Intelligent Travel

Cinco de Mayo in Any Language

Happy Cinco de Mayo! If you're not too busy sipping your margarita, take time to enjoy IT Contributing Writer Cathy Healy's latest story about how sometimes, even celebrations can get lost in translation.

I've heard that San Jose boasts the biggest and best Cinco de Mayo celebration in northern California, but I've yet to experience the two-hour parade and throbbing musical acts blasting from two stages. Last year, even though I was only 30 minutes away, I lived in a different universe, with 12 international fellows at Stanford.

“Hey, let’s do something for Cinco de Mayo!” I said in late April, thinking of the annual excuse for an outdoor party in my Dupont Circle neighborhood in Washington, D.C., where the sidewalk cafes are typically packed with celebrants. “Cinco de Mayo’s a sort of Mexican heritage party,” I explained. “It’s really great! You drink margarita slushes, and eat nachos with jalapeños, and listen to mariachi music…”

The fellows glanced up from their laptops.

“When is it?” asked Hernan from Colombia. HUH?!

“I’m a Brazilian. Why would I want to celebrate Mexico’s independence?” asked Fabiana.

“Will the banks be closed?" asked Netika from India. Several of the fellows had gotten messed up on the Columbus Day holiday.

“Cinco de Mayo isn’t an official holiday,” I said. “It’s just something fun that everyone does, like St. Patrick’s Day.” No response. No one knew about that 'everyone’s-Irish' excuse for drinking beer since we’d all left for spring break on March 16.

Edgardo from the Philippines interjected: “Oh, I get it—Cinco de Mayo is when the Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead.”

"C’mon!" I said. "The Day of the Dead is always the day after Halloween!” I gave up.

Thus it came to pass that on Saturday, the fifth of May, four of us drove north to tour Napa wineries instead. After a couple of sippings, Ken from the U.K., a devout beer-drinker who’d become a McFlurry junkie at Stanford, persuaded us to forget the Silverado trail and hunt down a McDonald’s. They weren't quite the frozen margaritas I'd had in mind, but they did help beat the heat.

And on Sunday, the sixth of May, Hernan discovered Cinco de Mayo in San Jose. Turns out, he was right to ask in the first place, as the festival was in full swing.

“It was really great!” he told us the next day.

Read more: Check out Cathy's latest adventures in Amsterdam and Wyoming.

Photo: Janelle Nanos

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Molokai Ranch Closes

We were disappointed when we received a letter from reader Cynthia Burdge of Kailua, Hawaii, shortly after our Stay List came out, informing us that one of our picks, the Lodge and Beach Village at Molokai Ranch, had closed. But we were even more frustrated to learn about the circumstances surrounding it.

On March 25th, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported that the hotel, which consists of a restored plantation and tent village, shuttered its doors after it was denied permission to build a 200-lot luxury development on 500 acres at La'au Point. The hotel generated more than $9 million in revenue for the island each year, and over the past few weeks, the fallout has begun its ripple effect: over 120 employees are out of work, nearby businesses that the hotel ran to serve tourists have closed, and residents are worried that the hotel will not continue to maintain roads and other public utilities that they rely on. As Burdge writes, “[T]hey ‘gave back’ to the community by putting 120 people out of work on an island where the unemployment rate was already twice that of the rest of the state...This time, Aloha means goodbye.”

Traveler wrote about the resort in our September 2004 issue, describing the hotel as family-friendly enclave and noting that "Molokai has managed to avoid the tourist crush of Oahu and Maui—and likes it that way." Molokai's uniquely authentic character was further demonstrated in our Places Rated: Islands issue (November/December 2007), where Molokai ranked highest of all of the Pacific islands. One of our panelists reported that:

"More than 60 percent of the population are native Hawaiians interested in preserving their heritage, homesteads, and family values. Many prefer to live on a subsistence level. Under these circumstances, they are resentful of and oppose tourist developments. Better to just leave the island alone."

Local Flavor: Organic Sparkling Wine

The Domaine Carneros Winery in Napa, California announced today that they'd received their organic certification from California Certified Organic Farmers, making them the first organic-certified sparkling winery in the United States. I had the chance to sit down with the company president and chief winemaker Eileen Crane to learn more about the process behind making a fine wine an organic wine as well.

Crane grew up in New Jersey, but packed up her car 30 years ago and headed west to pursue her passion for wine. In that time, she's worked her way up through the vineyard ranks, and now oversees the development of new wines each season. She sums up her line of work as the pursuit of "Aha!" moments, the times when your taste buds quiver with delight at a delicious sip. Fortunately for us, Crane says that since switching to organic farming, the flavor of the grapes have intensified, leading to even more satisfying "Aha!" moments than even she expected.

Congratulations on your organic certification. I understand the process takes over three years, what changes did you have to implement at the winery?

It’s a return to doing things the natural way – the way that preserves the earth. You have to learn how to farm differently. Instead of using herbicides, we had to learn how to cultivate. You’re not spending money on chemicals, you’re putting money into labor instead. But it also needs to be efficient to compete in the market. Running organically is more expensive, but I always say that we can brainstorm and find ways to run efficiently while being organic.

Have you noticed a difference in the wine since switching to organic farming?

I was really surprised at how much better a product it makes. When we started doing it, I thought, Will I really be able to notice a difference? How substantial would it be?  You know when you get a teabag, you can tell whether it's good tea or great tea? You can tell the gradations: This is really awful, this is reasonably good, or this is something with that “Aha!” to it – this is really lovely. People always have descriptors for wine, and we use those, but some of it is just the feeling, just being conscious of that “Aha!” moment. It’s just wonderful. It’s like when you sit down to a meal and the presentation and balance is just perfect. The ingredients and seasoning is perfect, it just seems really right. I say yes, there’s more flavor in the grapes and there’s better balance, but it’s really the “Aha!” sense – this is really fabulous quality.

And I'm sure the vineyard has changed a bit as well.

The vines look happier when you look at the vineyard; the greens seem more vibrant. It’s like when you see a child that’s well nourished and cared for: the rosy cheeks. The vines have a sense of vibrancy.
Going organic is restoring the natural balance of microbes and animals. I realized that the three years that it took for certification is the time it takes to start to restore the earth to its natural state, the way it should be.

Sip Wine with Sonoma's Pros

San Francisco-based writer Matt Bloom is back with another insider's tip, this time on where to sip wine with Sonoma's pros.

With 14 different appellations, or grape-growing districts, in Sonoma County, a booze cruise down Highway 101 can be overwhelming. And not just because of the midday hangover. There’s a lot to learn about wine, and you won’t get it swirling a pinot—or whatever they said it was—in a tasting room. To really make the most of wine country, head to Carneros Bistro and Wine Bar for a tasting and some wisdom from locals who know. Twice a week, the restaurant, which is part of the 182-room Lodge at Sonoma, hosts wine-education nights. More of a casual conversation than a formal lecture, the evening gives visitors the opportunity to clear up any hazy parts of the day—how tannins affect a wine’s flavor profile, or why people were spitting perfectly good alcohol into buckets.

Tuesday nights, visitors will find sommelier Christopher Sawyer—who also happens to be a wine journalist and owner of WineRadius.com, a soon-too-launch online wine retailer —pouring complimentary tastings from the restaurant’s award-winning wine list. Sawyer chooses a seasonal theme (for spring: rosé, sauvignon blanc, and the like) and provides comprehensive tips and info on enjoying the wine without all the highfalutin' vino verbiage. “I’m not snooty about wine,” he says, “I just like it, and I want to put it on peoples’ tables. There’s never a dumb question here.”

On Thursdays, Sawyer invites local Sonoma celebs, aka winemakers and proprietors, to pour their creations, talk about their grapes, and schmooze with guests. It’s a good time to get to know one vineyard exceptionally well. “Thursdays are great because it’s not really something that anyone else does,” Sawyer says. “You aren’t talking to a wine rep or someone from the tasting room, these guys made the wine you’re drinking.”

Make nice with Sawyer, and you might just find yourself closing the bar over a 2002 bottle of Peter Michael Red Meritage. And if you do, you’ve definitely learned a thing or two in wine country.

Read more: IT admits to having a strong affection for the vino. We'll sip it out of baby bottles, hell, we'll even bathe in it if you let us.

Photo: Courtesy the Lodge

Hotel Confidential: Dislocated Hip

Travelers tracking the hot hostelry usually brace themselves for a haughty hotel staff who specialize in putting the "snoot" in snooty. From South Beach to downtown L.A., a chilly check-in can strangle delight no matter how many Aveda amenities appear by the sink. So it's a pleasure to come across a hotel that's both stylish and friendly. Downtown San Diego's 10-month-old Ivy (600 F Street; +1 619-814-1000) will make a guest feel both fussed over and cool at the same time.

As luck had it, I spent my two-night stay in a handicapped-accessible room. Usually a design afterthought, my room at the Ivy was certainly the coolest one I'd ever been in. (Though it lacked the funky design flair in the hotel's 6th-floor suites, with their see-through shower panels between bath and bedroom. Those frost up at the flick of a switch for the more shy among us). But my room more than sufficed, what with its fresh fruit, complimentary copies of Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone and the Keurig coffee machine, an idiot-friendly device that dispenses shots of Green Mountain dark roast with a flourish. So intent on playing barista, I almost didn't notice the wall-mounted HDTV.

Tour Guide: Green Tortoise

I'm in the midst of planning a trip to Cabo San Lucas, and while perusing through my guidebooks I came across Green Tortoise, a San Francisco-based company that runs two hostels and operates a series of tours which wind along the Pacific coast, criss-cross the country, and crawl down into Central America. While their two hostels are safely grounded in San Francisco and Seattle, what piqued my interest was that their tours aren't just a series of stops and activities, but actual hostels-on-wheels.

In essence, when you climb into the 36-passenger bus to get to Alaska, Baja, the Yucatán Peninsula, or Yosemite, it turns out that the bus is also your lodging once you get there. Green Tortoise has retrofitted typical tour buses so that their tables and chairs tuck away, allowing a wide swath of mattresses to be spread throughout the cabin, in something akin to kindergarteners putting out their nap-mats (can you imagine if this same idea worked on planes?).

But aside from the comfort you’ll get from snuggling up to your fellow passengers, you’ll be at ease knowing that the company, avowedly committed to green travel, also operates many of its buses using biodiesel fuels, and offers travelers the option of offsetting their carbon count (at $5 per 5,000 miles, it’s a steal).

Hotel Confidential: For the Kids

Associate editor Susan O'Keefe shares her favorite kid-friendly hotel activities and amenities. Got any she needs to know about?

Anyone who has young ones knows that when traveling with children it's all about the hotel pool, at least that's the case with my three children. And, if there is a pool (especially one with slides or waves) you can often leverage some off-property time for exploring the area just as long as you build in plenty of time for swimming. Other amenities like kids' clubs are hit or miss, depending on what types of activities and programs are offered. Hotels are beginning to heed the parents' call that one-room kids' clubs with a few video and board games are not the answer to recreation nor experiential travel, even if it may allow more reading time for mom and dad. We all want to feel good about vacationing and part of that is exposing ourselves to experiences and trying new things. Same goes for the kiddies.

Ritz-Carlton Naples, Florida, has just launched Nature's Wonders, an environmentally-focused program for guests who want to connect with nature. Off-resort activities include naturalist-led Back Bay walks, mangrove visits, and even a trip to a hospital for recovering sea life. At the heart of the program is the new Nature's Wonders sanctuary where budding marine biologists can hold turtles and starfish and view aquariums hosting sharks, eel, Florida's spiny lobsters, and grouper. When I visited, four new baby alligators had just arrived and two iguanas were showing off. A small lab invites kids to explore slides and petri dishes with pint-size microscopes. And a Nature Vision Theater features the finest, ahem, nature flicks from National Geographic and Discovery. Nature's Wonder charges a daily fee for its programs (full- and half-day), but it hosts a daily open house for guests—adults and kids alike—who want to check out the aquariums and reef life.

Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica, located in the country's northwest Guanacaste province, offers complimentary kids' adventures through their Kids for All Seasons program. Young guests get to hunt local insects, reptiles, plants, and hermit crabs or make art with treasures collected from the beach. Teens will dig their own hang-out pad called Taunis, outfitted bright-colored furniture and surfboards, where they can dock their iPods or play video games. But the coolest factor by far is in the activities: kids can sign up for hip-hop yoga, hang gliding, and zip-lining through treetops.

Strange Planet: Jurassic Lark

Many of us here at IT were sad to hear about the demise of Blueprint magazine, but were heartened to learn that though the magazine is gone, their blog will live on. To that end, Bluelines introduced us to a fascinating museum that is now on our must-see list for our next visit to L.A.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is an amalgam of the strange and wonderful, and both the museum and its curator, David Wilson, are the subject of the book Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder. Mr. Wilson has gathered his wonderful objects for the past 24 years, collecting everything from X-ray bats to intricate almond-stone carvings. There's an exhibit on space dogs and a tribute to trailer homes. Magician Ricky Jay keeps his collection of decaying dice at the museum, and there's a beautiful selection of micro-mosaics created by 19th century Henry Dalton, who cobbled his tiny artworks out of butterfly wings.

Consider it a refreshing alternative to Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Learn more: you can hear a radio piece about the museum here.

Photo: One of Henry Dalton's micromosaics; via Bluelines

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Cinematic Road Trip: California

Let’s play a game. Name a movie made in the United States. Go ahead name one. The odds that the movie you just named was filmed in California is one in three. And of those movies shot in California, two-thirds are shot in and around Hollywood, according to an August 2005 study by the California Film Commission.

Now, name a country. How about Bulgaria? Or Costa Rica? The film industry of California brings in an estimated $34 billion dollars a year into the California economy (at least as of 2002, according to the L.A. County Economic Development Corp.) which is more than the GDP of 100 countries, according to the IMF, including those of Bulgaria and Costa Rica. In fact, it's as much money as the bottom 38 countries combined.

So to say California produces a lot of film would be to say that Iowa grows a lot of corn. The state is large and the landscape assorted with deserts, mountains, forests and an ocean all within close proximity to Hollywood. This, and reliable sunshine, makes it an ideal location for the center of the film industry.

If southern California is your thing, and for many people it is, you might want to check out these movies to get a feel for the major cities on the West Coast: For San Diego, though it may not stand up as an all-time classic, Anchorman, Will Ferrell’s comedy, was shot all around the city. For Los Angeles on film: LA Confidential or Mulholland Drive will give you an idea of the vastness of the city sprawl.

Driving north of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, you’ll come to Santa Ynez Valley. This area has experienced a tourist boom in the years following the success of Sideways, the story of two middle-aged men on a road trip through one of the lesser-known wine regions in California.

But I would like to drive you up the coast from Tinseltown to the City by the Bay where I was lucky enough to stay for a few months during my college years.

Bay Area Food Finds

Contributing Editor Andrew Nelson just stopped by Northern California and raved to us about the food. Though slightly jealous (is it possible to find a good burrito on the East Coast?) we were eager to hear more...

When it comes to food, Northern California keeps stirring the pot. For travelers there's always something to sample. New restaurants open constantly. Others await to be sampled. Two taste sensations include one in San Francisco's edgy Mission District and a five-month-old arrival in Wine Country.

El Metate, the Mission, San Francisco

Get ready to rock. El Metate features San Francisco's legendary burritos — a $5 meal-and-a-half — stuffed with pork, chicken, fish, beans, and rice, and, for a dollar extra, slathered with guacamole, cheese, and sour cream. Their tacos are made with corn tortillas and filled with tangy chicken or fresh fish, all topped with fresh cilantro. El Metate is where the city's chefs go on their off hours for the restaurant's legendary chile verde pork burrito. Wash it down with a Mexican Coke (sweetened with cane sugar, unlike the American version, which is flavored with high fructose corn syrup). El Metate's decor is a cut above the city's typical taquerias, as the Tuscan-orange walls and simple wood chairs gives it a warm Mediterranean feel. The restaurant's located on Bryant Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets in the Mission, the city's traditional Mexican neighborhood. While you're waiting for your order, quiz your fellow travelers on the meaning of "metate." Hint: it's the traditional grinding stone used to crush corn into masa, used in making tortillas. (2406 Bryant St; +1 415 641 7209)

Ubuntu, Napa, Napa County

The puzzled tourist peered into the stone building on Napa's Main Street. She eyed the large community dining table made from salvaged lumber and the people leaving an ashtanga class. "What the hell is it?" she asked her friends. "A restaurant or a yoga studio?" The answer is both.  "Ubuntu's a vegetarian restaurant with a yoga studio in the back," San Francisco Magazine food critic Scott Hocker told IT. With no meat to balance the plate, the legumes have to stand on their own merits. According to Hocker, Ubuntu succeeds. "Head chef, Jeremy Fox is wildly talented. He's doing vegetable cooking with a brain," he says. "That's the trick with this kind of stuff - each element has to be a precise." Hocker recommends the starter marcona almonds with sea salt and lavender sugar and the salt-roasted beets and avocado for the "amped up flavors." Other taste sensations on the changing menu include the wild-nettle pizza, and cauliflower cooked in a cast-iron pot with vadouvan spice and brown butter toast. A lengthy wine list complements the meal. (1140 Main St., Napa, CA; +1 707 251 5656).

Photo: Ubuntu Restaurant

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Tour Guide: San Fran's Chinatown

In many major U.S. cities, you'll find a cultural hub we all know as Chinatown (unless you're in Seattle, where it's the politically-correct "International District"). As many people flock to Chinatown for its cheap eats, the history and cultural aspects of these places often get forgotten.

That's why the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco offers guided Chinatown Walking Tours through one of the largest Chinese communities outside Asia. San Francisco's Chinatown was settled in the 1860s along what is now Grant Avenue. The tours begin at the Cultural Center (750 Kearny Street) and may stop at the Tin How Temple (the oldest Chinese temple in the U.S., founded in 1852), the Chinese Historical Society of America, and churches, schools, tea shops, and food markets, along with other interesting historical sites.

The two-hour tours cost $18.00 and are available Tuesday-Saturday. Don't miss the Cultural Center's Chinese Culinary Walk, which visits the poultry market and fortune cookie factories, and also includes a dim sum lunch. The Culinary Walk is temporarily unavailable, so be sure to check with the Cultural Center before planning your tour.

If you'd rather brave Chinatown on your own, be sure to check out our Places of a Lifetime walking tours of San Francisco, which include Chinatown, Union Square, and Telegraph Hill.

Photo: Heather Allamon

There Goes the Gayborhood?

A scene from DC's annual "Drag Race" held the night before Halloween.

When San Francisco canceled its annual Halloween party in the Castro district last month over fears about safety, it spurred a conversation about the shifting makeup of historically gay neighborhoods, and whether they're on the verge of becoming passé. As the New York Times reported:

These are wrenching times for San Francisco’s historic gay village, with population shifts, booming development, and a waning sense of belonging that is also being felt in gay enclaves across the nation, from Key West, Fla., to West Hollywood, as they struggle to maintain cultural relevance in the face of gentrification.

...The Castro remains a top tourist destination for gay and lesbian visitors. But Joe D’Alessandro, president and C.E.O. of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, and a gay parent who lives in the Castro, predicted that eventually the neighborhood would go the way of North Beach, “still a historic Italian neighborhood though Italians don’t necessarily live there anymore."

While gentrification encroaches upon urban gay enclaves, the idea that the neighborhoods are passé doesn't sit well with John Tanzella, Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association. "I wouldn’t say that it’s the case yet," he told IT.

Thrifty Souvenirs

Obviously, IT loves a good shopping spree for authentic crafts when we're traveling. But there's also something to be said for scoping out the local thrift stores for some fabulous finds. Our friends over at Gadling and Gridskipper reminded us of the satisfaction that comes from scoring a great item for next to nothing while you're wandering, and we asked the Traveler staffers to tell us their favorite thrifty souvenirs.

Assistant Editor Janelle Nanos: I found my all-time favorite sweater in a thrift store near Covent Garden in London—a white cardigan with tiny blue flowers that I wear year round. It's girly and cozy and generally perfect in every way.

"Wandering around Maui, my brother and I tired of the endless rows of Hawaiian shirts that cluttered the shops, so we ducked into the Salvation Army store to find some more authentic duds (35 Halekuai St., Kihei, Maui). He found a vintage terry-cloth polo with Maui stitched on the pocket, and I snagged a super-soft "Hang Loose" T-shirt that's perfect for sleeping in. Thankfully, this year I went to Kauai, so the shirt actually makes sense now."