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LGBTQ exhibitions in NYC museums

It’s been nearly a year since the pandemic transformed queer life in New York City. Crowded clubs and live performances are now quarantine-bubble gatherings and virtual events. Gay-bar mainstays like 9th Avenue Saloon and Therapy shut their doors for good while other institutions that have been lauded for creating safe LGBTQ spaces remain on life support. At a glance, the city’s queer landscape seems to be vanishing — unless you know where to look.

At the Whitney Museum of American Art, you can lose yourself in the warm glow of a gay bar. The Fotografiska Museum saves you a sunny spot at Jacob Riis Beach. A visit to the exhibit at The Watermark in Brooklyn Heights feels like having — and spilling — tea with your LGBTQ elders. These art shows, along with a robust roster of other queer-centric exhibitions in NYC this year, are the new go-to spaces for LGBTQ New Yorkers desperate for a socially distant kiki in the time of COVID.

Circuit parties are still out, but New York’s museums are in, so if you’re craving queer community, buy yourself a timed-entry ticket to one of the following exhibits and support the institutions celebrating LGBTQ lives in 2021.

1. “This Longing Vessel” — Elliot Reed, E. Jane, Naudline Pierre, Elliot Reed and “I Wanna Be Well” — Gregg Bordowitz, MoMA PS1

Artists Elliot Reed, E. Jane, and Naudline Pierre use performance, painting, and new media to explore the intersection of Blackness and queerness in “This Longing Vessel,” playing until March 14 at MoMA PS1 in Queens. In Reed’s “Duets,” audience members can watch the artist as he improvises with a special guest. Live footage is streamed on the museum’s Instagram page; the final duet airs on March 6. Naudline Pierre’s medieval-style paintings are self-portraits mixed with fiery spiritual visions. E. Jane uses video installations to celebrate the concept of the Black diva.

Gregg Bordowitz’s “I Wanna Be Well” will take over on May 13. The exhibit explores Bordwitz’s identity as a gay Jewish activist and artist during the ongoing AIDS crisis.

2. “How Will I Know” — Salmon Toor, The Whitney Museum of American Art

Photo: Whitney Museum of American Art

The cartoonishly cute and lanky queer boys who star in Salmon Toor’s paintings meant to make their Whitney debut this past March, but due to the pandemic, audiences didn’t meet them until November. In that time, Toor’s show, entitled “How Will I Know,” took on new meaning. In “Bar Boy,” a man stares into the absinthe-green glow of his phone, oblivious to the queer couples around him. “Stoop” shows two mask-free men snuggled at the entrance to an apartment building. “Four Friends” celebrates a queer crowd dancing and drinking with abandon inside a tiny apartment. These scenes might’ve seemed banal before last March; now, they’re like sweet pre-pandemic nostalgia.

What makes Toor’s show even more evocative than its treatment of queer intimacy is its understanding of isolation. In one painting, the tension between family members at a dinner table is thick enough to slice; in another, a nude man falls asleep while staring at a laptop, alone.

Toor, a Pakistan-born resident of the East Village, centers Brown men in his paintings — a group often invisible in mainstream queer culture. Here, they’re not only the center of attention but the objects of our affection. There’s a sense in “Bar Boy” that if you stare long enough, the main character in Toor’s painting might look up from his phone, notice you, and smile.

“How Will I Know” runs until April 4. Julie Mehretu, a lesbian artist known for her large-scale abstract paintings, will be featured in an exhibit from March 25 to August 8.

3. “Show & Tell” — Laura Aguilar, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art is considered the world’s first queer art museum. It all began in 1969 when partners Charles Leslie and Fritz Lohman held their first “Exhibition of Homoerotic Art” in a Soho loft. Two decades later, the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation was created, and in 2016, the collection officially became a museum. Located on a graffiti-drenched corner of Wooster Street, the museum hosts a series of provocative exhibits throughout the year and is always worth visiting.

“Show and Tell,” on display until May 9, celebrates over three decades of photography taken by the late Laura Aguilar. In her most powerful pictures, Aguilar dissects her identity as a large-bodied Chicana lesbian by becoming the subject of her work. “Dissolution,” on display until May 25, features contemporary pieces created by emerging queer artists from the Leslie-Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship.

4. “Not Another Second” — Karsten Thormaehlen, The Watermark in Brooklyn Heights

Photo: Not Another Second

Twelve LGBTQ seniors. Nearly 500 collective years lost while hiding their lives due to discrimination. This is the subject of German photographer Karsten Thormaehlen’s “Not Another Second,” a photography and film exhibit currently on display at The Watermark in Brooklyn Heights (the building also happens to be a senior living center). Through a series of interviews shared with AR technology, visitors get to experience the emotional journeys of individuals who lived through monumental moments like the Stonewall Uprising and the AIDS crisis and helped usher in freedoms enjoyed by a new generation.

According to the exhibit, roughly 60 percent of LGBTQ seniors report feeling a lack of companionship, and more than half report feeling isolated from others. These intimate tales serve not only as a celebration of LGBTQ resilience but as a reminder to consider the struggles our elders continue to face, particularly in light of the past year.

“Not Another Second” is free to the public, with in-person showings every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday through May. You can schedule a time ticket reservation on the Watermark’s reservation page.

5. The work of Patrick Angus, Bortolami Gallery

Patrick Angus (1953-1992) came of age as a gay man and an artist during the last major health crisis to strangle New York City — the AIDS epidemic. His paintings, including interiors of an all-male burlesque theater in Times Square (the Gaiety), drip with the erotic desire of a community in chaos. In “Hanky Panky,” a group of men sit safely spaced while watching an adult film, careful not to touch one another. Angus serves as an observer, never a participant — sketching his subjects from a distance. As a result, there’s a sense of loneliness in his paintings — one that’s all-too-familiar as the current pandemic continues to upend LGBTQ life as we once knew it. The exhibition will be on display at the Bortolami Gallery in Tribeca through February 27.

6. “Brief and Drenching” — Naima Green, The Fotografiska Museum

Photo: Fotografiska

The Fotografiska Museum is located in a former church on Park Avenue South, but Naima Green’s exhibit makes it feel like you’re in a queer Brooklyn enclave. “Brief and Drenching,” her three-part exhibit, begins by introducing audiences to a community of people who identify as queer, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming through a series of studio portraits. Next, we go on a voyeuristic spin around the artist’s apartment. Finally, we meet a group of friends sunning at the LGBTQ-centric Jacob Riis Beach. Green focuses her camera lens on Black and Brown lives, handling each subject with the gentle care of a best friend. It’s the closest New Yorkers will likely get to a gayborhood block party until winter passes.

“Brief and Drenching” runs until April 18. Visit the museum’s website to purchase tickets.

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Cairo’s new observation wheel

Seeing the pyramids has always required travelers to venture into the desert, but that’s about to change. Now you’ll be able to see the pyramids without ever leaving Cairo. The Cairo Eye, a new observation wheel that will be the largest in Africa — and fifth largest in the world — will bring sightseers 400 feet in the air above the Zamalek district on Gezira Island. From the top, you’ll be able to see as far as 31 miles, which includes views of the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Sphinx.

According to Egypt Today, Cairo governor Khaled Abdel Aal said in a press conference, “Cairo Eye will play a strategic role in sustainable tourism development, in line with Egypt’s vision 2030. The project complements the efforts underway to reshape and upgrade the capital, including Ahl Misr Walkway project, which is currently being constructed on the Nile Corniche in Cairo, as well as other development projects.”

The $311 million project will include 48 cabins that can each hold up to eight sightseers, an on-site restaurant, boat dock, cafes, and events hall. The observation wheel is designed to bring more tourism to Cairo, which often loses visitors to the neighboring city of Giza.

The Cairo Eye is still a long way from realization, though. The idea was originally announced last month, with the goal of opening in 2022. Several issues must be addressed before construction begins, like Cairo’s notoriously gridlocked traffic and settling on a location.

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Club Wyndham gives vacation discount

As we spent the majority of 2020 eagerly following the latest news and doom-scrolling through Facebook and Twitter, the use of electronic devices has skyrocketed. At the beginning of the pandemic, on March 25, 2020, Forbes reported that all internet hits increased between 50 and 70 percent. From viral TikTok dance challenges to Instagram bread-baking videos, many have become absolutely hooked on their screens as sources of much-needed escape, connection, and entertainment.

In an effort to encourage people to put down their devices and reconnect with nature and each other, Club Wyndham, one of the largest vacation ownership clubs in America, is piloting an Unplugging Pledge just in time for the upcoming National Day of Unplugging.

The National Day of Unplugging takes place on March 5-6. Participants are encouraged to go on a hike, enjoy good food, engage in arts and crafts, play board games, or spend quality time with their loved ones instead of being glued to their phones. Club Wyndham is taking the initiative a step further by offering prizes to those who participate in their 2021 pledge.

Starting today through March 5, travelers who track their daily screen time and prove that they’ve decreased it by 25 percent will receive a 25 percent discount towards select properties for future travel.

Club Wyndham offers deals on over 230 vacation properties across the United States. The discount applies to four specific resorts that are participating. Those include:

Club Wyndham Resort at Fairfield GladeClub Wyndham Smoky MountainsClub Wyndham Ocean RidgeClub Wyndham Branson at The Meadows

Travelers are invited to go on a scenic hike through the Smoky Mountains, go on a kayaking trip through the pristine lagoons of Edisto Beach at Club Wyndham Ocean Ridge, and go horseback riding through the Ozark region at Club Wyndham Branson at The Meadows. The challenge comes just in time for spring break and can be an option both for families and solo travelers.

So, if you think you can manage without your favorite cat videos for a little while, the vacation of your dreams at a value price might just be in store for you.

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The best thru-hikes in every season

For many of us, the urge to get out and explore has never been greater. What better way to do so than on a long-distance trek? Trekking offers the perk of great exercise, unrivaled views, and a chance to fully disconnect from your day-to-day and simply live in the moment while working your way down a trail. Matador sourced the best global thru-hikes for every season from the experts at thruhikes.net. Seasons are noted in relation to the Northern Hemisphere.

The best thru-hikes in springTe Araroa, New Zealand

Photo: 4 season backpacking/Shutterstock

Best time to go: October-April
Distance: 1,864 miles
Time needed: 100-200 days

As the snow melts up north, summer turns to fall in the Southern Hemisphere, making it the perfect time for a long-distance trek down south. Te Araroa means “The Long Path” in New Zealand’s native Maori language, and this is indeed the country’s longest hiking route. It’s also the most epic, stretching 1,864 miles from the northern tip of the North Island at Cape Reinga to Bluff on the southern point of the South Island. The varied landscapes of the trek — you’ll pass over forested peaks, hike up and around volcanoes, kiss the coast, and pass through verdant valleys — are unparalleled in New Zealand, rivaling the Pacific Crest Trail in landscape diversity and the Himalayas in “wow” factor.

The trek takes four months of consistent walking, with stops to resupply but not much in the way of formal accommodation en route. Wild camping is the general mode of sleep, so it’s essential to bring gear that you trust to be easy to set up anywhere and versatile enough for varying temperatures and weather patterns. (Expect to actually use that sleeping bag liner.) Head out in April — autumn in the Southern Hemisphere — to tackle part or all of the Te Araroa trail.

Peraküla-Aegviidu-Ähijärve, Estonia

Photo: UrmasHaljaste/Shutterstock

Best time to go: May-October
Distance: 500 miles
Time needed: 27-55 days

While many long-distance treks in the Northern Hemisphere aren’t fully passable until late spring or summer due to snow, Estonia offers trekkers an early opportunity. The best late-spring thru-hike is a doozy, though: the 500+-mile Perakula trek traverses wetlands, coast, and hill country through nine Estonian counties. Working in your favor is the fact that the trek is an established trail that’s well marked and passes through civilization at multiple points.

The newest section from Peraküla to Aegviidu was added in 2015, boosting the length of the trek up to 500 miles from just under 400. Spring is dry, chilly, but mild in Estonia, so the weather shouldn’t be overwhelming. That said, you will have to wild camp — don’t expect cushy yurts or restroom-ready campsites.

The best thru-hikes in summerThe Laugavegur Trail, Iceland

Photo: David Varga/Shutterstock

Best time to go: June-October
Distance: 33 miles
Time needed: 2-4 days

With the midnight sun comes the ability to trek way up north. Iceland’s Laugavegur Trail highlights the best of Icelandic topography, including jagged mountains; milky, glacier-tinted lakes; and eerie fields of hardened black lava. You’ll even have the chance to dip in some hot springs that are blissfully free of the Blue Lagoon crowds. The journey starts near the massive Landmannalaugar peak and finishes at Thorsmork, a peak above a lush green canyon where Frodo would have felt perfectly at home.

The trail is about 33 miles long, doable in two to four days, and camping is done wild-style. When it’s time to sleep, find a location that promises a striking sunset vista over the dark-hued Icelandic high country and you’re all set. After October, the trail is much rougher, so come during mid-summer months for best conditions.

Kungsleden, Sweden

Photo: Yannick.R/Shutterstock

Best time to go: June-September
Distance: 273 miles
Time needed:15-29 days

Outdoor adventurers the world over dream of visiting Lapland in the European north. The Kungsleden trek is the perfect reason to come to Swedish Lapland in summer. You’ll visit four of Sweden’s national parks en route — Abisko, Stora Sjöfallet, Sarek, and Pieljekaise — which lie along the country’s mountainous border with Norway, offering stunning snow-capped views. The trek is 273 miles long, with ample options for breathtaking wild camping spots throughout. Allow three weeks to a month, although some complete the trek in as little as 15 days.

Beginning in Abisko and ending at Hemavan, the trail heads north to south winding around and over mountains, through pine forests and birch woodlands, and alongside dozens of lakes in this glacier-etched terrain. Stay overnight in huts operated by the Swedish Tourist Association, with one section being camp-only. Many huts actually have saunas where you can warm up and then dip in a nearby lake or stream for a proper Nordic spa experience.

The best thru-hikes in fallThe Otter Trail, South Africa

Photo: Five-Birds Photography/Shutterstock

Best time to go: Open all year, their spring for fewer crowds
Distance: 27 miles
Time needed: 1-3 days

A short but rewarding trek through Tsitsikamma National Park and South Africa’s southern coast, the Otter Trail is the country’s original ode to wilderness exploration. You can do this in one overnight or two, working across the 27 miles at your leisure while enjoying the best coastal views offered of any trek on this list. And what a view it is: looking out the unending blue expanse with nothing my ocean between you and Antarctica thousands of miles away. You start at the breathtaking mouth of the aptly named Storms River and work your way west to the stunning pale sand beach of Nature’s Valley. This is a great first-time trek, as the trail is well-marked and trafficked, and you don’t have to climb any massive mountains or spend weeks camping in the wild to make it from start to finish.

The Annapurna Circuit, Nepal

Photo: My Good Images/Shutterstock

Best time to go: September-May
Distance: 130 miles
Time needed: 1-2 weeks

Among the most inspiring things about international trekking is that spending a lot of time on a trail allows you to experience time passing as the clouds soar by the mountains. That experience is surreal on the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. Here, over the course of one to two weeks, you’ll ascend into the towering Himalaya towards the world’s highest peaks, watching clouds and weather move across them in real-time. Though guided expeditions head out on this trek from September to May, autumn is the best time to see the seasons shift around the alpine, high-altitude desert, and lush forests of the Himalaya.

The trek is 130 miles, and we recommend taking your time to enjoy the scenery and experience the high-mountain culture of Nepal. Wild camping, often less-wild when catered by a guide service, allows you to wake up to the stunning Annapurna Massif and surrounding mountains towering above you each day, as you climb higher and descend down into river valleys between the peaks.

The best thru-hikes in winterThe W Trek at Torre Del Paine, Chile

Photo: Dudarev Mikhail/Shutterstock

Best time to go: November-March
Distance: 46 miles
Time needed: 2-5 days

When snow covers the trails in the Northern Hemisphere’s alpine regions, it’s time to head south — to the southern reaches of the hemisphere. Chile’s Torre Del Paine W Trek runs 46 miles through Torre Del Paine National Park and is among the most iconic trekking journeys in Patagonia and, indeed, all of South America. Tougher days on the trail see upwards of 2,600 feet in elevation gain while easier days are under 1,000 feet, and depending on how long you allot for the trek you’ll generally cover 10-plus miles per day.

Along the route, you’ll pass the Three Towers, Grey Glacier, and the French Valley, three of the most sought-after spots in the park. The trek is one massive loop, ending where it started, which makes logistics easier as there’s no need to shuttle yourself back to the trailhead. But you will need multiple days’ worth of food and water, camping and cooking gear, and clothes suitable for rapidly changing weather conditions. Even in summer, frigid temperatures and precipitation are common in Patagonia.

Guided treks are available through companies like G Adventures, starting at Puerto Natales just outside the national park. Self-guided treks are also doable with a paid entrance fee of about $32, but just know that you are on your own if you head into trouble. Campsites are located en-route, and according to thruhikes.net, wild camping is not permitted. From Santiago, Chile, you can fly into Puerto Natales directly or via Punta Arenas and then take a bus into the park.

The MacLehose Trail, Hong Kong

Photo: mary416/Shutterstock

Best time to go: November-March
Distance: 62 miles
Time needed: 3-7 days

The MacLehose Trail, a 62-mile, three- to seven-day traverse through the hills of Hong Kong, is the toughest trek in south Asia. It’s also the most rewarding — you’ll summit many peaks with expansive views of the Pacific and pass by some of the area’s most beautiful beaches, with literally no one on them. Campsites are available on-site, and though this trail is open year-round, it’s best in winter due to the humid and hot climate of Hong Kong. Even in winter, you’ll sweat quite a bit, but your reward after completing the trek is a bowl of fishballs or stinky tofu in the city. Matador recommends adding a few days to explore Hong Kong after your trek, and be sure to check out the skyline from the Ozone bar at the Ritz-Carlton hotel — the world’s best skyline view. Multiple shorter hikes are also accessible via public transit from the city.

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What would people give up to travel

If someone offered to lift pandemic restrictions and allow you to travel freely again, what would you give up to make it happen? Unfortunately, no personal sacrifice will magically make COVID-19 disappear, but it’s still fun to imagine. A recent survey by hotel search platform Trivago posed that very question to its audience, and the answers were quite interesting.

The survey polled over 2,000 adults in the US and UK and was designed to see how consumers planned to travel in 2021. Perhaps as expected, it found that Americans are so desperate for travel that they’d be willing to give up several essential things just to be able to do it again.

One in five respondents said they would give up their significant other to be able to travel right now, 25 percent said they’d give up all their savings, and 48 percent said they’d quit their job. Most revealing, 38 percent of American respondents said they’d give up sex for a year to go on a trip right now.

The survey also found that 81 percent of Americans cited lack of travel as one of the worst parts of the pandemic.

In response to the results, Trivago said, “It’s clear that travel plays a massive role in our lives and overall happiness.”

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The closest languages to English

A Swedish friend of mine speaks English and German with near-perfect fluency. “They’re easy to learn,” she insists with what I had believed to be sweet humility.

I’d always assumed the Swedes were just good at everything. She firmly denied these superpowers. “English is a lot more like Swedish than you realize.”

English is a part of the Germanic family and is linked to many European languages by descent or influence, and 50 percent of its vocabulary stems from Latin or French.

The result is that there are a lot of languages out there sharing common traits with English, which is great news when it comes to language study. When familiar structure or vocabulary is in place, the learning process becomes faster and easier.

But what is an easy language for English speakers to learn? The Foreign Service Institute listed the nine languages that are more similar to English and therefore the easiest languages for English-speaking folks to acquire.

1. Danish

Danish isn’t hard to learn, but as with most Scandinavian languages, the biggest hurdle with studying Danish is in being able to practice. English is spoken widely and fluently across northern European countries.

Danish is said to be the trickiest Scandinavian language to learn because of its speaking patterns. It is generally spoken more quickly and more softly than other Scandinavian languages. Danish is also flatter and more monotonous than English.

Grammatically, though, it’s relatively easy. Danish has only nine verb forms, including the passive, which is peculiar to Scandinavian languages but familiar to English speakers. Danish has a lot of Germanic-based cognate vocabulary too: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Danish are Mandag, Tirsdag, and Onsdag.

2. French

Like all romance languages, French has a few difficulties for prospective speakers. There are more verb forms (17, compared to the English 12) and randomly gendered nouns (le crayon/the pen is masculine, la table/the table is feminine). Pronunciation is especially difficult in French, with vowel sounds and silent letters.

On the bright side, French’s Latin derivations make much of the vocabulary familiar to English speakers (edifice, royal, village). Linguists debate the concrete number, but it’s said that French has influenced up to a third of English vocabulary, giving it more lexical common ground with English than any other romance language.

3. Italian

Another romance language, Italian has the great feature of readability. Italian is written as it is spelled. For learners, reading comes fluidly once a few new phonemes are learned (like -ghi- or -ci-).

Grammatically, the language follows typical romantic structure, with gendered nouns and similar word order. One perk: Italian has fewer verb forms than French or Spanish.

4. Norwegian

The language is structurally similar to Danish, but with pronunciation more familiar to English speakers. Norwegian, like Swedish, uses a tonal “pitch accent” to distinguish homonyms, stressing either the first or second syllable of the word. It’s an easy concept to grasp: think “decent” and “descent” in English.

Verb forms are a relative breeze in Norwegian, with no conjugation according to person or number. The past tense is formed with a simple -e suffix; the future is formed with the auxiliary vil; the conditional perfect with ville ha. The passive tense is formed by adding a simple -s. It’s an easy language compared to English.

5. Portuguese

Grammatically, Portuguese is similar to other Romance languages. There are fewer prepositions in Portuguese than in English; (easy to remember) however, their uses don’t always have direct parallels in English, so they are easy to mix up.

One great element of the language is that interrogatives are beautifully easy, expressed by intonation alone (“You love me?”) If you can say it in Portuguese, you can ask it. What’s more, in Brazilian Portuguese, there’s one catchall question tag form: não é.

Pronunciation is fairly comfortable for English speakers (particularly regarding Brazilian Portuguese), though the more nasal vowel sounds take some practice.

6. Romanian

Romanian is often assumed to be the most difficult of the romance languages, with its Slavic influences. Not so fast.

They say that Romanian is the closest living language to Latin, and has preserved a lot of Latin’s grammatical structure. Articles are a bit of a puzzle in Romanian, with definite articles attached as a suffix to the end of nouns (frate/ fratele, brother/the brother), while indefinite articles appear before nouns (copil/un copil, child/a child).

Though the language has taken Slavic influences in its vocabulary, the language is still about 80 percent Latin-based, and full of cognates like sub (under) or obiect (object).

7. Spanish

Spanish pronunciation is fairly easy for English speakers, with only ten vowel/diphthong sounds (English has 20), and the easy-to-master letter ñ. Like Italian, the orthography is clear and simple — words are written as they’re pronounced, which makes reading easier. Grammatically, Spanish has fewer irregularities than other romance languages, too.

A slippery element of the language (and all the Romances) is in false cognates: word pairings that sound the same as an English word, but mean something different. For example, one of the meanings of eventual is “possible.”

Still, there’s no shortage of people in the world to help you fix these slip-ups as there are 450 million native speakers throughout the world.

8. Swedish

A fellow Germanic language, Swedish has some vocabulary common with English (mus for “mouse,” kung for “king”), and a similar syntax, too.

Pronunciation may be a struggle at first, with nine vowels (like ö or å) and the sje- sound, which is unique to Swedish. Once you master it, though, the language is very melodic.

Students of the language gripe about the complicated grammar system, but the syntax shouldn’t be unfamiliar to an English speaker. In Swedish, the subject-verb-object pattern is standard word order.

Also, verb formation uses many of the same patterns as English. The future tense, for example, is described with komma att + infinitive (will), or ska + infinitive (going to). And verb forms are normally constant, even if the person changes. I am, you are, he/she is translates into Jag är, du är, han/hon är.

9. Dutch

Being a Germanic language, like English and German, Dutch has a lot of similarities with those two languages and is therefore easy to learn for English speakers. But Dutch is also easier to learn than German as it does not have the cases that German does and only has two definite articles — “de” and “het” (English only has one, “the,” and German has three, “der,” “die,” and “das”).

Like English, the Dutch language is fond of compound words (workplace/werkplaats, earphones /oortelefoons), and both languages share similar vocabulary, Apple/appel, banana/banaan, and red/rood.

A version of this article was previously published on February 13, 2011, and was updated on February 23, 2021, with more information.

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Resort offers a private jet home

In an attempt to restart travel, hotels and resorts around the world are coming up with creative insurance policies to reassure guests. Baha Mar, a five-star resort in the Bahamas, has stated that it will fly guests home on a private jet if they test positive for COVID-19 during their stay. If that option is not possible, Baha Mar promises free accommodation in one of its luxury suites for 14 days with $150 worth of dining credit per person per day.

The offer is a part of the resort’s new “Travel with Confidence” initiative. “In this ever-changing travel environment, it is our goal to alleviate travelers’ concerns surrounding COVID-19, in an effort to ensure the health, safety and comfort of our guests,” Graeme Davis, the president of Baha Mar, told Travel + Leisure. “Our Travel with Confidence program is the first of its kind in the industry, providing travelers with added peace of mind and the option to safely return home, or quarantine at no added expense — the choice is theirs.”

The resort is made up of three hotels — the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, SLS Baha Mar, and Rosewood Baha Mar, all of which will require patrons to take a rapid antigen test upon arrival. Guests will also be given a personal care amenity kit that includes hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, gloves, and a face mask, which is mandatory in public areas. And in order to adhere to international safety protocols, on departure the resort will provide free COVID testing for all travelers headed back to the United States.

As of right now, the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar is the only one of the three hotels open at the resort. The other two are expected to reopen on March 4, 2021.

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The best travel podcasts

The past year has been filled with very little, if any, travel. Former travelers have, however, been inundated with plenty of ways to “travel” from home. Virtual tours, pretending you’re in a hotel while at home, buying subpar airline food and cherishing it like it’s something you actually once enjoyed — all of these things are a set up for disappointment.

At first blush, podcasts about travel seem like they would fall into this category as well. Yet there’s a good number of travel podcasts that are not disappointing. In some cases, they’re the best thing for your travel-yearning earholes. Nothing will replace the experience of getting out there, but the right travel podcast can be just the right low-commitment escape.

Data from Statista shows that 18 percent of adults have increased the amount of podcasts they listen to since lockdowns started in the United States in March 2020. Just over 55 percent listen to about the same amount of podcasts, while 10 percent listen less than before the pandemic. This is at a time when commutes — a common time to catch up on podcasts — have been eliminated for many. And it’s not just listening. A few people who work in the travel industry and travel media have even started new travel podcasts.

“Part of the reason for starting the podcast was to satiate our own wanderlust while being grounded during the pandemic,” says Tim Wenger, an outdoors editor at Matador Network who started the travel podcast No Blackout Dates with Matador’s senior staff writer Eben Diskin. (Full disclosure: I, obviously, work with both Wenger and Diskin. Their podcast is unaffiliated with Matador.)

There’s a wide net of topics that fall under the general “travel podcast” label. There are travel stories from renown travel writers and adventurers, destination-focused trip guides, hacks and how-tos, and culturally focused programs. Some are focused on the hosts while others bring on guests. Publications back many of the more highly produced podcasts, though there are many quality independent podcasts out there as well. All of the above provide either serviceable information to use as soon as travel opens back up, travel-focused entertainment, or both.

No Blackout Dates “started as a way to trick ourselves into thinking the world was still explorable, but then became a cathartic way of looking forward to the future,” Diskin says.

Both Wenger and Diskin are hopeful that people will continue to listen to travel podcasts as we’re able to venture back out in the world. Maybe there will be even more listening — something has to fill the downtime in lines and airports, after all. These are the travel podcasts to get familiar with now and to keep up with as soon as travel once again becomes a part of everyday life.

1. No Blackout Dates

No Blackout Dates has the vibe of two friends having a drink together. Episodes focus on the messier side of travel through guest interviews with people who work in the travel industry, Q&A segments, and travel tips.

“I didn’t want to hear about some guy’s enlightening experience in Southeast Asia,” Diskin says. “I didn’t want to listen to a slightly younger version of Rick Steves tell me why Italy was so beautiful. I wanted a more unfiltered, honest look at the complete travel experience, and that includes the not-so-glamorous stuff too.”

The podcast features guests like one of New York City’s top pizza chefs speaking on pizza culture, a German astronaut on the view from space, a winner of Amazing Race on travel TV, and a flight attendant who spills on what the job is really like.

Episode to start with: A Flight Attendant Breaks The Code of Silence. Diskin and Wenger interview the flight attendant behind Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase about the perks and downsides of being a flight attendant — including the most annoying habits that passengers have.

2. Thrillist Explorers

The writers and editors of Thrillist tap into their wide contributor network to bring their offbeat stories about places, celebrities, and food to the podcast space with Thrillist Explorers. The topics are wide ranging, from an exploration of why Washington, DC is an underrated city (hint: there’s lots of good music and food) to interviews with someone who raced cross-country on a lawnmower.

Episode to start with: Tony Hawk’s Best Travel Stories, Alexis Ren Is Saved by a Stranger, Monkeys Attack Angela Kinsey, and Gabriel Chavarria Has a Bad Flight. Easygoing humor mixed with actionable tips are found throughout this episode, which features interviews about travel mishaps with Tony Hawk, a talk with Angela Kinsey from The Office about traveling with the cast, the difficulty comedians coming from the US can have when doing shows in Canada, and more.

3. Sex Outside

Sex Outside is a new podcast by Laura Borichevsky that goes into, as you might have guessed from the name, sex and the outdoors. Borichevsky was the host of Ravel Media’s Women on the Road podcast from 2017 to 2020. Her new project is released every other week and covers everything nature and being au natural. If you only have a short time to kill, Sex Outside’s “nature quickie” series are under 10 minutes and feature fast, impactful stories on topics like taking nude photos outside or finding love on the Appalachian Trail.

Episode to start with: Our First Time: The Premiere of Sex Outside. Get into Sex Outside from the start before toying around and listening to the shorts that’re available.

4. Let’s Go Together

Let’s Go Together is operated by Travel + Leisure and hosted by pilot, TV host, and travel expert Kellee Edwards. The podcast highlights a more diverse side of travel than many of the podcasts currently available. The stories feature a range of travelers, including a quadriplegic who climbed Machu Picchu, travel influencers who center their religion in the travel experience, and a single mom who travels the world.

Episode to start with: Road Tripping While Black. Released at a time when road trips once again captured the American imagination, this episode features writers Martinique Lewis and Lawrence Ross as they talk about the history of violence against Black motorists and the modern experience of hitting the open road.

5. Zero to Travel

Zero to Travel has a mix of interviews and advice to blend in the practical and entertaining. It’s all about traveling better with advice from those with plenty of experience making it work.

“Travel podcasts help us to keep our dreams alive, and provide a space to continue to explore our curiosity about the world and ourselves,” creator Jason Moore says via email.

Episode to start with: Transition To Travel: Before and After With Sofia and Teague. In the Transition To Travel series, Moore speaks with people who are starting a nomadic lifestyle both before they leave and once they’ve been on the road for awhile. It’s a real-world look at whether “their expectations of long term travel or nomad life matched up with the reality of it,” Moore says.

6. Out Travel The System

Out Travel The System is put on by Expedia. Host Nisreene Atassi speaks with travelers of all walks of life about their experiences, talks to industry insiders for tips on the best travel hacks, and covers how to travel to various destinations. It’s focused on Expedia and can feel a little branded at times, but coming from one of the largest travel-booking companies, the insights are helpful for anyone looking to book on a budget.

Episode to start with: Look Into The Travel Future with Expedia’s Travel Trends Report. A deep dive into Expedia’s yearly travel report that incorporates billions of data points to figure out how to best make travel happen. It’s a data-focused view that’s extremely serviceable for anyone planning a trip.

7. Travel Tales

Travel Tales from AFAR gives listeners an inside look at last minute, globe-spanning trips and highlights the experiences of both people who travel for a living and those who do it just for fun. The episodes are short — the average time is around 15 minutes and few run longer than 20 — making them an ideal quick listen when you want an escape from the mundane.

Episode to start with: A Blind Man’s Trip Will Change the Way You Think About Safaris. This episode follows writer Ryan Knighton’s trip on an African safari as someone who is blind. A written piece about the trip was published in 2017, but the audio version brings the experience to life.

8. Wild Ideas Worth Living

Wild Ideas Worth Living is produced by REI, and it has all of the adventure you’d expect from the company. Host Shelby Stanger interviews outdoors experts, athletes, and authors in each episode. Sometimes it’s an ultramarathon runner or backcountry skier, other times the interviews are with people who are working to diversify surfing or train more women in the sport of professional cycling.

Episode to start with: Running the AT and PCT with Karel Sabb‪e‬. Start with the story of Karel Sabbe, a Belgian dentist who is one of the premiere ultramarathon trail runners.

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What is the snow moon

From Thursday night (February 25, 2021) to Sunday morning (February 28, 2021) we’ll be able to witness this month’s full moon, dubbed the “snow moon” — a celestial event that’s particularly aptly named this year after the extreme winter weather large swathes of the country has had to endure. The moon will be its brightest around 3:17 AM EST on February 27, so set your alarms accordingly.

Where does the name “snow moon” come from?

No, the moon wasn’t named by local meteorologists covering the Texas weather forecast. According to NASA, “In the 1930s the Maine Farmer’s Almanac began publishing ‘Indian’ Moon names for each month of the year. These names have become popular and widely known. According to this almanac, as the full Moon in February, the tribes of what is now the northeastern United States called this the Snow Moon or the Storm Moon because of the heavy snows that fall in this season.” This full moon is also known as the hunger moon — named as such because “Bad weather and heavy snowstorms made hunting difficult,” NASA explains.

Shortly after the snow moon we are due to witness the “worm moon” on March 28, which signifies the arrival of springs and is named after earthworms appearing in freshly thawed soil after the snow has melted.

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What are pigeon peas?

The story of the humble pigeon pea begins 3,500 years ago in India, where it was first domesticated as an agricultural crop. But this legume is an intrepid traveler, voyaging across oceans to be planted and cultivated all over Africa and the Caribbean. But how did this unassuming bean end up becoming so widespread? The answer in part lies in the long history of the slave trade, indentured servitude, and railway expansion.

Thanks to its status as a shape shifting cultural staple that plays a part in cuisines all over the world, pigeon peas are now known by many names. It got the name its most widely known by today in Barbados, where it was used as pigeon feed. In India, you might hear it called toor, tur, arhar, or red gram, whereas in Africa they’re known as Congo peas, and in Jamaica, gungo peas.

There is much speculation about how pigeon peas embarked on a journey back and forth across the Atlantic. The most likely explanation is that the slave trade facilitated the plant’s movement from region to region. European ships that transported enslaved people helped hasten the bean’s spread from the 17th to the 19th centuries. According to In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World, slave traders packed ships with traditonal foods like black eyed peas, yams, groundnuts, and, of course, pigeon peas, because of the “view that more Africans survived slave voyages if they were fed the food to which they were accustomed.”

The book’s author, Judith Camey, writes that around 40 percent of these voyagers were bound for the Caribbean, where the enslaved people disembarked and set about creating a new agricultural system. Pigeon peas were an essential source of protein, along with other crops like yams and plantains.

“African slaves built their survival in part of their African heritage,” writes Camey, “[and] African plants accompanied one of the most significant populations movements in human history.” Camey goes on to write that the crops that migrated to the Caribbean and beyond with enslaved peoples played a “critical role in African foodways, as provisions carried on slave ships to the New World.”

Later, another mass migration of peoples transported pigeon peas from one continent to another: An article in the scientific journal Plant Breeding indicates that although there is evidence that pigeon peas have been growing wild in Africa at least as long as they’ve been growing in India, additional species of legume were “introduced by [Indian] immigrants in the 19th century who moved to Africa to become railway workers and storekeepers. From eastern Africa, pigeon peas spread over the African continent.” A total of 3 million people of Indian descent migrated to Southeast Africa during this period — many as indentured laborers to expand the region’s railway system.

Today, India still grows the majority of the world’s pigeon peas — around 70 percent of the global production, according to a 2019 report — but the legume’s healthy nutrients and versatile nature make it a popular staple in many different countries.

Photo: Mabelin Santos/Shutterstock

All over the Caribbean, especially in Jamaica, the most popular way to serve pigeon peas is either stewed in tomatoes and onions, or as a simple dish of pigeon peas mixed with rice cooked in coconut milk that’s heated up with scotch bonnet peppers. In Puerto Rico, arroz con gandules is an iconic dish, often served around Christmas or other special occasions to feed the entire family. Prepared in a caldero, a cooking pot similar to a Dutch oven, arroz con gandules is seasoned with sofrito and tomato sauce and mixed with chunks of pork.

In India, pigeon peas are a common ingredient in dal (or dhal), which is a spiced split pea stew. Dal made with pigeon peas is known as toor dal. Dal is often seasoned with some combination of cumin, coriander seeds, turmeric, and ginger, and it’s sometimes compared to split pea soup. Matar chaat, an iconic street food snack sold in Delhi, is prepared by cooking pigeon peas in a spicy gravy seasoned with chili powder and cumin and then tossed with chopped onions and tomatoes.

You’ll find pigeon peas in many different African dishes, but popular ways to prepare it include bharazi: pigeon peas stewed in coconut milk and spiced with chilis and served at breakfast. Mbaazi za nazi, a specialty of Kenya, is prepared by simmering pigeon peas in coconut milk, then serving the dish with chapati or over rice. Camey writes that in Africa, the pigeon pea has remained an agricultural staple for non-dietary reasons as well: As a legume, it restores fertility to the soil by absorbing nitrogen from the bacteria in the earth, providing carbohydrates in return, and its shell can be recycled as animal feed.

Pigeon peas might seem like a simple legume, paired with straightforward curries and effortless rice dishes that can feed big families, but their complex history embodies how the mass movements of peoples across continents — often facilitated by industrialization and enslavement — is tied to the interconnected relationship between seemingly disparate cultures and cuisines. When seeds and plants accompany people on these long journeys, they transform and adapt according to new climates, ingredients, and cooking techniques. The impact of European colonization and slave trade was, and remains, devastating, but the enslaved people (and later, indentured laborers) who persevered in new lands developed entirely new food systems which allowed the pigeon pea to become a staple. It’s thanks to their ingenuity that the pigeon pea has the legacy — and culinary fame — that it enjoys today.

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