Drivers Beware: The Most Dangerous Roads in the World

by Martha Edwards on

Living near the Rocky Mountains, I thought I had some experience with dangerous roads. The ones I frequent twist and in turn around, over and under the huge, jagged mountains, through avalanche plains, with only a guardrail protecting your car from plummeting off a cliff’s edge. It wasn’t until I started travelling that I realized that the most dangerous road that I’ve encountered in Canada would be considered a smooth, luxurious ride in other countries.

So if our roads aren’t dangerous, where are the dangerous ones? I did a bit of research and here are the most dangerous roads in the world according to USA Today (click here for the full list):

  1. Bolivia’s The Old Yungus Road, from La Paz to Coroico
  2. Brazil’s Interstate 116
  3. China’s Sichuan-Tibet Highway
  4. Costa Rica’s Pan-American Highway
  5. Croatia’s coastal roads (any of ’em)

Judging by this article on the Old Yungus Road, I think I’ll pass on taking a trip on it anytime soon.

Caipirinha Recipe

by Erik Olsen on

I took a lot of guff in the comments section for my light-hearted examination of male-oriented libations. Seems some folks took me a little too seriously. But that’s OK, at least we know you’re reading. But this time around, I’ll stray from making any kind of off-color or otherwise homo-phobic remarks as I bring you a post from sister-site Slashfood on the magic elixir that is the caipirinha.

I once wrote about the glories of ths sweet, but potent drink in a rambling essay on Brazil’s Carnaval that you can read here. I count myself among the worst dancers to inhabit the planet, but after a few of these drinks, I became an impossibly-limber, jangly-legged mixture of John Travolta, Samba-master and Napoleon Dynamite. And all the years since, I’ve kinda wondered how to make one of these fine drinks.

Well, I have to wait no longer as the post here points you directly to a recipe that reveals how easy the caipirinha is to make, even i the word itself is still quite hard to pronounce, let alone spell.

World’s Sexiest Beaches 2007

by Justin Glow on

Each year, our friends over at Concierge.com put out a list of the world’s sexiest beaches, featuring the best places to “flirt with millionaires, lick the salt off a margarita glass, siesta in a hammock, and gaze at blood-orange sunsets night after night.”

If these don’t make you wish you were somewhere else, you’ve either got your toes in the sand right now, or you’re dead to the world. Here is 2007’s sexiest beaches:

  • Caprera Island, Sardinia, Italy — “La dolce vita meets Euro bling.”
  • Salvador da Bahia, Brazil — “Slow, happy, and inexpensive.”
  • Cousine Island, Seychelles — “Me Tarzan, you Jane!”
  • Playa de los Lances, Tarifa, Spain — “Surf hard, play hard. Flirt even harder.”
  • Pink Sand Beach, Harbour Island, Bahamas — “Colonial swagger with high society tennis games at dusk.”
  • Kuta Beach, Bali — “Beachcombing boho chic.”
  • South Beach, Miami, Florida — “Nightlife hub, arts mecca, de facto capital of Latin America, Miami is all sexy, all the time.”
  • Pigeon Point Beach, Antigua — “British aristos meet Hollywood movers-and-shakers for a love-in, colonial style.”
  • Bodrum, Turkey — “European? Asian? Yes”
  • Santa Maria Beach, Ilha do Sal, Cape Verde — “The calm before the storm.”
  • Laguna Beach, California — “California lovin'”
  • Ihuru Island, Maldives — “Just say no to shoes.”
  • Playa Tamarindo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica — “City kids get physical in a tropical playground.”
  • Paradise Beach, Mykonos — “You’re only young once. If you’re not, keep drinking-you’ll feel young soon enough.”
  • Grande Plage, Biarritz, France — “Beach bums meet fashion plates.”
  • Kaanapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii — “The vibe: Chilled-out aloha spirit.”
  • Cabo San Lucas, Mexico — “It was this big-honest!”
  • The Similan Islands, Thailand — “Wash my hair tonight? Why bother?”
  • Motu Tane, French Polynesia — “Fashionistas air kisses and catwalks on the beach.”

For detailed information on each of these beaches, including the best places to stay, visit Concierge.com.

Runway in Sao Paulo Too Short? Too Wet?

by Iva Skoch on

Almost 200 passengers are suspected dead after the TAM airlines Airbus-320 (en route to Sao Paulo from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil) skidded on the rain-slicked runway in Sao Paulo and slammed into a gas station and TAM building yesterday, USA Today reports.

This is apparently the second major airline disaster in Brazil within a year. In September, 154 died when a Gol Aerolinhas Inteligentes SA Boeing 737 and an executive jet collided over the Amazon rain forest.

There have been questions about the country’s underfunded air traffic control systems, deficient radar system and the airlines’ ability to cope with a surge in travelers. Also, the length of the runway at Sao Paulo’s airport has been repeatedly criticized for being too short (it is 6,365 feet, compared with a 7,003-foot runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, which accommodates similar planes) and two planes slipped off it in rainy weather just a day earlier, though no one was injured in either incident.

Plus, yesterday in Colombia, a passenger plane skidded off a wet runway and into the Caribbean Sea.

Seriously, if a wet runway is all it takes, I am worried.

Brazilian Fashion from Japan: The Jeankini

by Justin Glow on

Yes, this is a real product. You can really buy it, if you want to. But why would you? Aside from serving no practical purpose, this jean-bikini hybrid available from “Brazil Fashion” store (located in, um, Japan) Sanna’s for ¥ 9.240 (about $80 US), is proabably the trashiest piece of clothing I’ve ever seen. You can’t even swim in them!

[via cynicalc]