Souvernir Of The Week: Black Pottery From Oaxaca, Mexico

by Megan Fernandez on


You’ve been reading Gadling writer Jessica Marati’s Oaxaca dispatches. What did she bring home? Black pottery from 1050° Ceramics Collective, an artists’ group with a focus on sustainability. Every piece is lead-free, but otherwise, artisans adhere to the region’s 2,000-year-old techniques for making the earthy, ebony-hued objects, buffed to a high shine by hand. Products range from vases and bowls and platters to pendant lights to jewelry.

Oaxaca, a National Geographic type of cultural destination in southern Mexico, is as renowned for its folk-art traditions as it is for complex moles. Travelers hop between outlying towns beyond the state’s eponymous city, each village specializing in a particular craft – naturally dyed rugs, fantastical wood-carved animals and black pottery chief among them. The 1050° collective’s works are sold in four shops in Oaxaca City (not to mention the MoMA in New York). The Dona Rosa hacienda is also a popular destination, where visitors watch a demonstration before shopping its huge selection of pottery.

[Photo Credit: 1050grados]

Take A Look At The Future Of Economy Airline Seating

by Reena Ganga on

Contorting your body to fit into cramped economy class airline seats is bad enough without the person seated in front of you invading your space. Reclining seats have been a point of contention amongst fliers for years and as seat pitch gets smaller, the problem has only gotten worse with some passengers even coming to blows over the issue.

Other passengers take a more passive aggressive approach. Remember this traveler who took matters into his own hands and rigged the seat in front of him so it would stay in the upright position? Or what about the Knee Defender, the invention we told you about last year, which is designed to keep airline seats from reclining?

Well, finally, someone has come up with a solution to the seat reclining dramas. The AirGo is an economy class seat designed by an engineering student for the James Dyson Award. Alireza Yaghoubi took first prize for his design concept, which aims to give fliers control over their limited seat space, even when the passenger in front of them reclines.The seats are designed with individual bulkheads, so each passenger has their own area to stow luggage. Suspended from this are the tray table and TV screen, which aren’t affected if fellow passengers recline. The seats themselves are made of a nylon mesh designed to minimize sweating and are fully customizable to suit each traveler’s posture.

While the seating concept does take up 16 percent more space than a regular economy class seat, hopefully the benefits will sway airlines to get onboard.

Check out pictures of the AirGo seat below.

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[Photo credit: Alireza Yaghoubi]

The 2013 Iditarod Sled Dog Race Gets Underway Today!

by Kraig Becker on

The 2013 Iditarod sled dog race gets underway today in Anchorage, Alaska, where some of the best mushers in the world have gathered to take part in the 1000-mile journey that culminates in Nome. This morning, 66 mushers will set out from the starting line in front of a throng of cheering fans as part of the ceremonial start. The race will officially get underway tomorrow when the teams will restart in Willow and the competition truly begins.

This year marks the 40th running of the Iditarod, which is billed as “The Last Great Race.” The event was originally created to commemorate the famous 1925 dog sled run to Nome that delivered serum to fight off a deadly diphtheria epidemic just in the nick of time. It was during that run that musher Gunnar Kaasen, and his famous lead dog Balto, rose to fame.

Today, the Iditarod has grown to become the most popular sporting event in Alaska, drawing relatively large crowds (by Alaskan standards) on an annual basis. The mushers and their dogs are well known throughout the state and often find themselves local celebrities. Most of the competitors live and train in Alaska, but as the event has grown in popularity, mushers now come from all over the globe.

This year’s field is another deep one with a large number of possible contenders. Past champions such as Jeff King, Lance Mackey and John Baker should all be in the running, although last year’s winner Dallas Seavey seems to be the odds on favorite to win the race once again. With his victory in the 2012 event, Seavey became the youngest winner ever and he is looking to add to an already impressive resume.

A few weeks ago there was some concern about the condition of the trail, which lacked snow along certain sections. Since then, however, snow has been plentiful and the route is in top shape for the start of the race. As always, there are some areas that will be more challenging than others, but for the most part the teams should find good snow to run on.

You can follow the Iditarod over the next few weeks at the race’s official website.

[Photo Credit: Jeff Schultz/IditarodPhotos.com]

Photo Of The Day: Perched Above Guatemala

by Jonathan Kramer on

A view from a ridiculously good vantage point can forge a lifelong memory. This spot above Lake Atitlan in western Guatemala, shot by Shuo Huang, really sets the standard for others to be compared to. This volcanic lake is what adventures are built around and make weeks on the road, battling loneliness and cramped conditions in cross-country buses completely worth it.

Shuo submitted his photo to us through Instagram by mentioning @GadlingTravel and using the #Gadling tag. If you’d like your exciting travel photography to be featured as our Photo Of The Day, do the same or submit it to our Gadling Flickr Pool. Be sure to check out more of Shuo’s phenomenal photos on Instagram here and don’t forget to give us a follow too!

[Photo credit: Instagram User shuotography]