Please don't walk on the coral

Snorkeling is one of my favorite things to do in the world. I can stay in the water for hours floating around looking at fish, corals, sponges and urchins.  Each place is different and special.  I hate it when I have to adjust my mask though - treading water, trying not to kick anything below, trying not to float away, not suck up water, and get the mask back on. What I hate even more though is seeing people STAND on the coral.  What they don't know won't kill them (usually) but it will kill the coral,  and lots of it. They don't know that this simple action on their part is destroying what took years to develop.  http://www.gomanzanillo.com/snorkeling/protect.htm has a great overview. When we travel we usually visit at least one science or history museum to find out more about where we are and know how to be responsible visitors there. On our trip to Bocas del Toro, Panama,  one of the first things we did was go to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute 

http://www.stri.si.edu/ what a great experience!  Our guide Marlon was passionate about sharing his knowledge with us and very patient with our many questions. We even got to hold spiny sea urchins in the touch tank. 

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Sustainable travel

Flying anywhere definitely increases your carbon diet but there are ways we can make positive choices when we travel. Choose the option of not replacing your towels everyday in the big hotels. Stay in small eco-friendly lodges like the Tinamou Cottages in Panama. 

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Eat local, organic and homegrown

Purple peppers from the local organic high school CSA, red bell pepper and yellow tomatoes from the front yard and citrus from a neighbor. Less petroleum involved, better health and beautiful flavors. 

Got it!!!

So it's 5 in the morning and I'm home alone and probably snoring away when I am awakened by a joyous sound - the rat trap! This little creature has been the bane of my existence for a few weeks now and I am so happy to have finally captured him/her. I turn the lights on to check it out and sure enough it's the rat! We live in the foothills so we have tons of critters but this little one was persistent and destructive - it had eaten through our screen door to have it's own little ratty door and freely came and went when we forgot to close the sliding door. Several avocados were obliterated and the dog food bag was regularly invaded with new cutouts giving the darn ants easy entrance as well. I borrowed a rat zapper from my co-worker but to no avail and to this little rat's fortune, it did not work and before I could try any more to get it to work, my husband convinced me that we could do something more humane - we live in their space anyway, right? (I think these are Norwegian rats, though) So, I got on Amazon and voila! a Havahart rat trap was at my door the next day. So after many days of trying I finally got it and drove it down the hill to the far end of the foothills where there is a big open natural canyon, with a lot of coyotes.