Where have all the children gone?

Into the Wild

“Go Play Outside, Nobody Else Is”, this article caught my eye in both TreeHugger  and Grist where it was titled, “Unhappy Campers”.  Both were about another study showing that kids are spending more time indoors and less time enjoying nature. The report is entitled, “Evidence for a fundamental and pervasive shift away from nature-based recreation”. What a surprise. My mother-in-law gave me a book called “The Geography of Childhood, Why Children Need Wild Places”.  In short, we all need wild places.  The thesis of this book further emphasises why the trend outlined by this study is so alarming.  The study abstract starts with this thesis statement, “After 50 years of steady increase, per capita visits to U.S. National Parks have declined since 1987.”  Have you gotten your quotient of wild places recently?

From the TreeHugger Article: “”Other research shows that the time children spend in nature — particularly the activities we looked at in this study — determines their environmental awareness as adults. We recently wrote a review paper looking at this phenomenon as well as at the effects of videophilia on childhood development. These effects are substantial and include obesity, attentional disorders, lack of socialization and poor academic performance.” (the authors coined the word videophilia in an earlier report.)”

Take Me to the River

We are often asked about the town of Juluchuca? What is the lifestyle of the locals? How do people live?  These questions, at their core, get to the issue of authenticity of place.  Will the guests at Playa Viva be visiting Mexico or an Americanized/Disney version of what Mexico should be?   Watch this short clip and tell us what you think….

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/668246]

Turtle Stats for January

Just got the report in from the volunteer team at the Tortuga Feliz.  The number of turtles released is slowing down in January with 11,428 turtles released.  Compared to last year, this is a reduction of close to 4,000 turtles, a significant drop. We will be watching to see if this persists and try determine the cause.  The good news is that 42 highly endangered baby Leatherback Turtles were released.

If you have not seen it yet. Please check out the video in the Multimedia section of our website about the Tortuga Feliz.

Turtle Dive

While visiting the site last week, we released over 500 turtles.  In January, the tide carries in lots of sand creating a sand bar about 50 meters out. So after releasing the turtles we went out to body surf in the waves. As we walked out, we found ourselves “swimming with the turtles” as they battled the waves to head out to see.  Here is a photo of a young  turtle taking his first swim along side me.

Promoting Community Development Efforts

GreenBang.com, a website that tracks the ‘explosion’ of environmental business and technology, liked Playa Viva’s efforts to promote organic farming methods so much that they posted our community development video. If you haven’t seen it, the video provides a first-hand account of organic farming education classes, the community supported agriculture program, and more conducted in the Juluchuca area.

Click over to GreenBang, watch the video, and leave a comment. Or click on the image below to watch it here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3tChq6ppZE&rel=1]

Record Number of Turtles Released in 2007

Mexican Version of a Barn Raising

The year-end report for the Turtle Sanctuary is in and the volunteers from Juluchuca released a total of 202,854 Golfina sea turtles in 2007. In addition, they released 375 of the highly endangered Leatherback sea turtles. SEMARNAT released a report (in Spanish) stating that 2007 was the year of the turtle as it released a record 50 million turtles last year. We congratulate the all volunteer team with their huge success and for being part of a record year for Mexico and for the sea turtle.

In what looked like the local version of a barn raising, La Tortuga Feliz team is expanding its operations in anticipation of even further growth in 2008.

Our Little Secret

Secret Garden 

We usually spend the “holidays” (Christmas and New Years) in Acapulco with family and rent out our place in Troncones.  While I’d rather be at the quite beaches of Troncones, visiting Acapulco has been a family tradition for as long as I’ve been a part of it.  This year, two of the condos in this building are for sale, has this place begun to lose its luster?

Part of my tradition in coming here is escaping for a run in the “cerito” (the little forest).  Behind my in-law’s condo on the beach is the “cerito” and therein lies a little sliver of heaven.  Heading out the front door of the complex, a few pedestrians and a handful of runners cross my path.  I’m not sure if I should tell about the little secret across the street and up the hill.  Should I let them continue to run down the street, pounding hard pavement and breathing the noxious fumes of the countless Volkswagen cabs and the belching exhaust of buses?  Or should I let them in on the secret?

What is this secret “cerito”? In fact it’s just a winding path up the hillside, a well tended gravel switchback trail, probably 1.5 miles to 2 miles up the hill, nestled in one of the few remaining patches of the trees in this concrete jungle.  This tiny patch of nature, in this vast expanse of concrete and pavement, high-rise condos, strip malls and tourist traps, is where I go to run.

As I ran the cerito today, I thought of the value this cerito has to those who know about it and use it and the value of having such an expanse of nature in your backyard.  I though of the vast expanse of nature that is Playa Viva and that all of Playa Viva is the inverse of this concrete jungle that surrounds this tiny patch of nature. What is the value of this cerito in calculating the value of the condos for sale in the building? Are the sellers even adding this place as an amenity?  Maybe, maybe not, for now, that’s our little secret to share.  Shhhhh!

Modern Tools for Sustainable Design

So how exactly do you go about designing an eco-resort on the beaches of Mexico? You start by using modern-day tools like AutoCAD design software. AutoDesk, the maker of AutoCAD, is helping to drive sustainable design awareness and adoption by highlighting current and future sustainability projects.

Recently, the AutoDesk Sustainability Center profiled Playa Viva and its architect Michel Lewis (pictured). In the articles, learn how Michel draws inspiration from 18th and 19th century architecture to solve modern day design challenges. His bioclimatic approach takes advantage of breeze and shadows to help keep beach houses cool and comfortable in the summer. Learn also how he’s using the gift of technology and inspiration from nature to change awareness through sustainable design.

The AutoDesk Sustainability Center article here.

Also, check out the 3-D computer simulation ‘walk around’ of a Playa Viva’s 2-bedroom casita in our Video Gallery created using AutoDesk software.

Good Vibrations

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Television, computer games, leaf blowers, loud generators inflating those gawdawful lawn decorations…

This holiday season, I’m reminded of how lovely it is to hear the sounds of nature. The simple calming music of streams, birds, waves. These are the vibrations I think of when I reflect on Playa Viva. The sounds of nature. The centering effect it has on my spirit.

It’s a part of what makes our environment so soothing. Always there, yet subtle. I believe it is the sounds of nature that finally take over my heart about the second day of my stay. I wasn’t completely aware of this until I was rushed along a busy city street, this week. The part of Playa Viva that hits you the minute you arrive. Calm. Relaxed.

I hope each of us finds some time this holiday week to quietly sit and listen to the sounds of nature.

Clean Oceans and Maintaining Local Lifestyles

I was just reading a post on the Zihautanejo Ixtapa Troncones Message Boards about a Report on how dirty the water in Zihuatanejo main bay has been for the last three months.  That is one reason I feel so much better about swimming in the ocean farther away from main population centers.  The water is cleaner. This means a healthier environmental for all including marine life and the fish we eat.  The long list of follow ups pointed to the source of the problem, pushing local politics to help solve the problem.

 Fresh Catch off the Beach at Playa Viva

I took this photo during our last visit. This young fellow is part of the community of Juluchuca and one of the volunteers in the turtle sanctuary. It is great to see young faces like his mixed in with the town elders participating in this activity.  But at the same time, the range is only young and old, the middle age group is missing, most of them have gone to the big cities or most likely to El Norte to seek work and economic opportunity. It is a trade off of quality of life vs. economic opportunity. When asked where most of his family lived, this young man answered with names of cities in the US. He then followed this by saying he would like to go north as well.

 Our challenge is to create economic opportunities here locally, to push for higher quality environmental standards and to help maintain the quality of life that makes living here so attractive…like heading out in the morning and catching lunch and dinner (and that it be clean of pollutants and toxins).

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