People — A World Different

Cruceros Australis

April 15, 2013 By admin 1 Comment

Cruise ships have been getting a particularly bad rap lately, for obvious reasons (think Carnival Cruise Lines). That sad fact – coupled with the one that massive cruise ships, with their mountains of wastage and consumption of energy, share little in common with sustainable tourism – might make it seem unusual that we are writing here about Cruceros Australis, an expedition cruise company specializing in trips to Patagonia and Cape Horn.

Stellar! The 'Stella Maris.'

But Cruceros Australis is minuscule in comparison. It is comprised of the Via Australis (built in 2005, carrying 136 passengers in 64 comfortable cabins) and the Stella Australis (built in 2010, carrying up to 210 passengers in 100 cabins). Both ships explore Chile while sailing through the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel uncovering the magic of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.

Picture Window

The cruises – or explorations, rather – allow travelers to uncover the mysteries of magic lands, oceans, glaciers and fjords in luxury, with fine dining, gorgeous cabins, unparalleled views, excellent guides, and guest lecturers. Zodiac inflatable boats on board enable travelers to explore secret, breathtakingly beautiful places larger boats cannot get to, all the while accompanied by expert guides who will show them things no one on a large cruise boat will ever discover.

View not Optional.

Most Cruceros cruises begin or end in the world’s southernmost city, Ushuaia in Argentina, or in Punta Arenas, Chile. Itineraries range from 3 nights to 7 nights. On the 4-night Ushuaia-Punta Arenas route, passengers go all the way south to Cape Horn and then back north past the Beagle Channel, the Garibaldi Glacier, and the Darwin Range.

From Ushuaia to Punta Arenas

One of the first things passengers are told on boarding is this: “Our Patagonia cruises are meant to be enjoyable, but we must not forget about the environment doing so. In order to transmit this ideology, (we) explain what must be done to prevent these virgin territories from being contaminated.”

Time on Land

Cruceros Australis says it respects the lands and ocean its boats explore and is sensitive to the balance between human activities and nature. In order to produce minimum impact in the places they visit, the ships adhere strictly to national and international covenants on environmental care, conservation and protection of the local culture and its nature. A pact was signed with the Center for Quaternary Studies Fuego-Patagonia and Antarctica, which works with Chile’s Universidad de Magallanes, for the development of top-level sustainable scientific tourism. The agreement also calls for Cruceros Australis’s contribution to the center of photos of glaciers, marine and land mammals, as well as measurements of water temperature in zones of glaciers for scientific analysis.

Cruceros Australis is very aware of this pristine environment and utmost care is taken to preserve it, from not throwing anything (including used batteries and cigarette butts) overboard to not laundering barely used towels to keeping waste in the kitchen separated so not to form toxic gases. Mass tourism is avoided, excursions are guided by trained expedition leaders, and only marked paths are used to allow recovery of trails and sites.

Lately some wooden walkways have been built in the most delicate areas, which would take dozens of years to recover. Monitoring systems are in place to contribute to research. Travelers are educated through a series of lectures prior to each anchor, and there are manuals and brochures in each cabin. Even 4-stroke engines are used on the Zodiacs because they are quieter less polluting than 1- or 2-strokes.

Whale Life, Very Far South

Filed Under: Argentina, Carbon Footprint, Chile, Conservation, Cruceros Australis, Education, Features, Good Stuff, People, South America Tagged With: beagle channel, cruise, expert, scientific travel, strait of magellan

Jicaro Island Ecolodge, Nicaragua

April 14, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

Afloat at Jicaro

Started by London businesswoman Karen Emanuel after she saw a sign ‘Island for Sale’ when she was visiting Nicaragua in 2007 – and then she bought it! – Jicaro is barely a year old and is already attracting praise and awards. Located not far from the ocean on a private island in Lake Nicaragua, its 9 casitas that look across the water to Mombacho volcano are all extremely private but only a short walk from the pool, the wellness center, and the main facilities.

Casita on the Water

Each casita has two levels, with the large bedroom above, and both floors have spacious decks to take in the views. The restaurant’s menu has plenty of options and prides itself on the selection of fresh fish from the lake and the sea, local vegetables and fruit, and locally raised chicken and beef. Besides yoga sessions and a variety of massage and wellness treatments, Jicaro offers tours to the historic Zapatera island and the volcano, hikes, and boating.

An interesting aside: Guests can learn about local foods’ history, uses, and the different ways it can be prepared. Papayas, for instance, can be turned into juice, jam, pickled sauce, or a salad with feta cheese. Eat up!

HURRICANE REPAIR

Jicaro couldn’t do better than to take its sustainability lead from Costa Rica, which is exactly what it did. The team in charge of managing Jicaro has a decade-long track record in the field.

Built entirely from timber reclaimed from trees blown down by 2007’s Hurricane Felix, the buildings and furniture are made of tropical hardwoods which have a controlled wood certification. This the lodge did in conjunction with Simplemente Madera, designers and builders of both furniture and buildings in Jicaro that were already supporting sustainable forestry with the indigenous communities in the hurricane-affected areas before the devastation.

Healthy Body in a Healthy Lodge

Though still in its early stages, Jicaro is developing a program to work with local schools, focusing on environmental education, providing supplies and materials, and building infrastructure. To start with, they will work with three schools and just over 200 children, all under the age of 12.

From August through December, the Learning is Change program will, for two hours a week, use art, music, drama, and multimedia in order to expand the children’s approach to learning. Subjects to be taught with a combination of textbooks, hands-on activities, games, and field trips will include conservation, climate change, flora and fauna of the Nicaragua Lake, and sustainability. In order to achieve this, Jicaro is working with, as well as training, one of the female community leaders and four young adults from the local islands.

Three times a year Jicaro, in coordination with World Vision, will give financial aid – infrastructure, supplies, and materials – where they are most needed in the three schools.

Starting in July, all employees will be take 6-hour courses that cover biodiversity, water, climate change, and sustainability. Each month after that there will be a field trip, homework activity, and a relevant guest speaker.

Recycling in Nicaragua is not as widespread as in Costa Rica, but last month saw the introduction of the employee recycling program. Though it is voluntary, each employee is strongly encouraged to separate their garbage at home and then bring it to the hotel, which will dispose of it with the hotel’s recyclables.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

“It is part of our goal to have sustainability streamlined into the lives of the people that work for us. We feel that exposing them thoroughly to the issues, making it fun and creative, will awaken a passion of some sort in them and motivate them to start making changes in their lives.”

Filed Under: Carbon Footprint, Conservation, Education, Features, Good Stuff, Jicaro Island Ecolodge, Nicaragua, People, Restoration & Repurposing, Women Tagged With: cayuga, Costa Rica, forest, yoga

Mayakoba – The New Wave Riviera

March 15, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

The Heart of Mayakoba

Mayakoba is an anomaly. An area smack in the middle of the Mayan Riviera, it is almost the antithesis of everything the resort-laden Mexican coast has become known (and is often criticized) for. Though three of the world’s best-name hotels are on the property – Banyan Tree, Fairmont, and Rosewood – they are, untypically, not skyscrapers, rarely have a view of the ocean, and have been created with the utmost care for the environment. “In nature but sophisticated,” one of the developers called it.

Canal Transport is an Electric Boat

When the Spanish company OHL began planning the 640-acre Mayakoba in the late ‘90s, it first spent a number of years studying the ecosystem of the region, halfway between Cancún and Tulúm, with a view to making as little impact as possible. Now Mayakoba is starting to become a beacon for sustainability in Latin America – it is the act to follow.

While other Mexican resort hotels in the Yucatan Peninsula often tear out the mangrove and destroy the coastal dunes in order to build right on the beach, Mayakoba did not. A network of canals were created using the underground water arteries, which gave access to the sea but also meant that many of the hotel buildings would have to be built virtually out of sight of the ocean. When the land was ready, the first (and what would become the largest) hotel, the 401-room Fairmont, opened in 2006. The 132-villa Banyan Tree opened in 2009. Mayakoba has made provision for six hotels, although only five will be allowed.

El Camaleon Golf Course

Today a third of Mayakoba’s undeveloped land is mangrove, ten percent is coastal dune (much of which has had to be revived after the double whammy of the hurricanes of 2005 and 2007), and the remainder is jungle. When the resort’s PGA-ranked golf course was created, it was done in such a way that not a drop of irrigation water could reach the subterranean rivers below them, and a type of grass was used that needs little fertilizer or chemicals and can be irrigated with salt water.

Mangrove Wildlife

The thirty or so species of fish, birds, and vertebrates in the area before Mayakoba’s creation have since increased some tenfold. No fishing is allowed on the property. Five on-site biologists led by Luis Ortiz keep an eye on everything from the quality of the water in the canals and the importation of exotic plants species – Banyan Tree, the Asia-based hotel group whose first hotel this is in the Americas, was refused permission to bring in its typical foliage – to rescuing injured wild animals and abandoned dogs and cats (something the Yucatan Peninsula is infamous for). Each hotel also has environmental officers.

Suite Life at the Mayakoba Rosewood

Perhaps some of Mayakoba’s most significant contributions have been to the local communities. This being the area where chewing gum originally came from, locals are assisted in revitalizing the tree-gum industry, as well as that of the stingless Mayan honey bee. Both honey and chewing gum are sold at the Banyan Tree, and the profits go to the communities. The other two hotels have their own social programs. The 2010 PGA tournament at the Mayakoba golf course collected one million dollars for local charities, and one day a month the course is open to anyone to come in for a lesson and a free meal.

The Banyan Tree Mayakoba

Filed Under: Conservation, Features, Good Stuff, Mayakoba, Mexico, News, People Tagged With: banyan tree, coastal dune, fairmount, golf, mangrove, ohl, rosewood

The Proof is in the Shades

March 7, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

100 Percent Proof

The Dame brothers in Eagle, Idaho, are steeped in the history of wood. Their grandfather started a sawmill 60 years ago, their father runs the business today, and in 2010 the three siblings decided to take wood on a whole new trajectory – sunglasses – and the product is very cool, very hip, very good for everyone involved, and very worthwhile to have on your next journey.

The company is Proof, which has shown in a short time that you don’t have to forsake your conscience to be sexy or profitable. The sunglasses have already found their way into celebrity circles, but they also have helped thousands of poor people see. A portion of every sunglasses sale goes to the Aravind eye clinic in India.

Aravind began in 1976 with an 11-bed hospital and now has 4,000 beds in seven hospitals, mostly in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Helped initially by an American social entrepreneur, Aravind is run like a market-driven business, where the operations paid for by the wealthy subsidize the operations on the poor.

The clinic today repairs the eyesight of some 300,000 people a year, and most of those operations are done for free. Proof is going to build one of the first rural clinics in India that will be used for screenings and eyewear fittings.

“Its pretty exciting for us,” says Proof founder Brooks Dane.

The Dame Brothers on TV

According to Proof’s website: “There are countless people in need in third world countries, and a little bit of help can go a long way in restoring sight to thousands.” When it first started, Proof contributed to other organizations too, but it found that it didn’t know where the money was going.

Eco, Skate, Take Your Pick

Says Brooks, “Today we focus strictly on Aravind, which has been a good move for us as they are a good partner and we can physically see the fruits of our partnership. Funds aren’t going into anyone’s pockets.”

As for the sunglasses themselves, Proof uses woods from all over the world that are only from managed forests, no illegally harvested timber. Its bamboo is “panda-friendly,” meaning that it never uses the younger bamboo that is more tender and favored by pandas. Its ECO collection, meanwhile, uses plastic that is plant-based and biodegradable, not oil-based. And it’s skate collection is made of, well, old skateboards.

Proof sunglasses are sold all over the world, so check for a store near you.

Filed Under: Apparel Different, Carbon Footprint, Conservation, Features, Good Stuff, Health, Hot Stuff, Idaho, People, Proof Sunglasses, Restoration & Repurposing, United States Tagged With: aravind eye clinic, biodegradable, brooks dame, idaho, proof eyewear, skateboard, sunglasses, timber

Sundance Resort, Utah

March 1, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

6,000 Acres of Sundance ...

In 1969, after making “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” Robert Redford bought what was then called Timphaven from the Stewarts, a family of Scottish immigrants who had settled the canyon in the early 20^th century. When he bought the the 6,000-acre property at the base of 12000-foot Mt. Timpanogos, it had a local ski resort with a chair lift, a rope tow and a burger joint. That’s it.

... and in Winter

Rejecting advice from New York investors to fill the canyon with hotels and condominiums, Redford saw his newly acquired land as an ideal locale for environmental conservation and artistic experimentation. The result is the Sundance Resort.

The Foundry Grill

The resort might be too big for some – with the range of accommodations running the gamut from studios to suites to various sets of cottages – but it is, after all, a resort. The nearly 100 rooms are done, as one upmarket travel site noted, to make the resort “part eco-lodge, part artists’ community, which is not just ethically correct but also quite aesthetically satisfying.” The rooms are “understated,” with a “handcrafted quality” and cottages are “immersed in the landscape.”

On the property, which lies northwest of Provo and southwest of Salt Lake City, is great skiing in winter but lots of summer activity too, hiking and biking in an actively preserved landscape.

The Sundance Preserve is dedicated to maintaining the balance of art, nature, and community, as well as to the cultivation of independent, innovative thought among artists, scholars, scientists, public policy, and business leaders. Located within the protected splendor of its own lands, it is the mission of the Sundance Preserve to inspire action for the benefit of civil society.

The Film Festival is in January

MOVIES, MOVIES

The Sundance Institute, started in 1981 to promote independent film, has grown too big for the resort, but the Sundance Film Festival takes place each January in nearby Park City, and certain institute programs still take place at the resort.

Sundance has a longstanding history of green policies, dating back to the property’s original purchase. The staff carry out ongoing projects each year aimed at restoring the mountain to its natural state by working to eliminate noxious weeds on the mountain, laying erosion blankets and restoring vegetation where seasonal land use has altered the terrain.

Wood and Fire, Cabin

The resort buys 226,264 kilowatt hours of wind-generated electricity each month, or 2,715,170 kilowatt hours annually, representing 100 percent of the resort’s total electricity use.

All departments at the resort buy environmentally responsible products. The General Store purchases recycled cotton grocery bags, organic cotton T-shirts and housewares made from natural and recycled materials. The restaurant and catering teams use organic produce and products, as well as chlorine-free products such as paper cups and coffee filters. Sundance’s in-room amenities feature Sprout Out, a collection showcasing the Gilchrist & Soames Naturally Kind Formulations combined with certified organic extracts of rooibos, cardamom seed, yarrow, and ginseng to gently care for skin and hair, as well as Sundance’s own organic soaps made in the Art Studio. Guests can participate in a linen re-use program, as well as other energy-saving programs.

Cabin Cozy

Sundance also has a glass kiln, since disposal of glass in Utah has its own challenges. Artists in residence from Tlaquepaque, Mexico, break down bottles, which are then transformed into decorative art and housewares used around the property.

The resort offers a carpooling incentive for ski guests. Carpools arriving with four or more skiers/snowboarders receive $5 off each lift pass when four or more are purchased.

Filed Under: Art, Carbon Footprint, Conservation, Education, Features, Good Stuff, People, Sundance Resort, United States Tagged With: film, glass, movie, park city, robert redford, skiing, Utah, windpower

Palazzo Margherita, Italy

February 18, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

A Tryptych

Francis Ford Coppola’s 19^th-century Palazzo Margherita, located in a small hilltop town near the Ionian Sea in the unspoiled Basilicata region of southernmost Italy, is described by him as “a dream come true … where the patina of its epoch is preserved.” Bernalda is the town where The Godfather director’s grandfather came from, and Coppola bought the villa in 2004.

Basilicata by Night

The intimate resort, only recently opened, has 7 large suites and 2 garden rooms. Each is a work of art designed by various members of Coppola’s family (daughter Sofia contributed too) along with a preeminent French decorator Jacques Grange, featuring luxurious linens and enormous bathrooms. Several have a large terrace and/or a balcony, while others face the palazzo gardens or look onto the town square.

In the evenings, the salon becomes a private screening room where guests can enjoy one of Coppola’s personally curated collection of 300 classic Italian films and documentaries.

A Room Within a View

Coppola has said the palazzo, in a rustic part of Italy that has yet to be discovered, is about family, eating well, and being together. Just 40 minutes away is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Matera, where ancient cave dwellings, known as Sassi, have been reclaimed as picturesque churches, homes, museums and restaurants. Small mountain villages dot the surrounding hills, and the beach is only a 20 minutes drive.

Al Fresco

The food is traditional Southern Italian, which guests can enjoy on their own if they want, in one of the hotel’s gorgeous settings – from the garden to the Cinecitta Bar. Cooking courses are also offered.

FORGOTTEN LAND

The villa restoration was worked on by local artisans, who collaborated with Grange. The surrounding villages benefit in other ways too, with the staff hired locally – that includes gardeners who tend its herb garden – and a large proportion of the hotel’s produce sourced from surrounding farms. Like Cortijada Los Gazquez in Spain, the palazzo is helping revive outlying regions that are slowly dying as well as taking travelers into parts of the world that time (and tourism) has forgotten.

Palazzo Margherita joins Coppola’s other properties around the world, including Blancaneaux Lodge and Turtle Inn in Belize, Jardin Escondido in Argentina, and La Lancha in Guatemala.

Filed Under: Features, Good Stuff, Palazzo Marguerita, People, Restoration & Repurposing Tagged With: basilicata, bernalda, cinecitta, coppola, jacques grange, palazzo

Island Outpost, Jamaica

January 9, 2013 By admin 1 Comment

GoldenEye

Created by Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records (whose long list of clients has included Bon Jovi and Mariah Carey), Island Outpost consists of five hotels dotted around Jamaica and one in the Bahamas. In Jamaica, there is Jake’s, GoldenEye, GeeJam, The Caves, and Strawberry Hill, each one distinctive and even award-winning in its own right. The properties range from a boutique hotel in the Blue Mountains to larger properties, but never too large, on the beach. Other than the many and diverse projects Island Outpost is involved in, it also manages the former home of Noel Coward as a museum and rents out the villa once lived in by James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Strawberry Hill

A WEALTH OF LODGES

Island ACTS, as its name suggests – Assisting Communities Towards Strength – is an umbrella organization Blackwell (see video below) started to support education, health care, and community development projects among the poorest and neediest people on the island.

The Caves

One of the projects focuses on sustainable development in Oracabessa, a town near GoldenEye. It concerns itself with anything from dispute settlement to promoting music and dance, from advancing sport to agriculture.

Children with the Island Sport Trust

Highly successful too is BREDS, started in Treasure Beach by Jake’s GM Jason Henzel (whose family is famous in Jamaica), has added computer rooms and canteens to schools, keeps the beach clean, and has started numerous sports programs, to only mention a few of their among other things.

One of the Rooms at Jake's

At Patrepant, Island Outpost has an organic market garden that provides produce to its properties, all of which use almost only local fruit, vegetables, meat, and fish in their kitchens.

Filed Under: Americas, Features, Health, Island Outpost, Jamaica, People Tagged With: chris blackwell, geejam, goldeneye, island records, jake's, organic, sport, strawberry hill

Lord’s Safaris, Australia

January 4, 2013 By admin Leave a Comment

Afloat in the Kakadu

Talk of the outback in Australia, and many people probably think of the iconic Ayers Rock. But they probably don’t think of the rest of the vast Northern Territory, whose capital, Darwin, lies on the Timor Sea, and two of its vast treasures, the Kakadu and Arnhem Land. To visit this otherworldly world, there is possibly no better than Lord’s Safaris.

Sab Lord

Lord’s is owned and operated by the bigger-than-life Sab Lord and his wife, Ann-Maree Grant. In the 1950’s Sab’s father was a crocodile and buffalo hunter in what is now called Kakadu National Park (a World Heritage site). This was Sab’s playground growing up with the local Aboriginal clans and, through friendships formed then, Sab has unique access to areas around here that are restricted to others. He knows the Aboriginal culture first-hand, as well as the terrain and the wildlife.

As Far as the Eye Can See ... Arnhem Land

Lucky for the rest of us, Sab shares this with unique, personalized safaris that pry open an understanding of the land, its people and their cultures. There are no tourists on his safaris, only guests. Lord’s Safaris offers one-day trips in Arnhem Land to longer, personalized 4-wheel-drive safaris using camping facilities or staying at the stunning Bamurru Plains Safari Camp – wild bush luxury at its Australian best!

Breakfasting at Bamurru

The camp is situated on the coastal floodplains of the Mary River Delta, offering an utterly exclusive bush camp experience.

And while on safari with Lord’s the “real” Australia is uncovered, it’s sun-burned land, peoples, stunning waterfalls, deep gorges, wildlife and Aboriginal rock art (interpreted by local guides).

LARGER THAN LIFE

Unlike many properties that we have covered on A World Different, which do very identifiable things to make the world a better place, businesses like Lord’s Safaris do it more subtly. For over 20 years Lord’s has been protecting and enhancing Australia’s natural and cultural environment by encouraging protection, preservation and conservation. In addition to “reducing, reusing, repairing and recycling,” they manage their activities in a way that minimizes or eliminates any negative environmental impact they might have. Most importantly, they work closely with traditional owners and local Aboriginals to refine their work practices and operations. No one in Australia is as close to the Aboriginals as Sab.

Filed Under: Australia, Features, Good Stuff, Lord's Safaris, Oceania, People Tagged With: aboriginal, arnhem land, bamurru plains, darwin, kakadu, northern territory, sab lord

Jackal and Hide Leather Bags

October 23, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

Jackal & Hide in Red

Gillie Lightfoot, creator of the phenomenon Tribal Textiles, started Jackal and Hide after moving from the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia (her home since 1986) to Sugarbush Farm, an organic smallholding on the outskirts of Lusaka.

In her search to establish a new, smaller workshop at home, where she could return to being more hands-on and involved on a daily basis with craftsmen (as she had been in the early days of Tribal), she discovered a source of wonderful, locally tanned cowhides.

There existed virtually no manufacturing of leather goods in Zambia, and thus was born a great opportunity to train and work with a new team of tailors, and together to design and craft a range of high-quality handbags and accessories with a unique African feel.

In the Workshop at J&H

Jackal and Hide’s little workshop is set alongside the organic vegetable garden, at Sugarbush Farm, where a handful of trained craftsmen construct the elegant, traditional bags. Each craftsman will tailor the bags from start to finish, inserting handpainted linings (made by Tribal Textiles), adding imported zips and fittings (for best-quality finishes), and adorning the bags with handcarved horn, vegetable ivories, tassels and beads that have been collected around Africa. Gillie calls them ‘dongles.’ Every bag is slightly different and adorned either with Gillie’s signature vegetable ivories, handpicked beads from across the globe, or “recycled” Angoni cow horn.

The Kuba Range

Gillie and her team have also been experimenting with home accessories such as lighting as well as other household accessories. Be warned, you will want to buy the entire inventory so take a big suitcase or arrange for international shipping!

These bags are sold to lodges in Zambia and Malawi, like Tongabezi, Kaya Mawa, the properties of Sanctuary Lodges, and at Tribal Textiles at Mfuwe and its shop at Lusaka International Airport.

If you’re ever in Lusaka and want to see these Jackal and Hide’s creations for yourself, Sugarbush Farm (an old Cape Dutch design) is set in a traditional garden, where they also have a small organic cafe (the Design House Café) that offers delicious salads, juices and homemade food straight from the gardens to the table. While you are eating they can create a basket of freshly grown produce to take with you after you leave.

Filed Under: Africa, Feature Stories, Features, Haute Zambian Leather, Hot Stuff, Jackal and Hide Leather Bags, People, Tribal Textiles, Zambia Tagged With: bags, dongle, gillie lightfoot, leather, sugarbush

UXUA Casa Hotel, Brazil

September 27, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

The Ze e Zilda Suite

In the remote village of Tracosco on the lush southeastern coast of Bahia, you’ll find the unique UXUA Casa Hotel. Conceived by Dutch-born Wilbert Das (fashion designer and longtime creative director for Diesel, the hip clothing line), the gorgeously bright and airy hotel took over two years to build using recycled materials in this tribute to the area Das loves so much.

Casa Seu Pedrinho do Quadrado

Six of the nine 1- to 3-bedroom casas or cottages (three are restored fishermen homes) are scattered around beautiful gardens, while the remaining three face the town square. Some are equipped with plunge pools, some with a Jacuzzi, and others nestle in the gardens and on terraces. Each casa has an open living room and a full kitchen where local chefs will help the culinary-adventurous create local Bahian feasts in their own casa. Meals are also served in the restaurant, at the pool, are delivered to your casa or can be taken at the beach just five minutes away. On the sand there’s a scenic lounge whose bar and kitchen were created out of an abandoned fishing boat that washed up on shore.

The Aventurine Quartz Pool

The swimming pool was made by a local, self-taught “mosaicist,” who used over 40,000 unique green aventurine quartz pebbles, well known in this part of the world to be especially healing. There’s also a spa where, in addition to acupuncture, massages, yoga, and Pilates, you can take private classes in capoeira and forro dancing, which is extremely popular at most of the social activities in the village.

There’s plenty to do if lying on endless beaches is not your thing: trek, horseback ride, snorkel, dive, canoe, play tennis, visit the nearby Indian reserve Barra Velha, a national park that 500 Pataxo tribe families call home … or join a local soccer team in the square!

To build the lodge, Das recruited local craftsmen to construct eight individual, traditional casas and one treehouse using recycled and organic materials wherever possible, while applying the local building customs to create a lodge that fits into its surroundings. Almost everything was carved by hand, which includes some unique touches in the bathrooms that are made out of fallen trees. Hardwood roof tiles were restored from old farmhouses, local ceramics cover the floors, and recycled woods and irons make up the bathrooms to create the rustic ambiance.

Casa Quintal da Gloria

UXUA has also roped in an area containing native vegetation and mangroves. The lodge owners have partnered up with the local administration and have taken responsibility for keeping the mangroves and the beach clean.

The Spa

IN BAHIA

Bahia has high levels of illiteracy, and training for luxury hospitality services is uncommon. Das wanted to employ locals so, two years before the hotel opened, he began a ‘hotel school’ on the property, where locals were given hospitality training by professionals from international hotel schools. In addition, all personnel who had not finished high school were put into classes to complete their diplomas, and those staff who lacked basic literacy skills were given one-on-one instruction. Every one of the present staff of 45 has either finished high school or is in the hotel’s program to get a diploma. Three of those who got diplomas are now taking university courses in a neighboring town, with tuition and transportation provided by UXUA.

Medical benefits are provided to all staff, something extremely unusual for Bahia. They are also guaranteed employment year-round, also rare in this part of the world, where staff are hired seasonally. The hotel pays the salary of the local professor of capoeira, which guarantees that the town’s children and teenagers can practice this sport even if they can’t afford to pay for the classes.

Produce for the magnificent Brazilian fare served in the hotel is sourced locally.

Filed Under: Brazil, Carbon Footprint, Conservation, Education, Features, Good Stuff, Health, People, Restoration & Repurposing, UXUA Casa Hotel Tagged With: bahia, capoeira, mangrove, pataxo, quartz, recycled