FIRECRACKER FIGHTS & A FLOOD OF BURNING BALLOONS: TAIWAN WRAPS UP THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON CELEBRATIONS IN HIGH STYLE

Hundreds of buttercup-bright lanterns squiggle into Taiwan’s night sky. Powered by tiny lamps, the bamboo-and-rice-paper balloons sway as the heat – and the crowd’s sighs – carry away scrawled hopes of love, success and prosperity.

The finale of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, the Lantern Festival first ignited more than 2,000 years ago. The mythology varies, but always anchors off good relations between families, people, nature and the higher powers that return the light each spring.

In 2012, the Taiwanese welcomed the Year of the Dragon by showering men in firecrackers, said to bring luck and show respect to the gods (Taitung and Tainan). A 40-tonne (88,185lb) glowing dragon – the largest lantern ever – dominated the bash in Changhua County.

Read more and see the full, glorious slideshow at Wandermelon.com...

BACK TO THE FUTURE

As Samoa leaps forward in time, here's some of my most recent articles about the Polynesian country's time-traveling ways.

The World's Last Sundowner Cocktail

Travelgirl magazine, December 2011
Just 20 miles east of the International Date Line, Samoa has been the sunset’s final outpost for 119 years. Raise a rum-filled coconut there and toast the era’s end, as the nation shifts time zones and loses its sundowner status.

SAMOA: Back to the Future 

Waving goodbye to the last sunset on earth

Hemispheres, December 2011
For years, tourists flocked here to toast the twilight with rum-filled coconut drinks; some even came for second helpings of special birthdays or anniversaries (arrive from, say, Tonga, and it’ll be nearly a day before you left). Soon, though, Samoa will trade away that last sunset, hoping to better align its workweek with trading partners in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

UNEXPECTED UTAH IN TRAVELGIRL MAGAZINE

My latest coverage from "travelgirl" magazine. The copy is my original, so mileage may vary slightly.

The Beehive State is mellowing its straight-laced, Mormon-settled vibe, showing its eccentric edge and pioneer pluck. Newly relaxed liquor laws encourage après ski celebrations. Add in a calendar packed with live concerts and indie films (thanks Sundance!). Hipsters now mingle in galleries, yoga studios and locavore restaurants. And – putting the cherry on top – Salt Lake City wraps up a $4.5bn revamp next year, anchored by 20-acre, walkable, sustainably designed community (www.downtownrising.com).

For a three-day sampler of the scene, start by ogling bison on Antelope Island, the largest of the Great Salt Lake’s landmasses. Check into The Peery, the state’s only hotel on the Historic Registry (www.peeryhotel.com). Then cross the street to Squatters Pub for carnitas, edamame or blackened tilapia salad with quinoa, washed down with house-brewed Full Suspension Pale Ale (www.squatters.com).

Day two, limber up at Centered City Yoga (www.centeredcityyoga.com), then head out to Homestead’s Crater, 47 miles southeast of the city. Swim or dive the beehive-shaped cavern, half-filled with kingfisher-blue waters the temperature of a hot tub (www.homesteadresort.com/Crater). Finish with a massage at the Swiss-themed Zermatt Resort next door (http://zermattresort.com) and anise-scented elk tenderloin at downtown’s chic Forage (http://foragerestaurant.com).

On your last day, ski or snowboard Big Cottonwood Canyon. Flatlanders may prefer Solitude Nordic Center (snowshoes also available; www.skisolitude.com). Afterwards, retire to the Whistler-style village for roasted-beet tortillas with a Polygamy Porter at Kimi’s Mountainside Bistro (www.kimismountainsidebistro.me).

Utah ladles on some serious charm. Should you decide to settle in, consider a bid on a replica of the pastel cottage that took flight in Disney’s Up. Bangerter Homes brought the CGI-fantasy to life in Herriman, right down to the hand-printed mailbox and custom garden-hose reel. And in typical, uplifting Utah style, part of the $399,000 price tag goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

MORE EXCITING THAN A GIANT RIVER OTTER: $50 OFF THE TRAVEL WRITING MASTER CLASS (ONLINE)

Yee-haw, our 12-week Writers.com workshop starts again September 26! Bring a conference panel's worth of teaching talent to your computer – any time, anywhere. Each week, students receive direct feedback from one of seven instructors, ranging from a social-media maven to a CNN correspondent and National Geographic contributors.

Now that's more thrilling than pec tats of tikis mid-orgasm (but only just)..


The roster includes multiple winners of the Lowell Thomas (the genre’s ersatz Pulitzer) and Best American Travel Writing honorees.

•    Adventure specialist Amanda Castleman has published in Outside, Salon, the BBC, MSNBC, Alaska Airlines Magazine and The International Herald Tribune, among others. Her 30-odd book contributions include Frommer's and National Geographic. (www.amandacastleman.com)

•    New York University Instructor David Farley wrote the award-winning An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town. Founder of NYC's Restless Legs Reading Series, he also edits for World Hum. (www.dfarley.com)

•    Stephanie Elizondo Griest has authored the books Mexican Enough and Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana, among others. She teaches nonfiction at the University of Iowa. (www.aroundthebloc.com)

•    Stephanie Oswald edits travelgirl magazine, when not broadcasting for CNN International from New Orleans and hosting Getaway Atlanta, the highest-rated destination show available On Demand. The Emmy-winner also instructs at Emory.  (www.travelgirlinc.com)

•    Charyn Pfeuffer, a culinary and travel freelancer, founded The Global Citizen Project. In 2010, she undertook 12 voluntourism projects in 12 countries, thanks to social-media fundraising. (http://globalcitizenproject.blogspot.com)

•    Lowell-Thomas-winner Edward Readicker-Henderson has mused poetically in AARP Magazine, Forbes Traveler, National Geographic Traveler and other outlets. Best American Travel Writing shortlisted him four times, once for a story about Strip Passport. (www.routeofseeing.com)

•    Author and Columnist Thomas Swick's observations on the trade have been honored by Travelers Tales, Best Travel Writing and Best American Travel Writing. His freelance clients include Afar, Smithsonian and The Oxford American. (www.thomasswick.com)

From broadcast basics to longer-form narrative, this online workshop helps intermediate to expert authors kicks things up a few notches via detailed critiques that often include line-edits.

Woo-whee! More exhilarating that a six-foot Water Weasel!

More details on http://writers.com/travelmaster.html#master. Not sure if the master class is for you? Take our quiz to find out: www.writers.com/travelmasterquiz.html.

Dates: September 26, January 23

ROAD REMEDIES DISCOUNT: $50 off the normal price of $445, so $395 (code RR1011).

And that, my friends, seals the deal. Exciting, exciting, exciting. Don't you just want to roll around in this goodness like a happy Utah buffalo?



Registration: The master class extends priority (immediate enrollment) to alumni of Writers.com's travel writing courses. Other applicants will be wait-listed until a week before class kicks off.

CABLE CARS OF THE COLOMBIAS

Ten days ago, I spotted a black bear from the world's longest continuous lift system in British Columbia. Its web includes the 1.8-mile unsupported span draped between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains: the Peak 2 Peak.

Today I skimmed uphill in Medellin, Colombia, where the metro – and its cable-car tendrils – are transforming the City of Eternal Spring's barrios.

We are all in the gutter, as Oscar Wilde quipped. But some of us are looking at the stars. And others are lifting up to meet them...

Whistler, British Columbia (top) and Medellin, Colombia, just below the 
Santo Domingo station. Images copyright www.amandacastleman.com

GUYANA – RUNNING NAKED IN PARADISE

From baby-cradle water lilies to stretch-limo river otters, South America’s only English-speaking country surprises. But can it push further – protecting its tropical rainforest and indigenous culture – with a clever carbon-offsetting plan? I explored all this in travelgirl magazine's summer 2011 issue...

 

Text & Photos by Amanda Castleman
Nostrils flaring, the Giant River Otter surges towards my dinghy. Teenager Belle hasn’t reached her species’ six-foot span yet. But she and her companion Philip can still bite the heads off live piranhas. And rumor has it they chewed up a horse whisper pretty good last week. Those red-rimmed eyes – scarlet as a macaw’s wings – make me regret declining trip insurance.

I traveled to Guyana – a lime-wedge-shaped South American country squeezed between Suriname, Brazil, Venezuela and the Atlantic – expressly to see these creatures. In my mind, they resembled the sea otters of my Pacific Northwest home: all jolly grapefruit cheeks and puffy two-ply fur. But here on the coffee-colored Rupununi River, all I can think is, "man, that’s one massive water weasel. I hope she doesn’t like white meat, because after an especially overcast Seattle winter, that’s all I am.”

Beside heavyweight otters, Guyana also has manatees, jaguars, giant anteaters, pink dolphins, the world’s largest alligator (black caiman) and its most heavyweight rodent (the hairy, 140lb capybara). Eight types of primates live there, including Gumby-limbed spider monkeys. Smithsonian experts continue to count bird species, whose number has already flown past 800, including man-sized Jabiru storks. Among its tropical plants, the national flower – the Victoria amazonica water lily – blooms up to 10 feet in diameter and has pads big and burly enough to support an infant.

That’s all eye-strainingly awesome. But zoom to panorama for the bigger picture: the fact that 80% of Guyana remains wild – the globe’s largest swathe of intact Amazonian rainforest. And the 45-year-old country plans to keep it that way.

Learn more about Guyana and its $223-million carbon-offsetting plans on www.amandacastleman.com. Or read the article's PDF.

AUTHOR OF "MEXICAN ENOUGH" JOINS WRITERS.COM'S TEAM FOR TRAVEL WRITING MASTER CLASS

Students already are piling into the travel-writing master class, a 12-week workshop online that kicks off in September. So I'm busy revising the curriculum and expanding the instructor line-up, which included Tom Swick, David Farley, Charyn Pfeuffer and Edward Readicker-Henderson last term.

Joining some (or all) of that roster will be Stephanie Elizondo Griest. We met back in 2004, when Random House published her memoir Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana. In it, she mingled with Russian Mafiya, polished propaganda in China, and belly danced with Cuban rumba queens. How could I not keep in touch with such an awesomesauce author and activist?

Stephanie went on to write Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines and edit 2010's Best Women's Travel Writing, among other projects. She's currently fellowshipping at the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program. Don't let all the corn fool you, people. That's one of the planet's finest programs for authors.

Recently, Stephanie has taught in Iowa, Wyoming, Singapore and the Philippines (next up California and Texas). We're thrilled to welcome her to Writers.com too, so even more far-flung students can soak up her inspiration.

Learn more about Stephanie Elizondo Griest at www.aroundthebloc.com and the master class at Writers.com.