Save Eco Destinations

Composting toilet at El Santuario by terriem

El Santuario Eco-Retreat – Loreto, Baja California ($120+/night)

This retreat is located on the coast, inside the Loreto National Marine Park (thoughts?? this seems awful to me), 25 mi. away from Loreto (so you can be sure the spot is tranquil!). Last September an Olive Ridley sea turtle laid her eggs in front of the Santuario, and locals saw 100 eggs hatch.  Doesn’t sound that ideal to me, but it’s better than opting for a nesting ground by a Hilton.

The retreat runs off solar power for hot water and electricity (no hair dryers here!) and has composting toilets located outside the rooms. They serve locally caught fish and vegetarian meals, including organic fruits and vegetables. You can go hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, mule riding (which is humiliating for the mules), and take boat trips. You may want to leave your laptop at home, as there is no indication of them providing internet access.

El Retoño

El Retoño Eco Lodge – Coatepec, Veracruz ($75-95)

This lodge was built in a colonial town within the mountains, amid the mist of the jungle. What’s cool is that this section of Mexico is trying to thrive off sustainability instead of raping nature through destructive practices and careless agriculture. El Retoño is part of this effort, and works with the community toward the end of preserving the original state of nature.

El Retoño has a library (wow!!), a movie-viewing room, a sauna, and guests can access the kitchen and make use of it. Each suite has a living room and bedroom with locally manufactured decorations. This is how they keep it eco: “all rain water and lodge water is collected and used, low voltage lights and dual flush toilets are standard, trash is separated and recycled, compost is generated from organic trash, and sheets and towels are changed between guests or every third day.”

You can go mountain climbing, hiking, bird-watching, and river rafting. I think I’m in love. I just wonder about the sewage treatment.

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?