Sustainable Tourism
Time Flies
December 17, 2007
Wow – so much time has passed since my last post. We
decided that we needed a new look and feel for our
website so we spent several months working on the whole
redo. What has resulted seems to be much easier to
navigate and includes many new photos. We have been
blessed with a great number of clients who give us
copies of all of their amazing photos and then Jim has
taken thousands of photos as well. This enabled us to
add almost 20 galleries. We have plans for quite a few
more which will help us to display the beauty of Bocas
del Toro Panama.
We have been working heavily with several government agencies doing what we can to help preserve the natural beauty of Isla Bastimentos. The government is looking at enlarging Bastimentos National Marine Park which we think would be great. It guarantees that Isla Bastimentos will have the resources and the regulations which help protect it from further development.
Recently we hosted a couple of research scientists from the Smithsonian Institue who were study the red frog population across all of Isla Bastimentos. These two women reviewed some of our photos while they were here and found one particular vividly colored katydid interesting. Jim emailed a photo of it to them and they sent it on to their expert. This expert is fascinated by the katydid and believes it to be a new species. Jim is working with this expert on a regular basis now to help him acquire whatever information he needs to further study this katydid.
We have been working heavily with several government agencies doing what we can to help preserve the natural beauty of Isla Bastimentos. The government is looking at enlarging Bastimentos National Marine Park which we think would be great. It guarantees that Isla Bastimentos will have the resources and the regulations which help protect it from further development.
Recently we hosted a couple of research scientists from the Smithsonian Institue who were study the red frog population across all of Isla Bastimentos. These two women reviewed some of our photos while they were here and found one particular vividly colored katydid interesting. Jim emailed a photo of it to them and they sent it on to their expert. This expert is fascinated by the katydid and believes it to be a new species. Jim is working with this expert on a regular basis now to help him acquire whatever information he needs to further study this katydid.
Sacrifice for rain
November 07, 2007 Filed in: Story
Today it rained. If you want to call it that. I got
slightly wet on my ride from Isla Bastimentos to Bocas
Town on Isla Colon. I wore my rain jacket and the only
part of me which was covered by the rain jacket which
ended up wet was the center of my t-shirt where the
rain jacket’s zipper rested.
We need some real rain. Rain that comes down hard for an extended period of time. All of Panama is suffering from one of the longest droughts in recent history. We live in the rain forest after all. We expect it to rain.
When we haven’t had rain for some period of time we begin to make sacrifices in hopes of inducing the sky to open up. One of the first sacrifices we must make is that I make a trip into town. You see, I rarely leave the property, but if I do – inevitably it rains. And today it did rain, just not much. It was almost an insult to my sacrifice the small amount of rain that we received. It has continued to look like it is going to rain off and on for most of the day. So maybe if we are really lucky and since I am planning to go to the beach tomorrow – we will get some rain either tonight or tomorrow. I will keep my fingers crossed.
We need some real rain. Rain that comes down hard for an extended period of time. All of Panama is suffering from one of the longest droughts in recent history. We live in the rain forest after all. We expect it to rain.
When we haven’t had rain for some period of time we begin to make sacrifices in hopes of inducing the sky to open up. One of the first sacrifices we must make is that I make a trip into town. You see, I rarely leave the property, but if I do – inevitably it rains. And today it did rain, just not much. It was almost an insult to my sacrifice the small amount of rain that we received. It has continued to look like it is going to rain off and on for most of the day. So maybe if we are really lucky and since I am planning to go to the beach tomorrow – we will get some rain either tonight or tomorrow. I will keep my fingers crossed.
Water
October 27, 2007 Filed in: Story
Water. I have been thinking about it quite a bit for
the past month or so. You see we are experiencing an
unusual draught these days. We haven’t had much rain
for some time now. The town closest to us actually ran
out of water for about three days. Not having water is
scary stuff. But it is the kind of thing that you
really do not stop and think about most of the time in
a developed nation. Water is just there. You can turn
on the tap and out comes the water.
The only time I remember being concerned in the least bit about water and access to it was when Houston was hit by a hurricane. I remember filling the bathtub with water so that we could be assured we would have water in the event the municipal utilities were harmed in any manner. We didn’t have power for several days following that hurricane but I do not remember actually losing access to water.
Life on Isla Bastimentos requires that we constantly monitor our water consumption. We have to make sure that we will have water to support our guests. Each of our cabanas is self sufficient with regard to the water supply our guests actually use. We never run into issues with consumption at the cabanas. And if we did, we can divert water from the main supply to a cabana. Instead we monitor our usage in the main building and in all of the support buildings. We have all learned to wash our hands and brush our teeth with a limited use of water.
I have learned to ration my use of water. I still have a long way to go. Water is very important to us all and yet we use and abuse it day in and day out. Where would we be without water? Exactly not a question one wants to answer.
The only time I remember being concerned in the least bit about water and access to it was when Houston was hit by a hurricane. I remember filling the bathtub with water so that we could be assured we would have water in the event the municipal utilities were harmed in any manner. We didn’t have power for several days following that hurricane but I do not remember actually losing access to water.
Life on Isla Bastimentos requires that we constantly monitor our water consumption. We have to make sure that we will have water to support our guests. Each of our cabanas is self sufficient with regard to the water supply our guests actually use. We never run into issues with consumption at the cabanas. And if we did, we can divert water from the main supply to a cabana. Instead we monitor our usage in the main building and in all of the support buildings. We have all learned to wash our hands and brush our teeth with a limited use of water.
I have learned to ration my use of water. I still have a long way to go. Water is very important to us all and yet we use and abuse it day in and day out. Where would we be without water? Exactly not a question one wants to answer.
Global Warming
October 18, 2007 Filed in: Story
Why do we protect the environment? Each person has his
or her reasons. I just read an article about how some
of the ski slopes, Aspen, in particular are working to
reduce global warming and do what they can to protect
the climate. Auden Schendler, Director of Aspen’s
Environmental Division said something that I believe to
be extremely accurate. “If we protect the environment
out of greed, that’s even better,” laughing “Greed
works.” The entire ski industry loses if we do not
learn to control our climate.
I read in another magazine a story about a woman who left her SUV running the entire time during an hour long yoga class. When questioned about why she left it running it was because she didn’t want to return to a cold car. When further questioned about whether or not she thought about how she was contributing to global warming, she replied that she didn’t believe in that stuff.
Across the globe, there are people and places which are feeling the effects of global warming today and are learning what further problems we will have in the future if we don’t do something about it. Each of has to determine what we will do and how we will do it to help reduce the speed with which global warming continues.
I read in another magazine a story about a woman who left her SUV running the entire time during an hour long yoga class. When questioned about why she left it running it was because she didn’t want to return to a cold car. When further questioned about whether or not she thought about how she was contributing to global warming, she replied that she didn’t believe in that stuff.
Across the globe, there are people and places which are feeling the effects of global warming today and are learning what further problems we will have in the future if we don’t do something about it. Each of has to determine what we will do and how we will do it to help reduce the speed with which global warming continues.