I went to the northern most point on the island of Guam to a beach called Ritidian Beach this past week. The location of this beach was really out of the way from civilization, but the drive to the beach made for some spectacular views of Guam’s untouched northern coast during the last leg of the drive when I descended down from the cliffs to the coastline. I don’t think anyone lived in the surrounding area, and the only reason people would go there was to spend some time at the beach. While walking along the beach I noticed movement in the sand, and upon closer examination there were hundreds of hermit crabs like the one pictured below all along the beach. I’ve been told by the locals that there are huge crabs called coconut crabs on the island that can grow the size of car tires. I doubt I’ll ever get to see a coconut crab but I’ll keep my eyes open for one just in case!

Donating to EDN yesterday for Earth Day put me in a giving mood, and I remembered coming across a micro-lending site called Kiva.org where normal people like you and me could help finance small loans to needy entrepreneurs located around the world, usually in third-world countries.

I decided to head on over to the site and open an account. After opening up an account I funded it through my Paypal account and made three loans of $25 denominations each to people from Nicaragua, Samoa, and Tajikistan! You can see my profile page here: http://www.kiva.org/lender/TravelingProject. The loans are usually used to help these entrepreneurs start up a new business or make improvements to their existing business.

I think helping people through Kiva fits perfectly with this blog, not to mention it makes me feel good knowing I’m helping less fortunate people. Being an entrepreneur at heart and the focus of this blog being about traveling around the world, I think there’s no better way than to help other entrepreneurs from around the world through a non-profit organization like Kiva! In fact, I think Kiva makes such a perfect fit with this blog that I gave it a permanent section on my sidebar to help promote it to my readers!

Maybe in the future I can travel to see some of these countries, and actually meet the people I have helped face to face; documenting the whole trip to share with readers of this blog! This is something I just might have to really think about and look forward too!

Today, April 22, 2008 is Earth Day 2008!

A brief history: Earth Day was first started in 1970 as a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. At a conference in Seattle, Washington the Senator first proposed the nationwide environmental protest to thrust the environment onto the national agenda. On April 22 of that year, 20 million Americans took to the streets to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values; and the movement took off! Fast forward to the present, Earth Day 2007 was one of the largest Earth Days to date, with an estimated billion people participating in Earth Day activities from places all over the world! -Excerts from Wikipedia

As a travel enthusiast, appreciating our planet and concern for keeping the environment as healthy as possible comes naturally. If we don’t start protecting our beautiful planet, many of the sites and places I have the luxury of visiting on my travels around the world won’t be the same or even exist a few decades down the road. This is why I like to celebrate and spread the word about Earth Day! In addition, it is always good to give a little back to mother Earth on this day! This year I decided to make a little donation to Earth Day Network to do my part in protecting the Earth and environment. The screenshot of the Thank You email can be seen below. Although it was only $50 dollars, as this project grows I’ll be making more donations in the future!

My $50 Earth Day Donation Pictured Above

Earth Day Network (EDN) was founded by the organizers of the first Earth Day in 1970 and promotes environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide. Earth Day Network is a driving force steering environmental awareness around the world. Through Earth Day Network, activists connect, interact, and have an impact on their communities, and create positive change in local, national, and global policies. EDN’s international network reaches 174 countries, while the domestic program engages 5,000 groups and over 25,000 educators coordinating millions of community development and environmental protection activities throughout the year. You can check out the Earth Day Network here http://ww2.earthday.net, and I encourage everyone to make a small donation if you can. If your a little short on cash you can still do your part on Earth Day by planting a tree!