CROSSING TIME ZONES
Currently viewing the tag: "Ecotourism"
I’m standing on a forest road in the Scottish highlands along with 10 or so companions, scanning the slopes for signs of the bird we’ve come here to see. Instead, what appears out of the woods is our guide, Mark Denman. He’s been creeping about quietly, hoping to spot a capercaillie, the world’s largest species [...]
It’s hard to beat the view from La Cusinga Lodge. Nestled on a hillside on Costa Rica’s still-wild southwest coast, the lodge occupies its own private nature reserve just south of the village of Uvita. Seen from the lodge buildings, the vista takes in a dense expanse of verdant rainforest spreading over the slopes, contrasting [...]
Off the west coast of Sweden, not far from the Norwegian border, lies Kosterhavet National Park, the country’s first marine national park, established in September 2009. A place of great beauty, Kosterhavet boasts the highest levels of biological diversity in Sweden, with 6,000 species underwater and an equal number – mostly birds, plants, insects, and [...]
Rain and wind lash at my Gore-Tex as I make my way up a trail on the island of Ursholmen toward Sweden’s westernmost lighthouse. On a fine day, I’d linger to take in the solitude, the salty air, and the stark outer-archipelago scenery. But today the sea is dark and opaque, and the land—a treeless [...]
“There!” Kayaking guide Roddy McDowell lets out a shout as a gray fin appears a few yards away, rising from the dark waters of Scotland’s Moray Firth. It’s our first glimpse of the bottlenose dolphins we’ve come here to see. As we rest our paddles and watch quietly, several more animals break the surface, moving [...]
With all the green buzzwords flying around these days, it can be hard for travelers to know what to trust. How do you know if a tourism business is truly sustainable? How can you be certain that an ecolodge is really “eco”? What kinds of criteria should you be looking at? Enter Hitesh Mehta, a [...]
Dressed as we are in bright red Mustang survival suits, my five companions and I look like a group of Antarctic researchers preparing to venture into the frozen icefields of the far south. In reality, we’re about to head out on the St. Lawrence River in an attempt to spot some of the numerous species [...]
