TRASH TROUBLE IN BOCAS DEL TORO

Paradise lost in Bocas del Toro. This U.S.-AID sign isn't exactly helping.

There's trouble in paradise. And it stinks. 

Over the past decade the small string of idyllic islands off Panama's northwest coast, Bocas del Toro, has become one of the country's top tourist attractions. While the massive influx of visitors has generated significant investment and cash for the locals, all those tourists and the business serving them are producing tons and tons of trash every day. 

Bocas is quickly running out of places to put it all. 

Sure, officials have been working on the problem for a while. And some eco-friendly hotels and businesses have started recycling and composting on their own. 

Unfortunately, most others haven't. And thanks to a lack of space, funding and political will, there's no end in sight, meaning visitors can expect to see a tainted, trash-lined version of what once was a Panamanian paradise. 

Trash lines the entrance road to Bocas' only airport.

For us, we managed to pick up a lot of garbage that lined beaches, reefs and roads. But similar to the overcrowding we learned about while volunteering in Costa Rica's animal rescue centers, this was an issue that people more powerful than us needed to hear about. 

We've written and called local and national authorities in Panama. We've sent photos and videos to tourism officials. We also emailed U.S. AID, the foreign aid arm of the U.S. government that's supposedly helping Bocas address some of its sanitation issues.

If you'd like to do the same, check out the following links to contact local and national tourism officials. 

Let them know this Panamanian paradise deserves better.

VARANASI: A PHOTO BONUS

Considering it's one of the oldest cities on the planet, Varanasi is pretty photogenic. Here are a few shots from our two visits...

We know, another sadhu photo. 

This kind-faced boatman offered us a ride.

It's not all pretty. Cows, dogs, and a man in a blue t-shirt dig through a pile of garbage in the street.

Just one of the many amazing murals that cover the concrete walls along the Ganges.

A pilgrim sits on the side of his boat. No doubt he is "healthy breathing."

The fire and music show that takes place on the Main Ghat each evening at dusk.

An artist captures the "washing of the buffalo" on canvas.

TURNING GARBAGE INTO HANDBAGS AND HANDICRAFTS

This is Beni Rani Ghale. She is an incredible Nepali woman we were lucky enough to meet during our last few days in Kathmandu. 

Rani started a small shop that sells some really cool stuff made from garbage and found materials from across Nepal. As fellow garbage collectors, we loved the idea. We also liked the designs and items she and her organization managed to create, which range from Christmas ornaments and bowls to purses, belts and bags, all made of discarded chip bags, used bicycle tires and candy wrappers, among other things. 

Rani's story is pretty amazing. 

She belongs to an organization called HEED (Health, Education, Empowerment, Development), and she is the Director of Recycle-Handicrafts. She said her goals are to provide "income generating work, education, health and family planning for women and their families." The organization she is a part of works with Nepali women in rural villages to collect, and wash garbage and turn it into usable, marketable products.  HEED uses the proceeds from the sales of these products to provide a fair wage to the women workers, provide access to free healthcare, family planning, and schooling for their children. 

The website for the HEED NGO is www.heednepal.org, though it may be temporarily down by the time this is published. Eventually, visitors to the site will be able to make purchases online.

These ornaments are definitely worthy of our tree...which we will hopefully be home to put up in 2013...or 2014...

Christmas ornaments made from "cleaned-garbage." 

Rani showing off one of her messenger bags made from recycled truck tire tubes.

RUPEES TO RUBBISH ON THE EVEREST TREK

Two boys walking home from their village school taught us once again just how contagious cleaning up can be. 

It was Day Four of our trek to Everest Base Camp. As part of our "1 of 7" activities, we had been picking up trash along the trail. Yes, even on a trek to the world's tallest mountain--and passing through some of the most incredible scenery on the planet--people manage to throw trash on the ground, ignoring the well-maintained trash cans/baskets along the way.

We had tied plastic bags to our backpacks and were filling them with candy bar wrappers,  water bottles, empty tobacco packages and all types of other items tossed by local porters and foreign trekkers, as well. 

As we passed through a tiny village, two kids approached us in matching school uniforms--navy wool sweater and grey pants. They stared at our plastic bags, smiling. Then, one of them stuck out his hand and asked for rupees.

In Kathmandu, lots of street kids will ask you for money. It's a pretty common occurrence. But out here, it doesn't happen.

Feigning ignorance, Kip pretended he didn't understand the boy. Instead, he smiled and said, "rubbish." He motioned the boys closer and showed the two what was inside our trash bags. At first, they didn't get it, so he pointed to a piece of trash nearby and repeated, "rubbish" as he picked it up and placed it into the bag. 

He repeated the process again, and that was that...the kids joined us for the next kilometer or so on our clean up mission, helping us pick up trash along the trail until they got to the turnoff to their house.

For the following days, we would be joined by lots of well-meaning folks happy to give us a hand. Like our new friend, Baptiste, a hilarious Frenchman who donned his own garbage bag while walking the trail (thanks, Baptiste!). And like Rob from Zimbabwe and his Aussie girlfriend Jolai who we ended up hiking with for three days (thanks, mates!). We even got their guide, Tiagaram, involved, chastising porters for throwing their garbage on the ground.

The rock-climbing, trash collecting Frenchman Baptiste helps Kip take out the trash.

It takes a lot to change people's behavior. It wasn't so long ago in the US that people saw no problem with throwing bags of trash out their car windows. Thankfully that has changed. 

Behavior on the Everest Trek is hopefully on its way toward change, too. Because of the incentive program started in 1994 by American mountain climber Brent Bishop, the garbage and used oxygen bottles left behind by Everest expeditions have been cleared from the high camps and summit of the world's tallest peak.

Us at Everest Base Camp, holding a sign that reads, "1 of 7 EBC Clean Up 2012." 

Judging by the numerous guides and hikers that said "thank you" upon seeing the trash in our bags, and those willing to pitch in and help clean up, we may be a trash-free trail the next time we decide to punish ourselves into another 12 day trek.

With a little help from the next wave of hikers, hopefully the trek up to Base Camp will see the same result.

Kip the garbage man headed up the trail.

GONE TO THE DOGS

A wounded stray limps across the main street of Tingri, Tibet. Dogs roam the town in menacing packs.

While the mountain views from Tingri look stunning at night, the glare of the sun reveals a different story in this town of 500 in southern Tibet.

Just 30 miles from the Nepal border, Tingri would be the last stop in Tibet on our driving tour from Lhasa to Kathmandu. Within sight of four of the world's tallest mountains, the settlement has long been used as a base by climbers looking to summit Mt. Everest and other nearby peaks. Yet before visitors' eyes can reach the snow-covered Himalayas in the distance, they must first pass over what now seem to be the town's two biggest by-products--packs of aggressive stray dogs and numerous mounds of garbage that blot the otherwise scenic landscape. 

A homeless dog takes a rest in one of the town's many trash piles. The Himalayas can be seen at the end of the street.

How this town's dog and trash problem got so bad, no one we talked to had a clue. Even stranger, the people in the town seemed to have grown accustomed to both. 

Kids walk around with rocks in case a canine gets too close. Adult residents toss their trash wherever they are, which is the same place many of them also defecate and urinate.

It was a striking contrast--the stunning Himalayan views on the horizon and the constant, in-your-face sight and smell of trash, human waste, and stray dogs. The entire scene is made even more unreal considering the Chinese government's typically tight-fisted control over what Tibetan cities and sites tourists are able to visit.

Street dogs sleeping in the morning sun.

These are major issues that are no doubt impacting the health of the residents, not to mention hurting the animals and surrounding environment. With only one day remaining on our visa there was little we could do while we were there. 

So, from Nepal, we're working other angles including contacting international organizations that may be able to lend a hand. We were also thinking about writing to the Chinese government directly, but then we thought...we would really love to be permitted to return to their country some day, so perhaps we might hold off on direct interaction, at least for now.

That said, if you have any ideas or contacts that could help out the situation in Tingri, let us know. Clearly something needs to be done soon, lest one of Tibet's most scenic locations achieves more fame for its growing collection of stray dogs and putrid trash than its unparalleled views of the Himalayas.

The view from our hotel's bathroom (outhouse).

Medical waste, including hundreds of used needles, fills an open pit behind the town's make-shift hospital.

GARBAGE IN THE EVERGLADES

Santa Garbage and his helpers deliver goodies to a nearby dump.

Thanksgiving always seems like the right time to do something good (besides eating, drinking and watching TV). Sure, it's fun to enjoy the holiday and spend some quality time with family...but volunteering...it's so selfless...so benevolent, so...good an excuse to get out of the house and away from the relatives for a while (just kidding, Mom!)

Of course, try explaining that to two elementary school girls on break. Not surprisingly, they'd rather be playing in the pool, hanging with their friends, or throwing crazy DJ-hosted VIP parties in their rooms, than to hang out with their aunt and uncle doing something as "weird" as picking up trash in a local park. Even if said park is the friggin' Everglades, which is about 200 yards from my brother's house in Florida where we were.

So we made a deal with two of the cutest nieces in the world--we all take a bike trip with Tío Kip and Aunt Buzzie (that's us) to Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge to clean up the beach, and we'd agree to play in the pool all afternoon, help them with their homework, and attend a "VIP party" they were hosting at their house (hard bargainers, they are).

Deal.

Nieces Isabele and Chelsea clean up with Tio Kippy.

An airboat passes as Aunt Liz cleans the beach.

The best part of the day, better than all the quality family time and even the fishing later, had to be helping my first grade niece, Chelsea, write an essay about her time volunteering. 

"I wanted to help the birds and the fish that live in the park by my house. My sister, my uncle and I rode our bikes to the park, and they helped me clean up trash on the ground by the water. We put bottles and broken glass in trash bags. A piece of broken glass in a trash bag cut my leg. It hurt a lot, but I didn't quit picking up trash. I kept doing it because I wanted to help the animals that live in the park."

Not bad for a six-year-old. Homework and volunteering over, then it was time for the VIP party with special guest performers Izzy P on the guitar and DJ Chels spinnin' the frisbees. 

Izzy rockin out.

DJ Chels on the frisbees.

Post party, we even managed to squeeze in some bird watching and bass fishing. You gotta love Florida.

Red-shouldered hawk

Turkey vulture 

Nice largemouth bass during Kip's first fishing trip in the Everglades.