Janelle Nanos: January 2009 Archives

Sometimes I wonder if to the outside world, the National Geographic Society seems like a big huge entity that all somehow fits inside a large yellow rectangle. Our research and scope is so large that it can be hard to imagine things on a personal, smaller scale. So I wanted to be sure that I shared this story, featured on the NG News Blog, about National Geographic Emerging Explorer Jill Pruetz, who recently dropped everything and flew from Iowa to Senegal when she heard that a Fongoli chimp had been captured by two hunters and abandoned without its mother. 

Pruetz's anthropology fieldwork has found that chimps use tools while hunting, and often find shelter in caves during extreme temperatures - both were revelations in the primatology research community, and reported by National Geographic Magazine, and NG News. When she heard from a field assistant in Senegal that a nine-month-old baby chimp, Aimee, had been abandoned, she did her utmost to try and reunite her with her mother. Upon arriving in Senegal, she and her team eventually tracked a party of chimps with included the baby's mother, Tia. She set the baby at the foot of the fig tree the group was perched in, and waited for the mother to come reclaim her lost child. Pruetz wrote of the experience in an email, published on the NG News blog and excerpted here:

The baby was so small and understandably confused, though, that she didn't vocalize when she heard the chimps, so we ended up all three walking together with the bag to within about 30 feet of the chimp party feeding in a fig tree. We put the bag down and opened it and backed away about 25 feet. 

Mike, an adolescent [chimp] whose own mother disappeared soon after he was weaned, came down and approached the baby, who just sat in the sack and looked from us to the chimps. He looked at her and smelled her and then picked her up and took her to the tree where her mother, Tia, raced down and retrieved her!

Just a little chimp love to set you up for the weekend. To read the full email, and learn more about the chimp population in Senegal, check out the NG News blog here. 

Photo: Jill Pruetz

I'm a huge sucker for 50's kitsch, so I loved the recent post on the L.A.Times travel blog about how you can now camp out in an Airstream trailer in Vegas.

The folks at Airstream have sold 25 of the giant silver Twinkies to the KOA RV campground near the Circus Circus hotel, and they'll be renting them out for about $45 dollars a night. The 25-foot-long Vegas Airstreams sleep up to four people on one queen bed and two twins. The units feature bathrooms, kitchen, plates and linens. They're also renting Airstreams in Sugarloaf Key, Florida, and plan to open a few more this spring in Bar Harbor, Maine. The iconic campervans cost about $65,000 a pop, making them an tough buy in these current times, and it's an interesting partnership idea between Airstream and KOA. 

Photo: The AP via Yahoo! News

While Hollywood is all abuzz about the Oscar nominations (Did Benjamin Button really deserve 13 nods?), we can't help but feel like cheap lodgings - especially given the current economic crisis - are worth celebrating as well. So we were glad to hear that Hostelworld.com recently announced their Hoscar Awards (get it?). As we've noted before, hostels aren't just for backpackers any more, and they saw a 14% spike in bookings in 2007, according to Hostelling International. What's more, there are now over 1.7 million hostel beds around the globe (and even better news: three-quarters of the hostels now feature en-suite bathrooms).

The Hoscar list was culled from the votes of over 800,000 users of the site who judged each location based on character, security, location, staff, fun and cleanliness. Topping their list overwhelmingly was Lisbon, Portugal, which seems to be the Benjamin Button of the bunch. Among the top picks were Travellers House, Rossio Hostel, and the chic-to-the-point-where-you-wonder-if-it's-a-hostel Lisbon Lounge. The Guardian has the full list, which includes hostels in Wales, Krakow, Beijing, and Barcelona.

Read More: Check out a hostel housed in an refurbished plane. Choose from a list of hostel booking sites. The Barcelona Urbany was Spain's first eco-friendly hostel.

Photo: Travellers House

A good many readers commented on contributing photographer Catherine Karnow's recent post about her last minute trip to the inauguration, and shared some links to their own pictures. So we thought we'd share a few more, and went to our Flickr pool. Here are the bunch tagged "inauguration." If you want your photo added to the mix, add them to the pool tagged "inauguration" and we'll update this post tomorrow. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Thanks for adding your additional pictures to the pool - we love them! And if you want more of Catherine Karnow's photos, you can check out her slideshow at the Huffington Post.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently released their "Dozen Distinctive Destinations" list for 2009, places that they describe as providing "diverse cultural and historic experiences and share a commitment to preservation and revitalization." From a quintessential mining town to the "American Riviera," these destinations offer charming authentic American experiences and are somewhat off the beaten tourist track.

» Santa Barbara, California
» Athens, Georgia
» Saugatuck-Douglas, Michigan
» Virginia City, Nevada
» Santa Fe, New Mexico
» Buffalo, New York
» Lititz, Pennsylvania
» Bristol, Rhode Island
» Hot Springs, South Dakota
» Franklin, Tennessee
» Fort Worth, Texas
» Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

You can see a slideshow of all the destinations at CNN.com.

How many have you visited? Which do you love?

Photo: Touring Buffalo, via The National Trust for Historic Preservation

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the BBC has put together a fascinating package that explores the role that the atrocious death camps still play in contemporary European culture. Many of the camps were built over 70 years ago, and were not meant to be long-term installations. But now, millions of visitors travel to camps like Auschwitz each year to bear witness to the memory of the atrocities.

Time and heavy traffic has led to the gradual deterioration of these sites, and many of the museums on site are facing a financial shortfall that has preservationists worried about how to ensure that future generations will not forget. In some cases, many of the artifacts are slowly starting to deteriorate, such as the shocking room filled with two tons of victims' hair that can currently be seen at Auschwitz. At the time, the Nazis had sent the hair to textile factories; today scientists acknowledge that it is only a matter of time until it all turns to dust. (You can see a slideshow of many of the deteriorating parts of the camp here).

Quick hits from our travel radar:

• Though widespread public opinion indicates the opposite, Playmobil toys is convinced that going through the security checkpoint in airports is actually a fun game. [Amazon]

• Earlier this week, heavy rains damaged the geoglyphs known as the Nazca Lines, one of Peru's biggest tourist attractions. Officials say they should be restored relatively soon. [Jaunted, The Age]

• France's President Nicholas Sarkozy has announced that as of April of this year, the country's national museums and monuments will be free for visitors under the age of 25. [ABC]

• Perhaps the best souvenir from the Inauguration? Ojamas. [Escape from New York]

• Hidden in the midst of the city of Istanbul are historic wooden homes from the 17th century; seeing them transports you back to Ottoman times. [IHT]

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.

I do concede that I am not a travel writer, so fluently articulating the essence of a place is not something that comes easily to me. This is a particular challenge when it comes to Tasmania, which seems to have almost too much to describe. I can say with great assurance, however, that it feels very little like the mainland of Australia we'd experienced so far. Sure, there's the rugged coastline with crashing seas and desolate overland wilderness that you would expect from an island seemingly not far from Antarctica, but in reality, closer to the equator. But we also saw stunning beaches and jaw-dropping ancient forests that we never would have anticipated. The capital city of Hobart has a thriving cultural scene, but with a real laid-back feeling of ease and contentment I haven't found in too many big cities. No 'uppity', self-righteous attitude here. So as our ten-day visit starts to wind down, I've actually forgotten that we're still in Australia.

When we eventually made it to Hobart a couple of days after Christmas, we were warned that the Australian holiday (as in vacationing) season would be kicking into high gear and to expect big crowds to be joining us as we toured around. We were certainly greeted to a festive atmosphere as the nation's attention turned to the inner harbor and Constitution Dock for the conclusion of the annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, considered to be the most demanding open-water racing competition in the world.  Much to our good fortune, this coincided perfectly with our arrival.

One of the benefits of traveling with children is that you can use them as decoys for conversation starters with the locals. We were having dinner at Mures Seafood Restaurant right in the harbor, when a large group, consisting of mostly husky guys with matching windbreakers, sat down at a table next to ours. I suggested the kids ask one of them if they had participated in the race and if so, how they finished. Reluctantly, the boys did as they were told and as it turned out, were now talking to Mark Richards, the skipper of the winning boat Wild Oats. Seated beside him was the boat's owner, Bob Oatly, who happens to also own Hamilton Island, the first stop in our month long stint in Australia. They were obviously impressed with the fact that we were traveling around the world for a year because the next morning as we were walking along the pier checking out all the yachts, the skipper waved us over and suggested we come on board Wild Oats for a look around, much to the envy of the large crowd gathered around to get a glimpse of the winning boat. The boys were later further impressed when they saw Mark, Bob and Wild Oats splattered all over the front pages of every major newspaper that day!

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is arguably one of the most influential voices in current American journalism, easily dissecting such heavy-duty subjects as immigration law, oil addiction, and outsourcing for public consumption. His examination of globalism, The World is Flat, has sold two million copies, and he is a solid favorite to win his fourth Pulitzer Prize for his latest best-seller, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. No ivory-tower thinker, he's connecting with people in real life about the power of retooling the world's economy by preserving the planet. In this month's issue of Traveler, he speaks with Editor in Chief Keith Bellows about how travel influences his world view. Read the full interview here.

Photo: Jennifer S. Altman

Our friends over at the National Geographic Channel are hopping on board the presidential news cycle - literally - with their in-depth program, premiering this weekend, all about Air Force One. National Geographic was there when President Obama boarded the plane for the first time, and the clip above shows him meeting the pilot and staff - and checking out the menu from the in-flight kitchen (he likes his burgers medium-well, with cheddar cheese and fries).

Visit the Channel site to get the inside scoop on the plane: I love the virtual tour of the jet's layout, and the awesome paper airplane models you can download and build. Plus, who knew that you could follow Air Force One on Twitter?

Watch On Board Air Force One on the National Geographic Channel on January 25th and 28th, at 8pm EST.

Video via the National Geographic Channel

Good news for fans (and there were many) of the "50 United States and their Mottos" map created by artist Emily Wick. Wick emailed us yesterday to let us know that she's created a linoleum block print of our dear Washington D.C. to commemorate the inauguration. We may not have representation in Congress (there's a reason why our license plates read "Taxation Without Representation") but at least we're well represented here.

Contact Wick to find out more information about ordering prints.

A few quick links from our travel radar this week...

- Now on display at the Testori UK Gallery in London: several works of art made from chewing gum. Artist Maurizio Sauvini used "American gum," as it's called in Rome, to shape a buffalo, bear, and a man. [Telegraph]

- Unleash your inner Viking at the Up Helly Aa Festival in Scotland's Shetland Islands, held the last weekend in January. [The Circumference]

- Treehugger points out that throwing trash out your car window creates the "finest All You Can Eat Buffet that Bambi has ever seen," which unfortunately is why so many animals are hit by cars. Stop roadkill by cleaning up your act. [Treehugger]

- Seattle Airport announces that it will begin using mobile air conditioning and heating units to keep planes cool while they're on the tarmac - reducing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the planes. [USA Today]

- We're all for safe cycling, so when we came across the Light Lane, which projects a laser bike lane on the ground surrounding the rider, we couldn't help think it brilliant. [Boing Boing]

Photo: via the Telegraph

Photographer: Luigi Guarino, Italy

Getting the Shot: "This photo was taken in Merida, Mexico, which is located on the Yucatan peninsula."

The Details: "I liked the colorfully dressed people walking past the pastel-colored building."

We Love: How somehow, the iconic Beatles Abbey Road cover seems translated into a Mexican setting.

Want your own image featured on the blog? Add your photos to our online Flickr pool.

Some good news from our colleagues at the Center for Sustainable Destinations came out this week - they've announced a partnership with organizations in Oregon and Washington to create a geotourism project for the Central Cascades region in the Northwest. If you're not familiar with our geotourism projects, here's a quick recap: The CSD works with local partners and the public to identify authentic, sustainable aspects of a region - be it culture, food, shopping, activities, events, or landmarks. Right now, you can log onto the project's website www.thecentralcascades.com, and nominate places that you think best represent the region's character. CSD will then put them all together to create a geotourism mapguide, which are amazingly accurate and helpful maps. (I've used them before and found that I hardly need a guidebook.)

The "Central Cascades" area designated for the map stretches from Mount Rainier National Park to Crater Lake National Park, including communities plus private and public lands in both states. The printed Central Cascades MapGuide will be available in September 2009. A parallel interactive Web site is also being developed, so check out the site now and help others find the best places to visit.

And if you're interested in contributing to other mapguides, Montreal is still taking suggestions through today. CSD also has a complete list of available maps for Guatemala, Rhode Island, Arizona, Vermont, Romania, Norway, Yellowstone, Montana, Appalachia, Peru, Honduras, and Baja, Mexico, many of which are free and available as PDFs online.

Photo: via the Central Cascades site 

Reports are now coming out that US Airways flight 1549 just crashed into the Hudson River in New York City within the past hour. Remarkably, the FAA has confirmed that all 146 passengers and 5 crew members survived the flight. The plane took off from LaGuardia airport and was headed for Charlotte, N.C. Preliminary reports are saying that a flock of geese collided with the plane, and one of the birds was sucked into the engine. Watch the report live now on MSNBC. [New York Times]

Image via Reuters

So I'm just back from a trip to New Orleans (much more on that to come) but before I get to all of those details, let me focus for a moment on my outgoing flight. My pilot was either a chatterbox or dreamed of one day being a comic, and made the most of his microphone and our undivided attention by unleashing a series of witticisms throughout the flight. At one point, he even referred to the passengers "sky pirates."

Now I'm all for the occasional banter, but after a while, I couldn't help feeling like it was all little much. Most of the time, I just want my flying experience to be one of vegging out--listening to music or reading without any interruption. So Captain Open Mike was beginning to bug me. So I wondered, what do you think is appropriate pilot-speak? Does hearing the pilot chatter make your feel more or less comfortable during a flight? Let us know in the comments below.

Photo: kfergos via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

Last month Ernst & Young released a report highlighting some promising news within the hospitality industry. They note that while a focus on sustainability has been adopted by governments, non-governmental orgs, consumers and businesses around the world, within the hotel industry, it's "finally" begun to gain momentum. According to their findings, "the 'greening' of the industry is a trend that is here to stay."

Over the last decade, the movement towards ecologically sound tourism has swept across the globe; and the practices being implemented are as diverse as the different geographies," the report said. "Hotel companies are being prompted by rising energy costs, government pressure, consumer expectations and the competitive landscape to increasingly make sustainability a top priority."

Their findings, which looked into practices in Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, India, Latin America, the Middle East, Oceania and the U.S. during 2008, noted some best practices taking place around the globe. You can find the list after the jump.

How well do you know your presidential history? Take a gander with our online WorldWise quiz devoted to our past Chief Executives. Here's the first question:

George Washington took his oath of office in 1789 in the Federal Hall of what U.S. city, then the country's capital?

a) Philadelphia
b) New York City
c) Baltimore

Make your guess and find out the answer here! And find more quizzes online.

Photo: Dan Westergren

Photographer: Susan I Cohen, from Lake Worth, Florida.

Getting the Shot: The photo was taken at the Pushkar Camel Fair in India in November 2007.

The Details: This is a once-a-year event when the tribesmen from all over come to buy, sell, and trade their camels, horses and other livestock. There are acres and acres of "life" happening all around you. We were walking to the arena to watch the beginning of the camel races when I spotted a group of women in their colorful saris and wraps sitting on the wall at the outskirts of the area. This was a "one shot" deal as we continued our walk and I love it.

We Love: The rainbow of colors contrasted against the stone wall. What do you think?

See all of our Global Eye photos, or add yours to the mix by joining our Flickr pool.

Just a reminder folks - if you haven't done so yet (or yet today) the voting is still open for the Weblog Awards! We've been nominated for Best Travel blog, and now you can vote right here on the blog after the jump! Click through to cast your ballot for Intelligent Travel! And FYI: you can vote once a day through January 13. Thanks!

I was instantly entranced when I recently came across this map of the "50 United States and their Mottos" by visual artist Emily Wick. Wick designed the map by tracing the states from a coloring book to create linoleum block prints, then carved in each of the official state mottos - many of which often appear in Latin on the state flag - creating a map not only of the country, but its multifaceted ideals. Click through the gallery to find your state and some of their surprising slogans. My personal favorites: "She Flies with Her Own Wings," for the great state of Oregon, the odd "To Be Rather than to Seem," from North Carolina, and "Eureka," from California.

Wick gave me the full scoop on how she put the map together. Find out after the jump...

We were very happy to find out that the Intelligent Travel blog has been nominated for the Best Travel Weblog Award!

If you can, vote for us now online, and then tell all of your friends. Voting lasts through January 13, and you can vote once a day, so feel free to do so early and often. Thanks to all those of you who nominated us!

VOTE HERE NOW

Late last night, President-elect Barack Obama officially arrived in Washington. He and his family are staying at the Hay-Adams Hotel for the time being before moving into the White House, in order to get the first daughters settled and started in school. Several papers have reported that the Obamas are anticipating their transition to Washington with a mix of excitement and nerves, so we at Traveler decided to do our best to help them get settled in D.C.

The Obama family spent a portion of their Christmas vacation in Hawaii, and, as the Washington Post reported this weekend, much of Obama's character is influenced by his Hawaiian upbringing. So Associate Editor Amy Alipio dug up the best ways to find a little aloha in Washington. From grabbing a plate lunch at Makakoa Enterprises to taking a hula class at the Joy of Motion dance studio, we've got a list of eateries, events, and opportunities that will help them make them feel at home.

For more tips on making the most of Washington D.C., be sure to check out our travel guide to the District's best offerings for the inauguration. 

Photo: Timothy Schenck/Istockphoto.com

I'm recently back from a pre-Christmas trip to Grand Cayman, which was a lovely respite from the D.C. cold (we were on the first direct flight from Washington to George Town), and a nice getaway before the stress of the holiday season. It was my first visit to the island, and despite the locals' complaints about the "Christmas winds" I found the island's beaches just dandy, thanks. Even a tiny tan is enough for now.

Admittedly, I didn't know much about the history of Grand Cayman before I left, and even after digging through some books I came up a bit short. So I was glad to uncover several places on the island off the main drag along Seven Mile Beach (with its many rum shops and tourist traps), which offered up a bit of authentic Cayman culture. Here are a few highlights:

For the past five years, painter and entrepreneur Chris Christian has been inviting travelers to get closer to Cayman culture with Cayman Traditional Arts, a series of demonstrations, workshops, and events which highlight the island's history. Christian, a Cayman native, explains that grew up on the island "learning about George Washington," but not about his own past. Since returning home from college, he's worked to promote the island's food, games, and crafts to both its residents and its visitors, and to "create a sustainable lifestyle for its artists." He began by creating an artist collective, which works with local craftspeople to harvest and prepare the fronds from the silver palm, the island's national tree, for use in traditional baskets and ropes. As the project has grown, he recently acquired and restored a traditional "wattle and daub" house built in 1917, where I visited him, and where he currently hosts groups from the Ritz-Carlton, among other properties.

The site itself is in the West Bay, and I got a mini-tour of the activities that he offers there. Christian explained how the thatch from the silver palm is twisted into strands, and then braided together with a rope machine. I then took a spin, so to speak, on the machine, and made a length by twisting the three spindles together simultaneously. Even my mini-tour made for a fantastic morning: I sampled fritters from the fish fry stand and learned to make paintbrushes from palm fronds. Christian takes his programs into schools and churches, helping to teach the island's children about their history, and he also hosts art programs and exhibitions of their artwork in hotels throughout the island. Our visit was the highlight of my trip, and I encourage anyone to reach out to Christian to plan a visit if you're heading to Grand Cayman.

This has been a big year for our little blog. We got a fancy new home, kicked up our production levels quite a bit, and have found thousands of new readers - whom we of course adore. So in looking back through the places we've been and the posts that we've written over the past year, we had to single out some of our favorites. So here's a quick countdown for those of you who may have missed them first time around.

10. Amazing Race for Regular People - Fans of the TV show went berserk for this idea, and we can't help but think that they're on to something.

9. Up Close to the Proximity Hotel - One of our first forays into video reporting, it's a fun insider tour of this incredibly green hotel.

8. Carl Hoffman on Mumbai - Having visited Mumbai just a few days before the terrible bombing, our contributing editor reflects on the destruction that befell the popular restaurant Leopold's which is a hub for international travelers.

7. Jenss Family Travels - We've loved following along with Rainer Jenss and his family as they've worked their way around the world.

6. Plan My Trip! West Seattle with Pam - IT Editor Janelle turned the tables and went to you, our readers, for advice on what to do on her West Coast trip this summer. Here, she met up with fellow travel blogger Pam Mandel for a tour of her funky Seattle town.