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"Travellers, Tourists & Vagabonds: The Life of a Dream"

Presentation

This is the blog of Ecoturismolatino's webmaster. A eJournal of experiences, memes and reflections about diverse topics related to virtual and real travels. The purpose of this blog is to share with you random thoughts about tourism, travel, ecotourism, natural protected areas, Latin America, Internet and life. I will also direct you to interesting web sites, forums, egroups and books that cover these topics.

The following blog will then talk about many things, but all tide up together by what I call "the meme (idea) of Ecoturismolatino": a search to understand, reflect and critique ecotourism in natural protected areas of Latin America. With such an array of themes the following title is proposed for this blogging exercise "Travellers, Tourists & Vagabonds: The Life of a Dream".

So let us then begin this trail of thoughts to see where it takes us.

Peace, Strength and Joy

Allan R. Rhodes Espinoza

P.D. If you want to comment, suggest, say hi, critique, congratulate or debate in any content of this blog please do so by writting to me to the mail you will find in the following page>>

Index

Ecotourism & EcoTravel
- Ecoturismolatino
- Climate Change & Travel
Parks & Protected Areas
Latin America
Other Memes of Lifes

The Blog

21 / June / 2004

I would like to start this blog by talking about the "Meme of Ecoturismolatino". First I must tell you what a meme is, but I think it is better to recommend you a book (The Electric Meme: a new theory of how we think - by Robert Aunger) and a link one memes (www.memes.org.uk). In short a meme is an idea which has life of itself, scary stuff but an interesting concept. So the "meme of Ecoturismolatino" means the "idea of Ecoturismolatino". Our idea is a search to understand, reflect and critique ecotourism in natural protected areas of Latin America. And by understanding ecotourism we can then promote it truthfully. Ecotourism has its contradiction in itself; it lives a paradox of wanting to generate money to conserve a habitat, but on the other side using tourism as the exploitation medium to generate an income. The search of ecotourism, and hence of Ecoturismolatino is to find a balance between conservation and exploitation. Many people will provide theoretical frameworks and solutions on how to reach this goal, but our search is to find examples in the real world.

That is the idea, how we are doing this search was by creating a website that looks to unite, link and bridge (I know they sound as synonyms, but all of them sound cool) experiences, ideas, and projects of individuals and organisations around Latin America. The structure of our web site divides in the following sections: Who are we? Travel Guide. EcoTravellers Community. Ecotourism? Responsible Tourism. EcoLinks. And our division on consultancy services for people with or setting up an ecotourism enterprise.

I think this is a good overview of what Ecoturismolatino is trying to do. Now let's continue on other matters.

Keep in touch…

01 / July / 2004

Yesterday night I went to see the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". Without making any comments on the quality of movie and the plot, I think it was very interesting to see in a major movie the topic of climate change. My concern would be that the extreme situation portrayed in the movie just makes the viewer indifferent to the real situation we are living today with regard to climate change.

Climate change must be a topic closely interlinked with the idea of travel, and more nowadays that ever before. Ecotourism promotes the possibility of visiting natural settings in far away countries. Tourists from generating regions (mostly from the "first world" or "developed nations") cross the globe in hours thanks to the airlines that connect all the countries of the world. And have you ever stopped and thought about the impact you are having by travelling so far away on board a Boeing? Even if you "tread softly" at your destination the emission of greenhouse gases you have already contributed to outweights your "responsible tourism" efforts. There are possibilities of reducing your impact (maybe not your emissions), but taking countermeasures which will balance the greenhouse gases of your travels. This can be done through carbon sinks (forests which absorb carbon dioxide and other gases). You can visit the webpage we did with regard to Climate Change and Ecotourism and see what actions you can take beforehand.

Besides the curing actions you can take, I think that the best avenue of action is prevention. The radical answer would be DO NOT TRAVEL! But many of us itching to do so would find ourselves in a dilemma. Then I propose what I call the "Right to Travel" which means that people who live in a sustainable way (recycling, composting, using public transport or bicycle, etc.) have the "Right to Travel". Those who live carelessly do not have that right because travelling only increases their already huge ecological footprint.

So the next time you plan to travel, think about how you live and if you have the "Right to Travel".


Blog
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/ecoturismolat-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com"> <MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/ecoturismolat-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	"Travellers, Tourists & Vagabonds: The Life of a Dream" Presentation This is the blog of Ecoturismolatino's webmaster. A eJournal of experiences, memes and reflections about diverse topics related to virtual and real travels. The purpose of this blog is to share with you random thoughts about tourism, travel, ecotourism, natural protected areas, Latin America, Internet and life. I will also direct you to interesting web sites, forums, egroups and books that cover these topics. The following blog will then talk about many things, but all tide up together by what I call "the meme (idea) of Ecoturismolatino": a search to understand, reflect and critique ecotourism in natural protected areas of Latin America. With such an array of themes the following title is proposed for this blogging exercise "Travellers, Tourists & Vagabonds: The Life of a Dream". So let us then begin this trail of thoughts to see where it takes us. Peace, Strength and Joy Allan R. Rhodes Espinoza P.D. If you want to comment, suggest, say hi, critique, congratulate or debate in any content of this blog please do so by writting to me to the mail you will find in the following page>> Index Ecotourism & EcoTravel Ecoturismolatino Climate Change & Travel Parks & Protected Areas Latin America Other Memes of Lifes The Blog 21 / June / 2004 I would like to start this blog by talking about the "Meme of Ecoturismolatino". First I must tell you what a meme is, but I think it is better to recommend you a book (The Electric Meme: a new theory of how we think - by Robert Aunger) and a link one memes (www.memes.org.uk). In short a meme is an idea which has life of itself, scary stuff but an interesting concept. So the "meme of Ecoturismolatino" means the "idea of Ecoturismolatino". Our idea is a search to understand, reflect and critique ecotourism in natural protected areas of Latin America. And by understanding ecotourism we can then promote it truthfully. Ecotourism has its contradiction in itself; it lives a paradox of wanting to generate money to conserve a habitat, but on the other side using tourism as the exploitation medium to generate an income. The search of ecotourism, and hence of Ecoturismolatino is to find a balance between conservation and exploitation. Many people will provide theoretical frameworks and solutions on how to reach this goal, but our search is to find examples in the real world. That is the idea, how we are doing this search was by creating a website that looks to unite, link and bridge (I know they sound as synonyms, but all of them sound cool) experiences, ideas, and projects of individuals and organisations around Latin America. The structure of our web site divides in the following sections: Who are we? Travel Guide. EcoTravellers Community. Ecotourism? Responsible Tourism. EcoLinks. And our division on consultancy services for people with or setting up an ecotourism enterprise. I think this is a good overview of what Ecoturismolatino is trying to do. Now let's continue on other matters. Keep in touch… 01 / July / 2004 Yesterday night I went to see the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". Without making any comments on the quality of movie and the plot, I think it was very interesting to see in a major movie the topic of climate change. My concern would be that the extreme situation portrayed in the movie just makes the viewer indifferent to the real situation we are living today with regard to climate change. Climate change must be a topic closely interlinked with the idea of travel, and more nowadays that ever before. Ecotourism promotes the possibility of visiting natural settings in far away countries. Tourists from generating regions (mostly from the "first world" or "developed nations") cross the globe in hours thanks to the airlines that connect all the countries of the world. And have you ever stopped and thought about the impact you are having by travelling so far away on board a Boeing? Even if you "tread softly" at your destination the emission of greenhouse gases you have already contributed to outweights your "responsible tourism" efforts. There are possibilities of reducing your impact (maybe not your emissions), but taking countermeasures which will balance the greenhouse gases of your travels. This can be done through carbon sinks (forests which absorb carbon dioxide and other gases). You can visit the webpage we did with regard to Climate Change and Ecotourism and see what actions you can take beforehand. Besides the curing actions you can take, I think that the best avenue of action is prevention. The radical answer would be DO NOT TRAVEL! But many of us itching to do so would find ourselves in a dilemma. Then I propose what I call the "Right to Travel" which means that people who live in a sustainable way (recycling, composting, using public transport or bicycle, etc.) have the "Right to Travel". Those who live carelessly do not have that right because travelling only increases their already huge ecological footprint. So the next time you plan to travel, think about how you live and if you have the "Right to Travel".