Little Travel Co.

The Little Travel Consultant. Helping You Create Memories. Based in Whitby, Ontario, Canada. The Little Travel Consultant is affiliated with Nexion Canada, ULC 100-235 North Centre Rd, London, On N5X 4E7 HQ Phone 519-660-6966 TICO Reg# 1549342 kate@littletravel.co ~~~ www.littletravel.co

Saturday 30 April 2016

My first cruise - Part 2 #fathom #traveldeep

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Sorting Cocoa beans


Before embarking on the cruise, you are able to go online and choose up to 3 impact activities that you would like to take part in.   In brief, these are the options, Reforestation and Nursery, Recycled Paper, Cacao and Women’s Chocolate Cooperative, Community English, Student English, Water Filtration, Concrete Floors and Creative Arts, Music and Sports.  
Once on board you are assigned tickets for your chosen activities stating the day and time.  The morning activities starting at 7.30, and the afternoon ones at 2pm.   This is definitely not for people who just want to spend the day by the pool relaxing, this is about getting involved and making an impact. For the English language activities there is a prerequisite course to attend on board during the day at sea. This prepares you for the teaching activity and introduces the special books for the course which have been designed. 
The port of Amber Cove on the Northern shores of the Dominican Republic near Puerto Plata, it is a purpose built resort area built for Carnival Corp at a cost of over $80 million.   It services ships from the Carnival line, including Holland America, Cunard, P&O among others.    There is a large pool, with slides and zip line over the top.    A restaurant, bar and numerous shops.    The port is equipped with 2 berths and can accommodate up to 10,000 passengers.     This is also the location that the buses leave for the impact activities in the local communities.
Up bright and early, ready for the 7.30 departure, we made our way to the buses.   My first impact activity was the Cacoa and Womens Chocolate Cooperative.    After a 30 minute drive deeper into the country we arrived at the Cooperative.  Chocal was created by local women in this community where about 20 of them work.  They use the cocoa beans grown locally to make organic chocolate which is sold in grocery stores throughout the region and at Amber Cove.   The morning was divided into 4 activities which the groups rotated through.   Sorting the dried cocoa beans, sorting the ground cocoa nips and removing any shells, pouring the chocolate into moulds, and finally wrapping and packaging.  It was a great activity working alongside the local women, increasing their production for the day.  During our time there we wrapped 1600 chocolate bars and sorted 38 lbs of coffee nips. 
The next morning we set off bright on early to a school in the heart of Puerto Plata.  One of the skills in demand by local employers is basic English.  However, there is a shortage of trained English teachers so Entrena has partnered with Fathom to improve English language education.   We were introduced to the Principal and then met the children.  Our impact guide helped everyone, children and volunteers to relax with a warm up singing game.  At our session we helped a class of 10 year olds working with a one to one ratio, following the lesson plan in the books provided, to start to learn English.  It was actually a lot harder than I had imagined not being a teacher, but very rewarding as George started to recognise the words and repeat them back.  This was repeated after recess with a second group children.   The progress of the children will be tracked during the year so that we are able to check back at a later date to see how they are doing.
My final activity was Reforestation and Nursery.   The purpose is to restore degraded land and contribute to forest and wildlife conservation throughout the region, working to protect and extend its natural resources.   Another 25 minute bus ride into the hills near Puerto Plata, enroute our impact guide gave an overview of what we would be doing and how it was helping.    We prepared pots for seed planting, planted seeds and replanted palms moving them to the nursery so that they would have a better chance of growing.    Another very rewarding activity and quite tiring.  
All three activities that I was lucky enough to be involved in were very different, but rewarding in their own way.   It was a good feeling to think that we have helped these people even just a little, and I hope that the work continues and improves the region’s economy and the people’s lives. 
Talking with other travellers back on the ship it was interesting to hear the different activities and how they had impacted people.   Pouring concrete floors in people’s homes who had been living with dirt floors for years, was very hard work,  but sounded like a very  rewarding impact activity that I would love to try.   Working in local communities, going into people’s homes to help teach English, created lots of heart-warming stories.
I really enjoyed the week away, the courses and options on the ship were varied and interesting, and the impact activities also.   I would recommend this new type of travel, the small ship environment has an intimate feel where you connect with like-minded travellers from around the world who want to do something a little different with their vacation time.
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Amber Cove



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Teaching English

Wednesday 27 April 2016

My first cruise - Part 1    #Fathom #traveldeep 


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Leaving Miami

I’ve never been on a ‘regular’ cruise,   so I can’t really compare my ‘Fathom Impact Travel’ cruise to another.  I never really wanted to be on one of those huge ships with thousands of people, and wasn’t sure if I would get overwhelmed by the need to be alone, or even if I would get sea sick.  So when I heard about Fathom and ‘impact travel’ cruise to the Dominican Republic, I knew that I wanted to be a part of it.  A smaller ship, with under 700 people on board, and only a short time at sea sailing from Miami to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, really appealed to me. 
When we in North America think of the Dominican Republic, we think of all-inclusive hotels and long sandy beaches, without giving much thought to the people who live there.    But 40% of the population lives below the poverty line, with the average household income less than US$6000.   More than 3 million people don’t have access to piped water.   
Fathom has partnered with existing community development organisations,  Entrena and IDDI.  Coming along side these well-established programmes, with their strong community relationships in the northern region of the DR which was a perfect fit.    They identified programmes that already existed and offered assistance.   This means that even when there are no travellers helping out, the programmes are still at work and helping the communities.  This is not a fragmented approach, but a holistic one. 
 The theory and hope is to be able to transform this region of the DR, building over time and transforming the lives of the people there, while also having an impact on the traveller, a genuine, authentic experience for everyone.  
The size of the ship creates an intimacy as travellers, with the same goals, join together in small groups to take part in various onboard activities prior to arriving in the DR.   Activities such as ‘Empowering English Tutoring’, ‘Raising the next generation of Changemakers’ and ‘Social Innovation in Action’ to name a few.     In addition to these, there are Yoga, Meditation and other Health and Wellness classes available.  
The staff onboard the ship were fabulous, and always smiling and available to help whenever needed.   I found the selection of food and quality also very good.  
I enjoyed the 1 ½ days at sea very much,  but the real impact behind the idea doesn’t happen until you arrive at Amber Cover, Puerto Plata and start meeting the Dominican people in the local communities during your Impact Activities. 
Part II to follow.
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Saturday 16 April 2016

What is Voluntourism?




It is tourism in which travellers take part in local community work as volunteers, to make a difference in a community as part of a vacation package.

It is a new way of travelling and is becoming increasingly popular around the world.

Unlike eco-tourism, voluntourism is aimed at helping other people rather than helping the environment. Voluntourism involves tourists going on vacation or rather, missions to help out on a particular project.
This volunteer work overseas includes not only the duties as a volunteer, but also gives a chance for tourists to discover new places and immerse themselves in a foreign culture.  The time spent becomes an exciting and fulfilling vacation as you are able to experience another world while helping out. 
This type of voluntary work overseas is very different from the typical idea of a “relaxing” or “sightseeing” vacation which is in fact very artificial and does not allow you to really engage with the people in the country you are visiting and to form relationships with them.

I set sail from Miami on Sunday on the inaugural cruise to the Dominican Republic with Fathom.org.
Once there we can opt into various ‘impact’ activities ranging from planting trees to spending time in a local school practicing English with the students.   

It will be a very different experience for me,  one which I am very excited about and look forward to sharing. 

About Fathom

The company is the brainchild of Tara Russell, who in 2013 suggested to long-time friend and Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald that voluntourism could offer great potential in the cruise space. Donald agreed and persuaded Russell to take on the venture as president of Fathom, under the Carnival Corp. umbrella. Fathom will sail to the Dominican Republic and Cuba. The Fathom team worked with the government and non-profit organizations in the Dominican Republic to identify the greatest needs and determine how the passengers would be able to contribute. In June 2015, Fathom officially was introduced to the world, and in April 2016, it will sail its first cruises.
The company aims to have a positive impact on three areas: economic development, education and the environment. Passengers work side by side with residents on tasks such as cultivating cacao plants or teaching English.
While other lines offer volunteer excursions, Fathom is the only cruise line that will sail full volunteer cruises year-round. The line will sail seven-night cruises departing from Miami and spending three to four days in Amber Cove, a port located on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Fathom will alternate itineraries between the Dominican Republic and Cuba, where it will operate under the U.S.'s people-to-people guidelines
Fathom doesn't call itself a "cruise line," but rather a "social impact travel" company because it offers a "radically different onboard and shore experience" than what is offered by any other cruise line.





Wednesday 13 April 2016

Notre Dame: Saved by the Hunchback


Europe's most famous cathedral, whose twin Gothic towers loom above France's most beloved river, the Seine, actually owes a lot of its international success to the author Victor Hugo. Back in 1831, when Hugo wrote his classic novel about a hunchbacked bell-ringer at Notre Dame who falls in love with a beautiful gypsy, the medieval cathedral had fallen on hard times. During the Revolution in 1789, it had been seized, looted of its treasures and converted into an atheistic "Temple of Reason." Even worse, after the monarchy was restored in 1815, Notre Dame was used as riverside warehouse – its once-splendid glass windows now dimmed and its facades decaying pathetically above the Île de la Cité.
But Parisian's indifference to their landmark ended suddenly in 1831, when Victor Hugo published his romantic novel the "Hunchback of Notre Dame," (called "Notre-Dame de Paris" in French). The book was an international bestseller and lured armies of tourists to Paris in search of its Gothic cathedral setting. Hugo used this groundswell of public interest to lobby the French government for renovations of his beloved Notre Dame. From 1845 to 1864, repairs were indeed carried out – the clogged medieval streets nearby were cleared, revealing the marvelous edifice we see today. Incidentally, fans of Hugo’s other famous novel, "Les Misérables," should detour one block to the Seine, between the two bridges of Le Pont Notre Dame and the Pont-au-Change. It was to these famously turbulent waters that Hugo sent the obsessive Inspector Javerts, nemesis of Jean Valjean, when he suffered a crisis of conscience over his life-long duty to the law. "There was a splash," Hugo wrote, "and that was all." Destinations aren't just places on a map. They're the backdrop for some of the most fascinating stories in history.
By: Globus

Saturday 9 April 2016

Berlin Wall


The top question of any visitor to Berlin is: Where’s the Wall? In short, it’s gone. After Die Wende (the term used to describe the reunification Germany), the 155-kilometer ring around West Berlin went the way of most useless masonry – it was torn down to make space for new construction. (Berlin has been a construction site for years, its skyline pierced by building cranes).
The longest existing piece of the Wall (one kilometer) is on Mühlenstraße, but perhaps not for long. In the 90s, artists painted murals on the concrete and created what became the open air East Side Gallery. Some of these murals were recently torn down, and the fate of the rest is uncertain. The city of Berlin is reluctant to protect them. After all, the Berlin Wall was nothing to be proud of. At least 125 people died trying to cross it, some of them dying in the eastern zone before the eyes of Allied personnel powerless to help. The observation towers, the bunkers, the dog runs, the metal fencing -- all of it is gone, but not the rift between East and West Germany.
Few Germans today would say the Die Wende has been a complete success. Many parts of East Germany still lag behind the west in employment and wages and thus prosperity. Even without the wall, the united Germany is still under construction. 
By: Globus

Wednesday 6 April 2016

Experience the Opera in the Amazon


The last thing you might expect to find in the middle of the world’s densest rainforest is a Italian opera house. But in the city of Manaus, the Renaissance-style Teatro Amazonas, Amazon Theater, looms above the fast-flowing river like an apparition from a distant world. Its improbable saga began in the 1880s rubber boom, when the pneumatic tire was invented and Amazon rubber suddenly became a valuable substance. Pioneers flooded into the jungle by riverboat, and the remote camp of Manaus, thousands of miles from civilization, became a boom town overnight.
In this Brazilian El Dorado, millionaire rubber barons outdid one another to prove their sophistication, ordering the latest fashions from Paris, building art nouveau mansions and lighting their cigars with $100 bills. In 1881, the local governor decided that Manaus should become the southern hemisphere’s cultural hub by building an opera house along the lines of Milan and Naples, then pumped a fortune into the project. It took a decade and a half to ship the luxury materials from Europe, including swathes of Carrara marble, 198 chandeliers and 36,000 ceramic tiles, but on New Year’s Eve, 1896, the marvelous house was inaugurated with a performance of La Giaconda.
The audience sweated through the show in tuxedos and evening dresses, swatting malarial mosquitoes with their theater programs. But the evening was a huge success: patrons were dazzled by the sumptuous interior, which boasted four levels of Corinthian pillared balconies and Louis XV-style red velvet chairs. The house curtain was painted with Grecian nymphs lolling at the meeting-place of the Amazon and the River Solimoes, which occurs at Manaus.
In 1982, the theater enjoyed a renewed fame when it was featured in the Werner Herzog film Fitzcarraldo as a monument to human obsession. Today, operas are still performed here, although the musicians are mostly immigrants from Eastern Europe, lured to the jungle from their chilly homelands.
By: Globus

Saturday 2 April 2016

A Short Wine Guide



Historically, Germany’s wine has suffered with an “inferiority complex” fueled by the reputation of wine powerhouses France and Italy. And in modern times, they’ve tacked of “how to compete with a Bordeaux or a Chianti” by improving quality, while keep prices reasonable. Finally, German vintners are starting to reap the rewards.
The world famous Riesling region, centered on the Rhine and its tributaries and in eastern Germany near Dresden, is the biggest success story to come out of Germany’s 13 wine growing regions. White grapes form 80 percent of the harvest, but reds are on the rise, as well as the general reputation of German wines. Here’s an overview of the major grapes:
  • Riesling: Known and loved across the globe, the Riesling is an elegant white wine that sometimes has an aroma of peaches or apricots. The mid-priced varieties are good with almost any meal. The best come from the Moselle and Rheingau tributaries.
  • Müller-Thurgau: This white grape produces plain wines with less character than the Riesling. Grown everywhere, Müller-Thurgau generally has a nuttier, riper taste than the Riesling.
  • Spätburgunder: Germany’s Pinot Noir, this grape yields the best German red wines and may be the next German export to hit the world’s palette. Excellent examples grow on the steep slopes of the Ahr River and in Wurttemberg. Silvaner. This dry white wine is a specialty in the vineyards of Franconia around Würzburg. It has a sour apple taste that is good with meals or mixed with mineral water as a Weinschorle.
By: Globus