On Sunday, November 23, 2008 after 3 weeks of heavy rains and rising rivers, a 90 foot wall of water crashed down the valley of the Tsküy River in Talamanca, Costa Rica. The flood devastated the community of Yorkín. With a population of approximately 250 people, Yorkín is a Bribri Indigenous community situated in an isolated location unreachable by road. Thankfully no lives were lost, however sustained unbelievable losses in a single night, and the situation remains critical. Every family in Yorkín is affected by the disaster.

Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast offers experiences completely unique from the Pacific Coast. Here you’ll encounter azure waters, blissful bike-rides through coconut groves and winding sea-side roads, spicier cuisine, melodic Patois (Patwa) mingling with English and Spanish, stronger Indigenous presence and an increasing community-wide commitment to greener living. While this may sound familiar, the Caribbean promises plenty of pleasant surprises and style of pura vida all its own.

Let’s suppose that because of measures to mitigate climate change, e.g. carbon taxes or trading systems or whatever, travel gets much more expensive. Let’s say it gets twice as expensive as it is now, relative to your income – i.e., if you were to continue travelling as much as you do now, it would use up twice the proportion of your total income as it does now. (We’ve had a bit of experience of this recently, though unrelated to climate change, with oil price increases..).

GOPhilanthropic enters 2009 with a host of new travel programs aimed at providing support for the empowerment of communities worldwide and the protection of heritage and environment. The socially-conscious travel company embraces the combination of Travel Philanthropy, Geotourism and Sustainable Travel, coupling Vacations and In-depth Educational Tours with support for social and conservation projects worldwide. The result offers travelers meaningful and authentic exchanges with local communities and engagement in conservation efforts unique to each region