrad, figured that a real job didn’t sound too fun.  So, I moved to Australia and New Zealand for a year where I really had my eyes opened full scale to the depth and breadth of the tourism industry.  I met friends who had degrees in eco-tourism, saw the size and scope of their work on sustainability to be much larger than what was going on in the US, and figured,that, with my passion for travelling, sustainable tourism would make a great career.

On return, I moved to Arizona, where i earned a master’s degree in tourism development at Arizona State and conducted research focused on ecotourism development in Central America.  Meanwhile, I met the guys from Sustainable Travel International and have been working with STI ever since.

So did you start at your current role, or how did things evolve?
Oh things have definitely changed a lot for me.  I started out with STI as a volunteer.  I knew this was the path I wanted to do – to take my studies in tourism and apply it to a sustainability focus.  I looked at the organization and knew this was who I wanted to work with.

At the time, STI was just the two co-founders.  I had the opportunity to visit with Peter, one of the co-founders, during a backpacking trip in Colorado.  There, I told him “Listen, I’m going to work for you whether you like it or not.  So how can we make this happen?”

I started volunteering a dozen or so hours a week during my grad program.  Over time, I took on more and more responsibilities.  Then, right as I was planning to leave Arizona (conveniently planning a move to Boulder), I found out that Peter was going to be heading to the UK and needed someone to take over the Colorado Operations.  I started out in a part time capacity and then moved into a full time position.  My title now is the Director of Outreach and Development.

We’re still a small organization, about 8 on staff, and all of us wear lots of different hats, which keeps things exciting.  We’re always on different projects and developing new programs.   My main responsibility is to get out to the community, to speak at industry events, to table trade shows and just get out there to raise awareness.

I can definitely relate to the different hats – it certainly keeps it all interesting!  So tell me more about the organization.  How would you describe Sustainable Travel International?

STI is a membership-based, non profit organization.  The overarching goal is to mainstream sustainability in the travel and tourism industries.

The more specific mission is to promote responsible travel and provide educational information and outreach to both travellers and travel related businesses to help them maximize their positive impact across the environment, economy and culture.

That’s the quick conceptual background.

We’re taking a holistic approach towards sustainable tourism development.  What that means is that on one hand we want travellers to understand how to be more responsible – we want to empower them to make choices with the tools they need to minimize impacts.  This is about general educational information on how to become a responsible traveller – on creating the right kind of demand in the industry.   This helps travel services providers to move further down the path of sustainable travel.

On the other hand, a lot of what we do is work with travel-related businesses through our outreach programs – tour operators, transportation providers, destinations, travel agents, accommodations providers, associations, etc.  Our programs range from Eco-certification and carbon management to travel philanthropy and advisory services.

Would you share an example of the kinds of programs you’ve set up?

As an example, for carbon management, we work with Natural Habitat Adventures, a leading wildlife adventure travel company.  They run a lot of the WWF’s trips and do some really amazing work across the globe.   They came to us and said – “Listen, the reason people go on our trips is to see the wildlife and natural landscapes – we need to take a proactive approach to protecting it.  One of our biggest impacts is greenhouse gas emissions from our trips, and we’d like to offer our clients a carbon neutral trip.”  STI worked with them on a trip-by-trip basis, looked at all different itineraries, and created a comprehensive carbon footprint analysis for their field operations.  Since then, Nathab has been supporting high-quality carbon offset projects through STI’s portfolio.  They were the first nature travel operator to become a carbon neutral company.

Furthermore, in an effort to engage their travellers to be more responsible, Natural Habitat Adventure is encouraging their travellers to offset their flight emissions from their home to the destination to make this a full circle carbon neutral trip.  We created a custom carbon calculator and their sales staff takes clients throughout the process of offsetting a trip.

Aside offsetting carbon emissions, are there companies that are changing what they are doing?

Definitely, when it comes to carbon management, if you’re just offsetting, you’re not doing it right.  Natural Habitat Adventure has some amazing initiatives focused on minimizing their fuel consumption and maximize efficiency.  They built the first hybrid safari vehicle, and they’ve just gotten the first used veggie oil-powered safari bus!  Back in the office, they have a really sweet incentive program for employees to bike to work.  They give out a brand new bike for the employee who bikes the most – it’s ingrained into the culture of the company.  Everyone knows what to do and a lot of the ideas are coming from employees.

On the certification side, let me share with you another company – Escape Adventures.   They are a bike tour company operating out of the western United States – they mostly do mountain biking out of Las Vegas and the Moab.  These guys were the first company to earn the highest level of certification that we had given out, and they are doing some amazing things.

A big portion of the certification program is educating the business on what their impacts are, and on how to measure those impacts.  You can’t mitigate what you don’t measure!  We help them with quantifying electricity consumption, fuel consumption, water, waste – all to figure out how to bring down the impact.

So the cool things Escape Adventure has done – they put  solar panels on the roof of their office which powers most of the electricity use.  The run their support vehicles on veggie oil to cut down on green house gas emissions.  They have pretty close to a zero waste office having implemented some composting and some major recycling programs.  They’ve also spearheaded local initiatives – recycling bike tires – and even going beyond their own operations to get the community involved.  For instance they set up trash/recycling cans on major bike routes.  Mountain biking is a huge activity in this region and some bikers, when not given the opportunity, will just dump things on the ground.  So Escape Adventures is providing community resources to control the waste problem.

So all these initiatives sound great, and my question to you is – Why is sustainable travel so important?

That’s a really good question.  A lot of folks that I speak to don’t really understand what sustainable travel is, let alone why it is important.  They’ve heard the concept, heard the idea of green, but don’t understand why this movement is so crucial to the future of the industry.

The way I generally paint the picture – we are the largest industry in the world.  If you look at the the industry as a whole, travel-related activity represents 10% of the world GDP and workforce.  That’s enormous.

As the largest industry, we have some of the largest impacts.  And if we don’t start addressing these things, we won’t have the same world to travel in the future.

The majority of countries in the developing world (and many in the developed world) rely on tourism as their primary source of foreign exchange.  For the most, it’s one of the top 3 industries of their economy.  Unfortunately for these countries, tourism, when developed without proper planning, ends up not benefiting the local economy, and often destroying the environment and exploiting the cultural heritage of the host population.  Sustainable travel, on the other hand, is a type of travel that results in a net benefit for the people, environments, and economies of the destinations where it takes place.  It’s focused on long-term viability through minimized negative impacts and maximized positive impacts.

Why does this matter for the general consumer?

What does this mean to you?

Yes it’s great to do good for other countries.  But more importantly, we have to stop the destruction of the world’s most amazing places!  There are places in the world that your kids won’t be able to see because mass tourism has over-consumed all that the destination has to offer.  Even if you’re not worried, or don’t have kids, the bottom line is that we only have one planet and it needs to be protected to allow it to flourish for years to come.

On a more personal basis, sustainable travel makes for a richer and more authentic tourism experience.  Sustainable tourism encourages activities that allow you to interact with the locals and the destination, often facilitating a deeper connection and a more enjoyable experience.  Sustainable tourism is good for everyone – the destination, the host community, the environment, and of course, the traveler.

I’d say you don’t even have to wait until the next generation to see the effects of it.  I already hear lots of stories of how all the major summits – Kilimanjaro, Everest, Aconcagua are littered with trash.  It’s already unpleasant for tourists today to go through that trek.   Can you give me some examples of how tourism has destroyed areas?

Let’s take one – Cancun.  I’m not saying it’s a terrible place – many people enjoy the sun, sea and sand of the destination.  But it is a clear example of mass tourism development that does not benefit the local community, environment, or economy.  Many would argue that tourism is more harmful than beneficial in this region.

I’m sure most are familiar with issues like trash on the beach.  But what is important to realize is that the picture is much larger than the eye sore of a dirty beach.  The trash flows into the water, kills the marine life, destroys coral reefs, impacts water quality for locals and visitors alike, etc.  It’s a domino effect.

Then there’s the impact of leakage.  The money that’s spent in Cancun doesn’t actually stay there.  It doesn’t actually go to the families that live and work there.  Some argue as little as 10% of tourism revenues remain in the local economies of mass tourism destinations like Cancun.  While 10% might be a slight exaggeration, it’s not uncommon for 70%+ to flow out of the regional and national economies, due to the fact that most tourism-related businesses are owned by multi-national corporations. Most of that money actually leaks out to places like the US and Europe.

On the employment side, you’ll find local people in predominantly low-skilled jobs, with most of the management-level positions taken by foreigners.   So, in summary, locals are generally paid low wages to deal with the degradation of their environment, while left to deal with infrastructure issues (sewage, water, roads, etc) they can’t afford, while not reaping much in the way of financial benefits.  That’s the picture that’s being painted all around the world.

That’s the ugly side of tourism.  But that’s not how it has to be.  Well planned and sustainably executed tourism can have quite the opposite effect.  I think helping people realize that their purchasing decisions help to dictate the extent of the positive impact is important.

For instance – don’t eat at the chain restaurants when you are traveling abroad.  Eating at Bennigans or Chili’s in Mexico won’t benefit the local people, the local environment, or the local economy.  Go to a local restaurant, meet the owner – have more authentic food and enjoy a better experience.

So what’s next for you?

I’ll be continuing to do advocacy work with STI, continuing to develop the types of programs that the market needs to move down the path toward sustainability. For instance we’ll be launching a new consumer web site all about green travel – www.Green.travel - that we foresee to be a central source of information for consumers on understanding how they can actively participate in what we’re working on.

We’re also working these days more with destinations.  In the past we’ve focused on programs tailored toward individual businesses.  Now we’re focusing a lot of energy on implementing sustainability on a regional  and destination-level basis.  With this approach, we’ll be able to engage entire communities in the sustainability process, with the hopes that the destination is able to brand themselves as “green” and sustainable.

That’s definitely going to have a lot more impact if the push and drive is coming from a regional or city government.  So how can people get more involved?

The easiest thing to do is be a more responsible traveller.  This means being an educated consumer.  Your purchasing decisions dictate the positive or negative impact that your travels have.

Patronise local businesses whose values align with yours
Support locally owned businesses and artisans
Respect local customs and traditions
Learn about the destinations before you get there
Offset your carbon footprint
Give back to your destinations with your time or money

And even in your everyday life, think about how to live sustainably – every small action adds up to a big difference – Do your part!

Also if anyone is interested in volunteering.   We are a virtual organization.  We have a lot of stuff to be done and a small team.  Anyone who is interested should contact me at info@sustainabletravel.com

Well awesome Ted!  Thanks so much for your time today!

For further reading:
Learn more about Sustainable Travel International.
Offset your carbon foot print
See tips for responsible travelers
Donate to Sustainable Travel international

Eric: Your project sounds like an awesome initiative – what’s EotRF’s vision?

David: The core objective for us is really a commitment to the communities of the District of La Concepcion that can last for generations. Afro-Ecuadorians from this area have been totally forgotten about – the fact alone that slavery wasn’t fully abolished until 1965 is already mind-boggling. Unfortunately, development since then has been severely impeded by corrupt politics, prejudice toward black people, lack of economic stimulus, inconsistent prices for harvests, lack of social organization, and people just forgetting that we are all in this life together. So these communities need more than the occasional aid organization coming in for short periods at a time – things aren’t going to get better until someone comes in with long-term goals for improving the quality of life in the area in a lasting, sustainable way. That’s what we’re aiming for. We want to build safe playgrounds, bring agricultural innovation to the area, help improve schools and their infrastructure, and bring renewable energy to the communities of the District of La Concepcion and the greater Mira River Basin.

Eric: How did this project get started? What was it that made you decide to dedicate yourself this?

David: Well in 2003, I was working for the United States Peace Corps as a sustainable agriculture volunteer in the District of La Concepcion. I was seeing a lot of foundations and volunteer programs come into the area, give stuff away, and then leave - it was classic “give a man a fish so he can eat today” mentality. To give you an idea, one organization arrived to give away materials for building pig pens and supplied the community with young pigs for them to raise. Most of the beneficiaries ended up killing their pigs within a few months to get money from the sale of meat, rather than wait for the pigs to reproduce. A few months later, the same organization came back and gave away more pigs to the participants, who went on killing their pigs before getting any piglets from them. This kind of help really scares me – I don’t want the people of La Concepcion becoming dependent on an influx of free pigs every 3 months.

Anyhow, I was writing about all the problems I was witnessing, and realized the real cause was that there were no long-term commitments from these organizations for the betterment of the communities, only a commitment to fill out grants and play the numbers game. I couldn’t help thinking of how things could be done better, and I started dreaming about how I might connect people from my own community in the United States, to aid development of the communities from the Mira River Basin.

Since leaving the United States Peace Corps, my wife and I have continued to help people from the District of La Concepcion. We have fund raised and collected used clothes and toys to donate to the community, but it wasn’t until several years later, that I sent some of my writings to friends and family. In November of 2008, a good friend called me and first apologized for not reading the document before, then spoke of how inspired he was after reading the documents. Finally, it dawned on me that the time is now and EotRF was born.

Eric: One of the really cool things about catching you now, is that you’re still getting a lot of things set up for the foundation. How far along is the project right now? What have you been able to set up so far?

David: Yeah – we’re currently trying to get officially recognized as a non-profit corporation in the United States – which basically means filing paperwork with the IRS to gain NPO status. After finishing this process, we’ll have to go through the process in Ecuador. Getting recognized in the US first makes the legal process of becoming a non-profit corporation in Ecuador a lot faster and a lot easier.

While we’re still waiting on a lot of official paperwork to come through, we’re beginning to get the locomotive running. Through private donations we have been able to rebuild a roof for a paraplegic single mother, build eco-friendly dry composting toilets for the local high school, help rebuild several small animal cages, started a coffee project, helped a local man build a fruit tree nursery, and through a micro-finance loan, we have helped a pig farmer expand his project to improve birthing conditions for his female swine. We’ve also been able to host several volunteers, who’ve worked in elementary and high schools teaching English, worked with children in after school sports programs, and helped out on farms where they’ve learned how people in the area make their living.

Eric: So how can travelers help you now? What kind of volunteering opportunities can you offer them?

David: Volunteers are always needed and greatly appreciated. We try to make the best use of everyone’s individual skills and find the best fit for them, based on what it is they want get out of their experience. We have three main projects for volunteers right now; working on our farm, teaching in schools, and playing with children in after school sports programs.

If you’re working on the farm, you’ll enjoy the everyday chores of taking care of animals, seasonally milking a goat or cow and benefiting from the fresh (you might have to fight me for the goat’s milk), pruning fruit trees, lots of seasonal planting and weeding, fruit tree planting, organic fertilizer mixing, bee hive maintenance, and occasionally harvesting honey.

As for teaching in schools, most volunteers teach English, but many teachers are willing to incorporate volunteers in other classes as well. I really want to form after-school programs that have art and the environment as a primary focus, but we just don’t have the time or volunteer help needed to get this set up now.

Finally, we really encourage volunteers to interact with the kids through after school sports programs. There’s a soccer club in town that could always use an extra body to help in instruction and scrimmaging. Also we have frisbees, volleyballs and basketballs which we often use to teach sportsmanship and team work.

In all, we try to offer volunteers an experience they’ll never forget, one that’ll increase their awareness of our global community and contribute to their personal growth.

Eric: What are your thoughts about volunteer travel, and how it can help travelers experience genuine connection with the places they visit? You’ve had some travelers come and work with you already - what’s been the most significant thing they’ve gotten out of it?

David: Oh man - volunteer travel is definitely the most rewarding way to experience a new culture or place. I remember a volunteer coming up to me one day, telling me how she traveled to the county’s capital, Mira, for a political rally with her host family, where her host father introduced her as his daughter. I could see how moved she was from the kind of acceptance she’d received, the connection she’d made. You just cannot get that kind of experience on the gringo trail.

I mean, even for me – I share my time between the District of La Concepcion and my home in Quito, and it never ceases to amaze me how when I arrive on site, usually Monday afternoons, someone approaches me, often a small child, and gives me a full report on what my “sister” or “cousins” have been up to over the weekend. This is the kind of thing I wish travelers we’re experiencing a lot more of – it reminds us of the impact we make on others lives.

Eric: Do you have any advice for travelers looking to volunteer abroad

David: Finding the right volunteer program for an individual is extremely important. There are many volunteer opportunities where one can camp on site, live in a dorm-type setting with other volunteers, and like EotRF’s program, live with host families. Those interested should always take ample time to think about what they want to get out of the experience, before making a decision on where to travel.

Eric: Well, it’s really awesome you’re doing this. Definitely keep us updated on your progress - we’d be happy to have you back anytime to talk about how things are coming along. Thanks again for talking with us!

Learn more about the End of the Rainbow Foundation.

We’re super excited to announce that GeckoGo and Bradt Travel Guides has partnered to offer you even more great travel advice and information.

Starting today, you can find full excerpts of Bradt Guide content from countries ranging from Cape Verde to Colombia, Israel to Mongolia within the GeckoGo Guide sections.

What’s more, Bradt’s Travel Authors have joined GeckoGo too!  Look up more about your favourite author, learn the inspiration behind their guides, or ask them questions.   Over the next months, watch for special features. =)  Interested in a Bradt Guide?  Well GeckoGo members get a special 35% discount on all Bradt titles!

We’re thrilled about this because we’ve done quite a bit of travelling with a Bradt Guide tucked in our backpacks, and have long looked to Bradt Guides for really great quality advice and aligned ethos on minimal footprint positive travel.   In fact, we were so interested in Bradt that I think we must have called their office about 10 times and sent another 10 emails before we impulsively met with them on a last minute detour to London from Norway. :p

I hope you’re as excited as we are, and on behalf of the GeckoGo and Bradt team, enjoy! =)

Enjoy! =)

A project leader once told me the story of a small African boy who, while watching the umpteenth safari vehicle drive pass, asked his father, ‘Why don’t white people have legs?’ He had never seen tourists doing anything except riding in a 4×4 in pursuit of the next animal on their Big Five tick list.

Contrast this form of tourism with conservation volunteering. As a conservation volunteer you’ll have your feet firmly on the ground. You’ll be expected to work without pay, but you’ll learn things that no escorted tour group ever will. It stresses the point that while luxury safari groups no doubt enjoy a memorable holiday and never go without their creature comforts, they often miss the essence of the country they’re visiting. Instead of just passing through, conservation volunteers have the opportunity to really get to grips with an unfamiliar culture; you work with local people, as opposed to staring at them. You’re able to get a hands-on feel for the problems and issues associated with a particular project, and play an active role with the chance to participate in solutions.

The old adage: ‘you get what you pay for’ no longer applies to travelling. Nowadays, just going somewhere isn’t really much of an achievement. Discerning travellers are looking to contribute more and spend less during their travel experiences; they’re discovering that conservation volunteering produces returns far greater than any initial ‘investment’. It opens up opportunities to contribute directly to the survival or protection of a species and create friendships with local teams that endure long after a project ends.

But how to choose a project? A quick web search throws up a plethora of conservation volunteer outfits. Some are excellent, some are average and some fall below the ideal; some projects are just specialised forms of tourism (where the emphasis falls on satisfying a customer’s interests ahead of the needs of the project), others are grassroots NGOs. The objectives of all of them should be scrutinized carefully to ensure that they don’t operate in a western volunteer vacuum. The aims of a project should be clear; volunteers should be encouraged to engage respectfully with the local people; and local people should play a central role in project management.

One of my favourite examples is the reintroduction of Przewalski’s horses back into the wild in Mongolia’s Hustai National Park. These sturdy dun-coloured horses once roamed through Europe and Asia and were so common that our cave-dwelling ancestors depicted them in their cave art; one example in Lascaux, France, dates from 15,000BC. But by 1900 their range had been confined to the open steppes of Mongolia and by 1969 hunting, competition and interbreeding with modern horses, along with the widespread capture of foals for zoos and private collectors had led to their extinction in the wild. Subsequent inbreeding between captive family groups had led to a further decline in genetic resilience (one bout of disease could potentially have wiped out the remaining members of this ancient bloodline).

Dutch couple Jan and Inge Bouman decided to act and formed the Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski Horse in 1980. They raised funds, bought separate bloodlines from zoos around the world and started a cross-breeding programme to build up genetic diversity again. Because all the animals had been born into captivity for many generations there were additional problems of human habituation, dependence and a need to relearn social behaviours. Semi-wild reserves were created in the Netherlands and Germany where they began to live a semi-wild existence and, finally, in the 1990’s the groups were transported to Mongolia for controlled release back into the wild.

Today, volunteers are needed to track harems across the steppe, recording how they are adapting to wild conditions, as well as behaviour, formation of new harems, births and signs of predation.

Local people are involved at every level; working as cooks, cleaners and drivers, but also project managers and leaders.. Volunteers work alongside Mongolian staff, live in a traditional ger and enjoy homestays with nomadic families in the region to learn about and experience aspects of a nomadic culture and lifestyle. Furthermore, volunteer fees are put towards providing health facilities and setting up sustainable local enterprises for locals so they can reduce their hunting and the over-grazing caused by their yaks.

The dedication, enthusiasm and vision of a few individuals has made a real difference. It’s this possibility that makes travelling so special today.

Further information
Peter Lynch Wildlife & Conservation Volunteering: The Complete Guide Bradt Travel Guides, Feb 2009
Piet Wit & Inge Bouman The Tale of the Przewalski’s Horse – Coming Home to Mongolia KNNV Publishing, 2006
For further details about this project see www.ecovolunteer.org

Images courtesy of Hustai National Park
1. Przewalski stallions fighting for harem leadership
2. A herd of Przewalski horses on the open steppes of Mongolia
3. Mother and foal

Engineers Without Borders is a non-governmental organization focused on international development work whose vision is a world where all people have access to adequate sanitation, safe drinking water, and the resources to meet their other engineering and economic needs

Project Milagro’s goal is to build a water supply system for 7,000-10,000 people in three semi rural communities near San Salvador.  For decades, these communities have lacked potable water.  The community gets their water by either:

1.    Manually collecting water from unprotected streams, rivers, and springs, and carrying this water back home several times a day or;

2.    Purchasing untreated truck-delivered water that can cost up to 30% of a family’s income.

Unfortunately, both of these systems have resulted in water-borne illnesses within the communities.

Under Project Milagro, the team will design and construct a water distribution tank that will allow the project to complete a first phase of construction in which one of two mainlines will be completed.  The proposed system will allow the communities to have access to water drawn from project wells and treated as necessary to provide potable drinking water for the next 20 years.   This will drastically reduce the financial burden of the current truck delivery and reduce disease and illness that result from water-borne contaminants.

For full details, check out their wiki

The team comprises engineers, geologists, scientists, environmental professionals and others from a diversity of fields.

The Problem?  In this economy, the team is having difficulty raising the funds they need for this project to go ahead.  They need to raise a total of $21K for equipment and supplies and transportation.  Not surprisingly, given the economic conditions this is a tough task and the team’s pretty worried!

The best way we thought we could help at GeckoGo is to raise awareness about their project and put out a call for help and advice for how they can reduce costs or meet their fundraising goals.

Want to contribute to this trip and help the team reach their $21K goal?  Donate here

Got suggestions on how the team could travel more cheaply?  Share your ideas!

Thanks guys! =)