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Balamku's cabanas on the beach

Balamku Inn on the Beach – Costa Maya, Quintana Roo ($70-85)

Talk of Tulum is everywhere. If you’d rather lay lower than that, you could try Costa Maya, just south of Mahahual, a tranquil fishing village. There you will find Balamku Inn on the Beach, where kayaks are included in the price of the room as well as wi-fi and breakfast. The inn runs on wind and solar power, rainwater, and recycled gray water, and the bathrooms have low-flush composting toilets.

There are horseback rides, jungle excursions, water sports (remember your biodegradable sunscreen or t-shirt!!), and even (unfortunately) deep-sea and fly fishing trips with local fishermen can be arranged.

A tourist ascending the Ek Balam Tower steps - photo by dustin_j_williams

Genesis Retreat Ek Balam – Central Yucatán ($44-54; $85 for family) Note: not on the coast.

This lodge lies on a private, grassy acre located 330 yards from the ruins of Ek Balam (which you can visit on one of the retreat’s tours). The retreat uses recycled water for their landscaping, the pool is bio-filtered, chemical-free, and built from natural stones, and hot water showers are pressurized. All cabanas have fans and one cabin has air conditioning. There are artists and writers working retreats, nature tours, a photo workshop, singles retreats, and more, and they rent out mountain bikes. The hotel’s owners, I am happy to report, not only serve vegetarian meals (in addition to traditional and regional foods), but are also animal activists!!

If you have any information or comments about these places, please do share it with us.

“Banyan Tree concept is having the guests and owners feel as if they are in the nature, in the surrounding habitat, and not within human built structures.”

The residences are being finished and people will be moving in next month. Some of the villas are on sale right now, striving to ensnare the rich and fashionable elite. There will also be a resort.

Since its inception 14 years ago, Banyan Tree has won 400 awards that “reflect Banyan Tree’s sustainable growth and expansion.”

Banyan Tree has residences and hotels spread across the globe and particularly in China. These
Developments are known for its opulent and luxurious style. Their goal here is to “create an intimate, ecological haven” comprised of 132 villas (50 of them being sold to investors). Each villa will have its own 240-600 sq. ft. pool, roomy outdoor terrace, and sundeck, because “at Banyan Tree we create emotional experiences for our guests.”

The Eco in Banyan Tree Mayakoba

Banyan Tree Mayakoba has integrated ecologists and biologists to its staff to ensure the surrounding ecosystems—composed of the beach, lagoons, and mangrove jungles—are preserved despite their intrusion into the land. “Each property minimizes the impact on the ecology and is dedicated to carrying out local community development,” reads one of its websites.  But I wonder.

No details have been offered as to their sewage treatment or how they plan to educate their guests to recycle and dispose of their waste, among other issues. Their championship PGA TOUR event golf course, though, “bears the Audubon International certification for environmental stewardship and awareness.” Does this mean no phosphates are released into the ecosystem? Not necessarily, although I hope so.

I’m probably just being paranoid. I just find it hard to believe everything I read these days, particularly when details are missing and especially when big companies are involved.

La Zebra Beach Cantina & Cabanas in Tulum, MX spent much of 2008 converting their beach hotel into a green haven.

No electricity on the beach meant they had to make their own, as they wanted their guests to be able to check their email and get cold drinks 24/7. Six-kw wind turbines solved that issue. Next: how to dispose of sewage. As you know, most hotels pump their sewage into the ground (they want to share it with everyone—how generous!). La Zebra wanted to take a different approach, so they set up two Bio-Microbics FAST systems that produce recyclable, 99% clean water. Apparently, other hotels’ systems in Tulum produce less than 70% clean water and are often unreliable, thus polluting surrounding ecosystems.

For the water itself, they turned to a well with a low salt content water, which they combined with fresh water they get delivered to their premises daily by truck (how green is this, exactly?). No mention as to where the water comes from, or the carbon footprint involved in this ordeal.

They have their own organic herb and vegetable garden yielding mint, sugar cane, basil, passion fruit, and other delicious foods and practice composting and recycling of plastic and aluminum products. And they show their love for the ecosystem by doing their part to protect turtle eggs from poachers by way of patrols on ATVs, who collect the eggs and “protect” them.

For 2009, there are plans of a solar hot water system and a reverse osmosis water purification system for creating drinking water onsite.

Now, on their blog, La Zebra boasts that their “cocktails … are actually really really healthy”:

“First we started with the La Zebra margarita, which is made with fresh pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, a pinch grated ginger, a dash of organic agave honey and topped with good quality tequila.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, that sounds pretty tasty. But touting cocktails as healthy seems misleading to me. Pineapple juice and agave honey (actually agave nectar, which tastes like honey but is plant-derived) equal a lot of sugar, simple carbohydrates. The vitamin C in the pineapple and the lime disappear within the first 10 minutes of the fruit being juiced. Ginger is wonderful for the immune system, but a pinch may not do it. And “good quality tequila” neither tells us which brand we’d be getting, nor is healthy in any way. While I love imaginative and delectable cocktails, I do not appreciate attempts at fooling me into thinking my margarita is a superfood.

This leads me to wonder whether other highlights of the resort are exaggerated or misleading, but I’m probably just being cynical.

Has anyone been to La Zebra who could share his or her opinions?

Coral reef off the Egyptian coast

All over the planet—from the Caribbean to Australia’s coasts—coral reefs are withering from the stress swimmers and tourism-related chemicals impose on them. According to WarmIslands.com, during the last 10 years alone the Caribbean’s reefs have been under strenuous attack.

The culprits:

• Snorkeling and diving – swimmers astonished by the reefs’ beauty touch the fragile corals, causing serious damage. SOLUTION: stay away from those reefs! And if for whatever reason you find yourself down there, hands off, kids!
• Sunscreen – chemicals in the sunscreen dissolving off swimmers’ skins intensifies the decline of coral populations. SOLUTION: choose biodegradable sunscreen or wear a t-shirt.
• Disturbed sediment – unnaturally strong currents (caused by swimmers, yachts, motorboats, and so on) can alter sediment and provoke the diaspora of animal life as the animals lose their home. Another consequence is sand settling onto coral formations. SOLUTION: stay off those boats!
• Anchors of motorboats, yachts, etc. – these can destroy corals and thereby their entire ecosystem, which results in animals losing their homes. SOLUTION: just say no!
• The collection of specimens – despite the seemingly infinite abundance of marine life, the removal of species is not only detrimental to the ecosystem, but may also result in the accidental removal of rare and endangered species. SOLUTION: refrain from collecting any specimens and do your best to discourage others from doing so.
• Increase in sedimentation – as tourism grows, so does the construction of hotels and other developments used to accommodate travelers. With construction comes pollution in the form of noise, contaminated air and water, and copious sedimentation both natural and synthetic. Higher amounts of sedimentation close to the shore encourage ocean species to move farther offshore, where lower levels of nutrients are available for their consumption and they are more vulnerable to the pernicious attacks of motorboats, etc. SOLUTION: consider going somewhere else for the holidays, or remain strictly green and encourage others to follow your lead – which should be a perpetual tactic for us eco travelers anyway!
• Waste – more people equals more waste. While proper waste disposal methods are usually available, many tourists are ignorant of environmentally friendly ways to dispose of their waste. Another problem is the myriad tourists who just don’t care about the environment enough to change their destructive habits. Their garbage then winds up floating on the water and sticking to coral reefs. SOLUTION: speak up when you see someone littering and kindly point them in the right direction.
• Pollution – While some vacation spots aren’t located within industrialized areas, it is usually inevitable that pollutants will be released into the air, land, and water in the forms of fuel, oil, paint, sewage, and so on. SOLUTION: go green or don’t go at all!

It is imperative that we continue to raise awareness about green tourism to inspire respect for our precious planet. As we continue to devise new ways to mitigate humans’ effects on our planet, we owe it to ourselves to compassionately educate those around us.