Just a quick note to inform the gloCatravellers about our gloCal page on Facebook… We invite all people who have contacted us for suggestions, sent feedback about the site, booked a holiday with us, or who just share our views in displaying a link to us on their profile, by clicking on ‘Become a fan” on the above page.

This will help us immensely in spreading the gloCaltravel philosophy and in raising awareness about the impact of our travel choices on the local destinations, their environment and economy.

During my stay in Oaxaca I finally had the chance to meet Ron Mader, founder of the award winning website Planeta and contributing editor for Ecotourism and Latin America of Transition Abroad.

Ron has been living in Oaxaca for the past 6 years, and amongst his many activities he is now actively helping the artisans and tourism operators in town to give a new and fresh start to their businesses, which have been seriously affected by the lack of tourism of the past year, following the social uprising in town.

Through Oaxaca Options – a series of discussions, lectures and small fairs organized by Planeta – he is encouraging tourism operators and local artisans to share their experience for the development of eco, rural, and cultural tourism in town. He is also offering free seminars on the use of the Internet as an effective marketing tool to increase business opportunities and sales.

I was very surprised to see Oaxaca so empty. I had definitely underestimated the negative impact of the social and political crisis and of the consequent travel warning issued by the US government in November 2006 on tourism. Two months ago a ‘milder warning’ recommending caution while travelling to Oaxaca was extended by both the US and Canadian authorities.
I thought maybe in Europe we did not have full press coverage on the situation, hence my naïve attitude, but now that I have been in the city for a few days I can not see any reasons why visitors should not come to Oaxaca.

I was glad to hear from Ron that the negative situation has also generated many ‘reaction projects’, from associations of accommodation providers and language schools to other private initiatives which show the deep love the people of Oaxaca have for their city.

The crisis is now over and its negative impact on the local business is something that has been discussed in too many details. What we like to do now is to focus on the recovery process in all its positive aspects: we love to see local artisans showing their work on Flickr, and Mexican artist Francisco Verástegui drawing a delightful map of the historic trees of Oaxaca. These centenary trees are still there, regenerating their hometown with new oxygen, and ready to offer their shadow to million of tourists!

I have been mesmerized by this video of Hans Rosling speaking at TED 2007 posted on Steve Bridger’s blog showing how captivating some stats can become with proper design and animation. I have never had an analytical mind set, but this is indeed like storytelling!!

It would be really interesting have similar stats on the development of ecotourism and its impact on the world economy. The rapid economic growth of Mauritius shown in the video is quite impressive… Enjoy it!!

When I started planning my ecotourism project and founded gloCaltravel a couple of dear friends bought me a curious book called There’s a Word for it in Mexico, a sort of popular guide to Mexican thought and culture.

In the book glossary I found a word I really like and I would love to start my blog with:

Palomillas - Groups or cliques of people who hang out together for social and other purposes. Joining a palomilla may be a good way for foreigners in Mexico to widen their circle of friends and contacts.

Well, I am a ‘foreigner’ in the blog community, therefore I wish to join some online palomillas, and to create my own one.

Welcome!!