Photograph by Paul Hahn, laif/Redux
Arbil, Iraq
Defying Middle East Stereotypes
One of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, Arbil will make you forget everything you've heard about Iraq. The political capital of Kurdistan in northern Iraq is largely a world apart from the strife to its south. Visitors bypass Baghdad, arriving into Arbil’s new airport via flights from Vienna, Amman, and Istanbul. Booming with oil money, Arbil—known as Hawler to Kurds—has even earned the designation Capital for Arab Tourism for 2014.A citadel, the basic structure of which is at least 6,000 years old, looms at the city’s historic center, surrounded by renovated Ottoman palaces and labyrinthine bazaars selling everything from traditional carpets to kitchen supplies. Though the city was marred by deadly violence in 2013, many consider it a singular occurrence, with construction continuing on high-rises, including a Marriott hotel, that overlook traffic-clogged boulevards. In the Ankawa neighborhood, one of the Middle East’s largest Christian enclaves, an imposing ziggurat-style church pays homage to the region’s Babylonian past. Restaurants serve wine and regional fare like kefta (a kind of kebab) and biryani. Outside the city, the landscape unfolds with mountains rich with waterfalls, lake resorts, and snowy winter ski trails. Australian Shannon Skerritt, founder of travel company Kurdistan Adventures, says he tells his Western clients, “Kurdistan is really the other Iraq. It’s not what you see on the news.” —Michael Luongo
Travel Tips
When to Go:Spring and fall are the best times to visit with clear skies and mild temperatures (typically between 65 and 70 degrees). Temperatures can be significantly cooler in the mountains, however, so pack accordingly if your itinerary includes hiking or touring outside the city.
How to Get Around:
Lufthansa operates direct flights to Arbil from Frankfurt and Vienna. Independent travel within Iraqi Kurdistan is safe, but first-time visitors may appreciate the convenience and local expertise of a small-group tour operator like Kurdistan Adventures or Wild Frontiers Travel. Both offer fully escorted tours and include airport transfers, local transportation via private vehicles, and English-speaking drivers and guides.
Where to Stay:
The city’s newer hotels are predominantly international big-box brands catering to business travelers. For more character (the entrance is guarded by white lion statues with tongues that light up red at night) and convenience—only a 10-15 minute walk to the bazaar and citadel—choose the independently owned Chwar Chra Hotel. The room décor is a bit dated, but there’s free Wi-Fi and satellite TV and an outdoor garden bar where you can relax at day’s end with a glass of arak, a clear, aniseed-flavored alcohol mixed with water and ice.
Where to Eat or Drink:
At the aptly named local favorite Hawler try the barbequed fish, a Kurdish specialty. Abu Shahab started as a street kebab stand in 1970 and is now a brightly lit, two-story complex housing a coffee shop, supermarket, and restaurant serving founder Shahab’s authentic Kurdish dishes, such as lamb quozi—jasmine rice cooked with meat and special spices and topped with lamb shanks and mixed nuts.
What to Buy:
At the Kurdish Textile Museum located inside the citadel, young women learn weaving, felt-making, and embroidering from older mentors committed to preserving the artistic cultural traditions of Kurdish nomadic communities. Completed items, such as ranku chokhel (traditional cloth woven from goat hair) and thick, multicolored rugs woven with carpet hooks, are displayed in the museum and available for purchase in the gift shop.
Cultural Tip:
“Go with the flow,” says Kurdistan Adventures founder Skerritt. “It's common to be approached for a chat or offered tea. You may even be invited for a meal or to a Kurdish picnic with traditional dancing.”
What to Read or Watch Before You Go: A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts(Random House, 2005) tells the stories of the people, places, and customs that writer Christiane Bird encounters on her travels throughout Iraqi Kurdistan.
Helpful Links:
Kurdistan Adventures and Wild Frontiers
Fun Fact:
According to UNESCO, Arbil’s Citadel Town is believed to be the world’s oldest continuously inhabited settlement, dating back 7,000 years or more. Though its buildings have been rebuilt over the centuries, the inner network of pedestrian alleyways remains virtually unchanged.
Insider Tip From Michael Luongo:
The airport entry stamp is all you need because unlike the complicated process for southern Iraq, there’s no visa process for Kurdistan as long as your visit lasts up to ten days.
Cape Verde (Portuguese: Cabo Verde)
Islands of Soulful Song
“There in the sky you are a star / There in the sea you are a sandy seafloor / Poor country full of love,” sang Cesária Évora of her homeland, the West African island nation of Cabo Verde. In this ten-island archipelago, strong Atlantic winds carry songs filled with sodade, a bittersweet longing at the core of Cabo Verdean culture. Melancholy marks the morna ballads that speak of islanders who left, many with whaling ships that took an entire generation across the ocean. So with the songs of the rainha dos pés descalços, or “barefoot diva” (Évora graced many a world stage shoeless), Cabo Verde came into the spotlight.It still feels like an uncharted hideaway, where tourism is nascent and blissfully small scale. That elusive feeling of discovery awaits on the more far-out islands, reachable only by boat, like the tiny flyspeck of Brava and the vertical Santo Antão with its lush valleys, pine ridges, and stark canyons.Even on more well trodden islands, such as sand dune–filled Boa Vista, pristine pockets hide: Winds and sunshine power the 12-room Spinguera, an abandoned fishing village turned ecolodge, its island-salvage decor curated by the Italian artist owner. On dramatic Fogo, with a giant cinder-clad volcano at its heart, a pair of hamlets perch inside Chã das Caldeiras, the ancient crater where residents grow coffee and grapes, and hikers begin the ascent to the Pico do Fogo volcano.
“In this busy century, Cabo Verde still has places of absolute stillness,” says Praia-based photographer and filmmaker César Schofield Cardoso, “and a force that invites pilgrimage and meditation.” —Anja Mutić
Travel Tips
When to Go:Cabo Verde is a year-round destination, but rain is more likely August to October. September to June is prime surfing season along the southern tip of Sal, one of the archipelago’s sandy, eastern islands.
How to Get Around:
International airports are located on the islands of Sal, Santiago, Boa Vista, and São Vicente (also serving Santo Antão). Taxis and public minibuses are available on most islands. Travel between islands generally is either by ferry or propeller planes.
Where to Stay:
On Boa Vista, the 12-room Spinguera ecolodge is as good as it gets if getting away from it all is your objective. The remote cluster of rustic, stone cottages is separated from the ocean by expansive, wild dunes. Meals are included, as is use of the beach hammocks, where you can relax and watch sea turtles swim by.
Where to Eat or Drink:
Surfing hub Santa Maria has the largest concentration of restaurants. Menu options range from plates of chicken curry and rice at the Tam Tam Bar (owned by an Irish couple) to upscale seafood and tapas dishes (seafood paella, tartar salmon, ceviche) at Geko Gourmet, opened in 2013. At traditional Cabo Verde restaurants like the bare-bones Blue Marlin on Boa Vista, try catchupa, a popular slow-simmered stew of corn, beans, and vegetables.
What to Buy:
Shop for local art and crafts, including wood carvings, colorful batiks, and jewelry, in Santa Maria at Surf ‘N Soul. Boa Vista artisans craft necklaces and bracelets incorporating found objects from the island, including bones, shells, and beads. Other traditional Cabo Verde crafts to look for are pottery, tapestries, and woven baskets.
Cultural Tip:
Although counterfeit and pirated goods are openly displayed in many street markets, buying these items is illegal under Cabo Verde and U.S. laws.
What to Listen to Before You Go:
Miss Perfumado is the 1992 album that transformed Cesária Évora into an international world-music star.
Helpful Links:
Cabo Verde and Archipelago Choice
Fun Fact:
Portuguese is the official language, but locals speak Crioulo(Portuguese Creole), a Portuguese-West African-French blend originating in the slave-trading era. Although the Alupec (Unified Alphabet for the Cabo Verdean Language) was established in 1994, Crioulo remains a spoken language only.
Insider Fact From Anja Mutić:
Don’t miss a cup of artisanal coffee at Dja'r Fogo in Fogo’s capital of São Filipe, which has been grown on the owner’s nearby coffee plantation since 1874; it’s still roasted and packaged right there at the art gallery-café.
Cacao Trail, Ecuador
Photograph by Tui De Roy, Minden Pictures/Corbis
Sweet Talk at the Source
“It warms the heart to see fifth-generation cacao farmers taste their own chocolate for the first time,” says Santiago Peralta, CEO and founder of Ecuadorian chocolate company Pacari. Until recently, many Ecuadorians had eaten only reimported milk chocolate from Europe and the United States. But a locavore revolution means that locals and visitors now can sample the delights of the cacao bean at its source. Cacao was thought to come from the Maya, but recent archaeological discoveries have found traces of processed cocoa on 5,200-year-old Ecuadorian Chinchipe pots in the Upper Amazon, possibly changing the history and provenance of the bean.The burgeoning bean-to-bar movement here has created “choco-lodges” and cocoa plantation tours in two standout regions easily reachable from Quito. In Santa Rita in the Amazon Basin, visitors to working farms can try their hand at roasting beans. In Guayas Province, they explore 19th-century plantation towns such as Velasco Ibarra.
A tour of both includes a drive over the Andean Plateau, one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots with more than 25,000 plant species, nearly 1,600 bird species, and about 340 mammal species. In other words, so much more than just desserts. —Adam H. Graham
Travel Tips
When to Go:The best time to go to the Pacific coast is December to April (warm temperatures and sporadic rain). June to September (sunny and clear) is better for visiting the highlands. In the Amazonian jungle, it’s warm, humid, and rainy year-round; however, rains typically aren’t as heavy August to September and December to February.
How to Get Around:
Jeff Stern, owner of Gianduja Chocolates in Quito, suggests starting in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, to visit coastal cacao plantations before heading north toward Quito. “A lot of people want to visit somewhere [from Quito] in one day, but that's really not possible,” he says. “Distances are not long in Ecuador, but travel times can be.” One option is to fly into José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport in Guayaquil and fly out of Mariscal Sucre Airport in Quito. Since many Cacao Trail locations are remote and tourist services limited, the best option may be to join a small group tour. Stern’sEcuador Chocolate Tours offers custom and small group itineraries, including airport transfers; transportation; meals; lodging; cacao farm, plantation, and collection center visits; and chocolate factory tours.
Where to Stay:
Sleep in a jungle loft, wake up to the whistling sounds of capuchin monkeys, and learn how chocolate is made at the Ecuador Jungle Chocolate. Located on a Napo River cacao plantation near Puerto Misahuallí, the thatched-roof lodge offers basic (dorm-style bunk beds) to luxury (spacious, river-view suites with wood ceilings and floor-to-ceiling screen windows) accommodations, guided adventure tours into the Amazon forest, and opportunities to engage with local indigenous communities.
Where to Eat or Drink:
At El Quetzal in Mindo, the locally grown Ecuadorian coffee is roasted onsite, the produce is fresh from the garden, and the owners, Joe Meza and Barbara Wilson, make their own Mindo brand single-origin chocolate. Save room for a chocolate brownie topped with homemade ice cream. In Quito, help support the Kallari Cooperative’s efforts to preserve Kichwa cultural traditions and enjoy a steaming mug of hot chocolate made with farmer-produced organic chocolate bars at Kallari Café.
What to Buy:
The Folklore Olga Fisch main store and museum in Quito and satellite locations in Guayaquil and the Galápagos showcase original Ecuadorian and Andean art made with sustainable materials. Shop for handcrafted Andean straw fedoras, hand-woven tapestries and rugs, and hand-carved hardwood or hand-engraved metal tiles. In addition to ten types of chocolate bars, the Kallari Café sells organic Kallari vanilla and artisanal jewelry made by Kallari farmers.
Cultural Tip:
Ecuador’s currency is the U.S. dollar; however, larger bills aren’t readily accepted. Carry coins and small bills (ones, fives, and tens).
What to Read or Watch Before You Go:
Chilean political activist and writer Luis Sepulveda’s environmental parable The Old Man Who Read Love Stories(Mariner Books, 1995) was inspired by his experience working for UNESCO in the Amazon jungle.
Helpful Links:
Ecuador Tourism and Ecuador Chocolate Tours
Fun Fact:
In 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to grant inalienable rights to "Nature" in its constitution. Nature’s rights, which can be enforced by the people on behalf of ecosystems, include the “right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.”
Insider Tip From Adam H. Graham:
EC Travel is working closely with Ecuador’s Tourism Ministry and several local cacao farmers and producers to create customized tours of more remote cacao-growing regions.
More to come..........
No comments:
Post a Comment