In the battle of the YouTube all-stars, Battle at Kruger reigned supreme, snagging the 2007 YouTube Video Award in the Eyewitness category.

I watched the 8-minute opus for the first time this weekend, and (like 27 million others before me) sat glued to my computer screen as lions stalked a buffalo calf, battled a crocodile for it, and staged a Sharks-Jets-style showdown when the young buffalo’s herd returned. And the most amazing part of all? The gnawed-on calf survives the tug-o-war.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member sjmclaughlin

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Posted in Adventure Travel, Entertainment, Offbeat
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Every traveler has a moment like this one. I'd been hanging around Paris for a few weeks and decided to explore the Sacré-Cœur Basilica. After climbing every single step to the top and wandering through the cathedral itself, I was ready to park myself in a café for a while. As I plunked back down the stairs, worn out and bedraggled, a familiar song caught my ears.

"Country roads…take me home…to the place…I belong…West Virginia."

I wandered over to two young Frenchman playing acoustic guitars and joined in signing a wacky tribute to the late, great John Denver. It was a silly moment, to be sure, but one in which the world felt both stranger than ever before--and yet shared.

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Posted in Adventure Travel, Guides & Planning, International Travel
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I think it was the fact that I’d already spent so much time above the clouds in Rio de Janeiro, from gawking at the Christ the Redeemer statue atop Corcovado to watching the sun set from Pão de Açúcar’s peak, that led me to decide that I just couldn’t leave the city without hang-gliding from Pedro Bonita. Whether I was high on bird’s-eye beauty or just suffering from altitude-induced delirium, I’m not sure. Either way, on my last morning in town, I found myself running at full speed off a ramp in tandem with a hang-gliding instructor I’d met 10 minutes before. This was about 45 minutes after paying $10 for my “pilot’s license” and 5 minutes after practicing my liftoff run (one time).

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Richard Branson, Virgin entrepreneur extraordinaire, wants to bring space travel to the masses. Well, sort of. He wants to bring space travel to the moneyed masses. For $200,000 and at least a $20,000 deposit, you too could sign up for glory hereby only experienced by the world’s astronauts.

Oh, but what glory it is! Imagine being rocketed up into the upper-most regions of the sky until you get a true alien’s-eye view of the Earth. From space, you’d be able to see cloud masses and continents, bodies of water and polar ice. The g-forces would be extreme, but once you’d hit weightlessness, you’d be able to float around for a full five minutes, taking everything in, before returning to your home planet.

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If you’ve ever heard or uttered any of the following on the road, my guess is that you were in the midst of a stress-induced, sleep-deprived travel meltdown: “I hate you.” “I can’t believe you’re being this mean to me.” “I can’t handle this anymore.” “All you do is freak out.” “There’s hatred in my blood right now.”

This season, on the Amazing Race, team Nate and Jen have responded to every stressful travel situation by completely unraveling into shouting matches, name-calling, and even shoving. Yet somehow, they’ve managed to eke through the finish line week after week. Sunday night, after making all the above quotes in the course of just one episode, they finally met their elimination with Jen confessing sadly, “I think we killed our relationship along the way.”

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member globalroamer.

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Like many of you, I'm thinking a lot about my New Year's resolutions. Every year I diligently make promises to myself that I intend to keep, but I always revert back to my coffee-swilling, bacon-eating, gym-phobic ways within a month or two.

What I need is some professional help to inspire me to make permanent changes in my life, but the program would have to be fun if I’m going to commit. That's why this year I'm contemplating indulging in a wellness regimen at a destination spa.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member Mandan Lynn.

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Posted in Adventure Travel, Celebrities, Spas
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