Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I’ll admit, I’m biased toward lush tropical landscapes, like Tahiti, and rugged stretches of coast, such as Vancouver Island, British Columbia. But there’s something magical about the endless expanse of badlands or a snowcapped mountain reflected in an azure alpine lake. So they made my list of the most beautiful places on earth.

I’ve done a lot of globe-trotting in my decade as a travel journalist. When ���ϳԹ��� asked me to consider writing about the most beautiful wild places on earth, I immediately thought of Lagoa das Sete Cidades in the Azores, green-blue twin lakes within a crater, and the Na Pali Coast of Kauai, with emerald cliffs that tumble steeply to the sea.

But these places are already on most people’s radar, and the last thing I want is to contribute to overtourism. Instead, I came up with a list of stunning, lesser-known destinations that are also full of adventure potential. You’re going to be amazed.

I purposely highlighted more sites close to home to make this list accessible.��My biggest tip is to live in the moment when visiting these places—or any place that bowls you over. You can’t experience it fully if you’re glued behind your camera, shooting images to share. Here are my picks for the most beautiful places on earth.

1. Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah

Why It Wows: Utah has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to otherworldly rocky landscapes, but the geologic amphitheater that is steals the show (entrance fee from $15). Rich mineral deposits in the cliffs and hoodoos resemble a sweeping sunset of orange, yellow, red, and purple. During July and early August, some 250-plus species of wildflowers bloom, creating a Technicolor landscape.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: Tucked in the mountains 20 miles east of Cedar City, this three-mile-long cirque gets a sliver of the foot and vehicle traffic seen at nearby Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks but offers just as many options for outdoor lovers. Because it’s located at an elevation of 10,000 feet, summer temperatures are comfortable, with highs hovering around 70 degrees.

Hikes range from the ADA-compliant, two-mile round-trip , which skirts part of the rim overlooking the amphitheater, to the 12.8-mile Rattlesnake Creek Trail, a two- to three-day hike in the Ashdown Gorge Wilderness that drops into the amphitheater.

Five miles north, is a mountain biker’s dream, with more than 100 miles of downhill singletrack and 100 miles of cross-country trails.

Stargazers know Cedar Breaks as a designated International Dark Sky Park. Every Sunday and Saturday from late May through early October, the monument offers free four-hour astronomy tours at the North View Overlook.

2. Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Alberta

Why It Wows: Often referred to as Banff National Park’s lesser-known sister, this 76,800-acre patch of wilderness in the Canadian Rockies is the epitome of postcard perfection, with its snow-crowned peaks, sparkling alpine lakes, glacial streams, and evergreen valleys. In autumn the park is most dazzling, when larches’ needles turn gold and the trees are reflected in the lakes.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: , 85 miles southwest of Calgary, is one of Canada’s most accessible parks, with multiple barrier-free trails wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs (entrance fee from $12).

Stay at , fresh off a $6 million renovation (from $21 for a campsite; from $31 for a cabin). It overlooks Lower Kananaskis Lake, prioritizes people with disabilities and seniors, and features 22 accessible cottages, plus 13 campsites, and 11 miles of accessible trails on-site.

The park is full of hiking and mountain-biking trails, as well as seven miles of paved biking paths. In fall, check out Elephant Rocks and Chester Lake via when it’s positively ablaze with yellow larches. In winter, bring along your cross-country-ski gear and spend a day on the park’s more than 50 miles of groomed trails.

In the area without your outdoor essentials? rents everything from canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards to e-bikes and full-suspension mountain bikes.

3. Lefkada Island, Greece

Why It Wows: Sea and sky meld together in an ombré of blues on this under-the-radar Ionian isle. Chalky cliffs and white-sand and pebble beaches also woo those in the know, but the interior is just as wondrous, filled with a dense forest of ancient oak, dramatic gorges, and tumbling waterfalls.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: A five-hour drive west of Athens, Lefkada is one of the few Greek islands that doesn’t require a boat to reach—it’s connected to the mainland by a bridge. A playground for recreationists, you can spend days and biking its trails, or opt for guided or self-guided e-bike excursions with .

Windsurfers and kitesurfers head to Vasiliki, Ai Gianni, and Myli beaches. , in the village of Vasiliki, rents equipment and provides lessons. All of the beaches are stunners, but Egremni, on the southwest coast, is widely considered the prettiest in the country. Surrounded by limestone cliffs, you must hike a steep trail from the parking lot, then descend more than 300 stairs to reach the sand. Trust me, the effort is worth it.

4. Shariqiya Sands, Oman

Why It Wows: Stark and remote, this seemingly endless stretch of rippling, wind-sculpted dunes spans 5,000 square miles of Oman, a small sultunate on the southeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The highest dunes—some as tall as 330 feet—are found closest to the coast. But the big reason to see these ever-shifting sands is to witness the mesmerizing way they change color from pale gold in the afternoon to deep amber and copper as the blazing sun cuts across the sky.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: A three-hour drive south from the capital city of Muscat, this desert was recently renamed the Sharqiya Sands to reflect its geographic location more accurately (sharqiya comes from the Arabic word for “eastern”), but everybody still refers to the area by its former name, Wahiba Sands, a nod to the region’s Bani Wahiba tribe.

, an Oman adventure specialist with 17 years of experience in the country, sets up mobile camps deep within the desert and can arrange activities like sandboarding, camel safaris, dune driving, and visits with local Bedouin families (from $6,234 per couple for two nights, all-inclusive). Bonus: the lack of light pollution means campers are treated to incredibly clear, diamond-studded night skies.

5. Las Coloradas Lagoon, Yucatán, Mexico

Why It Wows: These glimmering cotton-candy-colored lakes pop against a backdrop of powdery white-sand beaches and pastel blue skies within the protected reserve of the Ría Lagartos Biosphere. The lagoons get their blush tint from the plankton, red algae, and brine shrimp that thrive in the super salty waters.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: The biosphere is off the beaten path—around three and a half hours from major tourist hubs like Mérida, Cancún, and Playa del Carmen—and area accommodations are limited. Your best bets for an overnight stay are , a four-room, family-run eco-lodge in the reserve that also offers tours (from $95), or the in the sleepy nearby fishing town of Río Lagartos (from $66).

The biosphere is a birding paradise, home to 380 species, including 30,000 flamingoes that match the water. It’s also possible to spot spider monkeys, coatis, and jaguars, and from April and October, hawksbill and green turtles lay their eggs on the shores. Book a tour at the reserve’s visitor center for a better understanding of this ecosystem, but don’t plan on swimming here; as tempting as it might be to dive into the pink waters, the activity is prohibited, due to the high salinity and because the salt is harvested there for consumption.

6. Rio Sucuri, Brazil

Why It Wows: Eleven miles outside Bonito, the self-declared ecotourism capital of Brazil, you’ll find Rio Sucuri, whose Avatar-blue waters are considered some of the clearest on the planet. Set against the lush jungle, its spring-fed waters glow a surreal electric blue.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: Bonito is located in the central-western state of Mato Grosso do Sul. It takes some effort to reach. After an approximate two-hour nonstop flight from São Paulo to Campo Grande, it’s a three-and-a-half hour drive to Bonito; from there, the access point to Rio Sucuri is another 12 miles away.

and (from $160 and $160, respectively) are both great boutique stays around 50 minutes away, set on the banks of the Rio Formoso, another pristine, spring-fed waterway.

Rio Sucuri has been developed as an ecotourism project and can only be experienced with a guide. To reach the river’s headwaters, it’s a quarter-mile walk through the forest to a reception area at the São Geraldo ranch, which outfits everyone with a wetsuit and snorkel gear. Then you’ll board a boat for the quick ride upstream, where you’ll jump in and allow the gentle current to drift you back, lazy-river style.

You’ll no doubt spy pacu (a vegetarian piranha) and red-tailed pirapitanga darting between swaying emerald-green grasses. With exceptional visibility, you’ll feel like you’re floating in an aquarium.

7. Pico Ruivo, Madeira, Portugal

Why It Wows: Topping out at nearly 6,110 feet, Pico Ruivo is the third-highest point in Portugal and the tallest peak in the archipelago of Madeira. From the top, you’re rewarded with panoramic vistas of the entire archipelago.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: Two trails lead to the summit. (PR 1.2) is the more direct route; it climbs 1.7 miles to the viewpoint. The more scenic path, however, is the 3.3-mile (one-way) (PR 1.1). Many consider this the most spectacular hike in all of Madeira. It crosses the island’s central massif, tunnels through volcanic tufts that once sheltered shepherds, and heads up steep slopes home to colossal urzes trees.

That said, it’s a test-your-mettle trek. Rise early to score parking at the trailhead at Pico Areeiro, the archipelago’s third-highest peak, and catch the sunrise before heading out.

8. Tarkine Rainforest, Tasmania, Australia

Why It Wows: The second-greatest expanse of cool temperate rainforest in the world could easily have been the inspiration for Fern Gully. Filtered light dances through the canopy of massive eucalyptus and leatherwoods, and velvety moss seems to cover everything. Hugging the island’s rugged northwest coast, the 900-plus-square-mile area boasts wild, remote beaches and sand dunes, waterfalls, and numerous sinkholes.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: The coastal village of Arthur River is a good jumping-off point for forest and beach adventures, or base yourself at , 67 miles south, for immediate access to river activities (from $176). The hotel has a fleet of 16 canoes and kayaks to rent, and from there it’s a three-hour paddle down Pieman River to 130-foot-tall Lover’s Falls.

Hikes through this 65-million-year-old rainforest are magical. Tackle the 5.5-mile, out-and-back Whyte River and Savage River Trail, keeping an eye out for wallabies, pademelons, and platypuses, which tend to be more active at dawn and dusk. Eco-outfitter runs four-, five-, and six-day hiking and camping expeditions to the region’s most incredible spots.

9. The Sermilik Fjord, Greenland

Why It Wows: This 50-mile-long fjord in eastern Greenland spans is a frozen wonderland of luminous blue crystal cliffs, calving glaciers, and a flotilla of colossal icebergs.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: Most visitors explore eastern Greenland by ship, but I like ’ new, climate-friendly, human-powered itinerary ($6,750 for eight days). You’ll explore the region on foot or by kayak, and sleep in tents and cabins. Inuit hunter and guide Jokum Heimer Mikaelsen, along with a guide from the Greenland mountaineering company , lead hikes up small mountains, into ice caves, and across glaciers and offer insight on how Native people forage on the tundra.

Powderhounds can discover the slopes on a ski-tour trip with (from $4,910 for eight days). Dogsleds and local boats are used to access different terrain each day.

10. Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, New Mexico

Why It Wows: These sprawling badlands look like a high-desert fantasy world dreamt up by Salvador Dalí. Shaped by wind and erosion, the hoodoos create a natural sculpture park, with rock formations resembling alien eggs and manta ray wings.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: Two trailheads access the area’s 43,420 acres, both located less than an hour’s drive south of Farmington, New Mexico, or 90-minute drive south of Durango, Colorado. The Bisti Trail on the west side is the main portal and most popular, thanks to its moonscape-like terrain.

The De-Na-Zin Trail on the southeast side features less of the classic badlands topography but is still wildly beautiful. It starts out in sagebrush, transitions to juniper and eventually badlands studded with huge petrified logs and eroded cliffs and mesas.

Most visitors head to Instagram-sensation attractions like the Bisti Wings. But Stan Allison, an outdoor-recreation planner at the BLM Farmington Field Office, recommends a more exploratory approach. “Many of the unnamed areas have features that are just as interesting as the named ones,” he says. “I navigate by following the normally dry arroyos and then veering off or up side drainages when I see interesting features.”

Wheeled vehicles are not allowed on BLM land, and there are no designated hiking trails, so be sure to download a topographic map of your route to a well-charged phone ahead of your visit, because cell signals can be spotty. This is an area where packing a paper map and compass is also a smart idea.

Or considered a guided visit. The wilderness boundaries overlap parcels of private Navajo land, and offers five-hour trips that delve into the history of the area and its cultural significance to Indigenous people.

11. Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique

Why It Wows: I visited this archipelago of five dune islands almost a decade ago, and from the plane, they looked��like a white-and-aquamarine swirl-art painting. A designated national park, the marine life in its protected waters is as incredible as the powder-fine beaches. The archipelago lays claim to the second most diverse coral reefs in the world and supports over 2,000 species of fish, and on dive and snorkel excursions I��saweverything from vivid corals and manta rays to reef sharks and even the endangered dugong.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: The large coastal town of Vilanculos is the gateway to this cluster of islands, which can be reached by air via or by boat (most hotels provide complimentary boat transfers).

Bazaruto and Benguerra islands offer next-level offshore snorkeling and diving opportunities, as well as hiking/biking to�� crocodile-filled inland lakes surrounded by towering sand dunes. It’s worth splurging on a stay at or , both barefoot-luxe eco-hotels on Benguerra Island (from $5,744 and $1,108, respectively). The resorts can organize sailing excursions on traditional dhow boats, kitesurfing lessons, kayak trips through mangroves, whale-watching excursions between July and October, and scuba-dive outings to famed sites like Two Mile Reef, accompanied by research scientists.

12. Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan

Why It Wows: Reminiscent of the wild beauty of Hawaii Island, this district in Japan’s southernmost island, Kyushu, has 250 miles of surf-blessed coast, active volcanic craters, and wild horses. More than 75 percent of the mountainous interior is covered with forests dotted with sacred shrines and cascading waterfalls.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: Located on the east coast of Kyushu, Miyazaki is about a 90-minute flight from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport or a 60-minute flight from Osaka’s Itami Airport. Legendary waterman Kelly Slater has pilgrimaged here to ride waves, a testament to the area’s surf cred. The guide company offers surf trips led by local pros, and if you’re experienced, they’ll lead you to a secret big-wave spot that breaks from August to October.

A visit to Cape Toi, Miyazaki’s southernmost point, is a must. The scenery is straight out of a fairytale, with a seemingly endless panorama of sapphire ocean, a forest of rare, native sago palms, and 100 wild horses called Misaki-uma, considered a national treasure. Even cooler: you can camp here, at the (from $20).

13. Lake Willoughby, Vermont

Why It Wows: Nicknamed America’s Lucerne, this five-mile-long, glacier-carved lake is sandwiched between the fjord-like peaks of Mounts Pisgah and Hor. The water is remarkably clear, and come fall, it takes on the autumnal hues of the surrounding foliage—a gorgeous sight.

���ϳԹ��� Intel: Situated in the heart of Vermont’s rural Northeast Kingdom, Willoughby State Forest encircles the lake’s southern end and is webbed with 12 miles of hiking trails. is a 2.5-mile out-and-back route with fantastic lake views.

Summer is the most popular season for boating, paddleboarding, and kayaking, and public beaches on its north and south ends are popular with swimmers and sun seekers (note that the latter is clothing optional). Willoughby is also a haven for anglers who come to hook jumbo trout and salmon. (Willoughby Lake Store, near Westmore, sells bait.) Visibility is so good some people even scuba dive here.

On the south side of the lake, the family-run has tent sites, RV hookups, and waterfront cabins, plus an on-site café and country store, plus kayak, canoe, and SUP rentals (from $38).

Jen Murphy is ���ϳԹ��� Online’s travel-advice columnist and a frequent contributor to the magazine. She dreams of returning to the Bazaruto Archipelago to dive its clear waters, and a camping trip in the desert of Oman is on her wish list.��

The post The 13 Most Beautiful Places on Earth You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Without a doubt, January through March is the cheapest time to book an international flight departing from the U.S. The reason why is pretty simple, according to Scott Keyes, founder of the flight-deals newsletter Scott’s Cheap Flights. Weather aside, lots of would-be jet-setters are hamstrung by the academic calendar, so travel demand is highest in summer. The numbers don’t lie: according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism , from July to August 2018, about 6.4 million Americans flew to Europe. By comparison, about 2.7 million Americans departed for Europe between January and March.

For years, Keyes and his team have spent hours a day scouring airline sites for too-good-to-be-true deals. (Recently, he found a $433 round-trip flight between New York and Tokyo.) For travelers looking to get away on the cheap, Keyes suggests being as flexible as possible—and a little crafty. For example, if you’re interested in visiting France, book��an affordable flight to an airport in a nearby country, like the Netherlands. Taking a train or a separate flight from there can save you hundreds of dollars.

If you’ve been dying to make a quick escape but have to pinch pennies, there are several world-class destinations that are far more affordable to get to during winter.

Iceland

Iceland, which sees more tourists annually than it has in year-round inhabitants, is one of the most expensive countries to visit in the summer, when the days are up to 22 hours long. But in the dark winter months, solitude comes cheap. If you’re willing to put up with just a few hours of sunlight, you’ll be treated to low prices for hotels, tours, car rentals, and empty tourist attractions. Stay warm by visiting natural hot springs, like the near the capital, as well as lovely and ultra-affordable heated public pools in nearly every town. Plus, December to February is the ideal time to catch the northern lights. If you want to tack a few days here onto another trip, consider booking a stopover. allows you to take up to a seven-day layover in the country without any extra charge.

Typical round-trip cost of a winter flight from the U.S., according to flight-deals newsletter : $260 to $500. Average peak summertime cost: $870.

Turkey

Istanbul sees the fewest tourists in January and February, when average temperatures are relatively mild, in the upper thirties��and forties. Meanwhile, other parts of the country become winter wonderlands. From December through May, two hours by plane from Istanbul, there’s heli-skiing in the Kaçkar Mountains of��eastern Turkey, on peaks as tall as 12,917 feet. Closer to the capital is Uludag National Park, a favorite ski destination with locals. The off-season is also the best time to visit the famous—and typically crowded—Cappadocia, 450 miles southeast of Istanbul, known for rock formations filled with ancient cliff dwellings, which look especially magical when covered in a dusting of snow. Turkish Airlines also offers a free stopover program for those��who want to spend a day or two in Istanbul on their way to another destination. The company gives economy passengers , while business-class passengers get��two free nights in a five-star hotel. Email the airline to work out the details after you’ve booked your flight.

Typical round-trip cost of a winter flight from the U.S. to Istanbul, according to Dollar Flight Club: $390 to $750. Average peak summertime cost: $1,160.

Scandinavia

Scandinavians know how to do winter, and luckily for the rest of us, joining them from December to March is the most affordable time to visit. In ���ǰ��ɲ���’s��capital of Oslo, you’ll find the metro full of people lugging cross-country skis for laps around Sognsvatn Lake��or sledding down (the metro drops you off at the top and picks you up at the bottom). In Stockholm, locals will skate across frozen lakes in the city or take the four-hour trip north to cross-country ski resorts like . Throughout Scandinavia��from December to February, you can also catch the northern lights if you travel close enough to the Arctic Circle. Winter is also a great time to experience the sauna culture here—Scandinavians love to set them at nearly unbearable temperatures, then plunge directly into snowbanks or frozen lakes before going back inside for another round of melting, as a way to increase circulation. In Oslo, check out the , which float on the fjord at the edge of downtown.

Typical round-trip cost of a winter flight from the U.S. to Stockholm, according to Dollar Flight Club: $291 to $600. From the U.S. to Oslo:��$253 to $599. Average peak summertime costs: $997 to��Stockholm��and $1,008 to Oslo.��

Western Europe

Western Europe is typically a summer destination for a reason: in the winter months, it can be cold, dark, and dreary. But places like Bavaria, in Germany, turn into gorgeous snow globes, where famous old castles such as��Neuschwanstein are covered in a thick blanket of powder. Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing opportunities abound in Bavaria, as do��cable-car rides to the tops of mountains for views of the scenery below, like Zugspitze, Germany’s tallest mountain at 9,718 feet. Alpine skiing in Europe is also surprisingly affordable—think $37 a day at in Slovenia;��$63 for a day at , Austria’s largest ski resort;��and $80 at in Switzerland, home to the Matterhorn. If you already have an Epic or Ikon ski pass, check for access or discounts to European resorts (Arlberg is on the Epic pass, and Zermatt is on the Ikon). Skiing in Europe also exists in places you’d never guess. For example, you can snag lift tickets in Italy for southern Tuscany’s tallest mountain, , for under $30 a day.

Typical round-trip cost of a winter flight from the U.S. to Florence, Italy, according to Dollar Flight Club: $404 to $890. From the U.S.��to Munich: $309 to $659. Average peak summertime costs: $1,115 to Florence and $1,056 to Munich.

Brazil

It’s now easier than ever to get to Brazil—as of��June, American travelers no longer need a visa to visit. Scott’s Cheap Flights predicts that early 2020 will bring great deals to São Paulo, the largest city in South America. From there, you can snag cheap flights—under $100 round-trip—to Aparados da Serra National Park, known for the 2,300-foot-deep Itaimbezinho Canyon. Some waterfalls in the park tumble from so high up that they turn into mist before they hit the ground.��The falls are best viewed from the Cotovelo Trail, an easy two-mile hike along the canyon rim. Since Brazil’s summer is our winter, use the opportunity for a tropical island getaway on Ilhabela, an island four miles off the coast and a couple hours from São Paulo, with over 40 miles of pristine beaches and abundant scuba-diving opportunities.

Typical round-trip cost of a winter flight from the U.S. to São Paulo, according to Dollar Flight Club: $470 to $825. Average peak summertime cost: $1,390.

Hawaii

It’s surprising that Hawaii made this list, because winter is one of the most attractive times to go, with temperatures in the high seventies��and consistent swells. Head for the Big Island, which is drier than the others and is looking to welcome tourists back after Mount��Kilauea’s monthslong eruption, which closed Hawaii Volcanoes National Park last��May. The vast majority of the park has reopened, including the the , a four-mile loop that passes through a rainforest and solidified lava lake.

Typical round-trip cost of a winter flight from the U.S., according to Dollar Flight Club: $226 to $640. Average peak summertime cost: $856.

Palestine

Palestine’s West Bank is best known for religious tourism, but there’s plenty of outdoor adventure, too. With temperatures in the forties��and fifties��and relatively little rain, winter makes for ideal hiking weather. Check out the , a 205-mile trail that extends the length of the West Bank, through cities and towns like Bethlehem, Jericho, and Nablus. Along the trail, you’ll find beautiful scenery saturated with signs of ancient history, including Wadi Qelt, where the centuries-old Monastery of St. George��clings to the side of a steep canyon. The , a nonprofit tour company, runs hiking and walking trips through the West Bank as well as cultural-immersion experiences like homestays and camping with a Bedouin community (from $550). There is also a burgeoning rock-climbing scene centered around a Ramallah gym called Wadi Climbing, with over 200 bolted outdoor routes spread out across nine different crags.

Typical round-trip cost of a winter flight from the U.S. to Tel Aviv, Israel, according to Dollar Flight Club: $396 to $708. Average peak summertime cost: $1,210.

Japan

The Scott’s Cheap Flights team regularly finds flights to Tokyo and some of Japan’s smaller airports for as much as $1,000 less in January than you’d typically find in summertime and during cherry blossom season in the spring. That’s the perfect time to visit Hokkaido, a bastion of winter sports that’s considered to have some of the world’s best powder. In addition to skiing at , you can , trek on in the Shiretoko Peninsula, and warm up in onsen, or hot springs, at the end of each day. From November to March, in the town of Kinosaki, it costs just $12 a day to access the town’s seven public onsens. It’s free if you stay at a traditional ryokan in town, like (from $86), which has its own private hot spring.

Typical round-trip cost of a��winter flight from the U.S. to Tokyo, according to Dollar Flight Club: $425 to $850. Average peak summertime cost:��$1,210.

Morocco

You can ski Morocco in two totally different ways in the winter months: on snow or on sand. For the kind of downhill you’ve likely tried before, head to the Atlas Mountains, where you can carve , with peaks rising up to 10,600 feet. For a fresh approach to the sport, rent equipment to ski or board down the dunes in the Sahara��on Morocco’s southeast border, where temperatures in the summer months regularly top 100 degrees but stay around 50 in the winter. The off-season is��also a great time to navigate usually hectic city bazaars without having to battle crowds of tourists.

Typical round-trip cost of a winter flight from the U.S. to Marrakech, according to Dollar Flight Club: $420 to $808. Average peak summertime cost: $1,154.

The post Save Money by Traveling to These 9 Places in Winter appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Rolando Garcia led his first group of trekkers to the top of 9,220-foot Mount Roraima in 1983, while he was still a teenager. He would go on to summit the mountain,��the highest point in Venezuela’s Canaima National Park, at least 250 times during��his career as one of the best guides in the region.

Garcia honed his craft in the time of “the other Venezuela,”��when the country was the wealthiest in Latin America, during the last decades of the 20th��century. The prosperity helped create��a steady stream of adventurous Venezuelans and international tourists to Canaima to see Angel Falls, the world’s highest waterfall, and the ancient landscape that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. During that time, the park also attracted��climbers seeking new big-wall routes up��its��giant tabletop mountains, called��tepuis, including Kukenan and Roraima, which have hosted some of the most famous accomplishments of��,��,��.

Straddling the main road that cuts through Canaima to the Brazilian border, and sitting at the base of Roraima, the indigenous Pemón village of Kumaracapay became a key stop for those��coming to the park. It was also home to Garcia and his wife,��Zoraida Rodriguez, who hosted climbers and trekkers in their household.

Many members of Garcia’s community might never get the chance to venture beyond their own corner of the park, but his��career as the country’s most famous guide��gave Garcia the chance to travel throughout Venezuela.

“People who saw Rolando at home in his hammock might think he had never left his village,” says Daniel Mamopulakos, “but this guy has been everywhere.” Mamopulakos, a climber and mountain biker who lives roughly 600 miles northwest of Canaima��in Caracas, first met Garcia in 2002 and became close with him over dozens of backcountry trips.

I met Garcia in April 2018. He was my guide for a two-week expedition in Canaima��with the an organization of Venezuelan rock climbers developing sustainable tourism in the park.��He had a compact build and a quick smile. He wasn’t an obvious athlete until you saw the grace of his movement. Garcia knew every rock from his years guiding��but was no less engaged than I was seeing this landscape for the first time.

While we were together,��Garcia explained how he and his wife helped make Kumaracapay a destination for visitors, their fight to keep tourism in the park alive in the face of political upheaval, and his vision for the future of the park and the Pemón when the country stabilized and visitors returned.

“The Garcia family is famous among people who know the history of trekking in the area,” says Mamopulakos. “They’re one of the few families who have managed to continue in tourism despite our country’s struggles.”

Venezuela’s economy has been in free fall for nearly a decade due to��corruption and crumbling infrastructure under the leadership of Hugo Chávez and his handpicked successor, Nicolás Maduro. Years of crisis also caused a dramatic shift in the economy of Canaima National Park. As tourism dollars declined, the Pemón turned increasingly to work in�� in and around the park. All around Garcia, guides and porters were becoming miners. Once popular destinations were in danger of becoming mining pits.

Despite these changes, Garcia was determined to continue his family’s traditional way of life.��To earn income outside of guiding, he��and his wife opened a store outside their home on the main road through Canaima. They sold empanadas to truck drivers on their way to the Brazilian border and served meals of chicken, rice, and beer to the trekkers and touring mountain bikers that still came to the park. The family made wood carvings, weavings, and other crafts to sell to tourists as well, small mementos of time spent in the family’s home in the shadow of the mountains.

Because his chosen profession was��becoming untenable, Garcia was eager to help the r. The group argues that even a small number of steady jobs in the tourism industry have the potential to create an economic alternative to mining, providing opportunities for indigenous communities while protecting the environment.

In recent years, Garcia was also spending time in the backcountry with members of the��organization. Those expeditions were part of a larger mission to train a new generation of Pemón guides. Garcia was��important to their work—an example to the younger porters that it was once��possible to earn their livelihood in the mountains and could be again.

However, in February of this year, the full force of Venezuela’s most recent��crisis descended on the quiet town.

The current turmoil was touched off in January when opposition leader and president of the National Assembly Juan Guaidó invoked the constitution to declare himself the legitimate president, citing irregularities in Maduro’s��2018 reelection. Recognized by the United States and more than 50 other countries as Venezuela’s rightful leader, Guaidó began coordinating with the U.S., Brazil, and Colombia to provide humanitarian aid for the country’s impoverished citizens. Maduro viewed the arrival of foreign food and medicine as a threat to his regime and sent military forces to block the aid shipments from entering the country. Pemón leaders�� their intention to peacefully intervene in support of the aid, setting the stage for a showdown with Maduro’s government.

Venezuelan government forces entered Kumaracapay in the early hours of February 22, on their way to block the aid at the Brazilian border. Villagers attempted to stop them. It’s unclear whether they set up a physical or human barrier. In a cell-phone video taken that morning, more than a dozen armed soldiers are seen entering the village on foot. A man can be heard addressing them calmly: “If you want to enter, you have to leave your weapons behind.” As the soldiers continue to advance, he pleads with them to “respect the people.” Then the shooting begins.

Zoraida Rodriguez��confronted the soldiers, asking them to leave. She was shot point-blank and died just steps from her doorway. Garcia ran to her aid and was shot in the abdomen. He survived a six-hour transport by car to a hospital in Brazil��but died on March 2 after a week in intensive care.

The couple had five children, ages 10 through 19.��Their eldest daughter witnessed the attack. Her account was relayed to me by Mamopulakos and by another eyewitness interviewed by Foro Penal, a Venezuelan human-rights organization. My attempts to contact Garcia’s daughter were unsuccessful.��

In addition to Garcia and Rodriguez, the attack killed Kliber Pérez, a 24-year-old mountain guide. Eleven others were wounded. Later that day, the assault on protesters continued in the nearby town of Santa Elena de Uairén, at the southern gateway of the park. In total, Foro��Penal����that seven died, more than 40 were wounded, and more than 60 were illegally detained during the attacks on the two villages.

The Bolivar state governor, a member of the ruling Socialist Party,��blamed the Pemón��for the attacks, in an from March, calling��the Kumaracapay residents’��actions��“terrorist acts.”

Many from Garcia’s village have since fled to Brazil in fear of further government reprisal. This exodus includes his five children, who were able to join their father at his bedside before he died. Since contacting��friends of the family��to announce their parent’s��deaths, they’ve��gone deeper into hiding in��Brazil and are out of contact. I tried to reach them multiple times��but was unsuccessful.

In recent months, Venezuela has suffered�� that have brought major cities to the brink of anarchy and made communicating with remote parts of Canaima even more difficult than usual. While there have been no reports of further violence,�� the possibility of a renewed assault on the Pemón as Maduro clings to power.

During my expedition with Garcia, he described a hoped-for future in which the situation in Venezuela stabilizes��and the tourists return. He knew he was getting too old to take rock climbers and other adventurers on some of the more arduous trips into the tepuis. He dreamed of opening a school to teach the next generation of Pemón guides, having witnessed the beginnings of this goal with the Tepui Project’s work and looking on with pride as some of the best climbers in Venezuela taught young Pemón rope skills.

As the crisis in Venezuela continues, Garcia’s��own long-term vision for his people and the future of Canaima itself remain uncertain. But Garcia was a mountain guide. He knew how to navigate uncertainty and the rewards that lay on the other side.

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Starting on June 17, Brazil will join the ranks of countries that don’t require a tourist visa from Americans. This will save travelers from having to track down one of only ten Brazilian consulates in the U.S. and pay the��$40 fee (which we recommend putting toward post-swim caipirinhas, the country’s tart national cocktail).

The change in policy has been a long time coming. For the past several years, Brazil has experimented with streamlining entry requirements for citizens of the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Japan, four countries deemed a significant source of tourism revenue.

Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism��first tested the waters with visa waivers during the 2016 Rio Games. Then in January 2018, it introduced an electronic visa program for the four countries mentioned above and slashed the fee to a quarter of its original cost, from $160 to $40. The move paid off, helping contribute to a�� in travelers compared to 2017. Now��you’ll be able to enter and stay for up to 90 days—with the possibility to extend to 180 days total—without having to do any paperwork.

“This is one of the most important achievements of the Brazilian tourism industry in the last 15 years,” said Marcelo Alvaro Antônio, the country’s minister of tourism, in a��. “We are confident that it will be extremely beneficial to the country.”

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for this kind of hassle-free international adventure, you’re not limited to Brazil. Americans have long been able to visit our closest allies, like Canada and the European Union, with only a valid passport, and globally there’s a fairly even split between nations that require visas��and ones that don’t. Here are six��other outdoor meccas for Americans that don’t require a visa in advance. ��

Thailand

Want to deep-water solo this Southeast Asian nation’s��? You’re in luck. You can vacation in Thailand for up to 30 days without a visa—plenty of time to climb in the famed Railay Beach area, then hightail it to the country’s southern islands to dive world-class coral gardens among angelfish, manta rays, and whale sharks. Just ensure you have a passport that’s valid for at least six months past your date of entry, as recommended by the U.S. State Department. ��

Guatemala

While this is not the only Central American country that lets you duck the red tape—the whole region is pretty much fair game—it’s a rising��hub for mountain biking and a longtime surf mecca. As long as you have a return ticket booked, you’re free to ride its jungle singletrack and catch consistent surf at at El Paredón for up to 90 days.

New Zealand

It may take 12 hours or more on a plane to get there, but trust us—it’s worth it. New Zealand’s��jaw-dropping scenery provides an epic backdrop for hiking, biking, and backpacking, and from the��famous Milford Track in the South Island’s Fiordland National Park to the rugged Tongariro Alpine Crossing up north, adventuring in Kiwi country is unlike anywhere else. And you’ll have 90 days to play as long as your passport is valid for three months after your date of departure.

Morocco

This North African nation is famous for its Atlantic coast, which is lined with year-round surf spots in places like Taghazout and Imsouane. Morocco has great climbing, too. Head inland to the��, a 1,300-foot-tall rift between the High Atlas Mountains and the Sahara, to send��. There’s a 90-day limit on your stay, and you’ll need a passport that’s valid for six months and has one empty page.

Japan

If you get depressed scrolling through the proliferation of posts on Instagram every winter, know that a quick trip to Hokkaido is actually pretty easy—excluding the international flight. Lift tickets often cost less than elsewhere in the world, too. Once you’re there, you can stay for three months sans visa. Just make sure there’s at least one blank page in your passport for the entry stamp before packing your bags.

Tahiti

Voyaging to French Polynesia may seem like a pipe dream, but it’s relatively easy to get there these days. Not only is there the standard 90 days of visa-free travel, but with the introduction of a new direct route to Tahiti from San Francisco, courtesy of the budget airline�� (from $329 one-way), a direct last-minute trip is within the realm of possibility.

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In practice, the campaign��was simple: take photos of people wearing the North Face gear in iconic vacation spots, and then upload those images to the destinations’ Wikipedia pages. After all, anyone can edit on Wikipedia—that’s the site’s hallmark. And since Wikipedia entries often appear at the top of Google��results, every time someone searched, say, Guarita State Park in Brazil, the first image that popped up would be of a person wearing a TNF jacket or backpack. It was some of the world’s best, cheapest advertising.

In reality, the North Face’s most recent marketing stunt violated Wikipedia’s terms of use. Now the well-loved gear brand has apologized. So what exactly went down? Let’s explain.

On Tuesday, detailing the marketing campaign, a collaboration between the Leo Burnett ad agency and the North Face Brazil. Essentially, the brand had commissioned photos of models wearing its gear in a handful of highly searched vacation destinations, like the aforementioned Guarita State Park, and then uploaded those photos to Wikipedia, replacing the unbranded, user-submitted photos.

A TNF-branded marketing video, produced by an arm of Leo Burnett, bragged: “We hacked the results to reach one of the most difficult places: the top of the world’s largest search engine, paying absolutely nothing, just by collaborating with Wikipedia.”

A TNF spokesperson explained to ���ϳԹ�����that TNF Brazil is an “independent distributor,” meaning the company does not fall under VF, the North Face's parent company, but instead is merely licensed to market and sell TNF gear in Brazil. She said that Leo Burnett had first reached out to TNF Brazil in November, but does not know exactly how long the team had been actively replacing Wikipedia images. Since TNF Brazil is not under the VF corporate umbrella, it did not need to get approval from TNF headquarters before going ahead with the campaign.

Within hours of the AdAge story going live, Wikipedia moderators removed the 12 images (or, in some cases, simply cropped out the TNF logo), and that had uploaded them for breaches of Terms of Use for undisclosed paid advocacy. “Adding content that is solely intended to promote a company or its products goes against the spirit, purpose and policies of Wikipedia to provide neutral, fact-based knowledge to the world,” the��Wikimedia Foundation wrote in . “It exploits a free public learning platform for corporate gain.”

On Wednesday, TNF��headquarters��. “We believe deeply in Wikipedia’s mission and integrity—and apologize for engaging in activity inconsistent with those principles,” the statement reads. “Effective immediately, we have ended the campaign and moving forward, we’ll strive to do better and commit to ensuring that our teams and vendors are better trained on Wikipedia’s site policies.”

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, from��,��follows deep-sea biologist as she showcases what the earth looks like at 3,280 feet below sea level. On this journey, they are 600 miles off the coast of Brazil, exploring an outcropping of terrain on the seafloor known as St. Paul’s Rocks.��

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In 1925, the British explorer Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett�� in the Brazilian Amazon. He was on a personal quest to uncover a lost civilization, which he named��Z.��At 57, Fawcett was making his eighth trip to the region,��this time��accompanied by his 21-year-old son, Jack, as well as his son’s friend, Raleigh Rimell. None of them were ever seen again.��

��(playing in theaters now)��is��a luminous—if unabashedly fictionalized—screen adaptation of about the enterprising colonel, which is itself��an expansion of an published in The New Yorker in 2005.��Viewers seeking��Indiana Jones minus the camp might be delighted. (Indeed, Z has been ��as an old-school adventure epic.)��But the film ultimately suffers from the sanitization of its central character. The historical Percy Fawcett was fascinating in his��recklessness. The guy in the movie is just a bore.

Not that he doesn’t have a taste for adventure. Late in the film, the younger Fawcett convinces Percy (played by an eerily Brad Pitt–like Charlie Hunnam) to make that final journey and take him along. Like any responsible father who receives a request from his son to travel to a remote and deadly jungle, Percy’s response is��essentially, “Ask your mother.”

That would be Nina Fawcett (Sienna Miller), the steadfast wife who puts up with her husband’s wanderlust. Early on��we see Nina struggle with a corset (she’d prefer to wear trousers) and it soon becomes evident she’s fighting against constraints that go well beyond sartorial conventions. It turns out that what Nina would truly��prefer is to accompany her husband on his adventures, instead of waiting around to introduce him to his progeny whenever he returns from an extended voyage. That the strained dynamic of the Fawcetts’ marriage is central to the film’s narrative is a reminder that, as Manohla Dargis notes in her , The Lost City of Z is a film set in the era of colonialism��but imagined through a “sensitive, contemporary lens.” When her husband tells her that women aren’t tough enough to endure the , Nina counters that no man would be able to endure the pain a woman experiences during childbirth.��

Fawcett’s Edwardian-era��male chauvinism points to a central dilemma for the film. How do you portray a sympathetic protagonist—one whose actual worldview is unpalatable by contemporary standards—while still maintaining some degree of historical accuracy? The Lost City of Z��clearly attempts to do this, but one wishes it hadn’t. In its zeal to create a more agreeable version of Percy Fawcett, the film denies itself the opportunity to engage with questions of obsession and madness in a meaningful way. Instead��the audience just gets platitudes like, “We are all made of the same clay.”��

To be clear, director��James Gray makes no bones about taking artistic license in the movie,��which includes nods to other jungle epics like and . At the end of the day, there’s little sense in fact-checking a tale that includes a scene in which Fawcett somehow manages to smuggle an elderly female psychic (Russian, no less) into a World War I��trench to give him a palm reading (“Your soul will never be quiet, until you find this place…. It is your destiny!”). Similarly, the film’s improbable take on how the Fawcetts��(Raleigh doesn't make it into the film) meet their end makes it clear that we are in the realm of fantasy. (And is it superfluous to point out that, whether he's dodging arrows in the rainforest or enemy fire at the Somme, Hunnam always looks like he’s in a Ralph Lauren shoot?)

But even as The Lost City of Z positions itself as blockbuster-style entertainment, no historical drama can be entirely free of the history that inspired it.��

If Nina Fawcett’s character feels forcibly contemporized at times, we are still left with a semiplausible (if not strictly believable) portrait of an erudite and adventurous woman struggling against the biases of her time. It’s hard to be as generous with the film’s portrayal of the colonel.��

“These so-called savages have cultivated the jungle where no one thought it could be done. We’ve been so arrogant and contemptuous,” Fawcett says at one point while wistfully beholding a scene of Amazonian agriculture. Back in London, the newly enlightened explorer puts the jeering, incredulous members of the�� in their place. The pieces of pottery he has brought back from the jungle suggest an advanced civilization, “one that might well pre-date our own.” He is contrite about the way the white man��has mistreated the natives. ����

Yeah, right.��

Since The Lost City of Z was released, of a flawed man who, while genuinely concerned with the preservation of native cultures, was nevertheless a product of his time—i.e. a bigot. In his��New Yorker article, Grann quotes Fawcett’s reductive claim that there are three types of Indians: “The first are docile and miserable people . . . The second, dangerous, repulsive cannibals very rarely seen; the third a robust and fair people who must have a civilized origin.”��

John Hemming, the explorer and scholar of Amazonian tribes who was a principal source for Grann’s book, just , wherein he declares that Fawcett was “a surveyor who never discovered anything, a nutter, a racist, and so incompetent that the only expedition he organized was a five-week disaster.” Hemming concludes his article by recommending that those seeking adventure narratives are better off consulting the writings of “real explorers.” One contemporary example of the latter is the traveler and writer Hugh Thomson, who also just skewered Percy Fawcett (that “blundering and racist flake”) . He suggests that filmmakers consider making a movie about a “real hero” like Hiram Bingham, the American academic credited with rediscovering Machu Picchu.��

But the problem with The Lost City of Z is not that it chooses Percy Harrison Fawcett as its subject. As it makes clear in a subplot involving a conflict between Fawcett (good guy!) and the Arctic explorer James Murray (bad guy!), this movie��wants unambiguous heroes and villains. It would have been more compelling if the filmmakers had just acknowledged the (considerable) limitations of their real-life protagonist's worldview��and spent less time trying to twist him into��an impossibly woke��moralizer.��

Even in the face of imminent annihilation, Fawcett is tiresomely noble. “Nothing will happen to us that is not our destiny,” he tells his son, who, understandably, seems less than reassured. Despite all of Fawcett’s grand pontification, the central question of the film—Why does he become addicted to the jungle?—is never convincingly addressed. It made me long for a more nuanced account of self-destructive obsession, like .��

Rendering characters as caricatures might work for screen adaptations of Greek myth or (the sad equivalent of our time) Marvel comics, but it’s difficult to pull off when your source material was once alive and kicking.

Real people are just too interesting.��

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Welcome to Barra!��

It might not be as storied as Rio ’hoods like Copacabana and Ipanema, but Barra da Tijuca is one of the city’s swankiest. It’s being called the Heart of the Games by organizers, because it’s home to the Olympic Park.��

The Numbers��

The housing complex at the Olympic Village is made up of 31 buildings with 17 floors each, split into a variety of two-to-five-bedroom apartments. It seems spacious, but it must accommodate 11,000 athletes and 7,000 sup-port staff.

Last-Minute Tune-Up

A vast training center is equipped with almost 1,000 strength and cardio machines, and a nearby clinic houses a cryotherapy, massage, and rehab facility big enough to treat 100 athletes at a time.

Try Again

Rio already had a velodrome before it won the Olympic bid, but the UCI declared it unfit for competition. The construction company hired to build a new one declared bankruptcy 67 days before the opening ceremony, however, making it one of the last venues to be completed.

Throwback

The , where the gymnastics and wheelchair��basketball events will take place, is one of only two venues in the Olympic Park that predate the 2016 Games. Built for the 2007 Pan American Games, it has hosted NBA events, UFC bouts, and concerts by Iron Maiden and Miley Cyrus.

For the Children

The , or Future Arena, where the handball and goalball competitions are scheduled to be held, will be dismantled and transformed into neighborhood public schools.

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Dawid Andres and Hubert Kisinski had an audacious goal: they would bike the length of the Amazon River—from the headwaters in Peru, down the Andes, through hundreds of miles of rainforest, all the way to the Atlantic. And since much of the region lacks paved roads, they would do the vast majority of the trek on homemade, floating paddle-bikes—think mountain bikes outfitted with pontoons and a pedal-powered propeller.

Pretty impressive goal for two Polish half-brothers who, by their own admission, “aren’t big bikers,” and had never been on a proper expedition before.��

For two years before the pair set off last September, Andres, 40, had been poring over maps and planning the expedition from his home in Arizona. He’d originally planned a journey through the Middle East, but stories of the “extremes” of the Amazon called to him. Once he felt he had a handle on the basics of the journey, Andres flew to Arizona to meet the 32-year-old Kisinski, who lives in Poland. The two then flew to Peru and set off from Camana, on the Pacific.��

In March, after nearly six months and 5,000 miles, Andres and Kisinski finished their journey where the Amazon flows into the Atlantic, becoming the first people to “bike” the Amazon.

In Poland, the men returned to a hero’s welcome. They were invited to discuss the journey in front of a crowd of several thousand at the country’s premier adventuring conference. Afterwards, to their total surprise, they were awarded the big prize of the evening for in exploring.��

���ϳԹ��� caught up with the half brothers after the show to hear about the toughest parts of spending six months on the world’s second longest river.��

Building the Bikes

Why bike down the Amazon? “Because it’s cheaper than kayak!” says Andres, laughing. He had originally planned to paddle the whole river, but transporting a boat to the Andes turned out to be very costly. They’d seen prototypes of bicycle-driven paddleboats on YouTube and decided they would make their own. How hard could it be?

“Everything was wrong with it,” Andres says. “After 30 minutes, Hubert’s propeller just broke.” The journey, which started 16,811 feet above sea level at lake Ticlla Cocha in Peru, quickly became a constant battle of machines versus nature.��

The Amazon, with its punishing currents, chest-high waves, and whirlpools, took a tremendous toll on the men’s vehicles. On the fly, they had to improve the buoyancy of the bikes, jury-rig drive shafts—which transmitted the pedal power to the paddles instead of chains—and create spare parts wherever they could. Andres said it took hundreds of miles of on-the-go repairs to get the bikes fully sea worthy. “If we had it like this at the beginning, we would be a month faster,” he says.��

Pirates on the High Seas

The most dangerous part of the trip wasn’t even the river. Much of the Amazon is extremely remote, and piracy is a constant threat. Fifteen years ago, Sir Peter Blake, one of the world’s most famous sailors, was by a gang of pirates on the river in Brazil. The Polish half brothers—who had already been robbed earlier on the journey by small time gangsters��in a semi-autonomous Peruvian region occupied by the Ashaninka tribe—were constantly on the lookout. (The robbers relieved them of the cash equivalent of about $100.)

After spending Christmas with a Peruvian family that welcomed them into the fold, Andres and Kisinski were aided by the currents and making great time, covering 80 miles a day—fast, but not fast enough to escape river marauders. First, the men were accosted on the water by a pair of scrawny, unarmed 20-somethings wearing Ray Ban sunglasses. They were menacing more than anything, and after sizing up the Poles’ bikes, decided there was nothing on board worth stealing.��

Shortly thereafter, the paddle-bikers encountered a greater threat in the form of a small boat motoring toward them at high speed. “There were five guys with gun and they were yelling, ‘Put your hands on the head!’” Andres says. “They started to ask us what we are doing. I’m on the bike in the waves with my hands behind my head. Guy is aiming a gun at me. Gun was huge. It was like [a gun] for the elephants.”

The pirates asked if Andres and Kisinski were transporting drugs. Andres explained they were on a biking expedition down the river, a reply that drew laughs from the bandits. One dove into the river and checked their pontoons for storage compartments. It was, Andres said, extremely tense. “So I ask them, ‘Maybe you have a beer? Pirates, do you have a beer?’ And they said no they don’t have a beer! Then [the main pirate began] laughing,” Andres said. “That was our weapon. Conversation.” The pirates let them pass unharmed, with all their belongings.

Getting Lost��

Andres and Kisinski made a smart decision early on: they enlisted the help of , probably Poland’s greatest Amazon explorer. Thirty years ago, he was part of the first expedition to successfully kayak the length of the Amazon, and today the expedition website Explorers Web calls him the godfather of Amazon exploration. In the years since, he’s mentored a generation of adventurers.��

When Andres asked him for help, Chmielinski was initially skeptical of the two amateurs. But when they called from the top of the Peruvian Andes, after��with all their equipment, he was on board. “They are so enthusiastic,” he says. “They don’t go for record. They didn’t want to beat anything. It was assumed they will be the first bike ride along the Amazon—but really they didn’t go for this.” Chmielinski agreed to guide them from from his home in Washington, D.C., to help them with GPS navigation and communications with the outside world.��

For 4,300 some odd miles, navigation was fairly simple: the paddle-bikers followed the river. But as they approached Belem, in the Amazon’s massive delta near the Atlantic coast, the river diverged into dozens of different channels, muddling their path.��

With Chmielinski’s support, the explorers hunted for overland roads through the delta. “Road,” it turned out, “was a giant misunderstanding,” Chmielinksi says. The washed out dirt paths through the heavy jungle made for slow going and the two men often had to get back in the water to cross sloughs. After tens of miles, Andres and Kisinski got a call on their satellite phone. It was Chmielinski. He’d been following their movements on GPS—they were going in circles. Eventually, the pair started following telephone poles, hoping they would lead to Belem. Their vision blurry from dehydration, the pair finally made it into town.��

From Belem, it was just a 120-mile bike ride along dirt roads and jungle brush to the Atlantic. Finally, on March 4, nearly six months after they left the Peruvian Andes, the pair dove into the sea. “We got the cries, a little. I’ve never been so happy,” Andres says. “We jump, we cry. Then we understood what we have done. For us, it was special.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled Hubert��Kisinski's name.

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