"After Disney: The Other Orlando" by Kelly Monaghan and Seth Kubersky

Kelly Monaghan has a long history of publishing about Orlando. He wrote “The Other Orlando” many years ago, and this update not only changes the title to “After Disney,” it also vastly expands the scope and scale of the book (disclosure: I was provided a review copy). The coauthor on the new volume is Seth Kubersky, an old hat at covering theme parks and no slouch himself. The cover image of Hogwarts castle is sure to excite Harry Potter fans, but the true value lies inside.

Shops and restaurants in Mykonos Town are alight for the night’s business.

MYKONOS, Greece — I had been in Athens a couple of times but had had no real experience of the Greek islands until I stepped off a cruise ship at Mykonos in late March 2012.

View of Mykonos’ hillside houses, all painted white.

The ship was the Louis Cristal, one of a fleet operated by Cyprus-based Louis Cruises. Sailing into the Mykonos port in the late-afternoon sun, we got a good look at the island’s oft-photographed brightly trimmed white houses. The island’s iconic windmills were not that easy to spot from a distance, but they came into view later.

Just the same, Mykonos looked like the travel posters — a very satisfying discovery, I might add. The island, part of Greece’s Cyclades group of islands, measures only 30 square miles and is home to about 10,000 people.

Typically for a cruiser’s shore excursion, we were allotted four and a half hours at the destination. The cruise line provided shuttle buses for the short rides between our dock and Mykonos Town.

It was windy standing on the ship’s decks riding into the port, and it was often windy during the visit, making it clear how

Close-up of a Mykonos windmill, with evidence of another kind of power source — electrical wires — clearly visible in the background.

the island could use windmills. (They were used from the 16^th to the mid-20^th century for milling wheat.)

The walk from the shuttle drop-off point into the town center was relatively short, with the white houses on hillsides to my left and the Aegean waters in the harbor to the right.

This island has been and remains a popular resort site. Accordingly, it is loaded with shops and restaurants on the main thoroughfares, especially at harborside, and in the tiny winding backstreets, too.

One business has taken its name from the Broadway show, “Mamma Mia!” although the show’s story is set on a different Greek island.

At least one proprietor came into a square to urge passengers from our ship to choose his establishment. I had no idea if this meant business had been bad on Mykonos, but my guess is this is how one restaurateur deals with the slow season. The Louis Cristal’s visit preceded Easter and its passengers did not amount to crowds in the streets.

The real beginning of a typically very busy tourist season begins after Easter. In a year’s time, the island sees around 800,000 visitors.

I had one more or less serious goal on Mykonos — to see as many of the windmills as I could, partly because of their unique appearance.

They resemble short white silos with conical roofs. The working part has very narrow blades, which made me wonder how these windmills ever captured wind power. It turns out triangular sails were mounted on the blades when the windmills were operational.

And, for the sheer fun of it, I wandered up and down the tiny alleys, landing in charming little squares, sometimes in front of

Nikos Taverna, seen just before Easter and hence before the real tourist season when things get busy at Nikos and all over Mykonos.

small domed churches. The street pattern is convoluted and disorienting for a reason: Residents of Mykonos devised the labyrinthine network to confuse pirates who bedeviled the island in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

My walk also provided views of a section called Little Venice because of houses that sit right at water’s edge, with balconies overhanging the Aegean. I understand the nickname, but the view didn’t bring Venice to my mind.

The island is something of a photographer’s dream, which I appreciated for as long as the sun was in the sky. The Mykonos shoreline, lighted for the night’s activities, looked pretty impressive after dark, too.

As we lost the sun, it became quite chilly, but then, this was a March visit and the Greek islands aren’t sunburn-hot all the time.

Roca Cookery, where diners can feast on Greek specialties and look out onto the bay at Mykonos.

Although I roamed Mykonos Town mostly solo, I was traveling with a small press group from the U.S. and Canada. We concluded our Mykonos visit with dinner at a restaurant, located a short ways up on a hillside overlooking the bay, Called Roca Cookery, the eatery provided everything one might imagine for a Greek feast. I especially appreciated the meze (appetizers).

I hated to leave, but the ship, which had already left tardy passengers at a previous port, would have left without me!

I should also note that, for the visitor with more time, Mykonos provides access to the ancient

One of more than 400 churches and chapels on Mykonos.

sacred center of the Cyclades, the neighboring unoccupied island of Delos. It is now an archaeological site and open-air museum, which tourists can visit.

There are museums in town, too. They are the Archaeological Museum, featuring finds from Delos; the Aegean Maritime Museum with models of ancient vessels, and the Folklore Museum.

In addition, Weissmann Travel Reports, a database of destination information used by travel agents, says Mykonos has more than 400 churches and chapels and that it is home to nude beaches, gay striptease and drag shows and the best nightlife of any of the Greek islands.

Mykonos as seen from the cruise ship, Louis Cristal.

Nadine Godwin, author of this article, is the author of Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia, which was published by The Intrepid Traveler.

"One Man, Two Guvnors" is at the Music Box in New York City.

One Man, Two Guvnors, currently packing them in at the Music Box, is billed as “based on” The Servant of Two Masters by Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni. But this show, fresh from a sold out run at London’s National Theatre, is not so much an adaptation of Goldoni’s work as it is a travesty.

And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Richard Bean uses Goldoni’s 1745 farce as a springboard into a surreal comic world set in 1963 that owes just as much, if not more, to a witches’ brew of English pantomime, low-brow comedians (think Benny Hill), and modernist British humor (think Monty Python) as it does to the conventions of Italian commedia dell’arte. But then Goldoni was down with allowing local productions to adapt as they saw fit.

The result is pure comic bliss. That’s no small feat because the sort of arch comic shtick liberally employed here can all too easily cross over into teeth-grindingly overdone tripe. Under the steady hand of director Nicholas Hytner, however, the uniformly gifted cast cavorts right up to that line but never crosses it.

One Man tells the convoluted tale of Francis Henshall, a simple and impecunious young man whose world revolves around two goals, his next meal and his next sexual encounter. He finds himself in the tacky seaside resort town of Brighton working as a sort of butler cum gofer for a petty crook on the lam who is about to enter into an arranged marriage with an airhead who is madly in love with an aspiring actor. Almost by accident, Francis accepts a second similar job with a smooth toff who’s just breezed into town.

That would seem enough to cause plenty of comic confusion but the crook turns out to be not the crook, but the crook’s twin sister in disguise and the upper class swell is that sister’s secret love, not to mention the murderer of her brother. Got it?

As Francis, James Corden is pretty much perfect. Francis is a descendant of Arlequino, a stock figure in commedia dell’arte, a nimble trickster ruled by his baser needs who is at once dumb as a post and sly like a fox. The key to making the character work is pure charm, which Corden supplies in copious amounts. Corden steps out of character and breaks the fourth wall regularly and with hilarious results, kibitzing with the audience, inviting folks on stage to aid and abet his labors, and making a hash out of any sense of verisimilitude. It’s commedia dell’arte for the Age of Irony.

But while Corden gets the lion’s share of critical praise, for my money the show is stolen by Tom Edden as Alfie, a hapless, doddering, wall-eyed, seemingly crippled eightysomething waiter who is not in Goldoni’s original. He takes forever to walk across the stage holding a pile of plates that clatter about uncontrollably yet never fall and you wish the bit would never end. Alfie is straight out of the fabled Whitehall farces and could have been offensive in the extreme, but in Edden’s capable hands the character becomes a high point of the play. Who knew an actor could be battered about so much and still remain standing? And who knew there were that many different ways of falling down a flight of stairs? The program credits Cal McCrystal as “physical comedy director” and I can only assume that some of the credit for Edden’s performance must go to him.

Excellent work also from Oliver Chris as Stanley Stubbers, the upper class smoothie, and Daniel Rigby as Alan Dangle, the brooding would-be actor. But then everyone is pretty marvelous, including members of the ensemble who take on a variety of small but perfectly realized roles.

While he has provided plenty of excuses for acrobatic insanity, playwright Bean has not overlooked the power of the spoken word to reduce an audience to gales of laughter. He is a master of the surreal simile (“She is pure, innocent, unsoiled by education, like a new bucket”) and the obscene aphorism (“Love passes through a marriage faster than sh*t through a small dog”).

Oh, and there’s music, too, in the form of The Craze, a skiffle band that entertains before each act, performing original songs by Grant Olding. Skiffle, for those who don’t know, was a form of pop music that was popular in England in the years before the Beatles changed everything. It’s closest analog, to my ear, is American rockabilly. It’s great fun.

The music also covers scene changes and, in an inspired bit, members of the company come out during these interludes to join the band, playing a variety of instruments including xylophone, car horns, and the bare chest.

If Dick Cheney were to waterboard me, I would be forced to admit that One Man, Two Guvnors is not great theatre, at least in the classic sense. For all their commedia dell’arte artifice, Goldoni’s plays contained the sort of bedrock psychological truth that is only given lip service here, and that in the form of loud raspberries. And the second act never quite manages to sustain the exalted levels of hilarity that characterize the first.

But who cares? I haven’t laughed so hard in a theater in a very long time and this show is destined to be the toast of the town and cart off a slew of Tony Awards. Go see it. (Adult diapers highly recommended.)

An upright Steingraeber piano under construction in Bayreuth.

BAYREUTH, Germany – Bayreuth is often called Richard Wagner’s city. After all, the composer lived here and wrote much of his music here. It is where an opera house was built to his specifications and, in that venue, his music is presented at the annual Bayreuth Festival.

The interior of the Bayreuth apartment where Franz Liszt died.

But composer and pianist Franz Liszt frequented the city, too.

Liszt – also Wagner’s father-in-law – regularly visited the Wagners and died while in Bayreuth; as a result, his last apartment and burial site are available for the tourist circuit.

In part because of these connections, Bayreuth lays on a rich collection of concerts, festivals, music competitions each year ? and a November jazz festival.

However, Bayreuth is not a one-note town. It is a city of 74,000 that, from about 400 years ago, was the seat of the margrave (or marquess) of Bayreuth.

A view of the ornate interior of the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth.

Much of what today’s tourist sees in the historic center reflects the extravagant court life of the 18th century. The central figures were the Margrave Friedrich and his wife Wilhelmine, sister of Prussia’s Frederick the Great and granddaughter of England’s George I.

They, like the musicians, are referenced often on a guided tour. Last year, I joined one such tour, sponsored by the German National Tourist Office, for travel professionals.

The New Palace in the center of Bayreuth.

Friedrich, Wilhelmine and their 18th century contemporaries left much for the 21st century visitor to admire, especially their palaces and gardens ? and the 1750 Margravial Opera House, a baroque all-wood structure that accommodated patrons seated at tables so they could dine, talk and ? maybe listen to music. Performances are still staged in the old house, but from some time in 2012, it will be closed for renovations; the city is seeking a UNESCO designation for the building.

Friedrichstrasse, a Bayreuth street lined with fine 18th century buildings.

Also in the city center, Friedrichstrasse is lined with an architecturally unified set of striking 18th century stone buildings. One is the 1754 Steingraeber House, described as

a “margravial palace.” It belongs to Steingraeber & Sons, the piano makers.

The house is a must-visit site regardless of one’s affinity for classical music. It is a complex of piano showrooms, plus concert and meeting halls, which are the setting for about 70 events annually.

The 1873 Steingraeber piano in its Rococo Hall is called the Liszt piano because he played it

The so-called Liszt piano, seen in the Rococo Hall at Steingraeber House in Bayreuth.

A concert on a Steingraeber piano in one of the concert halls at Steingraeber House in Bayreuth.

numerous times. The typical Bayreuth sightseeing tour includes the Steingraeber House and the nearby workshops where the company’s handmade grands and uprights are made.

The standard tour also includes the Bayreuth Festival Hall, a quite different thing from the Margravial Opera House. According to Wagner’s wishes, it seats nearly 2,000 in a space with little decoration.

It is used only for the Bayreuth Festival in summer, and these days, fans usually must apply several years in a row before getting tickets.

When the theater opened in 1876, audiences had been accustomed to attending opera with the lights on; people cried when lights were dimmed here the first time, our guide said.

The Sun Temple on the grounds of the Hermitage, a royal retreat at the edge of Bayreuth.

As for the palaces, the 18th century New Palace and its Court Garden are in the heart of Bayreuth while the Hermitage, its Sun Temple and sprawling gardens are on the edge of town.

Bayreuth is noted for these gardens – and for gardens of another stripe.

The city is in Upper Franconia, a part of Bavaria especially known for its breweries. The beer lover’s itinerary here includes the Maisel Brewery and Museum and, of course, the beer gardens.

Although we were not in town long enough for these sorts of things, tourists can book guided beer tours. Visitors also can book sightseeing in a horse-drawn coach led by a costumed guide who is impersonating either Liszt or Wagner.

Finally, 2013 will be a big year for special festivities in Bayreuth because it will be the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth.

 Nadine Godwin, author of this article, is the author of  Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia, which was published by The Intrepid Traveler.

This article first appeared on June 16, 2011, in TravelWeek, a Canadian newspaper for members of the travel industry.

Friedrich Schiller’s house in Weimar.

The Bauhaus University in Weimar. The Bauhaus design movement was born in Weimar.

WEIMAR, Germany — Weimar, a city of 64,000 in the former East Germany, is home to two types of UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Classical and Bauhaus in style.

I had a brief opportunity last year to get a look at both during a tour of Weimar that was sponsored for travel professionals by the German National Tourist Office.

The focal point for visitors is, inevitably, the Old Town. Weimar’s historic city center is particularly comfortable and welcoming because much of it is car-free and it’s clear this is no museum; it is a lived-in space where merchants set up stalls in the Market Square and locals relax in the sun in Theater Square within eyeshot of the German National Theater and the Bauhaus Museum. Almost all attractions are in walking distance of one another.

It may help to look at Weimar on a square-by-square basis.

Weimar’s Democracy Square with the Anna Amalia Library in the background. A quartet of horn players greeted our group.

• Democracy Square is open on one side offering a broad view downward to the former Ducal Palace, from the days when the grand duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach held court here. The most celebrated building on the square itself is the 18^th century baroque Anna Amalia Library.

The name, Democracy Square, recalls the fact that Germany’s first democracy, the Weimar Republic, was born in this city.

• Market Square is bound on one side by the Weimar Town Hall and another by the Hotel Elephant. The latter, dating from the 16^th century and the rendezvous site for writers and statesmen for centuries, is a member of Starwood’s Luxury Collection of hotels. In other words, it a nice place to stay and in a great location.

While Weimar’s old sections appear unsullied by inappropriate tall or modern structures, that doesn’t mean everything is old. The buildings on one side of Market Square were smashed during World War II, and that left a grassy space until reconstruction started in 1988.

• Herder Square, named for the German philosopher and theologian Johann Gottfried Herder, encompasses the 15th century

St. Peter and Paul Church (popularly, Herder Church) in Weimar. A statue of Johann Gottfried Herder is visible beside the church.

late gothic St. Peter and Paul Church (popularly, Herder Church), where Martin Luther often preached. In the 18th century, Johann Sebastian Bach often played organ here, and, later, Herder was its preacher. Johann Wolfgang Goethe lived for a year in a house on this square.

Theater Square in Weimar is an inviting spot to relax and enjoy a sunny day.

• Theater Square is named for the German National Theater and distinguished by a statue of the writers Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. The latter also lived in Weimar, and the two men were fast friends.

Germany’s first republican constitution was drafted in the theater in 1919. The Bauhaus Museum across the square celebrates the modern design movement, which also was launched in Weimar in 1919 with the founding of the Bauhaus School.

Our group’s tour also took us past the house where Goethe lived for nearly 50 years, the house where Schiller lived the last years of his short life and a converted gardener’s lodge where composer Franz Liszt lived in summers from 1869 to 1886. Liszt had previously lived in Weimer for more than a decade, reshaping its musical scene.

Sidewalk cafes in Weimar’s historic city center.

Our sightseeing highlighted a lot of history, but for those who are uninterested, Weimar isn’t just about brilliant dead people. It remains a charming place to look at, and that allure includes outdoor cafes for lazy meals or a coffee. In addition, the city brags it has more bars per capita than Berlin. Weimar is well endowed with parks for walking and cycling.

And, for other sensibilities, there is the Weimar Onion Market, held annually in autumn. It is described as the world’s oldest (from 1653) and largest.

Finally, not to put a damper on things, the Buchenwald concentration camp is a few miles out of town, and the city urges tourists to visit in order to see Weimar “in its entirety.”

On Weimar’s Market Square, buildings in a row in the background are post-World War II reconstructions. Merchants to this day set up stalls in this historic marketplace.

Nadine Godwin, author of this article, is the author of Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia, which was published by The Intrepid Traveler.

This article first appeared on June 16, 2011, in TravelWeek, a Canadian newspaper for members of the travel industry.

The 18th century elector’s palace, now a university building in Boon.

BONN, Germany — The former capital of Germany, Bonn, sits on the west-southwest bank of the Rhine about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of a considerably better-known tourist destination, Cologne.

When I visited Cologne in spring 2011, I heard some locals use another “b” word to describe the smaller city — boring.

Beethoven’s birthplace, a small house on a tiny courtyard in Bonn.

Wrong.

Of course, it depends on what one wants in a destination, but Bonn (population: 340,000 including area villages) offers the charming Old Town that any self-respecting tourist destination in Germany has; a universally admired native son — Ludwig van Beethoven — plus the attractions that go with that distinction, and a scenic Rhine-side setting with leisurely river cruises.

I participated in a trip designed by the German National Tourist Office for journalists, a day trip out of Cologne, which allowed a glimpse of these central features.

With a guide we walked smartly through the Old Town, admiring the palatial residence of an 18th century elector, now a university building. For those who are movie fans, it’s worth noting that in August the university is the site of the Bonn Silent Film Festival.

Our look at the 13th century Munster Basilica was a fly-by affair, too, but with an amusing footnote. Two large stone heads lie in the parking lot, looking like the lost pieces of two huge full-body statues. Our guide explained: The church sits where two Christians were martyred, and those stone heads

White asparagus, a seasonal specialty, for sale in Bonn’s Old Town Market Square.

lying among the cars are artwork!

In any case, we were making a beeline for Beethoven’s birthplace, passing through the Old Town’s market square — the site of real markets, by the way — and glimpsing the gorgeous Old City Hall on one side.

Munster Square in Bonn, with a statue of Beethoven at its center.

The Beethoven House is nearby at Bonngasse 20. However, as our guide noted, many visitors snap photos thinking they have seen the birthplace. However, the Beethovens were renting a small house in the rear courtyard. Tourists pay their entry fee in the house facing the street, then enter the tiny residence at the back to see the attic space where genius was born.

Both houses contain extensive collections of documents, musical instruments and more, meant to tell the composer’s story. For visitors who cannot get enough, Bonn also hosts a Beethoven Festival each autumn.

View of Konigswinter from a Rhine River cruise.

Having done our duty to Beethoven’s memory, we boarded a boat operated by Personenschifffahrt Siebengebirge  (Seven Hills Cruising Company) for an hour’s journey up the Rhine with lunch on board.

The cruise was an ideal touristic experience, but not a trip anyone should choose for the food. It was a

Drachenburg Castle

relaxing way to see more of Bonn and neighboring towns, plus some of the east bank’s so-called Seven Hills, or Siebengebirge in German.

Our goal was Konigswinter, a resort town at the foot of one of those hills, the 1,053-foot (321-meter) Drachenfels. This big rock, meaning Drachenfels, provided much of the stone for the Cologne Cathedral.

Konigswinter is noted for its cog railway, Germany’s oldest, founded in 1883. Now modernized, it takes passengers to the ruins of a medieval castle at the top of Drachenfels for sweeping views that on a clear day stretch to Cologne.

We alighted instead at an intermediate stop to tour a castle that is not in ruins. A 19th century banker built Drachenburg Castle in 1882, a structure meant to imitate medieval styles.

That vision produced a dark, gloomy interior although it is also opulent. On the other hand, seen from a distance, the exterior looks like a fairytale, and it was built on Drachenfels for a reason. The site is spectacular.

A passenger car of the Drachenfels cog railway.

On that high-altitude note, our day ended at Drachenburg and we returned to Cologne.

Our short visit illustrates what can be done in a day, but there’s more for those who stay longer. Bonn boasts several music festivals (including Bonn Summer, with all types of music, June to September), popular theater and museums, including the Museum of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany.

From 1949 to 1992, Bonn was the West German capital. Themed walking

Interior of the former German parliament building, a very modern glass-and-steel structure, in Bonn.

tours cover the former government quarter, including the modern glass-and-steel parliament building that was under construction when the Berlin Wall tumbled in 1989. The Bundestag met there from 1992 until its relocation in 1999; the building is a conference center now — but still worth viewing with a tourist’s eye.

Nadine Godwin, author of this article, is the author of Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia, which was published by The Intrepid Traveler.

This article first appeared on June 16, 2011, in TravelWeek, a Canadian newspaper for members of the travel industry.

A tour boat of the kind operating on the Tarcoles River.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — I recently participated in a weeklong press trip to Costa Rica that highlighted the kinds of sightseeing and activities that are typically offered to tourists who arrive in the Central American country on cruise ships.

A sweeping view of San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital.

The ships call at two Caribbean ports (Limon or Moin) — and at three Pacific ports (Caldera, Golfito or Puntarenas), which results in some variation among choices available to these day visitors.

Our press group spent on the first and last nights in San Jose, a city that is often held in low regard as a tourist destination. Just the same, from my hotel windows it looked quite attractive in the morning sun, and besides there were a couple of nice restaurants in town.

They were, by the way, the Grano de Oro, a fine-dining establishment in a boutique hotel of the same name, and La Chandelier, located in a former house that looked as if it had been a pretty nice place to

Interior of the Grano de Oro restaurant in San Jose’s boutique hotel of the same name.

live.

We spent several days sampling excursions offered on the country’s Caribbean side, and my report on those activities can be found here.

What follows are descriptions of sample shore excursions offered to cruisers at Costa Rica’s Pacific ports.

Our group’s first exposure to the country’s Pacific coast was an eye-popping sunset, or at least the last of it, seen from a terrace restaurant called Anfiteatro at the Villa Caletas, a private upscale hotel on a hill 1,150 feet above the ocean. We had our dinner — a gourmet meal, in fact — at the outdoor eatery before heading to our own none-too-shabby resort, Los Suenos Marriott Ocean & Golf Resort. Both are in the Jaco

Watching the last of a sunset from the terrace of the Villa Caletas.

Entrance area at Los Suenos Marriott Ocean & Golf Resort on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast.

Beach area of Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast.

• Our short roster of activities on the country’s west coast started at the private Rain Forest Adventures Pacific Park, near Jaco Beach. The private reserve is geared up to offer rides on an aerial tram, guided nature walks and ziplining. Tourists don’t have to be cruisers to try any or all of these options.

We did all three. For ziplining, there were 10

An anhinga, photographed on the Tarcoles River. A cruise along the Tarcoles is offered to cruisers whose ships dock on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast.

cables, and — given we had already been riding cables earlier in the week — we zipped (forgive the

pun) through this set, especially enjoying the longer rides that allowed time to look at the scenery.

The park is so close to the ocean that we could see the water as well the rain forest treetops.

• We had time for wildlife viewing from a slow-moving motorized boat on Tarcoles River, also quite near the central Pacific coast. This itinerary was operated by a company called Jungle Crocodile Safari, which certainly makes it clear what we were looking for.

The river is infested with the crocs, and we did see a few, but for my taste — after spotting a few of

A close-up of a Tarcoles River crocodile and its teeth. The river is abundantly supplied with the crocs.

those big guys — the birds were more pleasing.

Because there were so many potential sightings, we were provided with a cheat sheet with pictures of 58 local bird species to help us keep count. The birds were not merely plentiful but colorful — and bird watching proved to be fun, even for this novice.

The winners for color were the roseate spoonbill (with a really funny bill, too) and the

Scarlet macaws clustered in the trees above the Tarcoles River.

scarlet macaws, but the skinny-legged egrets, herons and especially the black-necked stilts were charming. Given the time they spent at water’s edge, I couldn’t help wondering how they avoid those huge crocs in the river.

It seemed, by trip’s end, that almost any wildlife viewing experience in Costa Rica will be partially or predominately a bird-watching experience. No wonder. The country has almost as many bird species as all of the

A trio of black-necked stilts line up, as if in formation.

U.S. and Canada combined.

Although my press group participated in these activities because they are typical of cruise excursions, other tourists in Costa Rica can do anything cruisers can do — and more. Most notable in that last category is watching nesting turtles at night, as well as, say, overnighting in an exotic rain forest lodge or hanging around to eat dinner in a fine-dining restaurant.

By the end of this trip, my clothes were in dreadful shape — dirty and (it seemed) incurably damp. On our last night in San Jose, I met up with a long-time industry colleague, Leigh Ann Cloutier, president of Rico Tours, Austin, Texas, and a Costa Rica expert. She says that, after a Costa Rica trip, “you know how

good a time you had by how dirty your clothes are.”

I could prove I had had a good time.

Nadine Godwin, author of and photographer for this article, is the author of Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia, which was published by The Intrepid Traveler.

A three-toed sloth in a tree alongside the Tortuguero Canals. The canals are a sightseeing destination for cruisers docking on Costa Rica’s Caribbean side.

LIMON, Costa Rica — Our banana plantation tour was a warm (under sun-filled Caribbean skies) and informative session. Who knew that it only takes a banana plant nine months from the day it is planted to produce bananas?

Actually, the plant produces a single stock with 100 or more “fingers,” as individual bananas are termed among producers. Then, the plant is cut back close to the ground and regenerates and produces again. That process can continue for up to 40 years, we were advised.

My press group learned this in Costa Rica while standing in the shade of banana leaves, under unharvested stocks, on the 100,000-acre grounds of the Filadelfia Packing Plant owned by Del Monte.

We could look into the processing plant, but not walk inside for safety reasons. Also, we would have been in the way.

We watched harvesters hang scores of stocks while others cut “hands” (the banana bunches we see in stores} off the stocks and still other staffers sorted the fruit to determine which could be exported.

Colorful houses visible from the port at Limon.

I visited the banana plantation while traveling with a small press group hosted by the Costa Rica Tourism Board. We were sampling sightseeing excursions and activities that are made available to tourists arriving in the country by cruise ship.

Cruisers have options for visiting other types of plantations, too, such as coffee or pineapple plantations. The options depend to some extent on whether their cruise ship docks on the country’s Pacific or Caribbean side.

The Filadelfia Packing Plant is visited from the Caribbean ports of Limon and Moin. The same is true of all the experiences described below.

The author, Nadine Godwin, rides the rapids of the River Reventazon. She is the rafter seated at far right. (Photo by Fernando Torres, Adventuras Photographicas)

• Probably our most ambitious activity was a two-hour whitewater rafting session on the River Reventazon, traveling seven miles on Class I, II and III rapids, starting with Class III.

This endeavor requires several hours, but cruise ships generally spend the day in a Costa Rica port, which means cruisers have time to give this a try.

Our staging area was at Rios Tropicales Lodge in a town called Cairo (no kidding). We could change clothes there before and after, and get our lunch there, too.

But we got down to business at riverside when our rafting master, if you will, gave us our instructions on how to do things, both to maintain coordinated control over the raft and to keep us safe, especially if we fell overboard. There were 10 of us on the raft, total.

Some of our number had more experience than others (mine was limited), but we all managed to hold on tight for the deep dips and swirling rides.

In photos, seen later, at times we were visible, then invisible behind big waves and then visible again, all within 60 seconds, as indicated by the time associated with each photo. For a fee, tourists generally have access to photos of themselves taken on these excursions.

Lunch after whitewater rafting tasted pretty good. My shoes and some clothes were damp or downright wet for the rest of the trip. The humidity is high in Costa Rica, a reality that goes hand in hand with the country’s extensive rain forests, which contribute to the country’s outsized biodiversity.

A charming lineup of mangrove swallows seen alongside the Tortuguero Canals, a sightseeing destination for cruisers docking on Costa Rica’s Caribbean side.

• Speaking of biodiversity, our first wildlife-viewing excursion was a float, aboard a slow-moving motorized boat, on the Tortuguero Canals, which flow parallel to the Caribbean.

A neotropical cormorant seen alongside the Tortuguero Canals, which flow roughly parallel to Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.

This was a pleasant, smooth ride offering a real chance to look at animals, mostly hard-to-spot sloths and a fair variety of birds. We also saw a caiman, an iguana, lizards and one fast-moving otter.

Sloths were a special attraction because they are such sweet-looking, gentle creatures and I, for one, had never seen a sloth in the wild.

A three-toed sloth at the Costa Rica Sloth Rescue Center appears to be playing peek-a-boo with tourists.

On another day, we devoted more time to the creatures at the Costa Rica Sloth Rescue Center, which is about 40 minutes from the port of Limon.

We were hosted there by Jeffery Rochte, a 20-something grandson of the couple (an American woman and her Costa Rican husband) who founded the operation. The center is a private foundation, now 20 years old.

We could pet some of the sloths. While the animals are quite endearing, one does need to be careful not to get bitten as a result of making them nervous with too much attention. They don’t have front teeth but they have teeth at the back.

A colorful ringed kingfisher seen alongside the Tortuguero Canals, which flow roughly parallel to Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.

Sloths live in trees and come down from their perches only once a week to urinate and defecate. It is risky for them to come down because they are slow moving; on the other hand, their slowness — including slow metabolism — means they don’t have to venture down too often either, Jeffery said. They also don’t have to drink water, he added, because they get needed moisture from the plants they eat. For another curious factoid, try this: Seven kinds of algae and seven kinds of moths live in sloth hair, he said.

As for the resident sloths, many are rescuees that, after receiving needed

A snowy egret seen at the Tortuguero Canals, which flow roughly parallel to Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.

medical or other care, will be returned to the wild. But those that would not survive in the wild won’t be released.

• Our group spent a night at the Rain Forest Adventures Atlantic Park, a 1,200-acre private nature reserve adjacent to the Braulio Carrillo National Park. The private reserve includes the Rain Forest Aerial Tram Lodge, which accommodates 20 guests in 10 cottages; an aerial tram for what is essentially a nature walk over and in the forest treetops, and ziplines, i.e., cables that allow adventurous sorts to fly above the trees from platform to platform. We tried them all.

First the lodge: I have been in a few other rain forest lodges, but this was decidedly nicer. Like the others, the rooms had no air conditioning, telephones, television — or even electricity after some point in the evening. Also, given it is in a rain forest, there is rain. Damp clothes and wet shoes tend to stay that way.

Interior of a room at the Rain Forest Aerial Tram Lodge. The rooms are quite attractive with white paint and big windows.

However, I had a shower with hot water, the restaurant food was exceptional (including the best fresh orange juice on the trip) and, best of all, there were no bugs or other little creatures in my room.

I don’t mean that to sound like faint praise because, bottom line, the facility wasn’t merely designed for sustainability. The bungalows and public spaces were pretty and pleasant to be in.

Cruisers don’t see the bungalows. They just come to the park for the day, for the trams and ziplining.

As to the aerial tram, its canvas-roofed gondolas each accommodated six passengers and a guide and took more than an hour to cover a 1.6-mile treetop route. There were scurrying animals at ground level, but the easier sightings were butterflies, birds (I loved the toucans) and all sorts of unusual plant life.

But the thing we waited for was the ziplining, some because they were experienced and eager, but I — having never even considered ziplining as an option — was frankly nervous.

As with the rafting, this session opened with instructions for our safety. This covered the use of the equipment so we could ride face forward and bring ourselves to the next platform if we lost our momentum while in flight. So, holding my breath some and staring up or shutting my eyes early in some flights, I became more comfortable — finally really enjoying the last and longest flight.

My growing comfort was no doubt helped by the redundancies in the Rain Forest Adventures system. We were strapped into two halters (one supporting bottoms, the other the backs), rather than just one for sitting, and hooked to two cables rather than one.

One government agency advised there might be around 120 ziplines in the country. We zipped our way along 11 on our first go at the sport.

Nadine Godwin, author and photographer of this article, is the author of Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia, which was published by The Intrepid Traveler.

Argentina’s Presidential Palace is called Casa Rosada, or Pink House, for good reason. Located on the Plaza de Mayo.

BUENOS AIRES — It may be a commonplace, that Argentina’s capital is South America’s most European city. To see it for the first time is a revelation of sorts, nevertheless.

Other cities on the continent offer plenty of evidence for their European roots, too, but in this case, uniquely, think Paris.

Buenos Aires stands apart in other ways, as well. A higher percentage of the population is of European descent (as is true for all of Argentina) than elsewhere on the continent, and, although the country was a Spanish colony, it attracted a broader mix of European — and even American — immigrants.

For today’s visitors, that translates into more choices for dining and even places to hang out; food may be Argentinian beef or fine Italian, after-hours entertainment may mean watching or learning the tango or making the rounds of a cluster of Irish pubs downtown.

Warehouses in Puerto Madero, once abandoned, were rehabilitated and repurposed beautifully in the late 1990s for a multitude of purposes including restaurants and shops.

The historic churches, the French mansard roofs, the colorful nightspots, all are tucked in among countless towering office buildings downtown and apartment towers in residential sections.

The combo yields a city that is often pretty and feels larger than a population of around 3 million would suggest. (In fact, it feels large because of the suburbs in the surrounding province of Buenos Aires creating a metropolis of perhaps 14 million. Sources vary on this, ranging from around 13 million to 15 million, but regardless the number is a big one.)

Highlights for the first-time visitor will likely include:

Our Lady of Pilar Basilica, appealing in its own right, abuts the Ricoleta Cemetery, burial site for the rich and famous, including Eva Peron.

• Plaza de Mayo, the square where the city was born in 1580. The de rigueur church here, the 19th century Metropolitan Cathedral, has a neoclassical exterior — in other words, it looks like a Greek temple — and the interior is Baroque.

It also is the burial site for the country’s hero-liberator Jose de San Martin who died in France but was eventually transferred back here; his coffin is so long it is positioned at an angle under the grandly designed urn over it.

Also, on Plaza de Mayo is the Presidential Palace, where the president works but does not live.  For good reason, it also is called the Casa Rosada, or Rose House: From 1884, the facade has been painted pink.

• La Boca, a down-and-out waterfront neighborhood, with cache. That sounds contradictory, but in the 19th century, a local artist hatched the idea of adorning public spaces and the sides of houses with art — which is still there — and painting the houses in bright colors  — another tradition that lives on. It also is said to be the birthplace of the tango.

Buenos Aires’ La Boca neighborhood, with numerous artworks on permanent view and brightly painted houses, is a colorful place in every sense of the word.

Although it is favored by some artists, most people still would not choose to live in La Boca, but it is a lively place for a daytime visit, walking a pedestrians-only “main” street (the Caminito), the center for the area’s attractions.

On a typical sunny afternoon (my experience), there were plenty of visitors on hand, taking photos, listening to the tango music piped into the streets and posing for pictures with live models in seductive tango postures. Artists also were selling drawings and paintings in street-vendor set-ups reminiscent of Montmartre.

• The ornate Teatro Colon, one of the world’s grandest opera houses. Tourists can take guided tours of

Close-up of the Buenos Aires opera house, the ornate Teatro Colon, in a photo taken during its recently completed renovation.

a building that is evocative of all the glamor that theatrical settings can suggest. The facility was renovated, at a cost of $100 million, according to the Associated Press, and reopened in 2010.

• Recoleta Cemetery, burial site of Eva Peron. Recoleta is a fashionable

neighborhood distinguished by broad, well-kept boulevards (in a city of boulevards), upscale shopping — and the eponymous cemetery where scores of mausoleums and a tidy street plan add up to another fashionable neighborhood, for the dead.

Entry is free but an inexpensive “town map” is very helpful. The map identifies 158 burials of note including, of course, the real estate assigned to Eva Peron. For her, there is no mausoleum but a pillar topped by a winged figure, and some say “Evita” is not really there.

Ricoleta Cemetery, with mausoleums that look like tiny houses and its own “town map,” is a fashionable neighborhood for the dead.

The cemetery abuts the charming Our Lady of Pilar Basilica, which fulfills every fantasy of how a small, white mission-style church should look.

• Tango show. No city’s name is so closely entwined with a dance as is Buenos Aires with the tango. Not even Vienna and the waltz.

Born on the wrong side of the tracks, the tango has come uptown — and spread across the world. In the Argentine capital, tourists can drop in on the low-cost milongas at almost any time to practice their steps. Watchers and other cowards have numerous dinner shows to choose from.

My tango sampler was the dinner show at Michelangelo, clearly designed (and priced, not quite $50 a person, basic show only; up to $75, least costly dinner and show option) for tourists. There are plenty more such shows to choose from.

In a relatively intimate setting, visitors from across the globe saw varying renditions of the dance, with performers dressed (or not) for the bordello; women in flared skirts, men in pinstripes; and women in skirts split nearly to the waist, men in tuxes.

Then, we spilled onto the cobblestones of San Telmo, a down-and-dirty barrio/up-and-coming bohemia — a good match for the occasion.

Travel trivia: At 460 feet, the widest avenue in the world is Av. 9 de Julio in Buenos Aires.

— Excerpted from Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia, by Nadine Godwin, author of this article and published by The Intrepid Traveler.

Pisac’s market offers an extensive array of choices for the shopper. All photos by Nadine Godwin.

CUSCO, Peru — I visited Peru, backpacker style, in the 1970s when I had friends based there in the Peace Corps. I returned in late 2011 with a small press group for an update on some of Peru’s touristic high spots. In the intervening 30-plus years, the South American country suffered from a deadly Maoist insurgency that cost thousands of lives while scaring tourists away from a fascinating destination. The insurgency’s leader was captured in 1992, and his movement fizzled soon after. Tourists and business travelers have since returned in significant numbers. From my standpoint (as the perpetual tourist!), Peru was much as I remembered it despite significant changes that, as far as I could tell, were mostly for the better.

The Andes and Lake Titicaca are as beautiful as ever, the colonial city centers built by Spanish conquistadors remain intact and many rural Peruvians continue to wear traditional clothes and sell familiar handicrafts. The changes include restoration of the historic city centers, several of which are now protected as UNESCO heritage sites. Not surprisingly, Machu Picchu, the country’s best-known archaeological attraction, looks essentially the same, but as a UNESCO site, also benefits from enhanced care. Due to later excavations, more pre-Columbian archaeological sites appear on the tourist circuit these days, too. Choices for quality accommodations in Lima, the capital, and at popular tourist areas around the country have been much expanded. And Lima has emerged as a city for foodies; it’s got a popular bohemian quarter, too. In a three-part report, I mention altitudes when relevant because thin air affects some travelers’ ability to enjoy themselves. Better hotels keep oxygen tanks on hand, and travelers can obtain oxygen canisters in Cusco near Machu Picchu and Puno on Lake Titicaca. From personal experience (a bad burn in 1975), I also suggest travelers, regardless of natural complexion, use a sunblock when at high altitudes because the sun’s rays in thin air can make for painful burns. Because I am covering quite a bit of territory in this report, only two segments appear below. Click here for the segment, on Peru’s largest cities, Lima and Arequipa.

Inca memories: Cusco/Machu Picchu

View of Cusco’s Plaza de Armas, or Plaza Mayor, in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Cusco, a city of 500,000 at 11,000 feet above sea level, was the Inca capital but looks a lot like a Spanish city. That’s because the conquistadors knocked down much of what they found and literally built on top of Inca foundations. Visitors can easily pick out the buildings with Inca stonework because of the gigantic size of the stones and the fact they were so carefully shaped that they did not require mortar for fit. By now, the Spanish buildings that replaced Inca temples have achieved their own historical significance, and they have broad appeal for tourists. That’s why, upon arrival in Cusco, I made a beeline for the central square surrounded by the de rigueur cathedral and a raft of low-rise houses distinguished by their balconies and arcades.

Many Old Town houses are now restaurants and shops frequented by foreign visitors. Other historic buildings are upscale hotels. Our group spent

The Cusco Cathedral in the city’s Plaza de Armas, which is also known as the Plaza Mayor.

The Monasterio lounge and bar in a vaulted space near the hotel’s main entry.

one night at Cusco’s Monasterio, a beautifully repurposed 16^th century monastery (built on Inca walls) with cloister architecture intact and a still-active chapel at one corner. As most tourists do, we used Cusco as our jumping-off point for a visit to Machu Picchu, often called the “Lost City of the Incas.” We drove into the Urubamba River valley where we could shop in Pisac, the area’s famous market town, and stay in a hotel relatively close to Machu Picchu. On the way out of Cusco, we stopped at a lookout point for sweeping views of the historic city center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. Almost immediately after, we passed an Inca survivor, the humongous Sacsayhuaman fortress. It’s fortunate for historians and all the rest of us that this structure, with stones weighing as much as 138 tons, would have been very hard for 16^thcentury conquerors to destroy.

Overview of the central section of Machu Picchu.

It is also fortuitous that the invaders did not even see Machu Picchu, an 8,000-foot mountain in an Andean rain forest covered dramatically at its top by remains of an Inca agricultural and religious center. Strictly speaking, Machu Picchu — which means Old Peak — is the name of the mountain, but the name also is popularly applied to the city the Incas built on it. For important buildings, the Incas moved their trademark huge stones to the mountaintop site for mortar-free construction. They also built an extensive system of terraces for food production. This is one place where the word awesome, a much-overused adjective, is actually appropriate.

We walked all over the Machu Picchu site to admire the Inca’s handiwork from several vantage points. We did this with care (because the rocky pathways were uneven, steep and wet) and slowly (due to altitude). Resident

Llamas, which are a domesticated animal, are more than comfortable on visitor paths at Machu Picchu.

llamas, which we passed along the way, obviously are in the habit of using

tourist paths, too. Our guide said experts generally agree that the city was a secret from most Inca subjects, which reduced the odds anyone would tell strangers about it. We could see why the Spaniards weren’t likely to find it by accident either. Even today, it is a project to get there. Tourists arrive by train at Aguas Calientes, a village below Machu Picchu, directly from Cusco (three hours plus) or on a shorter trip from a station in the valley. More adventurous travelers hike in. Those of us who did not hike boarded a bus at Aguas Calientes for a 25-minute ride that zigzagged sharply up the mountainside. We descended the same way at the end of the day.

Titicaca, a lake and its people

One of the Uros reed islands, located in the shallow waters of Lake Titicaca.

By tradition, the Incas originated in the area of Lake Titicaca in the Andean Altiplano (plateau) on the Peru-Bolivia border, but — like many tourists — we came to the lake to visit people with cultures that predate even the Incas. It doesn’t hurt that the lake is special, too. Titicaca, deemed the world’s highest-altitude (12,500 feet) navigable lake, is a stunning deep blue surrounded by agricultural terraces that predate the Incas and Andean mountains as high as 21,000 feet to the east, on the Bolivian side. The site is good for cycling or hiking on the Andean plateau or kayaking or sailing on the lake itself. We spent our time visiting the Uros people, who live on islands in Titicaca’s shallows, islands that they build with the totora reeds that grow in the lake, and the Taquile people, who live on a rocky island of the same name and are renowned for centuries-old textiles traditions.

Uros reed islands.The Uros create floating islands by layering totora reeds as if weaving, first east-west, then north-south, and so forth until an island is about 13 feet deep. The reeds rot, so new are added at the top every couple of weeks. The Uros people, now numbering 2,000, have lived on their reed islands since before the Incas appeared. There are up to 60 islands in the lake currently. Strolling on real estate built with reeds can feel like walking on a waterbed, but the island on our itinerary was firmer than that. Maybe it had just gotten a new totora layer. We were free to roam the small island, watching women cook or do their embroidery. I was invited into one of the oh-so-tiny houses, also built of reeds. The Uros people own motorized boats, but use reed boats for hunting seabirds, fishing — and hosting tourists. We enjoyed our chance for a short and very smooth float on one such bundle of reeds. The boatman pushed us forward using a single pole, touching the lake’s bottom. The visit concluded with an informal market where women sold embroidery and other items, another way that tourism helps support the Uros way of life.

Taquile host Juan, in front of his home. He wears the islanders’ traditional cap and calendar waistband.

Taquile and textiles.At Taquile (population: about 2,200), we were met by Juan, whose traditional clothes illustrated some of the textiles for which his people are famous. He wore the so-called calendar waistband, a wide woven belt with illustrations depicting annual agricultural cycles. He wore the knitted Taquile hat, too, a topper that resembles a nightcap. He led our small press group up a steep incline of rough and uneven rocks and pathways to lunch at his residence. The menu included alpaca (with a mild taste like some pork dishes I’ve eaten). The visit afforded us great views over the island’s extensive terracing as well as the Andean scenery that rims Lake Titicaca. Juan also demonstrated how the Taquile people grind corn — grown on the island — to a fine grain and make soap from an indigenous herb. Of course, we exercised our option to buy some of the textiles, made by men as well as women. UNESCO has declared the textiles a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Views from atop the rocky Taquile Island can be dramatic. Here, visitors look down on shoreside grazing land and the deep blue waters of Lake Titicaca.

The cities: Lima, Arequipa – For this report click here.

The Sacsayhuaman fortress, with stones weighing from 100 tons to about 138 tons, was built in the 15^th century without benefit of the wheel. These and other tidbits about Peru appear in Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia, which was written by Nadine Godwin, the author of this article on Peru. The book was published by The Intrepid Traveler.