Conservation Tourism

Darter “Spear Fishing”

/ Brinda Suresh / 1 Comment

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Today’s birding was at Hebbal lake with the Bangalore “bngbirds” birding forum. It was a cold, misty morning with relatively little bird activity. We saw some cormorants, herons, moorhens and a darter as we moved on.

Then, all of a sudden, there was some action that made my day! A Darter hunting!

I hope you enjoy this “blow by blow” account as much as I did!

Seed to Cup Tea Experience

/ Amie Inman / 2 Comments
Roasted Assam Tea "nibble" with cane sugar

Roasted Assam Tea “nibble” with cane sugar

Our time in Thailand included a range of sensory experiences, one of which was tea. One might think that living in India, we have little more to learn about tea, but that is far from the truth. Our experience with tea in our adopted home has been more visual than experiential; drives through the beautiful, sculpted tea landscapes of Munnar, or the tea tours near Thekkady, for example.

In the northern Thailand we visited a 60-hectare tea plantation near the Lisu Hilltribe village in Chaing Mai Province. One of the oldest plantations in the country, the owners are working on expanding the quantity of tea produced while offering the full range of tea experience for visitors, from planting a seed that will be lovingly cared for over a 2-year period before being transplanted, to hand plucking the tender green “silver tips” of the tea, Continue reading →

Bosque del Cabo and Xandari

/ Seth Inman / 2 Comments
A Yellow-headed Caracara raising its head feathers

A Yellow-headed Caracara raising its crest at Bosque

I’ve posted before on the beauty of Bosque del Cabo and some of the wildlife that my family and I spotted when we were there just about a month ago, but at the time I didn’t touch on the complementarity of the coastal rainforest nature lodge with Xandari Resort in the Central Valley, where I’ve been based the last six months.

My first experience of the compatibility between Bosque del Cabo and Xandari was vicarious. One of my good friends at Cornell knew that I had lived in Costa Rica and asked for advice on places to stay for his parents and younger sister over spring break (unfortunately, he had to stay in Ithaca for varsity athletics). Of course, my first recommendation was Xandari Continue reading →

Water Hyacinth EcoDevelopment Projects

/ Amie Inman / 5 Comments
Water hyacinths choke the Poorna river at Tripunithura. Photo: Vipin Chandran; The Hindu

Water hyacinths choke the Poorna river at Tripunithura. Photo: Vipin Chandran; The Hindu

There are many similarities between Indian and Thai river life; watching villagers and people on barges going about their daily lives on the water is one, and the flora and fauna of river life is another. While traveling on the Chao Phraya River it only took a moment to see how the water hyacinths have the potential to choke river traffic. My excitement was piqued when Chananya from Asian Oasis told me that there was an established industry to use the plant for decorative, household and furniture purposes. Continue reading →