By Irene Edwards & Kelly Galaski

Our venture into indigenous culture began when our guide picked us up from our hotel in Panama City and it took about 30 minutes to get to the dock on the Chagres river in order to take a boat to the Embera village.

 

Men dressed in loincloths waited in canoes to take people across the river to the village.  The boat ride takes about 20 minutes – depending if you are in a motorized canoe called a “piragua,” or more traditional one. 

The women were waiting in the village, where there were people playing drums and other instruments. The area has several small villages, with about six families each.  There are small artisan shops to buy the colorful fabrics and jewelry made by the women. Their food comes from the surrounding river and forests and their own farms, such as fresh fish, plantains, and yucca (yummy!).  
Their houses are small thatched-roof open huts. The men were in charge of the music while the women performed a traditional dance.  The delicious lunch was fried tilapia and “Patacones” which are fried flattened plantains, all served on banana leaves.  Tourism here is managed by a community association that works with tour operators to bring visitors to the community to boost their income. Sometimes travelers stay with villagers for a night or two to really get the experience.   
The website for the community association, Embera Drua describes the history of how they began inviting people to their community, how they first received assistance from the Panama Tourism Board, the World Bank and local NGOs with training and to be connected with tour operators. Most of the adult members of the village are part of the association/NGO and they have elected a board of directors to work with the tour operators. They speak of the benefits tourism brings so that they can send their children to secondary school, pay for healthcare, and purchase cooking equipment and supplies. 

 

It has become pretty popular with lots of buses around at the docks. Some people argue that this type of tourism is exploitative, and others argue that it supports the communities. Depending on how the association manages the income and how the village residents feel, both sides could have some truth. We would like to pose the question to our readers.  Do you think that communities such as the Embera Drua are benefiting from having visitors to their villages and homes?

 

By Kelly Galaski

Have you ever experienced a vacation that stayed not only in your memories, but in your heart?  Have you had the chance to interact with people, to get to know locals and feel a part of their family – an authentic cultural experience?  I had this opportunity last year in Costa Rica and my life is forever changed. I have more than friends there now, I have a home, with a family that cares for me like their own.

When I first arrived in Costa Rica in January 2008 I found myself in a kitchen surrounded by rapidly-speaking Spanish family members and felt pretty lost and a little scared. But from day 1 I was treated like a special guest. And each day I was able to communicate more, and meet more people – neighbors and friends that made me feel welcome in these small communities of Santa Elena and Quizarra, in the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor.

The Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor is named for the famous ornithologist, Alexander Skutch (a bird biologist) that lived in the area on a private farm-turned-nature-preserve for 60 years studying the diverse bird and wildlife of the area.  The “corridor” is the area between two nature preserves, the Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary – where Skutch lived, and the Las Nubes Forest Preserve – a cloud forest donated to York University for conservation and research. There are several small farming communities all connected by coffee and sugar cane farms, small community centers, soccer fields, churches and schools.  The people here love to host volunteers, students and birdwatchers, and anyone interested in preserving their beautiful environment and learning about their culture.

I was fortunate to stay with two families, the Hidalgo-Blanco family and the Valverde-Godinez family, as well as spend lots of time with Luis Angel Rojas at La Escondida “the hidden farm.” All in all I had 4 sisters, 3 brothers, 2 nieces, 2 nephews and two sets of parents/friends!  They filled me up with yummy breakfasts of eggs and “gallo pinto” – Costa Rica’s native dish of rice & beans, Lizano sauce, cilantro, celery & red pepper all mixed together. I had lots of lunches of garlic fish fillets (my favorite), pastas, fried plantains and “frescos” – fresh blended juices. There was also no shortage of fresh avocados from the tree outside and other fruits and vegetables from the farm. And I certainly can’t forget the “cafecitos” (pronounced cafe-sitos), which means literally little coffees, which are afternoon coffee breaks that I had almost every day around 3 o’clock chatting with my “mom” and friends.

Walking along there were always offers of rides from neighbors, and invitations to community meetings, festivals, and dances. The communities are small and friendly, everyone knowing each other, so it is one of the safest parts of the country.

Till this day I keep in touch with the friends I made there, who helped me learn Spanish, and made me feel like a part of their world in rural Costa Rica.  Since being back I have wanted to help more people experience this special place, as well as give back to these wonderful people. So I helped create an itinerary that brings people to the area for a couple of days, to stay in a small cabin on a private sustainable coffee farm,  “La Escondida,” where toucans and monkeys come to play in the mornings and evenings, among tons of other colorful bird species.  Travelers can meet the “mom” I lived with, Sidey, and have a traditional food cooking lesson learning how to make tortillas or another dish. They can go with a local guide through the Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary and spot white-faced capuchin monkeys as well as see Alexander Skutch’s home and ancient mysterious petroglyphs. They can also visit another good friend Pablo, on his farm “Santuario Filaverde” where he gives a tour of his primary forest that he is trying to protect from encroaching pineapple plantations. See the full description of the trip, Costa Rica Cultural Experience, here which can be modified to suit individual tastes.

Another opportunity for those that are looking to volunteer for a longer period of time, for the summer between years of school or just for an international experience, a “Teaching English and Environmental Conservation” voluntour was set up with uVolunteer.org. Students or other volunteers can stay with a family and help out the schools and community groups who are trying to learn English by providing lessons as well as work with a tree nursery group on conservation activities – all while learning Spanish and experiencing the real heart of Costa Rica.

For further information on visiting the area, contact us at GreenSpot.travel, we would be happy to help you contribute to this special community.

Already since I’ve been back I’ve seen news about Colombia, negative news regarding conflicts in parts of the country. Unfortunately this is the image Colombia has had for a long time and continues to have. Of course there are problems in the country. But I would like people to know that you can go there and have an amazing trip and meet wonderful people, never knowing or being exposed to any of these things that are reported on by the media.

After travelling from the capital city of Bogotá, to the beautiful islands of San Andrés and Providencia with their unique Caribbean culture, to the fascinating colonial city of Cartagena and to Tayrona National Park, my interests were piqued – and I couldn’t have imagined what more the country had to offer.

Our trade show in Bogotá gave me the chance to meet the many tour operators who have picked the best places in the country to visit. There is the desert of Guajira, the archaological sites of San Augustín, the Amazon region, the Pacific coast where there are ecolodges and whale watching and surfing, the colonial and modern cities, the coffee regions where some of the world’s best coffee comes from, and I could go on. I hope I have the opportunity to go back one day and explore some more.

I wanted to thank Proexport, the Colombian government for inviting us on the trip, the hotels we stayed at, the amazing restaurants we ate at (still can’t get that yummy food out of my head!), and the fun dive instructors we had. And a special thanks to Lorena Zapata for being our group’s leader, making sure we got everywhere we had to get to on time as much as possible and for being flexible with all of us, who each had different interests and independent personalities!  Lorena invited me into her home and became a great friend. She and her family, who moved to Bogota from Ecuador 10 years ago and fell in love with the country, charged me with becoming an Ambassador to Colombia! So I am attempting to fulfill my promise, with pleasure.

Here are a few more random pics of our “Chiva” driver in Bogota, Punta Faro, Cartagena, and sunset at Taganga.

I didn’t move to Korea for hiking. In fact, I don’t think I even knew there were mountains. I was going for the fascinating culture, the challenge of living life in a completely new place, different language and of course for the teaching English experience.

My second week in Seoul I was made aware of Adventure Korea and that’s when my new hiking adventures began. Every other weekend I would join other English teachers from the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK on trips through the different mountain ranges and islands on the peninsula.

Hiking is a major past-time in South Korea with the older generations, and sometimes it can be really busy, with line-ups even. There are no switch-backs in these mountains, the trails go straight up, with ropes and scrambling needed in some areas. In a few cases there are even metal stairs bolted into the rock.

On some occasions we would hike up to buddhist temples and shrines – many temples were forced out of the city and into the mountains years ago, which makes for an inspiring and interesting experience of its own.

Ridge hiking in Korea is not so well known as Valere Tjolle points out in his article on TravelMole. But it is definitely worthy of praise and of becoming better known in the world. It’s the only time in my life where I have been surrounded on all sides, as I walked for hours, by continuous mountain views as far as I could see. I have climbed mountains in the Rockies, and no one could dispute that they are spectacular, but this is different.

Looking down to the right as the edge drops off, or over to the left where a few feet away it drops again, you feel like you are walking the border of the earth. Something truly special I feel priviledged to have witnessed.

Read the article on TravelMole’s VISION on Sustainable Tourism Korea Aims to Attract 7.5 Million Visitors in 2009.

What has towering volcanoes, canopy tours, great surfing and Mayan ruins? There may be a few countries that come to mind, but I bet it’s not El Salvador!

But it’s true! El Salvador has all that and more. It’s just a little country between Guatemala and Nicaragua, but never under-estimate the little guy!

EcoExperiencias El Salvador showcases all the fun stuff to do there, and the fascinating cultural aspects such as Mayan ruins and indigenous villages way up in the mountains. There are snorkeling tours, boating trips to lagoons crawling with caimans, treks to volcanoes, visits to native peoples’ homes and tons of other ways to explore the country.

One of El Salvador’s best kept secrets is the surfing! Along the 320km of Pacific coastline there are at least 10 world class surf spots with long breaks, waiting to be ridden. And the best part for both pros and learners is that there are no crowds. It’s the best way to learn because you don’t feel like you’re encroaching on the surfers’ space, but also good for surfers who know what they’re doing and where to go to get the best waves with no one else in the way. There are good places for families to learn together that have smaller waves, and places with barrels and long double overhead waves that don’t close out for the best of you out there. Sunzal, one of the country’s best spots, is featured in Greenspot.travel’s El Salvador Volcanoes and Surf Adventure.

If culture is more your thing, or you want to get out of the sun and up into the cool mountains for a couple of days, a truly undiscovered place awaits. Up in the highlands are indigenous villages with traditional mystical cultures.  Nahuizalco is an amazing glimpse of the past with ancient churches from the time of Spanish colonization, and one of the oldest art and craft markets where local vendors still wear traditional dress. You really feel transported to another world when you’re walking around a place like this.

There’s lots of different cool food to try like the “Pupusa.” It’s a handmade corn tortilla baked over a wood fire in an adobe oven, stuffed with things like cheese, pork, refried beans or squash or everything mixed together.  That maybe the best part of visiting a new country, giving your taste buds an adventure!

Everyone will have their own “The best part of the trip was…!” thing to say of course, but the best part of the trip to El Salvador really is knowing that you are contributing to the local livelihoods of the special people there that have made your trip so memorable. People are happy to tell you about working in the coffee fields or about their own history, even from their own home if you like. That kind of good feeling is what green travel is all about.

Learn more about green travel to El Salvador here.

The Goldfarb Family
July 2008

As someone who spends her life writing and thinking about food, I really enjoyed the fresh flavors of Costa Rica, especially the fresh mangoes and pineapple, fresh herbs, and locally caught fish with exotic-tasting sauces. But what we loved most was the abundant wildlife in the national parks. I found it so enchanting to be sitting in the little open air dining room in Corcovado Tent Camp and Lodge, and watching a family of Spider Monkeys come through the camp for their daily snack. We watched them leap from tree to tree, shimmy up the trunks of the coconut and mango trees, and feast on the ripe mangoes, often while hanging from the tree by one their tails or perching in a wobbly branch. Any mangoes they didn’t finish or rejected after picking them, landed with a thud on the tent below, probably to be picked up soon by the giant iguanas or fire ants. Behind us was the Corcovado National Park, and in front of us, past the monkeys, were the waves of the Pacific Ocean crashing down on the empty beach—at least empty of humans!

Aviva Goldfarb has shared two recipes to share her memories of Costa Rica:

Tortuguero Tilapia with Cilantro-Lime Sauce & Mango and Black Bean Salad

Our thanks to Costa Rica traveler, Aviva Goldfarb!

Recipes from The Six O’ Clock Scramble, www.thescramble.com copyright 2008.