Tag: ethics

Vacation Report, San Diego, CA: La Jolla Cove

Vacation Report, San Diego – Arrival, Centurion Lounge, and Hyatt Regency Mission Bay

Vacation Report, San Diego – Balboa Park

Vacation Report, San Diego – San Diego Zoo

Vacation Report, San Diego – La Jolla Cove

Vacation Report, San Diego – SeaWorld

Vacation Report, San Diego – Departure

La Jolla Cove

After a day at the zoo, we realized we had yet to make our way to the beach. To rectify that, we opted for one of the more well known coastal areas of San Diego: La Jolla cove.

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Don't be this guy!
Don’t be this guy!

The guy above is crowding the sea lion. Not only is it against the law in San Diego, it is dangerous for both the man and the animal. As more people crowd the animal, the animal becomes more and more agitated and backs away (who can blame it?). This in turn prompts the humans to advance to get better pictures, and the cycle continues until either the animal leaves or the human gets bit. Don’t be like this guy. Respect the animal!

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El Indio

After a day of sea-watching, we were craving some authentic Mexican food. Being this close to the border, we did some quick Googling and settled on El Indio.

Featured on Guy Fieri’s show, Diners, Dive-Ins, and Dives, El Indio has amazing food for ridiculously low prices. Hard to say not to that!

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PSA: Elephant Riding

I am generally not one to randomly bash what other people do on their vacations, I came across a very disturbing post today on Million Miler Secrets regarding a trip to India and an elephant ride. To properly understand my problem with this, it’s first important to understand some things about elephant anatomy.

Elephant Anatomy

Asiatic Elephant Skeleton
From Wikipedia: Richard Lydekker – Royal Natural History Volume 2 (Available on www.archive.org)

The spine of an elephant has evolved over time to support weight that is suspended downward, not placed above onto it. Additionally the soles of their feet are not shod in any form, as you would a horse, leading to severe damage over time. This also leads to grinding against the bones on their feet.

In many parts of the world the treatment of these creatures is extremely suspect between what is known as the “crush”, forced breeding of females, and the elephants having to walk on surfaces that they are not accustomed to.

Ethical Experiences

That said, there are many ethical experiences available to you if you want to spend time with these marvelous creatures. Tiffany, over at OneMileAtATime posted of one such sanctuary in Thailand —  Elephant’s World. For roughly 70 USD per day, per person, you can spend time taking care of elephants that have been rescued.

Just some food for thought!