Welcome to Miles to the Wild! This is my new blog that will focus on how to use your airline miles and hotel points to facilitate unforgettable ecotourism adventures. Birding is my passion so in the beginning, I will be mainly focused on destinations that are rich in birdlife but the nice thing is that these destinations will have all kinds of wildlife. Ecotourism has something for everyone! While there are several excellent tour operators who can bring you to these destinations, they may not be within everyone’s budgets. Fortunately, through use of airline miles and hotel points, you can travel to these destinations, have a free night or two in the gateway city and then head off into the bush. Many times, miles and points can be acquired for free via credit card signups if you have a good credit rating. I’m not going to flood you with credit card links n the posts, but I will have a reference page of which cards are available.
Rescued Scarlet Macaw who is now a wild bird
The best way to get the most out of ecotourism and help support the environment is to spend as much of your cash locally as possible. Even better if the lodge is supporting a research project and I will be showing you how to find these. Many species of birds are highly endangered due to trapping by poachers and deforestation. Ecotourism offers a valuable source of income to local people who might otherwise be tempted to trap wildlife and sell these animals and birds on the black market. Ecotourism should be sustainable and not adversely affect the environment by flooding hundreds of people in all at once. The lodges I will be talking about are small, sustainable and some of them employ former poachers as guides. It’s important to have a good guide who knows the local flora and fauna and is used to spotting them as it may be difficult to spot smaller birds high up in trees. Good guides will be familiar with bird calls and the feeding and roosting habits of the local birds. Local people also benefit from ecotourism by providing restaurants, bars, transportation, handicrafts and other souvenirs.
Miles to the Wild will be a partner of my other sites Feathered and Free, Feathered and Free Facebook Page and I do have lots more photos on the Facebook page as I want to keep this blog easily loadable. Before I moved to Facebook, I had a VBulletin based forum which is now being used to archive information and collect my Facebook posts in a more easily searchable media. So even though this blog is a new venture for me, there is already a lot of information out there. Please be patient as I grow this blog and will hopefully become a valuable resource for anyone who wants to see birds and other animals in the wild.