MrGreenies Travel Guide to the Green World
New Mexico Here We Come
There's a lot of talk out now about eco travel. But what exactly is Eco Travel? Is it increasing your carbon footprint by flying to Costa Rica (with the thousands of other people), to look at wild life in a preserve that had to be preserved because so many people like you were going there to see the nature in it's pure form?
That kind of eco traveling some how seems like a self defeating kind of green adventure. It almost makes me want to turn into a hermit who never left his hometown and listen to the Moody Blues sing "Thinking Is the Best Way to Travel"
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not a green washer but hardly a green fanatic either. I'd love to go to Costa Rica asap and I promise to seek out the most eco friendly place to stay. The closest I have ever been to Costa Rica was the pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Near where they filmed the movie "Y Tu Mama Tambien" . I want to go back desperately because the little surfer town I stayed in for a month without leaving once was so fantastic. I don't want to tell you about it because if I do it might become more popular.
That's not fair - it's called Puerto Escondido which means Hidden Port in Spanish.
A great web site about the town and surrounding area is www.tomzap.com/escondio.html
If you want to go and have questions you can email me but you can also email Gina the information Godess in Puerto E (GinaInPuerto@Yahoo.com) . She's great and is a handy person to know if you want to explore.
But getting back to Eco Travel. Is Eco Traveling telling the hotel staff that they do not have to wash your sheets every day, thus reducing your carbon foot print? Hotels are now offering this "service", which is more a lack of service ie cost reduction. (Maybe they could try solar water heaters and solar electric PV to offset all the energy it takes to wash sheets every day?)
Is Eco Traveling drinking local Organic Vodka Martini's after having bought a local bamboo T Shirt from the "indigenous" gift shop run by single mother artists from the local culture that were not displaced when the European eco hotel chain bought the waterfront land you are currently staying on? Is Eco Traveling escaping life or running right into the arms of it? Is it forgetting about the daily life you are in or reminding yourself what that is and how to make every day a green vacation?
Well, heck, I don't know all the answers! I'm just here to tell you what cool eco friendly green travel ideas I'm finding out about. Mostly what I want to do is tell you about inspiring places I've been or heard about and/or people I've met or want to meet because they inspire me. Eco Travel is all about traveling with a conscience and looking for inspiration. Maybe it's getting away and "being here" all at the same time.
When it comes to conscience and inspiration you need to know about a place in Taos New Mexico called Worlds Nest.. I originally found out about it from a man named Gene Johnson aka HYDROGENE who is a Hydrogen advocate and was on Governor Schwartzenegger Hydrogen Energy Task Force.
Check out HYROGENE's web sites:
World's Nest is a fantastical experiment in living sustainably and 100% off the grid. They grow their own food using water from a gray water waste system. They use a combination of solar hot water, solar PV, passive solar and wind to completely power the space age complex. They have their own Hydrogen source (from solar-hydrogen system) and a hydrogen fueling station. They even have a Hydrogen Hummer! You gotta love it!
Billed as a "sustainable energy demonstration showcase", Worldsnest is the sister project to a nearby place called Angels Nest and was built by Robert Plarr and Victoria Peters. It addition to the wind and solar power and renewable hydrogen fueling station, it also has integrated greenhouses and a gray water recycling system. (Can I say again it It is 100% self sustaining and off the grid?)
If you go to WorldsNest make sure you take some of their ideas home with you and see how you can integrate some of this kind of sustainable living into your current footprint. We are not all going to be able to go off the grid like that so easily, but staying a few days at Worldsnest will show you truly that the future is now and the best way to eco travel and live green is not just by thinking about it while listening to a Moody Blues song but to get out there and see real people really doing it and just make it happen.
Accommodations: There are three rooms in the sprawling complex that are rented out per night at a rate of $399.000 The price might seem a bit steep but it includes a guided tour of the sustainable systems and considering what they have accomplished I would say going there was well worth a whole day of looking at how they pulled it off, especially since it includes a night's stay as well as.
Conferences and lectures in the green world can easily cost you $399 per day and that is to hear lectures in hotel ball rooms or speeches in exhibit halls. To stay comfortably in the desert of New Mexico at a posh luxurious space pad and learn how it all works sounds like a bargain to me. One suite even has a separate bunk room and accommodates up to 4 people.
Contact:
Russ - Nightly Sustainable Rentals 505-613-4169
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