The intimate nature of small group travel strikes the perfect balance between structured guidance and personal freedom, allowing you to experience Costa Rica's wonders while connecting with like-minded adventurers. You'll gain access to local insights that guidebooks miss, share transportation costs, and enjoy the camaraderie of others who appreciate the same natural wonders you do.
Financial strangulation, as he put it, is the latest weapon in the government's escalating effort to clear the way for expanded mining and oil development in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. Months earlier, officials had temporarily frozen the accounts of several of Ecuador's most prominent environmental defenders, including Tapia, citing investigations into unjust private enrichment and financing terrorism.
The 12-cabin cruiser Pure Amazon is Abercrombie & Kent's first voyage on these waters and is part of the brand's Sanctuary collection, which will also include the soon-to-launch riverboat After 25 years in Peru, the company is setting out to not just join a tradition but redefine smart river travel with design-led interiors that evoke a boutique hotel and with five-course dinners paired with Peruvian small-batch wines.
According to color psychology, this soothing shade helps decrease stress and improve focus-and travelers can reap these much-deserved benefits in lush landscapes around the world. Here are 10 of the greenest places on earth, which combine serenity with unforgettable adventures.
The idea that hiking trails are a tool for conservation is based on a simple premise: people protect what they know. That requires making conservation areas accessible. There's no point telling people you only protect what you know, if you don't give them the tools to know. The trail is this tool. People who hike, people who camp, these people often become defenders of the environment.
But Zia is one of an estimated 85,000 to 100,000 Muslims in Colombia, comprising less than 0.2 percent of the country's population. Within that community, though, is a prism of diverse backgrounds and experiences. Some of Colombia's Muslims reflect a rich history of migration to the region. Others are converts. The Colombian Islamic community is a small one but enjoys more on account of its diversity, Zia said, as he took a break from serving tea in his uncle Zaheer's restaurant
The Andes Cordillera is full of incredible sights, unique ecosystems, and unforgettable experiences. I believe there's something here for everyone, from vibrant cities to towering volcanic peaks.
The river won, the forest won, the memory of our ancestors won, said the campaigners in Santarem when it was clear their actions had forced the Brazilian government into a U-turn on plans to privatise one of the world's most beautiful waterways and expand its role as a soy canal.
In the small town of Chipaya, everything is dry. Only a few people walk along the sandy streets, and many houses look abandoned some secured with a padlock. The wind is so strong that it forces you to close your eyes. Chipaya lies on Bolivia's Altiplano, 35 miles from the Chilean border. The vast plateau, nearly 4,000 metres above sea level, feels almost empty of people and animals, its solitude framed by snow-capped volcanoes. It raises the question: can anybody possibly live here?
I remember this as I wend my way from Brazil's colossus, São Paulo, to the coastal enclave of Paraty on the Costa Verde, driving through tunnels of Atlantic Forest that filter blinking bars of light. Floral scents surf on warm air through the open window. The legendary Afro-Brazilian singer-songwriter of the 1960s Tropicalismo genre, who went on to become Brazil's first culture minister to advocate for national diversity, has performed at festivals in Paraty.
Every Sunday in Bogota, streets across the city are closed to cars and transformed into urban parks. Shirtless rollerbladers with boomboxes drift leisurely in figures of eight, Lycra-clad cyclists zoom downhill and young children wobble nervously as they pedal on bikes for the first time. This is perhaps the most visible component of a multipronged plan to clean up the Colombian capital's air.
The hot, dry and windy conditions that enabled the fires to blaze across huge areas in January were made about three times more likely by global heating, researchers from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) consortium found. Parts of Chile and Argentina are experiencing significantly drier summers as a result of human-caused carbon emissions, with rainfall now 25% lower in early summer in Chile and 20% lower in the affected region of Patagonia.
Raw sewage and solid waste flow into the bay from surrounding cities, home to more than 8 million people. Cargo ships and oil platforms chug in and out of commercial ports, while dozens of abandoned vessels lie rotting in the water. But at the head of the bay, between the cities of Itaborai and Mage, the environment feels different. The air is purer, the waters are empty but for small fishing canoes, and flocks of birds soar overhead.
In Emilio Pena Delgado's home, several photos hang on the wall. One shows him standing in front of a statue with his wife and oldest son in the centre of San Jose and smiling. In another, his two sons sit in front of caricatures from the film Cars. For him, the photos capture moments of joy that feel distant when he returns home to La Carpio, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Costa Rica's capital.
Police and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname have arrested nearly 200 people in their first joint cross-border operation targeting illegal gold mining in the Amazon region, authorities said. The operation was backed by Interpol, the EU and Dutch police specialising in environmental crime. It involved more than 24,500 checks on vehicles and people across remote border areas and led to the seizure of cash, unprocessed gold, mercury, firearms, drugs and mining equipment, Interpol said.