8-day, 7-night adventure in Manitoba, CANADA. Departs Feb. 18 & 27 and March 4 & 8, 2018. Highlights: Winnipeg’s Manitoba Museum for Inuit culture/fly to Churchill/view northern lights from Aurora Lounge/in Churchill, Itsanitaq Museum, snowshoeing, dogsledding. $5,349 ppdo. Single supp., $1,200. Frontiers North Adventures (204-1111 Munroe Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2K 3Z5, Canada; in US, 800/663-9832, www.frontiersnorth.com).
At least 20 people were killed and more than 500 injured when an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck the northern area of Sichuan Province, in south-central China, on Aug. 8.
The earthquake struck near the popular tourist destination pf Jiuzhaigou National Park, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, damaging roads, hotels and some well-known nature sites such as lakes and waterfalls. At least 60,000 tourists were evacuated from the area.
15 days, 14 nights. Departures Nov. 25 & Dec. 9, 2017. Group limit, 12. Highlights: In Georgetown, fly to 741-foot-tall Kaieteur Falls/fly to Annai for Iwokrama Rain Forest/at Kurupukari Falls, see petroglyphs/at Surama Eco-Lodge, evening wildlife walk/Burro Burro River for river otters/Panorama Trail, home to storks, toucans. From London, £5,360 (near $6,818) ppdo. Single supp., £450 ($572). Rainbow Tours (2 Waterhouse Sq., 138-140 Holborn, London, England, EC1N 2ST, U.K.; phone +44 20 7666 1266, www.rainbowtours.com).
14-day, 13-night walking tour of volcanoes on SPAIN’s Canary Islands. Departures Dec. 22, 2017, and Feb. 3 & 17 and March 10, 2018. Group limit, 6. Highlights: Fly from Tenerife to Lanzarote/Caldera Blanca volcano/La Corona volcano and lava tube, Tacoron, La Restinga/fly to Tenerife for Teide volcano, Masca village. €2,860 (near $3,399) ppdo. Single supp., €150 ($178). Nature Discovery Tours (Kronenstr, 2, D-53840, Troisdorf, Germany; phone +49 1794 761831, www.nature-discovery-tours.com).
14 days, 13 nights. October-November 2017 & March-November 2018. Highlights: Travel from Antananarivo to Andasibe-Perinet National Park, home to lemurs and Indri Special Reserve/colonial city of Antsirabe/Lake Andraikiba/in village of Fiadanana, listen to ghost talker, dine with family/Anja Community Reserve/in Isalo National Park, swimming and waterfalls/Mahafaly tombs, baobab trees. $2,039-$2,399 (per dates). G Adventures (60 Bastwick St., London, England, EC1V 3AT, U.K.; in US, 855/667-9501, www.gadventures.com).
The Loen Skylift, one of the steepest aerial trams in the world, began operation on May 20 in northern Norway’s Nordfjord area. Picking up 35 to 40 people every 30 minutes, each enclosed lift takes five to seven minutes to travel 3,300 feet up from the waters’ edge to Mount Hoven. At the top is the cliffside Hoven Restaurant.
South Downs National Park, just south of London, England, was granted Dark Sky Reserve status in 2016 by the International Dark Sky Association (http://darksky.org), a nonprofit group that seeks to protect areas of excellent night-sky viewing from pollution by light.
To qualify for this status, the Snowdonia National Parks Authority made assurances to reduce or eliminate artificial light. Light pollution cannot be completely eliminated in the park, as there are some villages within its boundaries.
Cerro Negro, an active volcano outside of León, Nicaragua, is one of the only places in the world where an adventure-junkie can volcano board on a wooden sled at speeds of 40 to 50 miles per hour.
My wife and I set up our September 2016 Nicaragua trip, ourselves. First we went to Tamarindo Beach, Costa Rica, for a half-marathon and zip-line tours. Then we took a bus to Granada, where we stayed with friends.
Zelda and Fritz Oelrich’s tale of their travels through Peru continues…
While staying in Costa Rica for a month in January-February 2017, my husband, John Doellinger, and I spent the first week on a tour with Natural Habitat (Boulder, CO; 800/543-8917, www.nathab.com). For weeks three and four, we rented a condo in Playa Langosta, Guanacaste, through Airbnb. However, for the second week, Jan. 21-28, we were on our own in La Fortuna, near Arenal Volcano.