Divers Do It ... In Concrete

Longtime CT+L readers will remember my November 2007 feature on British dive instructor and artist Jason de Caires Taylor, whose compelling concrete figures were submerged in the water off Grenada's west coast to form an underwater sculpture "garden" for divers and snorkelers.

Late last year, Taylor completed the first four pieces for his newest submarine installation, this time located off the coast of Cancun. Over time, the ph-neutral concrete pieces should attract algae and marine life – and snorkelers and divers in their wake – easing environmental pressure on the ecosystem and coral reef, which has been compromised by hurricanes and heavy human traffic.



The figures are the first attractions in what Taylor plans to be the largest underwater art museum in the world, with more than 400 life-sized figures for visitors' gawking pleasure. For more information about Taylor's projects or to buy limited-edition prints of his haunting work, just click here.

Belize Deals for Spring

If you've been considering a Belize vacation, now may be the perfect time to book a trip. American Airlines just announced limited-time low fares for travel between Belize and a handful of U.S. gateway cities – like Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Dallas – when traveling by March 27, 2010. One-way fares start at just $149 when booked by December 22, 2009.

And to sweeten the deal, some of Belize's top eco-resorts have created Spring packages starting as low as $240 per night double occupancy. That rate will buy you a one-bedroom beachfront cabana at Tranquility Bay Resort; or for $300 per night, you can stay in a an oceanfront cabana at the Kanantik Reef & Jungle Resort right next to the country's Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, the world's first jaguar preserve. If you're ready to splurge, you can even stay at the luxe St. George's Caye – a private island resort off the Belize Barrier Reef – for just $246 per person each night, all-inclusive.

Surf over to AA.com to book your airfare, then hit up the resort web site of your choice to book a room – and for you adrenaline junkies, don't forget to check out our Water Sports Lover's Guide to Ambergris Caye before you go.

Belize Vacation Deals

If you've been thinking about a Belize vacation, this latest wave of travel deals should give you four great reasons to make it happen this Fall...

1. Cayo Espanto

With the luxury resort's Private Island Massage & Spa package – available through December 15 – your five-night stay in the 2,100-square-foot Casa Auroroa villa offers savings of up to $9,000 over rack rates. For $499 per person per night, your stay includes all meals, snacks and drinks, a daily massage plus an additional daily spa treatment of your choice, a day at sea including fishing and snorkeling, airport transfers and all taxes and resort fees.
www.aprivateisland.com

2. St. George's Cay Resort

The seven-night Sink Into Our World package gives certified divers the chance to explore the Belize Barrier Reef on five guided dive excursions, then return to luxury accommodations in one of the resort's 12 lagoon cabanas. You'll also enjoy all meals and non-alcoholic drinks, plus a $50 credit at the Island Spa, with package rates starting at just $1,500 per person for your entire stay through November 15.
www.gooddiving.com

3. Tranquility Bay Resort

Through December 15, guests can enjoy a seven-night stay in a one-bedroom oceanfront room – including daily dinner and use of the resort's water sports amenities – for $999 per person. The package also includes round trip air transfers from Belize City to Ambergris Caye, and boat transfers to and from the boutique hotel.
www.tranquilitybayresort.com

4. Kanantik Reef & Jungle Resort

Guests of the coastal eco-lodge between November 1 and December 15 can enjoy complimentary nights on four and seven night vacations. Just book four nights in one of the resort's 25 oceanfront cabanas and pay for only three, or book seven nights and pay for only five – a savings of up to $650 per couple.
www.kanantik.com

Voluntourism on St. Thomas

The Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort & Spa just announced a new voluntourism experience that helps eco-conscious guests to give back on their next Virgin Island vacation. For $79 per person, guests of the St. Thomas resort can experience nearby Hassel Island along with tour operator Virgin Islands Ecotours. The excursion begins with a 20-minute kayak paddle from Charlotte Amalie Harbor over to the isle, where you'll have the chance to explore the ruins of a former British military garrison and other historic locations like the Creque Marine Railway, one of the Western Hemisphere's first steam-powered marine rail systems. Following a good dose of Caribbean history, you'll spend the afternoon beautifying the beaches of Hassel island – from collecting flotsam to trimming up hiking trails – then finish the day with some restorative beach time. Included in the package rate, you'll also get a free annual membership to the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park and St. Thomas Historical Trust. And if eco-tours are right up your alley, don't miss our recent Day Trip on other green tours you can try with Virgin Islands Ecotours.

Grenada's African Expats: The Mona Monkey

One of the more surprising things about Grenada is that both its most famous flora (the nutmeg tree) and its most famous fauna (the mona monkey) are relatively recent arrivals on the island. French and English colonists brought nutmeg to the island from the Moluccan Islands of Indonesia during the 18th century (the exact details are disputed). The gregarious mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona) showed up around the same time, brought over from Africa during the height of the slave trade. Fortunately, slavery has been consigned to history, but as I witnessed yesterday during a trip into the Grand Etang National Park, in the island's midsection, the little mona is alive and well. Several troupes of monas bounce through the dense Grenadian forest these days, and a few — accustomed to handouts from visitors — are all too happy to loiter in public places. The two photogenic guys you see here weren't at all put off by my shameless gawking — that is, until they realized there was no easy meal to be had, when they promptly turned and sauntered off into the jungle. Up until quite recently, these remarkable animals were hunted and eaten, almost to the brink of eradication. But locals, perhaps realizing their tourist appeal, have (by all accounts) ceased that practice. We're sure happy about that, and so, we suspect, are the monkeys.

Green with Benefits

Jet Blue's latest initiative to Do One Thing That's Green is a great reminder that even small contributions can make a big difference to the planet we all share. This summer, the airline is asking each of us to pledge to make one eco-conscious change to our daily routines - from reducing time spent in the shower to replacing standard light bulbs with energy efficient ones - and by pledging on their site, you're automatically entered into a sweepstakes where you could win cool eco-friendly prizes, like personal computers, Caribbean vacations, even a Toyota Prius hybrid! The sweepstakes ends June 16, but it's never too late to start making small changes for the environment.

Grenada Seafaris Raises its Eco-Consciousness

Anyone headed to the southernmost of the Windward Islands will be interested to note that things have changed at little at tour operator Grenada Seafaris since our own Baz Dreisinger took a ride on the wild side last September. The company, which offers wind-in-the-hair excursions up and down Grenada's western coast for snorkelers and divers (although landlubbers are always welcome) has become a whole lot more ecologically focused of late. In addition to offering tour-goers a high-speed lesson in the island's history and geography, Grenada Seafaris is newly keen to impress upon tourists and cruise-shippers the value and fragility of Grenada's eco-system, explore ways they can make a positive impact on the environment, and discuss initiatives to protect and rebuild natural assets.

Says Suzanne Clarke, who launched Grenada Seafaris with her husband Howard in November 2007, "We would hope to raise their awareness of the environmental issues that affect the island and the impact that each one of us has on our environment, i.e. negative – pollution, damage to our reef and our natural environment." Seafaris is also working with local schools to draw focus to environmental issues in Grenada and the rest of the Caribbean.

Rest assured, however, that Grenada Seafaris' enhanced earth-consciousness hasn't lessened the thrill factor of its tours: The 30-foot-long Grenada Explorer is as fast and furious as ever, with motorcycle-style seating for 12 passengers. Tours leave Grenada's capital of St. George's and charge up the coast, hitting a variety of secluded beaches, including Black Bay, and taking in a host of must-see underwater sites — including, of course, artist Jason de Caires Taylor's astonishing underwater sculpture park at Moliniere Point. Tour prices start at US$65.

It's Easy Being Green

Here’s a fitting bit of news for Earth Day: Jalousie Plantation on St. Lucia is going to make it guilt-free for golfers to ride in carts, rather than hoofing it from hole to hole, with the island’s first environmentally friendly hybrid solar-powered golf cart. The zero-emissions cart is the first in what the hotel hopes will be an entire fleet of green carts and mini-buses. Guilty admission: My favorite part of any golf game is riding the cart. Feeling better about it already.

Helping the Earth One Spa Treatment at a Time

Call me devoted to my job, but I'm pretty amenable to getting spa treatments. The stark reality is, a number of Caribbean resorts are home to world-class spas, and someone needs to try them out. Sometimes I'll play hard to get at first, pretending I'll skip it...but I always give in and sample the spa menu in the end, and rarely do I need a pep talk before going in there. It's just what professionals do.

But for those of you who need just a little bit more convincing, Elite Island Resorts has come up with a spa incentive you can really feel good about. To celebrate Earth Day - as well as the company's one year anniversary of being green-certified - the hospitality group will make a $5 donation to Sustainable Travel International (STI) for each spa treatment you purchase at select resorts in April. As a global organization, STI promotes sustainable solutions for travel and tourism, helping to shelter the Caribbean from some of the not-so-great effects of mass tourism.

The resorts include Galley Bay Resort & Spa, The Verandah Resort & Spa, and St. James' Club & Villas - all on Antigua - as well as Palm Island on the Grenadines. So I guess now the real question isn't whether to check out the spa...it's how many treatments can you squeeze in?

PS - Galley Bay's Indulge is our Featured Spa this week...click here to check it out.

Saving the Caribbean from the Effects of Climate Change

No matter what you think about Al Gore or the notion of global warming, it's hard to ignore some pretty grim predictions for rising sea levels, water temperatures and carbon dioxide levels — factors that can't be good for fragile ecosystems like the Caribbean's. Fortunately, England's University of Oxford and the Caribbean Community Centre for Climate Change are poised to launch an ambitious initiative aimed at tracking (and, hopefully, altering) the effects of climate change on hundreds of Caribbean islands.

"The Caribbean is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change and one of the most reliant on tourism in the world," says Oxford's Dr. Murray Simpson. "We have designed an approach that manages a huge range of risks and consequences of climate change."

Dubbed CARIBSAVE, the $35-million program will use Eleuthera in the Bahamas (pictured above, from space) and Ocho Rios in Jamaica as testbeds. Researchers plan to analyze weather records from 1961 until 2008 and use that data to predict the Caribbean region's climate-related future — things like rainfall, and sea levels, and the frequency of certain, um, "extreme weather events" — through the year 2100. What's it mean to you? By helping Caribbean nations adapt to the effects of climate change, CARIBSAVE's predictions may save the very things that make this part of the world so extraordinary: gorgeous beaches, lush rainforests, thriving reefs, and the livelihoods of the Caribbean people.

For more info, check out the University of Oxford's release.