In case you missed it! Fares can be found as low as $149.00!
“Ethical Traveler’s new report, “The World’s Best Ethical Destinations,” identifies the 10 countries in the developing world that are best protecting their natural environments, promoting responsible travel, and building a tourism industry which provides real benefits to local communities. “There’s no doubt that worldwide interest in mindful, responsible travel is growing – not only among travelers, but within the countries that host us,” says Jeff Greenwald, executive director of Ethical Traveler and co-author of the report. “Now is the perfect time for savvy travelers and well-intentioned governments to evolve together, each encouraging the other. This is especially true in the developing world, where travel and tourism can be developed as lucrative, low-impact alternatives to forestry, mining, and the destruction of ocean habitats.” In alphabetical order, the best ethical travel destinations for 2010 are:
“In drafting our report, we use scores of information sources — including publicly available data — to rate each country’s genuine commitment to environmental protection, social welfare and human rights,” says Christy Hoover, co-author of the report. “Data sources include the United Nations Development Program, Human Rights Watch, Columbia University, Reporters Without Borders, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and many others. Private interviews with NGO leaders are part of the process, as well.” The full report can be viewed at http://www.ethicaltraveler.org/destinations Ethical Traveler is an international alliance of travelers who believe that travel is a powerful tool for international goodwill and cultural understanding. The group seeks to harness the political and economic clout of tourism to support human rights and the environment. Ethical Traveler is a project of the Earth Island Institute. For more information, please visit http://www.ethicaltraveler.org . Note to Editors: Stunning high-resolution photos and follow-up interviews available upon request. Media Hotline: Michael McColl +1 510 451 0267 This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com. SOURCE Ethical Traveler © 2009 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved”
Anerican Airlines is holding a flight sale to Belize. Pick up flights from major hubs like Miami and New York from just $149USD.
http://www.aa.com/netsaaver/viewNetSAAverSpecialsDetails.do?fN=LatinSale.xml&locale=en_US
What a perfect time to come to Caye Caulker!
After a break during the slow season, Red Mangrove will reopen with all our popular tours on offer. We are a small family run company and sometimes run with a skeleton staff, so if you find the office closed after this date, please just check back with us later in the day. We may be on a tour! You are also welcome to email us in advance, but please be aware that it may take us 48 hours to get back to you. Thanks for your custom!
From next month (July 2009) you can fly to Belize City directly from our three neighbouring countries! There will be two daily flights to/from Cancun, and one each to/from Guatemala City and San Pedro Sula. This is such welcome news as it makes Belize so much more accessible. It also promises cheaper flights to get here, and hopefully makes it easier for Europeans and other non-Americans, who will no longer need to travel through the USA. There are so many cheap flights available to Cancun from Europe. Now you can take advantage of them and instead come to beautiful Belize! Let’s just hope the airline can weather the current economy, and make this the success it deserves to be!
Here’s the schedule:
Cancun (Mexico) to Belize City (45 Mins) US$199 -Remember Mexico is an hour ahead of Belize
9am – 8.45am
5.50pm – 5.35pm
Belize City to Cancun (Mexico) (45 Mins) $US199 -Remember Mexico is an hour ahead of Belize
9.30am – 11.15am
6.50pm – 8.35pm
Hugely unfortunate that European travellers still can’t reach the islands in one day, you’ll have to stay in Cancun / Playa del Carmen, or Belize City, but you can fly straight through on the way home, and you no longer have to go through US Immigration to reach us by air!
Guatemala City to Belize City (50 Mins) $US199
5.15pm – 6.05pm
Belize City to Guatemala City (50 Mins) $US199
9.30am – 10.20am
San Pedro Sula (Honduras) to Belize City (40 mins) US$199
8.05am – 8.45am
Belize City to San Pedro Sula (Honduras) (40 mins) US$199
6.20pm – 7pm
(Nadine Pedoe)
There were no tsunami waves caused by this earthquake at all, despite some panic that there may be. The warning was taken off after about half an hour, but many people didn’t know it had been, so the panic continued. There is very little (but still some) risk of a tsunami from this fault. Other active faults are further from Belize.
The word ‘tsunami’ is Japanese. The English word for them used to be “tidal waves” but this is inaccurate as they have nothing to do with tides. There are very few languages with their own word for them because they are rare in most of the world. They are caused by undersea volcanoes, earthquakes and landslides and are still quite poorly understood by scientists. This is partly because they don’t happen often and also because there is no warning that they are about to happen, except for an earthquake which also can’t be predicted with any accuracy. Around 80% of them occur in the Pacific Ocean, triggered by the earthquakes and volcanoes around the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’ – see last post. Japan is the most advanced country in their research as tsunamis hit their coastline every year.
Due to the devastating tsunami in Asia on 26th December 2004, the word ‘tsunami’ now strikes terror in the minds of most of us. Before this time, most people had little knowledge of what a tsunami was. However the conditions of a tsunami’s formation need to be (more…)
(Nadine Pedoe)
On 28th May 2009, Central America was rocked by a strong earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, which has luckily caused far less damage and fewer fatalities than it may have done. Earthquakes affecting Belize are extremely rare, so it has caused a lot of panic. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning in the immediate aftermath of the quake, causing further panic amongst island and coastal dwellers. Hopefully understanding some of the science behind it can relieve some of those fears.
Why did it happen and is it likely to happen again?
Earthquakes and volcanoes are caused by movements of massive plates that make up the crust of the earth. All the land and ocean rests on one or other of these plates, which form a kind of jigsaw pattern around the earth. The plates move very slowly in relation to each other, just a few inches a year, caused by heat cells in the liquid mantle (made of magma) below them. Where these plates meet is known as a plate boundary, of which there are four different kinds.
Three of the kinds of plate boundary (from Wikipedia)
Constructive plate boundary (or divergent)
The plates move apart (more…)
To say thank you to anyone that signs up a fan on our Facebook page, we’ll give you a discount on your snorkel tour. The amount of the discount depends on the tour. Pass on the news to your friends. And yes we’ll be checking for genuine fans!
Red Mangrove Eco Adventures, Caye Caulker, Belize’s Facebook Page
(Nadine Pedoe)
Here’s all you need to know to reach Caye Caulker from your country.
Firstly you need to get to the country of Belize:
From the USA, you have a choice of airlines, flying from their respective hubs to Belize City (BZE), and connections to your home city.
Continental fly to Belize from Houston (IAH) two or three times a day. They also have some flights from Newark (EWR)
American Airlines fly from Dallas (DFW) and Miami (MIA)
Delta fly from their hub in Atlanta (ATL)
US Airways fly from their hub in Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT)
You can also bus or drive down from the USA through Mexico. It’ll take you about three days. Bus services in Mexico are (more…)
Not one single case. Over 40 people were tested, and they all came back negative. Most people are now aware that the western media caused a pandemic of fear, but now reports are coming out of Mexico that even the cases there were extremely exaggerated. It’s well known that their economy is suffering from the lack of tourists. Same thing in Belize and we never had a single case. Whether it was false information spread by panic merchants in the first place or the swift reaction of the Belize emergency team, who immediately educated the public on how to avoid infection, closed down some public meetings, and monitored the border with Mexico and the flights from the US, the fact is there have been no cases.
Because of the panic, there has been a drastic drop in tourist numbers, which is obviously affecting people’s livelihoods. Most people’s income comes from tourism.
But this is good news for individual tourists. There has probably never been a better time to come to Belize. The flight fares are very low – we’ve found $298 plus taxes, there may even be better. The hotels have slashed their prices too. The weather is hot and sunny as it usually is at this time of year. While you won’t quite have the place to yourself, you certainly will find it quieter than usual.
Tourists are starting to come back so these low prices may not last for long!
