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We know social media has changed the way we travel, but can it actually make for a better trip? To test the thesis, Traveler writer Andrew Nelson is trading in turkey and cranberry sauce next week for sunscreen and a BlackBerry. He's headed to Miami Beach to see if the local Twitter community can lead him to on-the-go discoveries in South Florida. If you know Miami, be a bird on his shoulder. Follow him @andrewnelson and help guide him to your favorite bits of South Beach, Coconut Grove, Little Havana and more.

Andrew will be in Miami from Thursday, November 26th through Monday, November 30th. Tweet him your insider tips on where to eat, play, and soak up the city's culture, using the hashtag #ngtmiami. Follow him now, and read his story about his experience in an upcoming issue of Traveler.

Flamingo illustrations: piccerella/istockphoto.com

We're headlong into Geography Awareness Week, and our pals over at NG Blog Central, inspired by Senator Al Franken's impressive map-drawing abilities at the Minnesota State Fair this summer, have been getting U.S. political leaders involved in the act by asking them to sketch their states. Check out their freehand maps (and comments), then we challenge you to see how well you can draw your state from memory.

The exhibit "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor" opens this Thursday, November 19th, at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC. We weaseled our way into the press preview to get you a sneak peek. But before letting us loose to see Emperor Qin Shihuangdi's lifesized warriors face-to-face, Stanford Professor Emeritus Albert Dien, guest curator of the exhibit, reminisced on his first visit to Xi'an, China, in 1977 to see the warriors who'd been discovered three years before by a local farmer digging a well. In our October Places of a Lifetime issue he relates this moment:

Turning a corner, we came upon the figure of an archer that I hadn't seen in any published literature. It was such a shock to see this startlingly lifelike figure that our hosts insisted I sit and rest awhile. . . [T]his archer seemed so vibrant, almost in motion. . .I simply sat and stared in wonderment--and the wonder has never left me, no matter how often I've returned to Xi'an.

The kneeling archer is here at our headquarters, along with 14 other figures including infantrymen, a chariot driver, two musicians, a well-muscled (albeit headless) strongman, a 700-pound horse, cavalrymen, a seemingly obsequious court official, and a general. Also on display in the 12,000-square-foot, four-themed exhibit space are 100 objects--decorative jade pieces, bronze weapons, coins, a naturalistic crane sculpture, details of the warriors' armor, and roof tiles--including 20 "Level 1" artifacts, those designated as the site's rarest and most important finds.

Our adventurous friends down the hall at National Geographic Expeditions have a last-minute invitation to join them on a free webinar tonight exploring Costa Rica and the Panama Canal.

Wildlife ecologist Taylor Edwards and veteran expedition leader Gustavo Abarco will host the session, taking you into the rain forests of Manuel Antonio and Corcovado National Parks, where monkeys romp (I've seen 'em!), sloths sleep, and a wide variety of colorful tropical birds flit through the trees. Enjoy a virtual horseback ride on a remote beach on the Pacific coast, a kayak excursion around the tiny islands in the Gulf of Panama, snorkeling in the pristine waters off Isla de Coiba, and swimming in waterfall pools on the Osa Peninsula (one of Traveler's 2009 Places of a Lifetime). You'll get a tour of the National Geographic Sea Dragon ship, and see the workings of the Panama Canal. All this for free and from the comfort of your very own computer:

Costa Rica and the Panama Canal webinar
Monday, November 9, 2009
8:00-9:00 p.m. EST, U.S.

Space in the webinar is limited, so please pre-register at the link above to reserve your space.

However, if the Panamaniac within you is screaming for adventure, make sure to take advantage of the current special offer on upcoming expeditions:

Receive a $500 airfare credit on all Costa Rica and the Panama Canal departures between January 1 and March 31, 2010. In addition, receive $250 off per person on the January 2 and 30 and February 20 and 27 departures when you book by December 30, 2009.

For those joining us tonight, bon cyber voyage!

The November issue of National Geographic magazine features a remarkable image of chimpanzees at a rescue center in Cameroon watching the burial of one of their own. Since it was published, the photo and story have gone viral, turning up on websites, in newspapers and on TV shows around the world. National Geographic writer Jeremy Berlin interviewed the photographer, Monica Szczupider, who was working as a volunteer at the rescue center when she took this photo, and who submitted the picture to National Geographic's Your Shot:

On September 23, 2008, Dorothy, a female chimpanzee in her late 40s, died of congestive heart failure. A maternal and beloved figure, Dorothy spent eight years at Cameroon's Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, which houses and rehabilitates chimps victimized by habitat loss and the illegal African bushmeat trade.

After a hunter killed her mother, Dorothy was sold as a "mascot" to an amusement park in Cameroon. For the next 25 years, she was tethered to the ground by a chain around her neck, taunted, teased, and taught to drink beer and smoke cigarettes for sport. In May 2000, Dorothy--obese from poor diet and lack of exercise--was rescued and relocated along with ten other primates. As her health improved, her deep kindness surfaced. She mothered an orphaned chimp named Bouboule and became a close friend to many others, including Jacky, the group's alpha male, and Nama, another amusement-park refugee...

For more of the story, go to NGM Blog Central here.

Photo by Monica Szczupider, National Geographic magazine

With at least 12 resident spectres, the tiny hamlet of Pluckley in Kent is considered Britain's most haunted village. There's a spectral highwayman, a phantom monk, the hanging body of a schoolmaster and a poltergeist in the local pub. You would think Halloween would be the town's favorite holiday. And indeed, the Halloween festivities in Pluckley last year raised thousands of pounds for worthy causes. 

But it also raised the ire of some of Pluckley's citizens, who prefer the town to be as quiet as the grave on Halloween. Rather than falling victim to vandalism, traffic chaos and uproar caused by hundreds of revelers flocking to the village, the parish council has simply banned the holiday. From the blog Nothing To Do With Arbroath:

"There will be no entertainment provided for visitors," said a notice on the Parish Council website.

"There will be no barbecue, no hog roast, no beer tent, no fun fair and there will be no ghost tours. In fact, unless you are coming for a quiet drink, may we suggest you visit one of the many other attractions in Kent for Halloween."

Enjoy the peace, Pluckley!

Photo: via Nothing to Do With Arbroath

In an innovative approach to conservation, Japanese carrier All Nippon Airlines is suggesting that its passengers make a pit stop before boarding their planes in order to reduce fuel consumption. The AFP reports:

ANA estimates that if half its passengers went to the bathroom before boarding, it could reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 4.2 tons a month, said company spokeswoman Megumi Tezuka.

Apparently, the pre-flight flush is just part of their new environmentally friendly efforts. The airline also plans to recycle paper cups and plastic bottles, use napkins created from the byproducts of green tea production, and offer chopsticks produced from wood from forest thinning projects. These new tactics will be tested on 38 domestic flights-including the six-and-a-half-hour route from Tokyo to Singapore, all this month.

Though we realize the airline isn't suggesting you avoid the loo altogether, we wondered what crossing your legs for an extended flight would be worth in the way of CO2 reduction. Thankfully, The Toronto Star actually went so far as to calculate the overall conservation in passenger "weight" saved by a trip to the bathroom before you board:

The average human bladder holds up to a litre of fluid, which weighs roughly one kilogram. All Nippon's most popular aircraft, a Boeing 777, holds 247 people. So, in theory, if 247 passengers all go to the washroom before boarding, they could lighten the plane by up to 247 kilograms--the weight of three average men.

What's your take? Is going before you go the new eco-savvy way to travel?

[All Nippon Airlines E-Flights Campaign]

Photo: Grist.org

There's perhaps nothing as upsetting as losing your camera during a trip, particularly at the end, when all of your vacation photos go missing as well (a close second perhaps, is losing your notebook that you're using to report on a trip, cough, cough). Thankfully, the wonderful Web can often come in and act as a savior. Case in point: When Californian Nick Hare came across a camera while cycling in Maui, he picked it up and, after getting a digital card-reader, he found a photo of a young couple with their child. After posting the picture last week on a Facebook page he created to find the owners, a virtual six-degrees-of-separation pinballed its way through the social media sphere, and within a day, he tracked the couple down. He shared the news on the Facebook page:
 

The couple was found. I spoke with the husband today and will be mailing the camera tomorrow. They are from the Pacific Northwest and are currently visiting the East Coast. They received a text last night about me having their camera, about 24 hours after I posted the picture. Today they had people they haven't seen in years telling them that they lost their camera. Not quite knowing the power of the FB networking that was going on while they were on vacation, they didn't know how these people knew this. Which, I think is the best part of the story.

So what's the takeaway? First off, be sure to leave identification of some kind on your camera - be it your email or phone number on a sticker somewhere physically on the outside, or by taking a photo of your contact information and "locking" it on the camera's memory card. Too late? Try the site Ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com, which reunites lost cameras with their owners, and was co-created by the guy behind the very cool Post Secret website.

Here's hoping that there are a lot more good Samaritans like Nick out there who are willing to follow his lead. And if anyone has seen a small black notebook in their travels, by all means, get in touch.

[Halogen Life]
[Jaunted]

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

Last month, our Trip Lit book critic Don George sat down with Amy Tan for the launch of our new "Journeys" series of live conversations with great writers at National Geographic headquarters in D.C. Tomorrow, Don will be chatting with Simon Winchester, author of The Man Who Loved China and The Professor and the Madman, and editor of the 2009 edition of Best American Travel Writing. The evening--which will be preceded by a reception featuring beers from around the world--is also Twitter-friendly. If you've got a question for Simon, add #nglive to your tweet and your question could be answered live at the event. For upcoming events and more news from the Society, be sure to follow @NatGeoScoop.

Click here for more information and to buy tickets. For more inspiring travel reads, check in each month for Don George's Trip Lit column, or browse our Ultimate Travel Library.

Cool or creepy? A Titanic-themed cruise, created to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the the ill-fated vessel, will retrace its trans-Atlantic journey in April of 2012 (without an iceberg collision, we hope). The cruise, created by Miles Morgan Travel, will follow the original ship's itinerary, departing from Southampton, England, and stopping in Cherbourg, France and Cobh, Ireland, before arriving at the site where the Titanic struck an iceberg on April 15, 1912. There, 100 years after the ship sank, passengers will hold a memorial service for the 1,500 who lost their lives that day. The 12-day cruise will also include a stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, so that the passengers may visit several of the cemeteries where the Titantic's victims were buried, before finally arriving in New York, the original ship's destination.

Those traveling on the commemorative vessel Bamoral will find it outfitted with many of the same touches used in James Cameron's epic film. "The whole voyage will be steeped in Titanic history," Miles Morgan, the trip's organizer, told the Telegraph earlier this year. "The food served will match the sumptuous menus on the original voyage; the entertainment will include music and dancing in the style featured in those glorious times and there will be a chance to hear firsthand from historians who have studied the Titanic story." Right now, nine cabins have already been sold, for about $3,900 each. 

What's your take? Would you climb aboard the Bamoral to relive and remember Titanic's maiden voyage? 

[Titanic Memorial Cruise]
[Gadling]
[CNN]
[National Geographic Channel: Return to Titanic]

Image: via the Telegraph

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.

Silbo Gomero is a whistling language that developed on the island of La Gomera, one of Spain's Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa. The island is difficult to traverse due to its very steep hills and deep ravines. La Gomera's inhabitants, tired of yelling at each other, long ago invented a phonetic language based on whistling, and for centuries this form of communication worked very well. Then came telephones, and the whistling language fell into disuse.

Saving Silbo Gomera became the goal of busuu.com, an online community for learning languages, which produced this video as part of a worldwide campaign. Their efforts were successful. Yesterday UNESCO declared the language to be an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. 

Also making UNESCO's list was the sultry music and moves of the Tango. This is thanks to a bit of cooperation between Uruguay and Argentina, who have long bickered over who laid claim to its origins. The two countries put their arguments aside in order to petition UNESCO for the special status, and they now stand to receive funding to safeguard the cultural tradition. There were 76 designations made this year, and include the Chinese Dragon Boat festival, Aubusson tapestry-making in France, and the traditional Nigerian harvest festival know as the Ijele masquerade. The entire list is fascinating, be sure to take a look.

Thanks to French blogger Kirsten Winkler for the whistling tip!

So I'm just back from lunch with Ken Burns. Ok, so maybe it was me, Ken Burns, and a room full of other journalists at the National Press Club, but the man is such a captivating speaker that it's as if he's sitting across the table from you, instead of across the room.

Burns was there to speak about the launch of his six-part, 12-hour documentary series, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," which began airing on PBS last night and will continue throughout the week. It was a ten-year process to create, and Burns explained that its focus is not on the majesty of the parks themselves, but the individuals who worked incredibly hard to create the parks in order to protect these "still wild places." His aim was to celebrate both the "love of place and a love of nation" that the parks have come to stand for.

After his presentation, the room full of journalists was ready with questions, and Burns continued to be as articulate in his off-the-cuff remarks as he had been in his speech. He said he'd love to see Dinosaur National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument receive full national park designations, and that his "fervent wish" was for more families, particularly families of color, to begin to go out and experience the parks.

The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, like its namesake, has attitude. Its shows often offer sly, wry comments on the links between culture and media. In an exhibit mounted as the G-20 economic summit meets in the city, 20 outspoken cartoonists from the member nations have contributed their takes on global warming, unemployment, Carla Bruni, and the size of President Obama's ears. "Drawn to the Summit" will be on display through October 18. Closed today as G-20 spouses visit, the museum will reopen tomorrow. Click here for a slideshow of images.

--Chris O'Toole

It's 1,300 feet high, towering far above the elegant city laid out by Peter the Great, and four times higher than the maximum building limit established by city planners to preserve the architectural integrity of the czarist-era city. Developers of the controversial new Gazprom office building received the green light this week from the governor of St. Petersburg to start construction on the tallest skyscraper in Europe. Not everyone's pleased about it.  The London Times reports:

UNESCO expressed "grave concern" in July about the impact of the tower and warned Russian officials that it could place St. Petersburg on the "World Heritage in Danger" list next year. It urged them to suspend work on the project, adopt a different design and submit a report by February on measures to protect the 306-year-old city centre.

A Times' reader commented:

Last night, Amy Tan helped launch our new "Journeys" series of live conversations with great writers at National Geographic headquarters here in D.C. The bestselling author of such books as The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen's God's Wife, and most recently, Saving Fish From Drowning, was gracious, funny, and inspiring. (And a fabulous dresser!) The sold-out crowd enjoyed the wide-ranging, often intimate discussion she had with Traveler contributing editor and book reviewer Don George. Some highlights:

• She wrote The Joy Luck Club in four months.

• She's working on her next novel, which was inspired by the remote Chinese village she visited and wrote about for National Geographic Magazine's May 2008 issue.

• Her mother's voice is a constant in her writings--The Kitchen God's Wife was inspired by her mother's story and the dead tour-guide narrator of Saving Fish From Drowning stemmed from a dream she had of her mother after her death: "All the things that I used to find annoying [about my mother], I now find charming."

• Her inspiration for books usually stems from a vivid image of a specific place: for The Joy Luck Club it was Guilin.

• How has her writing helped her grow and change? "I write to discover that; with each book I learn something new about myself."

This was also the first Twitter-friendly event the Society has sponsored, so to learn more about what people thought of the talk, and to get a glimpse of some of what was discussed you can search for #amytannglive. For upcoming events and more news from the Society, be sure to follow @NatGeoScoop.

The next speaker in the series is Simon Winchester, author of The Man Who Loved China and The Professor and the Madman, and editor of the 2009 edition of Best American Travel Writing. He'll be coming to National Geographic on October 15, 2009. Click here for more information and to buy tickets. For more inspiring travel reads, check in each month for Don George's Trip Lit column, or browse our Ultimate Travel Library.

Photo: Amy Tan and Don George in conversation, by Andrew Evans.

Travel writer Chris O'Toole sends along a dispatch from a quiet corner of Pittsburgh, where the G-20 Summit is being hosted this week.

Before they discuss firing up the world economy, leaders at the G-20 Summit, beginning today in Pittsburgh, get a chance to chill out in one of my favorite places, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Tonight President Obama welcomes the A-list crowd for dinner at this classic Victorian glasshouse with a twenty-first century twist. Tweaks like geothermal heating tubes, passive cooling in its indoor tropical forest and a grass roof atop its subterranean entrance makes it one of the greenest greenhouses in the world.

Airlines have been tacking on fees for almost everything these days, and we're as tired of being nickel-and-dimed as the next guy. But we were glad to hear that San Francisco's SFO airport is the first in the nation to provide on-site kiosks that will enable travelers to help cover the cost of their carbon footprint. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

On Thursday [of last week], the Bay Area's largest airport unveiled three Climate Passport kiosks with touch screens that determine how many pounds of carbon dioxide a trip will produce, calculate the sum an environmentally conscious traveler should contribute to projects in San Francisco and California that help reduce greenhouse gases, then allow fliers to purchase certified carbon offsets.

A typical cross-country flight from SFO to Boston creates 1,999 pounds of carbon dioxide, and the suggested offset cost is $12.24. (The kiosks themselves cost the airport a whopping $190,000 to install.) The the funds collected from the kiosks, which are placed at the entrance to Terminal 3 and international terminals A and G, will go to the Garcia River Forest, a reforestation project in a heavily-logged region of Mendocino County, as well as the SFCarbon Fund, which will steer money to Dogpatch Biofuels, a bio-diesel fueling station in San Francisco.

While scientists still argue about the value of offsets (you can see a further discussion of that at National Geographic's Green Guide), many acknowledge that they're a worthwhile option for those who are also attempting to reduce their footprint in other ways. I think it's an interesting concept, and if anything, it gets travelers to think about the environmental impact of flying more often.

What's your take on the new kiosks in San Francisco?

If you think riding the stationary bike at the gym is exhausting, imagine riding your bike 28,000 miles through 37 countries in eight years. Tired yet?

Keiichi "Kei" Iwasaki , 36, of Japan began such an adventure when he grew tired of working at his father's air-conditioning company. ''I thought to myself that 'My life will soon be over before I do what I want to do!' so I decided to start this trip," Iwasaki told the London Telegraph.

Iwasaki left his home in Maebashi, Japan in April 2001 with just 160 yen, around $2, in his pocket with the intention of biking through Japan. He enjoyed the trip so much that he caught a ferry to South Korea. He has since been robbed by pirates and arrested in India, nearly died after being attacked by a rabid dog in Tibet, and narrowly escaped marriage in Nepal.