Luna Lodge

Source:

Travel Tips

A Cruise Through Royal

Caribbeans History

Nov 29th, 2008 by admin in Travel

A Cruise Through Royal Caribbeans History
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd is the second largest cruise operator in the world. This carefully-researched, well-written article contains a rare snapshot of the Company.

Tips On How Frequent Travelers Can Stay Healthy
Travel for business or pleasure can bring to the fore several health concerns. The most common ailments people experience while on a trip are hypertension, colds, and diarrhea. In order to build up resistance to fight diseases you must adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Vacation in comfort with kids
An article about reducing stress while traveling with kids. Among the tips are renting a minivan renting a private vacation villa or holiday home and renting a babysitter. Rentals seem to rule when you travel with kids.

Carburetor Fuel Filters
The carburetor fuel filter is necessary to make sure that the carburetor works properly and that the fuel and air mixture will be evenly distributed. Clean your fuel filter regularly or replace it depending on the type of fuel filter you have in your car. Regular maintenance of your vehicle needs to include even the tiniest part as the filter.

City Breaks for the Brits in 2008
Spain is the most popular choice of holiday destinations for British citizens. While other destinations are growing in popularity at this time, Spain still remains at the forefront. In fact, among the top-ranked city break locations, Barcelona is topping the heap.

Statistics show that the British population begins booking their holiday travel plans approximately one month before they are ready to take their break.

Barcelona proves to be not only a cheaper destination, but also provides visitors with enough activities and entertainment to keep them coming back year after year. Some new destinations are starting to pop up that are attracting more and more Brits, including Dublin, Greece, Tenerife, and others. They are getting on the bandwagon that Barcelona has been riding for years.

Brits are starting to take notice of Prague, which is quickly becoming a popular place to book holidays.

Because of her rich historical attractions and cultural sites, Prague is gaining holiday travelers. Krakow is another hot destination that is getting busier with British travelers. This city offers enough to do not only for a short break, but an extended holiday as well. In simple terms, Brits are branching out to see more Easter European cities for new and fresh things to do.

So, whether you are interested in a city break (a short vacation) or looking for an extended holiday adventure, you are sure to find something great in places that are waiting to be explored by you and your family. For a city break, you might consider traveling to Barcelona, Rome, Dublin or Venice, which are a short distance for Brits to take a small break. For an extended holiday, you might consider Lanzarote, Sharm el-Sheikh, Cyprus, or Malta. These are the places most Brits are visiting this year.

Of course, if you want to stay home for the holidays, you might want to catch the British Travel Trade Fair in Birmingham. Here you can learn about all of the attractions located in the U.K. and Ireland. The event takes place annually and is geared to tourism in the U.K. and Ireland. Visit approximately 350 booths that showcase hotels, attractions, theaters, gardens and more, as possible holiday or city break locations.

In summary, Brits are still flocking to Spain for their holiday travels and city breaks. Barcelona and her hotels tops the list as the most popular location for a city break and Barcelona is now diversifying and opening some boutique and family run Barcelona hotels with Rome trailing in second place. New places are starting to do their best to attract Brits, and their plans are working. Brits are starting to branch out to Eastern Europe destinations, such as Prague and Krakow. But, if you want to stay home and still have a great holiday, there are plenty of opportunities waiting for you in the U.K. and Ireland.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Top ten vacation spots
Listed below are top ten popular vacation destinations around the world. The destinations are chosen on the basis of self visits or personal interest discovered through reading.

Allepey in Kerela
Amongst the most visited cruises, Alleppey is famous for boat races, fishing and beautiful lakes. It runs through the middle of Punnamada Lake and moves on to Chavara Bhavan for one to explore the hidden beauty of ancient wooden houses and the 400 year old Champakulam church. If lazing around on the beaches, relaxing in houseboats, sailing in continual stretches of silent waterways, and at the same time exploring long lost temples is your idea of holidaying, then Kerela is the destination for your next holiday.

Aruba in Caribbeans
Aruba is one of the ten popular vacation spots in the Caribbean for cruise passengers. Right from beautiful beaches for a perfect tan of your skin, there are a variety of sports that one can participate in.
Often connoted as the ‘Happy island of Caribbean’, there are many places that one can visit in Aruba. One of them being Oranjestad, which is the capital city, is tremendously scenic with its Dutch royal architecture showcased in muted colors.
Being an island, it is well known for its water sport. This is a top spot for windsurfing or snorkeling. In fact, Aruba is the host to the Hi-Winds Amateur World Challenge windsurfing tournament that takes place every year in the month of June.

The Alps of Italy
Italy is often referred to as the number one honeymoon spot for couples. Italy casts its spell with many romantic places and one of the not-much explored area is ‘The Italian Alps’. Connecting Central Europe and the Mediterranean, they are a blend of many cultures and can be traced back to the Stone age. Lake Maggiore, sheltered by an Alpine ring, Dolomites, often referred to as the vacation of sanity and Aosta Valley, surrounded by Europe’s four highest mountains are some of the few destinations and a must visit amongst the gorgeous Alps of Italy.

Orlando
Florida becomes a top tourist vacation spot because of the city of Orlando. It is the county seat of Orange County, Florida. The city is best known for the many tourist attractions in the area, in particular the nearby located Walt Disney World Resort, which resides in Lake Buena Vista, that is 32 km south of Orlando. Other must-visit attractions include SeaWorld and Universal Orlando Resort.

Oahu in Hawaii
Hawaii visitors often prefer Oahu as their first stop destination. Oahu is a lively and vivacious island with all the luxuries and comforts of a modern life. One can trek in a lush green mountainside, dine under the stars at the five-star restaurants, sunbathe all day at this vibrant beach. A tourist can also Indulge in the nightlife, explore the rich culture and heritage of this island.

Southern California
Southern California is the best vacation getaway for a million reasons. From Universal Studios Hollywood for a movie buff to East Los Angeles, everyone can find something to visit in California. Worthwhile attractions are Legoland California, which comprise of rides, live shows, and miniature lands prepared from Lego blocks; San Fransisco Bay area which is home to Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz island.

Luna Lodge of Costa Rica
This tops the vacation list of the tourists on the lookout for forest spots. It is home to rare and beautiful bird species encounter native and very interesting wildlife. This vacation spot is excellent for people looking for secluded area for a therapeutic massage, bird watching and enjoying the beauty of nature.

Wisconsin Dells
Wisconsin Dells is a perfect family vacation spot. One can bring their children to huge number of waterpark resorts. Many resorts offer enclosed water parks for its guests to enjoy the beauty and the excitement of such a stay. There are many beautiful courses for golfers to test their skills, antique shops and museums for such lovers, exotic spas and hotels for a romantic getaway.

Museums of Paris
Paris is known for its rich culture and heritage and has a lot to be explored by the tourists in the area of museums. Rodin museum, known for the amazing marble and bronze work done by Auguste Rodin, Mailol Museum, full of collections of mordern art bound together by Dina Viemy, and ‘The advertising museum’, that presents thematic, artists and brands. Louvre Museum is the biggest museum in the world and brings together art from around the universe.

Door County, Wisconsin
Door County, Wisconsin is a weekend vacation spot for tourists from Chicago and other nearby places. The reasons are many. One can plan a romantic honeymoon, golfers can try their skills on the lush green and beautiful golf courses, and one can also chose Door County as a place for a family reunion. Horse riding, sailing the islands to discover lighthouses and even rent a bike and go for the bike riding that the rush hours in the city often does not allow you to do.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Ice Fishing Tips for More than Novices
If your more than a beginner but not yet a pro in icefishing here are a few tips to make your day better.

Rome airport transportation
Rome will have soon a new airport

All You Ever Wanted to Know About the Duffel Bag
The humble duffel bag has evolved from its military past into one of the most ubiquitous and adaptable forms of luggage. The specific origin of the duffel bag is unclear, but almost certainly duffel bags evolved from the military rucksack or kit bag. The name of the bag is from the Belgian town of Duffel, which was known in the 17th century for the production of a thick and durable woolen cloth that was used to make military uniforms and various kinds of luggage.

3 Popular Wreck Diving Sites in Britain
An insightful article detailing some of the best scuba diving spots in Britain.

Puerto Viejo

Flying those reggae colors: This Puerto Viejo eatery, named for the Bob Marley song Jammin', serves typical Costa Rican foods, such as rice and beans, with a Jamaican twist.

By Don Faust
Costa Rica's Caribbean vibe

Posted 11/27/2008 7:30 PM ET

By Chris Gray, USA TODAY

PUERTO VIEJO, Costa Rica — Rain-forest zip-lining. White-water rafting. Sea kayaking. Surfing, hiking and snorkeling.

The lengthy list of outdoor activities posted at Banana Azul, a beachside lodge just outside this Caribbean coastal town, would please even the most jaded adventure traveler.

But Melani Gordon, 31, an Internet marketing entrepreneur from San Diego, is ready for a break.

"It's hammock time," she says, grabbing paperbacks and heading toward the palm trees beside a nearly deserted Playa Negra.

PHOTO GALLERY: Costa Rica's Caribbean vibe READ MORE: Celebrate the sea turtle

Indeed, chilling out — albeit amid crashing surf and seaside jungles rife with noisy howler monkeys — remains the primary draw for visitors to the reggae-infused towns that line Costa Rica's southeastern shore. Long a stop on the Central American surfer circuit, Puerto Viejo, along with smaller beach towns Cahuita and Manzanillo, has always attracted the international backpacking set. But now an increase in midrange lodging and restaurants, coupled with continued interest in the country's adventure and eco-tourism offerings, are luring a more varied crowd.

That's evident at places such as Banana Azul, a whimsically designed open-air hotel that's almost always full, even in the October off season. (Unlike the Pacific side, which can get record rains in the fall, the Caribbean generally stays dry — big storms this week being an exception.) Most guidebook authors agree that the best Italian food in the country is served at La Pecora Nera (The Black Sheep), a restaurant opened by an Italian expatriate down the bumpy coastal road in Cocles. And in a nod to those who seek relaxation at the hands of others, the first Western-style spa — Pure Jungle Spa, offering products made with indigenous cacao and coconut — opened at La Costa de Papito bungalow hotel in 2005.

Still, a trip here feels like a well-kept secret: Of the 1.8 million visitors who come to Costa Rica each year, only 282,000 visit the Caribbean side. While Pacific Coast provinces such as Guanacaste are flush with condo towers, gated communities and luxury resorts, the black and golden-sand beaches stretching south of Limón on the Caribbean side remain virtually development free. Prices reflect the difference: Restaurant meals are $10-$20 a person, and even the more upscale hotels run $50 to $90 a night.

And that's just fine with most people who already live here. In Puerto Viejo, developers tabled a proposal for a luxury marina after residents and conservation groups claimed the project would erode the town's laid-back dynamic and nearby coral reefs. Likewise, locals have mixed feelings about plans to pave the pothole-ridden dirt roads leading into Puerto Viejo.

"It's inevitable, the development, but it will be slower here, hopefully," says Kevin Reilly, property manager of Global Creek, one of several yoga retreats built amid the jungle.

Isolation has pluses, minuses

The area's relative isolation has its drawbacks — for one, a reputation within the country for crime. In the capital, San José, taxi drivers warn tourists off visiting the Caribbean coast — before conceding they have never come to the area themselves.

The perception stems mostly from economics. The Limón province, which stretches from Nicaraguan jungle in the north to Panama's Bocos del Toro archipelago in the south, is Costa Rica's poorest region. The area is also the most racially diverse, populated by descendents of late-19th-century Jamaican immigrants who lend the towns a rasta vibe, as well as indigenous tribes who still lack electricity in their hillside villages.

Colin Brownlee, a Canadian expatriate who owns Banana Azul with his Costa Rican partner, Roberto Ureña, says that although crime does occur in the area, tourists who take typical third-world travel precautions face little risk — and reap the reward of uncrowded beaches and abundant wildlife sightings in two national parks at Cahuita and Manzanillo.

"The Disney set won't come here," he says, noting that most hotels along the Caribbean coast lack amenities such as air conditioning, pools or golf courses. "It's not for everyone."

For some, that's part of the appeal. "I didn't want to go where everyone else was going," says Charlie Kitchell of Manchester, N.H. "You got to have a little adventure in you. You can't be concerned about perfection."

Kitchell, 49, found adventure by rafting through the Class III, IV and V rapids of the Pacuare River and careering across a zip-line nearly 500 feet above the jungle floor. Like many Americans, he's partially searching for the retirement Holy Grail: a beachside retreat that won't break the bank.

"I need somewhere to thaw out," says Kitchell, a landscape company owner who brought a copy of Moon's Living Abroad in Costa Rica on the trip. "Someplace with good food, good people. And if I meet a señorita, hey, all the better."

'Added years to my life'

Other Americans come for more humanitarian reasons. Claire Trimer, a forensic scientist from Newport News, Va., visited Aviarios del Caribe Sloth Rescue Center on a day trip when her cruise ship stopped in Limón. She found the peaceful nature of the slow-moving creatures, continually at risk from destruction of their jungle habitat, inspiring.

"It was like someone hit me between the eyes with a hammer," she says. "I thought I had to do something."

So when the opportunity arose, Trimer sold her house and moved to Puerto Viejo to work with the sloths full time. "I'm convinced I've added years to my life coming down here," she says, stroking an baby sloth. "These guys are my new passion."

A few miles away in Cahuita, sloths share the trees with howler monkeys, whose haunting barks serve as wake-up calls for active travelers who come here for surfing, fishing and snorkeling at Cahuita National Park. Centered primarily on a single street, Cahuita's Caribbean heritage can be seen in the dreadlocked populace and the buildings painted reggae green, yellow, red and black — and sniffed through the aromas of coconut-infused rondon (soup) and jerk chicken.

A walk through Cahuita National Park is like taking a trip through a natural pharmacy, as guides point out herbal remedies for coughs, colds and stomach troubles. Both here and in the lush Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge down the coast, visitors are warned against touching the trees, to avoid poison dart frogs and eyelash vipers. Leafcutter ants march across the jungle floor, building colonies that rival nearby basketball-sized termite nests. A river otter peeks around a tree before scurrying into the water.

Such natural attractions were entertainment enough for Melani Gordon and her husband, Jeff, 28, who came to Banana Azul with Melani's parents, Vicki and Randy Broman. The family had traveled to Costa Rica's Pacific side before, but found themselves more entranced with the Caribbean, visiting a native Bri Bri village, hiking through the parks and enjoying cheap seafood at Puerto Viejo's restaurants.

"My dad said this is like Hawaii was 30 years ago," Melani says. "My mom wants to move here."

Says Jeff, downing an Imperial beer in the warm, humid air: "There are times you don't need an infinity pool or swim-up bar."

Source : USA Today

Typical Costa Rican food

source : Short order

Culinary Travels in Costa Rica: Part 1

Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 09:07:26 AM

A view of Volcan Arenal from a hiking trail that traverses old lava flow from its 1992 eruption. Arenal is the third most active volcano in the world.

We hiked through rainforests and gasped at volcanoes, lounged on white sand beaches and wound our way around perilous mountain passes. Oh yes, we also ate. I just returned from six days in Costa Rica, one of the many ecological jewels of Central America, and aside from taking in an almost unfathomable level of sheer natural beauty we ate our weight in tropical fruits, fresh ceviche, and, of course, rice and beans.

Hit the jump for more.

It's difficult to describe just how important the combination of rice and (black) beans is in the culinary life of Ticos. Calling it a "staple" somehow doesn't do it justice -- it neither projects forcefully enough the integral nature of the dish to the country, nor does it give enough credit to the range of preparations and flavors produced from a relatively humble meal. Make no mistake: Ticos are proud of their national dish. This is, after all, a country who three years ago entered into a strange competition of pride with Nicaragua, submitting a 5000-pound batch of rice and beans as proof of their starchy superiority.

An outdoor soda sitting along Playa Escondida in Central Pacific Costa Rico.

At the many thousands of "sodas" (inexpensive, roadside restaurants) dotted across the countryside, rice and beans is dished up in massive, siesta-inducing quantities. It's the main attraction of casado, a massive plate usually heaped with salad, fried plantains, a variety of root vegetables like yucca or potato, and sometimes meat, which can be the stew-like carne en salsa or simply a piece of roasted chicken. The rice and beans though, are always present. The rice is always plain, but the beans are often doctored with peppers, cilantro, onion, or lime.

A typical plate of casado. Avocados grow in abundance here, and amazingly bright, fresh, and creamy.

There are as many variations of casado as their are homes in the country; the only rules is that everything on the plate works to compliment the rice and beans. The salad can be a loose shred of cabbage mixed with tomato and onion, or, as we had at one sleepy soda off the main drag in San Ramon, a mince of raw plantain marinated in lime juice and cilantro. (Unfortunately I didn't get to snap a picture of that meal: it was the first we had off the plane and my camera battery was dead, naturally).

At another soda, the plate came with the strange combination of Chinese-style noodles, grilled skewers of chicken, and long strips of fried plantains.

A beautiful slab of caramelized queso fresco.

Vegetarian platters (almost every place offered this) usually came with a slab of queso fresco, a fresh cow's milk cheese. Sometimes it was raw, other times the cheese was grilled to a crisp on the outside, enabled by it's almost tofu-like texture and ability to be heated without melting.

The other feature of every soda was the bottles of salsa that lined the tables. These salsas are basically what we'd call hot sauce, but there is a staggering variety of them, owing to that many sodas have their own distinct recipe. Tomorrow I'll talk a little more about these hot sauces plus a way to fashion your leftover rice and beans into breakfast. Think: Frijolecakes! (Not really, but that would be fun.)

Culinary Travels in Costa Rica: Part 2

Thu Nov 20, 2008 at 09:22:39 AM

One of Costa Rica's many beach-side sodas, shaded from the hot coastal sun by an umbrella of tall trees.

Yesterday I talked a little bit about Costa Rica's plato tipical, casado - and more specifically, rice and beans. Now, when you're producing rice and beans in such quantities as to make it the central aspect of a plate, you're bound to have some leftovers. Like cold pizza or breakfast burritos, Costa Ricans adapt these heaps of leftovers into gallo pinto: a saute of black beans and rice along with cilantro, onion, and pepper. It basically becomes a flavorful sort of fried rice, turned black or light brown by the natural sauce of the beans. Gallo pinto is served primarily for desayuno (breakfast), but I did find it later in the day at a few places.

Gallo pinto shares the plate with scrambled eggs and a fresh link of housemade chorizo. The little sausage burst with juices when I cut into it.

Whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner, every restaurant or soda you walk in to is going to have two bottles of salsa on the table. The first is Lizano salsa, a sauce so ubiquitous you have to wonder if there's any alternate uses for it other than consumption. Aside from tasting like a pretty damn interesting (in a good way) mixture of sweet and sour, tabasco, and curry, my guess is the yellow-and-brown-flecked sauce is also used to lubricate car parts, degrease stove tops, and sterilize wounds. Actually, it's quite good on a makeshift breakfast taco constituted by gallo pinto, sour cream, and eggs wrapped inside a corn tortilla. I even poured a bit in corvina ceviche, turning the pearly tiger's milk into an attractive beige. I heard the somewhat dubious claim that Lizano salsa is Costa Rica's most requested export. I couldn't substantiate that, but you can purchase bottles of the stuff from online retailers at a slight cost hike.

The other salsa likely to grace a Costa Rican table is simply a Louisiana-style hot sauce made with tabasco peppers. Unlike Lizano, there's no real standard here, and many sodas you find will even make their own. I tried a wide number of hot sauces -- some super fiery and perhaps inflected with a hotter variety of chili such as scotch bonnet, some thick and syrupy like a colloid, some thin and runny like name brand Tabasco.

My favorite, though, was a pretty spicy, thick sauce homemade by the proprietor of this beach-side soda outside of Manuel Antonio. It landed somewhere in between Lizano and a hot sauce, but it was so much better than both: tons of garlic, cilantro, and other dried spices; a distinctive West Indies-style curry flavor; a thick base reminiscent of wet-rub jerk sauce, probably the result of pureed onion and scallions. It was amazing stuff; reminded me quite a bit of another stellar, homemade hot sauce I picked up years ago in Carmel, California.

This place was perhaps my favorite soda I encountered on the trip. God bless that grillin' woman and her amazing sauce.

The gold-toothed senora that ran the soda -- busy manning an outsided grill holding a wide array of chicken, pork ribs, and odd cuts of beef steak -- was reluctant to part with a bottle. But a with a little persuasion, she sold me a 20oz ketchup container filled with the stuff. I've been eating it with my eggs in the morning ever since.

Sometimes, good things come in mislabeled packages.

Culinary Travels in Costa Rica: Part 3

Fri Nov 21, 2008 at 09:13:17 AM

I'm going to wrap up this short little porthole into Costa Rican cuisine talking a little bit about everything -- probably in a very rambling, tangential sort of way. Just a fair warning.

Native fruit is definitely one of the more unique aspects of eating in Costa Rica. You've got your average tropical fair, of course, including bananas and oranges and mangos and guayaba (guava). but then you've got oddities like this:

That disgusting looking spewdum of goo and seeds is a granadilla, and it's perhaps one of the most nectary-sweet, delicious fruits you're going to find in Costa Rica. Yes, it feels like half-melted Jello in your mouth; like the forest's answer to raw quail egg. But there is something faintly, well...erotic about supping on the life-giving goo within the fruit. Obviously someone else thought so too: the granadilla is just one very-ugly-but-tasty variety of what's referred to as passiflora ligularis, or passion fruit.

Jump for more...

On the right here is some Costa Rican papaya, which we ate almost every morning with breakfast. This variety isn't really too sweet; rather it has sort of a gamey pungency. I ate it with bites of pineapple or watermelon, but I didn't like it too much on its own.

Here's a lemon served with a piece of fish at a soda; only it's not exactly an ordinary lemon. It was like a cross between a lemon and a tangerine, slightly sweet but mostly very sour. I didn't get an exact answer on the variety, but I think what we're dealing with is a Panama orange, popularly known as a calamondin in Asia.

We also ate a bit of carambola, or star fruit. The variety in Costa Rica is shockingly sour. Remember Warheads? Yeah, like that. I could only eat it in small bites or mixed in with sweeter fruit or even bananas.

You didn't only have to eat your fruit in whole form. Batidos, a sort of fruit-infused milk shake, were very popular all across Costa Rica. Miamians have probably had the Cuban version of the drink, which is largely the same. It's basically ice, fruit, and lots of milk, blended until smooth and frothy. They're extremely refreshing on a hot day. This one is a guava batido... hard to tell, eh?

Not the best picture, I know. I blame the beer.

Of course this isn't fruit at all... but I was just talking about refreshing, and nothing refreshes like some Costa Rican cerveza. My favorite, not pictured because I was always too drunk to remember to take pictures of it, is Imperial. But Pilsen is nice too - basically, Costa Rican beers are mostly crisp, light lagers similar to dozens of other Central and South American lagers. If Bud or Miller or any other crap American lager were half as crisp and tasty and light as these beers we'd be in better shape.

A little bit more about sodas:

I just wanted to take a brief moment to elaborate on the soda, Costa Rico's answer to the food counter. These small restaurants are the backbone of Costa Rican cuisine. They're not fancy and they're not necessarily creative. They are, however, where hard-working people eat every day. Where a huge plate of comforting, home-cooked food will cost you only a couple thousand colones or less. (Under $4) But the most interesting aspect about the sodas to me was not just how many thousands are scattered across the countryside, doing very much the same thing in close proximity to each other yet still retaining a loyal and vibrant customer base, but how much pride the folks manning them were.

Every soda I went to was spotless. The workers - almost exclusively women - wore bright, clean clothes and tucked their hair away in cute, white caps. This might be simple, cheap food, but it's their food. The small sample of sodas I experienced made me wonder about our American equivalents, the ethnic eateries that dot strip malls across South Florida, and why many white Americans are almost afraid to check them out. It really gave me a renewed sense of vigor to dive into our little "sodas" and find out just how proud our immigrants are to be bringing the foods of their homelands to us.

/off soapbox

Pura vida, folks! Thanks for reading. I'll leave you with a few pics of Costa Rica's breathless landscape. (Click for larger versions)

A gorgeous view of Arenal.

La Fortuna Falls.

Pristine, white sand beaches of Manuel Antonio.

Looking off Punta Catedral in Manuel Antonio.

A monkey trying to get some "me" time; cameras thwart his attempt.

The rare, Costa Rican Penis Plant.

The sun sets on Costa Rica.

-- John Linn

Corcovado

A Hikers Haven - Corcovado National Park

Have you been to Costa Rica yet? The #1 adventure travel destination of Central America is packed with a non-stop string of highlights and activities. Inland you can enjoy cloud forests and volcanoes, on the Caribbean coast you can watch nesting sea turtles, on the Pacific coast you can learn to surf.

Costa Rica has more than 160 parks and conservation areas, covering more than 25% of the entire country! This impressive amount of protected land includes 25 National Parks, of which Corcovado is one. Where is Corcovado? It lies near the extreme southern reaches of Costa Rica, on the Osa Peninsula, far from the usual tourist hangouts. Even those travelling between Costa Rica and Panama tend to bypass Corcovado, missing out on a unique experience that can't be matched anywhere else in Central America. Corcovado is a nature lovers dream, with hiking trails and camping opportunities everywhere, plus more than 100 mammal species, 100 reptile / amphibian species and 350 bird species are found here.

Almost 400km away from the hub of San Jose, Corcovado consists of more than 100,000 acres of nationally protected lands, including an impressive sandy beach on the Pacific that stretches out for more than 30km. To get there by road you need to enter via San Pedrillo, La Leona or Los Patos, which all have campsites available for anyone wanting to get in touch with nature. It is also possible to fly into Sirena Biological Station located within the park or take a boat from Sierpe, across the Drake Bay.

Once there, you'll be rewarded with an unspoiled oasis to explore. Tapirs, capuchin monkeys, jaguars, ocelots, sloths, anteaters and crocodiles are just some of the animals you have a chance of spotting within the park. More than a dozen trails in the park are available, with most of them 1-2km in length. For the more active, adventurous hikers one trail worth noting is the Sirena-San Pedrillo trail that is open to hikers from December to April. It is 25km long, but does not allow camping. The challenging terrain make this a pretty strenuous trek, but it also takes you to some remote, less travelled parts of the park.

Most trails will take your through forests (there are 13 types of forest in the park!), along rivers or up to some isolated waterfalls. A good trail for spotting wildlife is the 10km long Las Marias which starts from the San Pedrillo park entrance area, although you're bound to see plenty of wildlife if you stick to the shorter trails. If you're thinking of heading to Corcovado on your own, make sure you check in and get permits from Area de Conservacion de OSA (ACOSA) in Puerto Jimenez ahead of time! Otherwise....hop on one of the following G.A.P Adventures tours and let us do all the work!!

Source:

Nature Air

Nature Air, World's First Carbon Neutral Airline Joins UNEP's Climate Initiative

NatureAir, the world's first carbon neutral airline, has joined the Climate Neutral Network (CN Net), an initiative led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to promote global action towards low-carbon economies and societies.

The company has become the first in the airline industry to sign up to the CN Net whose participants - countries, cities, major international companies, UN agencies and leading NGOs - have set the most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets in the world.

"With the airline industry contributing an estimated three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions - nearly as much as the entire African continent, it is vital that solutions to the climate change challenge come from within the industry itself. I welcome NatureAir to the Climate Neutral Network as a trailblazer on the path to zero emissions air travel," said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

NatureAir was founded on the principle that an airline can be fun, reliable and make a positive impact on the destinations it serves. Based in Costa Rica, NatureAir operates in 17 destinations throughout Costa Rica and Panama. Everyday, it brings more than 60 percent of its passengers within 10 kilometers from national parks or other ecotourism destinations.

Since 2001 the airline has been experiencing an average 20 percent growth rate per year, becoming one of the fastest growing regional airlines in Central America. In 2002 NatueAir flew 40,879 passengers. From January- September 2008 the airline has transported 140,000 passengers.

"The success of the company's performance can be attributed to numerous factors, including its commitment to environmental and social responsibility, its safety record and its reliability with a region leading 93 percent on-time-performance record for over four years," said NatureAir Founder and CEO Alex E. Khajavi.

It was in 2004 that Mr. Khajavi and his team made a pledge to offset all of NatureAir's carbon emissions through the protection of tropical forests in southern Costa Rica. This is made possible by the purchase of carbon credits from the government's pioneering payment for environmental services scheme.

Costa Rica itself aims to be climate neutral by 2021 when it celebrates 200 years of independence and was among the first four countries to join the CN Net.

NatureAir has improved fuel efficiency in its flight operations by seven percent in the last three years through the use of twin-engine fleet, crew training, reducing aircraft weight, and improved flight planning.

Furthermore, NatureAir's subsidiary fuel company has successfully converted the airline's ground fleet to biofuels and is working with Costa Rica government in becoming a biofuel station for third party companies.

"In an effort to reduce our carbon footprint, we have found that sharing our knowledge and lessons learned is the best way to assist other companies at improving their sustainability programmes. With the help of CN Net we can bridge the gap and encourage more aviation companies to turn carbon neutral," Mr. Khajavi said.

Based on a free-of-charge, interactive website, the CN Net provides a platform for its participants to present their strategies in climate neutrality to the world.

It offers easily searchable information on increased energy efficiency, reduced emissions and the use of clean and renewable energy - relevant to sectors as diverse as construction, tourism, agrifood, transport, and information and communication technologies.

Before, rent a home in a few regions.

Where to Start the Hunt for Real Estate in Costa Rica

Looking for your Costa Rica dream home?

If you are on the hunt for a new property in Costa Rica, deciding where to begin may seem overwhelming. Of course the best thing to do is see it all, but we understand that your time is valuable. A smart shopper will take into consideration a number of factors such as social and business opportunities, services such as shopping and healthcare, and finally the weather before jumping head first into the Costa Rica realestate purchase process. The following are our recommendations on where to start and what to consider.

Though a small country, Costa Rica has a remarkably diverse climate. Visitors and people looking to relocate will find the weather and climate varying from balmy rain forest to chilly fire place friendly locations in the Central Valley and at higher elevations. If you intend to start a new life in Costa Rica, staying away from the extremes would be advised.

The country is divided into seven provinces, which are then divided into “cantones” under the direction of a mayor. The population distribution of Costa Rica is not measured by provinces, but instead by geographic areas. For example, the largest percentage of the Costa Rican population, about 70 percent, lives within the Central Valley, which also contains the capital city of San Jose.

This area contains a predominance of cultural opportunities such as theaters, museums, universities and government buildings. The area is also popular for its many employment opportunities with international corporations who decide to invest in the strong economy of Costa Rica, brought about by the tremendous stability of its government. These include companies and organizations like HP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Scotia Bank, the U.S. Embassy and HSBC.

The Central Valley region is also extremely popular due to the regular weather conditions which do not vary greatly throughout the year. The most popular towns and cities for foreign settlement in the area are Escazu and Santa Ana for their modern shops, restaurants and historic buildings; Alajuela and Heredia – two quieter suburbs that are about 30 minutes outside of the city and close to the airport; Grecia the “cleanest town in Latin America”; and Cartago and Sarchí for their history, scenery and thriving gardening and arts and crafts communities.

North of the Central Valley area is the Arenal Volcano which is surrounded by scenic and lovely villages, and to the west is the unique American expatriate town of Monteverde – settled in the 1950s by Alabama Quakers, it is now full of long-term expatriate Americans and natives. The northern plains region includes beautiful rolling hills, mostly used for cattle farms currently or in the past. The volcanic soil makes it a very fertile region, with thermal and cold water rivers traversing the grounds. This would be ideal for someone looking to truly get away from it all, or start up a hotel or adventure tour company.

To the south of the Central Valley you will find more agricultural based communities, and within that area the most popular towns and villages are San Isidro de General, Buenos Aires and San Vito. These areas provide very typical accommodations and culture, and are lacking in expat communities for the most part. If you hope to find a little more of ‘home’ in the south, try the beach towns like Dominical and Uvita. Still rather ‘untouched’ these laid back communities offer a wide variety of cultures from Europe and the Americas, including the food and infrastructure, though you may find yourself traveling excessively anytime you need to get back to the modern country capital for immigration or shopping purposes.

Two other real estate hotspots include Guanacaste and the central Pacific coast. Both regions have large, developed networks of expats from a variety of countries and focus around beach living. Within these regions it is important to do your research, as they also attract those trying to make a quick buck. The benefits include warm weather, infrastructure, proximity to international and regional airports and proper health care.

The Nicoya Peninsula and the Caribbean coast are great spots for the more adventurous ’settler’ as they are not as easy to get to unless you can afford to rely on domestic flights. The Caribbean Coast is easily accessible by road to Cahuita, and then it turns to gravel and dirt if you want to continue to the touristy town of Puerto Viejo. The southern Nicoya must be accessed by ferry or boat, which leads to packed dirt roads. There are clear benefits to being away from it all, with less tourists and crime, though building and starting a business become more difficult.

Overall, when looking for Costa Rica Real estate it is best to do a thorough examination of the entire region to be sure that it meets all personal and professional needs. Be sure to set up hotel accommodations in the area that you will be exploring on each trip so that you have a “base” to start from. Excellent hotel accommodations can be found on HotelsCombined.com for this purpose.

When relocating to or investing in Costa Rica it is advisable to learn the native language, Spanish. You will need to forge good relationships with neighbors and community leaders, and for this to happen a community open to newcomers and expatriates must exist. Many real estate experts and expatriates suggest that it may be a good idea to rent a home in a few regions, for a short while, before investing in a long term or permanent residence.

Written by Valerie Mellema
Source :

SJO-TGU

LACSA

LACSA began daily flights between its home base of San Jose (SJO) in Costa Rica and Tegucigalpa (TGU) in Honduras. The airline will operate an ATR42 on the route which is already served daily by COPA Airlines. Toncontin International Airport at Tegucigalpa has one of the more challenging approaches for pilots. See just how challenging:

source: TimesOnLine

Is Latin America really a property hotspot?

Caution is required before embarking on a Latin love affair

Susan Emmett

If ever there was a time to invest in an exotic home in Latin America, this is it - or so the sales pitch would have it. The region is being touted as the one most likely to emerge unscathed from the current economic turbulence, with luxury new developments aimed at foreign buyers in the most unlikely locations under the sun.

One developer in Nicaragua, the Central American country emerging from the shadow of civil war in the 1980s, is tapping into investors' fears of the stock market by promoting oceanfront property as the best type of investment to ride out the financial storm. Kevin Fleming, the founder and chairman of Grupo Mariana, says: “We believe Nicaragua is now where Costa Rica was when it began to focus on tourism and development. It offers the same type of potential for outstanding returns over time.”

Properties at the vast Seaside Mariana Spa & Golf Resort, which is spread over 923 acres, range from $227,820 (£154,000) for an off-plan one-bed flat to $709,920 for a villa on a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. Fleming says that Phase I is already sold out and should be completed by 2011.

These property prices are not rock bottom. But are properties such as these good value? Will investors reap handsome returns by diverting their cash from stocks and shares into Latin American property? One of the main problems about investing in property in the region is the lack of objective and consistent data on house prices. There is no equivalent to the Land Registry.

Background

• Why the rich are looking to Latin America

• Buying property in Natal, Brazil: Golf, beaches and plastic surgeons

• Paradise gets the green light

• A stake in Argentina

• Where to buy property in Brazil: the sultry northeast

Related Links

• Buying property in Cuba

Fleming says: “The real-estate market in Nicaragua has experienced constant and consistent growth over the past five years, with serviced plots in primary real-estate areas increasing by close to 300 per cent, on average, since 1997.” His figures come from Calvet & Associates, an organisation whose aim is to boost tourism and investment into Nicaragua.

In general, Latin American banks did not snap up the American mortgage-backed securities that caused so much trouble in the US and Europe, mostly because strict regulations in countries such as Brazil - the biggest economy in the region - prohibit such investments. And fears of a return to the recent era of hyperinflation keep interest rates relatively high. In Brazil the base rate is 13.75 per cent and the cost of borrowing to consumers is expensive - credit card rates are 230 per cent.

However, to say that the region is unaffected by the economic downturn would be deeply misleading. The World Bank recently lowered its 2009 growth forecasts for Latin America from between 4.2 per cent and 4.6 per cent to between 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent. The region's exporters are suffering from falling commodities prices and difficulties in obtaining credit from foreign banks. Also, over the past five years prices in so-called luxury developments, which had been rising at breakneck speeds, were mostly driven by foreign purchasing power rather than local factors.

Mexico has been particularly badly affected by the fall in remittances from its citizens working in the US. Charles Peerless, a director at Winkworth International, who is selling flats in Reforma 90, a 38-floor tower in the business district of Mexico City, says: “There is more stock being offered and demand is coming down. I haven't sold anything in eight weeks.”

In northeast Brazil, Sílvio Bezerra, the director of the construction company Ecocil and president of Sinduscon (a syndicate of builders in Rio Grande do Norte), attributes the fall in property prices to the retreat of international investors. “I don't think there is anybody left to buy and if there are no gringos to pay, prices will fall to more realistic levels,” he told Diário de Natal, a local newspaper.

Harry Lewis, a director at Savills International, says: “The whole world has been affected by the credit crunch. Projects in Brazil, Argentina and Costa Rica have gone back to the drawing board because buyers are no longer prepared to pay the prices they were modelled on.”

But Felipe Cavalcante, chairman of Adit Nordeste (Association for Real Estate and Tourism Development in Northeastern Brazil), says: “Had the economic crisis not occurred, the chances are that the market would have been flooded with new projects in 2009 and 2010.” It had also purged the market of “adventurers and speculators”, leaving only “serious companies that are well structured”. Cavalcante argues that the prospects for the Brazilian property market are good in the long term. “We have a shortfall of 7.9 million homes and we have to build over 1.4 million homes a year simply to keep up with the current housing levels. By 2030 there will be 35 million new families needing housing.”

The Brazilian real is down against the US dollar, making property prices in Brazil even cheaper than before. Throughout Latin America struggling developers will probably be open to low offers to make their balance sheets work now that most foreign buyers have evaporated. That said, investors should look very closely at the quality of the development and the health of the local market. After all, that is exactly what you would do if you were buying at home.

Seaside Mariana Spa & Golf Resort:

0800 0727292, info@seasidemariana.com

April 15, 2007

Paradise gets the green light

Holiday homes abroad are becoming increasingly ecofriendly, says Helen Davies

It is a tough dilemma. You’ve swapped all your conventional light bulbs for energy-saving ones, traded in your gas-guzzling 4x4 for a hybrid and put your name down for an allotment, but what if you want to own a house in the sun?

Since the publication of Sir Nicholas Stern’s apocalyptic report on climate change last October, being green has become mainstream; everyone seems to be counting their carbon emissions these days. Suddenly, the dream of buying — and then travelling to and from — a foreign bolt hole doesn’t sit quite so easily as it once did.

There is little doubt the number of second homes will keep on rising: the government estimates as many as 300,000 Britons own a property abroad, although some surveys put the figure closer to 1m. But other than cycling off to a property in Belgium or investing in a yurt in Mongolia, can you still go abroad and be green?

Yes, insist developers who are marketing ecofriendly resorts specially tailored to salve the conscience of the environmentally aware. “People like to see rainwater properly harvested and recycled, especially if there is a golf course,” says James Davies, director of residential development at agents Hamptons International.

Background

• Friends disunited

• Five rules for buying abroad

• Before you buy ask why

• A taxing problem

• Where to buy

“There is a move towards solar power, grasses that don’t need so much fresh water and bio-gas regeneration, where any vegetation chopped down is burnt to heat water for showers and baths.

“Environmentally friendly resorts are the way forward. In five years, geothermal heating and self-sufficient organic farms will be the norm. Some developments may even insist on owners proving their carbon-neutral travel arrangements.” Already one developer, Jet2let, has announced car-bon-neutral inspection trips to their developments in Bulgaria.

Twenty years ago, Andre Jordan was laughed at for introducing bird boxes around the Quinta do Lago golf resort in the Algarve to attract wildlife, as well as to reduce the number of mosquitoes. Today, the greening of the holiday-home market is gathering pace. But whereas technical details such as solar panels, “grey-water” harvesting and chlorine-free swimming pools used to be glossed over, now they are high-lighted in the sales brochure.

Take Pezula, a 1,500-acre site perched on a clifftop near Kny-sna, on South Africa’s Garden Route. The developer is keen to stress its green credentials; there are plans in place to regenerate local plants and wildlife, and no new roads. It also has an independent Environmental Liaison Committee of experts. “Environmental strategy takes precedence over marketing strategy,” claims a brochure for the site, before adding, “but encouragingly, this seems to have made Pezula a resounding sales success.”

“Nothing is wasted,” says Jes-sica Hayes, environmental manager at Pezula. “For example, waste timber of no use to the site is provided to disadvantaged locals for a wood-chopping business. The firewood is then sold to the public.”

Sixty plots are still available at the Pezula resort, where prices range from £92,000 to £284,000, to build your own ecofriendly home. All building works must be approved by the environmental board at the resort, use natural, local building materials, and must have a minimum 4,000-litre rainwater tank (Pezula, 00 27 44 302 5332, www.pezula.com).

Not surprisingly, Sir Richard Branson, who, together with former American vice-president Al Gore, is offering a £13m reward to the scientist who discovers a “cure” for climate change, is also getting in on the act. Earlier this year, the billion-aire entrepreneur paid £10m for the 120-acre island of Moskito, in the British Virgin Islands, where he plans to build the world’s first eco-resort, complete with a wind farm, organic farm and electric cars, by 2010.

This greening of the holiday-home market does not come as a surprise to Charles Weston Baker, head of international residential sales at Savills. “Put quite simply, you don’t want to destroy what is your selling point,” he says. “To some extent, the boom in ecofriendly resorts has grown in line with the growth in emerging markets.” For that reason, some of the most ambitious projects under way are in developing countries such as Thailand, Cape Verde, India, the Seychelles and the smaller Caribbean islands, which often attract foreign buyers who are more environmentally aware and keen to maintain the unspoilt nature of their chunk of paradise.

Some, such as Pezula, are modestly priced. Others, such as the Soneva Kiri resort in Thailand, near the border with Cambodia, are aimed unapologetically at the luxury end of the market. Developed by Sonu Shivdasani — who was at Oxford with David Cameron and still counts him as a friend — and his Swedish wife, Eva, a former model, the complex aims to be carbon neutral by 2010.

Set in more than 100 acres of lush rainforest on the island of Ko Kut, accessed only by speedboat, the 36 villas are to be built of locally grown eucalyptus and makka wood. The emphasis is on eco-chic: energy-saving measures such as a grey-water system and state-of-the-art glazing have been incorporated into the design.

None of this comes cheap, however: prices for three-bed villas, all with showers created from recycled glass blocks — and personal butler service — start at £1.53m (through Savills, 020..., www.savills.com). The Shivdasanis are planning similar ecofriendly resorts in Mexico, Belize, Panama and Guatemala.

For many developers, it is not enough to be kind to the planet. They also want to be seen to be putting something back into the local economy. Among them is James Kellow, a director of A Life Extraordinary, a company that develops eco-lodges (from £78,000 to £217,000) in Belize, central America, that promise an investment “in the planet’s future, while still providing a sound financial return”.

Set in the jungle, each eco-lodge at Belize Grove (020..., www.belizegrove.com) will be built of sustainable timber. The resort also aims to be “socially sustainable”, with a rental pool to encourage owners to let out their properties when they are not there, and jobs for the locals. “Gated communities can bring about resentment,” says Kellow. “Overdevelopment has created ghost towns in parts of Spain and Florida when they have been deserted by the travel and tourism industries.”

A similar philosophy governs the Kittitian Hill resort, a development of 106 villas, 74 flats and 54 cottages being built on the Caribbean island of St Kitts by Terra Forma Developments. “We are not talking about fencing, we are not talking about blocking off roads and we are not talking about security guards stopping everyone getting into this resort,” Valmiki Kempadoo, the Trinidad-born managing director announced at the launch last month.

So, as well as the obligatory golf course and spa, Kittitian Hill will have a Saturday market where locals can sell their wares and a shared restaurant for hotel staff and guests. There are also plans for an off-site wind farm. Prices start at £170,000 (Resort Group International, 020..., www.kittitianhill.com).

Some of the greenest second homes are to be found not in far-flung destinations, but closer to home — and you will do less damage to the environment getting there. In September, Savills will launch a carbon-neutral development in Montenegro — a first for the former Yugoslav country. The Tara Mountain Village near Kolasin will be fuelled by hydroelectric power and geothermal heating, and have an organic farm producing fresh milk and eggs for the farm shop. Homeowners will be invited to travel around the resort via skis, electric car or pony.

Vying with it for the green crown is the Mata de Sesimbra project in Portugal, which aims to be the world’s first integrated sustainable-living programme, and includes 8,000 zero-carbon holiday eco-homes. Located south of Lisbon, it will use sustainable materials that will reduce domestic carbon emissions by at least 30%, while low-flow taps will cut water consumption by half. The development will be powered by solar energy, and cars banned from the centre; instead, residents will be provided with free bicycles. A one-bed flat in Mata de Sesimbra (www. oneplanetliving.org) costs about £60,000 and a large five-bed villa £600,000.

There is no exact science to determine just how green any eco-resort is — although an endorsement by organisations such as One Planet Living, Natural Step and Green Globe, which promote the building of sustainable communities, provides a good benchmark.

So much for your conscience. But are you also paying a premium for living in such a development? Not necessarily, says Weston Baker. “As with many green applications, the cost is greater upfront. The pay-back comes over the long term. People only do things if it is in their interest. But so far it isn’t stopping anyone buying abroad. They are just looking for a greener home once they get there.”

So, tempted to buy a green home of your own? Here are some of the other more interesting ones out there.

Brazil: The Reef Club (Qualta Resorts, 00 34 95..., www.qualtaresorts.com.br) near Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, due to be launched next month, is billed as an “eco-community” of more than 4,000 homes, built using sustainable woods in and around lagoons and mangrove glades. Solar power will be used for hot water, pumps and lighting. The 18-hole golf course will be irrigated by a rainwater storage system and waste-recycling plant, and only biodegradable detergents will be used on site. Prices start at £98,000 for a two-bed, two-bathroom cottage. It is estimated the project will generate more than 3,000 jobs for the local community.

Canada: A former mining town, the Three Sisters Mountain Village, just over one hour’s drive from Calgary airport, is being transformed from an industrial eyesore into a 2,000-acre alpine resort. It stands at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and more than half the site is left to wildlife. Owners are encouraged to leave the hire car in the garage and to walk, cycle or ski. Prices start at £248,000 for a two-bed flat, up to £2m for a five-bed house (Newfound Property International, 020 8605 9520, www.newfoundproperty.com).

Cape Verde: Sambala Developments, which is developing a resort on Santiago island, sponsors a local marine-biology institute and is involved in a project to supply computers for the local school. “We are setting a benchmark in responsible development,” says Jim Campbell, marketing manager. A typical three-bedroom townhouse in the resort with use of communal pool costs £135,000 (016..., www.sambaladevelopments.com).

Mexico: Phase one of the Campeche Playa resort will not be completed until the end of 2008, but properties are already for sale on the 760-acre site, the only one to be granted permission on Mexico’s virgin coast (also a breeding site for hawksbill sea turtles). Prices for flats in phase one, a seafront site, range from £140,000 for a two-bed flat, up to £309,000 for the three-bedders (Pure International, 020..., www.pureintl.com). Portugal: Some 167,000 trees have been planted at the Parque da Floresta resort in the western Algarve, where residents can enjoy a round of golf knowing their golf buggies run on electricity rather than petrol, 25% of the sewage water is reused and most of the energy is supplied by wind turbines. Two-bed townhouses in the latest phase overlooking the front nine holes start at £274,000 (contact Vigia Property Sales, 01223 316820, www.parquedafloresta.com). Three-to five-bed villas with private swimming pools (cleaned by salt water) start at £450,000.

Hamptons International, 020 7758 8447, www.hamptons-int.com;www.oneplanetliving.com; www.greenglobe.org; www.naturalstep.org.uk

For more ideas on how to go green, see timesonline.co.uk/greenhouse

Offsetting the damage

Your new property may be awash with self-composting solar panels and turf-coated water-butts, but will all that environmental effort be wiped out by the impact of the flights you need to get there? Airline travel is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse emissions in the UK, and already accounts for between a third and a half of the average Briton’s discretionary carbon footprint. Not only does powering several thousand tons of aluminium, cargo and complimentary snacks through the air require huge quantities of fossil fuel, but the resulting carbon emissions are also deposited, unhelpfully, directly into the upper atmosphere.

One possible remedy is carbon offsetting. A number of companies will help you calculate the impact of your flight, then charge you a suitable fee to undo the ecological damage. So, either enough trees will be planted to absorb the pesky carbon dioxide, or your fee will be used to fund carbon-reducing endeavours around the world, ranging from providing low-energy cooking stoves in Indian villages to building wind farms in the USA. It seems the perfect guilt-free solution.

There are, however, some hitches. Many environmental groups oppose offsetting on principle, saying it’s a distraction from the need to change our behaviour — “Donating to the RSPCA so you can keep kicking your dog” is the favourite dismissal — and pointing out that when all those trees die, they’ll release their carbon again. Furthermore, the booming carbon-offsetting industry hasn’t always covered itself in glory.

Calculations of the carbon cost you need to pay vary wildly. If you have a property on the Côte d’Azur, for example, your return flight to Nice could be responsible for anything from 240kg carbon per person to 600kg, depending on which company’s website you visit — requiring you to pay from as little as £1.84 per person to offset the impact, or as much as £6.45.

The UK’s five leading offsetting firms produced five different estimates for this journey. The offsetters have also hit trouble over projects in the developing world, some of which have run into red tape, waste and confusion. In one particularly bleak example, a Norwegian firm tried to displace 13 villages in Uganda so it could plant a guilt-free forest.

If carefully and transparently managed, though, offsetting does garner rave reviews — the Climate Care Trust (www. climatecare.org) is probably Britain’s most respected operator, with supporters including the World Wildlife Fund and Jonathon Porritt’s Forum for the Future. Of course, these campaigners would still prefer it if you took the train — catching the Eurostar, then the TGV to Nice releases just 36kg of carbon per passenger — well within your luggage allowance.

Brian Schofield

I am not sure if this is the right website in relation to global warming which R Branson is strongly invovled in but here is my suggestion. The world is starting to show signs that are very worrying ie ice caps melting,freak weather and at this moment in time Australia suffering its worst drought.Would it not be possible to build desalination plants around all countries of the world, as they have in the middle east,this would surely serve two purposes help with rising water levels and help countries like Australia and Africa from suffering terrible droughts,it would help with farming in the future which is going to be a major problem in years to come.

George Lockwood, enfield middlesex, england

re: the article on green suites in the world, whether far or near, these that you write about seem to be for someone who is still demanding everything and will pay their way around the damage they may do to get their wish. if we live simply, sit, walk, have a garden, strech or do yoga, site your SMALL house to collect optimal passive solar rays in the winter. most of us know what to do. now it's showtime, and if we show well, i believe we'll feel good. isn't that a good start?? cheers bob

bobmackasey, halifax, canada

From The Times

June 1, 2007

Buying property in Natal, Brazil: Golf, beaches and plastic surgeons

British investors are slowly discovering a low-cost coastal paradise, finds Susan Emmett

THE things the British know about Brazil could probably fit on a piece of paper the size of Gisele Bündchen’s bikini – it is a country in South America where flip-flop-wearing people dance the samba, play football, burn down the Amazon rainforest and do unmentionable things with wax.

But beyond the clichés, property buyers are discovering that there are new opportunities in parts of Brazil that never make it on to the television news or the catwalk.

Take Natal in northeast Brazil, for example. Sunshine is guaranteed all year round, the cost of living is low and property prices are rising. It is the biggest city in Rio Grande do Norte, the part of Brazil that sticks out into the Atlantic and the closest point in South America to Europe. Those who have not heard of it yet soon will. Thanks to a huge marketing campaign by the Brazilian tourist board, the number of foreigners visiting Rio Grande do Norte grew by 130 per cent to 1.7 million in 2004. Thomson now flies direct to Natal from the UK and a new airport is due to be completed in 2009.

Yet, despite the boom in tourism, property is still cheap by European standards. You can buy a beach house for less than £60,000 and investors, such as Christine Lea, are pouring in.

“We knew that northeast Brazil had the best climate. We realised that British tour operators were going into the area, and when that happens property-seekers follow,” she says. “What we had not realised was that the Scandinavians have already bought huge chunks of land. They love the sun and the laid-back life. The Brits have not caught on very quickly.”

There is still plenty of beach on which to lay your towel. Brazil has a long coastline and some of the most spectacular beaches are in the northeast. Natal has been particularly blessed with Ponta Negra and Pipa. Ponta Negra, Natal’s beach hotspot, was little more than a fishing village until the 1990s when foreigners, mostly Portuguese and Italians, started investing in the area. Hotels, restaurants and shops opened as tourism flourished. The 4km (2½ mile) beach is framed by the Morro do Careca (Bald Man’s Hill), a landmark sand dune. The city itself is still relatively quiet. There are no skyscrapers, the atmosphere is relaxed and crime is low. The surrounding area is also a draw. Pipa, regarded as one of the best beaches in the country, is just a day trip away.

Christine and her husband Peter combined a holiday with a house-hunting trip last year.

They put in a lot of legwork to find their three-bedroom home in a village 45 minutes’ drive south of Natal. “We saw a lot of rubbish. Brazilian beach houses often look OK from outside, but inside they are made up of concrete beds and chairs. This is because the houses get damp and are often left for long periods,” she says. “If you wanted to do up a property, there is lots of potential to find something cheap.”

If you are buying from overseas, prices will be quoted in euros or dollars, and it is worth doing some research to make sure that you are not being overcharged. The cost of property can vary enormously.

Many of the houses for sale are being built in “condominiums” – gated communities where there is a service charge. Although you can end up paying more than for a stand-alone house, the property will be looked after while you are away and it might be easier to let out if you are looking for a rental income. Flats are also popular, and you could find one in Ponta Negra from €70,000 (£48,000).

The newest developments are springing up in the villages north of Natal where, until recently, land was cheaper and more abundant than towards the south, which is more developed. One of the biggest schemes is being built by the Spanish developer Grupo Nicolás Mateos at Lagoa do Coelho, a large lagoon about one hour’s drive north of Natal.

It is very early days and details are patchy, but there are plans for 30,000 homes, a marina, golf course, sports centre, spa, heliport, shopping centre and a plastic surgery clinic where ten surgeons will operate. The gargantuan project is being touted as the ultimate exclusive resort where wealthy Europeans and Americans will flock for a bit of nip and tuck.

The first phase is due for completion next summer and flats are on the market from €81,216 to €130,758. The developer claims that prices here are set to rise by up to 10 per cent a year. But you can buy property on the seafront for a third of the price.

At a far smaller new resort at Paraiso Farol, which is closer to Natal, three-bedroom villas start from €54,000. There are no plastic surgeons here, but the beach is stunning.

Surfing the internet will reveal several other developments aimed at the foreign buyer. But nothing can replace going to Brazil and catching those big Atlantic waves for real. Just remember to pack your flip-flops.

For the hottest locations to own an overseas holiday home, go to timesonline.co.uk/overseasproperty

BEACHGUIDE

To buy property in Brazil you need your passport and a tax identification number, known as the CPF, which you can obtain from the Brazilian Embassy.

Tourists can stay up to 180 days a year in Brazil. You need a permanent visa if you want to stay longer.

When you buy a property you must register it with the public notary. You also pay 3 per cent of the value of the property in tax. The notary’s fees vary but will be roughly 2 to 3 per cent of the property’s value.

Estate agents, known as “immobiliárias”, vary. See as many as possible. Some may specialise only in one type of property, such as off-plan new-builds. Sellers pay the fees.

Just Brazil is a UK-based buying agency (www.justbrazil.co.uk). Other useful websites include www.viviun.com and www.brazilestates.com.

From Times Online

February 23, 2007

A stake in Argentina

Flats designed by Norman Foster may lure investors to Buenos Aires

Jessie Hewitson

ARGENTINA is famous for cattle, Eva Perón, its red wine — and a series of devastating economic crises. Despite this financial instability, or perhaps because of it, the country offers many advantages to British property buyers. So is this really a sensible time to invest in Argentina?

One source of encouragement is its economic growth — up last year by an estimated 8.5 per cent. Another is that tourism is booming: according to Argentina’s La Nación newspaper, it has been practically impossible to beg, borrow or steal plane tickets to the capital recently. Economy fares to Buenos Aires are hard to come by, and the city’s five-star hotels are said to be running at 95 per cent occupancy. Last year, 3,000 new jobs were created by tourism and it is anticipated that 12 per cent of the workforce will be employed in the sector by 2010.

All of which should be good signs for the local property market. Alan Faena, a fashion designer-turned-hotelier-turned-property developer, would certainly hope so. He was responsible for regenerating Puerto Madero in east Buenos Aires, an area comparable with London’s Docklands. When he opened his luxurious boutique hotel, modestly called the Faena Hotel and Universe, there were only run-down warehouses and a deserted transport canal to be found there. Now, Hilton and Sofitel have opened hotels in the area; boutique shops and restaurants have followed.

It is in Puerto Madero that Faena launched his latest housing development, called El Aleph (“The A”). Designed by Norman Foster, the development will have 180 homes, starting at £146,000 for a one-bedroom flat, £305,000 for a two-bedroom flat and between £1 million and £3.5 million for a penthouse. El Aleph consists of two buildings overlooking the canal and park, and will include a pool, spa, restaurant, theatre, shops and a five-star hotel. The hotel will manage the rental of the flat, should you want to let it out.

It is, by some way, the most expensive development in Buenos Aires, a fact that Faena is quick to acknowledge. “With the apartments you are getting a respect for design and architecture,” he says. “That keeps prices up, though you will be getting a Foster apartment for a tenth of the price you would pay in London.”

Indeed, the relative strength of the pound is just one of Argentina’s many appealing factors. It would be difficult to spend more than £10 on a meal, for example. Similarly, a Faena flat has the finish you might expect of a million-pound City penthouse.

El Aleph is the fourth development undertaken by Faena in Puerto Madero. All have opulent interiors, with plenty of red and dark woods, harking back to Argentina’s belle époque, when it was one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Some Argentinians are doing very well for themselves today, with more local buyers able to afford the Faena price tag than you might assume: local buyers make up 60 per cent of sales, with the other 40 per cent including Britons, Americans and Spaniards.

One significant reason why Argentina will not suit all investors, however, is — inevitably — a question of finance: one side-effect of its recurrent economic problems is the extreme difficulty of getting a bank loan. “Argentina doesn’t understand mortgage debt,” confirms Andrew Langton, of Aylesford International in London, who is in charge of handling UK sales. “Everything tends to be cash, and purchases tend to be outright.”

LATIN AMERICAN HOT SPOTS

IF IT’S Latin American bargains you’re after, the best destination is Brazil, according to Charlie Prichard, of the property company Churchill Overseas. “Five years ago properties were five times the price they are now, but then there was a huge property crash,” he says. “Prices slumped by 65 per cent, almost overnight and they haven’t recovered. You can pick up a villa on the beach for £14,000.”

A particularly beautiful place to buy, he says, is Itamaracá, an island near Recife. “There are white sand beaches and it’s very undeveloped. Of course, everyone knows that Rio is something of a troublespot, but the northeast coast of Natal, from Recife to Fortaleza, is very attractive and you can pick up a good-quality property in a new development for as little as £20,000.”

James Price, head of Knight Frank’s international developments, says there is a growing appetite for Latin America as a whole, but particularly for Bahia in Brazil. He says: “Developers there are increasingly targeting European audiences. Argentina and Uruguay have established markets among European buyers but until now Brazil has lagged behind. We expect that will change dramatically in the next few years as the emerging market picks up momentum.”

Mary Gold