The News / Mexico City, December 20, 1998.
There's Still Hope for 'Green' Travelers in Latin America
By Ron Mader
Special To The News
Mainstream media usually gives Latin America a
raw deal. News articles zero in on violent crime,
political uprisings and natural disasters, while
tourism features tour escapism from cruise ship
extravaganzas to Fantasy Island-wannabes.
Rarely are environmental issues discussed, let alone
ecotourism initiatives.
However, this situation is improving. Case in point
is the publication of "Green Dreams," (Oakland:
Lonely Planet, 1998, 278 pages, 13 dollars) by
Stephen Benz.
This new volume in Lonely Planet's Journeys series
provides narratives from the author's travels in the
Amazon, Chiapas, Honduras' Mosquitia, Guatemala
and Honduras. Despite the chapters about his
adventures in South America and Mexico, the book
is unwittingly subtitled, "Travels in Central
America."
The chapters are arranged chronologically, detailing
the authors first forays into "ecotourism" by
traveling to Iquitos, Peru's port on the great
Amazon River. He has been told he can survive as a
stringer if he writes unusual travel pieces.
"Not much money, but a quick and easy by-line, and
it paid enough cash to keep you going for a spell
without having to resort to the even older stand-by
of giving English lessons," he explains in the
opening chapter.
A year later he headed to Honduras, another
political hot spot, in search of journalistic
opportunities. But instead of covering the war, he
finds himself wanting to explore the country's
wilderness.
"Here it was, the object of my quest, the Rio
Platano. I should have felt exhilarated, but in fact, I
felt vaguely disappointed; I had no idea why,
exhaustion perhaps," he writes, adding, "Or perhaps
the biosphere had become in my mind something so
fantastic, a place so sublime that reality was bound
to seem anticlimactic."
Benz's observations are candid and thoughtful. He
recounts other adventures in Costa Rica, and a
trilogy of chapters about the "Mundo Maya" - a
megaproject tourism scam that exploits the
indigenous peoples.
On his journeys - seemingly random in choice - he
meets up with an incredible cast of characters
perfectly detailed and familiar to anyone who has
spent time traveling in Latin America. Here are his
meetings with journalists with fat travel expenses,
government lackeys, ugly tourists, and daredevil bus
drivers.
His epilogue recounts some of his adventures on the
Internet, trying to touch base and keep track of
places he grew to love, if not on his first journey,
then in memory.
Thanks to the author's candor, "Green Dreams"
redefines the travel narrative and paints a realistic
picture of what green travelers can expect south of
the U.S. border.
Ron Mader is the author of the new guidebook
Mexico: Adventures in Nature and the host of the
Eco Travels in Latin America website
(http://www.planeta.com)
-- Green Building Professionals Directory: http://www.greenbuilder.com/directory/Calendar: http://www.greenbuilder.com/calendar/
Bookstore: http://www.greenbuilder.com/bookstore
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