Former Traveler intern J.T. Blatty shares some scenes from New Orleans in the midst of football euphoria.

4 . . 3 . . 2 . .1 . . 0: Mouths hang open and a look of shock plagues their faces. The Saints fans in New Orleans watch the final moments of the game in disbelief, and for ten seconds following the moment of victory, not a word is spoken. They're still trying to internalize what has just happened. For the first time in history, not only did the Saints make it to the Super Bowl--they won the Super Bowl. Tears begin to well up and roll down the cheeks of full-grown men.

People from around the world joined the "Who Dat" nation on Super Bowl Sunday, stomping their feet and singing the team's anthem to celebrate this monumental moment in New Orleans history. But it's not just about football: It's about a city that much of the world has grown to love, and one that has chosen to rise up and overcome the trying years following Hurricane Katrina.

On Tuesday, February 9th, the city will celebrate with their returning heroes. What was originally titled as the "win or lose" parade is proudly called the "Victory Parade" now. Nine floats selected from various Mardi Gras Krewes will launch from the Superdome at 5:00 p.m. and travel through the central business district on a 3.7-mile route to Mardi Gras World. This may be the last official celebration for the Saints, but a non-official celebration will remain in New Orleans for years to come.

Click through for more scenes from New Orleans.

Casual birders take note: This weekend is your chance to contribute to some serious scientific research. Alison Brick has the details.

There are certain times when you realize that  the phrase "in your own backyard" really covers some ground, and this weekend is one of them. The 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count will run from Friday, February 12 through Monday, February 15, and you're invited to join in. The project relies on us "citizen scientists" to count birds in our own neighborhoods for a comprehensive, real-time snapshot of bird populations across North America.

The results from the count will help researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, and the Bird Studies Canada. From the data, they can learn about year-to-year changes in the abundance and distribution of birds, patterns of migration, and trends that can be used to study how birds are affected by urbanization, global climate change, and disease. This survey is purposefully taken in February, before the spring migrations begin in March.

During last year's count, 93,600 checklists were submitted online, with 5,519 coming from Pennsylvania alone. The number of species observed added up to 619, and the number of individual birds counted was 11.5 million. Almost 6,000 bird photos were submitted as part of the project, as well.

Anyone can participate, both bird enthusiasts and novices alike. You can count for as little as 15 minutes or a few hours; just once or several times over the four-day event; from your backyard feeder or a local wildlife refuge.

Andrew Evans provides a cinematic retelling of the story of his border crossing into Bolivia.

Screenplay for a short film. All dialogue takes place in Spanish with English subtitles.

The setting is the tumbledown Peru-Bolivia border town of Desaguadero, on the shores of breathtaking Lake Titicaca. Pan across the bright blue watery expanse and the brown Andes Mountains, then down to the fields of yellow flowers and rows of reed boats drawn up on the lakeshore. Camera sweeps through the muddy streets of the Peruvian village, past burros carrying colorful loads and into a colorful Latin American market squalor.

Subtitle briefly flashes onto screen, announcing: "Based on a true story."

Protagonist AE steps off a red and green bus sporting a six-week beard. He stretches his legs and squints at the sun. Suddenly a woman's voice cries out.

Bus Attendant (BA): "Hey you--Americano! Come with me and we'll walk across the bridge into Bolivia."

AE: "But, why?"

BA [hurries over and explains, whispering]: "The Peruvian police, they stop all the foreigners and try to take money from them. Just don't look at them. Just look right ahead, keep walking and stay close to me. If you're with me they won't bother you."

• While living in New Zealand, I developed a love for Cadbury Moro bars (tip: try them deep-fried in Dunedin) but alas, I cannot taste their chocolatey goodness outside the Southern Hemisphere. For those of you who have a love for a certain foreign treat, check out Steve.Portigal's Musuem of Foreign Groceries on Flickr, and you might just find a photo of foreign food you've been looking for. [Gadling]
  
  
• More airports across Europe are joining the effort to reduce their carbon emissions. The Airport Carbon Accreditation has awarded four different levels (Mapping, Reduction, Optimization and Neutrality) of accreditation to seven airports in the past couple months, including Manchester Airport, Athens International Airport, SEA Milan Airport, and Italy's Bologna Airport. To read more, click here. [Enviro.aero]

Photo: andreakw via Flickr

Altitude sickness, dueling ventilation systems, popped tires and more awaited Andrew Evans as he boarded his bus to travel to Bolivia.

Some buses are better than others.

In South America, bus companies attract passengers based on levels of bus quality, comfort, security, entertainment, and sleeping space. When leaving Lima I chose the Peruvian bus company Ormeño because I had already taken them in Ecuador and liked their big buses and nice service. The bus line also holds a Guinness World Record for the longest single stage commercial bus route in the world (from Lima to Buenos Aires--72 hours). I thought it was fitting that they be a part of my journey to Antarctica.

Unfortunately, my 30-hour bus journey from Lima to La Paz was lacking in many of the comforts advertised. Strangely (and ironically), the heat was turned on while we were crossing the blazing Peruvian desert. Then at night, when the temperature dropped to near freezing, the air conditioning came on good and strong while the heat remained. I was baking below my waist and shivering above--an odd sensation.

WiFi's ever-extended reach has changed the way we travel--we upload photos and videos to our Facebook pages while we're on vacation, or tweet our way through a day at the beach. One unfortunate side effect to all this connectivity is the dropoff in my postcard-writing. Yes, I still love jotting down these short notes, but I find that they typically arrive so far after I've returned that it's anti-climactic in a way. So I loved the sentiments behind a recent article in the Washington Post about a unique mailbox in the Galapagos. Despite not using postage, a fair share of its postcards actually beat their travelers home, in part because they're hand delivered.

It turns out that this barrel, located in Post Office Bay on Floreana Island, has relied on kindhearted strangers to be its mail carriers for centuries; it was first used by English whalers who were hoping to get correspondence back to their families. Today people drop off their well-intended missives in the box, and travelers rifle through them, looking for one that's addressed within delivery distance from their home. Upon returning, they will seek out the recipient, and explain the story behind the barrel, and ensure that card is delivered by hand.

Have you sent or received a post card from Floreana Island? What was your story?

[Washington Post]

Photo: Andrea Sachs/ Washington Post

The 26th annual Yukon Quest--a 1,000-mile dogsled race from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Whitehorse in Canada's Yukon Territory--began this past Saturday, February 6. The trail follows the Gold Rush and mail delivery dog sledding routes of the early 20th century. As of today, many of the dog sled teams (each made up of one man and 14 dogs) have passed Mile 101 (check out this video of the resting point) and are now resting in Circle City.

You can follow the teams' progress through photos and video on the Yukon Quest website. The teams are expected to finish the race on February 19.

Photo: Yukon White Light via Flickr

• Share the road: The Huffington Post has a great round-up of bike lanes around the world, from New York to Copenhagen. Plus, learn more about what cities are doing to encourage people to bike in the March issue of Traveler. [Huffington Post]
  
  
• New Zealand sure knows how to age its whiskey. The New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust found five cases of Scotch in Antarctica from an expedition led by explorer Ernest Shackleton in 1909. The crates were found buried underneath the floorboards of a hut used by Shackleton's team. Now, that's having Scotch on the rocks. [Huffington Post]

Photo: Spacing Magazine via Flickr

Andrew Evans offers a glimpse of skateboarding culture in Lima, Peru.



As I was wandering Peru's capital city, I found myself drawn to Miguel Grau Park in the neighborhood of Miraflores. The view of the Pacific Ocean from the top of such high cliffs is simply enchanting--and what did I find on the other side? An open-access skate park that was busy with some serious skateboarding and freestyle biking. Maybe it's because I'm traveling to Antarctica primarily on wheels, but I had to stop and catch the some of the ramp and half-pipe action.

Skateboarding culture is fairly universal but the way country and city governments react to it varies widely. I was impressed that Lima offered such a quality park for free and even more impressed by some of Peru's professional skateboarders who were there giving free lessons to novices. I snatched this quick video so that you skaters out there know what you're up against in Lima.

Andrew is back on the bus and traveling through Argentina. Follow his Twitter feed @Bus2Antarctica, and the map of his journey here. Bookmark all of his blog posts here, see videos here, and get the full story on the project here. Photos by Andrew Evans. 

Andrew Evans explains how he learned to love Lima, Peru. For more on Lima, click here.

In Spanish, the word "Lima" means "under construction." OK, that's not true. Really, I think it derives from the ancient Inca phrase meaning "perpetual traffic." Alright, that's another lie--but honestly, those were my first two impressions of Lima when I arrived.

Maybe it's because I'd been sitting on buses for 30 consecutive hours and was a little bit cranky. After a 621 miles of desert (that's 1000 kilometers down here), I stared out the window at what I hoped would be my own special urban oasis and jumped to some harsh conclusions. I immediately shot out a tweet that Lima was "the brownest city in the world." Everything I could see was brown--the ground (no grass), the buildings (brown brick)--even the overcast rainy season sky was filled with dust and shone a kind of dull brown-grey.

Let me be clear: I am not on a sightseeing trip. Rather, I'm on a "seeing" trip. I am traveling 10,000 miles on an open itinerary with the ultimate goal of Antarctica--I just try to see what I can see along the way. Admittedly, it's been hard to pass up wonders like Machu Pichu or the greater Amazon, yet the real glory of travel is the unexpected things that pop up all along the way.

Lima is what popped up along my way and I was coping with that. Thankfully, my attitude changed thanks to a hot shower, a little nap, a 14th-story view from my very splendid hotel, the Crowne Plaza, and some bona fide Peruvian food. Now I know that Lima has all kinds of fabulous museums and galleries and old world colonial architecture and is rich in all aspects of Peruvian culture, but I only had two days and lots of chores to do. I've discovered that when I'm not on a bus, then I'm recovering from the last bus or else getting ready for the next bus. For me, Lima was simply a very large and noisy rest stop on the road to Antarctica.

Last year, Rainer Jenss traveled around the world with his wife and two sons, and blogged about his experience here on Intelligent Travel. This year, he's back with a new column that focuses on traveling with kids.

Lots of parents, myself included, are concerned about what affects all the electronics--and the digital age in general-- are having on our children. Even though I've had success limiting their time playing video games, my sons seem to have discovered a newfound interest in computers, and it probably won't be long until their curiosity with cell phones turns into full-blown obsession.

There is a new technology, however, that I fully encourage my boys to use as often as their little hearts desire: a digital camera. Fortunately, this didn't require a whole lot of coercing when we traveled around the world last year. In fact, they were so into shooting that when Tyler accidentally broke his camera about halfway through the trip, we may as well have gone home if we didn't get him a new one right then and there.

So for your next trip together as a family, go ahead and try to leave all the kids' electronic devices at home (unless, of course, you have a long flight or car ride on the itinerary, in which case you may want to reconsider), but make sure they pack the digital camera. And if they don't have one, you may seriously want to think about heading to an electronics store. Even if you already own one yourself, I wouldn't recommend sharing it with your child/children, since 1) they won't be nearly as engaged if they have to keep asking you for it, and 2) one of you is going to be upset that they missed "the shot" while the other blissfully fired away at the whales that breached out of the water just 100 feet from your boat.

With Carnival season in full swing and the Saints heading to the Super Bowl this Sunday, New Orleans is ready to party. We asked local blogger G.K. Darby to share some of the best spots for watching the game.

New Orleans native Corey Woods of the Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club* has a phrase for when someone really puts on a party: "wiping it down." "Did you 'wipe it down?'" he might ask. For the past few days New Orleanians--of every shape and stripe--have been wiping the town down.

It's hard to find a person in New Orleans who isn't drinking or eating to excess with overwrought, tear-filled faces. The city is about to blow a gasket. Overblown sport narratives deserve a special place in misery along with holiday parade coverage and entertainment "news," but this town has chosen to use the Saints' triumph as a bookend. Mired in a permanent state of reform since 2005's Hurricane Katrina, the city has yearned for the storm days to be over, and the Saints, epic losers for 42 years, have miraculously provided a finish. 

The night the Saints clinched their Super Bowl spot on Sunday, January 24th, music filled every intersection--brass bands led spontaneous, rambling parades, shutting down major city boulevards. The city didn't sleep. The next day the local daily newspaper ran a poll: "What excuse did you give your boss to stay home today?" "Working from home" got 17 percent of the vote.

Carnival started on January 6, it's been building with street parades and ridiculous cotillion balls ever since. Mardi Gras day is Tuesday, February 16. The Mayoral election is scheduled for Saturday, February 6. The Mystic Krewe [Carnival Club] of Barkus will go ahead with its parade on Super Bowl Sunday, February 7, at 1 p.m. Barkus is a dog parade--dogs in carnival costume. The theme? "The Dogs Go Barking In." Everyone is wondering if anyone will show up to vote.

So where will New Orleanians watch the game? (Everything is closing except the bars where people have traditionally watched the Saints.) Here are a few spots where you'll find yourself in pleasant company.

Mention Indianapolis these days and many of us think of Peyton Manning and the Colts. In fact, the city has become a major sports town, with established pro football and basketball teams, the Indy 500, and the headquarters of the NCAA. But Indianapolis also has a literary side--as the hometown of author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. As he said in 1986 to a high school audience in his town, "All my jokes are Indianapolis. All my attitudes are Indianapolis. My adenoids are Indianapolis. If I ever severed myself from Indianapolis, I would be out of business. What people like about me is Indianapolis."

Vonnegut claimed that many of his beliefs derived from his education in the public schools of the city: "I simply never unlearned junior civics. I still believe in it." And he began his writing career editing the Tuesday edition of The Shortridge High School Echo.

Andrew Evans gives us a glimpse from the bus as it drives through Peru's Sechura Desert.



Of all the borders I've crossed on this trip, the most drastic change I've felt so far was crossing from Ecuador to Peru. After days of lush green banana plantations and tropical lowland jungle, I entered the Sechura Desert--one of the driest places on earth. The vegetation disappeared completely and what started as a bare sandy horizon soon transformed into a flowing wall of dramatic sand dunes on either side. I felt like I'd been dropped into the world's biggest sand box and as I watched out the window, the wind blew the sand into new drifts and patterns. This desert lasted through nearly 20 hours of bus time--all the way to Lima in fact. Everyone on board was busy watching a silly Japanese movie and so I retreated to the bathroom to try and film some of what we were passing through.

Andrew is back on the bus and traveling through Argentina. Follow his Twitter feed @Bus2Antarctica, and the map of his journey here. Bookmark all of his blog posts here, see videos here, and get the full story on the project here. Video by Andrew Evans. 

• Omni Hotels is offering rooms for $144 per night in both Indianapolis and New Orleans (above) in celebration of the Super Bowl this weekend. Better yet, travelers who book the "Go Indy, Go Big Easy" package and are staying in a room in the winning city will receive their room night for free! For more information, visit OmniHotels.com.
  
  
• Greyhound might not be as cheap as the Bolt Bus or MegaBus, but right now the bus company is offering $5 tickets on all seats between New York and Philadelphia. For more information and to book, visit www.greyhound.com.
  
  
• Attention Bank of America card holders. Did you know that you can get free access to dozens of museums on the first weekend of every month? Museums include the Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento, the Miami Art Museum, New Jersey's Morris Museum, and Seattle's Museum of History and Industry. For the complete list of museums and more information, click here.

Photo: Omni Hotels

This year, Saturday, February 14th, isn't only Valentine's Day but also the start of the Year of the Tiger, year 4708 of the Chinese lunar calendar. Chinese New Year is celebrated around the world in unique and varied ways, wherever a significant Chinese population has taken root. North America is no different; in fact, in the U.S. alone, people of Chinese extraction constitute the third largest immigrant group and the largest Asian ethnicity, numbering about 2.7 million according to the 2000 Census.

New Year's traditions in China include scouring the house to sweep away ill fortune and make way for good luck. It's a time to reconcile, be on one's best behavior, and spend time with family, enjoying feasts of pig, duck, chicken, and sweets. Many overseas Chinese return home this time of year to enjoy the 15-day period of family togetherness. Children are often given "good luck money" in small red envelopes called lai-see and fireworks are ignited to scare off evil spirits.

Chinese New Year in North America is not a direct transplant of Chinese traditions; most celebrations are shortened and simplified in the New World. Parades have come to epitomize Chinese New Year in the New World--a blending of the symbols, colors, and spirit of Chinese lantern festivals with the very American ritual, the parade.

For a peek at five of North America's exciting Chinese New Year celebrations, click through to the jump.

Andrew Evans always listens to his mom's advice, but also realizes that sometimes life has a way of bringing wonderful strangers in to help you.

We're taught to fear all strangers from a very young age--after that, the propaganda never really stops. Pick up any guidebook to any country, or worse--read the U.S. State Department travel warnings for any particular place and you'll suddenly think you're living in a world full of bad people plotting to do bad things to innocent traveling you.

Still, the fact remains that as travelers we find ourselves at the mercy of strangers all the time. When we travel, we leave our comfort zone and enter a place we know nothing about inhabited by people who know it quite well. It behooves us to listen to them.

I've had my fair share of bad luck on the road, but I also know that the majority of strangers are very nice people. I met three such wonderful strangers in a small Quito bus station--we were forced to share a cab when the bus company announced they weren't coming to pick us up and that we instead needed to get to another station on the other side of the city.

Sitting four to the backseat of a cab in 90ºF heat for an hour of Quito traffic forces you to get to know someone quite well.

My neighbor Rosita put up with my profuse sweating and shared her story: Colombian but living in Toronto for the past 30 years, now visiting relatives in Ecuador. She was traveling with her brother and sister and when they asked, I told them my story (it's funny how now that I've crossed the Equator, people actually accept that I'm headed to Antarctica).

• Friendly Planet Travel is offering a nine-day Taj Mahal Express tour of India. The package includes guided tours of the Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikhri, the Amber Fort, and a one-day tour of Delhi (with tours of the Laxmi Narayan Temple, Raj Ghat, and the Red Fort), as well as found-trip airfare from JFK via Air India. Prices start at $1,099 and is available until March 31 on select dates. For more information, click here, and get the latest updates from Friendly Planet Travel on their blog.
  
  
• This Valentine's Day, go green at the Hotel Fouquet's Barrière in Paris. The eco-friendly five-star hotel is offering a "For Everlasting Love" package, which includes accommodation in a luxury room, a fitness breakfast (featuring local produce and multi-grain bread), dinner and Pop-Earth Champagne at Le Foquet's, and carbon off-setting through Action Carbone. For more information, check out www.fouquets-barriere.com.

Traveler contributing editor Andrew Evans finds the "real" Equator in Ecuador.



Attention all map nerds! I am one of you. That means I go nuts about imaginary lines on the Earth--especially the Equator.

Flying over the Equator is both routine and uneventful while a ship that crosses the Equator normally calls for a big party or initiation rituals. So what do you do when your bus crosses the Equator? You jump off and try to memorialize the place. 

In Ecuador, there is already a memorial: La Mitad del Mundo is a monument to the Equator, complete with a stodgy square pillar and a bright orange line on the ground marking the place where the Earth's latitude is equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole.

La Mitad del Mundo is also Ecuador's gaudiest tourist trap. On Twitter, I described the place as "overwrought" and "heavily commercialized" because 140 characters fails to encapsulate the great gathering of souvenir stands, trinkets, ice cream parlors, T-shirt shops, cafés, random memorials, unrelated museums, hustlers, blaring loudspeakers, and a stage filled with half-dressed women doing provocative dance moves to a bored crowd. Exactly what cut-off denim hot pants have to do with the Equator, I just can't say.

Still, I played my part as tourist--I paid my two bucks to get into "The Milddle of the World." I walked along the Equator and had my smiling picture taken with one foot in either hemisphere. I crossed back and forth between North and South, bought a postcard and watched tourists from all over the world get a kick out of this imaginary line and what it means--how it gives definition to our planet and helps the seemingly infinite space of our planet feel rather finite.

But I wasn't convinced. That's because deep down, like most National Geographic devotees, I am a total map nerd.