Destination: Brazil
Dengue Epidemic Hits Tourism in Rio
by Jim Benning | 04.17.08 | 11:19 AM ET
Since January, more than 70,000 people have been infected with dengue fever in the Brazilian state of Rio. At least 80 people have died. Now, the growing health crisis is “taking a toll on tourism,” reports the International Herald Tribune. A number of foreign embassies have warned citizens about the outbreak, including the U.S. Embassy.
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Yahoo! BuzzWhere in the World Are You, Carl Hoffman?
by World Hum | 04.10.08 | 6:07 PM ET
The subject of our latest nearly up-to-the-minute interview with a traveler somewhere in the world: writer Carl Hoffman, a contributing editor to Wired and National Geographic Traveler. His response landed in our inbox minutes ago.
Where in the world are you?
Exploring Slum Tourism
by Jim Benning | 03.11.08 | 1:33 PM ET
The New York Times is the latest publication to contemplate the phenomenon.
Related on World Hum:
* Illuminating ‘Dark Travel’
* Welcome to Khmer Rouge Land!
* In Brazil, Favela Tourism Rising
* Poverty Tourism: Exploration or Exploitation?
Surfing the Eisbach: California Culture in Bavaria
by Jim Benning | 01.14.08 | 10:33 AM ET
You don’t have to be near Mavericks, or even an ocean, to enjoy some wild surfing action. Surfers have been riding waves in rivers for years—the Amazon’s Pororoca in Brazil just might be the most dramatic example. But there are options in Europe, too. The Atlantic magazine recently covered surfing Munich’s Eisbach, a tributary of the Isar River where a standing wave has “created an enclave of borrowed California culture in the heart of Bavaria.”
Headline of the Day: ‘Brazilian Santa Escapes Gunfire’
by Jim Benning | 12.18.07 | 4:20 PM ET
Seriously. Matt Groening, are you taking notes?
Requiem for a Little Red Ship
by Abbie Kozolchyk | 12.05.07 | 11:33 AM ET
Abbie Kozolchyk never understood why anyone referred to ships as though they were women. Then, long before it sank in Antarctica, she met the Explorer.
New Seven Wonders of the World Named
by Michael Yessis | 07.09.07 | 7:51 AM ET
JetBlue’s New Blogger: C. Montgomery Burns
by Michael Yessis | 07.02.07 | 12:30 PM ET
It’s a publicity stunt, sure, but one that might help JetBlue get back some of its mojo after its February meltdown. As part of the massive hype for the upcoming The Simpsons Movie, C. Montgomery Burns—known best as Homer Simpson’s boss at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant—has taken over the blog of former JetBlue CEO David Neeleman. From his first entry: “Smithers entered my chambers this morning, toting wretched tales of congenial customer service and overly indulgent amenities on your JetBlue Airways. And for what… your precious passengers? Soon, the riff raff will demand ‘fair treatment’ from all corporate overlords, like myself. Well, not in my chemically prolonged life-time.”
President to Brazilians: Christ the Redeemer Needs Your Vote!
by Jim Benning | 06.25.07 | 4:42 PM ET
In Brazil, Favela Tourism Rising
by Ben Keene | 02.08.07 | 5:45 PM ET
For every cruise ship full of pleasure-seekers tempted to travel by spa treatments, gourmet cuisine, and the occasional shore excursion, there is a tougher sort of tourist in search of a little hardship. Some people go for the controlled experience, forking over $18 for a simulated illegal border-crossing at Parque EcoAlberto in Mexico. Others, as the Christian Science Monitor reported earlier this week, prefer a more authentic kind of cultural exposure. Describing a small but growing trend among Americans and Europeans visiting Rio de Janeiro, Andrew Downie writes: “To many Brazilians, favelas are dirty, violent, frightening places. But to many foreigners, they are exciting, interesting, and romantic. More and more outsiders are coming from overseas to live, work, and just visit favelas, observers say. In doing so they are highlighting the difference between Brazilians who regard favelas with fear, rejection, and even disgust, and foreigners who embrace them as vibrant crucibles of modern Brazilian culture.”
From Ipanema to Copacabana: What Rio de Janeiro’s Beaches Say About Brazil
by Michael Yessis | 02.07.07 | 8:17 AM ET
A lot, it seems. “Brazilians like to say that the beach is their country’s ‘most democratic space,’” writes Larry Rohter in a terrific story in the New York Times. “But some bodies—and some beaches—are more equal than others.” Rohter focuses on Ipanema and Copacabana, revealing what groups frequent each of the 12 postos (lifeguard stations) that span Rio’s most elite beaches and how Brazil’s cultural and social trends are often born on the sand. “When, in the early 1970s, for example, the actress Leila Diniz wore a skimpy bikini to Posto 9 while gloriously pregnant and unmarried, traditionalists were horrified,” Rohter writes. “But feminists point to the episode as a galvanizing moment in their efforts to gain equal rights.”
Marajó Island, Brazil
by Ben Keene | 01.05.07 | 7:20 AM ET
National Geographic Adventure’s Top 2007 Destinations
by Jim Benning | 01.03.07 | 1:54 PM ET
Where to go this year? The world is wide open, but some countries seem particularly good choices now. For the December 2006/January 2007 issue of National Geographic Adventure, I worked with editors on a list of six countries offering compelling reasons to visit soon. Among them: China (now’s a great time to check out the new train to Lhasa); Morocco (for a major splurge before a visit to the High Atlas Mountains, spend a night at the historic, Winston Churchill-approved La Mamounia hotel in Marrakech, due to reopen this year after a renovation); and Brazil (TAM airlines is now flying nonstop between Miami and Manaus, making a visit to the Amazon easier than ever). To further stoke some wanderlust and inspire, the magazine celebrates the feats of a number of travelers, including the “new Magellans,” Colin Angus and Julie Wafael, who recently circumnavigated the globe by walking, cycling, skiing and, yes, rowing.
Tourism Official Insists ‘It’s Not Whatever Goes’ in Brazil
by Jim Benning | 12.01.06 | 6:43 AM ET
Coming to a Theater Near You (Sigh): ‘Turistas’
by Jim Benning | 11.27.06 | 1:59 PM ET
Yes, it’s time for yet another movie about travelers getting in over their heads in a foreign country, reassuring the roughly 80 percent of Americans who don’t hold passports that they’re better off limiting their travels to short trips between home and the cineplex anyway, because, hey, it’s scary out there. ‘Turistas,’ which opens in U.S. theaters Dec. 1 and stars Josh Duhamel, apparently tells the story of a group of tourists—excuse me, turistas—who get lost in the Brazilian jungle and suffer a series of terrifying and even horrifying calamities. It’s the first U.S. film to be shot entirely in Brazil. In today’s Los Angeles Times, director John Stockwell, who also directed “Blue Crush,” said he was inspired to take on the film project after a harrowing experience on a surf trip to Peru.