To go for a group jog in Bujumbura, Burundi’s capital, you must first join a jogging club and register with the government. Then you must choose one of nine approved venues. After that the police may have some ­questions. How many people will be there? When? Give us their names.

When I first heard about President Pierre Nkurunziza’s , it seemed like the work of a crackpot dictator, much like North Korea’s ban on blue jeans, China’s ban on unlicensed reincarnation, or any of a number of decrees out of Turkmenistan, where the former president once outlawed lip-syncing, gold teeth, and beards.

Except that this one felt even more fundamental. From the springy arch in our feet to the heat-dissipating veins in our heads, our bodies evolved to run. A whole suite of brain chemicals even reward the effort. A 2,000-year-old cave painting in Matobo National Park, in Zimbabwe, depicts a hunter lifting his arms in exultation at the end of a run.

Perhaps nowhere is jogging more integral than in Burundi. To understand why, you have to go back to the early 1990s, when tensions were rising between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups.

In 1993, Melchior Ndadaye, the first Hutu president in the nation’s history, was killed by the Tutsi-controlled military just three months after taking office, an event that sparked a 12-year ethnic civil war that left 300,000 dead. During the conflict, soldiers would run through the streets in formation, boots clomping the ground, singing about their military prowess. The songs comforted supporters and intimidated the opposition. The soldiers sometimes stopped to administer random beatings.

At the same time, young Burundians were becoming more politically active and formed their own jogging clubs. For the most part, Hutus joined other Hutus and Tutsis joined other Tutsis in a show of solidarity. As fighting ebbed after a coup d’etat in 1996, the groups endured, eventually shedding their political origins. Dozens of clubs, some with hundreds of members, would meet to run and sing together on weekend mornings, then spend the rest of the day drinking Primus, the local lager. In time the clubs integrated and helped stitch the country back together, creating an apolitical, almost post-ethnic space. If someone in a jogging group had a death in the family or needed an extra set of hands on a project, the club helped. It was like all the best parts of a church, except the religion was running and the after-service snacks were copious amounts of beer. For more than a decade, jogging was to Bujumbura what music is to New Orleans.

“It was a time to meet and deal with the trauma, the fear, the loneliness,” political reformist Jean Claude Nkundwa told me. “Running became a culture.”

At first, President Nkurunziza supported that culture. The son of a Tutsi mother and a Hutu father, Nkurunziza taught physical education before joining a group of Hutu rebels in 1995. In 2005, he took power from a transitional government, building his reputation around fitness and public health. But in March 2014, with protests brewing over a rumored third term, he restricted clubs to approved locations and forced them to register. The political opposition responded with calls for his ouster, which turned into riots and assassinations targeting top generals. The tortured bodies of opposition members began showing up on the outskirts of town. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the country.

To an outsider, it looked like the president had banned group jogging and Burundi had crumbled. Surely this was not the whole story, but at a glance it seemed to fit. For me—and for many runners—a really hard run has the power to transform anxiety and depression into calm and confidence. We use the sport like a drug. A couple of days without a run and everything goes to hell. Could the same thing happen to an entire nation?

When I arrived in Bujumbura in late September, a haze blanketed the city. The air on the tarmac felt like a blast of wet heat. șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű baggage claim, I scanned the crowd for Jean Baptiste Mubaribari, a local journalist who I’d enlisted as my driver and translator. I’d contacted him two days before arriving, when I learned that the government had blacklisted my previous translator, part of a campaign against journalists both foreign and domestic.

I had permission to be there, but my documents authorized me only to work on stories about jogging. Last summer, a French journalist who’d been permitted to cover elections had his credentials revoked for filming protests.

“Welcome,” said Jean Baptiste when we found each other. “You came at a good time.”

“How so?” I asked.

“Lots of shooting last night,” he said. “Huge battle. Really big.”

A tiny country of ten million sandwiched between Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi rates near the bottom in several unfortunate categories: hunger, poverty, corruption.

Like in Rwanda, half a century of violence between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups lies squarely at the heart of its woes. But while Rwanda’s genocide, which claimed nearly a million lives in 1994, captured the kind of international attention that brought peacekeeping troops, NGOs, and enforced stability, Burundi has largely been left to figure things out on its own.

“Burundi is a country totally devoid of any importance,” wrote Peter Uvin in , the definitive but prematurely titled book on modern Burundi. “It has no economic or geo-strategic value to speak of.”

The country’s population is roughly 85 percent Hutu and 14 percent Tutsi, and its lasting conflict began in the early 20th century, when, in order to reduce the influence of the majority Hutus, colonial powers favored the much smaller Tutsi population, giving them access to education and wealth and control of the military. Though the definitions were somewhat fluid, Hutus were typically farmers and Tutsis raised livestock. It wasn’t until the early 1930s that Belgian colonialists formalized the distinction by issuing a Tutsi ID card to anyone owning more than ten cattle and a Hutu ID to everyone else.

When Burundi abolished its monarchy in 1966, animosities between the ethnic groups erupted. In 1972, a Hutu uprising and swift Tutsi military backlash left between 100,000 and 300,000 people dead (including Nkurunziza’s father); a coup in 1988 led to fighting that killed 25,000. Then came the civil war in 1993, which dragged into the mid-2000s.

The lone piece of good news regarding the latest round of turmoil is that it is nominally a political dispute, not an ethnic one—though the ruling party is largely Hutu and the opposition more or less Tutsi, and the so-called politics play out each night to the hammering of automatic weapons, particularly in the opposition-heavy Cibitoke neighborhood.

As we headed into the city center from the airport, there were checkpoints fretting the main roads, and police officers in blue jumpsuits waved cars over at random; at night they would string barbed wire to block passage so they could inspect every car. Burundi’s military is constitutionally barred from engaging in internal conflicts, so the police are like the government’s poorly disciplined muscle. Some of the nightly gunfire is from police accidentally shooting AK-47’s at each other.

These days police are also responsible for enforcing the jogging ban, dispersing any large groups found running through the streets—though, given the risk, such groups almost never gather. Individuals are sometimes hassled but are generally permitted to run. Most groups stick to the nine government-sanctioned locations, many of them playgrounds, doing a kind of large-scale aerobics instead of logging miles.

Despite the limitations, the workouts are still popular. On Fridays, the city government shuts down at 2 p.m. so that workers can attend. Most head toward Kiriri Hill—a nearly two-mile stretch of acute thigh torture rising toward Burundi University— and spend a few more hours exercising.

I happened to arrive on a Friday, and Jean Baptiste perked up when he realized the coincidence. “We will drive to the hill,” he said. “We will talk to the joggers about why they make sport.”
As we got closer to Kiriri, a group of runners began to coalesce, until a stream of people were flowing to the hilltop campus. șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű the gate, a stern-eyed man sat on a folding chair; if it looked like someone was about to start shooting, he’d scatter everyone with a whistle blast.

“No photos, no videos,” he said when Jean Baptiste introduced me as a journalist.

The campus was the size of five or six soccer fields, and included an actual soccer field. While there were a variety of activities—basketball, some team handball, and two guys hitting a ball back and forth over a string, like tennis without the net—no one actually jogged. Most formed a big circle and followed a leader at the center doing exercises that the word calisthenics falls short of describing. They Hacky-Sacked with no Hacky Sack; they duck-walked rapidly; they squatted to do quick feet. Then they ran in place and punched the air in front of them, as if sweating it out on militaristic NordicTracks.

Jean Baptiste tried to land me interviews with some of the onlookers, but there were no takers. It’s not a partisan group, but most everyone worked for the city, and political sympathies reflect government jobs. Also, Burundi is not a place that takes press freedom very seriously. At the moment, in fact, there’s hardly any press at all. The international media left during a lull in the rioting, and most local journalists have long since fled to Rwanda for fear of being arrested or tortured. Jean Baptiste, a newspaper reporter, stuck around because hardly anyone reads, so the government wasn’t worried about him.

“He’s writing about jogging,” Jean Baptiste said to the crowd, speaking Kirundi, the local language. He smiled big, put his arms around people, and pointed excitedly in my direction.

Everyone ignored him. A passerby might have mistaken him for an exercise circle’s wildly ineffective leader.

“No video! No photo!” he pleaded.

No talking.

The sun dropped toward Lake Tanganyika, which forms a portion of the country’s western border, and we headed back to the hotel. Another journalist had recommended that I stay there for the thick concrete walls around its perimeter, the better to catch stray bullets. The precaution seemed like overkill until exactly 8:37, when the sound of distant gunfire rebounded off the hills and came lilting back through the city. Jean Baptiste called it “the music from Cibitoke.”

The next morning we headed for Tempete Playground, another sanctioned space for former jogging clubs, where half-buried truck tires separated a soccer field from basketball courts.

By 7 a.m., there were already 100 or so people there. These weren’t government employees, and Jean Baptiste knew the club’s leader, so I slid into one of the concentric circles to exercise with the crowd. We chanted, we counted reps in French, we stomped our feet, and we paused periodically to stretch. When my flexibility was found wanting, an older man physically moved my limbs into the right position, putting his body weight into the stretch and repeating the French command as though the problem was my hearing.

The club was not particularly athletic. Many members stopped partway through, finding my struggle entertaining. But one guy was really into it, screaming with almost religious delight as the moves got harder, the holds longer, and the sun hotter.

“Yes, Coach! Thank you!” he yelled when our leader stalled the count during a long string of sit-ups. “A thousand times, Coach. Please! Yeah!”

When we finished, he called out to me as I prepared to leave. “You are welcome!” he said. “Join us anytime!”

His name was Ferdinand Nitunga, and he told me that the group, called the Family Jogging Club, had changed his life. Ferdinand joined five or six years ago when a friend invited him. He said he liked it so much that every Saturday he jogged six miles from Gatumba, the suburb where he once lived, and ran the six miles back home. Then he did it again on Sunday.

A few days later, I met Ferdinand to run that route with him, to see what it had been like. Folks were just heading to work. Motorcycles skirted around us on the right; we sprinted past commuter buses on the left. We were technically breaking the law, but the police didn’t bother us.

Born in a rural part of the country, Ferdinand suffered debilitating headaches in school, and his father spent much of Ferdinand’s childhood in the hospital. Most kids in his situation would have stopped going, opting out of the substantial tuition fees to take up subsistence farming instead, but Ferdinand couldn’t stand to quit. He was smart and had a knack for languages. He excelled at French and spoke proficient if grammatically quirky English. He often out-performed his teachers. He was also, he discovered, one of those natural-born runners who only find out later in life that the sport is hard for the rest of us.

“Let us slow the pace, really,” Ferdinand said to me as traffic dispersed slightly outside the city. “I can listen to your breathing and hear the fatigue.”

At 14, looking for a way to continue his education and training, he moved in with an uncle in Gatumba and worked as a domestique in exchange for medicine and school fees—a common arrangement in Burundi. But then his uncle said that if Ferdinand wanted to continue living in his house, he should be prepared to drop out of school and join a group of Hutu rebels.

On the road to Gatumba, the sun had burned off the clouds outside the city as we ran along Lake Tanganyika in the ceaseless humidity.

“We can slow the pace again, if I am not mistaken,” Ferdinand said, in response to continued heavy breathing on my part.

“OK,” I said, relieved. I run four miles a day and almost never a step farther. “Are you tired?”

“I am not hardly.”

When the club’s leader heard the story of Ferdinand’s long runs from Gatumba to Bujumbura, he took a special interest, giving him tips on how to train and recover from injuries. Ferdinand told him that what he really needed was a job and a place to live. (He left out the rebels.)

The next weekend, the leader gathered the men from the club: Could anyone help?

A man named Jean NĂ©pomucĂšne Hatungimana raised his hand. He was opening a bar, and Ferdinand could work and sleep there. He’d have an income. He could pay for school. Some years later, Jean NĂ©pomucĂšne invited Ferdinand to live in his house.

“My dream really came true,” Ferdinand told me.

We arrived in Gatumba at a walk, my head spinning and calves twitching from running just one leg of Ferdinand’s commute. Then Jean Baptiste pulled up in the car with some water bottles and informed us that, by his odometer, the distance we just ran was almost nine miles, not six. Ferdinand shrugged. He was estimating.

Ferdinand’s talent may be uncommon, but his reliance on his club was not. Amid social and political turmoil and unpredictable violence, Burundians looked to jogging groups for stability.

Even nonathletes would show up in crowds large enough to stop traffic. To ban such a popular activity seemed foolish for a politician seeking reelection and particularly strange for President Nkurunziza, who is perhaps the world’s most fitness-minded head of state.

According to his press officer, the president swims for an hour each morning and then plays basketball or soccer for two hours in the afternoon. Some say that Nkurunziza owes everything he has accomplished to his athletic prowess: he studied phys ed at university at a time when most other Hutus were denied an education.

In 2003, after a ceasefire finally , Nkurunziza walked and rode his bike from the border of Tanzania to the city of Gitega—roughly 100 miles away and smack in the center of Burundi. Along the way, he gave speeches about moving past ethnic divisions. He was very popular. Two years later, the parliament appointed him president for a five-year term.

In 2007, he launched an effort to encourage even more of the country to exercise, making fitness a cornerstone of his administration. By that point, however, cracks were forming in his leadership. Radio journalists were breaking stories about the president’s corruption, and Burundians were just as hungry as they had been during the war, maybe hungrier.

One of Nkurunziza’s most outspoken critics was radio journalist . A Tutsi who briefly studied at Harvard, Sinduhije was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2008 for his efforts at reconciling the country’s ethnic divide. He had famously adopted a Hutu child orphaned by the war, and after founding Radio Publique Africaine in 2001, he’d hired both Hutu and Tutsi ex-combatants as reporters. But in 2007, Sinduhije quit journalism to launch his political career. He founded the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (MSD) party, building on the idea that the government was corrupt, a notion that played well with young men in both ethnic groups. Eventually, he announced plans to run for president.

Police at MSD headquarters in 2008 and charged him with “insulting the president.” Supporters rallied outside the prison, however, and he was released. Though Nkurunziza was elected to a second term in 2010, the main opposition parties, including MSD, boycotted the process. They claimed that the government’s youth wing—the Imbonerakure, roughly translated as “visionaries”—used violence to intimidate voters. , but the election stood.

Looking back, it’s easy to see the ingredients of large-scale violence stewing together. At the time, however, it just looked like more jogging. By the summer of 2013, Bujumbura’s neighborhoods, which had previously been grouped by ethnicity, had reorganized along political lines, and a pro-government jogging club called Inkona (Eagle) started running through opposition neighborhoods in packs, much like the soldiers of previous conflicts. There were no beatings, and according to its founder, Jean Paul Niyihweze, the club was not political. But it had over 3,000 members across the city, and some factions radicalized and became militant. People living in opposition neighborhoods reported that when Inkona came through, they rewrote the lyrics to songs so that the words recalled the rape and violence of the civil war: Impregnate the rivals / So they can give birth to Imbonerakure.

MSD responded by forming its own jogging groups. It was thin cover for politics, but Nkurunziza’s athleticism created a kind of political shelter.

“The president is a sportif,” said MSD member Richard Ndihokubwayo. “He cannot criticize jogging.”

Richard is fierce looking, with two nearly symmetrical scars on his forehead, one from a broken bottle, the other from the butt of an AK-47. “These things happen in Burundi,” he said when I asked about them. I could use his name, he said, because the government was already hunting him. An article wouldn’t make things worse.

We met to talk several times, usually at my hotel, but sometimes he got spooked and insisted we go somewhere else—too many government license plates in the parking lot. During our first meeting, the hotel kitchen staff rushed over like they were seeing a ghost.

“Richard! We thought you were dead,” they said. “We thought they got you!”

Richard became a member of MSD in 2011, after the government insisted that he join their political party or lose his job as a sound tech in the parliament building. He’d grown up in the same neighborhood as Alexis Sinduhije and would sometimes sneak him recordings of closed-door meetings. Richard chose MSD.

Throughout the fall of 2013, MSD and Inkona clashed every weekend, slinging insults as they ran. MSD didn’t set out to jog through Inkona neighborhoods, Richard says, but they repeatedly did. And they didn’t shy away from taunting Inkona with their own songs.

“Inkona started to think that they were strong,” he said. “We started thinking that we are also strong.”

Sometimes minor aggressions turned into street fights. Sinduhije fueled the violence via radio broadcast. “The only thing that does not respond to a beating is a drum,” he said. “If someone hits you, hit them back twice.”

The conflict escalated on both sides. In the Kinama neighborhood, the Inkona club became something like a pro-government militia, with a mandate to protect the neighborhood and a promise of immunity for any crimes committed while doing so.

When I asked Jean Baptiste if he knew a member of Inkona, he spent half a day frantically trying to track one down. He turned up Moussa Nzeyimana, who’d joined in 2013 and was part of an outfit that ran through opposition neighborhoods looking to fight. He worked as a mechanic and had that hardened air of someone who uses his hands every day. When we picked him up, he was nervous and fidgety, hunkering down in the backseat until we reached a bar that was not technically open yet. A relatively expensive spot with the cheery, overbright color scheme of a tropical bird, it was the kind of place unlikely to be frequented by underground militias. There, Moussa finally felt safe enough to talk. Because he went by a nickname in the group, he made the strange request that I use his real name to protect his identity.

The club was treated well, Moussa said. They got extra food to help with their workouts and received weapons training on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. First he learned how to break down a gun and reassemble it. Then he learned how to shoot.

Instructions came in an envelope when they met to train. Moussa told me he didn’t know who wrote them. He quit the group after they were directed to attack the Cibitoke neighborhood and he realized that he knew most of the guys they were shooting at. They were his friends. He decided to disappear.

“I need to go,” he said to me. The first customer had just walked in the door. “Someone is going to see me talking.”

OK, but how did you disappear?

“I joined a different jogging club. They’ve been hiding me in their houses ever since,” he said. “Inkona hasn’t found me, yet.”

In February 2014, rumors began to spread that Nkurunziza would run for a third term. Doing so would bulldoze the 2000 Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement for Burundi, which had laid the groundwork for a new government and constitution. The Arusha treaty limited presidents to two terms and integrated the military and the government, requiring a 60/40 split between Hutus and Tutsis in all government positions.

Nkurunziza’s party had never been satisfied with that split, however, saying that giving 40 percent of lucrative government jobs to 14 percent of the population was unfair. In March 2014, he put forth a constitutional amendment that would make it easier for Hutus to consolidate power in part by abolishing term limits. It by one vote. But while the treaty restricted the country’s leader to two terms, the constitution had a loophole. It said that presidents could only be elected by the people twice, and Nkurunziza had been appointed to his first term. By declaring himself eligible for a third term, he was signaling his willingness to circumvent the Arusha treaty altogether.

In response, MSD planned a protest, gathering together every party member in every quarter of Bujumbura on March 8. Instead of demonstrating, however, they would go for a jog. But someone tipped off the police, who responded by blocking the roads. Anyone in jogging clothes was turned back. Some tried to run past the blockades; those who were caught were beaten.

“That Saturday was the longest day I can remember,” Richard told me.

At 11 a.m., word went out to abandon the jog and meet at MSD headquarters. One hundred and twenty people made it to the compound, including Alexis Sinduhije.

Hundreds of police showed up outside the house around 1 p.m. Two officers snuck around the side, but MSD grabbed them and dragged them inside the compound.

“We made them our prisoners,” Richard said.

Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, a prominent human rights activist and former police officer, showed up to negotiate. Just send out the hostages, he said, and the police will let everyone go home.

MSD sent out the hostages. No one was allowed to go home.

The stalemate continued for hours. At 6 p.m., the MSD members inside the compound told Sinduhije that there was no use fighting. The police would storm the house when it got dark and probably kill him. Sinduhije climbed a ladder over the compound’s concrete walls. Then the police came in. Ten people were shot; none died.

“If you didn’t escape, you were shot or you were captured,” Richard said. At least 70 people were arrested that day, 22 of them on jogging-related charges. Forty-eight were ultimately given jail time, 21 of them . Richard got out by pretending to be a journalist, flashing a photo ID from his old job in parliament and telling an officer it was a press pass. The officer couldn’t read, so he let Richard go.

Sinduhije hid in the attic of a nearby house. Two cops showed up looking for him, and the owner invited them in, remarking that they looked thirsty. Sinduhije managed to escape after the officers drank an entire case of beer.

Over the next year, Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term became official. On April 25, 2015, he , and opposition groups organized protests, putting up barricades to keep security forces out of their neighborhoods. Police shot tear gas, protesters threw rocks, police responded with bullets. Seven people died that day.

The protests continued for weeks. Occasionally, impromptu groups formed to jog and sing together, running in tight circles up and down the blockaded streets. Ferdinand could see them from his house. “It was treated like a game,” he said. Except people were being shot. Sometimes one or two in a neighborhood, sometimes a half-dozen. Fifty-six in May. On weekends the protestors halted to bury the dead.

On May 13, major general Godefroid Niyombare on the radio while Nkurunziza was in Tanzania. There was celebratory gunfire all afternoon from opposition soldiers, then combative gunfire all night as forces battled for control of RTNB, the state radio station.

“It was the first case where we heard explosions,” said Orion Donovan-Smith, an American NGO worker who lived near the station. “I couldn’t go back to my house.”

During the fighting, private radio stations were raided and burned, and on the evening of May 14, general Prime Niyongabo that the coup had failed. Then, on May 23, opposition leader Zedi Feruzi was , launching a summer of tit-for-tat violence that was still in full swing when I arrived that fall: drive-by assassination attempts, abductions, sounds of torture overheard at night in government neighborhoods, and disfigured corpses turning up on the streets.

One night, Ferdinand, Jean Baptiste, and I were driving across the city after dark. Opposition forces had attacked a checkpoint a few hours before, so the police were taking a long time, and traffic was backing up.

“This is dangerous,” Ferdinand said. “If there is an attack, we are also a target.”

“Mmhmm,” Jean Baptiste agreed.

“The last general who was shot
,” Ferdinand said, trying to remember the name.

“Adolphe?” Jean Baptiste said.

“NŽÇ
â¶Ä

“BŸ±°ìŽÇłŸČčČ”łÜ?”

“No, not him.”

“MŸ±ČőŸ±Č”Čč°ùŽÇ?”

“No, the last one,” Ferdinand said, the name on the tip of his tongue.

“P°ùŸ±łŸ±đ?”

“Yes! Prime. There were a lot of extra victims when he was shot.”

In the months that followed, the violence reached a new high—reports of gang rapes, grenade attacks, dozens of bodies discovered in mass graves outside the capital. The U.S. sanctioned both sides, the military began fracturing by political party, and the government and rebel groups gathered in Uganda for peace talks that went nowhere. Soon after I left, Jean Baptiste was arrested for working with journalists. They threatened him with torture, but he bribed his way out of jail and fled the country.

On one of my last full days in Burundi, I showed up for another workout at Tempete Playground. I was supposed to meet Ferdinand, but he was nowhere to be found. There were a thousand harmless reasons he might not show up, but Ferdinand was a guy whose life choices had largely been about figuring out a way to keep training. As I scanned the crowd for him, I became worried. The nightly shooting had ramped up in the past few days; it was so frequent and close that I could now hear the difference between handheld weapons and the belt-fed machine guns mounted on trucks as they moved through the city.

A few days before, Ferdinand explained to me that his living situation was less stable than he’d let on. He was not allowed to sit at the dinner table during meals; he slept on the floor, even though there was an open bedroom. Who could say when the family might ask him to leave? And where would he go?

I crossed the playground and joined in with another club. We stomped around in unison; we Hacky-Sacked with no Hacky Sack; we pushed against our partners using the tops of our heads. Eventually, I worked hard enough that a familiar rush of endorphins flooded me with calm.

This was a religious club, and at the end folks gathered in the center to pray for safety. During a moment of silence, I heard a voice and saw a flash of wild bouncing near the back of another group.

“Trois! Quatre! Cinq! Coach! Yeah! Woo!” Someone was yelling in a distinct concoction of French, English, and Ferdinand-ese.

I craned my neck and saw him, jogging in place, touching knee to opposite elbow. He started hopping and twisting at the waist in time with the chant, little sentries of sweat gathering on the peak of his forehead. Of course he’d made it. There was nowhere else to run.

Peter Frick-Wright () is the host and producer of the șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű podcast.

The post How Jogging in Burundi Became an Act of War appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

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Might want to add another front chainring to your bike before embarking on this hard-charging eight-day affair in Toscana, birthplace of cycle touring. Thanks to the expertise of former Giro d’Italia winner Andy Hampsten, this 400-mile route is designed for riders who are as serious about their Brunello as they are about their hills. From coastal Maremma, you’ll pedal little-trafficked backroads past farmhouses and monasteries, resting your climbing legs and dining like a Medici at wine estates and 12th-century hamlets. Four nights will be spent at a vineyard for a thorough indoctrination in winemaking (and tasting). OUTFITTER: Cinghiale Tours, 206-524-6010, . WHEN TO GO: September. PRICE: $3,000. DIFFICULTY: strenuous.

KAYAKING THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER [USA]
Drop into Craten’s Hole with freestyle-kayaking phenom Ben Selznick. Bozeman local and winner of the Gallatin Rodeo 2002, Selznick is your guide on a seven-day tour of Montana’s most famous whitewater. After warming up on the Gallatin River’s Class II-III waves, you’ll graduate to the steep creeks off the Yellowstone, ranging from Class II to V. At night, ease your sore shoulders poolside and fireside at the Chico Hot Springs and Rock Creek resorts. OUTFITTER: GowithaPro, 415-383-3907, . WHEN TO GO: July. PRICE: $4,500. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

Far Out

Get lost in the back of beyond

Big wig: a Papuan prepares for a tribal dance

SHAGGY RIDGE TREK [PAPUA NEW GUINEA]
If you were to drop off the face of the earth, you’d probably land in Papua New Guinea’s steamy Finisterre Mountains. Rising 13,000 feet out of the sweltering lowlands, the mountains’ flanks are choked in jungle thicket that few have ever fully explored—not even the locals. Be among the first. Hike and camp for seven days on tangled game trails and World War II supply routes to Shaggy Ridge, an airy fin of rock 4,900 feet above the Bismarck Sea. Be prepared to answer a barrage of questions from Papuan villagers who rarely, if ever, see outsiders. OUTFITTER: World Expeditions, 888-464-8735, . WHEN TO GO: August, September. PRICE: $2,150. DIFFICULTY: strenuous.

THE ULTIMATE FLY-FISING ADVENTURE [MONGOLIA]
You’ve got much more than a fish on when you’ve nabbed a taimen, a specimen that regularly grows to five feet long and dines on prairie dogs and ducks. If you’re not up for hunting the world’s largest salmonid for a full week on the Bator River, you can cast for lenok, the brown trout of Mongolia; ride horses or mountain bikes; or just enjoy the good life in your ger, a woodstove-heated yurt with two beds and electricity. Outfitter: Sweetwater Travel Company, 406-222-0624, . When to go: May-June, August-October. Price: $5,200. Difficulty: easy.

RAFTING THE FIRTH RIVER [CANADA]
Caribou know no boundaries. Every June, the 150,000-strong Porcupine herd leaves the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and migrates into the Yukon’s roadless Ivvavik National Park. And because the Class II-IV Firth bisects the park, you’ll be awestruck when thousands cross the river in plain view. Other big game are afoot, too—musk ox, barren land grizzlies, and wolves—and in such high concentrations that the region is often referred to as North America’s Serengeti. With long Arctic days and three- to four-hour river sessions daily, you’ll have plenty of time on this 12-day trip to hike the gently sloping 6,000-foot Brooks Range and fish for arctic char. Outfitter: Rivers, Oceans, and Mountains, 877-271-7626, . When to Go: June. Price: $3,995. Difficulty: moderate.

RIO NEGRO & AMAZON ADVENTURE [BRAZIL]
The upper Rio Negro is your portal back in time on this 11-day adventure that plumbs the deepest, darkest corners of the Amazon Basin. From the former Jesuit outpost of Santa Isabel, you’ll motorboat on the Negro’s blackened waters through virgin rainforest, camping alongside Tucanos Indian settlements stuck in a 19th-century time warp. Off the water, you’ll trek with native Brazilian guides into the rugged tepuis (3,000-foot plateaus), prowling for medicinal herbs used by local shamans. Resist the urge to swim: Football-size piranha call the Rio Negro home. OUTFITTER: Inti Travel and Tours, 403-760-3565, . WHEN TO GO: year-round. PRICE: $2,750. DIFFICULTY: easy.

RUNNING THE KATUN RIVER [RUSSIA]
If you’re looking for bragging rights to a truly remote river, consider the glacier-fed Katun. This 90-mile stretch of whitewater drains from the southern slopes of the 13,000-foot Altai Range, dropping fast through alpine tundra, 300-foot granite canyons, and continuous sets of Class III-IV pool-drop rapids. After a long river day, your evening entertainment at camp consists of traditional Russian dancing and a steamy riverfront bana (sauna). Outfitter: Bio Bio Expeditions, 800-246-7238, . When to Go: July. Price: $2,800. Difficulty: moderate.

COAST TO COAST IN BALBOA’S FOOTSTEPS [PANAMA]
Cross a continent in less than two weeks? Improbable but true when you retrace the route 16th-century conquistador Vasco NĂșñez de Balboa used to transport riches across the Isthmus of Panama. Five days of hiking, from the Caribbean village of Armila through the Darien Biosphere Reserve, take you to the Chucunaque River, where you’ll board dugout canoes and navigate a maze of flatwater channels past Ember‡ Indian settlements. Four days later, you’ll find yourself on the other side: a wide stretch of beach where Balboa “discovered” the Pacific in 1513. OUTFITTER: Destination by Design, 866-392-7865, . WHEN TO GO: May, December. PRICE: $3,290. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

Close Encounters

Say hello to the wild life

A scarlet macaw perched in the rainforests of Belize

EXPLORING REEF AND RAINFOREST [BELIZE]
Mingle with everything from crocs and tapirs to jabiru storks and hawksbill turtles on this eight-day whirl through Belize. After three days on the mainland, gawking at toucans and parrots at the Crooked Tree Bird Sanctuary and dodging howler monkeys at the Mayan ruins of Lamanai, you’ll be whisked 55 miles offshore to a tented base camp on undeveloped Lighthouse Reef. Spend your days snorkeling, kayaking, and scuba diving within more than 70 square miles of pristine reefs. OUTFITTER: Island Expeditions, 800-667-1630, . WHEN TO GO: December- May. PRICE: $1,929. DIFFICULTY: moderate. WALKING WITH BUSHMEN [BOTSWANA]
See the backcountry of Botswana and all its attendant wildlife—with a twist. On this nine-day safari, you’ll tag along with Bushmen on their daily hunting-and-gathering forays (while still bedding down in luxe lodges and camps). Following the lion-cheetah-leopard-elephant-giraffe-zebra spectacle in the Okavango Delta, you’ll head north for a night to stay in the River Bushmen’s new camp, where you’ll search for medicinal plants or hunt with bow and arrow. Farther south, in the arid Central Kalahari Game Reserve, San Bushmen will show you how they survive on roots and prickly pears. OUTFITTER: Africa șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Company, 800-882-9453, . WHEN TO GO: April-November. PRICE: $1,925-$2,595. DIFFICULTY: easy.

SWIMMING WITH HUMPBACK WHALES [TONGA]
It’s been said that life is never the same after you’ve looked into the eye of a whale. Here’s how to find out: Every year between June and October, hundreds of humpbacks congregate in and around the turquoise waters of Vava’u, a group of 40 islands in northern Tonga, in the South Pacific. For seven days, you’ll bunk down in Neiafu at night, and by day slide into the water and float quietly while mammals the size of semis check you out. OUTFITTER: Whale Swim șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍűs, 503-699-5869, . WHEN TO GO: August- October. PRICE: $1,180. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

Immersion Therapy

The next best thing to actually living there

REMOTE HILL TRIBE TREK [VIETNAM]
Despite the boom in adventure tourism in Vietnam, few travelers venture into the far-northern hill country, some 200 miles north of Hanoi. You should. Following overgrown buffalo paths and ancient Chinese trading trails, you’ll hike steep terrain for 120 miles over 11 days, traveling north from Cao Bang and staying with Nung villagers in huts on stilts. Save some film for Ban Gioc Falls, on the border with China, and Pac Bo Cave, Ho Chi Minh’s legendary hideout. Outfitter: World Expeditions, 888-464-8735, . When to go: October-March. Price: $1,490. Difficulty: moderate.

TREKKING THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS [MOROCCO]
The M’goun Gorge is so narrow in places, you can’t see the sky—let alone the craggy summits of the nearby 12,000-foot Atlas Mountains. But they’re never out of sight for long on this ten-day trip through small Berber burgs in Morocco’s most fabled range. Over four days of hiking, you’ll climb Tizi n’ AĂŻImi, a 9,528-foot pass, and sleep in Berber farmhouses en route to the Valley of AĂŻBou Guemez, a rare oasis where you’re welcomed as family. OUTFITTER: Living Morocco, 212-877-1417, WHEN TO GO: May. PRICE: $2,950-$3,050. DIFFICULTY: easy.

BARACOA-GUANTÁNAMO CYCLE TOUR [CUBA]
Ride beneath the radar on this Canadian outfitter’s weeklong, 300-mile bike tour of Cuba’s northern coast, past black-sand beaches and nature reserves. The towns en route—Mayar’, a village immortalized by Cuban crooner Compay Segundo, and lush Baracoa—see few tourists and fewer cyclists, so you’ll have La Farola, a winding mountain pass known as “Cuba’s roller coaster,” all to yourself. Use caution when hydrating: Rum’s cheaper than water. OUTFITTER: MacQueen’s Island Tours, 800-969-2822, . WHEN TO GO: April, December. PRICE: $2,595, including round-trip airfare from Toronto. DIFFICULTY: moderate to strenuous.

SNOWSHOEING THE RHODOPE MOUNTAINS [BULGARIA]
Haven’t heard of the Rhodopes? No surprise. Obscurity has helped keep these 7,000-foot peaks in southern Bulgaria among the least visited in Europe. You’ll spend four to seven hours a day snowshoeing along ancient footpaths, through deep drifts and pine forests, to the slopes of Mount Cherni Vruh. Medieval monasteries and village guesthouses provide shelter on this eight-day trip, and Bulgarian perks include homemade sirine (a local feta cheese) and chance sightings of the Asiatic jackal. Outfitter: Exodus, 866-732-5885, . When to Go: February, December. Price: $775. Difficulty: moderate.

It’s Only Natural

Go the extra green mile

RAFTING THROUGH THE RÍO PLÁTANO BIOSPHERE RESERVE [HONDURAS]
Hail the monkey god on this 12-day rafting expedition through the R’o Pl‡tano Biosphere Reserve in eastern Honduras, a primordial jungle where more than 100 archaeological sites are covered with petroglyphs of the primate deity. On the R’o Pl‡tano, you’ll run Class III-IV rapids and float through serene limestone grottos, encountering en route the full Animal Planet menagerie of macaws, tapirs, spider monkeys, anteaters, and, with any luck, jaguars. At trip’s end, you’ll “hot dance” in a Garifuna Indian village. OUTFITTER: La Moskitia Ecoaventuras, 011-504-441-0839, . WHEN TO GO: December-August. PRICE: $1,430-$1,765. DIFFICULTY: moderate. DOCUMENTING RARE RAINFOREST PLANTS [CAMEROON]
Thanks to 4,000 resident species of plants, Cameroon’s 6,500-foot Backossi Mountains are a horticulturalist’s dream. Join scientists from England’s Royal Botanic Gardens and Bantu guides for 13 days to help inventory rare forest flora such as endangered orchids, edible fruits, and a new species of bird’s-nest fern. You’ll camp in a nearby village or bunk in a community hall and learn to prepare local fare, including plantains, fu-fu corn, and cassava. OUTFITTER: Earthwatch Expeditions, 800-776-0188, . WHEN TO GO: March-May, October-November. PRICE: $1,295. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

EXPLORING NAM HA [LAOS]
The Lao equivalent of a national park, the 858-square-mile Nam Ha National Biodiversity and Conservation Area in northwestern Laos offers some of Southeast Asia’s wildest rafting and trekking. Spend ten days paddling Class III whitewater on both the Nam Ha and Nam Tha rivers, sleeping in villages and bamboo-and-thatch bungalows at the Boat Landing Ecolodge, and trekking with local guides deep into the jungle, on the lookout for tailless fruit bats and Asiatic black bears. OUTFITTER: AquaTerra Ventures, 011-61-8-9494-1616, . WHEN TO GO: June-January. PRICE: $1,150. DIFFICULTY: easy to moderate.

ECO-TRAIL SAFARI IN KRUGER NATIONAL PARK [SOUTH AFRICA]
Go trekking with rangers on the newly designated Lebombo Eco-Trail, which runs for more than 300 miles along the previously off-limits eastern border of South Africa’s Kruger National Park and Mozambique. You might encounter rhinos, zebras, and even the lowly dung beetle in Africa’s most biodiverse park. You’ll also trek into nearby 200-million-year-old Blyde River Canyon and stalk lions on a walking safari. OUTFITTER: Sierra Club, 415-977-5522, . WHEN TO GO: September-October. PRICE: $3,695-$3,995. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

Variety Packs

Take the multisport approach

Skiing the extra mile: Norway’s version of the Alps

CROSSING THE PATAGONIAN ANDES [CHILE AND ARGENTINA]
The Edenic RĂ­o Manso Valley, at the southern tip of South America, is pure Patagonia—high, open country surrounded by ancient alerce forests (think redwoods) and populated by gauchos and trout. How you choose to play on this nine-day camping trip—rafting the Manso’s Class IV-V rapids, casting for rainbows, or horseback riding along the riverfront trail—is up to you as you venture west from the altiplano of Bariloche toward the chiseled fjords of coastal Chile. OUTFITTER: șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Tours Argentina Chile, 866-270-5186, . WHEN TO GO: December-March. PRICE: $2,900. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

MUSHING WITH THE GREAT WHITE BEAR [NORWAY]
You take the reins on this 12-day dogsledding sojourn across the frozen island of Spitsbergen, Norway, 600 miles from the North Pole. When the huskies are resting, keep busy by snowshoeing amid gargantuan icebergs, cross-country skiing over glaciers, and spelunking blue-green ice caves. Defrost at night in a lodge made of sealskin and driftwood, expedition-style tents (you’ll be snug beneath reindeer-fur blankets), and a Russian ship intentionally frozen into the pack ice. Your only neighbors will be the island’s 4,000 polar bears (in case of emergency, your guide’s got the gun). OUTFITTER: Outer Edge Expeditions, 800-322-5235, . WHEN TO GO: March-April. PRICE: $3,990. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

POST ECO-CHALLENGE MULTISPORT [FIJI]
The professional adventure racers have gone home, so now you can spill your own sweat on the 2002 Eco-Challenge course. This new ten-day trip gives you access to some truly wild, made-for-TV terrain: mazy jungle trails, precipitous singletrack, and idyllic beaches. After sea-kayaking two days to the island of Malake, where spearfishermen bring up walu for dinner on a single breath of air, you’ll mountain-bike 25 miles over rugged terrain from the village of Ba to Navilawa. Next up is a two-day trek through lowland rainforests to the summit of 3,585-foot Mount Batilamu, followed by Class II-III rafting on the Navua River, from the coral coast to the interior village of Wainindiro. After all this, you’ve earned two days of beachfront R&R on the little-visited island of Kadavu. OUTFITTER: Outdoor Travel șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍűs, 877-682-5433, . WHEN TO GO: May-October. PRICE: $1,999. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

Take It to the Top

No whining allowed

The frozen zone: Argentina’s Perito Moreno Glacier

CONTINENTAL ICE CAP TRAVERSE [ARGENTINA]
Patagonia’s 8,400-square-mile slab of ice wasn’t even explored until the 1960s, when British explorer Eric Shipton crossed it first. Starting in El Calafate, on the shore of Lago Argentino, this arduous 16-day backpacking/ski-mountaineering trip cuts through Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, where you’ll cross rivers and crevasses, ascend 4,830 feet to Marconi Pass, do time on ropes, crampons, and skis, and set up glacial camps along the spine of the Fitz Roy Range. The payoff? A wilderness fix on the gnarliest mass of ice and granite this side of the South Pole. OUTFITTER: Southwind șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍűs, 800-377-9463, . WHEN TO GO: November-March. PRICE: $3,395. DIFFICULTY: strenuous. SURFING EPIC WAVES [THE MALDIVES]
Board where few have surfed before: off the Indian Ocean’s remote Huvadhoo Atoll, site of several world-class breaks. Huvadhoo is a two-day voyage on a dhoni, a 60-foot, five-cabin, live-aboard wooden yacht, from the capital, Male; along the way, cast off the deck for tuna, marlin, and bonito. Once at the Huvadhoo, be ready for eight-foot-plus waves, especially near the atoll’s largest island, Fiyori, where there’s a fast (and dangerous) right break. OUTFITTER: Voyages Maldives, 011-960-32-3617, . WHEN TO GO: April-September. PRICE: $85 per day (typically a 7-, 10-, or 14-day tour). DIFFICULTY: strenuous.

RAFTING THE BRAHMAPUTRA RIVER [INDIA]
With 112 miles of Class III-V+ Himalayan runoff, the Brahmaputra, the lower portion of the legendary Tsangpo in Tibet, is one of the planet’s ultimate whitewater challenges. And a relatively new one at that—the first commercial rafting expedition was launched late last year. You’ll spend nine days blasting down emerald-green hydraulics (the Class V Breakfast Rapid is famous for flipping rafts), camping on sandy beaches, and passing through Namdapha National Park, home to one of Asia’s most varied tropical forests. OUTFITTER: Mercury Himalayan Explorations, 011-91-112-334-0033, . WHEN TO GO: November-February. PRICE: $3,300, including internal airfare. DIFFICULTY: strenuous.

Get Wheel

Blazing new trails by mountain bike

Sandstone heaven: on the rocks in Cappadocia

RIDING THE RUGGED NORTHEAST [PORTUGAL]
A good set of knobbies and generous helpings of local beef and nightly port will help you tackle this eight-day inn-to-inn tour through Portugal’s wild northeast corner. Dodge cows on Roman pathways, follow craggy singletrack alongside the Douro River, and spin along trails once used by smugglers trafficking coffee beans to Spain. The grand finale is the wide-open wilderness of the remote Serra da Malcata—land of pine-topped peaks, wild boar, and little else. OUTFITTER: Saddle Skedaddle Tours, 011-44191-2651110, . WHEN TO GO: May-July. PRICE: $1,120. DIFFICULTY: strenuous. MOUNTAIN-BIKING CAPPADOCIA [TURKEY]
In our opinion, any trip that starts off with two nights in a traditional cave hotel has promise. See for yourself on this six-day, 180-mile ride through Cappadocia in central Turkey. Thank three-million-year-old volcanic eruptions for the otherworldly terrain: impossibly narrow sandstone spires (called fairy chimneys) and towns that plunge 20 floors underground. Happily, the riding is as varied as the views. You’ll pedal along dry riverbeds, slickrock, and narrow jeep tracks en route to each day’s destination—luxe campsites or charming village inns. OUTFITTER: KE șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Travel, 800-497-9675, . WHEN TO GO: May. PRICE: $1,695. Difficulty: strenuous.

SECRET SINGLETRACK [BOLIVIA]
It was only a matter of time before Bolivia’s ancient network of farm trails, winding from village to village high in the Andes, found a modern purpose: mountain biking. On this new 14-day singletrack tour through the Cordillera Real near La Paz, intermediate riders can rocket down 17,000-foot passes, contour around extinct volcanoes, and rack up an epic grand-total descent of 54,000 feet. Nights are spent camping at Lake Titicaca and in local pensions like the Hotel Gloria Urmiri, where natural hot springs await. OUTFITTER: Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking, 011-591-2-2313-849, . WHEN TO GO: May-September. PRICE: $1,750. DIFFICULTY: strenuous.

COPPER CANYON EXPEDITION [MEXICO]
There’s lots to love about the 6,000-foot descent into Mexico’s Copper Canyon by bike—and gravity is only part of it. Get down in one piece and you’ll have a week’s worth of technical riding ahead of you in a canyon four times the size of Arizona’s Grand. Cool your toes on fast, fun river crossings near the village of Cerro Colorado, visit the indigenous Tarahumara, and bunk down in a restored hacienda built into the canyon walls. OUTFITTER: Worldtrek Expeditions, 800-795-1142, . WHEN TO GO: September-April. PRICE: $1,599. DIFFICULTY: strenuous.

The Deep End

Water is the best element

SAILING ON THE ECLIPSE [PALAU]
Captain John McCready’s 48-foot Eclipse—outfitted with a compressor, dive tanks, sea kayaks, and rigs for trolling—is your one-stop adventure vessel for exploring this South Pacific archipelago. After picking up the sloop near the capital, Koror, give yourself at least six days to explore Palau’s protected lagoon in the Philippine Sea, dive along miles of coral walls, and kayak and hike some of the more than 200 limestone Rock Islands. By the time you reboard each evening, chef Charlie Wang will have your pan-seared wahoo waiting. OUTFITTER: Palau Sea Ventures, 011-680-488-1062, . WHEN TO GO: November-June. PRICE: $4,200 for the entire boat (which sleeps four passengers) for six days, including captain, dive master, and cook. DIFFICULTY: easy.

SEA-KAYAKING THE MASOALA PENINSULA [MADAGASCAR]
Once a refuge for pirates, Madagascar’s rugged northeast coast has been reborn as Parque Masoala, the country’s newest and largest national park. For nine days, you’ll explore the calm coastal waters by sea kayak, watching for humpback whales, snorkeling the coral reefs, spearfishing for barracuda, combing the shorelines of deserted islands, and sleeping in one of two rustic tented camps. Onshore, scout for lemurs in the rainforest with Malagasy guides. OUTFITTER: Kayak Africa, 011-27-21-783-1955, . WHEN TO GO: September-December. PRICE: $1,080. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

SNORKELING AND SEA-KAYAKING NINGALOO REEF [AUSTRALIA]
A virtually untouched alternative to the Great Barrier Reef, Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef is a 162-mile close-to-shore coral barrier protecting the white-sand beaches and high-plateau shrublands of Cape Range National Park from the Indian Ocean. Mellow two- to four-hour paddling days on this five-day romp up the coast are punctuated by snorkeling in 70- to 80-degree turquoise waters (never deeper than 13 feet), swimming with whale sharks just outside the reef, and hanging at the plush moving camp. OUTFITTER: Capricorn Kayak Tours, 011-618-9-433-3802, . WHEN TO GO: April-mid-October. PRICE: $450. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

KITESURFING SAFARI [BAHAMAS]
Steady winds, warm waters, and world-class instructors—essential ingredients for a perfect kitesurfing vacation—exist in plenitude among the numerous tiny islands off Abaco in the Bahamas. During this weeklong clinic, you’ll master board-off tricks and 360 jump turns, learn to sail upwind more proficiently, and critique videos of your kite moves over coconut-rum drinks at the seven-cottage Dolphin Beach Resort on Great Guana Cay. OUTFITTER: Kite Surf the Earth, 888-819-5483, . WHEN TO GO: mid-January-May. PRICE: $990, including airfare from Fort Lauderdale and all gear. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

Future Classics

Our next thrilling episodes

Everest’s seldom-scene cousin: Tibet’s Kawa Karpo

CLIMBING MUZTAGH ATA, “FATHER OF ICE MOUNTAINS” [CHINA]
Already been to Everest Base Camp? Next time, head to Muztagh Ata, a raggedy 24,754-foot summit in the Karakoram Range in China’s Xinjiang province. The five-day trek (instead of yaks, you’ve got camels!) starts at 12,369 feet, climbing through grasslands and river valleys to Camp One at 17,388 feet—where not one but ten glaciers converge in a vast expanse of ice and snow. Outfitter: Wild China, 011-86-10-6403-9737, . When to go: September- October. Price: $2,710. Difficulty: strenuous. PILGRIMAGE TO KAWA KARPO [TIBET]
Mount Kailash gets all the press—and all the Western trekkers. But this May, another sacred Buddhist route, the annual pilgrimage to Kawa Karpo, a 22,245-foot fang of snow and ice, will open to Western visitors. The 18-day camping trek climbs out of semitropical rainforest and Tibetan villages before circling the peak’s base. Snow leopards live here, too, but if you don’t catch a glimpse, at least you’ll leave with a lifetime’s supply of good karma. OUTFITTER: High Asia Exploratory Mountain Travel Company, 203-248-3003, . WHEN TO GO: May, July, October. PRICE: $3,800-$5,000. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

TREK THE VILCABAMBA [PERU]
Now that they’ve limited tourist permits on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, we’re left wondering, What else is there? How about a 17-day camping trek to Peru’s lost city of Victoria, a 600-year-old ruins discovered in 1999 and encircled by 19,000-foot peaks of the Cordillera Vilcabamba. You’ll log some 40 miles over ancient Incan walkways along the Tincochaca River, and then climb 15,000-foot Choquetecarpo Pass. Once at Victoria, you’ll have the excavated homes and ceremonial sites all to yourself. OUTFITTER: Wilderness Travel, 800-368-2794, . WHEN TO GO: May-June. PRICE: $3,895. DIFFICULTY: strenuous.

All-American

Remote trips right here at home

THE ALASKAN CLIMBER [ALASKA]
Many peaks in the Chugach Mountains of southeast Alaska remain unnamed and unclimbed. Your objectives are the 12,000-foot summits of Mount Valhalla and Mount Witherspoon, but even with a ski-plane flight into the range, you’ll still spend 20 days hauling, trekking, and climbing on this self-supported trip. Outfitter: KE șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Travel, 800-497-9675, . When to Go: April. Price: $2,895, including flights within Alaska. Difficulty: strenuous. DOGSLEDDING AND WINTER CAMPING [NORTHERN MINNESOTA]
Forget your leisurely visions of being whisked from campsite to campsite: Dogsledding is serious work. During four days in the wilderness bordering the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, you’ll learn how to handle your team of malamutes and brush up on winter camping techniques. Outfitter: The Northwest Passage, 800-732-7328, . When to Go: January-February. Price: $895. Difficulty: moderate.

RAFTING THE OWYHEE RIVER [NEVADA, IDAHO, AND OREGON]
This 17-day, 220-mile trip on the rarely rafted, Class II-IV Owyhee takes you down one of the longest and most remote stretches of runnable river in the Lower 48, through rugged canyon country. Need something shorter? Several sections can be run in four to seven days. Outfitter: River Odysseys West, 800-451-6034, . When to Go: May. Price: $3,735. Difficulty: moderate.

HALEAKALA CRATER SEA-TO-SUMMIT HIKING EXPEDITION [MAUI]
Go from sea level to 9,886 feet on this three-day trek from Maui’s sandy shores, through Hawaiian rainforests, to the moonlike floor of Haleakala Crater. You’ll climb 11 miles and 6,380 feet on the first day alone—good thing horses are hauling your gear. Outfitter: Summit Maui, 866-885-6064, . When to Go: year-round. Price: $1,190-$1,390. Difficulty: moderate.

GRAND GULCH TRAVERSE [UTAH]
What’s better than backpacking the 52-mile length of the Grand Gulch Primitive Area in southeastern Utah? Llama-trekking for much of the same seven-day route, past ancient Anasazi ruins and more recent historic landmarks—including Polly’s Island, where Butch Cassidy, some say, crossed the Gulch. Outfitter: Mountain Travel Sobek, 888-687-6235, . When to Go: April. Price: $2,590. Difficulty: moderate.

Elevator, Going Up

Three helicopter epics

MOUNTAIN-BIKING THE CELESTIAL MOUNTAINS [KAZAKHSTAN]
Just as your quads begin rebelling during this two-week, 300-mile traverse of the Tien Shan—the fabled 21,000-foot mountain range that separates Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan from China—a midtrip bonanza brings relief: A Communist-era cargo helicopter will whisk you to the top of the 12,000-foot “hills” for two days of screaming singletrack and goat-trail descents. Outfitter: KE șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Travel, 800-497-9675, . When to Go: July-August. Price: $2,395. Difficulty: strenuous.

RAFTING IN THE HOOKER RANGE [NEW ZEALAND]
Rarely boated, the upper reaches of southwestern New Zealand’s Landsborough River and the nearby Waiatoto are so remote that the only way to the put-ins is by helicopter. You’ll spend seven days roaring down Class III and IV rapids on both rivers, fishing for brown trout, searching for keas (the world’s only alpine parrot), and camping under the gazes of 10,000-foot peaks Mount Deacon and Mount Aspiring. Outfitter: Mountain Travel Sobek, 888-687-6235, . When to Go: March, December. Price: $3,190. Difficulty: moderate.

SHOOTING THE COLUMBIA MOUNTAINS [BRITISH COLUMBIA]
Spend four days coptering from Adamant Lodge in the Selkirks to remote 10,000-foot hiking trails in the Columbia Mountains for a photography workshop with widely published outdoor lensmen Chris Pinchbeck and Paul Lazarski. After pointers on lens selection and composition, shoot sunrise-lit alpine meadows till your film runs out. Outfitter: Canadian Mountain Holidays, 800-661-0252, . When to Go: July. Price: $2,360. Difficulty: easy.

Most Likely to Succeed

Six new additions to the adventure travel map

SURFING THE WILD EAST [EL SALVADOR]
Though the civil war ended 11 years ago, it’s been difficult to access El Salvador’s remote eastern point breaks on your own. Now you can hook up for eight days with Punta Mango’s local guides to surf Los Flores, La Ventana, and other perfecto Pacific peelers. OUTFITTER: Punta Mango Surf Trips, 011-503-270-8915, . WHEN TO GO: year-round. PRICE: $394-$818. DIFFICULTY: moderate. EXPLORING ISLANDS AND VOLCANOES [NICARAGUA]
Once a war-torn dictatorship, Nicaragua is now drawing scads of expatriates to its safer shores. Hike and mountain-bike around belching 5,000-foot volcanoes on the Pacific side, and kayak, fish, and loll in natural hot springs on islands in Lake Nicaragua. OUTFITTER: Nicaragua șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍűs, 011-505-883-7161, . WHEN TO GO: November-September. PRICE: weeklong trips start at $600. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

RAFTING THE SOCA RIVER [SLOVENIA]
Spilling from the Julian Alps, the roiling Soca has long been a backyard destination for Europe’s whitewater intelligentsia. With improved infrastructure and an exchange rate favorable to Americans, now’s the time to hit this Class II-IV river. OUTFITTER: Exodus Travel, 800-692-5495, . WHEN TO GO: June-September. PRICE: eight-day trips, $715. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

BIKING AND BOATING THE DALMATIAN COAST [CROATIA]
Sail from island to island in the Adriatic Sea, stopping to cycle the nature reserves and medieval villages, safe again after a decade of political strife. OUTFITTER: Eurocycle, 011-43-1-405-3873-0, . WHEN TO GO: April-October. PRICE: eight-day cruise, $690-$740. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

MOUNTAIN-BIKING IN THE JUNGLE [SRI LANKA]
While the northeast is still volatile, don’t discount a southerly traverse of the island by mountain bike, through lush jungles and over cool mountain passes. OUTFITTER: șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍűs Lanka Sports, 011-94-179-1584, . WHEN TO GO: year-round. PRICE: 15-day trip, $985. DIFFICULTY: moderate.

TRACKING GORILLAS [GABON]
Onetime host to warring guerrillas but permanent home to the peaceful lowland gorillas, Lopé-Okanda Wildlife Reserve is the jewel of Gabon, nearly 80 percent of which is unspoiled forest woodlands. OUTFITTER: Mountain Travel Sobek, 800-282-8747, . WHEN TO GO: February-March, August. PRICE: $6,490 (19 nights). DIFFICULTY: easy.

Cautionary Trails

What’s up in the danger zone

When it comes to foreign travel, how risky is too risky? It’s hard to know. But the best place to start researching is the U.S. State Department (). At press time,* these 25 countries were tagged with a Travel Warning advising against nonessential travel. Here’s the lowdown on what you’re missing—and just how dicey things really are.

RISK LEVEL:
1    GENERALLY SAFE
2    SIGNIFICANTLY RISKY
3    EXTREMELY RISKY

AFGHANISTAN
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
Despite the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom, now in its 18th month, Taliban holdouts still lurk in a country once known for great hospitality (and hashish).
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Trekking in the Hindu Kush’s remote, red-cliffed Bamiyan Valley, where the Taliban destroyed two monumental fifth-century Buddhas carved into mountain rock
RISK: 3

ALGERIA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
Terrorism in this oil-rich country has dropped off slightly in recent years, but there is still risk of sporadic attacks in rural areas and on roadways, especially at night.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Hiking in the El Kautara Gorges and the jagged Ahaggar Mountains, near the town of Tamanrasset
RISK: 2

ANGOLA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
An April 2002 cease-fire put a stop to the 25-year civil war, though millions of undetonated mines are still believed to litter the countryside.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Checking out Operation Noah’s Ark, an effort to relocate elephants and giraffes from Namibia and Botswana to the savannas of Quicama National Park in the northwest
RISK: 2

BOSNIA-HEREGOVINA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
The 1995 Dayton Accords ended the war between Muslim Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats, but UN troops remain to control localized outbursts of political violence, which are sometimes directed toward the international community.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Some of the best—and cheapest—alpine skiing in all of Europe at the Dinari Range’s 6,313-foot Mount Jahorina, site of the 1984 Winter Games
RISK: 1

BURUNDI
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
Decades of ethnic strife between Hutus and Tutsis have killed hundreds of thousands. The resulting poverty and crime can make tourist travel dangerous in this small, mountainous nation.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Scuba diving in Lake Tanganyika, at 4,710 feet the world’s second-deepest lake (after Russia’s Baikal) and home to some 600 species of vertebrates and invertebrates
RISK: 2

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
After independence from France in 1960 and three decades under a military government, C.A.R. was turned over to civilian rule in 1993. Still, it remains beset with instability and unrest.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Bushwhacking and hiking with Pygmy guides through the rainforests of Dzanga-Ndoki, arguably the most pristine national park in Africa
RISK: 2

COLOMBIA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
Dubbed “Locombia” (the mad country) by the South American press, Colombia is rife with cocaine cartels, guerrilla warfare, and more kidnappings than any other nation in the world.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Encounters with the pre-Columbian Kogi people while trekking through dense jungle and the isolated 19,000-foot Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains
RISK: 3

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
Though rich in diamonds, gold, and timber, this equatorial country is still in tatters—famine, millions of displaced refugees (since Mobutu’s despotic 32-year rule ended in 1997).
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Mountaineering in the Ruwenzori Mountains on 16,763-foot Mount Stanley, Africa’s third-highest peak
RISK: 3

INDONESIA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
Anti-Western terrorist attacks in Bali and separatist violence in West Timor, the province of Aceh, central and west Kalimantan, and Sulawesi have destabilized the world’s largest archipelago.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Surfing Sumatra’s legendary breaks off the island of Nias and jungle trekking in Gunung Leuser National Park
RISK: 2

IRAN
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
Despite inclusion in Bush’s “axis of evil” and the U.S.’s suspension of diplomatic relations, Iran is generally safe—though travel to the Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq borders is best avoided.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Skiing in the 12,000-foot-plus Elburz Mountains, where the resort in Dizin receives more than 23 feet of snow annually and lift tickets cost $4 a day
RISK: 1

IRAQ
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
Even if you wanted to go to Iraq, no U.S. commercial flights enter the country that’s ruled by the world’s most infamous dictator.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Canoeing the Marshes, the historic ecosystem at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers—birthplace over 10,000 years ago of the Mesopotamian civilization
RISK: 3

ISRAEL
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
Israel has been a hotly contested geopolitical and religious crucible since 1948, but the two-and-a-half-year Palestinian intifada has produced more suicide bombings than any other period.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Scuba diving to the underwater ruins of Herod’s City at Caesarea, along the palm-fringed Mediterranean coast
RISK: 2

IVORY COAST
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE
Once the most stable West African country, this coffee-producing nation suffers from falling cocoa prices and clashes between Christians and Muslims.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING
Trekking through the virgin rainforests of TaĂŻ National Park, home to the threatened pygmy hippopotamus
RISK: 2

Be aware that the State Department also posts advisories about unstable regions in many other countries, like Kyrgyzstan and Nepal. Carefully check the Web site’s postings and consult with well-informed tour operators before finalizing any travel plans.
*This information is current as of January 14, 2003

Compiled by Misty Blakesley, Amy Marr, Dimity McDowell, Sam Moulton, Tim Neville, Katie Showalter, and Ted Stedman

Cautionary Trails, PT II

RISK LEVEL:
1 GENERALLY SAFE
2 SIGNIFICANTLY RISKY
3 EXTREMELY RISKY


JORDAN
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

Jordan is considered the least dangerous Middle Eastern country; still, threats of random violence (witness the October 2002 killing of an American Embassy employee) remain high.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

World-renowned sport and trad climbing on the 1,500-foot sandstone walls in Wadi Rum, and camel-trekking with the Bedouin in the country’s southern desertscape
RISK: 1



LEBANON
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

Home to the terrorist group Hezbollah, Lebanon has a history of anti-U.S. violence, and there have been recent protests, sometimes violent, in major cities.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Skiing the 8,000-foot-plus peaks and six resorts in the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, then heading to the coast to swim in the Mediterranean
RISK: 2



LIBERIA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

Though a democratic government took power in 1997, ending an eight-year civil war, this developing West African nation is plagued by clashes between government forces and dissidents.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Safaris to Sapo National Park, Liberia’s only national park and one of the last rainforest refuges for bongo antelopes and forest elephants
RISK: 2



LIBYA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

Seventeen years under U.S. sanctions, convictions in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, and rising crime make travel to Libya a tricky proposition.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Safaris to the Ubari Sand Sea, land of shifting, 300-foot dunes and salt lakes
RISK: 2



MACEDONIA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

A geopolitical hot spot, this mountainous Balkan country is still smoldering with ethnic tension, most recently between Albanian rebels and Macedonian forces.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Spelunking among the dripstone formations and stalagmites in the caves around 3,000-foot-plus Matka Canyon
RISK: 1



NIGERIA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

Though nearly 16 years of military rule ended in 1999, this oil-rich West African country suffers from rampant street crime, ongoing religious and ethnic conflicts, and kidnappings.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Trekking through rolling grasslands and exploring the volcanic 3,500-foot Mandara Mountains along the border with Cameroon
RISK: 2



PAKISTAN
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

In 2002, members of the Taliban, who had crossed the vertiginous Hindu Kush from Afghanistan, are believed to have instigated a rash of anti-Western terrorism in Islamabad and Karachi.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Completing the classic three-week trek to the base camp of pyramidal K2 in northern Pakistan, leaving from Askole and crossing the Baltoro Glacier
RISK: 2



TAJIKISTAN
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

A mountainous and unstable “stan” in the heart of Central Asia, Tajikistan is thought to be home to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) terrorist group.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Climbing untouched glaciers and rock faces in the Pamir Mountains, where first ascents of 17,000-foot-plus summits abound
RISK: 2



SOMALIA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

Ever since dictator Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, anarchy has ruled this drought-prone East African nation. Warring factions are still fighting for control of the the capital, Mogadishu.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Deep-sea tuna fishing in the waters off Somalia’s 1,876-mile coastline, the longest in Africa
RISK: 3



SUDAN
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

Nearly 40 years of civil war, coupled with famine, have made Sudan extremely unstable, especially in the oil-producing Upper Nile region. Americans have been assaulted and taken hostage.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Scuba diving in the Red Sea to famous shipwrecks and coral atolls, first explored by Jacques Cousteau in the sixties
RISK: 3



VENEZUELA
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

Opposition to President Hugo ChĂĄvez and a nationwide strike have destabilized this tropical country, causing acute oil shortages and triggering violent protests in Caracas.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Trekking through humid jungles and the vast savannas of the Guiana Highlands to 3,212-foot Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world
RISK: 2



YEMEN
WHAT’S THE TROUBLE

This country on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula has been plagued by anti-American sentiment since long before the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.
WHAT YOU’RE MISSING

Exploring the coral beaches of Socotra, the largest Arabian island, which abounds with flora, including frankincense, myrrh, and the dragon’s blood tree
RISK: 3



Be aware that the State Department also posts advisories about unstable regions in many other countries, like Kyrgyzstan and Nepal. Carefully check the Web site’s postings and consult with well-informed tour operators before finalizing any travel plans.

*This information is current as of January 14, 2003



Compiled by Misty Blakesley, Amy Marr, Dimity McDowell, Sam Moulton, Tim Neville, Katie Showalter, and Ted Stedman

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