On the first night of the Dientes de Navarino circuit in Chilean Tierra del Fuego, I burrowed into my sleeping bag in my tent perched on the banks of the alpine Laguna del Salto. When I peered outside, I saw an opaque gray sky and a jagged, silent landscape dusted with snow from the blustery weather. As I yanked my hat down to cover my ears, I noticed a feeling I鈥檇 never had on a backpacking trip before: I was burned out.

I鈥檝e planned and executed dozens of backpacking trips, including a solo hike of the Colorado Trail. Usually, at the end of a tough day of hiking, I鈥檓 tired but still motivated to complete the adventure.

But that night on the Dientes de Navarino circuit, I felt different. We鈥檇 only hiked seven miles with about 2,500 feet of vert that day, but a late afternoon start, relentless wind, and zero visibility had limited our progress. While pushing through crappy weather wasn鈥檛 anything new for me, that night I felt a deeper level of exhaustion seep into the more profound layers of my being. It was emotional fatigue, a lack of that fiery determination that would usually get me through the discomfort and dread of icy days ahead in these mountains at the end of the world.

I shouldn鈥檛 have been surprised. I鈥檇 been running my life as a tight ship, traveling vigorously and working remotely for the previous year. I鈥檇 spent six months exploring Mexico from Jalisco to the Guatemalan border, then a summer in the Southern Hemisphere, traveling through Chilean and Argentine Patagonia and completing several multi-day hiking trips.

Managing my mobile lifestyle felt increasingly overwhelming. Deep in the Chilean backcountry, I began to crave stability and consistency. But I stubbornly maintained a vice-like grip on the vision of doing and seeing as much as I could on my way down to Tierra del Fuego before I needed to return to the U.S. for a family wedding. I gave myself periods of respite here and there, like a couple of months in Santiago and a month in the Argentine Patagonian town of , but I was beginning to realize these well-intentioned stints weren鈥檛 sufficient to soothe my scattered and travel-wearied soul.

Yet, every time some part of me whispered to stop, I ignored it. I simply could not turn away from the unbelievable luck I felt I had, having the opportunity to spend four months in one of the best hiking regions in the world during peak season. Making it down to the bottom of the Americas felt like a tantalizing adventure I couldn鈥檛 let go of.

My travel approach is usually centered around seeking the unsought. I was looking for remote, almost unheard-of trails, which is how I came to discover the Dientes de Navarino circuit one night in my apartment in Santiago, reading through the last hidden corners of my guidebook. When Google returned a scant few results about the trail, I knew I was on to something.听

In , Charles Darwin鈥檚 journal of his navigation around the Americas in the 1830s, he describes with awe the 鈥渟avage magnificence鈥� of Tierra del Fuego. One glance at the spiked peaks jutting into the somber gray sky, and it鈥檚 easy to understand why. The Dientes de Navarino mountain range, or 鈥淭eeth of Navarino,鈥� so called for its jagged namesake peaks, is located in the Fuegian Andes on Navarino Island, one of the last landmasses before Antarctica. This small island is ever-so-fragmented from the main island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, with Cape Horn directly to its south.

To arrive at Navarino Island, visitors must take a plane or 150-mile overnight ferry across the Magellan Strait from Punta Arenas, the entry point to Tierra del Fuego and the last city on the mainland before the terrain collapses into a network of glacier-covered fjords and islands. I arrived at the 3,000-person town of Puerto Williams, Navarino Island鈥檚 hub and the southernmost settlement in the world.

The island鈥檚 Dientes circuit is a remote and wild 27-mile route that circumnavigates the Dientes peaks with 7,000 feet of elevation gain, running through perpetually damp and cold subantarctic forest past lagoons, craggy boulder fields, snowy summits, and a variety of endemic trees, mosses, and lichen.

It鈥檚 challenging, principally due to badly maintained or nonexistent trails over rugged terrain and unpredictable, severe weather conditions. A single day in high summer can include anything from blue skies to snowstorms and violent subpolar winds. It鈥檚 difficult to plan your trip around good weather because of rapidly changing forecasts. Route finding is fundamental鈥攁nd stressful. The way forward is often indiscernible, with trail markers like signs, cairns, and ribbons, few and far between.

Each of these factors wouldn鈥檛 be as daunting on their own, but put together, they can make for a formidable challenge demanding constant caution, forcing sometimes painstakingly slow progress when conditions are bad.

Of course, it was this guaranteed adventure that I could not resist. The fact that very few people I had met on my travels in South America had heard of the Dientes de Navarino mountain range told me I was headed to the right place. I spoke to anyone I could along my way who knew about it, and spent my evenings crammed into hostel bunks all over Patagonia, scrolling endlessly through hikers鈥� trip reviews on . I decided to roll into town and see who else was planning to hike the trail.

On a clear summer day in January, I arrived at my friendly hostel in Puerto Williams. Shortly thereafter, I received a WhatsApp message. 鈥淗i! I got your number from AllTrails!鈥�

(Weeks past, I had left a comment on the trail鈥檚 AllTrails webpage looking for hiking companions.) The woman who had messaged me was named Lisa. She was 26, from the Netherlands, and had recently embarked on a solo hitchhiking odyssey through South America. A savvy hiker who had completed many long-distance backpacking trips, I liked her spunk and fearlessness. After talking through logistics, we agreed to team up and tackle the trail together.

The day of our departure was gray and blustery, nothing like the glowing recent trip reports of gorgeous weather, which in this part of the world is a blessing seldom enjoyed. During the first few hours, we walked a pleasant path through the lush Fuegian forest, the darkness and cold giving the landscape a melancholy, gloomy quality. Eventually, the gusts and snow picked up, and once we broke above treeline heading up to the first of the circuit鈥檚 four passes, the rest of the day was a white vortex. We finally got to our campsite on the banks of spire-framed Laguna Salto.

There, in my sleeping bag that first night, I felt the oppressive weight of my type-A ambition bearing down on me physically and mentally. I felt devoid of motivation. I knew I was wildly fortunate to be sleeping in this otherworldly landscape, but, for the first time, I felt smothered by the months of constant motion. The captain of the Beagle, the ship Charles Darwin navigated around the Americas, said that the oppressively somber weather in Tierra del Fuego was such that 鈥渢he soul of man dies in him.鈥� His words, to my surprise, resonated.

I could鈥檝e decided to turn around the next day and go back, but I didn鈥檛 want to abandon Lisa, and I also couldn鈥檛 bear to walk away from my goal. So I continued.

I endured three more days of an unrewarding suffer-fest. The morning of day two, navigating a slippery, icy rock face along the ridge up to Paso de los Dientes, staring down the sheer drop into the depths of the frigid Laguna del Paso below, I sunk further into mental fatigue.

My surroundings were as wild and gorgeous as I ever could鈥檝e wanted, but I was weary and depleted. At one point, coming down the steep descent from that pass, I slid and fell in the mud. The weight of my pack lurched me forward, and I hit my knees on the sharp rocks sticking out of the forest floor. I burst into tears, more from the shock and emotion than the pain itself.

I knew in that moment that I was ready to listen to myself and take a break.

But I had to complete the hike first. Lisa and I put our heads together to hunt down precious trail marker after trail marker as we tramped through the miles of muddy peat bogs and twisted dwarf forest under the gently falling snow. Her zeal and upbeat attitude, even through the most unpleasant moments, kept me from descending further into a pit of negativity.

On the third day, we began our ascent up 2,800 foot Paso Virginia, the biggest pass of the circuit. We moved past the treeline and entered the alpine tundra. As we gained more elevation, the weather conditions deteriorated. We began to move farther away from the last flat, semi-protected patch of ground in view and headed through the boulder field toward the gray void above. It occurred to me that my extremities were as numb as I had ever felt them. My hands and feet burned and tingled so painfully that I could barely move them. I had been wet since the day before due to the constant precipitation and complete lack of sunshine, but it didn鈥檛 become an issue until we gained more elevation and hit worse weather and lower temperatures.

With so many unknowns ahead of us and with such poor visibility, I told Lisa we should pitch our tent to warm up for a while in that last flat spot before moving on. I wanted to stay for the night and let the snowstorm pass, but she reminded me that the weather would probably get even worse that night; coming down the other very steep side of that pass in fresh snow the following morning could be dangerous. We chose to forge ahead.

Arriving at the top of Paso Virginia, we peered down to find a heart-stoppingly steep scree slope down to the valley. A few ginger first steps into the loose jumble of small rocks, sand, and snow soon felt like skiing through gravel.

We made it down the pass and set up camp at the bottom just as the snowstorm started intensifying. My pack, which had always been totally waterproof in the climate back home in Colorado, had soaked through. This left my sleeping bag barely dry enough to keep me warm. I was cold and wet. Lisa offered me her extra dry clothes.

Miraculously, the next morning we woke up to civil, temperate weather that had caused the snow to mostly melt while we slept. I pulled on my icy trail runners with exhaustion, but also relief for the weather shift and excitement that we were so close to leaving this experience behind.

The biggest hurdle we had remaining was to work our way through the rest of the forest for the next few hours until we hit cow pastures, which would signify our proximity to civilization. Even though this last stretch was all downhill, it wasn鈥檛 easy.

The original trail had long since been dammed and flooded by beavers, which had arrived in the 1940s after a disastrous idea by the Argentine government to start a fur trade. The lack of natural predators created a population explosion that has since led to waterway disruption and trail destruction, pushing us into the dense forest surrounding the original trail.

After a few hours of bushwhacking, we broke through the last of the beech forest and caught sight of the Beagle Channel stretching out in the distance. Looking out at the lumpy green cow pastures that indicated the last couple miles of trail, I felt a rush of relief.

As we emerged from the trail, we approached a quiet country road. We plopped down and waited for someone to drive by that might take us back to town.

Olivia James is 翱耻迟蝉颈诲别鈥檚 former newsletter producer. She writes about travel and health from Buenos Aires. Spending parts of her childhood in Asia ignited a love for adventure, which has led to her solo traveling and living in Latin America since 2018. You can follow her travels on her , and stay tuned for more of her stories for us at 国产吃瓜黑料, to come.

The post I Hiked the Southernmost Trail in Patagonia. Here鈥檚 What I Learned. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

While most of us in North America sweat our way through a late-June heat wave, the ski resorts south of the equator are getting buried with snow鈥攕o much snow that one ski area has delayed its opening day for a second time. Chile鈥檚 is sitting pretty with a total of 198 inches of snow on the year so far鈥攖wo inches shy of its 200-inch average seasonal snowfall鈥攂efore the resort has officially opened.

Originally scheduled to kick off the season the weekend of June 20, the resort located about a two-hour drive from Santiago received over 100 inches of snow leading up to opening day, forcing it to postpone to June 26. Another winter storm taking aim on the Andes this week has again compelled the resort to push the start of the season again, this time to June 29.

Suffice it to say that Portillo skiers will be able to celebrate the start of the 75th anniversary season with a much-anticipated powder day.

听 听 听 听Related:

The nascent 2024 South American winter has been eventful, to say the least. In May, several ski areas were able to due to generous early-season snow. Before the calendar was even flipped to June, resorts including Chile鈥檚 Valle Nevado, El Colorado, and La Parva began spinning lifts thanks to winter storms that brought 4 to 6 feet of snow. Argentina鈥檚 Cerro Catedral, at the country鈥檚 southern tip, saw a stunning eight feet of snow in mid-May.

And Las Le帽as, set near the Argentinean city of Mendoza, got so much snow that its access road has been completely buried. was supposed to host a pre-opening celebration on June 20, but too much snow made that impossible. The resort will now open for the season on June 29 with a at its 11,000-foot summit.

All of this early-season bounty could equate to one of the longest seasons in recent history for South America鈥檚 mountain resorts. While they typically begin to wind down in September, a deep base could stretch winter through the better part of October鈥攋ust long enough for the flakes to fly here in North America once again.

We鈥檝e said it before, but we鈥檒l say it a little louder for the folks in the back: If a ski trip to the resorts of the Andes sounds appealing, this might be the summer to heed the call. There hasn鈥檛 been an early season quite like this in recent memory, and our dollar goes pretty far down there. What鈥檚 more, Portillo is offering 15 percent off stays before July 26 for a traditional ski week, which includes lift tickets, accommodations, and meals. For the special offer, email reservations@skiportillo.com.

Check out SKI鈥檚 for the down-low on the must-visit resorts, the best times to go, how to get there, and more travel intel.

The post Too Much Snow in the Andes? This Ski Resort Delayed Opening Day. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Picture the Peruvian Andes: rugged peaks, 16,000-foot passes, remote landscapes, and adventure opportunities abound. But for two ambitious bikepackers, the area鈥檚 allure was about more than just its natural beauty. When athlete and photographer and endurance athlete and documentarian decided to traverse the Qhapaq 脩an from La Paz, Bolivia, to Cusco, Peru, they were following a desire to learn more about the locals and themselves. Over 37 days, the pair was immersed in heritage, culture, and history鈥攁n experience they agree was thanks to the slow simplicity of bikepacking. Here鈥檚 their take on the experience.

国产吃瓜黑料: What is the Qhapaq 脩an, and what inspired you to bikepack it?

Leonardo Brasil: I was born and raised in Brazil and was lucky to have lived in Colorado, USA, for ten years before moving back to my hometown of Rio de Janeiro. Since I never owned a vehicle, I found my passion for bikepacking while living abroad as a natural evolution of my curiosity to experience different cultures and see places. Exploring South America, the continent that I鈥檓 from, was the next obvious step. My goal was to understand a bit more about our Hispanic neighbors鈥攕ince Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking country over there鈥攁nd to experience their way of life both as a human on this earth and as a photographer and storyteller.

Adam Andres Pawlikiewicz Mesa: Translated from Quechua, the 鈥淩oyal Road鈥� once united all Andean communities from Colombia to Chile in an intricate road system of more than 18,600 miles. Constructed by the Incas over several centuries鈥攁nd partly based on pre-Inca infrastructure鈥攖his extraordinary network navigates one of the world鈥檚 most extreme geographical terrains. It links the snowcapped peaks of the Andes鈥攁t an altitude of more than 19,600 feet鈥攖o the coast. Along the way, it runs through hot rainforests, fertile valleys, and absolute deserts. In 2014, it became an UNESCO World Heritage site. As a bikepacker and documentarian, I wanted to celebrate this rich history and to celebrate this part of my identity and ancestry in a way that made sense to me.

What was your favorite experience on the Qhapaq 脩an?

Leonardo: For the most part, locals speak Aymara in the mountains of Bolivia and Quechua in Peru, and Spanish is their second language鈥攋ust as is mine. Being able to share a bit about my life with the people I met and to learn about their culture in return was an invaluable experience. One particular moment comes to mind: It was around day ten, when we left Sorata and began the long climb on the Ruta de las Tres Cordilleras. We arrived at a town called Pocobaya around 4 p.m.鈥攁round when we normally began looking for a camp. We asked a local if we could camp on their soccer field. A few hours later, after we had set up our tent, all the kids began to show up to investigate us. They were curious about everything鈥攐ur bikes, our tent, how we made food on our tiny stoves, and why I 鈥渄idn鈥檛 talk properly.鈥� But one common interest united us all: soccer.

Adam: One of my favorite experiences on the Qhapaq 脩an was about two weeks into the journey. We happened upon a few ranchers with their alpaca near the small village of Inca Capaturi. I noticed from afar that they were appearing to be shearing the fur of the animals. Eventually, we realized that they were actually processing the animals, right there in an open field. Curious, I wanted to engage, but since we were in such a remote area, we approached cautiously. It ended up being a family endeavor, and everyone welcomed us into the experience. Nelson, one of the ranchers, shared that in this part of the world, the natives save the blood of the animals and, later on, pour the blood at the entrance of the mines to bless passage and bring good luck to the miners.

How did you select your kits for such a long bikepacking expedition?听

Leonardo: We carefully chose each piece of our gear with two important qualifications in mind: the durability to withstand the abuse of a monthlong traverse in desolated territory and the versatility to adapt to the ever-changing weather we expected to face at 16,000 feet. We carried very light cycling kits. For clothes, we relied on essential pieces:

• : Soft, breathable, and quick-drying, this hoodie was perfect for everyday wear.
• : Made from a breathable softshell fabric, these shorts delivered all-day comfort with thigh venting zips for further ventilation and saddle reinforcements for durability.
• : These packable waterproof biking pants offered unmatched comfort in the saddle and reliable protection whenever the weather would turn.
• : Insulated with 700 fill power 100 percent recycled down, this reliably warm jacket was the perfect layer for nights at camp.

We also carried the for comfortable warmth in the varying high-alpine conditions. Here鈥檚 a video of on our expedition.

Along your journey, what was the greatest challenge you faced, and how did you overcome it?

Adam: Our greatest challenge was the injury I endured at nearly 17,000 feet. About 30 miles from the finish of our planned route and just after summiting a rocky mountain pass, I crashed. We bundled up at the top as it began to hail. We were excited for a large descent after eight hours of pushing our bikes uphill. Leonardo was ahead of me as I photographed from behind. I excitedly started riding after him but quickly lost control and clipped a large boulder to my right. In an attempt to correct, I pulled the bike left and immediately flipped over my handlebars, landing in a field of scree鈥攎y left wrist absorbing the impact. I heard a crack, and a surge of pain radiated through my whole body. Leonardo rushed to me. And as we began to investigate, we realized that I had fractured my wrist. Over the next 48 hours, we pushed our bikes to the nearest path-turned-road until we arrived at a town that offered a bus to Cusco.

What advice would you give to someone who鈥檚 interested in planning a similar adventure?

Leonardo: Be open-minded. Things are not going to go as planned鈥攖hey rarely do鈥攁nd the best approach anyone could have in these situations is to adapt and move on. What would you do if you slash your tire beyond repair in the middle of nowhere on the fifth day of a monthlong expedition? What would you do if you unexpectedly ride for six days without finding a single tienda to resupply and you are running dangerously low on food? What would you do if your partner crashes and breaks his arm at nearly 16,000 feet and the next town is a day away? You can鈥檛 plan for all possible scenarios, and you need to be okay with that. That鈥檚 the beautiful nature of adventure.

Adam: Set an intention, but similar to Leonardo鈥檚 advice, remain flexible. The fuel for these adventures is the desire to learn more about yourself and the world around you. With that in mind, the 鈥渄estination鈥� or 鈥済oal鈥� is rather flexible. As long as you grow from the experience, it’s a win in my book.

More than 40 years since our founding, continues to find inspiration in the untamed spirit of the mountains where we climb, the friendships we forge on the peak, and our enduring mission: to grow our community of mountain people and equip them for adventure.

We are committed to putting people at the heart of what we do. From our partners and athletes to our staff and everyone who has used and loved our gear, we are a global community that goes beyond mountains and crags, and it鈥檚 up to us to make sure it鈥檚 inclusive, diverse, and growing.

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The map that has become a meme first began arriving in text messages, emails, and social media tags at least four years ago. Maybe you鈥檝e seen it online, too鈥攁 Google Maps screenshot of the globe with a blue line that curves nearly 14,000 miles northward from Cape Town, South Africa to Magadan, Russia, arcing like a launched rocket through zones of extreme geopolitical turmoil. It is, allegedly, 鈥渢he world鈥檚 longest continuous walk,鈥� a fact I鈥檝e never bothered to vet despite the dozens of friends who鈥檝e sent it my way. I鈥檓 not very interested.

It鈥檚 true that I love walking long distances, whether that means going from Mexico to Canada via the Pacific Crest Trail or traversing entire states like Florida and Arizona a month at a time. But for me, hiking is a means to an end, never the end itself. I don鈥檛 want to walk the longest continual path so much as the most impactful ones, the ones that show me nature and beauty, myself and others, the present and especially the past from some surprising vantage. I suppose this viral trek would do the trick, but I鈥檓 not sure if it鈥檚 the best or most efficient way to encounter the unexpected I crave, at least compared to these ten hikes I鈥檓 determined to do in my time.

Rakiura Track, New Zealand

Distance: 20 miles
Time to Tackle: Three days
Terminus: Near Oban

Look at a map of Te Araroa, a 1,900-mile path that splits both the North and South Islands horizontally. Notice the dot of land just beneath the trail鈥檚 southern terminus? That鈥檚 Stewart Island, or , home to an eponymous national park and perhaps the most enticing of New Zealand鈥檚 ten Great Walks: the Rakiura Track. Kiwis take 鈥渢ramping鈥� seriously, devoting so many public resources to developing, protecting, and maintaining their routes that Americans can only be envious鈥攐r at least visit. Consider the Rakiura, which winds along near a series of bays and inlets (head out at night to look for kiwi feeding) and heads into forests of towering rimu. Enjoy three days of slow walking and reverie on isolated beaches, and choose from multiple huts (think Appalachian Trail shelters, but sturdy and clean) and campsites, ranging from $5 to $60 per night. And while I do love hiking in ankle-deep mud, officials work hard to curb the bog鈥檚 creep by packing down the trail. Thanks to flipped hemispheres, you鈥檒l want to trek Rakiura鈥攐r tack it onto the Te Araroa鈥攂etween October and March, when stateside hiking opportunities dwindle.

Greater Patagonian Trail, Chile and Argentina

Distance: 1,900 miles
Time to Tackle: A lifetime
Termini: Santiago, Chile (north), and Navarino Island, Chile (south)

I often lament that much of my hiking life happens on established trails, following routes that can be navigated via maps on apps. But what would it be like to really explore, to feel the frontier of modern adventure? For the next several years, the Greater Patagonian Trail should provide some answers. Dreamed up by German engineer Jan Dudeck and his dauntless Chilean wife Meylin Ubilla over almost two decades, the GPT, despite its name, is less a trail than a confederation of cattle paths, tiny roads, and otherwise unmarked expanses that you must make your own way through. Sure, the Pan-American Highway and Chile鈥檚 Route of Parks can guide you deep into some of the least developed parts of the planet, but no journey questions and expands the philosophical underpinnings of hiking quite like this one does. Can you negotiate your way through private land in Spanish? Can you slow down and embrace local culture and astounding beauty without feeling the American compulsion to finish, let alone finish fast? Can you accept failure, the most common GPT outcome, as a variety of success? With its stunning diversity of terrain and dependence on diplomacy, the GPT might be my ultimate trail鈥攖he one that, when I鈥檓 ready to commit, could be my final trek. Good thing Dudeck and Ubilla have yet to settle on its ends.

Ocean to Lake Trail, Florida

Distance: 61 miles
Time to Tackle: Four days
Termini: Lake Okeechobee (west) and Hobe Sound Beach (east)

I鈥檓 cursed to be a completist. The trait becomes arduous with through-hiking, where the desire to finish every side jaunt quickly piles on the miles. If hiking is partly about minimizing what you need, maybe I can learn to let completeness go, too? Some winter soon, I鈥檒l head south to the Ocean to Lake Trail, a fee-free, west-east offshoot of the 1,200-mile Florida Trail, a playground of swamps and sand, cypresses and pines. The Florida Trail is as fun and uncanny as American through-hiking gets, but it鈥檚 also a monthlong negotiation with alligators and grotesque, blistered feet. This sampler offers plentiful campsites, nearby restaurants (it鈥檚 South Florida鈥攁lways go to the Mexican spot), and cell service, so you can post trail pics for your adoring masses to enjoy. Although Florida is infamous for ceaseless strip malls and ostentatious development, its woods and wetlands remain among the wildest places in the U.S. This lush little corridor proves it.

Route K, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

Distance: 11 miles
Time to Tackle: Five hours
Terminus: Entrance Station 1

To glimpse 鈥攁 chain of sapphire and emerald jewels cut into karst and connected by streams, many of them subterranean鈥攊s to wonder whether you鈥檝e wandered into an AI-generated simulacrum of natural beauty. Not only are these gems at the core of Croatia鈥檚 oldest national park, but you can see many of them during day hikes on a network of serpentine trails. The longest one, Route K, is a circuit among the lower and upper lakes; it spools around the awe-inspiring Jezero Kozjak, like a Lake of the Ozarks retouched in Photoshop, and leads you across a series of boardwalks鈥攊deal platforms to take in an unbelievable panorama of verdant forests, towering waterfalls, cascading seeps, and sprawling tufa embankments. Despite the place鈥檚 popularity (it鈥檚 affordable, and a quick trip from the Adriatic Sea, which separates this coastline from Italy), wolves, black bears, and wildcats prowl the landscape, a rarity in Europe. There’s a nominal entrance fee; otherwise, you鈥檙e free to roam.

Backbone Trail, California

Distance: 67 miles
Time to Tackle: Three to five days
Termini: Point Mugu (west) and Will Rogers State Historic Park (east)

Tell people you hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and they鈥檒l wonder how many times you saw the ocean. (Answer: zero.) So here鈥檚 your chance to admire the big blue expanse from several thousand feet above Los Angeles. zigs and zags across the Santa Monica Mountains, just north of the lavish homes of Malibu, before descending to coastal coves. Slicing through a rare safeguarded stretch of Mediterranean ecosystem, this is arguably the country鈥檚 most anomalous trail鈥攑ublic land with ocean views, in an area where private interests buy up every scrap of acreage. During the pandemic, the Backbone became a hot spot on the fastest-known-time circuit, with runners racing it in ten hours. Assuming you鈥檙e not pursuing such a record, know that campsites are infrequent. So have a friend pick you up at day鈥檚 end, or recruit a guide via the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council to lead you and secure lodging, though it could cost upwards of $500. Otherwise, if night sets in and you鈥檙e out of options, you鈥檒l need to burrow in among the chaparral; if anyone asks, you鈥檙e from Calabasas.

Chilkoot Trail, Alaska

Distance: 33 miles
Time to Tackle: Two to five days
Termini: Dyea, Alaska (south), and Bennett Lake, British Columbia (north)

From battlefield paths to Appalachian gaps, I love historic trails鈥攋ourneys that foster a visceral connection with the past in ways books can鈥檛. Exemplary in that regard is the , a Tlingit trade route across the Coast Mountains that bustled with prospectors racing from Alaska into Canada鈥檚 Yukon during the Klondike gold rush. Officials weighed their gear just below Chilkoot Pass to ensure that they were bringing enough food and supplies for the expedition ahead. Remnants of this American avarice litter the trail, which, if you鈥檙e heading south to north, climbs from a gold-rush ghost town to the Canadian border before descending to mountain-bound Bennett Lake. (鈥淭he world鈥檚 longest museum,鈥� the National Park Service calls it.) You鈥檒l need a permit ($60) to overnight at the many otherwise free campgrounds. The trail鈥檚 international border was closed in 2022, and the trail itself was damaged by floods in October, though the entire thing is expected to reopen in August of this year. If you want to attempt the entire trek, double-check the status before you start鈥攜ou鈥檙e here for a Klondike gold bar, after all.

For more ideas on spectacular Alaska hiking, check out our recommendations in The Best Places to Visit in the U.S.

Trans-Bhutan Trail, Bhutan

Distance: 250 miles
Time to Tackle: 35 days
Termini: Haa (west) and Trashigang (east)

Apart from their traditional uses, historic trails fascinate me because they often involve a renaissance story that occurred long after they were supplanted by train tracks or highways. Case in point: the , used by royal couriers, soldiers, and religious pilgrims for half a millennium before parallel road construction led to disuse and disrepair in the 1950s. Last September, the eastern Himalayan nation reopened the route after substantial fixes by a small army of trail builders. Few places in the world offer an experience of a culture this distinct, especially on foot. When Bhutan, a Buddhist and matrilineal society, opened its borders to tourists in 1974, it revealed rich folklore, verdant expanses of uncut forests, and ornate temples and fortresses tucked into cliffside crags. As you make your way across sweeping valleys, through cramped passes, and into welcoming villages, you can look forward to sharing hearty meals like ema datshi鈥�a stew of cheese and chilies鈥攚ith the people who made them. The Trans-Bhutan Trail strings together such experiences (along with possible sightings of red pandas, Bengal tigers, and Asiatic black bears) like an ancient charm necklace. Save up, though, since a local guide is required. A five-day trek through a remarkable section near Paro is just $375, but a through-hike will run you around $20,000鈥攃heaper at least, and less clich茅, than an attempt on Mount Everest.

Sinai Trail, Egypt

Distance: 340 miles
Time to Tackle: 50 days
Termini: Serabit el-Khadim (west) and Ras Shaitan (east)

鈥淗ow many trails do you have left?鈥� friends always ask. But how can I reach the proverbial trail鈥檚 end when new ones appear every year? To wit, in 2015 three Bedouin tribes on Egypt鈥檚 storied Sinai鈥攖he land bridge between Africa and Asia鈥攂anded together to introduce an amazing 140-mile route from the Red Sea to the country鈥檚 highest summit, 8,600-foot Gabal Katrine. With proof of concept and new revenue bolstering a region not frequented by tourists, organizers soon got five more tribes on board and expanded the trail by 200 miles. The Sinai traces an austere desert landscape beneath massive skies. What鈥檚 out there? Tiny chapels and abandoned mines, Martian-like rock outcroppings and near tropical oases, serrated mountains and slot canyons. Due to local custom, and an attempt to create an economic boom in an area that sees few of them, you鈥檒l hike with Bedouin guides, your gear and water ferried by camels that, yes, you can ride. Each of the four sections takes about a dozen days to complete and costs a little over a grand, an absolute bargain in the realm of international accompanied treks. The first official through-hike is set for autumn 2023 with local outfitter . While the trip is high on my list, it鈥檚 going to have to wait, because terrorism remains a threat in the region; at press time the U.S. government advised against travel in the Sinai. Check with the State Department鈥檚 Bureau of Consular Affairs before you book.

Hayduke Trail, Utah and Arizona

Distance: 812 miles
Time to Tackle: Two months
Termini: Arches National Park (east) and Zion National Park (west), both in Utah

George Washington Hayduke is the justifiably spiteful hero of Edward Abbey鈥檚 , a comical, canonical manifesto of guerrilla environmental resistance. I have a suspicion Hayduke would approve of now bearing his name. An unsanctioned route that rambles across the mighty sandstone mesas, canyons, and monoclines of the lower Colorado Plateau, the Hayduke traverses public land, including five national parks. With its river crossings, treacherous descents, barely-there pathway, dearth of resupply options, and general water scarcity, it may be the most demanding trek in America. The commensurate beauty, however, is a testament to the no-guts-no-glory credo that compelled Hayduke (and maybe got him killed). At least it鈥檚 free, as Hayduke would have wanted. This is the trail I most covet, but even as I near 10,000 total miles on foot, I don鈥檛 know that I鈥檓 ready yet. My motto, should the time come: Prepare to go through hell to see the Southwest鈥檚 heaven.

Olomana Trail, Oahu

Distance: 4.4 miles
Time to Tackle: Four hours
Termini: Olamana Ridge Trailhead (north) and Ahiki (south)

The City of Honolulu recently posted a pair of signs at the famed Olomana Trailhead in eastern Oahu, but these weren鈥檛 a polite guide to trail etiquette. 鈥淪ix people have fallen to their deaths after hiking past the first peak,鈥� read the top placard, a stern preamble to a second sign listing the dates and locations of the accidents. The trail, just ten miles from the capital, is part of the island鈥檚 incredible free recreational network鈥攚hich is to say that, despite the signs, you can legally hike it. But it鈥檚 worth considering whether you鈥檙e up for the challenge. Named for the first of three steep and narrow summits, linked by a short but harrowing path lined with guide ropes, Olomana is one of the most polarizing trails in the U.S. It鈥檚 trumpeted by adrenaline junkies, who also champion the sweeping coastline views that such extreme exposure allows, but scorned by those who see it as a potentially fatal magnet for YouTube bros. Maybe it鈥檚 both.

Map It

Nothing gets us excited about a hike more than a good map

And there鈥檚 no better backcountry map out there than Gaia GPS. For the ten hiking routes featured here鈥攎any of them in places where cell service may be nonexistent and advanced beta on terrain and logistics could be a lifesaver鈥攜ou can download detailed Gaia GPS trail maps for offline use, so you always find your way. Gaia Topo鈥檚 interactive maps set the standard for clarity and detail, and help you locate campgrounds, scenic overlooks, water sources, and summits. Precise weather forecasts are available by tapping the map, and you can leave a breadcrumb trail of your progress, in case you want to take that detour to a waterfall and still find your way back. Once you鈥檙e home again, relive the whole experience in 3D on . Bonus: 国产吃瓜黑料+ members get access to all these routes鈥攁nd millions more trails worldwide鈥攁long with Gaia GPS鈥檚 safety tools, giving them everything they need to get after it with confidence. (Disclosure: Gaia GPS is owned by 国产吃瓜黑料 Inc., which also owns 国产吃瓜黑料 magazine.) 鈥擳asha Zemke

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Envision a well-known band and the slosh-fest that typically ensues on tour. The traveling circus would include flowing booze, folding tables lined with greasy grub, and a revolving door of trippy characters getting lit backstage all night.

Well, that鈥檚 not how rolls. Formed in Sydney in 2010 and composed of the singer-guitarist Tyrone Lindqvist, keyboardist Jon George, and drummer James Hunt, the alternative electronic music trio has a touring regimen that is about as disciplined and health-centric as it gets. It wasn鈥檛 always that way, but things changed three years ago.

Today the group is at a career peak. In 2021, R眉f眉s du Sol鈥檚 latest album, Surrender, topped charts globally, and in 2022, its anthemic jam 鈥淎live鈥� took home the Grammy Award for best dance recording. As of late April, the guys have again, playing in Colombia and sites including Monterrey and Mexico City, Mexico; then major festivals in Europe; and, starting August 1, seven stops in the United States at locations ranging from Boston to Charlotte, North Carolina.

The heart of the tour, the group鈥檚 curated festival , scheduled to run May 4-7 and 11-14 outside San Jos茅 del Cabo, Mexico, will bring artists like DJ Tennis, Carlita, WhoMadeWho, and Dixon for two weekends of jams and health-minded options like yoga, meditation, and breath work.

R眉f眉s Du Sol has a vibe that can span two worlds. Its indie-electro beats with deep house undertones are a soundtrack for a head-bobbing, feel-good night at a dark club鈥攂ut also, as I recently experienced during a multi-day trek in the Great Smoky Mountains, a cloudless hike in a pine-clad national park. The music is that adaptable and infectious.

In April just before the tour commenced, I sat down with the three band members, who Zoomed in from Austin, Texas, to talk travel and wellness, including their favorite spots, highlights from the road, and Frisbee golf.

国产吃瓜黑料: You鈥檝e been touring for more than a decade. How has your regimen evolved?

James: We’ve made some really good changes, just to make things more healthy, more sustainable, and we want to come out of a tour feeling fitter than when we go into it. It used to be the other way around. We’ve brought in a lot of structure, wellness practices, and breath work. We do ice baths when we can after each show, we take ginger shots before we go onstage, we’re working out, and we have a trainer touring with us. So we have a really good sense of routine built into touring now.

What sparked it?

Tyrone: We’d been touring pretty hard. We鈥檝e been a band for 13 years now, and we made a bit of a switch three or four years ago. Things got busier the more successful we got. We had success in Australia, then the U.S. Things were getting more exciting and the tour schedule more intensive, and we were writing at the same time. The balance of health and wellness with working was definitely not where we wanted it to be.

COVID, in some ways, was kind of a big gift for our mindset. It forced us to stop touring and gave us the opportunity to reconnect. We were actually in Joshua Tree [in Southern California], starting the writing process for Surrender, and we got to process a bunch of stuff that we hadn’t really talked about. We were trying out different things like meditating, exercising as a unit, doing saunas and little cold plunges. And we were building a structured work environment, where we would work for eight hours instead of working till an idea was done. We shifted and gave ourselves a clock-in and clock-out. It brought up a lot of fear and anxiety, like, Are we going to be able to make music like before without working around the clock? But we鈥檝e made it.

Surely there have been some crazy workouts and wellness experiences over the years. Do any stick out in your mind?

James: Well, we just did one about two hours ago here in Austin. Our trainer put us through a pretty brutal leg session. There’s a sense of camaraderie of getting through that intensity together. It breeds a good sort of bonding. You鈥檙e lifting each other up.

Jon: One of those memories for me was the last Sundream Baja festival. We weren鈥檛 staying in a fancy hotel, but on-site [the venue is between the beaches and desert], which was really cool, with all the energy going on. We had a trainer there again, and we were in the back of one of the villas and just all trained really hard together, sweating it out in such a beautiful setting.

How do you recover after a long tour?

James: There’s always an adjustment period after so much overstimulation. You’re going between different environments, traveling, playing shows with tens of thousands of people, and having a pretty strict exercise routine. That adjustment always takes a few days, but it definitely helps to do some of the same wellness activities that we do on the road. And I always find that doing cold therapy, like the ice plunge, is a really good way to regulate.

For this tour, is there a particular place you鈥檙e really looking forward to exploring?

Tyrone: I’m pretty excited to go to Monterrey, in Mexico. We’ve never been there, and my wife’s father’s family is from there.

Jon: Yeah, I鈥檇 say Monterrey and Guadalajara [also in Mexico] are up there, along with Medell铆n [Colombia].

Let鈥檚 touch on tours past. What is your favorite place to play and why?

Tyrone: Recently, we went home to Australia and played a bunch of shows. I definitely have a newfound respect and appreciation for Australian crowds and being in Australia, especially having lived over in the U.S. for many years [with a home base in L.A.]. I missed the food for sure. Red Rocks [amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado] is up there. We’ve played there a lot and it has so much history. It鈥檚 just so stunning.

Jon: Red Rocks is an amazing experience from the stage. You’re looking up at the crowd rather than down, and they seem so close. It has a very special energy.

Is there a particular activity you鈥檝e really enjoyed while on the road?

James: In 2016, just after we put Bloom out, we had tour dates through the summer, and we discovered Frisbee golf鈥攖his game we鈥檇 never heard of. We鈥檇 be playing [where we had] shows in places like Michigan and Colorado in the beautiful summer weather. We became obsessed鈥攊t is a pretty sick way to see different parts of the country.听

Any specific place in the U.S. you enjoy?

Jon: Austin is pretty great. It was one of the first places we played in the U.S. Every time we come here, everyone is so nice. We鈥檝e spent some time rehearsing here at the start of a tour, did South by Southwest, and spent about a week. Everything is just so fresh here.

James: During the pandemic, me and Jon and a bunch of our friends went to Big Sky Country鈥擬ontana鈥攂ecause we couldn’t go back to Australia. We had a sort of Friends鈥� Christmas, and that was sick. The mountain ranges in the U.S. are just unparalleled.

Looking ahead, what is it you want out of a travel experience?

Tyrone: I’m really looking for family-experience travel. I’ve really gotten the experience of seeing new places, having new memories, and eating new cuisines with the guys, and I’ve cherished that. I鈥檓 looking forward to a version of that with my wife and son in the future, too.

James: I definitely love meeting people in different parts of the world, connecting with people who live there or someone who’s been there for a little while, the people who know the places to eat and the local hole-in-the-wall spots.

Jon: We鈥檝e developed a lot of friends all over the world while touring, so it’s really cool to be able to have that inside knowledge and a more local experience in different places. But I also love that there is still so much more to see.

Jesse Scott resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and covers the intersection of travel, food, and music. He鈥檚 interviewed Metallica, The Killers, and Steve Aoki, and written about outdoor adventures ranging from hiking in the Grand Canyon to exploring coffee farms in Colombia.

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When Jordan Salama was an undergraduate at Princeton University in 2018, he set out to travel the length of Colombia鈥檚 Magdalena River as part of his college thesis. The project turned into , a book about the four-week trip. It鈥檚 an interlocking series of stories about the people he encountered鈥攆rom Indigenous groups at its headwaters to a man spreading literacy with a donkey-based mobile听library鈥攁nd a longitudinal look at how the history and geography of the country are intertwined.

Every Day the River Changes was the December-January pick for the newly relaunched 国产吃瓜黑料 Book Club, and we鈥檝e been discussing it for the past two months in (which we encourage you to join). Recently, we talked to Salama about his debut release, specifically how he explored听the Magdalena from source to sea, the most interesting people he met on the river, and why he didn鈥檛 want to tell the same old story about Pablo Escobar鈥檚 hippos.

国产吃瓜黑料: Where did the idea for a book about Colombia, and particularly the Magdalena, come from?
Salama: This project began when I was still in school. After my first year of college, I got to travel to Colombia in 2016听as an intern for the Wildlife Conservation Society. When I told people I wanted to go, they were terrified. Colombia has this reputation and stigma in the U.S. It鈥檚 known one-dimensionally as a culture of violence, and in 2016, people were not excited about 19-year-old me going there.

But I had one family friend, Sandra Marlem-Mu帽oz, 听my old piano teacher, who said I could stay with her grandma while I was an intern. Turns out her grandma was a 96-year-old who couldn鈥檛 get out of bed and wouldn鈥檛 let me leave the house after 7 P.M. But I became fascinated by this country of cultural and natural diversity, so at night when I was locked in, I kept journals of the people I met and the experiences I had. A few years later, when I was deciding on a subject for my college undergrad thesis, I looked back at journals and realized that if I wanted to understand Colombia, I had to travel the length of the river.

This is really a story about migration and immigration and the way people travel and move. Did you know it was going to be about that from the beginning?
I come from this family of wanderers and migrants. My family is the product of lots of different migrations鈥攎ost of them involuntary. My mother was a Jew who had to leave Baghdad in the seventies, and my father鈥檚 family were Syrian Jews in Argentina. I saw in Colombia, and especially in communities of the Magdalena, many identities in one, many nations in one, and saw so many places where people had similar stories to my family, so it felt important to address that.

You mentioned the country鈥檚 reputation of violence, and that occasionally comes up in the book. How did you deal with that on the ground?
It took a lot of logistics to be safe for my 2018 trip.听It started with Sandra鈥檚 network of friends and family, which led to introductions along the Magdalena. When I set off, I had people willing to receive me almost everywhere I went. I was traveling by myself but was never really alone. Meeting all these people along the way, whether it was a friend of a friend or a friend of a professor, was how I created a line of trust along the river.

How did those connections translate into your reporting?
I didn鈥檛 go into the trip knowing what kind of stories I would find. It was kind of a moving surprise. I improvised, and a lot can happen on the fly. In almost every river town, someone would say, 鈥淵ou have to talk to this person or check out this story.鈥� For instance, in Mompox, someone mentioned this 89-year-old silver filigree jeweler. I wasn鈥檛 planning to have that be a part of the story, but he ended up being the heart of the section there.

Did you ever feel like the trip wasn鈥檛 going to happen the way you wanted, or that the whole thing would fall apart? Four weeks isn鈥檛 a very long time to try to see an entire river.
Oh yeah, plenty. I will never forget my time in Estaci贸n Cocorn谩, which was one of the hottest places I鈥檝e ever been in my life. I was in this room I was renting in the town, and I was laying there at 3 P.M., in the height of the heat of the day, just sweating with no idea of how I was going to traverse the next stretch of the river.听I wanted to go with someone who could explain what I was seeing, but I didn鈥檛 have anyone, and I was thinking I was going to have to stay in Estaci贸n Cocorn谩听because I had no one to do it with. Then I got a message from Alejandra Mayorca, a friend of a friend, who has become a lot of people鈥檚 favorite character in the book because she lives the way a lot of people want to live their lives. She took a 20-hour bus to the river to meet me there, to take a seven-hour boat ride, to take another eight-hour bus ride. People stepped up like that in a lot of places.

What was your favorite place along the river?
.听I can鈥檛 stop thinking about it. It feels like it鈥檚 out of a novel. He was there for a while, and a lot of people there said that his fiction felt like journalism that documented their lives. And in that town, I found traces of my own family, indirectly.

Mompox happens to be one of the main places Syrians and Lebanese and Palestinian people settled when they came to South America, like my family did, so that was really cool to see.

M谩rquez comes up frequently in the book. Who else were you reading, or influenced by, when you were working on this?
We could talk a lot about M谩rquez鈥攁nytime you鈥檙e talking about Colombia or the Magdalena, he comes up. I鈥檝e also been lucky to have some really good mentors, especially during my time at Princeton. was the teacher who convinced me that this was something I could do as a career. He writes about canoes and people and nature, so our interests really clicked. I didn鈥檛 know what creative nonfiction could be, but he helped me see it. The other person at Princeton is . It鈥檚 interesting, the two of them write very differently. He writes a lot about himself and his identity and what he鈥檚 feeling, and I think my writing is somewhere in the middle of those two.

How did you think about telling stories about Colombia when you were writing the book?
I didn鈥檛 want to lean into the stereotypes about Colombia, and so many of the stories aren鈥檛 as nuanced as they should be. Look at drug lord听Pablo Escobar鈥檚 . Escobar dominates so much of what鈥檚 written about Colombia in the U.S., so I didn鈥檛 just want to talk about him, but the hippos are really impacting the river. It felt important to go see how they鈥檙e terrorizing the fishermen, and to speak to the people who are impacted by the situation. Very few people have actually gone and seen those kinds of impacts. The locals said they鈥檇 been treated by the public as kind of, like, cartoons.

What do you want people who haven鈥檛 read听the book to know about it?
The biggest challenge with this book is getting it into the hands of people who don鈥檛 realize they鈥檙e interested in Latin America or Colombia. I think it might seem far off and hard to grasp, but it鈥檚 filled with people who are bringing their communities out of decades of conflict,听inspired by the river. And there鈥檚 a traveling-donkey library.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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From Hobbit-inspired abodes to secluded treehouses to beachfront cottages,听travelers can live out their fantasy vacation听at an Airbnb听rental. However, a dream retreat can easily turn into a nightmare when your chosen property falls short of expectations. The last Airbnb I checked into was an adorable yurt tucked deep inside a rainforest on Hawaii Island (also known as the Big Island). The property itself was clean and quaint, but the road leading to the yurt was unpaved and nearly impassable in a rented convertible. Located at an elevation of 3,000 feet, it was a lot colder than I expected, and the yurt itself was not heated or soundproof, which meant three sleepless nights of hearing singing coqui frogs, crowing roosters, and distant sounds of gunshots. have run the gamut from moldy bathrooms and unsafe neighborhoods to aggressive hosts, neighbors, or even pets.

鈥淢ost of the complaints we receive about Airbnb come from travelers who have a misunderstanding about what Airbnb is and what it isn鈥檛,鈥� says Michelle Couch-Friedman, executive director at , a nonprofit organization that helps mediate consumer complaints. 鈥淎irbnb does not manage any of the properties it lists, nor have these properties been inspected by Airbnb,鈥� she says. That means it鈥檚 up to consumers to do their own due diligence and properly vet the lodging and the host before booking. I asked eight frequent Airbnb users for their best advice on how to do that. Here are some of their tips.

Read the Listing

This might seem like a given, but people are often so charmed by a property鈥檚 photos that they overlook essential details in the listing. When you鈥檙e searching for accommodations, Airbnb pulls up a mix of results that include entire houses, private rooms, hotel rooms, and shared rooms. 鈥淵ou should carefully check what type of place you are booking before actually booking,鈥� says , a travel blogger and Airbnb superuser. That way, you won鈥檛 accidentally book a shared rental space when you were looking for a place of your own. In addition to reading about the amenities and check-in and check-out times, you should also make sure you understand what the cleaning fee covers. When travel blogger first started using Airbnb, she assumed it was just like a hotel. 鈥淚 found out that wasn鈥檛 the case after being charged a cleaning fee for not doing dishes,鈥� she says. In fact, the host determines what鈥檚 included in the cleaning fees, and some , such as dumping dirty linens in the washer or putting away the dishes before departure; failure to do so can incur an extra fee.听鈥淩ead the entire listing to avoid these types of issues,鈥� Barwig says.

Don鈥檛 Skim Over the Cancellation Policy

Travelers should pay particular attention to the cancellation policy, which is set by the host. 鈥淭here are Airbnb listings where you can cancel last minute, while there are others you can鈥檛 cancel at all. And sometimes you only get a refund for a percentage of your booking costs,鈥� says Mensink. Couch-Friedman cautions that the listing is a legally binding contract. 鈥淔ailing to review or completely understand the cancellation policy of an individual property is not a foundation to break the contract,鈥� she says. 鈥淚n my experience, especially during the pandemic, the one thing travelers overlook and then regret later is the cancellation policy.鈥�

Go Through the Reviews

Reviews can help provide a fuller picture of the neighborhood, the quality of the amenities, the accessibility of hosts, and any other potential red flags. Travel blogger relies heavily on reviews when she chooses a place to stay on Airbnb. She looks for things that a host might not include in their description, such as street noise and strength of Wi-Fi. A listing with only a few reviews can be a red flag. 鈥淭he one time I didn鈥檛 follow my own advice and booked a place with a solitary听review听that听lacked听any real听feedback, the place turned out to be extremely sketchy,鈥� says Chang. 鈥淚 made sure my own听review听on Airbnb would be more helpful to future travelers and tactfully ward them off.鈥� Look for consistency in the reviews. 鈥淚t鈥檚 normal to have an off review or two,鈥� says family travel blogger . 鈥淏ut if several reviewers comment on something that would bother me, I move on.鈥� It鈥檚 also worth noting that Airbnb reviews often do not appear in chronological order, so it鈥檚 important to scroll through all of them to make sure you鈥檙e finding the most recent testimony, says Couch-Friedman. If a property has changed owners, new guests might have complained of a subpar experience at what was previously a well-reviewed rental. Conversely, a formerly struggling Airbnb might have made improvements in recent months.

Talk to the Host

Travel blogger encourages travelers to get to know their hosts prior to making a transaction by clicking the Contact Host button and sending them a message. 鈥淵ou should ask the host all of your questions, and don鈥檛 be hesitant to inquire about the specifics of your stay,鈥� he says. The way a host responds to your initial questions could clue you in on how likely they鈥檒l be to handle any issues that might arise during your stay. Some hosts are hospitality experts, while others are just trying to earn a side income by renting out their property. Digital nomad and podcaster checks to see if the hosts are staying near the property. 鈥淚 generally prefer the owner to be somewhere close, so the response time is quick if something is wrong,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also good to have access to local help if anything comes up while you are overseas.鈥� Suen prefers booking with , a designation given to those who fulfill requirements such as a 90 percent response rate and an overall rating of 4.8 or higher; he believes it 鈥減rovides an extra layer of social proof that the experience will be a good one.鈥� While a superhost badge is a plus, it doesn鈥檛 guarantee that your stay is going to be a trouble-free experience. 鈥淭ravelers need to understand, the superhost听badge applies to the host, not a particular property,鈥� says Couch-Friedman. 鈥淢any superhosts have multiple properties, and a host earns that badge by achieving a certain number of five-star reviews by former guests.鈥�

Study the Photos

When Couch-Friedman books an Airbnb property, she looks at the photos carefully. 鈥淚f they don鈥檛 look recent or appear to be screenshots, I scroll to another property,鈥� she says. Family travel blogger takes the time to notice the details. 鈥淚t might be a 鈥榝amily friendly鈥� listing, but does it actually look family friendly?鈥� she asks. 鈥淎re there cords everywhere, are there glass tables, are there a lot of stairs, is there an open space [children] can play?鈥� To avoid being scammed by a nonexistent Airbnb rental, Couch-Friedman vets the property by dragging the photos into a Google Images search, to determine whether the photos exist elsewhere on the internet.

Don鈥檛 Leave if Your Airbnb Has Problems

If the property is not up to snuff when you arrive, do not reject the property on sight or hastily find an alternate accommodation. 鈥淎 common mistake of novice Airbnb users is they鈥檒l arrive at the property, take a look at it, decide it isn鈥檛 what they hoped for, and leave, expecting a refund,鈥� says Couch-Friedman. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 how Airbnb operates.鈥� Travelers who decide the property is not as advertised should immediately alert both the host and Airbnb. Then they should document everything by taking photos and videos of the issues, such as stained bedsheets or an unhygienic kitchen. The host is typically given 12 to 24 hours to fix any problems that are correctable, for example, sending a cleaning service or replacing a mattress or broken TV. 鈥淚f Airbnb determines that the problem is not fixable, then it will make an attempt to reaccommodate the guest with a comparable Airbnb property,鈥� says Couch-Friedman. 鈥淎irbnb will only require a refund from the host to the guest if the property significantly deviates from the listing鈥攆or example, a property with three bedrooms instead of the advertised five鈥攁nd there is no way to correct the problem.鈥�

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In early 1833, during , Charles Darwin found himself in a corner of the world he didn鈥檛 particularly care for, an archipelago near the southern tip of South America called the Falkland Islands, whose windswept moorlands he described as 鈥渄esolate and wretched.鈥� The local birdlife didn鈥檛 help matters. An unusual species of falcon seemed to derive pleasure from tormenting him and the ship鈥檚 crew. 鈥淎 large black glazed hat was carried nearly a mile, as was a pair of the heavy balls used in catching cattle,鈥� Darwin wrote of the avian thieves, 鈥渁nd a small Kater鈥檚 compass in a red morocco leather case, which was never recovered.鈥� Crew members complained about the birds鈥� 鈥渂oldness and rapacity,鈥� and a lookout was posted to prevent them from picking apart the ship鈥檚 rigging. Whalers who had visited the Falklands previously had likewise cursed the creatures as 鈥渇lying devils鈥� and 鈥渇lying monkeys,鈥� although science would ultimately settle on the name striated caracara, or, informally, Johnny rook.

Darwin was both repulsed and intrigued by this prankster, which resembles a cross between a hawk and a raven, with an orange face, glossy black plumage, and the ability to run with the speed and agility of a pheasant. Although he called them 鈥渇alse eagles鈥� who 鈥渋ll become so high a rank,鈥� he couldn鈥檛 ignore their strange alertness, sociability, and curiosity. In , he wrote more about Johnny rooks and their shenanigans than any other bird. Why, the great naturalist wondered, was such a seemingly intelligent species scratching out an existence in this tiny, remote range at the bottom of the planet? Ultimately, however, he set this question aside and never returned to it.

Now, nearly two centuries later, Jonathan Meiburg has taken up the obscure task of answering Darwin鈥檚 question in . Although Meiburg, up to this point, has made his mark not as an ornithologist听but as a Texas-based indie-rock musician , the name of his band () and the titles of some of its albums (, , ) suggest that birds are never far from his thoughts. He first met striated caracaras 25 years ago during a postcollege that sent him around the globe听to study daily life in remote societies, and while in the Falklands, the birds gave him the full-on Darwin experience. They stole his cap, tugged the zippers of his backpack, and looked right through him in a manner both knowing and unnerving. The experience prompted Meiburg to get a master鈥檚 degree in geography, with a thesis titled 鈥淭he Biogeography of Striated Caracaras (Phalcoboenus australis),鈥澨齛nd he remains smitten to this day. 鈥淐alling them odd birds of prey,鈥� he writes, 鈥渇eels like calling the painters of the Italian Renaissance a group of unusually gifted apes.鈥�

Early in the book, we come to know a striated caracara named Tina, who is a resident of a falconry center in England. Tina鈥檚 keeper, Geoff, shuffles three shells on a table in a bid to confuse the bird, but Tina always picks the one concealing a treat beneath. When Geoff asks for a particular colored ball from a tub of balls, she always retrieves the right one. Her enthusiasm for playing, solving problems, and wanting to know more听is off the charts. In the world of raptors, this is unheard of. Most birds of prey, like peregrine falcons鈥攐ne of the most widespread birds on earth, residing on six continents鈥攁re designed for one thing:听hunting. Johnny rooks, like us, appear designed for thinking.听And yet only a couple thousand remain on the planet, living on a handful of subantarctic islands that, due to sea-level rise, may soon disappear. This vexes Meiburg, whose subsequent quest for answers produces a lively mashup of evolutionary biology, travelogue, and biography, ushering us on an eye-opening romp through time and space. Meiburg journeys back millions of years to consider plate tectonics, mass extinctions, sea-level change, glacial movement, and the rise and fall of species.

Woven into this account is a听19th-century British naturalist who was equally captivated听by听the bird.听 was one of the first people, Meiburg notes, 鈥渢o write a kind word about caracaras.鈥� Hudson grew up on the Argentinean听Pampas alongside a type of caracara called the听chimango, and he admired them. They hunted when hunting made sense, scavenged when scavenging made sense, and otherwise explored, investigated, and took risks. Hudson, a lonely soul, also shared their outcast status. He鈥檇 moved to England seeking like-minded bird lovers, and while his books were praised by luminaries like Ezra Pound and Virginia Woolf, noted ornithologists like John Gould, who cataloged Darwin鈥檚 specimens, snubbed him as an uncredentialed amateur.

As science had shunned Hudson, so it shunned the caracara branch of family Falconidae.听Ornithologists have referred to them as 鈥渁berrant falcons鈥� and 鈥渁 rather unimpressive lot,鈥� with Falconidae鈥檚 so-called true falcons鈥攊ncluding peregrines鈥攈ogging all the research. But the upshot of Meiburg鈥檚 sleuthing is that falcons are less related to other raptors than they are to a bird famous for its chatty intelligence:听parrots. Those听two share a common ancestor that survived the asteroid-triggered Cretaceous extinction by occupying then forested Antarctica. A land bridge subsequently allowed falcons to migrate to South America, where 64 species evolved, including ten听types of caracara. (Parrots, meanwhile,听likely听took another land bridge, to Australasia.) When North and South America joined up five million years ago, peregrines and other falcons migrated north, while the lineage that produced striated caracaras never left South America,听meandering the length and width of the continent听before ending up back where they听started, near the bottom of Argentina, on the doorstep of Antarctica. Meiburg schleps across the continent himself to trace this lineage and learn what he can from the Johnny rook鈥檚 caracara cousins currently dwelling in听Guyanese jungles, altiplano听deserts, and remote Andean valleys.听

The book is most compelling with Meiburg on the ground in these difficult places, discovering consistently fascinating caracara behavior. Deep in the rainforest of Guyana, he finds red-throated caracaras who survive primarily by听eating wasp larva. The birds have deduced that if they dive-bomb听wasp nests as aggressively as possible, the shocked residents will choose flight over fight. In the Chilean altiplano above 12,000 feet, Meiburg spends one of the coldest nights of his life in a sleeping bag on the edge of a salt lagoon, staking out mountain caracaras known for working in groups to flip over heavy flat stones in search of edible creatures.听

Meiburg鈥檚 goals are ambitious. In trying to pin down exactly why a single species occupies a particular range on earth, he explores an unwieldy assortment of planetary forces spanning eons, and if that isn鈥檛 enough, he throws in a biography of Hudson to boot. It鈥檚 a lot. He mostly keeps the narrative moving, although now and again he lingers too long in spots. We might not need the level of detail on Hudson鈥檚 novel Green Mansions, for example, or the blow-by-blow account of Sir Walter Raleigh鈥檚 efforts to听find El Dorado in southern Guyana. He more than makes up for it, though, with consistently evocative writing, as in this delightful passage about a pair of sun bitterns one morning on the banks of the Rewa: 鈥淭heir song was equally beautiful and odd: a set of hollow notes that ascended by quarter tones, so airy and diffuse that they seemed to come from everywhere. As the sun broke through the canopy, they were joined by a bird I couldn鈥檛 place, singing a descending countermelody in the same octave鈥攖hen another, whose sparkling seven-note song was like a peal of tiny bells.鈥� In moments like this one, Meiburg brings his deep musical knowledge to bear.

In the end,听we find out that听the polar vortex has kept听striated caracaras pinned down in the Falklands听and on a couple of nearby islands off Tierra del Fuego. They will remain stranded, Meiburg notes sadly, until some combination of ocean pollution, overfishing, and sea-level rise erases them forever. But that doesn鈥檛 keep him from dreaming of creative interventions. If peregrines can colonize dense urban centers, why not Johnny rooks? Meiburg imagines translocating some to Hyde Park in London and then letting them do their thing. Hell, they鈥檙e smarter than pigeons, and pigeons know how to use the Underground. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not hard to imagine Johnny rooks following suit, running under turnstiles of the Circle Line at Paddington Station and riding out to Hampstead Heath, then returning home to roost at night,鈥� Meiburg muses. We鈥檙e talking, after all, about a lineage of birds that successfully stole from Darwin, determined how to eat wasps without getting stung, and can organize a community rock-flipping to find dinner. London would be a piece of cake.

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When returned to the skies in January, the newly revived brand didn鈥檛 know听that a global pandemic would soon halt nearly all air travel around the world. Yet while COVID-19 has grounded most flights from major airlines, Eastern has found a way to keep busy, working in partnership with the State Department to help bring听stranded U.S. citizens听home from听Central and South America.听

For those who remember, the name Eastern Air Lines (formerly spelled as such) sparks听memories of the golden age of air travel. A prominent player for most of the 20th century, the Miami-based airline听hit its peak in the 1950s before bankruptcy grounded its fleet in 1991. An initial听, in 2015, was short-lived, but in听January, Eastern returned with a flight from Guayaquil, Ecuador, to New York City, along with a whole new for the 21st century. The airline planned to introduce its next flight, from New York City听to Georgetown, Guyana, in mid-March, and another route to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, later this year.听

Then the pandemic hit, and Eastern had to re-strategize. As airports around the world began to close, thousands of American tourists became . The State Department reached out to Eastern to help get citizens home from Guyana after the airline successfully flew听charters听to return medical students based in Grenada and Panama City to the U.S. in early March.听The airline then started听a repatriation flight from Georgetown to Miami听on March 13. This came just as the State Department launched a on March 19, ordering a plan for听government-funded charter flights听to听be听conducted by commercial airlines. Repatriated passengers would听be expected to听eventually 听upon their return.

Eastern saw an opportunity. Unlike that are repatriation flights and determining fares based on an agreement听with听the federal听government, Eastern听sets its听own fares and only works with the听government to determine how many passengers to expect on each flight. Its repatriation flights cost up to $2,000 one-way, which CEO Steve Harfst听says is because the airline flies the planes from the U.S. empty, so passengers are essentially paying for a round-trip ticket. The cost is relatively comparable to听other airlines, with examples that include a $1,000 United from Lima, Peru, to Houston, and nearly $1,500 from Marrakech, Morocco, to any of ten听U.S. cities via various airlines, according to .听

Since Eastern鈥檚听inaugural flight, it has returned听17,013 passengers听on 102 flights from 15 countries across Central and South America, including Peru, Argentina, and Nicaragua. It has听also flown 3,412 non-American travelers from the U.S. to their home countries.听On average, repatriation flights have been 68 percent full, and the airline hasn鈥檛 turned a significant profit. 鈥淥n some of the flights, we鈥檝e lost money. Some of the flights, we haven鈥檛. On average听we鈥檙e probably just barely above breakeven,鈥� Harfst says. 鈥淲e make a commitment to fly the flight, so we鈥檙e somewhat taking a risk and believing that the U.S. embassy is being real with the numbers [of passengers] that they expect. But if 30 people showed up, we鈥檇 still fly the plane.鈥澨�

Coming from a fledgling airline with fewer than 200 employees, this initiative is surprising. Before the pandemic, Eastern was banking on business from a specific demographic: adventurous millennials. Calling itself the 鈥渆xplorer brand,鈥� it hoped that a combination of budget fares to underserved adventure locales, a liberal baggage policy (one bag of up to 70 pounds free of charge), and smart marketing would win over a generation that prides itself on spending money on experiences, not stuff. Eastern鈥檚 2018 internal study deemed Guayaquil, Georgetown, and Cabo San Lucas up-and-coming South American adventure destinations.

But some weren鈥檛 so convinced that the approach of tapping into such a specific market would work. 鈥淚t could be tough to sustain a business with such a narrow focus,鈥� says Lori Ranson, a senior analyst at the Sydney-based . She points to Air France鈥檚 attempt in 2017 to target younger travelers with its now defunct subsidiary,听,听through things like budget fares, colorful seats, and casual flight-attendant attire.听However, Harfst says these are 鈥渁irline frills鈥澨齮hat don鈥檛 add value to a traveler鈥檚 experience, adding that Eastern wants to provide 鈥渉assle-free service鈥澨齠or its passengers.

In February, before the pandemic hit, Harfst told 国产吃瓜黑料 that he anticipated Eastern鈥檚 flights would be 50 to 70 percent less expensive than other airlines, citing cost-cutting measures like operating wide-body aircraft that allow for more seating and luggage. (JetBlue does not have wide-body aircraft, though other airlines, like American and United, do.) The company also owns its fleet. (According to a 2018 听by the Centre for Aviation, half of the world鈥檚 commercial planes are leased.)听Ranson noted that the company鈥檚 spending costs would need to be 鈥渨ell below its competitors鈥� in order to meet its proposed fares.听But over the course of February and early March, Eastern鈥檚 fares were comparable with its听competition.听

When we contacted Harfst听again this month and asked if those听cheaper fares would still be possible following the pandemic, Harfst says he didn鈥檛 know, though he expects all airline fares to increase after a complete return to travel. While there may be initial deals to attract fliers back, airlines will eventually have to make up for lost revenue. 鈥淭he costs [of flying] don鈥檛 change,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚听fair to assume that, regardless of what does happen, fares are going to be more expensive.鈥澨�

As for the future, Harfst believes that Eastern could come out ahead of other airlines post-pandemic. As a small business, it received support from the CARES Act, but Harfst says its low-cost structure makes the company more resilient. He notes that as a startup company with fewer鈥攁nd newer鈥攅mployees, it doesn鈥檛 have to cover the higher compensation of tenured members (though he adds that Eastern pays its employees a competitive wage). In addition to lower labor costs and the fact that it owns its own planes, Harfst says听the shrinking travel industry will result in more underserved markets, allowing for Eastern to pursue its original business model. 鈥淲e think that there鈥檒l be domestic opportunities that will be open to us, as routes and markets are either abandoned or left with less capacity,鈥� he says, citing the airline鈥檚听recent application for a domestic nonstop flight from New York to San Diego. 鈥淭here are still people all around the world who will need to or want to travel that now won鈥檛听have that opportunity鈥攐r if they do, it鈥檚 a two- or three-stop flight. Those small markets are still very attractive to a company like Eastern.鈥�

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