Saturday, May 23, 2009

Vegan Traveler on an Island. What does one eat?

I just got back from 8 full days at Maho Bay, an eco resort on the island of St John in the USVI. We arrived down there on 5-8-09 and returned home on 5-18-09. As a vegan traveler I had the task to package food for the entire trip for 2 people. The restaurant is not eco-friendly in my opinion as they truck in everything. When I asked 2 of the chefs if they could prepare a vegan dish they were very polite and said they could IF what they were preparing an item that could be converted to a vegan dish. I would have to give then a notice the day before or check with them in the morning. One chef asked me if I wanted to bring my own tofu or have them cook it up. We are spontaneous when we travel and often took off early in the day and never knew when we would return. For you other vegan travelers out there you can see I was glad I brought my own food and seasonings. The salad bar was a plus and if you brought your own container you could take it back to your cabin. Some of the salads went into our Asian stir fry meals. All of our meals except for some P&J sandwiches were prepared on a 2 burner Coleman store.


Update: 6-3-09

As you can tell I have some problems with Maho Bay calling itself an eco-resort. I think it is more like glorified camping with a restaurant and gorgeous beach. If you are looking for a cheap cabin to rent in the USVI, then this worth trying. The lease is almost up on the land for Maho and it may be replaced by a resort, condos or homes in a few years.

Your footprint is smaller on Maho but my biggest beef about the place is the restaurant food and the term "eco" in their description. They make up their menu daily and list only one vegetarian (not vegan) dish on the menu which were all cooked with heart friendly eggs or cheese. Vegetarian diets are just as bad for our environment as eating beef! You may care about the environment but you aren't don't anything good for it if you eat a vegetarian diet. That is fact and you can learn all about it on a google search. If the boats stopped bringing food to any of the Virgin Islands human life on those islands as they know it would cease to exist except for those who live off the grid or sail up in a boat.

When I think of the word "Eco" used in the description for any property, farm, restaurant or hotel I think of the word sustainable going with it. Trucking beef, chicken, fish and eggs from all over the world is not sustainable.

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