Recently in _South America Category

To conclude Hispanic Heritage Month on a literal high note, PBS aired the first two hours of its engrossing and fact-packed four-hour series Latin Music USA last week, and the second half will air this evening, October 19th. The first two episodes are up in both Spanish and English on PBS's website.

The site also features a slew of ways to learn even more about the genres and songs--bachata, bolera, ranchera, salsa, cumbia, boogaloo, mambo, Latin jazz, plena--explored in sound, image, and through first-person interviews on the show. You can dissect the genres, their multifaceted origins and histories by genealogy, by instrument, by rhythm, and, important for us at Traveler, by place.

New York City shines the brightest in the creation of this music of the Americas; melting pot, salad bowl or whichever imperfect metaphor it may be. The story of salsa blew my mind. I had no idea how young the genre is. Influenced by boogaloo, Latin Jazz, and mambo, voiced by Puerto Rican (Hector Lavoe), Cuban (Celia Cruz), Panamanian (Ruben Blades) immigrants, accompanied by first-generation, South Bronx-born trombonists (Willie Colón) and many others, it's a complex genre like no other with moving, real-life lyrics and a rhythm that energizes and animates.

The Palladium Ballroom on 53rd and Broadway figured large in New York's Latin music scene from its debut in 1948 until its closing in 1966. People of all ages and ethnicities flocked to the second-floor dance floor to listen to the nonstop music and groove to new, syncretic sounds. Of course now, it's an NYU dorm.

Does the music of a place influence your decision to travel there?

Only a couple weeks remain in National Geographic magazine's International Photo Contest, and below Ian Kelsall describes how he took this photo (and one of the standout entries this week) in Brazil.

"On my second day visiting the astounding Iguazu falls on the Brazilian side I was forced to change to my telephoto lens as my wide angle had been damaged by the water vapour," he says. "In had rained solid for 10 days prior to my arrival and so the falls were at their most spectacular. Standing on the elevated viewing platform I was able to shoot this school group who stood transfixed, emphasizing the incredible size of the falls."

For more images, visit the weekly galleries on National Geographic Magazine's site. The International Photo Contest ends October 31st, so submit your favorite images in the People, Places, and Nature categories now.

Our friends down the hall at National Geographic Expeditions are offering a free webinar next week on the Galápagos Islands, and are inviting Intelligent Travel readers to join them online on October 20, 2009, from 8-9 p.m. EDT. Full details from the Expeditions crew follow below.

The Galápagos Islands are home to a fascinating array of unique wildlife. Frigate birds puff out their scarlet pouches, 100-year-old giant tortoises lumber through the grasses, and brilliant Sally light-foot crabs scamper across dramatic rocks covered with sunning marine iguanas. Incredibly, these fantastic creatures have no instinctive fear of humans.

National Geographic Expeditions and Lindblad Expeditions have been exploring the Galápagos together for years. Now we invite you to join National Geographic marine biologist Mike Heithaus and veteran expedition leader Carlos Romero on a virtual trip to this magical place. During our upcoming webinar, you'll get a taste of the islands and their wonders--and what makes our expeditions there so special. You'll take a stroll through our ships, meet our naturalists, and learn why our Galápagos trip is a truly spectacular adventure.

When you sign up for the webinar (it's free), you'll be able to email questions  to the Expeditions staff in advance, and any questions that they don't have time to answer during the webinar, they will call you up and answer on the spot. If you'd like to read about this 10-day voyage about the National Geographic Endeavor or Islander, (that's right, we have our own navy), check the Expeditions website here.

Photo: National Geographic Expeditions

Lawrence Ferber timed his visit to Rio de Janeiro well, arriving just in time for the announcement that the city won its Olympic bid for 2016. He sends along a dispatch from the weekend's festivities.
 
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - Obrigado, Olympics Committee! A geyser-like spray of silver confetti greeted the announcement that Rio won the bid to host the 2016 Olympics, and the glittering cloud engulfed the jubilant crowd of Cariocas who had gathered in front of the Copacabana Beach stage, flanked by giant TV screens, to take in the news and par-tay.

With the famed Copacabana Palace Hotel looming to the left, and the ocean to the right, the celebration was one big samba, with music and local celebrities keeping everyone entertained. But come 1:30 p.m. the televised proceedings from Copenhagen held us rapt. Rio had lost its 2012 Olympics bid (and at least two others before it), but now following a two-year campaign it had beat out second front-runner Madrid (which was booed when the name came up during the announcement), Tokyo, and Chicago. Not quite gingerly but politely enough, many Brazilians, and even some North American visitors, remarked that Chicago would have been a boring choice - "it's South America's time!" nodded one visiting American journalist.

Richard Morgan looks down on the world from his perch in the Peruvian jungle.

If you're going to go so far as to have a private luxury treehouse in the Peruvian Amazon accessible only by Ewok-inspired treetop canopy wooden bridges, it makes sense to have an on-call jungle butler on the ground. For emergencies. Or for more towels.

That's the idea behind the recent expansion at Inkaterra's Reserva Amazonica, about an hour down the river from Puerto Maldonado. The treehouse suite hopes to ameloriate a particular thorny problem Peru has: how to get tourists to enjoy its spectacular environmental splendor - the jungles, the rivers, the mountains, the World Wonder of Machu Picchu, etc. - without having the whole country look like the last day of spring break in Acapulco, all cigarette butts and crushed beer cans and regret.

Much has been written about this dangerous game. There's the fratty party town at the bottom of Mount Everest. The trashing of the national parks. The concerns about preserving ruins. It's an especially weird problem for luxury travel; the Grand Canyon gets too touristy, so people head to Arches National Park, which gets too touristy so people head to Denali, and on and on. Like locusts with fannypacks.

When you tell people you're a travel writer, most people look at you with a bit of envy in their eyes. But the newest reality show to hit the Travel Channel hopes to dispel (or perhaps perpetuate) the myths of living the high life on a magazine's dime. Just ask Andrew Evans, a regular contributor to National Geographic Traveler and Intelligent Travel and one of the five scribes featured in "Confessions of a Travel Writer," premiering tonight at 9 p.m. EST. He and his cohorts traveled to Chile several months ago (see his blog posts here) while Andrew reported a story for the magazine on Valparaíso (tentatively scheduled to hit newsstands in our November/December issue). We asked him to offer a glimpse of what's in store.

"Travel writing is a dream job, but it's still a job," he writes. "I think the show employs a kind of nail-biting, Saving Private Ryan kind of realism in order to shock and awe the viewing public into how challenging travel writing can be--trials like antique-furnished boutique hotels, gourmet 12-course taster menus, and remembering NEVER to look into the camera . . you know, all the travel writing essentials. In a bizarre coincidence of fate and foreshadowing, this pilot takes the form of a timely John Hughes tribute as it is basically five travel writers re-enacting the Breakfast Club in South America."

Watch tonight to find out whether Andrew is the brain, basket case, athlete, princess, or criminal... and if you're a fan of Andrew's work, help him get to Antarctica by voting for him in the Quark Expeditions blogger challenge!

[Confessions of a Travel Writer]

Kallari bars are considered to be some of the best chocolate around (at least by pastry chef Kate Zuckerman--see this article--and Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert). Available in Whole Foods markets, they are a sweet you can feel good about buying: Over 850 Kichwa families living in the Amazon rain forest region of Ecuador have formed the Kallari Association, which grows the cacao used in the bars AND coordinates the production of chocolate from their own beans. Plus, 100% of profits are returned to the Kallari Association, allowing people in the area to make a living by doing something other than clearing trees in the Amazon. (Watch this NBC video or read this NY Times article to learn more about Kallari.)

Kallari farmers are one of a small number of groups who farm, make, and market their own chocolate (another such group is the Grenada Chocolate Company, which operates from Grenada, in the southeastern Caribbean). But what's unique about Kallari is its foray into cultural tourism: now you have the chance to eat the chocolate in Ecuador, where it's made.

To taste the chocolate in a restaurant setting, head to the Kallari Cafe, in the new town section of Ecuador's capital city, Quito. They offer a three-course cultural dinner, with traditional Amazon dishes and a 15-minute presentation on Kichwa culture, including language, crafts, and methods used in their organic coffee and chocolate production, all for $7.50 per person. (They can handle groups of 10-25 people, but you have to schedule it two weeks in advance.) If you have less time, pick up a sandwich and a smoothie for lunch. And snag a piece of the Amazon to take home in the form of organic chocolate and coffee or Kallari handicrafts.

Fast Facts: Quito's new town neighborhood is known for its shops and restaurants, but be sure to make your way to old town's museums and churches for a cultural experience: La Compania de Jesus and Museo de la Ciudad are favorites. La Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World) is a monument just north of the capital that straddles the Equator.

Photo: Kate McCormack

Hello, city-lovers! Today we're heading south to Rio de Janeiro, South America's second-largest city. Local expert Lucy Bryson tells us what's hot in this Brazilian metropolis.

Want to see your city on IT? Copy and paste our list of fill-in-the-blank questions into an e-mail, fill in your answers, and send your responses to IntelligentTravel@ngs.org. And if you're still waiting for us to feature yours, fear not! We're going to keep posting as long as we keep getting them (please include photos and links!).

Rio de Janeiro is My City

The first place I take a visitor from out of town is Santa Teresa. Most people think Rio is all about the beaches, but this bohemian hillside neighborhood has the most beautiful buildings in the city, fantastic views, excellent bars and restaurants in an amazing village-style environment.

When I crave decent vegetarian food I always go to New Natural. This place has a great, largely veggie, buffet, and the best pastéis (stuffed pastries) in the city.

To escape the heat I head to Parque Lage--you can seek shade in the little caves if the beating sun gets too much!

If I want to work on my tan I go to Ipanema Beach.

For complete quiet, I can hide away at Parque Catacumba. It's right by the Lagoa, but very few tourists have discovered this shady park.

If you come to my city, get your picture taken with Jesus! What other city can say that?

If you have to order one thing off the menu from the ubiquitous street side snack bars it has to be pão de queijo. These little cheese bread balls are unbelievably addictive.

Christina Stockamore, our colleague at National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations, recently returned from a family reunion in Colombia, and naturally, she brought us treats. After we sampled them, we wanted the full story....not to mention another bite.

When in Colombia, I often sneak into my aunt's pantry to find the tin of José A. Obleas cookies and the tub of Alpina arequipe. In the corner of the kitchen, I quietly savor my wafer sandwich filled with a spread made from whole milk and sugar. 

The arequipe spread is similar to dulce de leche and this creamy caramel glues together two thin, circular wafer cookies, called obleas, to create a dessert by the same name. Obleas are so light and crunchy that it's easy to eat 3 or 4 without noticing! I asked a friend to describe the taste she said it reminded her of McDonald's cake cones on the outside and melted Werthers candies on the inside. (Mmm.) The outer wafer shell is often paired with other spreads, such as guava, raspberries, and whipped cream.

No trip to Colombia is complete without a quick stop to the local grocery store to stock up on more tins and more tubs. Traveling back from a recent reunion in Colombia, I had a tight connection in the Fort Lauderdale airport. I raced through the security checkpoint and realized I forgot to put a very special (over 4 fluid ounces) liquid in my checked bag - my arequipe. I rolled my eyes and walked grudgingly over to the security agent. He looked puzzled when he inspected it, while I explained that it was arequipe, my favorite caramel spread from Colombia. I must have given him a convincing look because the next thing I knew, he glanced cautiously from side to side and then proceeded to slowly return the contents in my bag. What a relief!

Now I just need to find a Colombian market in the neighborhood to replenish my pantry back home. 

Photo: Kate McCormack

Every trip should have a soundtrack, so we've asked CJ Fahey with Nat Geo Music to select artists from their catalog whose songs will inspire you to get going.




I have a ready answer whenever someone asks me the quintessential travel question, "What's your dream vacation?" - Brazil! My attraction to Brazil started with the music, but the added bonus of beautiful beaches, small bathing suits, and cultural diversity - African, European, and indigenous American influences mixed together - sealed the deal.

Thanks to films like City of God, people outside Brazil have become more aware of the difficulties plaguing the country - poverty, corruption, and violence. But the stereotype of a vibrant tropical paradise still thrives and, from what I hear, is not undeserved. 

Hacienda San Agustín de Callo, nestled in Ecuador's "Avenue of the Volcanoes" (and featured in a story of the same name by Charles Kulander in our April 2009 issue), calls itself an "archaeological estancia" and there's good reason for that. The hacienda's formal dining room and chapel were built in the 15th-century possibly by one of the last Incan emperors, Huayna-Cápac, out of intricately carved volcanic stone. Eighteenth-century Spanish colonial additions and 19th-century republican styles were piled over top of the Incan imperial architecture. Layer upon layer of Ecuadorian pre-Columbian, colonial, and contemporary history co-mingle and captivate at site.

Archaeologist Dr. David Brown of the University of Texas at Austin has been excavating at Callo for close to 15 years, with the help, we're proud to add, of two National Geographic Society grants. Brown told me that the quality of the stonework at Callo, the finely fitted wall blocks and the hulking double-jamb doors, suggest that it was no ordinary site during Inca times and was quite probably a temple or shrine dedicated to the even now still-active Cotopaxi volcano that rises above it to the site's east. In addition to the two extant rooms that are now part of the hacienda, Brown has unearthed the foundations and low walls of six other buildings that might have once formed a symmetrical compound.

Every trip should have a soundtrack, so we've asked CJ Fahey with Nat Geo Music to select artists from their catalog whose songs will inspire you to get going.


It's no surprise that one of the sexiest videos we've got at Nat Geo Music is a tango-electronic song from the French-Argentine group Gotan Project; after all, tango got its start as a dance performed in brothels in Buenos Aires in the late 19th century and today is synonymous with romance.

"Diferente" by Gotan Project shows how you might find tango danced today in a Buenos Aires milonga. This video highlights two dances: the obvious one on the dance floor, and the implicit dance of stolen glances and budding romance between the featured (gorgeous) couple.

Tango has inspired poets and artists for generations. Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges has noted the passionate, almost combative interaction between dancers: "The tango is a direct expression of something that poets have often tried to state in words: the belief that a fight may be a celebration." And tango legend Enrique Santos Discépolo touches on tango's inherent melancholy: "The Argentine tango is a sad thought that you can dance."

A trip to Buenos Aires is a trip to the heart of tango. If you go to Argentina, or for that matter Uruguay, pick up some records by contemporary tango groups like Gotan Project and Bajofondo, or legends like Astor Piazzolla and Carlos Gardel. And don't forget your dancing shoes.

[Video, Free Buenos Aires]

Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world journey, and they're blogging about their experiences for us at Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys' Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.

"Welcome back" were not the words we wanted to hear with six weeks left on our year-long journey, but there was no avoiding it unless we didn't tell anyone about the forty-hour layover we had in New York before flying on to Peru. "We're not finished yet," we had to say again and again. Carol and I were actually quite apprehensive at the thought of breaking up the flow of our trip to spend two nights back where we started last July. The benefits of doing this, besides seeing some family and friends, were that the boys could play with their long-lost buddies while Carol and I seriously downsized our luggage for the trip's final leg that would be spent mostly in tropical climates.  

As far as how it felt to be home for the first time in ten months, it was actually quite revealing. If there's one thing I've realized throughout all my travels, it's that your senses are elevated. Food, fashion, architecture, language, landscapes, wildlife, smells--you are much more aware of everyday details whenever you leave the familiar surroundings of home. Since I've been in this heightened state of awareness for almost a year, it didn't go away when we landed in the U.S. Just the opposite. I seemed to walk around in an "all that's old is new again" frame of mind.

Meanwhile, our trip to Peru would also be a sort of homecoming, for we were joining up with the winners of the National Geographic Kids Hands-On Explorer Challenge, which would reunite me with fellow staff members and other colleagues from The Society.  It also meant that Tyler and Stefan would have plenty of peers to share the experience with, a huge bonus for two boys who only had sporadic interaction with other kids their age in the last year.

Traveler and Photo District News are currently hosting our annual World in Focus Photo Contest, and this year we're letting readers preview the submissions and vote on their favorites. Each week, we'll feature ten entries on the Traveler website. Here's one of of the featured shots from this week:

We kind of wish were were standing in the sun, taking a photo of an iguana sunbathing in the Galapagos right now. But this picture is by Louise Marie Holst, and she's got a chance to win great trips, cameras, and other gear in our contest. Enter now for your own shot at getting the goods.

Traveler and Photo District News are currently hosting our annual World in Focus Photo Contest, and this year we're letting readers preview the submissions and vote on their favorites. Each week, we'll feature ten entries on the Traveler website. Here's one of my faves:

This breathtaking mirror-image was taken in the Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia, South America by Hayden Carlyon. He has the chance to some serious prizes, including a National Geographic Expedition, photography workshops, and new camera gear. Enter now to get the chance to win some prizes of your own.

[World in Focus, Voting Machine]

Hola, city-lovers! Buenos Aires is known for its tango but Laura Milsom insists the city has much more than that. "Everyone falls in love with something here," she says. "Be it a person, the architecture, nighlife, neighborhoods, dancers, shops, wine. It is devilishly charming despite its chaos." Read on to find out why Laura loves her city.

Want to see your city on IT? Copy and paste our list of fill-in-the-blank questions into an e-mail, fill in your answers, and send your responses to IntelligentTravel@ngs.org. And if you're still waiting for us to feature yours, fear not! We're going to keep posting as long as we keep getting them (please include photos and links!).

Buenos Aires is My City

The first place I take a visitor from out of town is down Calle Florida to Plaza de Mayo, followed by window viewing of a parrilla restaurant with a full stack of meat cooking.

When I crave mint ice cream I always go Freddo.

To escape the sound of screaming buses I head to the ecological park.

If I want to have a great cocktail I go the bar Milion.

If you come to my city, get your picture taken with tango dancers and the obelisco.

If you have to order one thing off the menu from La Cabrera it has to be the butterfly steak (which feeds a family of four).

KEL is my one-stop shop for great selections of English books.

When I'm feeling cash-strapped I go Plaza San Martín (bitter tea drink they have here).

For a huge splurge I go Galerias Pacifico and buy a dress to go to the Oscars in.

When Andrew Evans left Chile's Patagonia region, he had multiple filled notebooks and a camera that kept blinking "insufficient memory." Here, he shares some of his sufficient memories from his trip.

Some countries just don't get along--just the way people do. France grumbles at England, America shakes its head at France. The Swedes mock the Norwegians, Korea does not love Japan and the whole of Central America thinks Costa Rica needs to take it down a notch. All these little national rivalries are fascinating and hilarious, as long as countries stick to name-calling and don't start trading bullets.  

Patagonia spans two countries that love to argue: Argentina and Chile.  Argentina accuses Chile of fudging its maps to look bigger than she really is, like padding a bra, while Chile thinks Argentina is a snob who's too good for the rest of South America. Both still squabble about who gets the bigger pie slice of Antarctica, who has the southernmost city and who makes the better glass of red wine. Neither country can stand the other's accent.

Like any two siblings, there's a degree of jealousy in the mix. Argentina secretly craves Chile's starched collar, its more stable economy and sound business record. Chile thinks Argentina is more sophisticated and wears way better shoes. The differences often seem petty, especially considering how much the two countries have in common: both Argentina and Chile harbor painful political histories, both are nations of immigrants and both own a piece of Patagonia.

Senior editor Norie Quintos, who edits the annual Tours of a Lifetime special issue currently out on newsstands, talks to Jim Sano, president of San Francisco-based Geographic Expeditions, one of the oldest and most trusted guided tour operators in the country (NOTE: not associated with National Geographic Expeditions), about where the industry is headed and the role travel plays in making the world a better place.

How are current economic conditions changing guided travel?

I don't have a crystal ball, but I can say we have weathered many storms. This one may be more significant than 9/11, SARS, and the Gulf War because it is so global and pervasive up and down the economic ladder, affecting the highest end travelers as well as value travelers.

Are you making changes in your programs?

Yes. We're moving towards shorter and shorter holidays. This has actually been a trend over last few years, but for many people in the current climate, the degree of comfort to which they feel they can be away from home, as well as finding the time, has been foreshortened.

Where are people traveling?

We've seen our South American offerings, including the Galapagos, go up from last year.

I know you are planning programs several years out. What are the new destinations of the future?

Cuba is one of the countries on our radar screen. We have done educational trips to Cuba in the past, but there is a pent-up demand and we're doing legwork on that now and will be ready when conditions change. We're also looking at the west coast of Africa as an area yet to be explored; it is very rich culturally.

Your company's roots are in long adventure treks in Asia. But I've noticed your catalog has diversified and is offering fewer hard-core treks.

Whereas before 80 percent of what we offered in the '70s and '80s was trekking, now it's just under 20 percent. That's true for many other companies that started at the same time. The degree to which people want to do the harder treks has lessened dramatically. The people who used to trek now want to do something softer. They may want to hike during the day, but then they want a hot shower and glass of wine. We've adapted by offering both. There's an upcoming trip we're doing with Peter Hillary (son of Everest climber Edmund Hillary), going to South Georgia Island to retrace Shackleton's trek across the island. Part of group will be crossing with Peter; it's difficult glacier travel. But a majority of the group will stay on the vessel. Of the 80 to 100 passengers, we may get 20 who want to do the crossing. But the others still want the opportunity to rub shoulders and learn from Peter Hillary and top-notch mountaineers.

We here at Traveler love a well-made craft (we've got an authentic shopping guide to prove it), which is why I was taken with this video made by the folks over at Cool Hunting. They visited the Grafica Fildalga printing facility in São Paulo, Brazil, and interviewed the adorable gentlemen who painstakingly lay out the characters for posters on a 1929 German letterpress. Watching the machine in action is mesmerizing.

What's even more interesting is that this shop has managed to stay in business even after São Paulo instituted it's "clean city" campaign back in 2007. At the time, the local government's decision to eliminate all public advertising -- everything from billboards to bus stop ads -- was an extension of their aim to combat pollution. The "visual pollution" of such signage completely overwhelmed the city, to the point where one local journalist reported that prior to the cleanup, some fevelas had been practically invisible to the public because billboards had been covering them. The reduction of pollution was seen as a tremendous life-enhancement to city residents (it had a 70 percent approval rating), and now São Paulo is slowly starting to designate areas where advertising can be permitted -- in moderation. Grafica Fildalga has been kept afloat in part by the efforts of Choque Cultural, art gallery whose uses these posters to promote their shows. It's a great bridge between the old and new.

[Via Craft and Cool Hunting]

Our current issue has a fantastic story about trekking "The High Road to Machu Picchu" by Scott Wallace, and I'm already tired just looking at photographer Aaron Huey's shots of the craggy Peruvian mountains. But I'm just smitten with this gallery of Peruvian faces we just put up on our site. So many smiling faces, and the gorgeous colors of their fabrics remind me of our friend Lolly's knitting quest. Check out the entire set here.

Photo: Aaron Huey