Oh, the Places We'll Go

Zanzibar’s white sand beaches and turquoise waters – this place is as cool as it sounds.

The white-sand beachs of Zanzibar's east coast

Ted wants to learn how to kite surf...in Zanzibar

Slideshow #2 of our Best Of albums, this time from our amazing month in Peru.  Enjoy the pics!

In addition to having an incredible time on our Botswana safari, I was also blown away by the responsible tourism practices of our local hosts – Wilderness Safaris.   For my latest contribution to World Nomads’ Blog, I gave them some love.  Check out the original here, or copied below.

The Second Government of Botswana – Wilderness Safaris

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how difficult it is to run a responsible safari camp in the remote Southern African bush, and the individual efforts of a few independent lodges.  Now, I want to show you how one large safari company is positively changing the landscape across the entire region through their model of “sustainable conservation through responsible tourism.”

Botswana is home to some of the best safari camps (and wildlife viewing) on the planet.  Famed for the Okavango Delta and the elephant-filled Chobe National Park, Botswana is a top destination on any safari-buff’s bucket list.  And no company knows more about running successful  camps in Botswana than Wilderness Safaris.  Started 25 years ago by a couple of rangers and a single Land Cruiser, Wilderness has grown to operate 60+ camps across southern Africa, with over 25 in Botswana alone.  The company’s active role in politics, conservation, tourism, and community development has earned them the nickname, the Second Government of Botswana.  The company’s commitment to sustainability has earned them the reputation of a world leader in responsible tourism.

“Wildness Safaris is first and foremost a conservation organization.  The reason we exist is to protect pristine wilderness areas and the biodiversity they support.”  Not too many for-profit companies have conservation as their core mandate.  Wilderness’ sustainability focus goes well beyond the environment – their commitment to the people and communities in their areas of operation has brought about unparalleled opportunity, education, skills, and jobs, with the vision of making “a difference in all people’s lives, by enabling them to find new paths, and leaving a legacy of conservation for our children.”

Children in the Wilderness

Ok, so we’ve established that the company is committed in their mission and vision.  But what are they actually doing on the ground in Botswana?  Too much to tell in this single post.  I’m going to completely ignore the operational sustainability aspect of their lodge and camp operation (responsible management of waste, energy, water, etc), as I covered some of those initiatives in my previous post.  Here, we’ll focus on the conservation and community initiatives of the company’s non-profit arm, the Wildlife Trust.

Wilderness Safaris Wildlife Trust currently supports 43 projects across 6 Southern African countries.  The projects fall into one of three project areas: Research and conservation, community empowerment and education, and anti-poaching and management.  A few project examples:

· Botswana Rhino Relocation and Reintroduction Project – Due to poaching, rhinos were all but extinct in Botswana until the Trust, in conjunction with Botswana’s Wildlife and National Parks Department, began an anti-poaching and relocation project to bring rhino numbers back up in the region.  In addition to relocating animals, researchers closely monitor the rhinos, their adaptation to the new environments, and their breeding patterns.  Similar reintroduction projects are also being carried out by the Trust in Zimbabwe and Malawi.

· Children in the Wilderness – Wilderness Safaris’ flagship community education program brings groups of rural kids from surrounding villages to Wilderness camps (which have been closed to the public) for a 5-night stay, where they participate in a life skills and environmental education program.  Topics include wildlife, conservation, health, HIV/AIDS awareness, nutrition, life skills, geology, and arts and crafts.  Through leadership development, Children in the Wilderness aims to facilitate sustainable conservation throughout the local communities.  Over 3000 children have participated to date.

· Victoria Falls Anti-Poaching Unit – This team of individuals has been fighting poachers in the Vic Falls region for over 10 years.  Still a rampant problem in the area, the crew fights back though removal of animal snares (devices used to catch animals), treatment of animals injured by snares, and through direct arrest of poachers (436 were apprehended in 2009 alone) within the region.

And there are some 40 other projects funded, monitored, or executed by the Wildlife Trust.  The scope of positive impact is astounding, and these efforts are funded almost entirely by Wilderness Safaris and their guests.

With over 2500 employees, over 2.8 million hectares of wilderness under their watch, over 40 Trust projects operating simultaneously, all while running over 60 safari camps and a bush airline, Wilderness Safaris’ infrastructure may just rival that of a small country.  It’s a good thing that this “country’s” people are putting conservation at the heart of their economy.

Speaking of safety and security issues, this is a technology highly utilized in the South African market – wireless credit card machines.  Why?  Because you shouldn’t let your credit card out of your sight in this country – it’s a well-known scam to steal your info while the card is being processed.  Sucks to have to worry about issues like this…

Wireless Credit Card Machine

South Africa is an amazingly beautiful country. The diversity of landscapes, cultures, animals, and cities is world-class, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time down there. Based purely on its tourist merits, South Africa might just be one of the world’s top destinations. But South Africa also has a very dark cloud over its head, one that is omnipresent, and one that will take many years to clear.

South Africa’s cloud is safety and security, rooted in their post-apartheid recovery. Bottom line – a lot of bad stuff happens there, and it happens all the time. Don’t get me wrong – one can travel safely and comfortably very easily (otherwise, I wouldn’t have invited our parents over to visit!). We made it all over the country, including a week stint in its most dangerous city, with no issues whatsoever. But, you gotta be smart about how you travel here, and you gotta be even smarter about how you live here.

South Africans live behind walls, security systems, electric fences, and razor wire. In the cities, nearly all middle class communities are gated and guarded, and almost everyone has been (or knows someone who has been) robbed, assaulted, or car-jacked – likely multiple times. At night, you don’t walk anywhere that isn’t within a guarded area. In some places, it’s totally acceptable to run red lights, if you feel your safety is in question. At first, I was appalled to hear that people live in such circumstances, but South Africans look at it as an everyday challenge that needs to be dealt with. And to their credit, they’ve created a very comfortable and modern lifestyle that avoids these threats. Thriving JoBurg suburbs like Sandton have beautiful malls with enclosed courtyards and parks that people flock to for social gatherings. Housing neighborhoods feel like ones at home, just with big walls surrounding them. A security industry that must lead the country’s economy ensures that your office, home, school, car, etc are looked after while you’re out. In short, South Africans have figured out how to live well in a dangerous place.

Police vehicle in downtown JoBurg - used for regular patrol

In reality, most of the country is not very dangerous at all – it’s mainly the big cities. Living and traveling safely here is simply a matter of being a bit more vigilant in your actions and precautions. We found ourselves being particularly conscious of leaving nothing visible in our cars, planning our routes around safe areas, avoiding walking at night (in most places), and minimizing the valuables we had on us at any point in time. The result – no problems, and a killer visit to this amazing country.

South Africa, despite its challenges, is an fabulous place that we highly recommend you check out. From the incredible game of Kruger National Park, to the flat-topped Drakensburg Mountains, to the wetlands of St. Lucia, to the beaches of the Wild and Garden Coasts, to the vibrancy of Cape Town, and more – this country has it all. It may be years before the dark cloud of Apartheid finally disappears, but in the meantime, do what the South Africans do: work around the security challenges – the rewards are well worth the effort.

Ok, so apartheid didn’t end yesterday, but it ended in 1994, less than one generation ago, and that is damn recent. Without a doubt, the country has come a long way in those 17 years, thanks to the amazing work of leaders like Nelson Mandela, but the deep wounds created by those years of hate and segregation are far from healed. You can still feel the racial tension in the air – not everywhere, and not all the time, but there is an undertone of animosity.

To our surprise, the anger, mistrust, and hate is not just a black-white problem. Within the white population, people of British decent and the Afrikaners of Dutch decent are fond of jabbing at one another, sometimes playfully, and other times not. Within the black population, there is inter-tribe tension, as well as serious xenophobia against immigrants from other African nations. But certainly the biggest scar was cut by the black-white laws of apartheid.

Police riot vehicle from apartheid era - Apartheid Museum

A number of white South Africans I spoke with think their country is going downhill, fast. Some of the more racist whites flat out blame the black population, but the more educated ones just realize that it’s crime and government corruption fueling the problems they cite. Many whites are unsure of their future in their home country, and have back-up plans to move to Australia, the UK, or somewhere else.

From the perspective of a traveler, most of this tension is below the radar. Only after spending a month there and asking uncomfortable questions of locals was I able to draw out the picture I have laid out above. Having dug into this territory though, I found myself wanting to be recognized as an outsider – a rather ironic position to be in. See, for the first time since we left, I didn’t feel like a tourist that stuck out every where we went. While not always a bad thing to be the tourist that sticks out in Latin America, I generally do what I can to keep a low profile. But in South Africa, I looked just like every other white South African. At first, I thought it would be nice to blend in finally, but after a short while, I wished that I had a big sign on me that said “touro”. Not because I wanted to stick out as a good target for pick-pocketing, but because I wanted to separate myself from the group of people that most black South Africans still hold bitter feelings towards – the white population. I wanted to say, “Listen, I was not one of the people oppressing you during apartheid, I’m just a visitor that wants to see your beautiful country.”

Apartheid Museum - Johannesburg

Unfortunately, there are still many problems that are intertwined with the apartheid recovery process, namely crime and security (another post in itself). Fortunately, things are improving rather quickly, and a lot of progress has been made in a relatively short period of time. If we look in the mirror, we’re hardly ones to lecture – 50 years beyond the Civil Rights Movement in the US and nearly 150 years since slavery was abolished, and we’re still battling with race issues today.

All things considered, South Africa has made some impressive strides forward in an uphill battle, one that they are committed to overcoming. The good news is, as a tourist to the country, you are helping them to fight this battle (the tourism industry is crucial to their continued economic development), and you likely won’t feel more than hint of the underlying tensions.

Tofo Beach, Mozambique

Tofo Beach

Hot water heater in Mozambique.  Though this was our first, we’ve since encountered a lot of wood-fire hot water heaters.  Not exactly what you’d call sustainable…

Another African submission to World Nomads’ Responsible Travel Blog.  The topic this week surrounds eco-initiatives at safari bush camps.  If you’re interested, read on here, or below:

Eco-Successes in the African Bush

Running a safari camp can’t be easy.  In fact, it may be just about the most difficult hospitality gig on the planet.  In addition to all of the nuances of running any old high-quality hotel, you have to do it off-the-grid, in a very remote and hard-to-access location, within a wildlife reserve or park, with highly specialized on-site staff, while running a successful game-drive business that ensures guests see all of the Big 5 animals and more.

Big 5 sighting - Cape Buffalo

Balancing a sustainable tourism plan in this already difficult operating environment can be a tall order for any camp owner.  Some argue that there simply is not enough time (or money) to implement sustainability projects under such demanding circumstances.  Fortunately, many others have taken the opposite approach, believing that operating responsibly is a necessity for survival in the safari business.  After all, visits to the bush are all about viewing animals in their natural environment – shouldn’t a safari camp’s goal be to protect that very environment?

Thanks to the many challenges of running a safari operation, camp owners have been forced to develop some of the leading eco-innovation and efficiency techniques found in the tourism industry today.  Here are some projects that impressed me in the bush:

· Energy – Remote bush camps have two options when it comes to electricity – diesel generators or renewables.  Both systems are used to power battery units to provide power during off-peak times.  While most camps have historically used diesel fuel, those that have switched to renewables are reaping the benefits – reduced energy costs over time, no expensive diesel delivery costs, no noise pollution in the bush, no fuel-burning pollution in the bush, etc.  Solar is the new diesel, both through solar electricity and solar thermal devices.  Cutting edge camps have cut their operational diesel burn to nearly zero, using the old generators only for back-up during maintenance.

· Solid Waste – With no routine trash pick-up (some camps only have vehicle access for less than 3 months a year!), storing waste and recycling can prove to be a challenge.  Add to that the hungry and aggressive animals in these regions, and you have a waste management problem on your hands.  Composting has become a big trend, eliminating over 50% of solid waste volume. Compost pits, however, must be heavily secured and closely monitored – hyenas in particular love to dig their way in.  Recycling is separated at some of the more eco-focused camps, but most parts of Africa lack a location for processing these materials.  Material re-use is woven into every aspect of operations, from food-prep, to housekeeping, to camp decoration.  Leading camps have developed systems for eliminating packaging and excess materials prior to camp delivery, reducing the load on the back end.  Remaining waste is stored in secure cages until it can be transported back to town.

· Water Waste – Water is a precious commodity in the often arid desert environments. Watersheds are very susceptible to disease and pollution, so it is imperative that camp water is properly treated before being released back into the ground.  Old-school septic tanks are rapidly being replaced with cutting-edge bio-digester units that use natural bacteria instead of harsh chemicals to treat waste water.

Waste water treatment facility in the bush

Any single initiative listed here wouldn’t constitute a news-worthy sustainability effort.  However, when these projects are combined in a single property, and these properties are dotted across much of the African bush, we’ve got some pretty impressive and wide-spread eco-innovation.  To me, there’s something darn cool about a lodge that sources, uses, and disposes of all of its own energy, water, and most of its waste in a responsible manner.  Regardless of whether the motivation is out of operational necessity or environmental consciousness, I call these off-the-grid camps an eco-success.

Ok, so it’s been a while since we’ve left the South American continent, but here are some interesting numbers to tell the story of our time there.

• 4 – Months we spent in South America
• 68 – Number of beds we slept in
• 5 – Countries Visited

• 12 – Number of friends and family visited (Two of them in two different locations!)
• 24 – Number of deeply discounted or comp’d hotel nights through Ted’s tourism connections
• $6460 – Value of comp’d tourism industry activities through Ted’s tourism connections
• 6 – Number of overnight buses (2 in Bolivia, 4 in Argentina)
• 182.5 – Number of hours on a bus (that’s 7.6 full days on a bus)
• 1 – Number of computers stolen
• 2783 – Number of photos taken (and kept)
• 7 – Number of flights
• 1 – Number of big ships

South America well exceeded our expectations, and we’re on the hunt for ways we can get back for an extended period of time down the road.  Check out our Best Of pics from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile for some highlights.