Archive for the ‘Ecotourism’ Category

Eco lodge in Camiguin Island, Philippines

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Eco lodge in Camiguin Island, Philippines

treehouse eco lodge to stay for artists, travelers, environmentalists, nature lovers…

Enigmata TreeHouse Eco-Lodge

Enigmata TreeHouse Eco-Lodge

GO NATURAL! A GLOBAL CRISIS CALLS FOR LIFESTYLE CHANGE!

Enigmata Treehouse Ecolodge has private natural spaces for travellers to stay. Also get a chance to meet new people with Backpackers’ dormitory for an experience of shared communal living.

We welcome you to our newly transformed wide open space Balay Kalipay Peace Library Cafe with support from Imagine Peace. The ground floor is Enigmata Galeri. The second level is an open space platform perfect for workshops and functions.

Balay Kalipay library cafe is born out of the map of hope project with Imagine Peace. This open space is a quiet retreat made of bamboo floors and weaves, coconut wood, hard wood, nipa roof, wire art, water bottle eco design with okil art. Books were donated by friends and guests of Enigmata.

Experience the energy of a century old Mother Acacia (MaA) which is built in the heart of the three-story multi-layered Enigmata Treehouse Ecolodge.

ART + POSITIVE ACTION – 50% CO2 EMISSION X LIFESTYLE CHANGE / TREES PLANTED = ECOLOGICAL FUTURE

Enigmata Vision

Nurturing creative ecological space for cultural and spiritual refreshment that can create happy memories and bring positive change to the self, community, travellers and the environment.

Enigmata Mission

Learn by experience, teach by example

Art Education as Community Project

Open your eyes to see your full potential. There are no useless things, only useless minds.

Objectives of Art Education

* Create public space for culture of peace
* Facilitate people to people fair travel experience
* Open healing space for creative spiritual experiential dialogues
* Play and imagine with the children
* Facilitate multi-cultural interaction between artists, local community, visitors and travelers
* Strengthen volunteerism of the global community

An artcamp and resource center, Enigmata documents life as our greatest work of art. In Camiguin a sacred playground was given birth as the TREE of LIFE where more than a hundred year old Acacia tree “MaA” gracefully stands in the center of the treehouse. The volunteer resident artist and creative director, Maria Rosalie “Ros” Zerrudo shares the joy with the children of Camiguin in this magic sound art playground, Peace Library (with assistance from Imagine Peace) as we welcome visitors from all over the world.

“Enzemus” sculpture (facade of Treehouse front shot above) portrays the five elements of nature sprouting from the ground reaching for the sky. A banyan tree has now resided and embraced the sculpture as a living masterpiece.

Ros’ eco-design of recycled wine bottles surrounds the community space that creates a magical stained glass effect on sunrise.

Nature’s Architect… Built by the benefactor, a doctor of mathematics, mechanical engineer and musician Ben Aicha, the treehouse is now home to a group of vibrant Mindanao artists called the Enigmata Creative Circle, a collective of volunteer artists. Enigmata artists assumes the creative process of extending this personal expression into a bigger community vision. The name Enigmata which means “open your eyes” was born out of friendship.

The captivating bronze-colored sculpture “Enigman” created by prol ific sculptor Kublai Millan leads the way to the treehouse sculpture garden. Enigman is the expression of the Filipino culture bearer rooted from the roots, carrying the culture of remembrance that represents heritage and traditions.

The bio-glass wall remained to be a popular photography subject as a home-made recycled stained windows which brightens up with daylight from the inside. Bottles donated by Goldie the Swiss chef.

In one stop, Enigmata Treehouse, a cultural bank, is an art camp backpacker’s ecolodge and art gallery. Around it is a sculpture garden featuring some of the gravity defying outdoor sculpture works of Davao-based artist Kublai Millan.

A gallery of okil art carved on wood welcomes the visitors with a visual feast of Camiguin local functional house imbelishment decorative vernacular architecture found in ancestral houses. This replication is a post product of pre-world war II architectural research with Lawig Diwa experts.

Atop the treehouse ecolodge is the eagle’s nest suites, spiraling to the shell garden suites and descends to the backpacker’s dorm. Next to it is a sound playground converted-pool garden with a green canopy view deck that opens to a swing garden bamboo platform and peace library cafe area we baptized as “Balay Kalipay.”

Photo by Ivan Sarenas

Salima labyrinth walk welcomes the pilgrims to a sacred walk to the core of the “hand.” A sculpture of a dancer and a musician “the union” is like earth and sky, the duality that gives us back our wholeness and oneness. The walk inside the “Salima” or hands as the symbol of creativity, is a celebration of life. We express our thanks in this labyrinth walk as we bring people back to the “center”. It is a living vortex of dreams and visions. A basket of blessings within each one waiting to be unfolded and discovered.

The mouth of the moon garden leads you through concrete sculptures “taong tuko” gecko man and “taong bao” turtle man. The gecko known for its reverence to the earth is likened to a tribal man rooted in his culture. The turtle man is the voice of the sea. We make sculptures as living statements of our visions.

We are the change we want to see happen in the universe.

libraryA mosaic of bottle caps turns out to be the most photographed area. The peace library cafe started with books donated by International School Manila through the efforts of Bec Gilman, Imagine Peace of South Korea, Peace Voyagers through Lei’Ohu Ryder, Enigmata Guests and artists.

http://www.camiguinecolodge.com/

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Humpback Whale Rescued by Divers

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Humpback Whale Rescued by Divers:
the true story of the rescue of a female humpback whale trapped in a web of crab lines in the Pacific Ocean near the Farallon Islands.

The Whale

If you read the front page story of the SF Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines.

She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help.

Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her…

If you read the front page story of the SF Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines.

A very dangerous proposition.

One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.

When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles.

She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed gently around-she thanked them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.

She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.

May you, and all those you love,
be so blessed and fortunate ….
to be surrounded by people
who will help you get untangled
from the things that are binding you.

And, may you always know the joy
of giving and receiving gratitude.

I pass this on to you, my friend, in the same spirit.

Comments: True story, though the inter-species pathos may have been exaggerated a bit in the telling.

According to local news coverage, it all began on Sunday, December 11, 2005, when a fisherman spotted a 50-ton humpback whale tangled up in crab trap lines off the Marin County coast in northern California. His call for help was answered by the Marin Marine Mammal Center, which dispatched a group of Coast Guard divers and whale experts to the site near the Farallon Islands to free the animal.

The rescue operation was both difficult and dangerous. Crew members found the whale entwined in some 20 ropes, each 240 feet long and wrapped so tight they were slicing into its flesh. The lines had to be cut by hand, which required diving perilously close to the whale and its powerful tail. It took about an hour, and no one was injured.

In interviews with reporters, some of the divers remarked on the whale’s “affectionate” behavior. One said the creature watched and seemed to wink at him as he was cutting a line that went through its mouth. Once freed, the whale began circling and approached the divers one by one to “nuzzle” them. “You hate to anthropomorphize too much,” Mick Menigoz told the San Francisco Chronicle, “but the whale was doing little dives and the guys were rubbing shoulders with it. I don’t know for sure what it was thinking, but it’s something that I will always remember. It was just too cool.”

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Scuba Dive Tourists up 63 Percent in Philippines

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Thats Right! Dive Tourists up 63 Percent in Philippines!

PhilDivers.com

PhilDivers.com

Why?
Low cost Scuba Diving and Cheap accommodations. Cheap airfare – lower prices than ever before!
As the Department of Tourism (DOT) aggressively pushes “Dive Tourism” in some areas in the Philippines, the number of dive tourists in the Philippines grew by 63 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

A record from the DOT planning and promotion office revealed that Cebu, Bohol, Palawan, Mindoro Oriental and Batangas are the identified favorite diving destinations especially for foreign tourists.

German dive enthusiasts visiting these diving destinations posted 131 percent increase while the Korean dive tourists went up by 104 percent, American 37 percent, Japanese 34 percent and Chinese 31 percent.

Over-all gross receipts from dive tourism in these destinations posted an upsurge of 52.8 percent to P31 million compared to P20.2 it generated in the first quarter of 2008.

The record showed that substantial growth of 82 percent was recorded during the first quarter of 2009. Revenue generated by dive operations in Bohol went up by 195 percent, while those in Cebu increased by 69 percent.

During 17th Marine Diving Fair in Tokyo, the Philippine DOT Pavilion attracted more than 20,000 visitors and garnered awards for Best Diving Area, Most Desirable Destination, Best Dive Resort and Favorite Dive Operators for the country and participating dive operators.

The DOT also continued to draw dive tourists in its annual participation in the Golden Dolphin Fair in Moscow which attracted over 23,000 visitors from all the regions of Russia and overseas.

Earlier, DOT secretary Joseph Ace Durano urged the local government units (LGUs), as well as diving shops operators in the Philippines, to put premium rates on diving fees, as this kind of potential tourist-drawer product has been under-valued.

As far as scuba diving is concerned the Philippines ranks high among interest of scuba diving enthusiasts all over the world, thus there is a need for LGUs to put premium on pricing in charging scuba diving activities in their localities.

“We can afford to put premium on pricing,” Durano said emphasizing that in his visits in the top diving spots in the country, he has been urging LGUs, as well as scuba diving operators to charge high in fees, so that LGU can sustain the maintenance and protection of the marine resources.

In Malapascua Islet alone in Cebu, which is one of the top 10 best diving spots in the Philippines, is only charging P100 per dive, P30 of this will go to barangay Logon the lone barangay on the Islet, and the P70 will go to the government of Bantayan Island.

Not only in Malapascua, but also in other eco-tourism destinations in the Philippines, wherein charging fees for eco-tourism activities aside from scuba diving, such as snorkling, whale shark interaction like in Donsol, Sorsogon, among others are also charging very cheap rates.

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Save Our Oceans – help promote a healthy diverse ocean ecosystem

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

Save Our Oceans - help promote a healthy diverse ocean ecosystem

Save Our Oceans - help promote a healthy diverse ocean ecosystem

Promoting a healthy and diverse ocean ecosystem

Our planet with its atmosphere is an exquisitely interconnected system of ocean, air, and land. Water flows through all of it and keeps it—and us—alive.

Water continually cycles above, on, and below the Earth’s surface, driven by the sun’s energy. It evaporates from the seas, transpires from plants and soil, flows from glaciers and aquifers, and falls as rain or snow.

It covers 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface. It can be liquid, gas, or solid. And it regulates the planet’s temperature.

Part of the way water maintains a fairly steady surface temperature on Earth is by mixing with carbon dioxide to create a heat-trapping blanket in the atmosphere. But when we pump too much carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air and water, it upsets the balance.

Even though our oceans and atmosphere are vital to all life, we often treat them as waste-disposal sites. We are putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the plants on land and in the oceans can reabsorb and process, and so it builds up, trapping more heat and causing the planet’s long-term temperature to rise.

Many of consequences have been widely reported, but global warming’s effect on the oceans hasn’t garnered the attention it deserves.

As well as raising the temperature of the oceans, increased carbon dioxide concentrations cause acidification. The oceans absorb and store carbon, which makes them a good hedge against climate change. But when too much carbon ends up in the ocean, the ocean’s pH levels fall and the water becomes more acidic.

Scientists warn that this could have a significant impact on coral reefs, perhaps even wiping them out entirely. If the reefs disappear, half of all life in the oceans will go with them.

The process that affects corals—lower pH levels hindering their ability to calcify their skeletons —will also reduce the ability of phytoplankton to form calcium carbonate in their shells and skeletons. This, in turn, will reduce the ocean’s ability to absorb and store carbon, leading to increased global warming.

Despite the warnings from scientists, ocean acidification hasn’t been a big part of climate-change negotiations. That may change. In May, delegates from 76 countries at the World Oceans Conference in Manado, Indonesia—many of them island or developing nations that will feel the greatest impact of ocean acidification—drafted a resolution to put the issue on the agenda at the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.

Let’s hope they succeed in waking up the world to this serious issue. We can’t continue to ignore the state of our oceans.

As well as raising the temperature of the oceans, increased carbon dioxide concentrations cause acidification. The oceans absorb and store carbon, which makes them a good hedge against climate change. But when too much carbon ends up in the ocean, the ocean’s pH levels fall and the water becomes more acidic.

Scientists warn that this could have a significant impact on coral reefs, perhaps even wiping them out entirely. If the reefs disappear, half of all life in the oceans will go with them.

The process that affects corals—lower pH levels hindering their ability to calcify their skeletons —will also reduce the ability of phytoplankton to form calcium carbonate in their shells and skeletons. This, in turn, will reduce the ocean’s ability to absorb and store carbon, leading to increased global warming.

Despite the warnings from scientists, ocean acidification hasn’t been a big part of climate-change negotiations. That may change. In May, delegates from 76 countries at the World Oceans Conference in Manado, Indonesia—many of them island or developing nations that will feel the greatest impact of ocean acidification—drafted a resolution to put the issue on the agenda at the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.

Let’s hope they succeed in waking up the world to this serious issue. We can’t continue to ignore the state of our oceans.
Of course, acidification—caused mainly by what we put into the air—is only one problem we’ve created for our oceans. We are also dumping a lot of crap (often literally) into our seas.

One of the most sickening images is of the giant plastic islands swirling in five ocean vortexes. One in the North Pacific is estimated to be larger than Quebec. Now a group of scientists and conservationists is planning to visit the vortex in an effort to figure out how to clean it up.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, 13,000 pieces of plastic are floating in each square kilometre of ocean, and much of it accumulates in the five large swirling ocean gyres.

Marine animals eat the plastic as it breaks down, and contaminants work their way up the food chain, all the way to humans.

It offers hope to see the scientists looking for answers to this problem, and it’s good to see nations coming together in an attempt to address ocean acidification. But we must all do more to prevent these kinds of problems from occurring in the first place. We can do this by reducing our waste and emissions and by encouraging governments to show more leadership in protecting the Earth and oceans that cover most of its surface.

The oceans are where life is thought to have originated, as is indicated by the saltiness of our blood. The oceans flow through our veins and continue to give us life. Half of the oxygen we breathe comes from the oceans. What we do to the oceans we do to ourselves. It’s something to keep in mind as we celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8. The theme this year is “one ocean, one climate, one future”.

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Track and share your adventures with family and friends – or with the entire world

Thursday, June 4th, 2009
Track and share your adventures with family and friends by Satellite GPS Geotagging or with the entire world with Spot Adventures GPS Geotagging satellite tracking systems and DivingWorldTravel.com
spot adventures

spot adventures

Track your adventures by GPS Geotagging satellite tracking systems and share your adventures with family and friends or with the entire world with  Search adventures and plan your next destination. Meet other interesting adventurers. Its also a satellite tracking  tool for our clients so each client will posses this satellite tracker just in case of an emergency while your out of the country or just simply peace of mind to them and to their family. We offer this service to out clients.
We have 4 GPS Geotagging satellite tracking systems that are enabled 24hs for your safety and also to track your vacations and give others advice or share your adventures!

From  SPOTadventures you can a Live Map Feed show of your travel adventure. Live Feed Maps are flexible, since they are simply your Shared Pages. These can be shared on facebook, friendster or your favorite blog.

Track share your scuba diving adventures with family and friends by Satellite GPS Geotagging.

Please Contact us for more information about this great GPS Geotagging service by SPOT STARTER.

Cris@divingworldtravel.com

CROSS COUNTRY at SpotAdventures

Map created by SpotAdventures:GPS Geotagging
CROSS COUNTRY at SpotAdventures

Map created by SpotAdventures:GPS Geotagging

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World DIve Travel Deals

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Cheap Diving Travel Deals

Low Rates on World Dive Travel Deals! Get the lowest prices and rates on World DIve Travel Deals and scuba diving packages.

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