Vegan Vacations involving Animals

[atouria]

It took me quite a while to come up with a name for this thread. I want this to be the place to find animal friendly places to visit, without promoting cruelty to animals. I also want to provide 'low environmental impact' type vacations or day trips.

I want this thread to have good alternatives to places like Zoo's and Sea-World type places. Sanctuaries are obvious choices and I hope that many of you chime in and list the name of the place, the address, phone number, and a brief description. Please put the type of organization(s) or activities in your title.

This would also be a good place for low environmental impact adventures (though 'low' is a relative term.)

I'll start....

[atouria]

Baja California, Mexico
From January through March in Guerrero Negro, you can see gray whales: in February and March, blue, fin, and minke whales as well. (It's been said that sometimes whales will come right up to the boat and roll over to have their bellies rubbed at this location.)
Baja Jones Adventures offers short trips.
Baja Jones Adventures, 909-923-8933

Provincetown and Plymouth, Massachusetts
Summer on Cape Cod brings out the humpback, finback and North Atlantic right whale. The season for day trips is April to October.
From Princetown: Dolphin Fleet, 800-826-9300
From Plymouth: Captain John Boats, 800-242-2469

Monterey, California
Spot gray whales December through April, humpbacks and blues, May through November. Killer whales can sometimes be seen year-round.
Monterey Bay Whale Watch, 831-375-4658

Everett, Washington
This is orca and minke whale country. Boats cruise the San Juan islands April through October, but June through September is peak.
Mosquito Fleet, 800-325-6722

Yes, it can be argued that this isn't not very animal friendly because of the pollution of the boats. If you want to view whales from land, I've got another post for ya...

[atouria]

Lubec, Maine
A prime location for catching sight of finback and minke whales.
July and August ar ethe best months to catch a glimpse of a local minke.
Quoddy Head State Park, 207-733-0911

San Juan Island, Washington
This hotspot for orca watching is almost always a sure thing. Shore sightings are best between June and September.
Lime Kiln Point State Park, 360-902-8844

Newfoundland, Canada
It's not unusual to see more than a dozen humpbacks, finbacks and minkes in one day at this spot 20 miles south of St. John's in Newfoundland.
Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, 709-635-4520

Rancho Palos Verdes, California
Although gray whales typically migrate from December through May, visitors have photographed some of the most beautiful whales in the off-season.
Point Vicente Center, 310-377-5370


All of the above info (from the last 2 posts) are directly from Weekend Magazine in their premier issue. I really like this mag!

[bird]

Here's a vegan farm and Bed & Breakfast in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, which are very scenic.

The White Pig

[bird]

The following are articles on international vacations to different environmentally sensitive resorts.

[bird]

A Village Preserves a Shangri-La

November 21, 2004

By CRAIG SIMONS

THE English words carved in stone beside the road - "Following Joseph Rock's steps to Shangri-La" - seemed entirely appropriate. This place really did look like paradise.

I was in Yunnan Province in southwestern China, only a few miles from Lijiang, a Unesco World Heritage site and one of China's loveliest cities. Its old town of cobblestone lanes were crisscrossed with perfectly clean canals, and in the distance, the 18,360-foot Jade Dragon Snow Mountain towered over the green landscape of corn and young barley fields. The local people, a minority called the Naxi (pronounced NAH-shee), have preserved some of their traditional matriarchal society and, from what I could see, all of their incredible tradition of hospitality to strangers.

I had arrived in Lijiang in April, at the tail end of a yearlong Chinese language-training program at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and I was looking for a chance to slip away from fighting traffic jams and memorizing hundreds of Chinese characters. My goal was to get somewhere natural and quiet, and a friend had suggested a community-run eco-lodge set up with support from the Nature
Conservancy.

The Wenhai Eco-Lodge, nestled in a valley at 10,000 feet, was, according to one of its fliers, inaccessible "except by foot or horse," and offered "an undiscovered trekking opportunity." A cooperative of 56 local families runs the lodge, which began operations in 2002, and the business gives them a reason to keep the natural landscape pristine. At $12 a day for a room and three meals, the price was unbeatable.

When I called the Nature Conservancy office in Lijiang to plan my trip, the lodge coordinator, Jing Chen, an American woman, added an unexpected bonus: I could start my hike in Yuhu, eight miles from the lodge, the town where Joseph Rock, an Austrian-born American famous for classifying hundreds of plant species in Hawaii and later as National Geographic's "man in China," lived for 17 years in the 1930's and 40's, she said. Having taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in China in the mid-1990's, I was fascinated by Rock, who wrote articles with titles like "Konka Risumgongba, Holy Mountain of the Outlaws" and "The Land of the Yellow Lama."

Which is how I ended up at the sign saying I was following in Rock's footsteps. Just up the road I met Cun Xuerong, the 30-year-old manager of the eco-lodge, who had agreed to introduce me to some of the older Yuhu villagers who remembered Rock. He led me into a large courtyard home in the center of town, where I joined 74-year-old Li Jiyue, whose uncle had worked as Rock's personal assistant, for a hearty lunch of fresh corn and cucumbers and pork that was boiled and then fried with tangy black beans.

Rock lived in Yuhu until 1949, when Mao Zedong seized power from the Nationalist government, and Mr. Li's uncle had become one of Rock's closest friends. Not only did he accompany Rock on his sometimes months-long trips into the surrounding mountains but he was also responsible for an important job: assembling and taking apart the giant camera that Rock used for his National Geographic photos.

Also at lunch was Zhao Fujin, a feisty woman in her 80's whose father was Rock's personal cook. Rock had sent some 80,000 plant specimens from China to the United States but Mrs. Zhao remembered one tree in particular.

"He and my father found a tree that would shiver whenever anyone touched it," she said, looking up at the snow-covered peaks above us. But when Rock left, she said, "he told my father to keep secret where the tree was, and now no one can find it.''

After a quick tour of a museum in Yuhu dedicated to Rock (where visitors can see some of the tools he used and large prints of photographs he took), I was ready to look for the lost "shaking tree.'' Mr. Cun and I said goodbye to Mr. Li and Mrs. Zhao and made our way north along a trail into the mountains. The hike from Yuhu - a steep uphill climb followed by a traverse through a shallow bowl and a sharp descent to the lodge - takes a few hours.

That gives hikers time to enjoy the scenery. The forests surrounding Wenhai Village are home to many species of plants and animals, including musk deer and Lady Amherst's pheasants.

I didn't see any animals - they usually hide higher in the mountain's pine forests -but the area is also impressive for having an exceptional variety of rhododendrons. More than 20 of the world's 850 or more species bloom on the mountains in the late spring, and the hills were speckled with brilliant patches of purple, pink and white.

Even more gratifying was the view of Wenhai Village. The Naxi people build homes of wood and roof them with gray tiles, and the village was only recently connected to Lijiang by a rough dirt road (now making it possible to drive in). None of the uninspiring concrete buildings that so often mar Chinese landscapes are present. Instead, there are intricately carved gates and huge wooden racks used to hang barley to dry in the fall.

The rustic charm of Wenhai Village is enhanced by a seasonal lake, also named Wenhai. During the summer rainy season, the lake fills and endangered black storks and black-necked cranes, as well as many other migratory birds, fly in for the winter. In early spring, the waters drain into underground limestone caves, leaving a luxuriant bed of thick grass on which horses and cattle graze. Since it was mid-April, the waters were already a winding stream that meandered east before dropping out of sight, and I made a mental note to track it to where it disappeared into the earth before I left.

But first I wanted to see the eco-lodge. Slipping through the wood and stone gate, past a flock of skittish goats, I immediately identified my favorite chair in the courtyard. It faced the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain's 13 peaks, which rose in icy majesty reminiscent of Joseph Rock's story titles.

After I chose my bedroom from the 12 comfortable double rooms in the lodge, I arranged my gear. Like the lodge itself, the rooms, built of golden pine and set with giant windows in delicately carved frames, are simple. The men's and women's bathrooms are shared but clean. Even in midsummer, temperatures are cool enough that air-conditioners are not needed, and electric blankets are provided in spring and autumn. There are no heaters.

What the lodge lacks in amenities, it makes up for in eco-science. The Nature Conservancy fitted the buildings with a biogas pit that converts manure into clean methane gas, which is piped to a kitchen stove to reduce the need for firewood. Solar panels on the roof, as well as a small hydroelectric generator in a nearby stream, provide electricity.

Over glasses of a potent fruit liquor that a villager had brewed, Mr. Cun explained that the Lijiang area has been heavily affected by a recent tourism boom. Until the mid-1990's, the 280,000 Naxi living in the area were isolated from the rest of China except for a trickle of scraggly backpackers who made a three-day bus trip from Yunnan's capital, Kunming. But in 1995, Lijiang opened an airport with direct flights from several Chinese cities, and the trickle grew to a flood. Last year, the city had more than three million visitors.

The rapid influx has affected local customs. For example, with swelled demand for lumber to build new and bigger homes, some farmers, earning only a few hundred dollars a year, are willing to risk fines to log local forests.

"Naxi culture taught us that we must protect small trees and only cut big trees," Mr. Cun said. "Now, everything is cut."

By giving local residents a chance to buy shares in the eco-lodge for a few dollars a family and letting them earn dividends, the village has an interest in protecting the forests and in keeping the tourists coming back. The lodge has also created jobs. For a few dollars a day, young English-speaking villagers work as trail guides leading guests to nearby sites.

For the more adventurous, Wenhai can be the starting point of a three-day trek through the Tiger Leaping Gorge, which tracks an upper stretch of the Yangtze River through one of the world's deepest ravines. (Environmentalists are fighting plans to dam the gorge for a hydropower project that would flood much of the area, but not Wenhai, which is at a higher elevation.) Other activities include horseback riding, visiting local schools and, from November to March, bird-watching.

For me, relaxing with a cup of hot tea and a novel seemed a better idea. But I had happened to book my trip to Wenhai over the weekend of the Grave Sweeping Festival, when Chinese pay tribute to their ancestors with offerings of food and wine, and the He clan, who have a stake in the lodge, invited me to join them. We spent the afternoon eating delicious roast potatoes and fried pork strips, and I peppered Mr. Cun with questions about the festival and other local ways.

After lunch, the oldest member of the He family, a 74-year-old woman with a wide toothy smile, lighted a small fire and burned paper money for deceased relatives. Smoke from similar fires on hillsides around the valley drifted into a blue sky and the sun broke through scattered clouds, lighting the peaks of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

The next morning, I would hike back to Lijiang, pausing during the three-hour trip to see the limestone crags that Wenhai Lake drains into. But first, I had a few more hours to sit with the He family and be awed by the view. I had followed in Rock's steps and, far from China's frenetic cities, I had found a rare eco-paradise.

Visitor Information

Wenhai Eco-Lodge, 42 Jingxing Xiang, Guangyi Street, Guchen Qu, Lijiang, Yunnan Province, (86-888) 510-6226, fax (86-888) 515-9920, online at www.northwestyunnan.com. The lodge is about 15 miles from Lijiang and is open by reservation year round. There are 12 simple but comfortable rooms costing $12 a day a person, with three meals.

Bird-watching is best from November to March; rhododendrons blossom in April and May; in July and August, it rains most afternoons.

Getting There

There are direct flights to Lijiang from Kunming, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu.

China International Travel Service in Beijing, (86-10) 8522-8888, www.cits.net, can arrange flights. The round-trip air fare between Beijing and Lijiang comes to about $350.

Nature Conservancy guides will meet visitors in Lijiang to lead them on foot, on horse or by car to the lodge.

In Lijiang

Visitors should spend at least a day in Lijiang, a bustling city with a charming Old Town of quiet lanes and quaint parks. In the Old Town, there are numerous cafes and restaurants serving Western and Chinese food. The hill in the Black Dragon Pool Park offers good views of the area.

A good backpacker hotel is the First Bend Inn, 43 Mishi Xiang, Xinyi Jie, phone and fax (86-888) 518-1688. It has 20 clean but simple rooms with shared baths starting at $10 a night. Most dinners for two cost less than $10.

For a more upscale hotel, try the www.cits.net Xinyi Jie, Dayan Town, (86-888) 512-8888, fax (86-888) 512-7878, e-mail: grandljh@sina.com. It is one of the best in Lijiang, with 127 clean and comfortable rooms. Doubles with private baths start at $42 a night.

[bird]

Equatorial, Wild and Most Curious

November 7, 2004

By LARRY ROHTER

EVEN for Brazilians, who have left almost no nook or cranny of their vast country unexplored, the island of Marajó, at the mouth of the Amazon River, seems a distant and exotic destination.

The size of Switzerland, Marajó abounds with exotic wildlife, jungles, beaches, lagoons, mangrove swamps and flood plains, but has few permanent human inhabitants and is permeated with an end-of-the-world feeling. No wonder then that "At the Limit" - the Brazilian equivalent of the television reality show "Survivor" - was once shot on Marajó.

For the adventurous or curious, though, Marajó and the group of smaller islands that surround it have an almost irresistible appeal. Rarely does nature in all its intimidating majesty seem so close at hand: Two gigantic bodies of water, the Atlantic Ocean and the Amazon River, confront each other offshore and together shape human life onshore into a battle of another sort, against the stifling
exuberance of the tropics.

Which is not to say that conditions on Marajó are necessarily spartan. Yes, luxury is hard to obtain, but in three trips over the last five years, what has impressed me most is how much more welcoming to visitors the archipelago is today than at the time of my first sojourn, in 1978. With the construction of several hotels in recent years, it is now possible to sample the wilds and then return to the
comfort of an air-conditioned room and a cold drink.

That's exactly the routine I followed on my most recent visit, in October. After strolling along an isolated beach, where waves lapped the white sands, I would return to my hotel, the Ilha do Marajó, and relax poolside or play table tennis. After the tide had changed, I would return to the same spot on the beach, only to find that as a result of the eternal struggle for supremacy between the Amazon and the Atlantic, what had earlier been salt water was now fresh water, or vice versa.

For those with the time and the money, there is also the possibility of hiring a boat through a travel agency and trying to chase down a pororoca, the endless wave of the Amazon. A monthly phenomenon related to the cycles of the moon, a pororoca develops when the Atlantic Ocean tide advances into the river basin and creates a giant swell that flows upstream for several hundred miles at speeds of 20 miles an hour or more.

Pororocas occur in river channels all over the eastern Amazon, but some of the most spectacular waves, 10 feet high or so, occur near the north shore of Marajó - as local people, forced to rely on canoes rather than motorboats - know all too well.

For residents and visitors alike, island life tends to be concentrated in the northeast corner, where the towns of Salvaterra and Soure, both on the Bay of Marajó, face each other across the placid, half-mile-wide Paracaury River, which can be crossed by ferryboat or water taxis. The main hotels are all there, down along the riverfront or the bay, and many of the working ranches that offer lodging to tourists and a glimpse of the Marajó cowboy's rugged life are close by too, less than a half hour by car.

The ranch experience is an essential part of any Marajó visit, and the most comfortable of the rural settings available to visitors is at the Marajó Park Resort Hotel, which is actually on the island of Mexiana, just north of the main island, across a narrow channel. The Equator runs through the middle of Mexiana, and the island teems with tropical wildlife in a way that is scarcely imaginable, from alligators and jumbo catfish in the rivers to graceful egrets and noisy toucans in the air.

Nature excursions from hotels are led by knowledgeable caboclos, or native river dwellers, and my outing, at the peak of the dry season, did not disappoint. Four-foot-long iguanas scampered across laterite roads as my fellow guests and I approached in a jeep.

And when we stopped at a canal to throw in a net, we almost immediately caught several adult pirarucu, a species of giant bass that grows to be as long as eight feet and typically weighs more than 200 pounds. And that's no fish story.

Once, I was in a canoe with our guide, Raimundo, who warned me not to fall into the water, which was full of stingrays and lamprey and electric eels. Returning to land, we first saw herds of wild boars, Marajó ponies and capybaras, large, short-tailed, semiaquatic rodents native to the Amazon, and then a troop of squirrel monkeys screaming at us from the trees.

We could also distinguish animals rustling in the nearby copses, and since we were in an area known to be a leopard habitat, it was entertaining to think that was what we were hearing.

Most of the members of my group were French tourists and newcomers to the Amazon, and from them, the superlatives
flowed: "C'est magnifique! Fantastique! Incroyable! Vraiment, c'est le top!" is what I heard over and over again as their cameras clicked.

I couldn't disagree: In 26 years of traveling all over the Amazon region, I had never seen so much wildlife in one place, except at a zoo in Manaus that is operated by the Brazilian Army's jungle warfare school.

But Marajó's signature animal, odd though it may seem, is the water buffalo, said to have arrived accidentally from French Indochina in the 1920's, when a ship bound for French Guiana wrecked just off the coast. The island, in fact, today has four times as many buffalo as people - 600,000 versus 140,000 - and the animal's presence permeates life on the island.

The local police, for instance, patrol on water buffalo rather than horses, and visitors to any ranch can also ride the beasts, which, despite their fierce look, are docile. Water buffalo are most common out on the flood plain to which they are supremely adapted, but they also wander the streets of Salvaterra and Soure and appear on restaurant menus as a local delicacy.

Buffalo meat may not sound particularly appetizing, but it turns out to be lean and to have, according a United States Department of Agriculture bulletin, "40 percent less cholesterol, 55 percent less calories, 11 percent more protein and 10 percent more minerals " than beef. Buffalo cheese, another Marajó favorite, also proved tastier than I would have thought. The two are combined in a dish known as a Marajó filet, with melted cheese on top of grilled buffalo steak, but local restaurants also serve lots of fish (especially bass and catfish) and crab.

With all the animal life, it is sometimes easy to forget that Marajó also fascinates archeologists and others interested in Amerindian cultures. From about the fifth century A.D., the island was inhabited by a people renowned for pottery featuring complicated geometric designs, most often in red and black, and anthropomorphic figures.

Though this group vanished, examples of its Marajóara pottery, some of it recovered by caboclos as they go about their normal farming and fishing activities, are on display at the unusual Museu do Marajó, in a former Brazil nut factory in the village of Cachoeira do Arari, in the middle of the island. My only complaint about the museum is that it requires a ride of more than an hour through the jungle on a dirt road, with occasional delays at riverbanks waiting for a ferry.

The museum was the pride of an Italian priest, the Rev. Giovanni Gallo, who lived on Marajó for many years until his death in 2003 and wrote several books about Marajó culture. The museum is a curious grab bag:

There are exhibits focusing on Amazon legends and folklore (with captions, unfortunately, only in Portuguese) and a collection of stuffed animals, including sloths, parrots, coatis, anteaters and armadillos.

But the pottery display is remarkable and varied. It includes a type of large funeral urn known as an igaçaba, which the Indians used in a process archeologists refer to as secondary burial. What that means is that inside each urn is a smaller vessel containing the bones of the deceased and an object associated with him or her: a doll for a child, for instance or an ax for a man.

As my cab made its way through the lush tropical forest on the road back to Soure, it occurred to me that Miami was little more than a five-hour flight away, and that Rio de Janeiro was fewer than four hours distant. My driver, Seu João, said he had never been to either place and wanted to know if life there is in any way similar to Marajó.

"No," I answered. "There is no place on earth like Marajó."

One can get to Marajó by air or sea, and of those two options, traveling by boat is definitely more interesting and enjoyable.

A double-decker ferry leaves Belém, a city of 1.5 million just across the bay, every morning around 7, and the three-hour-plus trip across to Marajó offers a rare opportunity to observe the fishermen and foresters who eke a precarious living from the river and the jungle. The one-way fare is about $4, at 3 reals to the dollar, and reservations can be made by calling (55-91) 257-0299.

Travel agencies in Belém can make arrangements (and the best deals) for travel to Marajó by boat or by air. Flights are in light planes only, typically for a half-dozen passengers. One-way air fare from Belém is about $70.

From New York, travelers must fly into São Paulo to get to Belém. Internet fares for early December start around $950.

Where to Stay

In Soure, the best bet for lodgings is probably the Hotel Ilha do Marajó, at the edge of the river between Seventh and Eighth Streets, (55-91) 241-3218 www.iaraturismo.com.br. It has 36 rooms, a swimming pool and tennis and volleyball courts. A double room runs about $40, breakfast included.

Across the river in Salvaterra, the rustic Pousada dos Guaras, on the Avenida Beira-Mar, (55-91) 4005-5656, and www.pousadadosguaras.com.br, is on the beach surrounded by a forest reserve. The location is a bit remote, but the 50-room hotel has its own restaurant, nature trails and playgrounds. Double rooms cost $40, breakfast included.

Of the newcomers on the island, the cozy Paracauary Eco-Resort, Avenida Prado 6, Soure, (55-91) 222-6442, www.paracauary.com, which opened in 2001 and has eight rooms, stands out. A double is $40, with breakfast, with a 25 percent discount is offered for stays of longer than two days.

The relatively luxurious 80-room Marajó Park Resort, on Mexiana Island, (55-91) 213-7043, www.marajoparkresort.com.br, offers multiday packages only, beginning with four days and three nights for $800 a person, including air fare from and to Belém, all meals and excursions with a guide.

Where to Eat

Paraiso Verde, at Travessa 17 2135, Soure, (55-91) 3741-1581, specializes in regional dishes like duck, crab and water buffalo in large portions, with a friendly, leafy atmosphere that lives up to its name, Green Paradise. Lunch or dinner for two is about $25, including beer. Open daily to midnight.

At first glance, Delicias da Nalva, 1051 Fourth Street, Soure, doesn't seem like a restaurant at all. That's because the owner, Nalva, is operating out of her own home, focusing on dishes made with water buffalo steak and cheese. A meal for two runs about $20 with beer. It is open until 10 p.m. There is no telephone, and payment is cash only.

[bird]

Where Being Green Can Be Easy

October 31, 2004

By STEVE BAILEY

PETIT BYAHAUT, on the lush, frangipani-scented west coast of St. Vincent, has no swimming pools, no televisions, no telephones, no tennis, no minibars and no flags to raise when you want a drink brought to you in your hammock. The guesthouses are corrugated-roofed open-air decks with screened-in areas for bedrooms. Vacationers may share their living space with scurrying little black ants - in a resort where a can of Raid would be about as welcome as Hurricane Ivan, insects happen.

But what's striking about staying in Petit Byahaut, a fiercely determined environmentally sensitive resort, is what you don't have to give up.

Judith Jackson Spa citresse soap and Aromae Botanicals shampoo for the shower, for example. Fresh flowers left on the bed every day by the woman who changes the sheets. Guided snorkeling through a cave. Rum punch made with fresh-squeezed guava juice at sunset. Grilled dorado. Squid stuffed with scallops and shrimp.

Petit Byahaut (pronounced PUH-tee BYE-ah-hah) is one of a generation of so-called eco-resorts that have grown up, offering not only environmental bragging rights but also creature comforts like well-appointed bathrooms and chef-prepared meals.

Virtuous? Yes. Spartan? No.

Even for travelers who haven't much worried about whether their presence on a tropical island might contribute to the paving of paradise, these places can be alluring, presenting an uncrowded, relatively unspoiled face of the islands.

"We get boaters here all the time who don't know we're a hotel," said Brian Durbin, who with his wife, Nicole, manages Petit Byahaut.

No wonder. The place is almost invisible from the sea, its steep green hills meeting the Caribbean at a small black sand beach, its five guesthouses hidden among trees and spread out inland on the resort's 56 acres.

No international standards define an eco-resort, but places that describe themselves as sensitive to nature generally share two characteristics: resource conservation and minimal interference with the natural setting. Solar power, composting, careful waste-handling and projects benefiting indigenous communities are common themes.

Petit Byahaut does not disturb the native forest with roads. Guests are brought in by boat (about a 10-minute ride) to an offshore mooring and transferred to an eight-foot dinghy before landing at the dockless beach and wading to shore. All of Petit Byahaut's supplies arrive in that fashion, as did all of the materials brought in by Charles Meistrell, the Californian who opened Petit Byahaut in 1991, to build it - every nail, bag of cement and propane tank.

The guest dwellings have low-wattage lights powered by photovoltaic cells on their roofs. When it rains, the metal roofs funnel water to discreetly sited tanks, from which it is piped to the guests' solar-heated showers and filtered for drinking.

Toilets are connected to a septic system, and showers and sinks simply drain into planting areas. The tiny black ants venture in from the surrounding woods because pesticides could end up in the coral-studded cove out front.

Other eco-resorts operate in similar fashion. Tiamo Resort, on South Andros Island in the Bahamas, offers beachfront cottages among palms and sea grape trees surrounded by a 125-acre nature preserve accessible only by a three-mile boat ride. A half-acre array of photovoltaic cells provide the electricity for the resort.

Mike and Petagay Hartman, who own Tiamo, are particularly proud that the land for the resort, built in 2000, was cleared by hand, using machetes and chain saws, to limit damage to the vegetation.

Lapa Rios, a full-service resort on the isolated Orsa Peninsula on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, not only uses solar power and battles bugs with mosquito nets instead of sprays but it has also has refused to heed local law calling for cutting through "monkey bridges" over roads through the rain forest. And 3 Rivers, in the mountains of Dominica, boasts a long list of environmentally sensitive practices, from solar power and composting to running its diesel truck on used vegetable oil.

Yet all of these places also manage to provide enough luxury to attract fairly demanding vacationers.

The island environment itself helps. A solar outdoor shower might not be as reliably hot as one fed from a conventional water heater, but in an open-air setting under a warm sun, amid scents of calabash and guava trees, it's relaxing and exotic. Petit Byahaut's dining room is merely a covered deck, but iridescent hummingbirds feed at flowering bushes next to the tables.

ON a trip to Petit Byahaut last year, my wife and I kayaked along the St. Vincent coast and snorkeled over coral-studded rocks a few feet off the beach, undisturbed by other tourists trying to do the same. We hiked trails to panoramic views and to an ancient Cariban oven carved into a boulder. We also sipped cocktails on a little docklike deck with benches that extended just over the surf - waves would get our legs wet as we watched the sunset.

And we shared dinners prepared by Mr. Durbin, once a chef at Carmine's on Penn in Denver, or by Chuckie Taylor, the main chef, with visiting sailors, some of whom had come across the Atlantic in their boats. Appetizers included callaloo and pumpkin soups, ham and potato cake, and fried calamari; entrees, many of them fresh fish dishes like wahoo wrapped in banana leaves that we had seen Gideon Pompey, Byahaut's boatman, cutting, were all first rate.

Later, there was stargazing or a little reading before sleep. This could get boring, we decided, after a few decades.

At Lapa Rios, the main attraction is the beauty of 1,000 acres of virtually unspoiled rain forest - waterfalls, exotic native animals and extravagant vegetation - its preservation supported by the resort. But guests not fascinated by the hiking can surf, ride horses, fish (catch and release) or indulge in yoga and massage. The resort is proud enough of its food to sell its own cookbook.

In the Bahamas, Tiamo invites guests to leave their private beach bungalows, with their king-size beds and open-air rock-floored showers, to go bonefishing, snorkeling, sailing or kayaking.

Even the relatively rustic 3 Rivers offers Internet access, locally made (and biodegradable) toiletries and soaps that work well with the island's soft water, and Chinese massage - perhaps more a necessity than a luxury for guests who attempt some of the island's spectacular and spectacularly challenging hikes.

While staying at Petit Byahaut, we made a day trip to Bequia (pronounced BECK-way), the largest of the Grenadines, to see Moonhole, an amazing residential community where some houses, with professional cooks and other staff, can be rented by the week. It is a quirky 19-home ecologically oriented development built of native stone, with whalebone accents, on the steep hills of the island's southern tip.

The name comes from a soaring natural arch on the shore through which the moon can be seen at times. The whalebones, remnants of the minimal whaling by the islanders, are big enough to work as elements like stair railings.

The houses, which rely on solar electricity, rainwater and propane tanks, are mostly fanciful open-air affairs with lines blurred between indoors and out. Floors slope so that rainwater can flow to cisterns and the gardens - it can flow in because windows tend to have neither glass nor shutters. Most of the seating is built-in stone benches topped with cushions (remember the "sofa" on "The
Flintstones")? Steep stairways link the houses, which appear to have sprouted from the rocky landscape.

"People think they're old ruins," said Jim Johnston, whose father, Tom, a Chicago advertising executive, began developing the site in the 1960's. "But they just look that way."

The community, which evokes Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater as well as Gaudí's Park Guell in Barcelona, fronts a white sand beach with dreamy turquoise water on one side and overlooks a cliff-edged bay popular with divers on the other.

A homeowner at Moonhole needs dedication to the concept of an environmentally sensitive paradise. But visitors at these well-appointed eco-resorts have some choice about how much of their vacation time they want to spend actively supporting the cause. Guests who feel too weary to hike in the forest or to absorb rain-forest ecology lessons are free to spend their time lounging at the beach and sipping something cold, enjoying the pristine landscapes from the comfort of hammocks.

And they can always leave with a souvenir. Tiamo offers one of the most appropriate. Guests are invited to depart carrying packages of used plastic food containers (one of the few products the resort can't figure out how to reuse), suitable for dropping into the municipal recycling boxes back home. Secluded, Not Spartan Petit Byahaut, Kingston, St. Vincent, West Indies, (784) 457-7008, www.petitbyahaut.com, four miles north of town, can house 10 guests in four bungalows and a tent on 56 acres. The double-occupancy rates are $140 a night a person in high season, Nov. 1 to May 14, then $112 to Aug. 31; it closes in September and October. All meals, but not bar drinks, are included, as is the use of kayaks and snorkeling gear. Scuba equipment can be rented and hiking or boating excursions arranged. There is a three-night minimum and a 17 percent tax and service charge. Flights go through Barbados, St. Lucia and Grenada.

Tiamo Resort, General Delivery, South Andros Island, Bahamas, (242) 357-2489, fax (305) 768-7707, www.tiamoresorts.com, has 11 bungalows for 22 guests (they urge not taking children under 12). Through Dec. 20, rates are $275 a person a night, including all meals, use of kayaks, sailboats and snorkeling equipment, and many guided activities. Bar drinks and 6 percent tax are extra. Closed August and September. Flights are available to South Andros from Nassau or Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Lapa Rios, Post Office Box 025216-SJO706, Miami, Fla. 33102; (506) 735-5130, fax (506) 735-5179; www.laparios.com, is south of Puerto Jiménez on the Orsa Peninsula of Costa Rica. It has 16 bungalows for up to four guests each. Rates are $172 to $260 a night a person, double occupancy, including taxes and all meals. The hotel can arrange flights from the capital, San José.

3 Rivers Eco Lodge, Post Office Box 1292, Newfoundland Estate, Rosalie, Dominica; (767) 446-1886, fax (270) 517-4588; and www.3riversdominica.com, has three cottages, sleeping three, for $70 a night; a very secluded thatched house and a bamboo tree house, both for two, for $40 and $50; and a four-bed dormitory-style cabin for $25 a person. Camp sites go for $15 a night, with tents renting for $15 or $20; and a hammock in a shelter is $18 a night. American Airlines (from Puerto Rico) and other regional carriers fly into Dominica.

At www.3riversdominica.com on Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a three-bedroom house is offered by Jim and Sheena Johnston, (784)458-3068, www.begos.com/bequiamoonhole, for $1,200 a week for four and $150 each additional person. It comes with a staff of two, including a cook; guests provide groceries.

Another Moonhole owner, (784) 531-7082 , www.burke-house.com, rents two houses. Burke House has two bedrooms with staff for $1,275 a week, and packages with air fare and diving can be added. The second, Tranquility Villa, has four bedrooms, a pool, five terraces and 300-degree water views for $4,999 a week.

Like St. Vincent, Bequia is most easily reached by flights from Barbados. Its harbor at Port Elizabeth, about four miles from the homes but a 25-minute drive, is served by several ferries a day from Kingston on St. Vincent.

[atouria]

Virginia Beach, Virginia
"You paddle with a group of about five other kayaks, paralleling hte coast only a few hundred yards away. Arriving at Cape Henry, a pod of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins sims right up next to the kayaks. Guide Josh Martin of Chesapean Kayak Tours drops a hydrophone in the water and paddles next to your boat. He slips the headphones over your ears. The aquatic mammals click and chirp and whistle below the waves. Ahead, one of the animals leaps completely out of the water as if putting on a show... "
(An excerpt from Virginia Living August '05 issue.)

Chesapean Kayak Tours in Virginia Beach takes groups of up to 12 with one guide per six persons on three-hour Dolphin Tours at $45 per person. 727-287-0938

Dolphin Kayak Tours are also availabe at Tidewater Adventures for $45 per person. 757-480-1999

Wild River Outfitters have tours available for $45 per person as well. 757-431-8566

[atouria]

Wow, thanks for the posts, Cymraegrrl!

Would you mind posting summarized versions to make the vital info easily accessible?

[bird]

February 6, 2005

Hiking Dominica's Peaks

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

FIRST things first. A "hike" in the Caribbean is not that annoyingly long distance between your hotel room and the beach. True, that's as far as most people want to go before flopping down on the sand and soaking up the sun. But there is actually serious hiking in the islands, from the 10,000-foot scramble up Pico Duarte in the Dominican Republic, the highest point in the Caribbean, to lowland trails through the gardens of St. Kitts.

I wanted something in between, and after a few Google searches (typing in "hiking" and "Caribbean" turns up roughly 908,000 results) and flicking through some guidebooks, it seemed like all arrows pointed to the trek to Boiling Lake, a mysterious bubbling caldron deep in the jungles of Dominica, probably one of the least visited Caribbean islands and a bit of a mystery itself.

So the minute after my girlfriend and I landed in Dominica a few weeks ago, we got into a cab and asked the taxi driver how was Boiling Lake.

"It stopped boiling."

No, really.

"I'm not pulling your leg, brother. It stopped boiling last week," said James, the driver. "Specialists come to the island. They look at lake. They take samples. But water went away. No one knows why."

I then asked about the island's most famous and unusual delicacy - the giant two-pound frog known as the mountain chicken.

"No, man," James said. "Hard to find anymore."

Great, I thought, a 1,977-mile, 10-hour trip and no Boiling Lake and no mountain chicken.

Dominica, it turns out, is the island of surprises - but in the best way. It is a hiker's paradise, a mountainous, velvety green lump in the middle of the ocean, 29-by-16-miles small, with gorgeous uncut rain forest and the last intact Carib Indian territory.

It's never been your typical Caribbean island. When the first Europeans stepped ashore in the 15th century, they were confused because the native men spoke one language and the native women another. For the next few centuries, Dominica remained off the beaten track, a refuge to runaway slaves and too mountainous for the sprawling sugar cane plantations that came to dominate the rest of the West Indies.

Today, Dominica (pronounced dahm-uh-NEE-kuh) is one of the smallest countries in the world, population 71,000, 15 degrees north of the Equator, and southeast of the much bigger Dominican Republic, which it often gets confused with.

There are few beaches, few tourists, no big hotels and no tiki-lighted limbo contests. But there is a lot of rain. Each year the island gets a whopping 300-plus inches, and the day we landed it was pouring.

As we drove to Roseau, the capital, we saw results of this: an incredible fertility, with the hillsides carpeted in a million shades of green and grove after grove of fruit trees - oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes, six varieties of bananas, papayas, guavas, star fruit, breadfruit, passion fruit - all dangling along the road, the fruit nearly scraping our windshield as we passed. Driving through Dominica was like driving through a ripe, juicy tropical fruit salad.

Beyond were stunning green mountain peaks, some as high as 4,700 feet. Legend has it that when Christopher Columbus was asked to describe Dominica to the queen of Spain, he crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it onto the table. That's how mountainous and textured the island was.

Columbus eventually learned why the native men and women spoke different tongues: the fierce Carib Indians, who had conquered the islands, exterminated all the indigenous Arawak men but spared the Arawak women, who continued to speak their own language. Today, everyone speaks English (Dominica, a former British colony, gained independence in 1978) and the island is calm, with a growing economy based on eco-tourism and bananas.

But some places look a little run-down.

And our first hotel was one of them.

The Web site for the Roseau Valley Hotel advertised tranquillity, nature and "deluxe rooms." Instead, we were given a unit overlooking a busy road with headlamps shining in our windows. There were mouse droppings in our bathtub. A worm slithered out of the drain. It was a good lesson not to rely solely on the Internet. (We lasted one night.)

The one thing the hotel did provide, however, was an excellent hiking guide, Peter Green. Granted, his safari outfit with the hand-painted waterfalls on it and cellphone number written on his chest might have been a little much. But Peter was incredibly knowledgeable about all things, well, green. And he knew the way to Boiling Lake.

"O.K., guys, let's get physical," Peter said as we set off into the forest on our seven-hour hike. The sun disappeared above the canopy and we soon found ourselves in a cool, dimly lighted world. The vegetation was incredible: 125-foot-tall gommier or "gummy gum" trees; jungle vines dangling like tentacles; spongy pillows of moss that we put our fists through; huge, waxy elephant ears with dime-size raindrops sliding off them.

The best part was that unlike most other jungles, there were no dangerous animals lying beneath the trees. The fiercest creature here is the yellow land crab, one of which tried to pinch me as I stepped through a stream (it missed).

As we hiked, we played Tarzan and swung from vines, sailing over mud puddles and watching the forest rush past us. We watched hummingbirds drink from lavender morning glories. Peter peeled cool, delicious oranges for snacks. The trail was perfectly marked and well cleared and sometimes aided by logs in the ground that functioned as steps. The best of them were scored with X's for grip.

But it was tough trekking. All of us - me, my girlfriend, Courtenay, and even Peter, a native Dominican - were often panting. There are really two types of hiking in this world: heads up or heads down. Heads up means the conditions are good, the trail is smooth and you can scan the treetops for birds or gaze off into the misty distance. Heads down means you ain't looking at nothing. Except your own two feet and where to put them next. This was clearly heads-down hiking.

As we cleared the top of a ridge, we caught a whiff of rotten eggs: sulfur. We shivered a bit as the sweat cooled on our bodies. We were close, with just one last stretch to go, called the Valley of Desolation. Dominica is a volcanic island (there was an eruption in 1997), and the Valley of Desolation is filled with bubbling mineral pools and frothy, milky rivers and steam shooting out of the earth. Finally we cleared the last pebbly slope and peered down into Boiling Lake.

"Unbelievable," Peter said.

Boiling Lake, apparently, is a shadow of itself, a muddy gray pool only half full with a few bubbles here, a few gurgles there. We were told that before, you could actually see and hear it boiling like a kettle. Locals think an earthquake ruptured the bottom and caused the water to drain. It wasn't that big a deal to us because the hike had been so invigorating. But Peter was crushed. To him, it was like Old Faithful drying up.

That night we stayed at the Papillote Wilderness Retreat, which was heavenly. The resort, which has only seven rooms, is nestled into the emerald hills and buffeted by sounds of crickets and frogs and the drumming of tropical rain. To make it even more perfect for the weary hiker, Papillote is built around natural hot springs. Ten lazy steps from our room was a little grotto with balmy waters that seeped into our skins and made us sleepy.

Our room could be described as Caribbean chic, with louvered wooden windows and a big blue-green colors-of-the-ocean quilt on the bed. Dinner was excellent. I had tuna soaked in coconut milk wrapped in some type of jungle leaf, and Courtenay had chicken d'orange. They were accompanied by a kaleidoscope of tropical juices.

The next few days we did a number of smaller, less ambitious hikes, just getting to know the island. And that's the thing about Dominica. You could easily spend a week here and not get bored. There's excellent scuba diving off the southern shore and hikes ranging from 15-minute forest strolls to the all-day climb of the island's tallest peak, Morne Diablotins, whose summit is reached by clinging to a curtain of jungle vines. The only gear you need for the hikes is a small backpack, a light rain jacket and a pair of hiking boots or running shoes.

One morning we went to Middleham Falls, a 275-foot-high chute of foamy white water in the middle of the jungle. It takes about an hour to reach the falls from the road, and it is truly unforgettable to watch a river go flying off the side of a mountain, tumble through the air and then smash into a frothy pool of water so hard, so fast, that it sounds like a jet engine.

Nearby is the Stinking Hole, a steaming fissure in the earth that belches out bitter fumes and is full of bat dung from all the furry winged creatures living inside. Needless to say, the Stinking Hole lives up to its name.

We also spent an afternoon at Champagne Beach, a decidedly Dominican beach. For one, it was nearly deserted. And it was rocky, with the surf pounding the shore and making a rich, satisfying crunching sound as the waves sucked softball-size rocks into the sea and spat them back out.

The best part was the bubbles. At the reef, volcanic hot springs along the ocean floor send up streams of tiny wobbling bubbles. Snorkeling through them was like swimming in a glass of Champagne.

Our last night we stayed at another intimate resort, Beau Rive, which has six rooms, all with a prime view of the forest and the ocean. Mark Steele, the owner, came to the island from England 25 years ago and opened his hotel in 2003. "It seemed like the real thing," he told us, as we lounged on the veranda. "Dominica was the romantic version of the Caribbean. It was a place where the people hadn't turned into these cocktail-shaking stereotypes yet."

As we looked across the wild green hills (and shook our cocktails), we agreed. Our little hike in the Caribbean didn't feel Caribbean at all.

Visitor Information

The Dominica Tourist Office is at (888) 645-5637. There are no direct flights from the United States to Dominica. You connect through Antigua, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia or St. Martin, and the trip ends up taking the better part of a day. The airlines that fly to Dominica are American Eagle, Air Carabes, Caribbean Star and LIAT; round-trip fares from Kennedy start at about $600 with three stops and multiple airlines.

Where to Stay

Dominica's hotels are not nearly as fancy as what you'll find on most other Caribbean islands, which is part of the draw. They're also very affordable.

Papillote Wilderness Retreat, tucked into the emerald hillsides above Trafalgar village, is reason enough to go to the island. The seven-room nature lodge has its own hot springs and botanical garden; (767) 448- 2287 or www.papillote.dm. Double rooms are $110, plus tax and service charges, and daily breakfast and dinner are $35 a person.

Another great choice is Beau Rive, a beautifully styled small inn run by an Englishman who is a jazz pianist. Beau Rive is on the wild eastern shores of Dominica, near Castle Bruce; (767) 445-8992 or www.beaurive.com. Doubles are $120, plus tax and service charges, and dinner $20 a person.

There are also a number of midsize hotels in Roseau, the capital. The best known is the Fort Young Hotel; (767) 448-5000 or www.fortyounghotel.com. Doubles from $95, plus tax and service.

Where to Eat

Most hotels, even smaller ones, offer delicious fresh food. Specialties include tropical fruits and marlin, mahi-mahi and tuna. Among the small Creole restaurants in Roseau is La Robe Creole on Victoria Street, (767) 448-2896. A dinner for two with wine is about $38.

Guides

You don't need one - trails are very well marked and safe. But you'll get more out of hikes by going with someone who knows the land. Hotels can help make arrangements. We were very happy with Peter Green, who can be reached at (767) 235-2270, (767) 448-2366 or petergreentours@hotmail.com. He charges $100 a day for two.

[atouria]

The White Pig looks really cool! I love how it has links to other veg*n friendly stuff, too.

[bird]

Originally Posted by atouria

Would you mind posting summarized versions to make the vital info easily accessible?

All the vitals are at the bottom of each article (restaurants, hotels, etc.)

[atouria]

Originally Posted by atouria

...chime in and list the name of the place, the address, phone number, and a brief description. Please put the type of organization(s) or activities in your title...

Ok, I guess I'm just being nit-picky. I was hoping for the title thing to catch on, so that the activity/event/place would at least be bold. I'm a visual person

[atouria]

Manquin and Lyunchburg, Virginia
"Anticipation builds as you lie beneath the red and white hang glider. The craft looks like a large kite and you wonder if it can really hold two people. instructor Tex Forrest presses close to your body in the side-by-side tandem harness suspended from the glider... Forrest spins his finger in the air to tell the white ultralight plane to take off. A cable from the plane pulls the glider forward on the grass airstrip and the ground speeds by at 30 mph. The hang glider lifts in to the air following the ultralight.... Within minutes the glider reaches an altitude of 2,000 ft. Forrest presses a handle to release the cable from the plane and the glider slows to a quiet 20 mph. The country side below is a patchwork of farm fields..."

Tandem Lesson at Blue Sky Hang Gliding in Manquin $125. Flights last an average of 15-30 minutes. 540-432-6557

Tandem Flights also available at High Peak Hang Gliding in Lynchburg $105. 434-401-3434