CNN's VIDEO on Rancho Margot - Worth a L@@K

Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN recently did a story on Juan Sostheim owner of Rancho Margot.
Juan Sostheim (pictured above), is founder and owner of Costa Rica’s first carbon-negative company, a sustainable farm and eco-resort, Rancho Margot. Rancho Margot is about 40 minutes from La Fortuna, Costa Rica. *The above pic of Juan was done by CNN, I hope they don't mind me borrowing it.

I wrote a post back in June about Dr. Sanjay Gupta doing a piece on Rancho Margot and its owner, Juan Sostheim. We coincidentally happened to be doing some video shooting at Rancho Margot the same day Sanjay was there.

Actually, I'm going to quit writing now because the CNN video on Rancho Margot speaks for itself. It's very nicely done and definitely worth 6 minutes of your time, especially if you're into ALL things sustainable. Our video on Rancho Margot is also below but keep in mind, we were actually video-taping a Cooking Class on that day and just decided we would do a quick overview of Rancho Margot. So, next to CNN, ours is pretty weak. Oh well. ENjoY!

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Arenal Oasis Eco Lodge in La Fortuna VIDEO

Arenal Oasis Eco Lodge is located about 2 miles from the center of La Fortuna Costa Rica.
Arenal Oasis is a GREAT option when you love nature and don't care about having a flat screen in your room. It's got 7 'rustic-style 'cabinas' with comfy beds and a nice option for people who want to experience 'true' Costa Rica.

Here's a few shots of Arenal Oasis Eco Lodge:

Cute little cabina at Arenal Oasis Eco Lodge.
We Love rustic but we also LOVE a good bed. lol
Arenal Oasis Eco Lodge- snakes INCLUDED.
There's many species of birds and animals on the property and a mini-refuge as well, complete with hiking trails, butterfly garden, red-eyed tree frog habitat and terrariums along the hiking trail various types of snakes, spiders, frogs and lizards. *They mentioned they might take the terrariums down and release the animals into the refuge itself. YIKES, even the snakes?

Arenal Oasis also offers night hikes every night. This is a tour, so you don't have to stay in the hotel to go on the night hike.

Check out our video on Arenal Oasis Eco Lodge-


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La Fortuna- Danaus Eco Reserve

Danaus Eco Center is a couple miles outside of La Fortuna, Costa Rica.
Technically it's called, Ecocentro Danaus, but for us gringos it's also known as, Danaus Eco Reserve. It's located only a couple miles east of La Fortuna Costa Rica.

Initially, Danaus was going to be a butterfly garden, but one thing led to another, and Danaus quickly became a small oasis smack dab in the middle of pasture and cattle land... really, Danaus is surrounded by cows. Before La Fortuna became a popular tourist destination due to the Arenal Volcano, it was just like many parts of Costa Rica, a lush forest, but with deforestation, the entire area became farm land. Danaus created a small reserve in order for the wildlife to have a place to call home.

We did this video because we love helping out the 'little guy', the people trying to give back, and aren't always the most publicized places to go in the tour books.

We think Ecocentro Danaus is worth a look. Especially if you got an hour or two to spare before going on your next adventure.

CHECK it out- Ecocentro Danaus



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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.
.
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!

They're HOT in La Fortuna Costa Rica

If you live in Costa Rica, you already know they LOVE their boxes. Just about any food or drink product here has the potential to come in one of these 8” x 4” (approximate) boxes- wines, milk, every juice imaginable and a thousand other things.

We were at the annual Travel Expo in San José last year, but hanging out in the ‘Verde’ section, which is a part of the Expo set aside for everything and anything organic, self-sustainable, ‘Green’ and/or Eco-friendly. Needless to say- our kind of section- as our ‘Green-NessNess’ is well documented.

We came across something very ‘generic’ but simple and cool. We want to share.

Martha Stewart has nothing to worry about.

Check-out this whole new way to ‘Think outside the Box.’




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Costa Rica- SLOW DOWN

I’m fairly certain I have no right to bitch (don’t think bitch is the right word here) as I’ve only been in the country a little over 3 years; which really only makes me a ‘guest with a few benefits,’ but, am I the only one that can read the writing on the wall?

How do you stop a toddler from running senselessly onto a busy street?

I don’t really recall how I felt when I realized my tiny little legs could take me to all kinds of interesting places, but I’m sure it provided a false sense of cocky self-confidence in my tiny toddler brain to believe the other side of the road looked so much sweeter than the side I was on. And when I learned running could get me across the street quicker, well, that’s probably the time my mom decided I needed to be a Ritalin (if ONLY a pill WERE the answer). It took me exactly 27 years and 14 days to realize my mom was on to something (not about the Ritalin- about looking both ways before crossing the street).

Costa Rica’s running out onto a busy street and appears oblivious to the oncoming traffic. Hell, they’re not even using the crosswalk. I know we chatted about this. I distinctly remember sitting down after ‘Latin Idol’ and discussing the importance of looking both ways before crossing the street. Although, now that I think about it, as I was pontificating over the possible consequences of crossing the street without looking both ways, I recall the silent, yet defiant face peering back at me- Costa Rica didn’t say a word. I believe I looked at my mom much the same way, thinking, “Yeah, easy for you to say, you’ve been to the other side of the street, hell, you lived there for awhile and now you’re lecturing me….the arrogance, the hypocrisy.” ‘Hell’, ‘arrogance’ and ‘hypocrisy’ were used solely for dramatic effect.

So yeah, I understand Costa Rica’s thinking. I ‘GET IT.’ The 'other side' appears sweeter- and they want their lick. Can you say, "Pavlov's Dog?" But what don’t they get? Can’t they see the future consequences, or are they akin to a 17-year olds way of thinking – that somehow they’re the exception to the rules, that miraculously, things will work out differently and they’ll arrive at the other side unscathed?

Let Jacó, Manuel Antonio, Tamarindo (to name a few) be the Daytona Beach-like places they were obviously destined to be- they’ve crossed the street and they’re not coming back… nor do I expect they want too. But please, for the sake of everything PUrA ViDa, slow the f*** down. The reason people come here (mostly) is for the biodiversity of things, the nature, the charm, the Pura Vida- the opposite of everything that’s wrong with the ‘more is better attitude’ of every major tourist destination in the States—New FLASH—we already have a Daytona Beach. Let the likes of Jacó and Tamarindo fore fill the needs of the fat ass tourist who cares more about their tan lines than the fate of Monteverde’s Golden Toad.

Like a mother hopes for a child, I also hold out hope for Costa Rica, so please learn ‘sooner’ rather than ‘later,’ don’t let the consequences be so bad that the results are irreversible. Listen to your mother, she was right all along- ‘outside influences’ DON’T have your best interest at heart and money isn’t everything, and of course, look both ways before crossing the street.

The writing on the Costa Rican wall is a bit out of focus, but it appears as if it’s beginning to say ‘FOR SALE.’

Costa Rica is old enough to know better, and has had plenty of examples over the years to learn from, and I KNOW without a doubt, they at LEAST see the writing on the wall. So….

…forget the lectures, forget the Ritalin, maybe what Costa Rica needs is a trip to the obligatory woodshed.

*This little rant was brought on by a 3-day excursion to Manuel Antonio. This Blog is personal; the video below is for the fat ass tourist. I realize my hypocrisy.




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