Nando Parrado’s story on the 72 days spent in the
Andes and the long trek home may not have hit book shelves yet, but it has most certianly hit my heart. Outside magazine has an exclusive excerpt from Miracle in the
Andes in their current issue with only a small fraction of the piece available online. For me the story is still
fairly new, others may vaguely remember, some might find it hard to forget, but Outside names it one of the greatest
epics of all time. The year was 1972 when a plane carrying a young Uruguayan rugby squad crashed in the Andes leaving
the survivors stranded and forcing them to subsist on the bodies of their friends. Nando Parrado, hero of the saga,
tells the awe-inspiring tale 34 years later in his book Miracle in the Andes to
hit shelves on May 9, 2006. If the piece found online isn’t enough for you make sure you scoop up the latest Outside
for more or check out the Q&A
with the author who touches on his recent return to the crash site, the book & movie Alive, as well his strange attraction to ice axes and
crampons.
National Museum of American History To Close
This was news to me…good and and kinda
lousy news, really, as this is one of my favorite museums.
The National Museum of American History, which is associated with the wonderful
Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, said that they’re going to close their
doors for two full years in order to construct a new gallery. They say that the core of the building will undergo
massive change and are adding 10-foot-high "artifact walls" on the first and second floors which will display
hundreds of items from the museum’s vast collections…items that haven’t all been on display before. The
750,000-square-foot building will get the addition of a monstrous (but sure to be lovely) atrium with a new skylight
and a glass staircase so that visitors who come in from the Mall will be able to see all the way through the building
to the entrance on Constitution Avenue.
They will stay open for now only until Labor Day this year, so if
you’re planning any DC trips, get on this.
Eagle Hatches on Santa Cruz
Man, it seems like Santa Cruz Island
is in the news all the time these days. It’s not like I have a Google alert sending me info about the island, I just
keep finding stories about it. Remember, Santa Cruz is one of several islands that make up the Channel Islands off the
coast of California, about 20 miles from Ventura, and I’ve posted about them several times before
because, well, they’re a great place to go and hang out on a lazy California weekend, and b) the paddling around Santa
Cruz itself is superb. The sea caves there offer one of the best paddling experiences around.
But there is
also some great wildlife there. First, there are feral pigs. Not as many as there used to be
because they just recently hunted many of them down to thin the population, but you know a few hearty souls are still
lurking in the bushes. There are seals and porpoises. And, as of recently, there are eaglets. Yes, according to this story, a pair of bald eagles
hatched a chick on Santa Cruz on Wednesday for the first time in more than 50 years. Biologists say that the last known
successful nesting of a bald eagle on the Channel Islands was in 1949 on Anacapa Island. As most people know this
is a big deal because the widespread use of DDT almost wiped the birds off the California coast in the 60s. So this is
good news and very cool.
Have iPod Will Travel
Man, we’re so ahead of the times here. I mean, it was like years
ago that we were extolling the virtues of the iPod as a carry-along travel companion, a device that can help uplift
your spirits as you plug into the new Pearl Jam album, or, perhaps better yet, provide you with audio walking tours of
places you visit. I’ve sampled many different audio products since I got my fourth generation iPod about a year ago
(this, after handing over my bulky first generation iPod to my wife). And I have to say, the results are mixed. First
of all, as a subscriber to audible.com since the early days, I still download my monthly book and keep up my
subscription to the audio version of Charlie Rose. But I have also tried products like Soundwalk, who sells audio tours
of neighborhoods in Manhattan as well as other cities like Paris and, if you can believe it, Varanasi, India. So I’m a
big fan of these audio tours, and as I mentioned yesterday, looks like Rick Steves is getting into the game as well.
Everyone is
dong it. In fact, you should take a look at our podcasts, and
download a few for your listening pleasure. And if you want to learn even more than we just told you, go and check out
this article over at
National Geographic Traveler that Neil mentioned a while back, and that provides a quick rundown of ways travelers
can use their iPods or other MP3 players while on the road.
Gadling Podcasts
As I was writing the last post, I started to
think to myself that a lot of folks probably don’t know we’ve done a fair number of podcasts here. I’ve got some ideas
for new ones we’ll likely be producing here shortly, but I figured I’d remind folks that there are several good ones
already available that you might be interested in. The list of folks we’ve talked to is rather eclectic, from the
well-known diver and star of Undersea Detectives, John
Chatterton, to undersea explorer Fabien Cousteau and,
most recently Josh Davis, author of
The Underdog.
And we are also on
itunes, so feel free to subscribe for your
ipod.
And if you’re interested in any of our other previous podcasts besides those mentioned above, here
is a quick list:
— James O’Reilly, Executive Editor of Traveler’s Tales
— Lonely Planet’s Don
George
— Eric
Stiller, kayaker and the author of Keep Australia on Your Left
— Jim Benning, co-editor of the online travel site
Worldhum
— Dean
LaTourrette and Kristine Enea, travel authors
— Cafe Reggio