Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
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This is an ecological hotel with ecological standards as detailed below.
Construction and gardens
Very low construction density. From the 25 hectares (61.8 acres) land that we own, we only have constructed about 3,000m2 (9,842.5ft), that is about 1.2%. We have constructed our hotel from the second dune on, so that the first dune, beach and topography remained intact - pristine. This is very important, as precisely in this first dune, the sea turtles come to hatch. Natural products were used for all bungalows (only 15) which blend into the surrounding nature.
Recycling:
We recycle all our water biologically. The gray waters (showers and washbasin) go to a biological filter that has a stone (antracita) and bacteria - this filtered water is then used to water our garden.
The black waters (W.C.) are pumped to our SIRDO = integrated organic recycling system - there it sediments and is used as an inoculous for our compost pile.
The greasy waters of the kitchens and soapy waters of the laundry have each special filters with sand, gravel, stone and bacteria - this water is also used for our garden. For this system to work properly, we obviously had to install two different water pipelines. The recyclable waste: wood, glass, plastic, paper and metal is collected and then transported to the next recycling facility that is 110km (68 miles) away from us in Uman. The non-recyclable waste - less than 3 bags a week we dump in the municipality garbage dump.
Resources:
All our water comes from a salty well. We have taken great care in not pumping too much water out of the well - we have a little 1hp pump that pumps about 2 litres per second. This water is filtered with sand, gravel and activated carbon, stored and chlorinated. This water goes to the main water system of our hotel. Part of it is then pumped to our potable water system. We installed an inverse osmosis and ultraviolet rays to make our water potable, so that we can avoid buying water bottles that would cause more garbage.
Our lighting system is done with low voltage bulbs. To avoid that the little sea turtles get confused and do not find their way to the sea, we have kept our illumination as low as possible in our resort. We have installed solar panels to heat the water of our swimming pool.
Miscellaneous:
We offer ecological tours to the surroundings. We have a small vegetable garden.
In the adjacent land (that by the way is also ours = 500 hectares (1,235 acres) we have planted about 20,000 Malayan dwarf coconut palm trees which are resistant to the lethal yellowing decease that is killing all the palm trees. The nearby town, Celestun, also profits from our resort: About 1/3 of our staff comes from the town; we use the services of the local boatmen to make the Celestun inlet tour; we buy local products like fish, seafood, vegetables and bread; etc.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
