American Traveler

 

  

A barefoot lifestyle and a love of reggae rule this pocket-size English-speaking nation, which feels more Caribbean in culture than Central American. Ambergris Caye, located off the northeastern coast and a quick flight from Belize City, is a 25-mile-long island known for its soft beaches and car-free tranquillity. Sequestered at the north end of the island, Matachica Beach Resort is renowned for its charm and seclusion. The thatched-roof cabins come with porches for catching a breeze; the turquoise Caribbean waters offer world-class snorkeling right off the dock.

  

 

The Gran Hotel Bahía del Duque Resort was constructed in 1993. Designed by the Tenerife-born architect Andrés Piñeiro, the hotel was first planned as a large 4* investment, but the idea of a 5* luxury establishment soon won over, marking the beginning of 5* developments in the now exclusive Costa Adeje region.

The hotel has soon become a landmark in the south part of the island of Tenerife. Originally constructed in the midst of a semi desert, the hotel was the first large project of Andrés Piñeiro, launching his career as an architect of luxury hotels around the world,. The style that predominates in the establishment is a mixture between a typical Canarian Village, a Venetian plaza and a botanical garden with ponds, springs and waterfalls. The hotel is built directly on the sea front of the Atlantic Ocean, on the Bahia del Duque beach.

  

 

The Niagara Falls are massive waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border separating the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. The falls are 17 miles (27 km) north-northwest of Buffalo, New York, 75 miles (120 km) south-southeast of Toronto, Ontario, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York. Niagara Falls is composed of two major sections separated by Goat Island: Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side of the border and American Falls on the United States side. The smaller Bridal Veil Falls also is located on the American side, separated from the main falls by Luna Island.

  

 

Torrey Pines Golf Course is a municipal public golf course owned by the city of San Diego, California. It sits on the coastal cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the community of La Jolla south of Torrey Pines State Reserve. It has two famous golf courses, the North Course and the South Course. The South Course was designed by William F. Bell and redesigned by Rees Jones in 2001. It is now a par 72 course at 7,643 yards (6,989 m) in length from the back tees. Much like Bethpage Black on Long Island, Torrey Pines boasts a unique method to ensure continued public access to the course. On weekends, individuals arrive as early as 6 p.m. the prior night to get in line for the first come / first serve tee times that are given out from sunrise till the first reservations at 7:30 a.m..

  

 

Musha Cay is a 150 acre (1/4 of a sq. mile), privately owned island in the Exuma Chain, in the southern Bahamas. It is located 85 miles southeast of Nassau.Musha Cay is surrounded by three smaller islands that maintain its guests’ privacy. There can only be one group of guests, numbering up to twenty-four, at any one time.Musha Cay is owned by David Copperfield.According to Copperfield, the Fountain of Youth has been discovered there.Google co-founder Sergey Brin was married on Musha Cay in May 2007.The island has received much publicity due to a Seattle federal grand jury investigating allegations by a 21 year-old woman who claims David Copperfield brought her to Musha Cay in July 2007 and raped and assaulted her.

  

 

Amazonia. Vast beyond comprehension, remote, and tragically delicate. Spanning Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana, the Amazon is one of the last frontiers, and it’s disappearing at a staggering rate. There are many points of entry to the region, and one of the best is located near Manaus in Brazil’s Amazonas state. Follow a straight-line road 200 km to Jau National Park, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tropical, constantly wet (it IS a rain forest) and home to myriad species of dolphins, fish, birds, crocodiles, turtles, monkeys, jaguars, tapirs and insects, the park can be explored by boat for the adventurous or by foot for the suicidal. Fall asleep in a hammock to the calls of the wild, and be grateful to have glimpsed the splendor of this ecological treasure before it’s gone forever.

  

 

Virgin Gorda is the third-largest (after Tortola and Anegada) and second most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Located at approximately 18 degrees, 48 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area of about 8 square miles (21 km²). Christopher Columbus is said to have named the island "The Fat Virgin", because its silhouette resembles a rotund woman lying on her back. The main town is Spanish Town on the southwestern part of the island.

An unusual geologic formation known as "The Baths" located on the southern end of the island makes Virgin Gorda one of the BVI’s major tourist destinations. At The Baths, the beach shows evidence of the island’s volcanic origins, as huge granite boulders lie in piles on the beach, forming scenic grottoes that are open to the sea. North of the Baths is the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor, formerly owned Little Dix Bay. The most notable ruin on Virgin Gorda is the old Copper Mine.

  

 

Mount Timpanogos is the second highest mountain in Utah’s Wasatch Range (second to Mount Nebo). Timpanogos rises to an elevation of 11,749 feet (3,582 m) above sea level in the Uinta National Forest.

The mountain towers over Utah Valley, including the cities of Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Lindon and others. Timpanogos is a Paiute word[citation needed] for "river of rock" — dominated as it is by large talus cones and abundant glacial moraines. The exposed portion of the mountain is entirely comprised of limestone and dolomite from the Pennsylvanian period, and is about 300 million years old. Heavy winter snowfall is characteristic of this portion of the Wasatch Range, and avalanche activity is common in winter and spring.

  

 

 

 

Iguazu Falls, Iguassu Falls, or Iguaçu Falls (Portuguese: Cataratas do Iguaçu, pronounced [kataˈɾatɐz du igwaˈsu]; Spanish: Cataratas del Iguazú, [kataˈɾatas del iɣwaˈsu) are waterfalls of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian state of Paraná and the Argentine province of Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu.

Their name comes from the Guarani or Tupi words y (IPA:[ɨ]) (water) and ûasú (IPA:[wa’su]) (big). Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. The first European to find the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541, after whom one of the falls in the Argentine side is named. The falls were rediscovered by Boselli at the end of the nineteenth century, and one of the Argentinian falls is named after him.