Friday, September 18, 2009

time to SPEAK-UP and do SOMETHING

Hotel Casa Caletas owner is Sylvester Feichtinger, president of Agropecuaria Caletas, this company is draining the wetlands of Caletas Ario National Wildlife Refuge, and this Leatherback and Olive Ridley Sea Turtles nesting site is at RISK.

In my last post, I wrote about Agropecuaria Caletas S.A., the fucks who continue to (ignoring a mandate) obliterate, annihilate, devastate and ‘drain’ the wetlands within the Caletas Ario National Wildlife Refuge, which was created to protect the olive ridley and leatherback sea turtles that nest there- Oh! and get this, ALL for the sake of planting a cornfield… a fuckin CORNFIELD. How SAD is that? Go to Pretoma's website for the full article.

But you know what’s VERY interesting?

The president of Agropecuaria Caletas S.A., is Sylvester Feichtinger who also owns a hotel on the Nicoya Peninsula called, Casa Caletas Hotel.

Okay, follow along, this is important:

Taken from the Casa Caletas and Tico Resorts website:
"Built in 1990, The Eco Lodge Hotel was the first lodge built in Latin America using an economic endowment from the World Bank. It was created as a pilot model for Latin America, and its mission was to preserve the environment and develop a true ecotourism program. To do this, among other things, Eco Lodge decided to keep 218 hectares of primary forest as a private reserve, becoming a pioneer in conservation and adventure sports in harmony with the ecosystem.
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Today, Eco Lodge is a well known company that created Tico Resorts in order to manage the Casa Caletas Boutique Hotel, Eco Lodge and Fuego del Sol Hotels."

As of this writing, it’s not totally clear what this guy, Sylvester Feichtinger really owns or doesn’t own. Maybe he owns all 3 hotels as well as their parent company- Tico Resorts, although the irony WOULDN’T and COULDN’T go unnoticed if he was the owner of Eco Lodge, (full name, Lake Coter Eco Lodge), with its mission being, ‘…to preserve the environment and develop a true ecotourism program’. We’ll SEE about that, but he does own Casa Caletas Hotel. And it’s a good as place to START as any.

WE NEED TO APPLY PRESSURE in order for Sylverster Feichtinger or Agropecuaria Caletas, Tico Resorts or whoever, to STOP doing what they’re doing within the Caletas Ario National Wildlife Refuge- namely draining the WETLANDS for a fuckin cornfield and make whatever it IS they’ve already destroyed in the refuge, RIGHT again.

It’s all about getting the word OUT, and with social networking being what it IS; this is doable, even if you don’t have a ton of time to dedicate to the CAUSE- create a FaceBook, or MySpace page or maybe more importantly, since Tico’s utilize it big time, a hi5 page in both Spanish and English. I know many of you are on TWITTER, re-TWEET the Pretoma article… or mine for that matter- that can definitely get the WORD out in a hurry. Linking to Pretoma is a good bet; not ONLY the problems in Caletas Ario Refuge- Pretoma has TONS of articles and INFO about many of problems concerning the marine life in Costa Rica- which is very educational as well.

Obviously I would ask you NOT to do business with the above hotels, mainly Casa Caletas Hotel. E-mail them and tell them WHY you would NEVER stay there or send them business. Maybe Fuego del Sol Hotel in Playa Hermosa isn't AWARE of the current situation, but contacting them through e-mail or phone just MAY bring it to their ATTENTION. You might mention their could be a perception of GUILT through association... just sayin.

E-mail KIDS, it doesn’t take much time or effort to ‘cut and paste’

…and YOU TRAVEL AGENTS on TWITTER, I KNOW you have some CLOUT with your thousands of FOLLOWERS.

To CONTACT Casa Caletas Hotel, Fuego del Sol Hotel, or Lake Coter Eco Lodge by internet you basically have to use the same email address: reservaciones@ticoresorts.com

Casa Caletas Hotel-TOLL FREE (USA & CANADA) 1- 800- 850 4592
Phone in Costa Rica: (506) 289-6060 Fax: (506) 288-0123

Hotel Fuego del Sol- TOLL FREE (USA & CANADA) 1-800-850-4532
Phones in Costa Rica : (506) 2289-6060 / Fax : (506) 2288-0123 / Hotel : 2643-7171

The LINK to Lake Coter Eco Lodge isn't working for me, sorry.

Okay, this is just an OVERVIEW, there will be MUCH more INFO, suggestions etc, in the upcoming weeks. This is just a START.

'Sea turtle's already have a tough BEGINNING, but at least they have a place to START... don't let it disappear.'

BE the CHANGE YOU want in the WORLD, the sea turtles will thank-you for it.

Hey Everyone, we got TONS of Costa Rica Travel Information in our Travel Guide at Travel Costa Rica NOW and don't FORGET all our Costa Rica Travel Tip Videos, completely ORGANIZED so you can EASILY find what you're LOOKING for. ENjOY!

4 comments:

Raven said...

Thanks for posting this, guys! I will get the word out as well. Not really surprised I haven't seen this in any local news, sad to say. Maybe we can hit the Tico Times or La Nacion to cover this story? This kind of shit really makes me sad and pissed off at the same time. I guess the courts figure the guy's bringing in money, and that's more important than wildlife, apparently.

Unknown said...

I've been talking with the folks at PRETOMA, they're working on a NEWS story with one of the channels here as we speak.Hopefully it will happen. This stuff just saddens me... but yeah, anything you could do. Follow the money.

Anonymous said...

OK people. Apparently you don't know Sylvester Feichtinger that well. He doesn't make that much money on the hotels he owns, or any of his farming land or the cattle that's on it, he dose in to employ people.

He stays in business to help the community he has built. He builds home for his workers free and even a store in the remote area his land is on. In other words he helps the people that lives in this area. He gives his land away free, would any of you do that? The corn is for the people to make money on, not him along with the cattle.

Sylvester owns Sylvesters winery of California. That's where his money comes from, not from his businesses in Costa Rica. As a matter of fact, I he's his in the whole when it comes to doing business here in Costa Rica.

One things for sure, he's is the pillar of the community and dose nothing but good for the people who live in it.

I wouldn't worry to much about this because Sylvester has to be in his 90's and won't be on the face of the earth much longer.

Love him or hate him? he has a good heart when it comes to taking care of his people.

Unknown said...

Yo Anonymous, Sounds like a great guy, truly. But maybe you could address the issue at hand.