As i mentioned on an earlier blog entry, we have had plans to take school children on our eco tours to show them areas they would not normally see in an effort to help promote eco tourism's importance as a tool of saving the environment. My family have been fighting environmental battles for over 40 years and it seems that although many have been won, many have been lost because the people making the final decisions just didn't understand the big picture. By giving children an opportunity to see for themselves, i am sure that only positive outcomes can come about.
While in the planning stages i was contacted directly by Racquel D'ornellas who said that her teacher had told the class to find an interesting field trip to do. Anyway, it was a little earlier than i had planned to start taking kids but we ended up taking 18 kids form her class out with some of their teachers on a full day in the north sound. The Eco Tour was "a blast" according to some of the kids i spoke with and we are excited about the future trips.
Taking groups of people from the west coast on the 40 mile round trip into the ecological playground that is the North Sound involves conisderable costs both financial and some we can not measure exactly. The whole footprint thing as i spoke at great length about on this earlier blog is something we have to consider too. Buying offsets for our busines from companies in another country is not somthing i have been convinced is a great option. Doing these tours for kids under cost is a better option i think. Our usual cost for the Eco Tour is US $100 and we have decided to offer the trip at a tiny percentage of that for school kids not to cover cost but to cover a % of them and also to give some more value to what they kids are getting. We are in the early stages of speaking with an environmental group about partial funding for these trips as their is international grants for these types of school outings. Our hope is to start full time in the new year with several school outings a month and in order to take all of antigua's kids we will need some of that grant help hopefully.
On another note we have decided to start another new adventure tour offering people a day of exploring and snorkeling in and around Nonsuch Bay. Green Island, Crump Island, the amazing mangrove habitats of Ayres Creek probably containing the largest of these trees on Antigua.
Anyway, to read more about it click on the image and zoom in. 
Hotels like Veranda, Pineapple, and Long Bay may be interested in this tour as it highlights the virgin areas nearby that are not accessable by car. We pick up In Jolly Harbour, St. Johns, Dickenson Bay and Dian Bay, but only offer this tour on Fridays and Saturdays currently unless we are doing it as a private charter. If you want more infor about any of this you can call me directly on +1 268 725 7263. Have a good day, eli.
