Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Though Earth Day activities here in the Bay of Banderas are largely overshadowed by the fact that it's also Good Friday, Mexico is certainly does its part to honor Mother Earth.

JourneyMexico.com offers this information about green resorts in the Riviera Maya:

Luxury travel enthusiasts looking to travel to the Riviera Maya can keep it green while on vacation with Karisma's hotels and resorts. The adult friendly El Dorado Spa Resorts & Hotels, by Karisma, have a "Passion for the Environment" program that is dedicated to keeping their luxury properties eco-friendly.

In addition to a serious recycling program and an impressive solar power system, Karisma has a 70,000 square foot greenhouse facility that provides produce to its hotels and resorts throughout the Riviera Maya.

The greenhouses in the facility grow over 30 different types of produce including: cilantro, thyme, onions, tomatoes, honeydew melons, lettuce, cucumbers, bell peppers, chilies, basil, mint, and squash. By being able to produce in house, the Karina properties are able to enhance customers' culinary experience with fresh, organic meals as well as to reduce negative emissions from the trucks that would normally have to bring in the produce. The resorts also feature a fish market where guests can select fish from local fishermen's daily catch to be prepared for lunch, dinner, or snacks by the pool.

Also on the Riviera Maya, the luxury Grand Velas Resort, located five minutes from Playa del Carmen, is offering an ideal, green escape hotel package now through the end of the year. This AAA Five Diamond resort, an all-suites and spa venue, is the latest and most sophisticated iteration of the ultra-luxury, all-inclusive resort experience, and is Green Globe-Certified.

The resort's new Green Escape Package provides travelers the chance to see and learn about the property's natural cenotes (fresh water sinkholes), plus plant a mangrove tree in their name in the resort's lush jungle area. Resort guests will also receive a certificate with the tree coordinates so they can watch it grow from home on Google Earth.

One of the most innovative and exciting earth-friendly programs in this country is Ecobici, launched last spring in Mexico City. They city installed 1,100 bikes at 85 stations throughout the center of the city.

In its first three months, 4,000 people have paid $24 for user cards they swipe at a rack to release a bicycle for a half-hour. City officials hope to register 24,000 people in the first year. With 50,000 trips taken to date through Mexico City's harrowing streets, city officials are delighted with the results: zero accidents, zero thefts.

"As we commemorate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, cities around the world are putting innovative ideas into action to reduce their carbon footprints. And Mexico City has proven that we don't need to wait for a global commitment to care for the environment," said Mayor Marcelo Ebrard.

Luis Rodriguez, a downtown office worker, wiped sweat from his forehead as he snapped his Ecobici onto a rack this week. "The government is doing a good job with this," he said. "It saves me money, gets me to work more quickly and it's healthy for me."

A 15-minute bike commute can burn 11 pounds of fat a year, reducing the risk of heart disease as much as 20 percent, according to SmartBike, which builds Ecobicis for about $700 each in Oslo, Norway. In addition, it says, commuting cyclists are less exposed to air pollution than commuting motorists, and just one person switching from driving to cycling to work for a 6-mile trip each way saves 1.3 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.