The World Monuments Fund has joined the Gore battle cry. The non-profit introduced its 2008 list Wednesday of 100 famous natural and historic sites in danger of drowning. For the first time, the World Monuments Watch lists climate change as a threat, in addition to political conflict and unchecked development. Potential global warming victims include Machu Picchu; the historic neighborhoods of New Orleans (which have, arguably, already fallen prey to the crisis), and all of Shanghai. Yikes.

Is the report a legitimate warning or another ploy to elicit enough fear in lazy Americans to change consumption habits? We still plan on flushing twice and using that extra cardboard holder to keep my hands from burning on a hot cup of Starbucks. But, just in case, we are recruiting Costner for my team.

An FOHC--that'd be a friend of HotelChatter--just got back from an 11-day trip through in Peru. While he didn't enjoy being trapped on a boat with retirees, cruising up the Amazon, he did have a time and a half in Lima.

He dropped this report in our tip jar after spending a couple nights in the Peruvian capital:

In a huge city like Lima, a ride from the airport is a valuable commodity. The Best Western Embajadores will send a driver to the airport for you. Nothing like coming out of customs and seeing a sign with your name on it, held by a friendly driver. Embajadores is only 5 blocks from the best shopping center in

Head down to Lima, Peru, and you might not be expecting to find the biggest public display of brains in the world. But you will, tucked into an unspectacular museum in the country's capital, part of the National Neurological Science Institute hospital. At last count, 2998 brains were on display here (just a couple of donations needed to get over 3000!).

Researchers collect the brains to study disease and the effects of alcohol and drugs, and the specimens date back to 1942. If you want to see them for yourself, it's just a 30 cent entry charge, making it surely one of the bargain sightseeing spots around: just one one-hundredth of a cent per brain. Unfortunately, the museum is tucked into a dark alleyway where taxis fear to drive, so find a local brainiac to guide you there.

[Photo: heavylift]

Related Stories:
· Diseased Brains on Display in Peru [Yahoo News]

Royal Nepal Airlines has some ‘splaining to do. They have the unenviable job of trying to drive tourism to the country after it’s recent political woes. So, perhaps the stress of the operation can explain this: A recent ad campaign sporting the tag line “Have You Seen Nepal?” featured, instead of pictures off the majestic Himalayas, a shot of Machu Picchu. Guess they haven’t seen Nepal either. According to Reuters: “Peruvian mountaineer Ernesto Malaga, who was visiting India last month, noticed the blunder on a poster hanging on a wall in the airline’s office in New Delhi.” The story tries to play down the magnitude of the error, making polite noises about how high-altitude Incan sites and Himalayan temples don’t look all that different. After all, it’s not as if Machu Picchu is a world wonder, or one of the most photographed places on the planet. Royal Nepal has publicly apologized to the Nation of Peru.

– Nepal
– Machu Picchu

2007 Travel Forecast
– “The fabulous 50 for 2007” (Guardian)

Atomic Tourism in the Southwest
– “Strange Love” (NYT)

Australian Rail
– “A trip to the Red Center of Oz” (LA Times)

Guatemala: Apocalypto Tourism
– “Atop the world of the Maya” (LA Times)

India
– “Kochi, Kerala’s Friendly Gateway, Is No Backwater” (NYT)

Morocco
– “From Spain to Marrakech” (Chicago Tribune)

Mozambique
– “Save me a slice of paradise” (Guardian)

Patagonia
– “Cruising With Penguins” (SF Chronicle)

The Peruvian Andes
– “Winging It in the Andes of Peru” (Washington Post)

Uruguay
– “The Frugal Traveler: Feeling at Home Among the Elite in Uruguay’s Punta del Este” (NYT)

The travel pages kept it real this weekend, with stories on stunt trips, insider knowledge and secret destinations, tips on how to find and avoid political hotspots, and news about how growing numbers of people are changing some beloved destinations.


Overcrowding at Machu Picchu
– “Taking the Back Roads to Machu Picchu” (NYT)

Hong Kong’s Disappearing Harbor
– “Hong Kong mourns as shrinking harbour gives way to development” (Guardian)

SF Chronicle Goes for the Borat Tie-in
– “JUST BACK FROM: Almaty, Kazakhstan” (SF Chronicle)

Survival Tourism
– “Setting Out Into the Arizona Wilderness With Only a Knife” (NYT)

Steering Clear of Politics in Mexico
– “Let caution be your guide” (LA Times)

Che’s Cuba
– “Santa Clara’s rebel saint” (Globe and Mail)

Berlin’s Fast Food for Foodies
– “Street Food with Ambition in Berlin” (NYT)

Istanbul on the Cheap
– “Modernity or Tradition: Istanbul at a Crossroad Finds Its Own Way” (NYT)

Secret Baja
– “Loreto: A relaxed fit” (LA Times)

Yellowstone in Winter
– “Zipping through Yellowstone” (Houston Chronicle)

You can go two routes when staying in Lima, Peru: sketchy neighborhood or nice neighborhood. We're going to go ahead and highly recommend the good neighborhood and its hotel, the Miraflores Park Hotel.

So you know the neighborhood is safe but to add to your feeling of well-being, it also helps to know that this hotel comes in at #1 with TripAdvisor. Past guests have appreciated the staff, hotel restaurant, breakfast, location, and rooms but what we find the most interesting here is the Bath Butler.

Bath butlers aren't very new but just in case you didn't know, here's how they describe it:

The very act of calling the Bath Butler suggests that you are preparing to

LA Times Asia Special:
Macao’s Casinos
- “A new type of treasure island rises”
Nikko, Japan
- “Serenity amid the shoguns”
North Korean Mountains
- “One tiny crack in the border”
South Korean Monasteries
- “A peek at the monastic life”

Barcelona on the Cheap
- “Footloose in Spain’s Capital of Style, Barcelona” (NYT)

European Love Nests
- “Continental hotels for stylish dirty weekends” (Times of London)

Georgia (the country, not the state)
- “In Georgia, a Pilgrimage to the Cradle of Wine” (NYT)

Greenland
- “Magnetic north” (Guardian)

Mexico City
- “Grabbed by the Mariachis” (Times of London)

World Wonders: Tourist Traps, or Trips of a Lifetime?
- “Still got the magic?” (Times of London)

Thoughtful YouTuber extremeextreme posted a sizable chunk of the Peru episode from season two of No Reservations today. Watch Bourdain doing his charmingly crass schtick while getting toasted on chicha with the locals, and then narrating his take on visiting Machu Picchu over some fantastic footage of the site.

The snows of Kilimanjaro are melting, Machu Picchu is about to slide into the abyss, and tourists are carting off pieces of the temple at Luxor on a daily basis. The latest International Newsweek cover story—The 7 Most Endangered Wonders of the World—gets off to a pretty glum start. Among the 17 pieces in the issue, there’s some frank discussion of how tourist development can help or harm a destination—e.g. how the UNESCO World Heritage designation can bring thousands more visitors to a site, but comes with next to no cash attached to help support that level of interest. From there, however, things devolve pretty quickly into a hedging-their-bets apologia to the tourism industry for running the cover in the first place. Concerned about where you will vacation once Venice and the Maldives finally succumb to rising ocean levels? Never fear: you can always see one of the new “Wonders”, such as Lakewood Evangelical church in Houston (wha?), clearly an acceptable substitute. Why bother even leaving your own country, actually, when savvy entrepreneurs are building indoor ski-slopes in Dubai and tropical lagoons in Germany. “Location” is all just an abstract concept, anyway.

Elsewhere:
-If you’re looking for a better list of jaw-dropping new man-made spectacles than Newsweek dredged up, try this year’s (you guessed it) “Next 7 Wonders” from Condé Nast Traveler’s April issue.