Posts Tagged ‘environment’

August 13th, 2010 - 5:00 pm § in Country, Culture, Day in the Life, Peru, Tips & Resources, Volunteer

The Things I Have Learned

Although it’s tough to determine just how much I have learned during my three months in Peru, there are certain aspects of life that are a little more clear to me. Without further delay, I will impart some of the knowledge that I have gleaned from my experience. Yuppie travel gear. Nearly every mi[...]

August 6th, 2010 - 8:00 pm § in Around Town, Culture, Day in the Life, Good Ideas, Peru, Tips & Resources, Volunteer

Day in the Life: Hiking The Colca Canyon

Last week, a couple of us headed down to Arequipa to hike the Colca Canyon. After riding in a bus for nine hours with a broken bathroom and a broken window, we arrived at 7:00 in the morning absolutely frozen. Our luck continued when we found out that there were no buses back to Cusco. Figuring [...[...]

July 22nd, 2010 - 10:14 am § in Day in the Life, Good Ideas, Uruguay

Recycling in Montevideo: The Human Element

Usually I’m somewhat compulsive, if not entirely efficient, when it comes to recycling. But I also have a small apartment in Montevideo, and it gradually became overrun with papers, bottles, and plastic bags because I didn’t know where to bring all my recyclable goods at first. A Google [...]

April 26th, 2010 - 6:08 pm § in In the Field, Nicaragua

Water is What Water Does

Last Thursday, Earth Day celebrated all methods to conserve our natural resources and how we as citizens of the world can help do so. One of the surprising facts I’ve learned while volunteering with blueEnergy is how desperate developing nations have become for clean, filtered and pure sources of [...]

April 20th, 2010 - 12:24 pm § in Colombia, Culture, In the Field

Field Loneliness in Colombia

Amazon rainforest In an indigenous community of the Amazonian rainforest, the line between family and community becomes blurry. The  village consists of five inhabitants, all of whom are related by blood or marriage. Every November, tribe members flock to the maloka, the hut-like structure that hou[...]

April 9th, 2010 - 4:15 pm § in Good Ideas, Nicaragua, Volunteer

Productive Uses Create Sustainable Energy

There are many steps to help create energy independence within blueEnergy’s mission. One of the final stages is to create ways in which our communities can use the wind turbines, solar panels and other energy systems we provide for productive uses. Broadly speaking, productive uses refer to projec[...]

April 7th, 2010 - 11:31 am § in Culture, Nicaragua, Op Ed

Two Questions I Don’t Like to Answer

Every once in a while somebody here in Solentiname will ask me if I believe in God. This has become my second least favorite question to answer. My very least favorite question, however, is how much my digital SLR camera costs. After I realized that my camera alone (excluding my lenses) cost as much[...]

March 11th, 2010 - 5:14 pm § in Around Town, Belize, Good Ideas, In the Field, Volunteer

“Don’t get your reading material from the dump.”

This morning while heading into work, we dumped our garbage. Driven by our protected areas manager, Nat, two other volunteers and I assisted in the process by tossing bags and crates of rubbish on top of one of many exposed piles of trash along a road off the highway. Nat, jaded by his time in [...][...]

March 5th, 2010 - 2:33 pm § in Around Town, Nicaragua

I’m on a Boat: Joys and Sorrows of Pangas

A panga boat ride is similar to when your best friend takes dad’s Porsche out for a spin: fast, unnerving, uproariously fun with fist-clenching close calls. This is the Caribbean Coast’s main mode of transportation, and how blueEnergy can access our communities. Our two-hour panga ride on a rece[...]

March 3rd, 2010 - 7:04 pm § in Country, Ecuador, Tips & Resources

Responsible Tourism: Coming to a Cloud Forest Near You!

I am happy to report that in the Intag cloud forest region of northern Ecuador, community-based tourism is heating up. Just two hours from the market town of Otavalo, Intag’s ecological reserves have begun to attract a steady stream of travelers. Organizations like the Red Ecoturistica de Inta[...]





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