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Travel Cultures Language

Discovering the Art of Sand Sculptures

by Meredith Mullins on September 18, 2017

A lion sand sculpture, part of the great Carmel Sand Castle Contest, discovering the art of sand sculpting. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Winner of the 2017 Great Carmel Sand Castle Contest
© Meredith Mullins

The Great Carmel Sand Castle Contest

What lives and breathes sand and water . . . and brings out the kid in everyone?

What passion requires a unique combination of creativity, patience, delicacy, and grit?

What depends on building with the simplest of elements, but can rise to the pinnacle of artistry?

And what, without lament, is always inevitably destroyed?

Shovels in the sad, the remnants of a sand sculpture at the Great Carmel Sand Castle Contest, discovering the art of sand sculptures. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Grand finale for a sand sculpture: Inevitable destruction
© Meredith Mullins

It is the wonderful world of sand sculptures, or, for us novices, the wonderful world of plastic shovels and buckets and mounds of malleable sand.

A Tale of Two Jungles

by Eva Boynton on September 11, 2017

Trees in the jungle and a a city monument, symbolizing life in the jungle of Quintana Roo and the concrete jungle of Mexico City (images © Sam Anaya).

From the Mayan jungle to the concrete jungle
© Sam Anaya

Sensing Life in Quintana Roo & Mexico City

A symphony plays before me in an outdoor theater. The sun passes through a roof of leaves, tree branches crawl up and around the doorways, and rain delicately drizzles upon the earthen seats. This is the Mayan jungle in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

I had arrived here from another theater where sunlight illuminates towering structures and passes through glass windows. The red, yellow, and green of signal lights reflect in the puddles of afternoon rains. This is the concrete jungle of Mexico City.

A College Course in Wanderlust?

by Joyce McGreevy on September 5, 2017

A dorm room at Carr-Saunders Hall, London lets travelers on a budget indulge their wanderlust. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Basic but comfy, a dorm room at Carr-Saunders Hall, London makes travel affordable for all.
© Joyce McGreevy

Travelers on Budgets
Go Back to School

As students return to college each September, another group is preparing for college visits— travelers on budgets. To pursue their wanderlust, they’re majoring in Travel Economics.

How? By booking “university vacation-accommodations.”

Translation:  They’re staying in dorms.

More and more colleges today offer clean, comfortable dorm rooms to non-student visitors. While some do so only when classes aren’t in session, a growing number of colleges offer dorms year-round.

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