The mount Parnassus or Parnassos is located in Central Greece and according to greek mythodology it was the home of the Muses and it was sacred to Apollo and the Corycian Nymphs. Today there, are located two ski canters the Parnassos ski center and a smaller one the Gerontovrahos. The Parnassos ski center is composed of two sections Fterolakka and Kellaria and is the biggest and best organized ski center of the country in altitude 1660m-2260m. During winter skiers and snowboarders visit the ski center which has 20 tracks of 14km.

Askmen article on an alternative way to take a vacation; social travel

Airtime Over Pigeon Island

Chinese friend I made in Gros Ilet, who showed me who he fishes for crabs with a metal stickHis Beautiful Daughter

We arrive after a turbulent trip of waves and suburbs to Castries Bay, St Lucia. I have a general idea of where we’ll stay. We take a bus up to Gros Illet, and Find Castros hotel, which is the unofficial name, and the official name is Chez Marie Louise, here is the phone number 007584500482 and the email is chezmariealish@hotmail.com . It’s 60 US dollars a night for two people which isn’t that bad. You can Also go to Adrianes which is more like 30 US dollars a night, but it’s a bit more basic.

We just wandered the country a bit together for two days until mom’s flight left for New York on the 28^th.  We eat an Indian restaurant called Spice of Indian in Rodney Bay, quite reasonable and with delicious home made Chappatti .

(They told me how to make yogurt, which I later made as well).  We also went to  Rastafarian Restaurant.  They eat for often with banana peels, fried and cooked primarily with coconut oil. I also ate Lentils with rosmarry, with cabbage and sweet Plantain, and do not eat root or vine vegetables. A man named Priest Richey explained to us about how Rastafarianism believes in Hallie Sallace as a reincarnation of I believe he said David from the bible as well as Jesus. It was a great Vegan Restaurant called THE FOOD OF 7. You can find more information about the healthy cleansing products that they sale and even mail overseas at http://www.thegreatphysicianinternational.org/

After my mom left, I went to the Gros Piton, near Soufriye; in the South of St Lucia. It was interesting, because  as soon as I got into the city, I took another local bus in the direction of Vieux Fort, which is even more South, and got off at the community of Etang. I saw some white peoples from Connecticut I later found out and I helped them get closer to the mountain. For in fact the road they were in the process of taking had been wiped out by Hurricane George, I did some basic translation to get the directions from a local guy in creole about the other road by the town of Chosel.

Over Looking the City of Soufriyee, the old French Capital of St. Lucia (built over lava 2 miles underneath)

We made it to a small community called Gens Fond Libre (Free people). The history of St. Lucia is that it was an island that was traded back and forth through wars between the English and French. This is way the official languages are both English as well as a French based Creole. I went up the mountain and on the way up made friends with some cool local St. Lucians. After two hours, we climbed up the Gros Piton, which is the largest mountain on the island. It was formed by the Volcano  in the city of Soufriyee. Literally Two miles under the city of Souffiryé, which was the old French capital is boiling lava.

Me and some St. Lucian friends I made while climbing Gros Piton

I than walked down with them, and went to the house of a nice friend I made named Barbera, we ate delicious rice with a piece of chicken and Poid dongles, which is a bigger form of lentils beans. We than went to a local hangout bar domino spot. I met a women who was my friends aunt, who looked very similar to some of the Carib Indian friends I made in Dominica. I was surprised to meet her, as I saw that in some of the more isolated areas of St Lucia, there still certainly remain ethnic elements of the Carib Society. There are seemingly two ways to of genocide, one is cultural and is more slow but deceptive and the other is outright violent.

In the History of the Island of the Lesser Antilles, it was Dominica, St Lucia and Martinique that had some of the more warrior societies of Carib Indians who after realizing that the Europeans were more interested in conquest, that they began to fight back. Historically, Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent was where the Carib Indians from Martinique were supposed to go, and was meant to be a haven for them, but that isn’t what happened exactly…

In the back of a pickup truck rolling through the winding hills of the rocky landscape of the south of St Lucia. Standing hours above at the peak of the summit of the highest mountain formed by the Soufriyée volcano… in fact the whole city is built on an area where two miles under the surface of the earth molten lava is bubbling.  Back when Hurricane George came through in 2011, she razed through these tiny island floating through turbulent waters.

As we weaved through the tiny roads up and down volcanically formed Mountains, my friends tell me, there was a house right here, over looking a precipice, but the hurricane brought a land slide and 5 people tied here. They were buried in their sleep, and over the ledge it’s just savage jungle underneath. “They never found the bodies, because they’re just under the rock.” For those living in the thickness of nature, there is no denying how it is not man who is in charge, but nature itself. For those living in big cities, man may have a say in how they respond to nature, but is nature who is once again in charge. We create and use technology to do our best to scientifically understand nature. But how is it that we can understand that which mysteriously made us, and can in any moment it wants take us away.

We go through thick forests, the wind slamming into my face. My friends tell me about La Diables, a half women half horse who attacks people in these non lit forests or a little kid who attacks people as well. Although one can say that Carib society or African society isn’t 100 percent intact, there are still elements such as these myths and histories about the forest that originated hundreds of years ago, during the times who neg maroon run away slaves would meet Carib Indians in the holy Triangle formed by the Soufriye volcano, Blood hounds barking in the black distance, only the moon light showing the path towards a hopeful independent tomorrow. Its from the stories these Neg Maroon and Carib Indians shared with each other by fire side late nights, speaking with gestures, since the Carib didn’t speak the Creole of the Neg maroon; and the Neg Maroon didn’t speak the dialect of the Carib Either… Until we come to today, in the back of a pick up truck, rolling through the hills today.

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Many were disturbed at a recent video of young Jews — the hope of the next generation — “occupying” a Birthright event and spewing noxious anti-Israel rhetoric in and outside the gathering. But considering the competition Birthright is up against, it’s not difficult to see how such a scene was produced. The fact is, not only have anti-Israel activist made 21st century blood libels fashionable, but they have found a way to turn a profit from them in the process. More and more, sojourners to the Holy Land are falling into the orbit of the growing “alternative travel” or “justice tourism” industry, which specializes in politicized tourism to Israel and adjacent territories. As the name indicates, alternative travel is entirely focused on exposing tourists, not with mainstream, commonly accepted information on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but with an “alternative” account predicated on needless Palestinian suffering at the hands of their brutal Israeli oppressors.

The alternative tourism industry in and around Israel is a multifarious, interconnected web, whose many avenues invariably lead back to terrorists and their supporters. One of the trailblazers of the alternative tourism industry in Israel is the Alternative Tourism Group (ATG), which is located in Beit Sahour, a hotbed of Palestinian activism, including during the murderous First and Second Intifadas. According to the ATG, the organization was formed as a “non-profit tourist agency” in 1995. Tours focus on a number of lies, including insinuations that “Palestine” was and is a “country”; that Israelis “steal” land and commit war crimes, and that Israel has erected a “segregation wall” for racist purposes. What the ATG refers to as the “segregation wall” is, of course, the defensive wall put into construction to stop terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians — which have been reduced by 90% since the construction of the wall began. Anti-Israel activists commonly demonize this barrier, despite its obvious necessity and effectiveness, deviously twisting the situation into a race issue, so that the killing spree may resume.

The ATG collaborates with a number of groups who are loosely joined in the Palestinian Initiative for Responsible Tourism (PIRT). PIRT, for which ATG is listed as a sponsor, is a consortium of local tourism entities joined together to help Palestinians benefit from the lucrative Holy Land travel industry. The purported objective of the initiative is to branch the tourism market into local Palestinian communities so that they may economically benefit from it, while at the same time cultivating an interest in Palestinian culture and building awareness among pilgrims of political problems in the area. Other groups in the initiative include the Arab Hotel Association, Bethlehem University, the Holy Land Incoming Tour Operator Association, the Holy Land Trust, the International Center of Bethlehem, the Jerusalem Inter-Church Center, the Joint Advocacy Initiative, the Network of Christian Organizations in Bethlehem and the Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies.

Another initiative member is the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which has reported a huge increase in tourism to the Holy Land. This translates to an increase in capital to the Palestinian territories and into the hands of “justice tourism” activists, not to mention an increase in the sheer number of travelers exposed to their propaganda. Honing in on the allure of travel to the Holy Land, it’s no surprise ATG and other PIRT members consort with the more virulently anti-Israel (and borderline anti-Jewish) Christian organizations like the World Council of Churches and the Kairos Palestine movement, which are connected to an enormous pipeline of Christian pilgrims.

Another prominent organization in PIRT is the Holy Land Trust. Based in Bethlehem, the Holy Land Trust (HLT) is a virulently anti-Israel organization that supports Palestinian terrorism. The organization’s executive director, Sami Awad, believes that non-violent demonstrations are “not a substitute for armed struggle.” HLT has also worked with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which endorses and abets Palestinian terrorism. One of the board members of the HLT, Abu Aita, was a former member of a terrorist organization, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (serving from 2000-2003) and was incarcerated in an Israeli prison on accusations that he was involved with shooting Israeli soldiers. The HLT offers a number of traveling programs, some of which are marketed specifically to students and Christian pilgrims.

Of particular note, the HLT features a travel program centered around indigenous olive cultivation called the Olive Harvest and Cuisine Tour. This is significant for the following reason: There are two well-known Palestinian activists, both named George Rishmawi, who have worked in the Palestinian alternative travel industry for many years. Both men are co-founders of the ISM. In the mid-2000s, one of the Rishmawis was involved in a HLT program similar in theme to the Olive Harvest and Cuisine Tour called the Olive Harvest encounter. This encounter offered tours of the Holy Land, which showcased alleged Palestinian suffering at the hands of the Israelis. Currently, one of the Rishmawis is a coordinator for the Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies, based, like the ATG, in Beit Sahour. As coordinator, Rishmawi plays a large role in the alternative tourism functions of the Siraj Center, whose trips particularly appeal to Christian travelers.

It should be no surprise, then, that the Rishmawis have, for most of the years of its existence, played a large part in the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI), a student program now operating in several University of California schools that offers alternative tourism programing. Through the program, American students are taken on trips to Israel and adjacent areas where they are given tours by and commune with some mainstream individuals, but also a hugely disproportionate number of leading anti-Israel activists. The number of unseemly associations of the OTI is almost too extensive to list (click here for a draft of just the 2011 itinerary). They include: the Rishmawis; economic warfare (BDS) godfather Mazin Qumsiyeh; Sam Bahour; the terrorism-defending Muslim Public Affairs Council; B’Tselem; Al Haq; BDS supporter Zoughbi Zoughbi; ultra-wealthy Palestinian Munib R. Masri, who was a part of Yasser Arafat’s inner circle; and even a leader of the terrorist organization Hamas, Aziz Duwaik (students were also told to cover up this particular meeting). In at least one incident during an OTI trip, it was reported that one of the Rishmawis advocated violence and relayed a lie about Israelis shooting unprovoked at Palestinian civilians. This was reportedly demonstrated false onsite by one of the students. The technical auspices of the Olive Tree Initiative are unclear, as it is closely intertwined with UC Irvine, while also being claimed as a “project” by a Swedish-based NGO called the Centre for New Diplomacy (CfND). One of the board members for the CfND is a Swedish member of parliament who participated in the anti-Israel flotilla of 2010, which was designed to delegitimize Israel’s blockade of the terrorist safe heaven of Gaza.

Following the “olive” motif, there is another alternative travel company called “Green Olive Tours,” which used to go by the name “Tours in English.” As it happens, Green Olive Tours cooperates with the Siraj Center, which employs one of the Rishmawis, as well as the Alternative Tourism Group and the radical, ISM-linked Birthright Unplugged, the antithesis to the traditional Birthright travel program. Green Olive Tours was founded and is administered by activist Fred Schlomka, who formerly directed the highly controversial Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAH). The ICAH worked alongside the ISM in the groups’ mutual crusade against IDF housing demolition, claiming that houses are primarily destroyed for illegitimate purposes unrelated to defense. In fact, Schlomka worked for the committee at the time of infamous activist Rachel Corrie’s death, committed accidentally as Corrie was trying to prevent a bulldozer from destroying a “home” that concealed a weapons smuggling tunnel. The ICAHD promotes the idea that the Israeli government destroys these structures maliciously and arbitrarily because they are “built without a permit.” They also portray Israel as an “apartheid” state, or on the verge of becoming one. Like Green Olive Tours, ICAHD also conducts its own tours.

The prospect of Schlomka or the ICAHD overseeing tours is deeply troubling. NGO Monitor has criticized Schlomka and the ICAHD for supporting a one-state solution without Israel and appearing with Naim Ateek who heads Sabeel (which also offers tours) and “uses anti-Semitic themes, such as referring to ‘the Israeli government crucifixion system’.” Schlomka himself has said, “The world helped create this problem, the United Nations helped create this problem through helping establish the state of Israel” and “Anyone who still thinks that there will be a Palestinian state with contiguous territory free of Jews is indulging in some wishful thinking.”

Extremist rhetoric to be sure, but do not be lulled into the misconception that “alternative tourism” is sequestered to the anti-Israel fringe. Far from it. Simply explore the site Visit Palestine or their available literature and see how popular and mainstream-oriented the travel site seems. Indeed, the outfit seems to be primarily devoted to non-political, benign tourism and one can see how many ordinary travelers would be drawn to the site for vacation purposes. But scratching the surface, we see that not only does Visit Palestine exploit the “solidarity/alternative tourism” market, but the organization was in fact formed by extreme anti-Israel activists. Visit Palestine is the project of Alternative Business Solutions, the parent of ABS Tourism, whose primary associates include Yusef Daher, a Christian BDS advocate (an extremist movement proposing boycott, divestment and sanctions on racist, human rights-abusing Israel) and was also the former director of the Arab Hotel Association (a member of PIRT); and Rami Kassis, who worked as executive director of the ATG until at least 2010 and purports to be one of the founders of PIRT. Kassis’s interviews show that his interest in tourism is predominately political, and he spouts conspiracy theories about the Israeli government strangling the tourism sector in Palestine, and purposefully impoverishing Palestinians, as if the Israelis, not continuing Palestinian warfare, violence and instability, are responsible for Palestinian inability to break into the mainstream tourism market.

Enmeshed in a highly interconnected web of deception, the organizations outlined above are only the tip of the alternative tourism industry’s iceberg. For those activists engaged in it, and indeed, probably ever more dependent on it for their livelihoods, the objective is much more than “awareness building,” as their radical connections show, but the indoctrination of converts to the cause to dismantle the Jewish State.  Millions of unwitting travelers, particularly religious pilgrims, are anxious to visit the Holy Land each year, and we must only expect that the movement’s ranks will continue to swell, while the industry grows in financing and influence.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/04/justice-tourisms-dangerous-agenda/2/

They also had a show where trainers ‘introduced’ parrots and prey birds to the audience while the birds performed their acrobatics barely above our heads. I didn’t know that Australia is considered the ‘country of parrots’ with 56 species present. We met a few Cockatoos that were trained to talk and were quite funny, and Parrots of gorgeous colours.  This was very unusual ‘cause in Peru green is the main colour of most of our parrots since 60% of my country is Amazonian evergreen rainforest that makes a lot of sense, but here there is gray, vibrant red, bright pink, creamy yellow. The reason is not the of the landscape but the lack of large mammal predators that threaten the parrots.

Barking Owl

Black-breasted Buzzard

The prey birds were incredible. An owl was sent by the trainer to catch his ‘prey’ among the sitting crowd. He proved his point. The Barking Owl made no noise and was so accurate when moving between our heads that it was both scary and impressive. A falcon showed us how he uses a rock to break the hard shelled eggs he likes to eat. The ‘wham’ that he produced every time he hit the egg was so loud it might as well had been thrown by an adult person. And he wouldn’t miss! On the third try the egg was broken and the falcon got his prize. But the most impressive was a massive Wedge-Tailed Eagle, the largest prey bird in this country.

We then went to Marysville following a beautiful winding road in the middle of a forest that had noticeably been damaged by a fire. Mel told me that Marysville had been practically wiped out of the map by a fire just recently. She wasn’t joking. The town, though peaceful and pretty, was in honest reconstruction and everywhere there were bulldozers and trucks and signs offering houses. She told me that some inhabitants didn’t want to leave their houses and they died in them. It was treated as a national tragedy by the media. I had heard about the fires in Australia but this was my first time looking at an area that had been badly hit by them. I was shocked.

Burned forest near Marysville

A bit further up on the road we stopped at a waterfall. Mel was so shocked to see that all the forest around the creek was just recovering yet it was far from the dense vegetation that once kept this place secret. But people were still visiting and if no more fires showed up maybe the forest will recover in just a few more years.

Great Ocean Road came after. Perhaps this is the most popular visit to do when in Melbourne. Most travel agencies will offer this tour that takes busloads of Asian visitors to see the 12 Apostles, a spectacular series of rock formations on the wild southern Australian shores. Eroded by rain and wind, the 12 Apostles are no longer 12 and someday will be none but meanwhile it’s quite a sight. Though a couple Brazilians at school told me later that any road in Brazil is like that and they were not impressed, and I found it similar to Paracas National Reserve in Peru, Great Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles are a beautiful scenary, specially under sunny weather, which we luckily had.

12 Apostles

12 Apostles

In truth 12 Apostles is the end of the road. On the way there the ‘road’ goes through gorgeous little town like Lorne and Apollo Bay where Melbournians come to spend the summer days. On the way, a famous surfing spot is Bell’s Beach, where the movie Break Point was shot. I am in fact tempted to go back there to camp and swim a little. But I must confess that I’m a bit concerned about my safety in the Australian waters since as soon as I got here I heard of 3 mortal shark attacks. People will say ‘keep between the flags’ but who´s telling the sharks that!?

We rented a lovely cabin at Apollo Bay and Lily had lots of room to go around and run free. Oh, I didn’t mention, on this trip we decided to bring Mel’s Golden Retriever Lily.  Should someone had told her that there were sharks in the water I don’t think she would have minded. What a big mess Lily did in the car: sand, water and golden hairs all over the place! But we were one happy family on the way back.

La playa with Lily

We had a ball, the entertainment/performance art was fantastic and we parties on afterwards.

Galaxy Unknown Rec. & Mendo’s Organized Chaos Pres.
SAUSEE’S MENTAL JOURNEY
1 Room (Danzhaus)(aka Gingerbread House)
1 Veteran DJ (Sausee)
{Who has been rocking SF Underground Dance Floors since 1995}
1 Continuous flow all mixed in the powerful long layering Sausee style. No computers.
A mind expanding DJ marathon through many levels of electronic dance music.

Event Page

Finally my dreams of joining the circus are a reality! sort of.

www.omnicircus.com

I met with the director/ visionary of OmniCircus Frank Garvey who has invited me to collaborate on some upcoming projects.

An explosion of colour, laughter, dancing, music and candle light.

With an abundance of parties and events to go to I decided to give up on searching and to just go with The Flow.

Patrick Witham

 The story behind the business

‘Ta Petrina’ rents four furnished traditional stone holiday houses in thevillageofVolissosinChios.Each has been renovated to a high standard while retaining the traditional style of the village.We also provide organised groups in painting and local cooking.

‘Ta Petrina’ began when I and my partner purchased our house and we then decided to collaborate with our house’s local builder, Michaelis, who is specialised in stone buildings and renovation works.I am an English carpenter but have lived in Volissos for 10 years, while my partner Maria is an interior designer.An important element of our business is my sister who lives in theUKand works in a travel agency, which specialises in private rented villas and traditional houses for the ‘off the beaten track’ tourist.

Difficulties of a sustainable business

We had bureaucratic issues even though the commercial centre is only 40km from the village of Volissos and E.O.T (Greek National Tourism Organisation) is based in Mytilene.However, these were overcome thanks to our enthusiasm and love for what we wanted to create.

Future plans

We receive numerous appreciated comments concerning how we have renovated the houses; how the houses relate to the village rather than being something architecturally foreign and how happy our visitors have been while staying at ‘Ta Petrina’.We also want our guest’s children to feel safe within this rural community.

Benefits to the local community

The local community offers a true wealth of traditional Volissos’ lifestyle and rustic atmosphere.We want to preserve this uniqueness with the help of others who also appreciate our village

Contact Details

Tel:  0030 6976561270

Fax: 2274021013

Email: tapetrina@tapetrina.gr

Website: http://www.tapetrina.gr

The best thing you can do it get educated, and weigh your risk vs. desire for experience.  I’d bet some of the best experiences would come out of visiting the places the majority of tourists are afraid to go….

Early Mornings in Barca

Contrary to what my latest posts might have you believe, I really had a trying first few days here in Barcelona.  I was conflicted, personally speaking.  It didn’t stop me from having fun with everyone and exploring what this city has to offer… but I must say that my head was a little preoccupied.

Thoughts of Egypt and my plans to go there in two weeks were whirling in my brain like a sandstorm.  There had been constant new reports of unrest and attacks at a few religious sites in Cairo.  Protests had of course continued, and my two girlfriends who were planning to be there at the same time cancelled their trip.

Every single person without fail bombarded me with questions when I told them I was planning on heading to the Middle East; with good reason I suppose.  But it became heavy and wearing on my already preoccupied mind.  I have to admit I was nervous, and needed to find the time to sit and think everything through.

Why am I’m travelling?  Why do I pick the destinations I do?  What are the real, tangible risks and how do those balance with my personal perception with the media, and my own threshold for threat?  All of the above hung over my bed each morning as I woke up, like a wet cloud ready to burst.

There are risks in many destinations around the world, and of course people are living in these places too.  People there and around the world have different perceptions of these risks, and in the end these are what we are forced to go by.  When should the threat of supposed or possible danger outweigh a travellers’ curiosity?  Where should we draw the line?  Though I wanted to say “never” I decided that I had to be extremely careful not to romanticize places in any which way – as exciting and dangerous, or, equally obscene, as too enchantingly exotic to miss.

I had to be entirely realistic to make this call.  And of course, I didn’t want to be silly and disappoint or hurt my family.  My Dad had always been so good - to be so worried, and yet trust my judgement entirely and say only enough.

But what constitutes a silly risk?  Well, I’d have to decide for myself.  I once cancelled a Mexico trip due to the swine flu, dreaded H1N1, which I knew very well was like SARS in Toronto a few years back but attempted to side with social responsibility when the airline warned me against going through with my travel plans. That decision still bothers me.  Not to mention, I never got my money back.

That said, the conditions in Egypt and the Middle East, especially now, are far more risky and unpredictable.

Or did it just seem that way, being contemporary?

In the end, I decided to go.

This post was more of a meditation than an answer, because there is most definitely no right or wrong.  Only smart travel, and risk-mitigation, based upon your own personal sensibilities.  No one can ever make that decision for you – if you do it right anyway.

***

With the obvious plus side being that you are likely to find a good deal and cheap prices to travel to and within dangerous, and less touristed countries!

**

I’ve included a link to a great article in the NY Times by Paul Theroux, a well-respected, and one of my favorite, travel writers:

Paul Theroux: A case for travel in turbulent times

Additional Fun:

Teaser: Anthony Bourdain in Lebanon

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More Travel Chameleons on Spain:

Madrid

Cadiz 1

Cadiz 2

Cadiz: Tip Sheet

Cadiz: Photo Album

Tarifa 1

Tarifa: Photo Album

Disorganization Breeds Adventure in Southern Spain

Malaga: On the Wrong Side of the Bus

Malaga: A Meditation on Travel & Purpose

About half of the shops, bars and restaurants in Arillas are already open and the rest are working hard to open next week. The first tourists have arrived and are enjoying the great weather and the peace and quiet of the island. This is really the best time to enjoy the nature of Corfu. It’s warm enough and it’s not crowded. Everywhere you go you get good service and people have the time for a chat. In August it’s another story…!

I was talking to a couple of Belgians yesterday who came to Corfu to walk. They said the landscape is great and the variety of plants, flowers and animals is something they have never seen before (and they have been to many places!).

It was interesting that they made a comparison of Corfu to Mallorca where they often spend their holidays. They complained that footpaths on Corfu are very poorly indicated. As a result they got lost a couple of times, even though they had a GPS with them. On Mallorca all footpaths were properly marked during the last five years and walking tourism has risen enormously as a result. The downside was, they said, that those footpaths are beginning to get so crowded by walkers that they miss the tranquility of the past, as well as the feeling of adventure when having to find your way through unknown territory!

So, for all you adventurous walkers out there, Corfu is the best place for walking, certainly if you don’t mind getting lost now and then!

To be honest, this is how it goes every year, but this year there’s more anticipation, there’s an uncertainty in the air about what this summer will bring. We are in the middle of the worst crisis ever, things are getting very difficult indeed, and there are no signs that the situation is going to get any better soon. Or are there …?

Well, it’s true that the situation we are in is very different than a couple of years ago, but there are also good things that seem to be happening on Corfu. People are starting to realise that the model we were following for the last 40-50 years has reached its limits. The time of building more and more houses, apartments, restaurants and bars anywhere we could has passed. We have to come up with a new strategy to survive! And, fortunately, I keep meeting more and more people who have realised this, people with new ideas who are determined to make a difference!

The best thing the crisis has done is bring us closer together with our neighbours! When all else fails, you have to rely on your neighbours and friends, and that’s something most people had forgotten in the years of plenty. And when you start talking with new people, you will inevitably come up with new solutions. There are people setting up organic farms and restaurants with organic food, there are people cleaning up footpaths, beaches and roads on a voluntary basis, there are people talking about small scale green energy, about protecting the environment and the landscape, about alternative ways to live and work. Alternative tourism is becoming  a hot item (better late than never…)!

So I’ll leave you for now with the optimistic thought that when we all work together with a common goal, we can overcome any crisis. And with the sun shining on the beautiful nature of Corfu, I can’t help being optimistic!

And now I have to go put on my working clothes and start painting the house…!

Fernando Belaunde Terry highway

My friend Marco Leon works in the area studying orchids but also his NGO, INIBICO, recently received a fund to create an interpretation center right at Venceremos, so now the campsite is no longer abandoned. I have worked with Marco in the past and this time I went there to do some birding and give him the lists of what birds I found to add some value to his project.

Interpretation center at Venceremos

I was at Venceremos one year ago and I must say that the work they have done there has produced an amazing change in the aspect of the campsite! Now it looks like a place to visit, with a building where the proper interpretation center will be, with explanations and photographs of the Alto Mayo Protected Area. On the building next door the park guards live and they have their kitchen, toilet facilities and rooms. I’m happy for this means that protection will be enabled though this is too positive for an area that faces extremely difficult conditions to manage.

Alto Mayo extends over cloudforest, a delicate and relatively small habitat, yet a very rich and biodiverse one; in fact the most biodiverse habitat in relation to its size in Peru. This diversity has attracted people from far places such as Cajamarca and Chiclayo, cities where opportunities are less and poverty abounds. They come here and claim a piece of land as theirs.  With no law enforcement from the authorities (many times authorities themselves are involved in “land trafficking”),  they start practicing the Andean way of agriculture: slash and burn, a technique that makes no sense in such poor soils as those of cloudforest. The steep hills are ideal for coffee. We are losing our forests to give coffee to a world already too hyperactive. That and cows, and what once was a beautiful forest full of ferns, moss, epyphites and bromeliads is now grazing green grass for cows. Of course, on the way to deforestation all the wood is taken care of and the hunger of the world for cedar will soon realize there’s no more of it.

It’s hard to be positive when one looks at the reality of things for the local people. I haven’t even listed all of the problems of the Alto Mayo. But we try to do something. I think the simple fact that truckdrivers see me looking for birds on the side of the road can at least raise the question of ‘what the hell is that gringo doing by the side of the road?’, and maybe the spontaneous answer will come too ‘oh, he’s watching birds and nature….maybe then I won’t throw my thrash out the window’. If all drivers would think that, because the amounts of thrash I saw on the side of the road are a shame. Even the bus companies throw their rubbish from the meals they give their passengers off the window!

But Alto Mayo remains beautiful and biodiverse nevermind all the trouble closing in around it. I dedicated my second day there to walk the side of the road until the afternoon and saw amazing birds: my first ever Blackburnian Warbler, a tiny bird that migrates from North America. Also a female Royal Sunangel, a hummingbird endemic of Peru.

Flame-faced Tanager

Cinnamon Flycatcher

In the afternoon we drove to the other side of the high pass to a village named Buenos Aires. There Marco works with Doroteo Valle, a man with a passion for orchids who is growing hybrids on his greenhouse. The pressure for orchids is great here and is common to see locals picking them up on the side of the road to

sell them to drivers passing by for ridiculously low prices.  That’s how Mr. Kovach got a flower of Phragmipedium kovachii, he bought it illegally for a few soles and took it (illegally) to the US where he quickly published the new species description getting ahead of a team of Peruvians who were doing just the same. He even put his name on the scientific name of the flower (kovachii). And though Mr. Kovac is in jail now, most people don’t run that luck and they get away with it.  The orchids of Alto Mayo are beautiful and abundant but some of them are extremely rare, like Phragmipedium kovachii which only grows in Alto Mayo. We must be able to reproduce it so that it doesn’t have to be extracted from its natural places and that’s what Marco wants too. Not only he works with Doroteo but with many other locals who have their green houses next to the road giving them assistance in how to reproduce the orchids so they don’t have to go and extract more from the wild.

Phragmipedium kovachii

Doroteo

Next day is long with some birding in the morning and a lot of driving to return to Tarapoto. On the way we visit a huge plantation of Stevia, a plant that replaces sugar, especially recommended for diabetics ‘cause it doesn’t contain any glucose.

There are good things happening out there, we just need to find them.

As I was leaving Tarapoto it started raining, which seemed a bit strange since it hadn’t for the past 3 weeks. I gave little attention to the rain knowing that the dry-forest is affected by a ‘rain-shadow’ effect, making rains go discharge on more eastern areas. Little I knew…Pablo Escudero, the current director of the association, and other members, greeted me at their office on the main square of a village named Pucacaca (‘Red Mud’ in Quechua language). “You brought the rains Pepe!” they exclaimed.

Pucacaca’s main square when we were ready to leave the first time. That motorcycla is the ‘furgoneta’ I mention forward.

I explained how I got in touch with them and my interest in visiting their area. They were all very kind and told me their fascinating story of how they went from ‘campesinos’ to conservationists: as rains were becoming rarer in that part of the Huallaga River valley, they thought it had to do with the accelerated pace of the deforestation in the, mainly due to corn plantations. Knowing that, I preferred to think of the rains I arrived with as a good omen. The area also has a demand to produce coal and dry forest trees are excellent for that. It’s fairly common to see the long chimneys of coal burning plants in th elittle town along the main road. They formed a society and started talking to people in their village searching for support. But people they wouldn’t understand that standing forest is important for rains. Still they went on trying to look for support to their idea of protecting a 2500 hectare forest. At one point a local timber mafia guy sent them to court alleging they were liars and just wanted to cut the forest for themselves (when that was actually that guy’s interest). The trial took 2 years during which they spent great amounts of money from their own pockets. But help would come. People of the Embassy of Finland (known in Peru for their support to nature conservation) offered them help. Other NGO’s offered technical and legal  assistance. Soon after they won the trial, a fund and their project was approved.

And so, in 2007 Bosque del Futuro-Ojos de Agua was officially the first Conservation Concession of San Martin region in North-East Peru. One listens to them tell their story and can’t help but believe them, not only cause truth is heard on their voice but because they seem (and later I realized they truly are) committed to conservation.

We decided to kill some time until the rains left and I offered to show them a presentation of a power point that me and a friend presented last year during a workshop in another village as an introduction to birdwatching with the purpose of training local guides. They called all available members of the society and we went on with that. Lunch passed and the rains stopped so we prepared everything to go to the starting point of our walk. From there we would walk for 2 hours until a cabin they had recently finished in the heart of the forest they protect. To get to the starting point we would take a ‘furgoneta’, a motorcycle with a small load box on the back. The road was very muddy and wet and the engine got soaked and turned off. We had to walk back and send to motorcycle to the mechanic and wait. After a second try with equal results we decided it was too late to leave that day. We would wait and meet at 3am that night at the office to go and do the walk without the heat and humidity of the day and to get to the cabin on time to do some birding, if the weather allowed it. I was given a room at one of the society member houses and hoped the weather was good the next day.

We were lucky, rain was light and motorcycle worked fine this time. The path was difficult because it was very muddy and with each step mud would stick to the rubber boots making each foot weigh 3 times more after a few minutes. There were 5 of us and some of them were carrying stuff to the cabin to set it up: a gas tank, a stove, and food. People here carry things with a band they call ‘pretina’ which they place on their forehead (where the weight sits), but the actual object is carried on the back where the ‘pretina’ ties it up, that way they can have free arms while they walk. I was amazed to see the man carrying the gas tank (35 kilos) on his forehead in such a miserable path. I have tried that method before and honestly I felt my head was about to break in 2. But we managed to get to the cabin at dawn. It was a beautiful spot.

Great Owl butterfly, check out the snake face on the lower right part of the wing.

After breakfast we went walking around the forest recording birds and whatever showed up. Along the way, giant snails were everywhere. They showed me a species of fern (Platycerium andinum) very rare that has only been recorded here and somewhere in Bolivia. Also trees such as Quinilla (Manilkara bidentada), a Giant Columnar Cacti (Cereus peruvianus), Shucshungo (Eugenia limbosa), Manchinga (Brosimun alicastrum) are all endangered and well present in the area, not to mention that they are very important and valuable trees for their wood (Quinilla) and nutritional possibilities (Manchinga. For more information on Manchinga check www.mayanutinstitute.org).

Rare fern ‘Platycerium andinum’ anly found in these dry forests of Peru and Bolivia.

Shucshungo Tree

Quinilla

We saw the creek that gives name to this area, Ojos de Agua, a large rock platform where the running water of the rainy season has eroded “eyes of water” on it. Frogs are abundant and a study by expert Rainer Schulte showed that at least 3 species are rare and need conservation here. Birds were not showing themselves much because of the weather but a few interesting species were heard or spotted: Gray-headed Kite, White-eyed Tody-Tyrant, Planalto Hermit, among others.

Ojos de Agua

After returning to the cabin for lunch and some rest the plan was to bird the afternoon but the rains got stronger and didn’t stop until the next morning. At this point the creek was filled with running water and the whole forest was draining it. This forest, due to the hard, red clay soil, does not drain so much rain and so it floods. The path we walked on to get to the cabin was a river at portions upon return, sometimes with water up to our waists. But I was happy I met these people, true conservationists, people who have an ideal and work very hard cause they are convinced of something and they don’t mind not getting paid for it, though obviously they would prefer if that was the case. Hopefully one day they will reach that goal.

TO VISIT THIS WONDERFUL AREA CONTACT WILLIAM RODRIGUEZ (IN SPANISH IF POSSIBLE) AT abofoa@gmail.com

With my guide William and the path after the rains.

Vassalos Nikos

The story behind the business

The Pagali Hotel is located in the mountain village of Langada on the northeastern side of Amorgos and is open all year round. For many visitors, Langada is one of the finest settings for a hotel due to the breathtaking natural beauty, lush hillsides, impressive canyons, dramatic cliffs and a magnificent view of the Aegean Sea.

The Pagali Hotel is proud to announce that it is an agrotourism complex prototype featuring spacious traditionally decorated rooms and studios with fully equipped facilities. The Hotel provides the following outdoor activities: 1) participate in local farm activities such as harvesting seasonal fruits, organically grown vegetables, grapes for producing wine and olives for olive oil. 2) Hike through Amorgos which includes visiting monasteries, archaeological sites and traditional villages. For the enthusiastic hiker there are specifically long and difficult routes to explore. These treks involve discovering an old mine and walking through Amorgos’ forest. 3) An organised day trip, with a picnic, to Nikouria which is a small island opposite Amorgos. This trip includes fishing and water sports. 4) If rock climbing is more your style how about climbing one of the fifty tracks along the mountain opposite Langada?

Benefits to the local community

Pagali Hotel enhances Amorgos’ tourist products, strengthens the island’s identity and creates local employment.

Contact Details

Tel: 0030 2285073310

Fax: 0030 2285073368

Email: info@pagalihotel-amorgos.com

Website: http://www.pagalihotel-amorgos.com/

Synodinos Dimitris

The story behind the business

Amorgos Diving is located in one of the most beautiful places to explore the Mediterranean Sea. It was founded in May 2007 and is certified by PADI and ANDI and the school has an official license. The diving centre’s founders created this school due to their love of nature and that exploring the seabed has became a way of life for them. Through Amorgos Diving they try to fulfil the needs of each individual diver so that visitors can enjoy an unforgettable diving experience.

Amorgos Diving meets all international standards and provides a quality service. Amorgos’ waters are safe, full of interesting marine life and have excellent visibility at all our diving sites. Any diving ability is welcomed at our school. We provide learning facilities from first star status to diploma assistant instructor awards. Our facilities are not just for learning however, experienced divers must remember to bring their dive card with them when visiting the centre. If you are interested in underwater photography why not join us on our submarine trip. Amorgos Diving arranges accommodation, transport around the island and creates a diving plan according to your requirements.

Benefits to the local community

Amorgos Diving enriches the island’s tourist product and creates jobs for the local community.

Contact Details

Mobile: 0030 6932249538

Fax: 0030 2285073611

Email: scuba@amorgos-diving.gr

Website: http://www.amorgos-diving.gr

From Chacha we caught a ride with a driver who thought he was an F1 driver and made it to Pedro Ruiz in 45 minutes. Driver said there are others who do it in 30! At Pedro Ruiz, where the crossroads is, our bus was late ‘cause it was coming from Lima. That bus took us all the way to Tarapoto. Tough the idea originally was to go to Moyobamba, only 2 hours before Tarapoto, but we were tired and had had a long day.  A curious coincidence marked the catch. A young girl at the stop asked me if I was from San Roque, a little village near Tarapoto where I used to live between 2008-2009. She was the daughter of Keiner, the driver of one of three trucks that do service between Tarapoto and San Roque. I thought it was nice that she reminded me just from seeing me at the stop and that she would think I was from San Roque. I felt really honoured!

This type of coincidences have marked my arrival to Tarapoto. A prove of it is that as soon as I woke up at midday the next day after the lousy bus ride-sleep, I went for breakfast at a Menu around the corner from the nameless hostel of Don Alberto. And right there by the door passes my friend Trinnah! Trinnah is a British ex-pat who is married to Daniel, a Peruvian friend as well. Now they have a baby daughter and an artist-studio where they welcome artists for seasonal stay and work.  Check Sachaqa web page here if you are interested:

http://www.sachaqacentrodearte.blog.com

San Pablo de la Cruz St.

In 2 days in Tarapoto I have ran into several friends from the days when I used to live here, back in 2009. The assumption that things must have been set up to motion might have not been so pretentious as can seem. Somehow Tarapoto seems a bit more mature and grown. Might be the stability of the local government that was just re-elected past November. Speaking of politics, reading the paper today I learnt that Alejandro Toledo, an ex-president and  presidential candidate, was just in town to give a rally looking over the elections next April. The rally was poorly rated but it did mention that Toledo promised to build a road from Soritor to Mendoza, exactly the route of the ancient Inka Trail to the jungle the Spaniards followed to go and found Rioja and that we wanted to follow too! How ironic. However, I’m thinking I may not vote for Toledo after all because in that area roads mean deforestation in a very rich forest that is also protected. Of course he calls that progress. Progress it may be but at what cost? This area of Peru, San Martin and Amazonas regions, are the most deforested of the country and they have lost 1/3 of their native forests.

Cumbaza River after the rains.

After our arrival Erick and Matt have gone on their side. Our agendas are different in Tarapoto but I’m sure they will keep appearing on these lines. I went to San Roque to visit Javier and Claudia, good friends who are building their house. A unique construction designed by them and made from mostly local materials and respecting nature as much as it can, in the middle of the forest, simple yet beautiful. They have named it Chirapa Manta. Idea was to go and birdwatch on his land, all secondary and healthy hill forest right on the limit with protected area Cordillera Escalera. But the weather had planned differently and as soon as we arrived to San Roque it started raining and it went on for 2 consecutive days. You should have seen the river! This way we couldn’t birdwatch as much as we would have liked but we did see some good birds such as Spotted Sandpiper and Golden-headed Manakins displaying on a ‘lek’ or “flirting area” where male manakins “display” their ways of convincing female Golden-Headed Manakins to mate with them. And they go some distance to do this because manakins are credited for inventing the Moonwalk step that late King Michael stole.

Javier and Claudia’s place

A funny thing caused by the rain was that we had to go across Cumbaza River to get to the car and leave. There is another path to get across it but much it’s a longer walk and we were well packed. I say it was funny because there’s no bridge at the river and the current was strong with water almost up to our waist. Few dry clothes came back from my stay in San Roque, but I love that place. Staying at Javier’s place in the middle of the forest is really calming. Birdwatching from the house itself is almost perfect!

Now I’m back in Tarapoto. Last night I visited my favourite bar in town, the always popular Stonewasi. It was a great night with my friends. There’s a concert outside on the street tonight. It’s going to be huge! Street is closed, 2 big bands are playing and it’s carnival party, which means water balloons and powder!

Closing time at Stonewasi

The weekend is here.

One of the pools we found.

Like I wrote before, in this area the most beautiful women are said to come from here, but once we arrived to Limabamba we just saw a tiny village with nobody in it, literally nobody was on the streets. So we headed straight to the waterfalls. Asking around we found the path that follows the side of a mountain as it gets far from the village and the fields until on a forested creek there are the waterfalls. On our way we ran into an old lady and her niece who were waiting for the veterinarian of the town (also the mayor) to help them with their female horse who was laid on the side of the road not able to stand up. We stayed making conversation for a minute and petting the poor horse.

There are 14 waterfalls but we must have explored the first 6 or 7 and we would’ve explored more but time was an issue as we asked our driver to wait for us on the main square at 2pm. Also, once we found a deep enough pool to bathe we jumped right in. Water was very cold but nothing some jumps and swimming can’t take away.

On our way back the vet was with the horse, still not able to stand. Our car was gone though we arrived only 5 minutes late, so we had to wait for any car going to Mendoza that could give us a ride. Found a little restaurant and asked for lunch without even asking what was for menu. We got “locro de frijoles” a thick soup made of yucca and beans that was delicious. Main was “picante de carne”, a stew of potatoes, beef and spices. The owners of the place were very kind and we noticed they looked completely Spanish-like. Don Waldo was green eyed and we invited him to join our table, share a few beers and tell us the history of the village. “Wayayayayayaya” he exclaimed. Little we knew he was in fact very interested in the subject and when he was a local mayor he had done his own research on the subject, but he says that most documents are lost now. He talked to us about pre-hispanic local tribes in the area and the legends of them being tall, blonde and clear –eyed. But he also mentioned this village as being on the route of the Spaniards to the jungle and being one of the first places they explored in Peru. They must have left some people here and then it is documented that they brought artists from Germany, England and Italy, as some local last names suggest. I believe him. We saw a red-headed man who could have been perfectly placed somewhere in Dublin or London without looking foreign. But here in Peru?

With Don Waldo

Also, he mentioned, the fact that people in the village have been very closed to outside influence and didn’t leave much or got married with foreigners until in 1978 the first school was built in town and with it the arrival of new teachers. But other foreigners arrived too, such as cops and merchants. Then the population started getting mixed even more and people started migrating to places such as Lima, Cajamarca or Chiclayo. Don Waldo suggested that’s when the most beautiful women left Limabamba.

Truth be told we saw a few young girls on the streets and Erick couldn’t help but getting a picture with them. We have noticed that women here, even when they are very young, say 14, have no problem about talking to older men even when they are with their mothers. And I mean that they can be quite straightforward for a 14 year old. They will even be flirtatious in front of us, a typical attitude of jungle women. I guess is simply the fact that we also look foreign to them but I suspect that also it’s involved the idea that a foreigner might be a good husband, so it seems socially accepted that a young girl kind of flits with an older man from outside their village. And I suspect the story of Limabamba must be one of many secrets and intrigues as I can imagine that this tiny village must have experienced some in-breeding between families being so little and isolated over the centuries. 

Erick and young girls of Limabamba.

In any case we did find the proof of why Limabamba has such a reputation for their beautiful women. And the walk to the waterfalls was great too. To crown our short visit Don Waldo invited us a bottle of ‘cañazo’, a local liquor made of sugar cane, a good digestive that we downed as we were riding on the back of a truck back to Mendoza. There we were immediately invited to play ‘carnival’ with the locals and we took refuge on our balcony with buckets full of balloons filled with water and the war begun as sun was setting. Each day is a surprise here.

Carnival time