PERSONAL BEST: MACHU PICCHU. This IS my favorite cityscape, a great town just to look at–for hours on end as the light shifts and patterns alter. It’s a foggy and spectral burg without inhabitants, but history and spirituality animate the place. –B.C.
BEST MAN-MADE WONDER: You’re not prepared for the seemingly endless green canopy of the jungle on the flight from Belize City to Flores, a Guatemalan gateway to tikal and its Mayan temple ruins. Then, almost at the end of the 50-minute flight, rising in the distance from that sea of green, is Tikal’s Temple I, the Temple of the Grand Jaguar (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). A rush of excitement overtakes you as you board a tour bus for the 45-minute drive to the site, where you walk and walk until you’re finally in the Grand Plaza. And there is Temple I, rising as tall as a 15-story building. Other steep-sided temples are everywhere–many to climb, if you dare. –C.M.
BEST NATURAL WONDER: The Belize Barrier Reef, off the northern coast of the country and the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, is–at 190 miles long–the world’s second largest. See it from the air on a plane ride from Belize City to Ambergris Caye, where the snorkeling and scuba diving are great. (Yes, there are sharks.) –C.M.
BEST TRAM RIDE: For 80 breathtaking minutes, the Rain Forest Aerial Tram in Costa Rica carries visitors over and through a virgin tropical forest to show off myriad plant and animal species that live in the canopy. The park, 50 minutes from San Jose, is the nation’s premier ecotourism attraction. –A.B.
LOUDEST FISHING: Belize River lodge on the banks of the Olde River, near Belize City. Tarpon, permit and snook. Be prepared for squawking from local residents, a.k.a. howler monkeys. –C.M.
BEST DITCH: Ship passengers become both mesmerized and numbed by the engineering feat that enables huge container ships and smaller vessels to sail through the 51-mile-long Panama Canal with 12 sets of locks, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. –A.B.
BEST BORDER CROSSING: Going from one country into another usually is a non-event. However, crossing from Argentina to Chile in the Lake District stands out for its uniqueness. In 1983, I was traveling from the alpine city of Bariloche, Argentina, to Puerto Montt, Chile. Near Bariloche, I boarded a 194-passenger boat for a 2 1/2-hour trip on Lake Nahuel Huapi to Puerto Blest. There I got on a bus that took us 2 1/2 miles on a dirt road through a dense forest to Puerto Alegre on Lake Frias, where another boat transported us to Puerto Frias to clear Argentine immigration. Then we rode another bus for about 15 miles through more dense forest to the border at Puella to clear Chilean immigration. –A.B.
MOST DAZZLING NATURAL WONDER: IguaZu Falls, Brazil/Argentina. The Amazon is nice and so are the Andes, but imagine dozens of Niagaras placed side by side by side by side by . . . –A.S.
HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMP, RIVER DIVISION: The Amazon in Brazil cuts across the continent like a powerful ribbon of freshwater sea, creating a world of its own. But the rainforest it sustains is dwindling fast and that will make everyone’s breathing more difficult. –B.C.
PARTY CENTRAL: In Rio de Janeiro, daytime can mean a few carefree hours at the beach or a grim fight with the realities of city living. At night, the revels begin, and outsiders succumb to Carioca-envy. –B.C.
CAPITAL SUREST TO MAKE YOU GASP: La Paz, Bolivia. It’s pretty, it’s historic and it’s friendly, but there’s this catch: Ever try breathing at 12,000 feet? –A.S.
BEST OLD MINING TOWN: Brazil’s Ouro Preto, a town built on gold, with spectacular baroque colonial architecture, is like Galena on steroids. –R.C.
