Having been learning Spanish for a couple of months now I feel like I have a reasonable grasp of the basics and seem to be communicating quite well.

Yesterday however, pushed my knowledge of Spanish to the limit as I helped out a friend here in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, who organises group sessions with some local kids to help them with their English and school homework.

Firstly, I have never claimed to be an expert in the arts, language or grammar and am only now getting to grips with words like ‘preposition’ and ‘infinitive’ (damn the UK education system), so I’m not exactly well placed as a language teacher.

Secondly, my Spanish is of a level where even trying to explain simple things can be very challenging, but you have to give these things a go.

I spent most of my time with a boy called Victor, pictured above with me in mid confusing explanation, who is very bright but really quite shy, especially with the other kids in the group. We seemed to get on pretty well though and he bombarded me with questions in rapid machine gun like Spanish.

The main task was to try to help him correct mistakes in a presentation he has to give in English, in front of his class. It was a great experience!

I learned odd words such as ‘canicas’ (marbles) and a useful one in ‘juntar’ (to join), the latter being an effort to get him to connect sentences instead of saying really short ones, kind of like my Spanish.

The benefit beyond learning more Spanish and an ‘in the deep end’ lesson on how hard it is to teach, is as my friend put it; ’showing the kids that tourists are more than just people who turn up for a while, buy things and go home, but are people who care and can help the community’.

I advise anyone with even a basic grasp of another language to seek out these kinds of opportunities, either here in San Cristobal or wherever you travel to. How often will the word ‘marble’ come up in a normal class?

For information on helping here in San Cristobal check out the Chiapas Childrens Project.

In the past month I have been following an interesting poll on the Ecoclub forum posing the question: Is Hunting Tourism part of Ecotourism?

I am quite shocked about the current results. After over a month from the publication of the poll, against 14 ecotourism operators who voted ‘Never’ 16 members actually voted ‘Depends’ (there is also one who voted ‘always’ but I like to think he either pressed the wrong button or joined the wrong club).

You can read yourself the reasons of the ‘depends’, I personally found them all pretty poor, but then – I have to admit – I am a bit of a hypocritical myself… I am supporting organizations for the protection of animals, but I am not vegetarian and – most important – I have published fishing tours in my catalogue!

Is fishing ‘more acceptable’ than hunting? I don’t think so; I have never even liked the expression ‘sport fishing’… what sort of sport is that? It does not keep you fit and still involves capturing and killing wild animals.

The only time in my life I went fishing I did not like it. It was in Bahia LA, Baja California, where I was invited to a fishing trip. I accepted because I liked the idea of a sunrise boat ride, and I did not think I would try holding the fishing rod, but I eventually did.

The guy who took me on tour was very nice and I enjoyed his company, but when I caught my first fish and I saw him taking it on board and sticking a hook in it, the blood dripping from that fish still flapping around produced a very unpleasant sensation at the bottom of my stomach. I know, this is again hypocritical, because I love fish and seafood and I certainly enjoyed that Bonito for dinner. How do I think they fish those dead bodies I buy in the market?

But I have decided I will take fishing trips off my website. Some of them are offered by ecotourism guides I know personally and I am 100% sure about their commitment to the conservation of the environment, but in the end that feeling in my stomach warned me that what I had just done was not exactly an ‘eco’ practice.

I think our oceans are being over-fished enough without the necessity of us promoting ‘sport fishing’ as a holiday entertainment.

Unfortunately, the 2007 Day of the Dead celebrations will be remembered as tragic by the Tabasquenos and some of the Chiapanecos.

The exodus is reaching enormous proportions and more than 100,000 people have been evacuated, saved from their homes and sent to temporary refuge shelters in Villahermosa.

It is real devastation, another disastrous effect of this global warming which still some people are refusing to ackowledge.

The newspaper El Universal published some emergency bank account numbers to help Tabasco, and this is the link to the Mexican Red Cross. I have not found any easy way to donate online yet, please add info on a comment if you know any.

While updating some of our diving tours in Baja California I found out that from the beginning of 2007 (I know, it is a bit of a late discovery…) the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas designed the ‘Conservation Passport’, which is released upon payment of a mandatory fee of USD 25, which allows you to visit Mexico’s Protected Areas as many times as you wish for an entire year. (2008 fee will be USD 35).

The money will be used for the continued protection of the shorelines, inlets, beaches and coves.
One of our tour providers includes the passport it in their tour fee, well done!

People under 6 or over 60 years of age are exempt from this fee. However, we invite everyone to make the voluntary contribution of USD 25 to the conservation of Mexico’s Natural Protected Areas.