The Pinatubo Treatment

by Erik Olsen on

How very nice of the folks over at sister site Luxist
to think of us. Even though matters of disposable income prevent us from indulging in many off the luxurious items they
often blog about, we still sneak over to their site every so often to catch a glimpse of what might be possible should
Bill Gates be your daddy.

To wit: should you be adventurous, butt also a bit of a glutton for luxury, you might find
this post on a Mt. Pinatubo spa of some appeal.  The
spa sits beneath the volcano’s peak, so you can bask in its geothermal radiance while satisfying your sybaritic whims.
The folks at the spa, not surprisingly, offer treatments using the mountain’s volcanic materials, and treatments
include a sulfur hot bath, volcanic ash shower, and Chinese massage. Of course, if you want to hoof it up the volcano
itself, they can help you with that, too.

American Sahara

by Erik Olsen on

Lawrence of Arabia fans might think you have to travel around the world to find vast, sprawling dunes as far as the
eye can see. Wrong. Little known to most people the Great Sand Dunes National
Park in Colorado is a place where you can satisfy your bedouin fantasies without leaving the country.  The
Chicago
Tribune has an article on the GSD National Park that provides the gritty low-down on how to get there and what
you’ll find (um, sand….lots of sand). The tallest dunes here rise over 750 feet high and the park covers over 30 square
miles of massive dunes. There’s great hiking, camping and some climbing too. Photographers, too, should take notice
because the GSDNP is a shutterbug’s paradise. If you catch the dunes at the “golden hour” you might find you’ve taken
shots worth of a National Geographic cover spread.

Expedition 360

by Erik Olsen on

A pretty impressive concept: Jason Lewis, a peripatetic Brit, is currently two-thirds of the way through an attempt
to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe without using only human power (i.e. walking, bike, Razor). His site
Expedition 360 chronicles the trip. His efforts to compare the feat with
circumnavigilistic (my word!) antecedents like Magellan might be pushing it a bit too far, but it’s quite interesting
nonetheless. The site gives the Where in the World is Jason? lowdown and provides a nice video intro to the trip as
well as ample press clippings.

Doing It Up in Guyana

by Erik Olsen on

I have been to most every country in Latin America, but there are several that I know almost nothing about. These are the little countries scrunched over to the top edge of the continent that I am guessing are also completely foreign to most people as well.

‘m talking about Suriname, Guyana, and French Guyana. The regimes in these countries tend to be repressive and tourism is nearly non-existent, at least compared to the rest of South America.

But in this nice little piece in The Guardian, Anita Sethi ventures into Guyana and gets the vibe of the place. She visits several unusual places, including Kaieteur Falls, one of the highest single-drop waterfalls in the world. The country, she tells us, is nearly devoid of tourism. Most people seem to associate the place with the horrible Jim Jones massacres from years past…AKA the Jonestown masacres. But it turns out it is much more than that, and the article really stirred my interest in the place. Maybe this little country is due for a period of intense eco-tourism…maybe it’s time to get there before ths happens.

Photo of the Day: (6/22/05)

by Erik Olsen on

Our POTD comes from the One World
Expedition site that we blogged about earlier. The photo is entitled A Twilight Jaunt, and shows the two intrepid
adventurers crossing Arctic ice during a glorious sunset. See more photos from the expedition
here.