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Bradt Travel Guides…The Beginning

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This month, Bradt Travel Guide founder Hilary Bradt shares with us the story of how Bradt Travel Guides started.

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!

Talk with Ted on Sustainable Travel

Since GeckoGo’s been up, we’ve come across many different and really fascinating people & projects.  We met Ted from Sustainable Travel International through a friend, and the more we learned about Ted and his organization, the more intrigued and impressed we were with what they were out to accomplish.  So here’s a look at STI and how you can be involved.

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

The Mira River Basin: Ecuador’s forgotten corner where forms of slavery persisted as late as 1965

We recently got to sit down with David Dyer – founder of the End of the Rainbow Foundation. EotRF is an organization that helps Afro-Ecuadorians from the Mira River Basin in Ecuador, an area where forms of slavery still existed as late as 1965, when President Kennedy’s foreign policy to Latin America, the Agrarian Reform, reached the Mira River Basin, giving families small pieces of land to cultivate as their own.

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.

Exciting announcement! GeckoGo partners with Bradt Travel Guides

Hey guys,

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! =)

Bradt Author Peter Lynch on Conservation Volunteering: Przewalski’s Horses

Since April is Volunteer Month on GeckoGo, Peter Lynch from Bradt Travel Guides and author of Wildlife and Conservation Volunteering: The Complete Guide has kickstarted our Bradt Author Series by sharing his experiences volunteering with the Przewalksi’s Horses.

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

Volunteer Project Highlight: Engineers without Borders is going to El Salvador

One week in and we’re already hearing great stories about your volunteer travels and plans!  In the spirit of promoting volunteer travel, I wanted to tell you all about Michelle (a trip lead with Engineers without Borders – Orange County, CA) and her team’s upcoming trip to El Salvador working on Project Milagro.

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! =)

It’s volunteer month on GeckoGo!

Hi guys,

Since April is National Volunteer month in both the US and Canada, we’ve decided to make Volunteer Month on GeckoGo. :)  If you’ve always wondered about what volunteer travel is like, what’s involved or how you can do it, this is the time to:

• Ask your questions about voluntourism
• Read about what volunteering is like: My trip, Alexia’s trip
• Win a trip volunteering in Peru!

Throughout the month we hope to post more information and tips about volunteering.

Have you volunteered abroad?  If so, share your experiences and I’d love to feature your blog post or experiences (good or bad) about what it was like for you.

Have fun!

Interview with Tonya and Ian of Travel’n On Radio Show

When we first moved down to California, we really didn’t know tonnes of people, and so I went to town joining groups and organizations.  Through one of them, Women 2.0, I met Grace (who’s now also part of GeckoGo), and Grace met Tonya (who’s affiliated with Women 2.0).  One thing led to another, we all got to talking, realized how much we had in common and decided we had to sit down for a chat.

So here’s our conversation with Tonya and Ian who are two lawyers that quit their jobs to follow their passion and pursue a career on travel.  We’re excited to share their stories and experiences are below.

Pokin: So tell us about your background!  How did you get started travelling?

Tonya: Growing up I traveled vicariously through an uncle who lived abroad as a senior executive with the Army/Airforce Exchange Service.  He was based in London and married my aunt who was British.   We loved to hear aunt Susan speak.  I remember being on the playground at Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, MI with my younger sister practicing our British accents because it was different and we gained a lot of attention from the other kids on the playground.  I decided as I little girl I was going to move to London and, indeed I did.  I moved to San Diego for several years after high school and shortly after graduation I moved to London to pursue graduate studies. When I lived in London, I took the opportunity to travel all around Europe.  I actually lived in Saint Petersburg for a summer before starting Grad work.  Then after I moved back to Michigan and subsequently enrolled in law school, I did a summer of comparative law in Shanghai, China  where I studied at East China University on Politics and Law.  My main reason for studying abroad was to take advantage of multiple travel opportunities.  The student visa allowed me to spend extended time and get great travel credentials.  Travel’s always been one of my first loves.

Ian: I grew up in the East Coast in the Maryland / DC Baltimore area.  As a kid, I lived in the kind of world that stretched from New York to see relatives down to North Carolina.  My mom spent her life in North Carolina and never left the state until she was 18, so when I was young, she made up for that by taking me some significant trips.  I went to Montreal when I was 5 to visit the Expo/World Fair shortly after the actual fair.  And just spending that time in Montreal was eye opening.  A few years after, I spent a week in Toronto.  That was back in the 70s and it had a significant impact.  I next spent time on the west coast in San Francisco before following up with a long trip in Hawaii in 1979.  After that my life really started to change in terms of new opportunities that really helped shape me and who I was today.  When I was 16, I moved to Ann Arbor Michigan where I caught the journalism bug that stayed with me.  There I spent a few years doing radio before putting it aside for 20 years until Travel’n On.  I next went to do law in Buffalo New York before going back to school and teaching law in Detroit.  This helped shape my professional career.   I joined Northwest Airlines in 1995, decided I’d definitely come back east, made my way to DC unexpectedly, found myself working in corporate law and litigation, decided I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in major law firms.  After a while, I realized there was more to life than working and making money, and started exploring things that would make me happy.  To make a long story short, after separating from the legal community, I went back to Baltimore and worked as an Assistant General Counsel, which is where I met Tonya.  Lo and behold I met someone who had a passion for travel and wanted to know if I had a passport – which I had – and the rest is history.

Tonya: Let me share the story of how we met.

My first job after law school, was as a prosecutor.  When I moved to the Washington, DC area I went to work on Capital Hill for a congressman who informed me of his plans to run for  governor of Maryland.  He recruited me to assist on his campaign and ran against Robert Kennedy’s daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. I ended up meeting Ian’s cousin at a campaign event and we  became fast friends and kept in touch.  At the end of the campaign, as I was clearing out my business cards I found his card again, called him and decided to catch up.  I then spent dinner ragging on men (I had just broken up with someone a few weeks before), when Ian’s cousin said “I have a great guy for you”, to which I said “whatever.”  Then I found out he was a lawyer and it was like “Hell No”

I then found out that his home state was Michigan, to which I asked the crucial question – “Does this guy have a used passport?” (i.e., has this guy traveled outside of the boundaries of his state?)

Luckily Ian did and we met and the rest was really history.

Pokin: I like that.

Tonya: True story!

Pokin: It’s such a great precursor to what you ended up working on.  So tell us more about Traveln’on and Bronze World Travel.  How did you get started?

Tonya: We were travelling in San Francisco – it was a few months after we got married – probably about two months or so.  We were both practicing law at the time.  Ian was with a firm and I was a senior legal advisor at homeland security as a contractor.

We were both feeling disgruntled with the field of law and very disillusioned with its promises.  Unbeknownst to us, we ended up meeting a women and her sister during cocktail hour.  Her name was Vivian Van Lier (a pretty well renowned life coach).   We were complaining –

Ian - Let’s be clear Tonya was doing most of the complaining ;).

Everyone laughs

Tonya: I wanted to know there was something more fulfilling out there and didn’t know what it was  Vivian asked us a couple of the questions that she asks her clients – like “when you think back to your childhood, what makes you happy?  What makes you happy now?”  She encouraged us to consider these questions as we contemplated our next moves.

When we returned to our hotel room we started Ian started life coaching me and when he asked me to consider those questions—what makes me happy–two things came up – horses and travel.  We talked about both of them.  Well first of all, we had no money to buy a race pony.  So let’s look at travel.

And that was the pivotal moment.

We created Bronze World Travel, and within the first month of opening it, we partnered with a top travel agency, designed a logo and was up and running.  It happened all really quickly.  From there I did a lot of networking – and realized that I had a childhood friend who was a producer at a NBC affiliate station.  I reached out to her, pitched her about the show, and have appeared multiple times on both NBC and CBS.  Then we were invited to do a cable cast on national television station, Retirement Living, which in turn caught the attention of a local radio station and the rest is history.  The life lesson here is that it hasn’t been easy, it’s been an adventure that we don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but you’ve got to be happy in life and do what you live.  Just go for it and not worry about how things will turn out.  Just press forward.  And that’s what we’ve done.

Eric: I certainly hear you on that.  Now you’ve already talked about how travel has influenced your life – do you have any other specific experiences you wanted to share?

Tonya: The thing that touched me the most was living my dream – being able to see the Great Wall, Tiannamen Square.  That and the people I’ve met along the way.  In my travels to Russia or specific cities in China – these are people who have lessor means than we do, but they gave so much of themselves and gave it so graciously with no expectation of return.  And when I travel I strive to do the same for local people.  If I had to point to one travel experience it’s the generosity and graciousness of people that we’ve met.

Ian: I would say for me it was the early travel experiences to Montreal when I was 5.  That was an eye opener.  It got me out of seeing my own community from a very narrow perspective in terms of black people and white people, and just seeing a different world.  Being in a rich multi-cultural city and seeing that – had a great influence.  I also saw great architecture – the new city hall had opened in Toronto back in the 1970s – truly amazing stuff.  That set the stage about my desire to learn more about and to see the world.

When I was in graduate school in 1995 I had the opportunity as part of international business class to spend two weeks in Paris.  The great thing about that was that it took me to Europe for the first time and allowed me to put to use some of the French that had gone unused all those years.  That was a great experience that just intensified my desire to see more of the world.

Fortunately since being married to Tonya I’ve been able to see a lot more.  We’ve had some great trips – Costa Rica was very powerful for us – then a trip to South Africa in 2006 was an eye opener – a real life changing trip.  All of these trips actually have had a hand in shaping the next steps for the next point in life.

Tonya: Kind of a hard question – what’s your favourite country – there are countries that really speak to your soul.  Ian proposed to me in Toronto, we started life off together in Bermuda where we married surrounded by our family and a few close friends, and we honeymooned in South Africa.  Every step of the way has involved travel unintentionally, and thinking about it now, travel is really one of our strong values.

Ian: Again, how travel prepends chapters that unfold later on in life.  One example – in 1986 my mom and I took a trip to Vancouver.  Along the way, we passed through Minneapolis.  Years later I ended up moving there.  I would have never considered it if I didn’t drive by, so it speaks to how travel can open up these frontiers.

Pokin: As Canadians, we approve of your choices of cities to visit. =)

Tonya: We love Canada – if only taxes weren’t so high and it wasn’t so cold!

Ian: Having lived in Buffalo, when I was there for law school and living in Michigan and being relatively close to Southwestern Ontario, I’d often travel through Canada on my way to Detroit.  For what it’s worth, we have had some of our best trips in Canada.

Eric:  This is something I remember my dad telling me when we were younger.  Our most important decisions that we make are usually made while we are on a trip.  He decided when he was 21 or 22 that he was going to go around the world – at the time it was still a fairly adventurous thing to do.  Trips really help to clear your head and give you a lot more perspective on what you’re doing in life.

Ian: Absolutely, for us having lived in this pressure cooker environment – particularly for Tonya – getting outside of the beltway has been important.  Some of the best thinking goes on when you liberate yourself from your immediate circumstances.

Tonya: It’s like the old cliché – you can’t see the forest through the trees.  Getting out of the environment that is causing the stress – removing what is taking up your mindspace – travel provides that.   We interviewed a great guy who wrote a book – Escape 101 that talks about taking an extended sabbatical.  He talked about how easy it is to do – he and his family and the kids take year long sabbaticals.  I ask what he does with the kids and he says he takes them with him, placing them in local schools wherever they are instead of homeschooling.

Eric: You mentioned that one of the goals of Travel’n On is to encourage cross-cultural understanding.  How do you feel you can promote this?

Tonya: Well you know, I see travel as a way to eradicate racism.  I think all of these isms are really based on misunderstandings.  One of the things I learned early on is that we may speak different languages, have different tastes, but we’re really all one race – human – and we’re all the same.

I’ve travelled where I met the “ugly American” and that really bugs me.  I was in China with a fellow law student from Seattle.  The whole time we were there she complained about the food and only ate at KFC and McDonalds.  I can understand if there are dietary concerns but to complain to the “cook” when you’re in their “home” is obnoxious.  That’s my pet peeve – meeting people who take their culture with them, don’t immerse themselves to the local culture and expect the locals to change to their standards.   Folks who are well traveled become ambassadors to the rest of the world.

Eric: You’ve also talked about being a global citizen.  How does a person become a global citizen?

Tonya: I’m a global citizen. Global Citizens give back.  Global Citizens show tolerance, love and understanding.  I’m going to partake as an observer to see, to touch, to feel – to better sensitize ourselves to the world.  That’s one of the important things we can do.  It’s important to have a broader world view, to think global and act local.  I look at how we can use the world – as a learning experience.  Enjoy these teachable movements and use them to guide what we do in our daily lives back home.

Let me share a story – we interviewed Andrew Zimmerman who does bizarre foods from the Travel Channel.  At one point he passed out freeze dried crickets and we were having them on air and he said “In some places, this is the only protein these guys have.  Some people may think our tastes or interest in velveeta cheese is weird.”  It was a sobering moment and it really dawned on us – this is a good reminder that we shouldn’t make fun or judge.

Eric: It reminds me of a book I read – Collapse.  It talked about a settlement in Greenland that starved to death, and the whole time, they were surrounded by fish.  Yet it never dawned on them to eat fish.

So what do you think are the most important things to know or do while travelling?

Ian: Definitely to keep an open mind and embrace the opportunity.  Allow ourselves to shift our perspectives so we’re not burdened by things that hold us back.  Also to capture the memories.  Appreciate how blessed and rich life is when enhanced with travel.  Capture as much as you can.  I like photography because it allows you to look back and continue the thinking process we often go on when we travel.

Tonya: I would add respect the culture, respect the place where you are from a practical standpoint.  Read a guidebook  Take photographs – but be aware in some places and religions they may feel that you’re capturing their souls.  Also though people need to be aware of their surroundings and not be reckless.  Just exercise some common sense.  There are some places around Washington that I wouldn’t go around at night.  Likewise while travelling be careful of your surroundings as things do happen.  Don’t stick out like a tourist.

I would also say focus on conservation – be smart green travelers.  Pack light – it’s more environmentally friendly and there are lots of great local products out there.

Eric and Pokin : Thank you both for your time!

Check out Ian & Tonya’s radio show: Travel’n On at BlogTalkRadio!

Follow Travel’n On on Twitter

Blogging Contest Winners!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our first ever blogger contest!

We are pleased to announce the following winners:

$900 US Travel Voucher from Intrepid Travel (Blogger category): Lalaine Caballero

$900 US Travel Voucher from Intrepid Travel (Reader category): Joy Mesina-Bahia

$100 US Amazon Gift Certificate: Sheena Benedicto

Stay tuned for future updates and contests from GeckoGo!

Interview with Christina Heyniger at Off the Radar

This past Tuesday, GeckoGo sat down to talk with Christina Heyniger, founder of Off the Radar (www.travelofftheradar.com) and Xola Consulting, Inc. (a consulting company focused on sustainable adventure tourism) to talk about the new Off the Radar website.

Pokin: Tell us about Off the Radar.

Christina: Our mission with Off the Radar is to educate consumers on how to choose adventure tour operators as well as travel responsibly.  For tour operators, our goal is to showcase operators that are setting good examples.

How did you get started?
Off the Radar started on a lark.  I run a consulting practice on sustainable travel where we often meet interesting adventure companies in different destinations around the world.  Because of this, friends would ask me for advice on where to go and so I decided to create a newsletter for them.

In talking to people who are writers in the print publishing world, one of the initial concerns for me at first was that my views would be seen as biased if I wrote about my clients.  So at first I tried to keep of the Radar apart from my consulting business.    Over time though, I realized that it was our team’s perspective as a tourism consultants when evaluating these operators that had a unique value in the world of travel writing.  We know sustainable travel when we see it, and we are writing with professional awareness.  So about six months ago we decided to make the association between the consulting practice and Off the Radar clearer, and we’re now working to build Off the Radar’s audience with this positioning.

The important thing for us is to be proud of who we are; like we counsel our clients: be authentic!  That’s where people will see our unique value.

What topics do you cover in off the Radar?
When Off the Radar started as a newsletter to friends, I’d write about operators I had met, and I’d write whenever I felt like.  I’d usually feature a couple companies that were doing interesting things that deserved recognition.

Now we have a monthly newsletter where we feature two to three operators we have discovered who are doing great things.   We’ve also expanded our web site, and are taking reader submissions for weekend adventures – for example going tubing in Laos.

So you must be meeting a lot of tour operators?
One of the things that was really important to us in the beginning was to ensure that someone on our team had personally gone on a trip or had interacted with the local operators that we feature.  Since we are always travelling for our consulting business, this was easy.  As we’ve grown this has gotten a bit more difficult, and now also we rely on people in our network who we trust  and who we know share the same values – such as Shannon Stowell from the Adventure Travel Trade Association.  We look for people who share the same philosophy and that live by the principles of sustainable adventure travel.  We’re now also getting a number of recommendations from our readers, which is great.  For these recommendations, we always follow-up personally to get more information.

What do you look for when choosing who to feature in your newsletter?
We look for the “adventure operator with a heart of gold”  in a way.  We want to identify and shine a light on those companies that are providing outstanding trips - involving local communities and work towards conservation and preserving nature.   Many times, the best companies are the most hidden -  they are often the companies  least able to spend time and money on marketing.

It felt unjust that these companies, the ones who deserve to succeed the most, had the least support. The best companies are often the most buried since they are also the least likely to talk about these initiatives.

Do you have any advice to share to our readers on good practices for sustainable tourism?
Anytime there are animals or local communities involved, you want to find out more about the situation.  If you plan to spend the night in a village for example – you want to ask a lot of questions about that.  For example:

• Is there a revenue share with the village you’re visiting?
• Do the local communities want you there?
• How many people do the operators bring in every week?  If they are bringing in lots of people and the village has a population of about 20 people, you can imagine what kind of impact that has on them.

Many times it’s just about asking questions and giving your position on things.  I came back from a conference recently where I heard some new tour operators proudly describe how they chase animals so tourists can get good pictures.   We’ve also all probably seen examples of tourists behaving badly out of a lack of awareness of understanding.   We want the education about responsible travel to go both ways - with educated travellers supporting tour operators and vice versa.

(Eric: Yeah, a lot of times travellers just need to be aware of the situation.  When I went to Cuba, I saw a tour advertised as swimming with wild dolphins.  I was appalled when I got to the location and saw dolphins penned up in holding cages.  Everyone felt very uncomfortable and we couldn’t really enjoy our experience knowing what our money was supporting.)

Christina: I should also say that it’s important to go positive, not negative.  A lot of times local operators have actually thought this stuff through and have programs in place, but won’t advertise that.  They may have relationships in place with local communities and they keep this under their hat unless you ask them.  When travelers ask pointed questions, it helps expose great things that operators are doing right.   For instance, in the midst of rapid commercialization around Machu Picchu, there is a tour operator, Apumayo Expediciones,  who is working in the Sacred Valley to create a nature reserve in the Cachiccata community to help keep the area from being over-developed by big hotels.

I think about the different types of persuasive power – and the most compelling is the power of attraction – people do things that are fun, that are appealing, that offer benefits.  Tour operators want to make their tourists happy.  We hear sometimes these stories about irresponsible tour operators chasing animals, for example – but at the end of the day, it’s because they want the travelers to have the best experience possible and they want their clients to go back happy and think this is the way to do that.  So it’s up to you to let them know what makes you happy.  Tell them for instance that you’re not so desperate to see these animals that you want to chase them and upset their routines.

Eric: This is really cool.  So there’s a mandate to promote responsible tourism in general.  It goes back to what travellers really want – an authentic experience that includes them in the equation.  They want to see the real country they’re visiting, and they want to do it is such a way that preserves the local terrain and culture so that it’s still there for future generations.  So what’s next for you?

What we want to do now is make our mission more apparent on the site.  Off the Radar exists because we believe adventure travel can play a part, in saving the world.  We want the adventure industry to grow, responsibly.  Because we see that adventure travel brings people face to face with some of the world’s most pressing issues, from climate change to poverty to water issues.   Adventure travel experiences can open people’s minds, transforming their perceptions about their relationship with the environment and with people of other cultures.

The sustainable travel industry is growing because people are looking for a real, authentic experiences and want to be connected to the world – so there’s a massive opportunity for positive change here.   As we say at Xola: “Adventure tourism can be part of the solution to some of the world’s most pressing problems because at the root of every problem

and every solution is
a thought,
an idea,
a way of viewing the world.
To change the world, we have to change how we think

Pokin and Eric: Awesome thanks for your time Christina!

Learn more about Off the Radar and sign up to get on their newsletter.

The Xola team comprises Christina Heyniger, Natasha Martin and Jessica Reilley.

About Xola: Xola (www.xolaconsulting.com) specializes in consulting and research services for the adventure tourism industry, providing technical assistance to both adventure tour operators and government tourism boards and destination management organizations. Xola also publishes Off the Radar (www.travelofftheradar.com), a newsletter and online magazine providing information to adventure travelers about the best sustainable adventure travel destinations and trips.