Photo by joiseyshowaa (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joiseyshowaa/269831357/" via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Argentina, Bolivia and Bulgaria top the 2008 list of the top ten ethical travel destinations, according to Ethical Traveler, a project of the San Francisco-based nonprofit Earth Island Institute. Researchers studied 70 developing countries “from Albania to Zimbabwe” to see which are actively improving their natural environment and the lives of their people through tourism. Half of the countries on the list are in Latin America but none in Asia, where runaway development has wreaked havoc on the land and human rights abuses continue to worsen.

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)

I could practically feel the grit of sand in my teeth and the harsh desert sun beating down while reading Patrick Steel’s sensory-overload account in the Guardian of carving Saharan dunes atop a snowboard in Morocco. While duneboarding is nothing new on the extreme sports circuit, the story brought back memories of my own failed attempts at riding sand. So many times—New Zealand, Uruguay and Australia all come to mind—I have followed my guidebook’s suggestion to rent a board and cruise down the nearby dunes only to fail miserably. The sand sticks to your board in a way snow never would, and when you catch an edge it’s all the more miserable.

Think “Morocco” and “Condé Nast Traveler” and you might picture socialites lounging around riads in Marrakech, or plundering the souk for jewelry, carpets and lanterns. If your Saharan fantasy is more desert-nomad than sheik-of-the-medina, though, this month’s issue has a story for you. Flagging Morocco as an underappreciated adventure destination, Jason Harper canvassed the Atlas Mountains region on foot and on horseback, scaling North Africa’s highest peak and visiting Berber villages along the way.