Southern Leyte holiday accommodation, Philippines

We are very conscious of the enviromental impact here and energy usuage is of primary concern to us. We aim to minimise energy consumption and approximately 99% of light bulbs are fluorescent. The buildings were designed to take advantage of cross breezes to minimise the need for aircon/fans, but should these be needed, guests are encourage to use the floor fan first. Walls and ceilings are concrete and all windows have vinyl frames with built in screen to ensure the minimum loss of aircon. In addition, we use on-demand water heaters.

We are fortunate enough to have abundant water here but none is wasted as we return all used water via leech fields to the underground water aquifer.

The restaurant is entirely constructed of readily available bamboo, with natural fibre decor. We recycle waste wherever possible and food scraps are fed to pigs which in turn provide our restaurant with pork. All beer and soft drinks are in refillable glass bottles and the use of cans and plastic is minimal.

We encourage and support local villages in their efforts to develop local caves as a tourist attraction. We also support a local ecotourism organization who is actively making efforts to protect the mountains, caves and waterfalls, ensuring that tourists do not inadvertantly disturb the environment of those areas.

The local government, NGOs etc. have the use of the satellite internet service in our office, the only available internet for 100 miles. All government employees are required to have an e mail address to be able to contact and receive communications from Manila, so our internet is a vital part of the local infrastructure.

We also made the descision to make this service available to the entire area as the best contribution we could make to the Philippino people and our local community. The internet is also used by school students, teachers, wives contacting seamen husbands and foreigners.

The local tourist board uses our facility to design tourist brochures and search for information and communicate with other tourist organisations. The restaurant host most government functions and employees of the schools and municipal are frequent users.