Bird of the Day: White-bellied Sea Eagle
Conservation Tourism
Bird of the Day: Tailor Bird
Sivarpanam Palace, Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu
Bird of the Day: Pink-browed Rosefinch
Binsar, Uttarakhand
Bird of the Day: Common Potoo
Braulio Carrillo National Park, Costa Rica
Night Vision
After my first few nights at Chan Chich, I quickly learned that the jungle activity changes a bit in the night time. Bats swoop through the air, the sounds of howler monkeys reverberate off of the trees, and cane toads hop across my path.
So of course, when the opportunity arose to go on a night ride I was eager to see what would be in store for me. While I knew it would be foolish to hope for a jaguar sighting, I set out taking comfort in the fact that at least my chances would be higher than if I had stayed in for the night. What I didn’t count on, however, was my inherently poor ability to spot wildlife in the darkness.
Bird of the Day: Velvet-fronted Nuthatch
Valparai, Tamil Nadu
Sustainable Village Highlight: San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala
Hi, there! I’m Mari Gray, founder of artisan-made brand Kakaw Designs, based in Guatemala. After studying International Relations and Spanish at UC Davis and then working for several non-profits in Latin America, I became disillusioned and decided to focus on sustainable development through a social enterprise, partnering with talented artisan communities in Guatemala.
I feel incredibly fortunate to work with different artisan groups in Guatemala through Kakaw Designs (pronounced <kekao> like the cacao tree), an artisan-made brand I started about four years ago. We currently work with several different artisan groups: two weaving, one embroidery, two teams of leathersmiths, and one silversmith; all to make our designs come to life. But it was for a good reason that we started with the weaving cooperative Corazón del Lago in San Juan la Laguna, at Lake Atitlán.
We would never have been able to launch Kakaw Designs without this group of forward-thinking, professional weavers from this small Maya village. The community itself is exceptional, with sustainability clearly a focus through:
- Use of natural dyes in textile production, also using local traditional techniques such as backstrap weaving and ikat designs  <<Learn more by watching our video>>
- Organization of weavers in cooperatives or associations, where women work together and can therefore take larger orders and offer quality control
- Up-and-coming development of community ecotourism, especially birding
Bird of the Day: White-Naped Tit
Great Rann of Kutch, Gujurat
Bird of the Day: Bat Falcon
Gallon Jug Estate, Belize
Bird of the Day: Nicobar Pigeon
female – South Vietnam
Bird of the Day: Nicobar Pigeon
male – South Vietnam
Bird of the Day: Purple Swamphen
Kadamakudy, Kerala
Bird of the Day: Yellow-necked Spurfowl
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Bird of the Day: Crab Plover
Mandvi, Gujarat
Sustainable Education
To me, conservation tourism isn’t just about facilitating guest experiences in nature, but rather, it is about ensuring that guests walk away from their experience having gained a new appreciation for the systems they have interacted with. When I first spoke with Crist about spending my summer at Chan Chich, we mostly discussed working on developing a hydroponic food production system at the lodge. Not only would this system serve as a food supplier for the kitchen, but would also have an interactive educational aspect so guests could learn about the process. While this project is still a focal point of my internship, sustainability isn’t just about improving one aspect of a system, just like good conservation tourism is about having a medley of experiences.
When strengthening both the guest experience and sustainable operations at Chan Chich, it isn’t enough to just focus on what is going in to the kitchen. Rather, it is essential to focus on what is coming out of the kitchen as well.
Sustainable waste management has been important to the operations at Chan Chich for some time now. However, never before has these processes been visible to guests. While the hydroponic project is still under development, applying the project’s ideas of sustainable technology and guest education to waste management in the meantime is highly beneficial.
The result?
Bird of the Day: Black-headed Trogon
male – Gallon Jug Estate, Belize
Bird of the Day: Tickell’s Thrush
Jogeshwar, Uttarakhand
Bird of the Day: Social Flycatcher
Gallon Jug Estate, Belize
Organic, Bird-Friendly Cold Brew Coffee At Chan Chich Lodge
At All Day, a coffee shop in Miami that’s on the must-visit list of coffee fanatics, cold brew is the foundation of the menu. Credit John Van Beekum for The New York Times
Apparently it is iced coffee season up north. It is intern season here at Chan Chich Lodge. Maybe an intersection? Emily, from an agriculture and environmental engineering background, and Alana who is an aspiring sustainable hospitality developer are off to the races, as they say. They were out in the forest yesterday with GPS tools, a GIS mapping app and the assistance of Migde and Hector on the trails, developing a more scientific way of estimating the incidence of Ramon trees in our 30,000 acres.
More on that from them. But more on coffee from me. We have been cultivating an estate coffee unique to Belize, organic and as bird-friendly as you will find. Let’s add cold brew to your list of summer experimentation? Migde and Hector, aka bartender and waiter and therefore defacto coffee baristas, will be setting up the instrumentation in the kitchen.
How Cold Brew Changed the Coffee Business
Bird of the Day: Greater Yellow-naped Woodpecker
Sattal, Uttarakhand
Organikos 