South America

Travel through South America by country:

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela

Travel through South America by popular city:

Bogota, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro

Travel through South America by popular things to do:

Adventures in the Amazon, Falkland Islands, Iguazu Falls, Tierra del Fuego

Ecoventura vows to eliminate fossil fuels

by Sean McLachlan on

Environmental tour company Ecoventura has promised to stop using fossil fuels on its vessels by 2015. Ecoventura runs environmentally conscious boat tours to the Galapagos Islands, a unique ecosystem that is under threat by climate change and tourism.

“The Galapagos Islands rank right up there with the Amazon and the Serengeti as one of the richest and best known, yet fragile and threatened, ecosystems in the world. Now, the Ecuadoran government is looking to a range of alternative energy resources to make sure it stays that way,” reports Triple Pundit, a leading website on responsible business practices.

“The Ecuadoran government has turned to wind and solar power as a means of realizing its goals. Along with a range of international aid organizations and private sector businesses, it’s working to eliminate the use of fossil fuels on the Galapagos Islands by 2015.”

One of Ecoventura’s four yachts, the M/Y ERIC, is equipped with solar panels and wind turbines to replace some of its diesel consumption. The company hopes to have these on all its yachts by 2011.

In addition to reducing fossil fuels, Ecoventura donates to carbon-offsetting programs, prompting NativeEnergy to award it with a “Cool Business Certificate” last month. NativeEnergy hosts numerous projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions; the one Ecoventura supports is the Cascade Sierra Solutions Trucking Project, which works to make trucks more fuel-efficient and therefore reduce their carbon emissions.

Ecoventura estimates they have offset slightly more than 4,000 tons of CO2 emissions this year, and hopes to offset more with its renewable energy plan for its boats.

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In-flight bathroom bandit strikes deal

by Tom Johansmeyer on
All Joao Correa wanted to do was go to the bathroom. He ate something bad and needed to get it out of his system … we’ve all been there. A beverage cart stood in his way, but that wouldn’t deter the spirit of this passenger. He asked to use the first class lavatory: denied. So, his only hope was on the other side of that cart – which didn’t move for several minutes. The chain of events that followed would result in an encounter with the legal system. Thanks to a deal with the feds, Correa will be able to put all this behind him.

Correa claims that the flight attendant raised her arm to block him and that he grabbed that appendage to keep his balance. She, apparently, didn’t agree. Nonetheless, a pilot was called back from the cockpit, and he allowed the passenger to reach is mid-flight destination. He was arrested when the plane landed.

Now, Correa’s a free man. He completed a three-month pretrial diversion program and is no longer a “danger” to flying society.

One bit of advice Correa: don’t eat before flying! Hell, that’s advice I’ll probably follow, too.

Laid off? Take off! Intrepid extends deal

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Layoffs may be slowing down a little, but they’re still coming. So, if you need to disappear to collect your thoughts for a while, Intrepid Travel is still willing to help. The company has extended its 15 percent discount for recent layoff victims, which are good on more than 400 Intrepid adventures in more than 90 countries. The catch? You need to book by the last day of 2009.

To take advantage of the “Laid Off Take Off” deal, all you need to do is show proof that you were laid off since 2008, and you’re in. Even without the discount, Intrepid’s trips tend to cost less than $100 a day, including accommodations, land transportation, local guides and some meals. Small groups, public transportation and local restaurant and hotel participants add a bit of authenticity to the experience.

According to Darrell Wade, co-founder of Intrepid Travel, “Our Thailand trips start from $45 a day and many people have told us they can’t live at home for that, so as strange as it sounds, they save money by traveling. We’ve been traveling to the region for 20 years and our trips are jam packed with the kind of experiences that will take people away from the every day and give them time to reassess and work out their next move.”

The “Laid Off Take Off” deal was kicked off last November, and since then, Asia has been the top destination, welcoming more than half of Intrepid’s guests under this program. Africa follows, with a bit over 27 percent of the bookings, and Latin American is next at 13.5 percent. Trips can stretch from eight to 60 days, with an average of 18.

Epic round-the-world cruise follows in the wake of famous explorers

by Kraig Becker on

In March of 2010, an adventure cruise of epic proportions will get underway from Singapore that will send travelers on a round the world expedition, following in the footsteps of some of history’s most revered explorers.

Cruise West’s Voyages of the Great Explorers will send 120 luck passengers on a 335 day cruise aboard the Spirit of Oceanus, the flagship of the Cruise West fleet. Departing from Singapore on March 6, 2010, the ship will sail west, and eventually return to its starting destination on February 3, 2011. In between, passengers will be treated to 24 individual voyages, encompassed by six defined “chapters”.

Each of these six chapters correspond to a historical figure who explored the world by sea. The first chapter follows the path of Marco Polo, while the second takes the route of Odysseus and the Phoenicians merchants. Subsequent chapters follow the adventures of Lief Eriksson, Christopher Columbus, James Cook, and Ferdinand Magellan. Each cruise within each chapter will follow historical routes and offer insights into what the explorers experienced as they went about their own voyages.

Through the course of the cruise, travelers will experience 242 ports of call spread across 59 countries. They’ll aslo visit 85 UNESCO World Heritage sites, cross 14 seas and oceans, and traverse the Suez, Corinth, and Panama Canals.

So how much will this epic cruise set you back? Good question! You can book any single cruise or combination of cruises starting at $4995. But if you want to do the whole thing, spending all 335 days circumnavigating the globe, it’ll set you back a cool $233,995. I wonder what Marco Polo would think of that.

For more information on the cruise read the press release here.

Photo of the Day (5.31.09)

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Light and shadow are the photographer’s secret weapons, something artfully demonstrated in this image from Flickr user nabil.s. Nabil took this shot of the Andean Mountains in Peru, darkened by eerie clouds and enveloped by the oncoming dusk. I love the tiny plot of brightly-lit mountain in the background. It looks like it’s about to be swallowed by an approaching monster.

Do you have any travel photos you’d like to share with our Gadling readers? Why not add them our group on Flickr? We might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.