Five Vanishing Travel Sites

by Adrienne Wilson on

A few days back USA Today featured an article on five of the world’s natural and cultural wonders on the brink of extinction due to global warming (of course), over-development, and habitat degradation. Sad to say, but there is not much that can be done to verse the tremendous amount of damage done with so little time left. After speaking with several conservationists, Jayne Clark provides the prognosis and some tips on making your way to the site before they change or vanish completely. When Mother Nature is the cause of a site’s disappearance what can you do, but when man is the reason it’s a huge bummer. Everyone should consider reading this piece and other lists out there with places running close behind these five.

  • The snows of Kilimanjaro along the border of Tanzania and Kenya
  • Polar bears on the Hudson Bay
  • Ancient Egyptian archaeological sites on the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor
  • Gullah/Geechee Culture along the Atlantic Coast from Cape Fear, N.C. to the St. Johns river in North Florida
  • Monarch butterflies’ annual migration in Michoacán, Mexico

A Kinder Lodging

by Adrienne Wilson on

Outside has a nice piece on eco lodging and a list of the world’s ten best. Having done such great research they note that these eco lodges not only suggest that they cause no harm to the outdoors, but that they bring benefit to the whole community and economy. If anything they are unique. The Black Sheep Inn in Ecuador has dry composting toilets with little vegetable and flower gardens inside and it’s the teenie touches that provide splendor to these lodges. People enjoy the canyon views and the lodge loves the compliments about their restrooms. If you’re going to do it, then you should do it right and here is the list of places that make the list.

  • Turtle Island, Fiji

  • Asa Wright Nature Centre and Lodge, Trinidad

  • Birch Pond Lodge, Alaska

  • Wenhai Ecolodge, China

  • Posada Amazonas, Peru

  • Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki, New Zealand

  • Tassia Lodge, Kenya

  • Chumbe Island Coral Park, Tanzania

  • Selva Bananito Lodge, Costa Rica

  • Black Sheep Inn, Ecuador