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Gre, Nepal, recovery from earthquake

My leg was asleep. I’d been crammed in the back of a Jeep rumbling through the highlands of Nepal for just over seven hours when it finally pulled over by an unmarked dirt road and rumbled to a stop. We were surrounded by jungle. Below us, a river, fed by snowmelt from a distant mountain top, sparkled and swirled. Above, the foothills of the Himalayas towered, both inviting and intimidating all at once.

Bikram, our guide, pointed to a cluster of rooftops at the top of a distant hill.

“Gre village,” he said. “One hour down. Two hours up, up.”

Over the course of a nine-day trek through Nepal, our group would discover that Bikram has a gift for explaining the elevation changes to expect throughout the day in the simplest of terms. “Up” means steep. “Up, up” means, well, crazy steep. And “Nepali flat” means you’re going to huff and puff your way to the top of a ridge, only to lose half that elevation on a knee-buckling-downhill.

Sure enough, after three hours of bun-busting elevation changes, one quintessential suspension bridge, countless photo breaks, and a very close call in which one of our party nearly tumbled over the hillside, we rounded a corner and spotted Gre. Traditional Tibetan prayer flags spanned the terraced hillside, rippling in the soft, autumn breeze. A mishmash of homes dotted the hillside — some the old-style stacked stone with tin roof, many more new or under construction. Rebar poked out the top of thick cement walls, just waiting for the rupees to build a second story.

Our host, Nima Pembar Tamang, appeared on the trail in front of us. His big, kind eyes glinted as he smiled. “Namaste!” he called out. Nima and Bikram embraced, calling each other “brother” and “friend.” That night we learned Bikram and Nima had met after “The Earthquake.” Earthquakes aren’t altogether uncommon in Nepal, but everyone knows which one you’re referring to when you say, “The Earthquake”.

The day the mountains rumbled

Photo: Udaya Visuals

At 11:56 AM on April 25, 2015, the Gorkha earthquake ripped through central Nepal with a magnitude of 7.8. It flattened entire villages, and triggered avalanches on Mount Everest and in Langtang National Park, near Gre. Nine thousand people died, nearly 22,000 were injured, and hundreds of thousands lost their homes. It was a devastating tragedy and a crippling setback for a small country earnestly striving to develop.

Gre itself is part of that development, an ideal first stop on most treks through Langtang National Park or along the Tamang Heritage Trail. Located just two to three hours on foot from Syabru Besi, the village can also be a memorable day trip. A list of trekking agencies that can help you make a reservation is available on the Gre Village Community Homestay website, which is how we ended up in Nima’s kitchen.

Nima served us a traditional dinner of dhal bhat while Bikram told us how they’d carried 94-pound cement sacks “up, up” the winding, jungle footpaths to rebuild homes, schools, bridges, and everything else that had crumbled. I made a mental note to remind myself of this anecdote the next time my backpack felt heavy.

In the kitchen, Nima’s wife Dahlia nursed Sri Maya, the youngest of their four daughters. At just six months old she was already the spitting image of Nima with bright, wide eyes; arched brows; and an infectious smile. Sri Maya knew nothing of the devastation her village had endured. Her father couldn’t forget.

Like many young men in the village, Nima had gone abroad to find work. He was packing eggs on a chicken farm in Malaysia when the earthquake hit Gre. For three days he prayed. “Please, let my family be okay.”

As he told us his story, his voice cracked and his eyes brimmed with tears. Finally, he got a call through. His family was alive. But his home was demolished.

A community in ruins begins to rebuild

Photo: Udaya Visuals

Nima’s is a common story in Gre. Saru Khadka, with an organization called Girls Empowered by Travel, spoke with several Gre residents for this article, including Norsyangmo Ama Tamang. Because many speak limited English, their quotes are seen here translated by Khadka.

“Suddenly everyone started to shake,” said Norsyangmo Ama Tamang. “I heard screaming and crying too. I turned toward my house and saw there was dust everywhere. I was so tense thinking where is my husband, where is my son, where is my daughter? And I just fainted.”

As devastating as the earthquake was, the death toll could have been much worse. Two serendipitous events drew most of the villagers out of their homes the morning the earthquake hit. First, a training on packaging dhal for the market, and second, the spectacle of an excavator pushing boulders down the hill.

“Somehow everyone got to the open area on the hill and stayed together,” said Gre resident Pasang Dekhi Tamang. “But we were starving because everything was under the houses, covered by soil and rocks. Everyone was shivering, so we stood close to each other to stay warm. After some time we managed to make a small hut. There was some food found, and we shared it.”

Aid and supplies were slow to trickle in. Families lived in makeshift tarpaulin shelters for months. Little by little, they rebuilt. First with simple tin-roof shacks, but eventually, safer cement and earthquake-ready homes started popping up around the village. These new homes represent safety. They also provide an opportunity to attract Nepal’s most lucrative industry — tourism.

A new hope through tourism

Photo: Udaya Visuals

Before the earthquake, the Langtang region where Gre sits was an emerging backpacking destination. Then and now, the region has spectacular hiking with fewer crowds than Everest or Annapurna. Routes range from family-friendly to extreme, and they walk visitors through the traditions, colorful dress, and lively music of Tamang culture. Now, the villagers share that culture by opening their new homes to visitors as the Gre Village Community Homestay.

A community homestay is like a co-op. When a traveler stays, that family keeps most of the payment as income but pays a portion into a community fund. This fund finances projects that benefit the whole community — water infrastructure, waste management, school improvements, or whatever is needed most when funding is available.

“The Community Homestay has been like a ray of hope for us,” Norsyangmo Ama Tamang said through the interpreter. “We are happy for the help from the organization, and we are also doing things on our own level. We are focusing on the cleanliness of the village and the sanitation of our guests.”

Hosting guests has also given her a desire to hear their stories and share her own. “Now, I want to learn English so I can welcome guests and communicate with them.”

Home is where your backpack is — seeing Gre for yourself

Photo: Udaya Visuals

To reach Gre from Kathmandu, take the public bus from Kathmandu Machhapokhari New Buspark, about a nine-hour ride, for 700 Indian rupees (about six USD). Or hop in a shared “local” Jeep, which cuts the ride down to seven hours but costs between 800 and 1000 INR (seven-nine USD). Gre is a three-hour hike southwest, and it’s one of those places that feels both foreign and comfortable all at once. Not in the watered-down way of Thamel, Kathmandu’s tourist district, but the type of place a traveler could find themselves staying. Visiting is also possible through organized treks with groups such as Girls Empowered by Travel.

No matter how you visit, staying with a community homestay ensures your dollars are going to help the village work towards the future. It’s also sure to leave a mark on you, as well. As you roll your sleeping bag out at night, take a moment to feel gratitude for the cement walls around you. To you, it’s cement. To Gre, it’s a new beginning. A rallying call that says, “Never again will I watch my house crumble.”


More like this: 5 gorgeous Himalayan treks you don’t need to train for

The post An earthquake nearly destroyed this Nepali village. Now, they’re rebuilding stronger than ever. appeared first on Matador Network.

Airbnb restricts parties

If you’ve thrown a shindig at an Airbnb, you know that the rules are generally pretty loose. But all of this is about to change. Airbnb is taking steps to discourage parties at their properties, in the wake of a shooting that killed five people at a San Francisco Airbnb rental on Halloween.

On Thursday, Airbnb announced that it’s banning “open invite parties” at all accommodations — that means parties open to anyone, and advertised on social media. The ban also applies to large parties at apartment buildings and condos.

According to an Airbnb press release, “This policy does not impact parties that are authorized by hosts and convened respectfully by guests. Instead, our goal with this new policy is to address the small number of guests who act irresponsibly and those rare hosts whose homes become persistent neighborhood nuisances.”

Hosts are being asked to update their listings to comply with the ban. Other new guest behavior rules include a one-warning policy for excessive noise and messiness, and unauthorized guests, parking, or smoking. Additional violations will result in the suspension of the offenders’ Airbnb accounts.

The changes will go into effect in early 2020.


More like this: The top 20 trending travel destinations for 2020, according to Airbnb

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Iceland focuses on well-being

Countries around the world measure economic success through the yearly Growth Domestic Product (GDP), the total market value of goods and services produced by a nation in the space of one year.

Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Iceland’s prime minister, as well as Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern, are going against that trend. The three heads of nations have created Wellbeing Economy Governments, an initiative that takes the well-being of a country’s population as a more accurate indicator of success than pure economic growth.

Speaking at London’s Chatham House think tank, Jakobsdóttir called for an “alternative future based on well-being and inclusive growth,” focusing less on the production of goods and services and more on the effects of climate change, health inequality, mental health, domestic violence, and other phenomena, when crafting a budget.

Jakobsdóttir said, “It’s about how you prioritize the public budget — you can always have an emphasis on well-being.” Iceland’s more holistic view of measuring a nation’s success and prioritizing non-economic factors is backed by economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz who expressed that “GDP is not a good measure of wellbeing — it’s too materialistic.”

Jakobsdóttir cited Iceland’s adoption of universal childcare and parental leave as examples of the kind of positive, well-being-focused changes she hopes to see in the future.


More like this: 6 underrated Nordic wellbeing practices you need to try

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Skiing under the northern lights

Beyond the Arctic Circle, the upper regions of Finland, Sweden, and Norway are magical in winter. They’re ideal locations to view the aurora borealis, Earth’s best light show. In the coldest, darkest months, the night sky frequently glows with dancing green, purple, and white lights above the snow-covered landscape.

While this all sounds lovely, for you winter might be more about skiing. In fact, you can actually glimpse the famed Northern Lights and schuss down snowy slopes. Finnish Lapland and the upper reaches of Sweden and Norway offer excellent skiing north of the Arctic Circle, the prime aurora spotting zones. The cold temperatures in these parts also mean these resorts are almost guaranteed to have lots of snow.

One of the coolest things about skiing in Lapland is that you might actually see the northern lights while you’re on the slopes. In other parts of the world, ski resorts close when the sun lowers at around 3:30 or 4:00 PM. But up here, because there’s no sun in the winter, at 3:00 PM it’s already pitch dark, so the slopes have to be lit. Lights stay on so you can ski as late as 5:00 or 7:00 PM, depending on the resort — meaning you might even be able to view the aurora borealis as you speed down the hill.

1. Pyhä Tunturi — Finland

Photo: Pyhä-Luosto/Facebook

Glass igloos in Finland designed for aurora viewing recently went viral on social media. At Pyhä Tunturi, you can sleep in those famed glass igloos, as well as in aurora huts, or real snow igloos. Wherever you stay in Pyhä Tunturi, you’ll be located close to excellent skiing.

Pyhä Tunturi isn’t a large resort, but it does have nine lifts that offer access to terrain for all levels. It also has an especially impressive amount of free-riding terrain for more advanced skiers. Pyhä Tunturi is divided into seven off-piste areas, made more accessible with a lift pass. Additionally, nearby Pyhä-Luosto National Park is yours to explore. Finland doesn’t have many big peaks, but there are steep runs to be had here. To get the most of the back-country and off-piste skiing, Pyhä Tunturi Ski School leads guided tours.

If you have some non-skiers in your group, or want to take a break for a day, Pyhä Tunturi offers loads of activities. You can go ice-fishing, ride a husky-pulled sled, or go relax in a famous Finnish sauna, just to name a few. Pyhä Tunturi is also only the second place in Finland to offer electric snowmobiling safaris — where you can really appreciate the silence of the Arctic winters.

Getting there: Fly or train to Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland. From there it’s a one-hour-and-45-minute drive to Pyhä. SkiBus connections are available from Rovaniemi airport and train station.

2. Levi Ski Resort — Finland

Photo: Anyabr/Shutterstock

Levi is a very developed, family-friendly resort with excellent skiing and lots of things to do off the mountain. The mountain is big, boasting 27 ski lifts — many of which are modern, high-speed lifts — and diverse terrain for all levels of shredders. I have great memories of racing my sister from the top of the mountain down to one of the seven on-mountain restaurants to warm up from the minus-20-degree (Celsius) chill.

Off the slope, Levi’s got you covered. Levi is a popular destination for both skiers and non-skiers wanting to experience the Lappish winter and northern lights. Here, as elsewhere in the Arctic, the sky is awesome even when the northern lights don’t show themselves. During the few hours of daylight, it glows with pink and orange hues emanating from a sun that’s hidden just below the horizon.

Like Pyhä Tunturi, you can stay in a glass igloo here, but you can also choose from numerous vacation rentals and hotels. Levi’s town is relatively large, so you’ll find plenty of delicious restaurant choices on and off the mountain. And, of course, there are lots of opportunities to explore the Lappish landscape including snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and fat-biking. If you find it’s too cold to go outside on any given day, the town has indoor activities as well — from bowling to Spa Water World, a massive indoor and outdoor pool system.

Getting there: You can fly from Helsinki or Stockholm direct into Kittila, which is a 15-minute drive from Levi.

3. Ylläs — FInland

Photo: Tsuguliev/Shutterstock

Ylläs is the biggest and highest-altitude ski mountain in Finland, and it’s the ideal place to take in the breathtaking views of Finnish Lapland and see the aurora borealis. Skiing in Ylläs is practically made for its vistas. The wide, uncrossed pistes go from top to bottom in a straight line, so you don’t have to worry about losing your way. As you cruise down the nearly two-mile-long runs, you can be completely undistracted from the view of other snow-covered peaks in Pallas-Ylläs National Park.

Or, when it’s dark out, which it may well be while you’re still skiing, you can admire the star-rich night sky with or without the aurora borealis. Lapland is also famously cold, so Ylläs’s seven-minute gondola that takes you straight to the top of the mountain protected from the elements might prove essential. If you’re super cold, one gondola cabin is actually a sauna.

Ylläs region also offers numerous non-skiing activities, such as snowmobiling and ice-hole swimming. Ylläs is also home to the Snow Village. The Snow Village is a five-acre complex built every year with natural ice by ice artists. It has an ice hotel, bar, chapel, and a vast network of corridors filled with snow and ice art.

Getting there: You can fly from Helsinki or Stockholm direct into Kittila, which is less than an hour’s drive from Ylläs.

4. Riksgränsen — Sweden

Photo: mcelewski/Shutterstock

Most of the best Swedish mountains are located further south, outside of the optimal aurora spotting zone. Riksgränsen proves to be an awesome exception. With the most precipitation in all of Sweden, Riksgränsen will deliver the snow goods. Riksgränsen has six lifts and several pistes. Plus, a Riksgränsen lift pass works at Bjorkliden, another 30 minutes away.

If you love to free-ski, Riksgränsen might be the place for you. It’s so famous for its freeskiing that every year in May, Riksgränsen hosts the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships. You’ll find tons to explore off-piste, and the backcountry is even better. You can also book a guided tour through the ski school and explore Riksgränsen’s renowned backcountry.

Heli-skiing is banned in Norway but not in Sweden. Riksgränsen is right next to the Norwegian border, so you can experience heli-skiing mountains comparable to the Lyngen Alps of Norway. From Riksgränsen there are over 100 mountains you can potentially heli-ski.

The town of Riksgränsen is charming but less developed than other places on this list. It’s pretty small, with three different accommodation choices — which are comfortable but not especially fancy. What you have here are hardcore skiing hard and beautiful views.

If you want to see the northern lights, be aware that the ski season in Riksgransen runs from mid-February to June. Unlike at the Finnish resorts, it’s not equipped for night-skiing. That being said, you will still have a good chance of seeing the aurora borealis if you are there in February or March — just not at the same time as you carving a turn. Instead, you could choose to drive to nearby Abisko National Park. Abisko has stunning, rugged mountains and is a famous place for spotting the northern lights.

Getting there: You can fly into Kiruna and take a bus, train, or car about an hour and a half to Riksgränsen. Alternatively, you can take the 18-hour night train from Stockholm or Gothenburg.

5. Ski Tour Lyngen Alps

Photo: Ida Haugaard Olsen/Shutterstock

In Norway’s Lyngen Alps, you can take a sailboat to the mountain you want to ski, climb up that mountain, and then schuss down it with views of the sea and fearsome peaks rising up from it. As you hike across through the steep and rugged terrain with your headlamp on, you might get a view of the aurora borealis. Welcome to the life of ski touring the Lyngen Alps, a fjord range in northwestern Norway.

While you may be taking a boat to access certain terrain, that should be up to your guide and where they want to take you. Not only would it be nearly impossible to know where to go without a guide, but backcountry skiing is dangerous.

The region has plenty of hotels and vacation rentals. One standout place is Lyngen Lodge, which offers luxurious, cozy accommodations. Lyngen Lodge’s ski touring guides will introduce you to some of the 60 summits surrounding Lyngen fjord, with altitudes surpassing 4,200 feet. In addition to skiing, Lyngen Lodge offers numerous other wintertime activities, such as dog-sledding, snowmobiling, and cross-country skiing.

The best time for skiing here is from March to April — with plenty of daylight, snow, and milder temperatures — but you can begin skiing here as early as January. At that time of year, you’d be braving wicked cold and dark nights, but the frequently visible northern lights may make up for the weather. By early April, it’s tough to spot the northern lights as there is already too much daylight.


More like this: For an unbeatable winter wonderland holiday, you need to go to Finland

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Best US small towns for Christmas

It’s that time of year when you get home, plop yourself down on the couch, and start scrolling through your phone while a Hallmark Christmas movie plays in the background. And what you might miss while ignoring the screen are the fantastic holiday settings many of them inhabit, from classic old homes to charming town squares. While most of the towns in those movies are fictional, dozens of small towns around America look just as magical in the winter. Here are nine that feel just like the movies.

1. McAndenville, North Carolina

Photo: Steve Rankin

Nicknaming yourself Christmastown, USA, is setting the expectations pretty high. But this little town of 832 delivers on its promises, decking out over 400 trees in nearly half a million glimmering lights. McAndenville, about 20 minutes west of Charlotte, centers around a man-made lake, around which a few dozen illuminated trees create the perfect backdrop for the 75-foot water spouts shooting out from the center. The lake also has an image of Old Man Winter who showers the trees in snowflakes. The town has become a regional attraction in the Charlotte area with over 300,000 cars driving through to take in the lights most years.

2. Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Photo: James Kirkikis/Shutterstock

There’s a pretty good reason Stockbridge looks so quintessentially Christmas: It quite literally is something out of a Normal Rockwell painting. It’s the Stockbridge from Rockwell’s famous “Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas” painting, so while plenty of New England towns go all out for Christmas, this is the poster child. Though you’ll find the city’s classic white homes with pillars wrapped in wreaths throughout the season, the best time to visit is the second weekend of December during the Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas festival. The porches along Main Street are filled with carolers, and visitors can take guided tours of the homes Rockwell made famous. You can also take pictures during the annual recreation of the famous painting, when vintage cars covered in snow are parked on main street for maximum authenticity.

3. Pacific Grove, California

Photo: Visit Monterey

A California beach town isn’t typically the kind of place you’d expect to spend the holidays cozied up in a Victorian bed and breakfast, but this small town might do Christmas better than anywhere in the Golden State. Pacific Grove’s seven historic B&Bs cover their fireplace mantles in bows and gift wrap their staircases for the annual Christmas at the Inns event. If you can pull yourself away from that level of coziness, check out Candy Cane Lane, a residential street (Morse Drive) where neighbors try to outdo each other for the most over-the-top Christmas decorations.

4. Anderson, South Carolina

Photo: Visit Anderson

No need to fly all the way to Europe to check out Christmas markets. Sure, they might be slightly bigger than the one that pops up on December Saturdays in Anderson, South Carolina, but for a city of 26,000 in a warm-weather state, it does a pretty impressive job. The sprawling market is filled with Christmas regalia; fresh-baked goodies; warm, cinnamony drinks; and other stuff to fill the air with cheer. At night, Anderson lights up over two miles of road for the Anderson Christmas Lights show, a drive-through display of nativity scenes, reindeer, and other Christmas images made completely out of tiny bulbs. The show goes on for 45 acres and draws people from hours away in every direction.

5. Cooperstown, New York

Photo: This Is Cooperstown

Though the mesmerizing small-town streets of Cooperstown always seem a little surreal when you realize every storefront is a baseball memorabilia shop, when it’s covered in a soft blanket of snow you’ll hardly notice. Ditto when you walk a few blocks and see the white-and-green hills surrounding Otsego Lake or behold the Otesaga Resort lit up like a colonial winter castle. From the end of November to Christmas, Santa and Mrs. Claus set up a cottage in Pioneer Park, too. And the Candlelight Evening highlights the season at the Farmers’ Museum, where 150 carolers serenade horse-drawn sleighs as they drift through the museum’s snowy grounds.

6. Frostburg, Maryland

Photo: Allegany County Tourism

About the closest you’re getting to living in the land of Buddy the Elf is Frostburg, Maryland, where each year the residents turn themselves into elves for the annual Storybook Holiday. It’s likely the largest gathering of people dressed like elves you’ll find who aren’t trying to break a Guinness World Record. The festival fills the brick-lined streets of this quaint home to Frostburg State University, beginning with an elf-hosted breakfast then continuing on with an elf parade, elf Olympics, and a visiting author reading their holiday children’s book aloud for all to enjoy. The day concludes at the art deco Palace Theatre with a sing-along to White Christmas.

7. Mandeville, Louisiana

Photo: Louisiana Northshore/Facebook

If you’re gonna gorge yourself on holiday food this season, there’s nowhere better to do it than the Louisiana Bayou. That’s the driving force behind Mendeville’s Sips of the Season, where you can wander through 25 shops along the town’s main drag sampling foods, baked goods, drinks, ciders, and other holiday delicacies. Once you’ve woken from that food coma it’s time to stroll Lakeshore Drive, where the 100-year-old Live Oak trees are draped in Christmas lights like electrical Spanish moss. Mandeville makes the most of its location on Lake Pontchartrain too, hosting the annual Winter on the Water where locals deck out their boat decks and float past downtown with Santa bringing up the rear. The parade hits land for the Christmas Past festival later in the month, where Santa and a massive crowd of carolers roam the streets.

8. Monterey, California

Photo: Visit Monterey

Christmas movie settings don’t have to be limited to red-brick main streets and grand old Victorians. In California, for instance, they can be just as easily set in the adobe homes you’ll find in the tiny seaside village of Monterey. On December 13-14, the city hosts its annual Christmas in the Adobes, when 19th-century Mexican adobe homes are done up in their Christmas finest, giving you a feeling of Christmas on the old California frontier. You can also enjoy Christmas on the water in Monterey when locals light up their boats for the Brighten the Harbor Lighted Boat Parade. The combination of colorful lights and cold air blowing off the Pacific makes this one of the odd places in coastal California that truly feels like winter.

9. New Castle, Delaware

Photo: Visit Wilmington

Not that you’d really want to live in 19th-century London, per se, but if you could handle the chamber pots flying out the window, it might be cute to live like A Christmas Carol for a couple of days. Enjoy that era minus the open sewers at New Castle’s annual Dickens Experiences, where you’ll attend a Victorian ball, enjoy high tea, and mingle with costumed characters before a live performance of A Christmas Carol. If colonial America holds more charm for you, jump on New Castle’s Spirit of Christmas tour, where you’ll wander through historic homes and churches dating back over 200 years decorated in Christmas splendor.


More like this: The English tradition of wassailing is the perfect excuse to drink cider and sing around a bonfire this winter

The post 9 charming small towns that look just like a Hallmark Christmas movie appeared first on Matador Network.

Colombia’s Cocora Valley Hike

Colombia has 51 national parks, Amazonian jungle, Andean glaciers, coral reefs, and the richest bird biodiversity of any country in the world. The hiking, paragliding, and snorkeling options are incredible. All of which is to say that Columbia is a paradise for outdoor lovers. Yet one outdoor adventure towers above the rest.

The Cocora Valley, home to the world’s tallest palm trees and a landscape plucked straight out Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, is Colombia’s most famous attraction. Backpackers and hikers flock to the sleepy coffee town of Salento for easy access to the valley’s hike, which culminates in the main attraction: the wax palm valley. Most do the hike clockwise, but you should do it the other way around. Here’s why.

Do the hardest part first and save your knees

Photo: Exequiel Schvartz/Shutterstock

The trailhead is easy to find and follow as you enter the blue gate to the right off the main road. About one kilometer in, you’ll meet a park worker who will ask for the 3,000 Columbian peso fee, which comes out to less than one US dollar. He’ll show you the route on a large map and point out highlights, like where to see the hummingbirds or enjoy a hot chocolate and cheese.

Complete the Cocora Valley hike’s five-hour circuit counterclockwise — as opposed to the traditional clockwise loop — to hike up the steepest part, toward the palm tree nursery and the Finca La Montaña coffee farm, rather than down, and finish in the park’s iconic wax palm valley. When you go counterclockwise, you save your knees from the relentless onslaught that is steep downhill stretches of switchbacks, as any seasoned hiker knows downhill is more taxing on your body — the knees in particular — than a steep upward incline.

You also finish your hike in the park’s main highlight, the wax palm valley. This is where the slender, 60-meter palms for which Cocora is famous stretch impossibly high and sway in the winds of the cloud forest. Going counterclockwise also means you meander through green pastures and grazing cattle flanked by the dramatic peaks of the Andes to the north at the beginning of your hike. You’ll continue on through a forested section with rivers, waterfalls, wooden suspension bridges, and finish with the wax palms. There’s something to be said for saving the best for last.

Fuel up before the steep stretch to Finca La Montaña

Photo: John Crux/Shutterstock

Hiking Cocora is a long and physical day. Most need up to six hours to complete the trek, and even prepared hikers with their backpacks full of plantain chips and browning bananas need some extra calories before the steep ascent toward Finca La Montaña. Hence another reason to take off counterclockwise. You’ll pass the hike’s only comedor, local parlance for restaurant, before the steepest part of the trek. It’s located right next to the Acaime hummingbird sanctuary where you can observe and photograph a variety of hummingbird species and their rich, iridescent plumage. Fuel up on the plato del día, the plate of the day, and sip a complimentary hot chocolate and cheese, a unique but strangely enjoyable pair, while getting to know your fellow hikers.

Finding the hummingbird sanctuary can be a challenge. Once you pass over the seven wooden suspension bridges and emerge from the dense leaf cover of the forest, you’ll come to a T on the trail with a red arrow pointing right and a sign that says Acaime La Casa de Los Colibris. This part is misleading. You don’t want to follow the red arrow and go right but rather go straight and slightly to the left, down the path marked with stones. You’ll come to a clearing with two buildings, and the hummingbird sanctuary is the one on the right. Entrance is 5,000 COP (less than $1.50) and the plato del día is reasonably priced, as well.

Enjoy Cocora before greeting the throngs of people

Photo: javarman/Shutterstock

Cocora is one of Colombia’s most visited destinations, and its fame and draw have only grown in the age of Instagram. It’s a busy place, and the valley is often flooded with people trying to snap their best selfie, especially on the weekends.

In truth, it’s possible to see the wax palm valley without even doing the hike. Simply walk past the blue gate as though you were attempting the hike clockwise. Enter into the valley with those mile-high spindly wonders and get your pic. But we advocate for experience over publicity here at Matador.

Much of what we love so much about being outside is the peace and tranquility we don’t get in our daily lives. And when you go counterclockwise, you get to enjoy the tranquility and beauty of Cocora before facing the crowds.

The gradual descent from Finca La Montaña brings the valley into view slowly, steadily, and to your benefit once you see the towering pines, with much anticipation. The trees on the left clear away, exposing viewpoints into the valley below with its yielding trees and low-hanging mist. These are the views you came for. Stake out a quiet grassy patch and take it all in before exiting the park and greeting the throngs of people who’ve come for their own perfect pic.

Getting to Cocora Valley

Photo: Danaan/Shutterstock

Base yourself in Salento for the easiest access to Cocora Valley. Jeeps run from Salento’s main square to the valley regularly throughout the day, both on weekdays and weekends. Online guides will give a timetable for departures, but in reality the Jeeps leave whenever they’ve filled up. The hike takes five to six hours, so it’s best to start early. And don’t forget to bring 3,600 COP ($1) for the ride. Once you’ve arrived at the parking lot at Cocora, go right on the road and walk past the various restaurants and shops. You’ll come to a blue gate on your right. Go through it to complete the hike counterclockwise. Bus service runs from Bogota to Salento, and the ride takes about eight-and-a-half hours.

What to bring

Photo: Toniflap/Shutterstock

Cocora Valley is a cloud forest, meaning it rains year-long and often with little notice. Bring a rain jacket and a warm layer for the top of Finca La Montaña; it gets cold. Here’s what else to have with you:

Hiking boots or sturdy sneakers — No flimsy tennis shoes for this trip. Wear something sturdier.
Sweater — Salento may be sunny, but this says nothing about the conditions in Coroca.
Rain jacket — It’s a cloud forest. Take your rain jacket.
Water bottle — We recommend at least a liter. You can refill at Finca La Montaña.
Sun protection — SPF, hat, and sunnies. Bring ‘em all.
Money — Bring 50,000 COP (about $15) and you’re covered for the day.
Snacks — The comedor at the hummingbird sanctuary has food available, but bring some snacks anyway.

You don’t need a guide for the hike. Some visitors rent horses, but if you’re in decent shape, the hike is very doable. There are park workers along the route to collect your fare and give directions. The trail is easy to follow with little chance of getting lost.


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North Dakota State Football tailgate

In Fargo, right next to the wood chipper, sits the Best for Last Club.

It’s an exclusive cadre of visitors who made North Dakota the 50th state they’d visited, a list of 2,500-plus names at the Fargo-Moorhead Visitors Center reflecting people who stopped in to check off a state they’d found no reason to visit ahead of the other 49.

Admittedly, finding a reason to visit North Dakota can be challenging (it was #47 for me). But seven to nine times a year, North Dakota State University has as good a reason to visit as anywhere in our football-loving nation. Even if you care nothing about football. Because tailgating a football game in Fargo is an education in what this windswept, snow-covered state is all about, and one of the best ways to experience a state you probably know nothing about.

Lower-division football worthy of big-time tailgates

Photo: Visit Fargo-Moorhead

Fargo seems an odd place for a bucket-list college football experience. That is, if you don’t know much about college football.

A quick primer: The North Dakota State Bison are the most dominant team in the Football Championship Subdivision – basically the division below the big division where teams like Alabama and Notre Dame play. They’ve won seven national championships this decade, and on the rare occasion a team from the top division has dared to play them (Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas State), NDSU’s beaten them too. The Bison have gotten so good that upper-division teams won’t schedule them anymore.

As winning college football teams do, they’ve also developed a massive pregame tailgate scene. It’s a mainstay on “Best College Football Tailgate” lists and regularly draws 30,000 to 50,000 people to the tiny lots outside the Fargodome. So while you won’t often see their games on ESPN, North Dakota State has one of the most passionate fan bases in the game.

Five hours before an early November kickoff I found myself immersed in that fan base, wandering a city of green and gold tents in the snow-covered parking lot. The tents sat outside an armada of vans and buses painted with various scenes of NDSU football.

Photo: Visit Fargo-Moorhead

One bus bore a mural of ESPN College Gameday on one of the two occasions it has visited Fargo. Another boasted a 15-foot rendering of Carson Wentz. There were a number of scenes of bison stampeding on a prairie and no shortage of buses listing off NDSU’s seven National Championships.

“This looks like NASCAR,” I said to the tourism department rep who’d drawn the unfortunate duty of escorting me through the party. She said it was her second game. Before I could ask her how far people drove, a bald-headed man in an NDSU National Championship bomber jacket came running up to us.

“These guys are crazy over here; you gotta come see this,” he said as he dragged us in out of the cold. He led me inside a green tent, packed with snow on the side for insulation. Within 30 seconds, I had a shot ski in my mouth. I’d been at the Fargodome not five minutes — knowing nobody — and already had a total stranger invite me in out of the cold to pour me shots.

This was Midwestern hospitality at its finest.

After I finished my shot of Fireball, he handed me a bright orange Busch Light can.

“Special for deer season,” he said. The guy’s name was Mark Soule, and he’d been tailgating at the Fargodome for nearly 15 years.

“It’s opening week of deer season, and it’s a late harvest,” Soule mused, looking out over what, to me, looked like a packed tent with about a hundred people crammed in. “Lotta people sitting this game out.”

“Too cold?” I asked.

“Oh hell no!” he said, almost offended. “You oughta see for playoff games in December, you can barely move in here… But the team we’re playing this week is shit, so a lotta people would rather be deer hunting.”

Other fans regaled me with tales of early-season tailgates when new students roamed the lots decked out like it was the University of Florida, funneling beers and playing beer pong.

“You can’t walk through the lots in August,” Joey Hughes, a batboy for the Fargo Redhawks told me. “Like there’s literally no space for people.”

“I don’t know most of these people in here,” Soule said, motioning to the 50 or so people who’d assembled inside his green walls to drink away from the sub-freezing wind outside. “But we’re family here, a 15 to 30,000 person family who loves good drinks and great food.”

He motioned me towards a table with some cooked meats and a crockpot full of a dumpling-cream soup I didn’t recognize.

“What’s that?” I asked him.

“Knoephla!” he responded like he’d invented it himself. “You don’t get much more North Dakota than knoephla.”

I took down a couple of bowls of this steaming, potato-and-dumpling creamy carb bomb, and it tasted like Midwestern winter on a spoon.

Moonshine culture and native hospitality wherever you go

Photo: Visit Fargo-Moorhead + Matthew Meltzer

We moved to another tent where a home-distiller named Dave in a POW-MIA cap offered me a tasting of his homemade bubblegum moonshine.

“Moonshine’s as much a part of North Dakota as it is West Virginia,” he said proudly as he poured me samples of his traditional gasoline-flavored moonshine.

“What proof is this?” I asked him as I sipped, like the answer would affect how much I drank.

“Hell if I know,” he said.

Over the humming of the generators, I heard the faint sounds of the “Cupid Shuffle” coming from a converted Greyhound Bus maybe 100 yards away. In front, a flash mob of Bison fans was following the commands, moving to the left, to the left, to the left, to the left. Then dutifully repeating it to the right before kicking and walking it, by themselves.

The dancers — set in front of a bus-side fresco of bison running through a thunderstorm on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation — were part of a tailgate hosted by the MHA Nation, an alliance of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes. Before making it through the masses of Cupid Shufflers, someone handed me a beer.

This dark-haired man was apparently the leader of the tailgate. He declined to tell me his name, so we’ll just call him Lee. He took me to a buffet of traditional tribal food, which included buffalo.

“We’re a culture of cooking and inviting people in,” he said as he poured me a vodka and something. “That’s not just a tribal thing. It’s a Scandinavian thing; it’s a North Dakota thing.”

Lee led me up the stairs into his converted Greyhound, once used to move Mexican migrant workers working on the railroad. Now it’s a shrine to Bison football, with pictures from championship games and epic tailgates lining the walls. It has a full kitchen and bunks in the back for marathon drives to Frisco, Texas, for the FCS championship game.

“It’s been on gameday twice!” he boasted proudly.

I visited a few more tailgates and couldn’t look up without having a beer put in my face. Tailgates from farm equipment makers. Tailgates from alumni. Tailgates from native tribes. The tailgate was, in effect, visiting all the people of North Dakota at once, without leaving a parking lot.

I found the average attendee’s drive had been about three hours. Many came from towns with fewer than 100 people. But Bison football was how the entire state came together, a sort of beer-soaked convocation of one of America’s most sparsely populated states.

Even in a blowout, Bison football is all that matters

Photo: Visit Fargo-Moorhead

Inside the Fargodome, fans settled in for what they rightfully assumed would be a slaughtering of the visiting Western Illinois Leathernecks. The Bison hadn’t lost a game in Fargo since 2016, and the Leathernecks had won one game all season.

But the atmosphere was still intense, the 19,000-seat Fargodome feeling more like a basketball fieldhouse than a football stadium. With seats running nearly vertically from the field to the top row, fans feel on top of the game, and the energy translates to the players. It’s not the imposing behemoth stadiums you’ll find in Ann Arbor or State College. But it’s an immersive, powerful experience nonetheless.

The game, however, seemed decided by the end of the first half, with the Bison up 27-0.

“It’s the first weekend of deer season,” the fan sitting next to me said echoing apologies I’d heard all day. “And this team’s shit.”

Sorry our fans aren’t partying as hard.

It’s deer season, dontcha know, sorry more people aren’t here.

Sorry the other team wasn’t better; wish you coulda seen a better game.

You’ll just hafta come back now, won’t ya?

The good-natured apologies and open invitations seemed appropriate in the ever-polite Midwestern plains.

Photo: Matthew Meltzer

I opted to watch the second half at Herd and Horns — a Bison-themed sports bar across the street from campus. The Bison’s blowout was playing with full sound on all but one screen, which was showing the weekend’s huge showdown between Alabama and LSU.

Nobody seemed to be watching it. In North Dakota, the Bison are life, and the nationally televised battle in Tuscaloosa might as well have been little league softball.

“This is what we’re good at,” a fan sitting next to me explained when I asked why nobody was watching the so-called game of the week. “Football. Tailgating. It’s all we’ve got. And when folks come here, like you, we wanna show them we do it better than anybody.”

At first glance, he might sound like he’s selling his state short. But that’s not it at all. NDSU sees its tailgates as a way to show people who never even think about North Dakota what their state has to offer — its traditions, its foods, its people. And though it may not be a traditional lure, it’s still a way to get people to visit a place they otherwise might not. Or, at the very least, visit it 46th.


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Major renovation coming to Epcot

Disney World’s most famous park, Epcot, is getting the biggest overhaul in Disney parks’ history. Now, the park will feature a digital city called the Play Pavillion, where families will be able to meet live and virtual Disney characters, and new ride attractions inspired by Mary Poppins, Ratatouille, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Moana.

Epcot Vice President Melissa Valiquette told Florida Today, “We are in the middle of what will be the largest transformation of any Disney park ever. It’s a multi-year transformation and the future is really bright here at Epcot.”

The new additions won’t open all at once, but the changes will begin to take effect in summer 2020, starting with Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Visitors can look forward to a trackless ride in mouse-themed cars that will take them through Remy’s kitchen with a rat’s-eye view. Also scheduled for the French pavilion in 2020 will be screenings of the new “Beauty and the Beast Singalong” film, which will join “Impressions de France” in the French theater. A new restaurant, La Crêperie de Paris, will also open in 2020.

The new Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster will premier in 2021, just in time to celebrate Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary.

The upgraded parts of the park will open throughout the next two years.


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Ice bumper cars in Bryant Park, NYC

If you couldn’t ice skate even if your life depended on it, there’s still a way to have a whole lot of fun on the ice in New York City this winter. At the Bank of America Winter Village in Bryant Park, visitors will soon be able to spend hours slamming into each other in ice bumper cars.

Photo: Bryant Park/Facebook

For the second year in a row, visitors will be able to rent ice bumper cars in the park as part of Frost Fest in January. Frost Fest is a 10-day celebration featuring live entertainment, food, and a variety of winter activities. Last year, the cars proved so popular that the activity was actually extended.

This year, the cars will be available between January 17 and February 28. Keep in mind, to ride you must be over 7 years old, 42 inches tall, and under 300 pounds. Although you don’t have to book in advance, available cars on site are on a first-come, first-served basis. You can book cars online up until the morning of your desired date, and you should probably book quickly if you’re interested, given the event’s popularity last year.

Tickets are $15 for 15-minute intervals, with reservations opening in early January.

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Plantation wedding Pinterest ban

Two of the largest online wedding planning platforms are taking major steps to stop promoting former slave plantations as wedding venues. Pinterest and the Knot Worldwide are altering their policies, instituting new guidelines that would ensure wedding vendors on their websites don’t use language that romanticizes Southern plantation history.

Users will still be able to search for plantation wedding content on Pinterest, and venues will still appear on the site, but the company will restrict plantation wedding content and work on de-indexing Google searches for plantation weddings.

A Pinterest spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, “Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity. Plantations represent none of those things. We are working to limit the distribution of this content and accounts across our platform, and continue to not accept advertisements for them.”

The policy change was prompted by increased pressure from civil rights advocacy group Color of Change. In a letter sent to the Knot Worldwide executives, the organization said, “The decision to glorify plantations as nostalgic sites of celebration is not an empowering one for the Black women and justice-minded people who use your site.” In a similar letter to Pinterest, it wrote, “Plantations are physical reminders of one of the most horrific human rights abuses the world has ever seen.”

Arisha Hatch, vice president of Color of Change, compared plantation weddings to weddings at concentration camps, and asked if the latter would be considered an acceptable wedding venue.

The new policy will be rolled out in the next few weeks.


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