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ISSUE 46//$8.95 GST INCLUDED

getlostmagazine.com

FINDING THE GREEN FAIRY

Switzerland’s absinthe trail

LOVING HAITI

A Caribbean nation reborn

ENTER THE DRAGON

Explore Indonesia’s islands

SWEDEN’S SNOW MEN

Winter in Lapland

ISSN 1449-3543

AUSTRALIA | INDIA | KENYA | NEW CALEDONIA | UAE | USA

102 From the northernmost tip of Colombia to Argentina’s icy south, we’ve got this amazing continent covered. Whether you’re looking for a jungle lodge, desert oasis or adrenaline-fuelled adventure, it’s all here.

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SWEDEN

HAITI

Meet the residents and their trusty companions of this winter wonderland.

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SWITZERLAND Raise a glass to the country’s absinthe route and the distillers who keep tradition alive.

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INDONESIA

Five years after the devastating earthquake, the Caribbean nation is hopeful once more.

Face to face with the sacred beasts of land and water in East Nusa Tenggara.

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NEW CALEDONIA Discover the mountainous north and its enduring indigenous culture.

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AUSTRALIA There’s no place like Tassie’s east coast for a luxe sail-and-trail escape.

get in the know Some parts of Chile’s Atacama Desert haven’t received rain in 500 years.

CONTENTS

WIN

et books, 21 Lonely Plan itcase, 23 Paklite su ip, 48 Zanzibar tr , 135 s Tamron len

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FESTIVAL RUGBY RULES LAS VEGAS

LIKE A LOCAL ROME’S PRATI DISTRICT

18 ON THE RADAR

Travel happenings around the globe

Sensational swimming holes

28 HOT FIVE

132 FOOD

140 TOP BARS

23 HAPPY SNAPS

32 YOU WISH

134 PHOTOGRAPHY

142 REVIEWS

Send us your photos and win!

24 PLACES TO STAY The weird and wonderful

26 TOP TRIPS

Get going in a group

Flying high over Kenya

34 GET PACKING

A seven-night drive in Texas

36 AFTER DARK

Unearthing Abu Dhabi

Street food in Myanmar Getting up close

137 MUSIC

The rise of boutique festivals

Drink it down

All the gadgets you’ll need

144 CONFESSIONS

A nerd’s life on the move

138 TRAVEL JOB

Life on a luxury yacht

get in the know The world’s largest music festival is Vienna’s Donauinslefest. About 3.2 million people attended its three days in 2013.

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WINNER

O

NE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE nights of my New York trip was spent waiting for the sun to set and light to fade for the shot of the Manhattan skyline that I had pictured in my head. I set up in Brooklyn Bridge Park and waited as the temperature dropped as low as –8°C, which made operating the camera very difficult and my family very impatient. “Got the shot?” was hollered from behind me and, after 40 minutes of waiting, with the click of a button I was beyond pleased to turn around and reply, “Yep, got the shot.”

• Nikon D5200 • 18–105mm f/3.5–5.6 • ISO 100, f/22, 13 sec Congratulations to James Vodicka, who submitted this image in our Tamron photography competition.

For your chance to WIN a Tamron 16-300mm Macro Lens dazzle us with your best travel shot.

See page 135 for entry details. tamron.com.au

Date palms frame an Abu Dhabi sunset while a game of volleyball draws a crowd. In the distance stands the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

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get in the know Abu Dhabi means Father of Deer, a reference to the gazelle that early hunters tracked to the area.

Abu Dhabi is a city on the move. The UAE capital oscillates between ultra-modern, proud tradition and aspiring cultural mecca. But what of its nightlife? Kirk Owers hits the high-rise to find out.

Photography by Kirk Owers

get in the know The UAE produced the best wild pearls in the world until cultured pearls were discovered last century and the local industry tanked.

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Visiting Las Vegas for the Rugby Sevens, Catherine Best discovers a party scene far from the famous Strip. And it’s got absolutely nothing to do with sport.

Photography by Catherine Best

The eagle has landed and she’s supporting the home team.

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get in the know Seven-a-side rugby was born in Scotland in 1883 when a club dispute resulted in a split among the players, and the opposing sides could field teams of only seven.

USA

get in the know Bugsy Siegel named his Vegas casino the Flamingo after the long legs of his showgirl girlfriend.

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A reindeer returns to the herd in Flakaberg.

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get in the know Sami people live right across the Arctic from Norway to Russia.

SWEDEN

In the whiteout of an Arctic winter, Ewen Bell meets a group of modern Swedish outdoorsmen inviting visitors to experience their sub-zero wonderland.

Photography by Ewen Bell

get in the know Glacial lakes in Lapland provide excellent ice fishing in the winter. In Sweden, the catch can include Arctic char, trout, salmon, pike and perch.

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Visiting Haiti almost six years after an earthquake decimated the island nation, Graeme Green discovers a land of dramatic mountains, vodou culture and, above all, hope.

Photography by Graeme Green

Local villagers carry heavy loads of vegetables from the hills in La Visite National Park, outside Port-au-Prince, down to the city’s markets.

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get in the know Haiti was once a hot destination for international jetsetters, including Marlon Brando, Mick Jagger and Truman Capote, many of whom stayed at Hotel Oloffson.

Haiti

P

ain starts here,” says Haitian guide Jean Cyril Pressoir, staring up at the mountaintop from the base of a long road. It’s already been a tough, sweaty, though very enjoyable day of hiking up and down steep rocky roads, but now there’s a slow, daunting climb ahead. All day we’ve been passed by fit, strong women from local villages, carrying great loads on their heads. Now, even their pace slows.

Few people imagine mountains when they think of Haiti. When it comes to the Caribbean, it’s mainly beaches and rum cocktails that come to mind. But, as Jean Cyril tells me, “Haiti is almost all mountains. Of all the Caribbean islands, it’s the most mountainous. Ayiti, the Kreyòl spelling of Haiti, means ‘land of mountains’. It comes from the Tainos, the indigenous Indians, who lived here before the arrival of Christopher Columbus.”

There’s a popular saying in this predominantly black Francophone country, which covers half an island shared with the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic: “Dèyè mòn gen mòn”, meaning “Beyond the mountains, there are mountains.” It can be taken literally, Jean Cyril explains as we make our way to the summit, but it’s also a fitting metaphor for a country with hidden depths and plenty to discover beyond the obvious.

Haiti, a country known mainly for its troubled history and the devastating 2010 earthquake, isn’t on many adventure travellers’ radars, but there’s much to find here, from the very hikeable mountains and the national vodou (voodoo) culture to artist communities, traditional music and food. Not to mention sunshine, beaches and rum.

I’d flown into the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and set out immediately with Jean Cyril for the mist-covered hills beyond the sprawling metropolis, heading for La Visite National Park. The four-wheel drive drops us at the hilltop marketplace of Carrefour Badio and we hike up a rolling road into the mountain villages. There’s plenty to take in, with open views of green hills on either side. It’s a Sunday and locals are making their way home from church, the men in suits, girls in best dresses. Women carry heavy loads of mountain-grown carrots and onions down to the market in town. Dogs, pigs, chickens and horses are all part of the flowing traffic. “Hiking is the perfect pace to soak in this country,” Jean Cyril says as the hours pass. “You hear things and smell things you wouldn’t get from travelling in a van.” I have to agree.

After getting the painful hill slog out of the way, we find the evening filled with the sound of crickets and the smell of smoke from kitchen fires. There’s a fiery Caribbean sunset as we make our way through a pine forest to our lodge, Kay Winnie, where there’s lively kompa (traditional Haitian music), local mint tea and a couple of friendly old dogs to welcome us.

We’d set out from Port-au-Prince with the hope of hiking Haiti’s highest mountain, Pic La Selle, but it’s soon clear this isn’t going to happen.

It rains heavily through the night, an unseasonable tropical storm, and our plan to ride a motorbike taxi (three men, one bike) for two hours on difficult terrain that’s now a muddy wash-out feels like an accident waiting to happen. Instead, we select nearby Pic Cabaio and, fuelled by Haitian coffee, climb up through the forest. get in the know Haiti was the world’s first black-led republic, achieving Independence on January 1, 1804.

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Local kids help fishermen pull pilot whales to shore following a traditional hunt.

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get in the know Lamalera’s whalers are not allowed to use motorised boats to hunt whales, as stipulated by the Indonesian government.

INDONESIA

Exploring the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, Nikola Sarbinowski discovers it’s survival of the fittest when you’re pitted against its sacred beasts.

Photography by Nikola Sarbinowski

get in the know Ikan paus translates to ‘pope fish’ in English.

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A

metal hook slices the air beside me. The blade is old, rusted and definitely lethal.

It’s attached to a man who introduced himself moments ago while I slurped on a coconut from a street stall. “Yesterday, three whales!” he hisses, gouging the air again. A grin cracks his face and I finally exhale, realising he harbours no intention of plunging the metal into my skin. With pride he tells me the hook once hunted ikan paus (whales) in his hometown of Lamalera, a village on an island not too far from here. I am soon to discover life in the remote town revolves around the tradition of slicing, dicing and digesting the king of the sea.

Later, after the evening prayers have fizzed from crackling loudspeakers across town, bounced off mountains and dispersed over discarded ships tipped like toys in Larantuka’s port, the warungs (cafes) open their doors.

“Four nights ago they caught five whales. Not big ones, little ones,” a restaurant owner informs me as I polish off a plate of mie goreng.

“I read it in the paper.”

It seems everyone here is captivated by Lamalera and its whales.

I’ve found myself on Flores Island, smack bang in the middle of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, hoping to learn about the region’s sacred creatures and the cultures who worship them. The province stretches from the island of Komodo in the west, crawling with prehistoric lizards dribbling saliva so toxic it can kill, to a little-known diver’s paradise called Alor in the east. Bundled in between are Flores, West Timor and Sumba – each peppered with fishing villages, traditional tribes and volcanoes – and more than 500 tiny isles. The figure seems immense until you remember Indonesia comprises more than 17,500 islands.

Whispers about Lamalera seem to float across the sea, but reaching the whaling town is no easy task.

First, it’s a four-hour cruise from the port in Larantuka on Flores Island to Lewoleba on Lembata Island. From there you catch a bemo (van) to the outskirts of town where you’ll find a truck that rollicks through thick growth toward Lamalera. My thoughts curdle from heat and the vehicle’s vibrations seconds into the 40-kilometre ride. When we rumble into Lamalera four hours later I’m struggling to remember what town belongs to which L-word. My legs, stiff and bruised from contorting between metal bars, bushels of live chickens and sacks of rice, refuse to unfurl.

The first thing I notice when I disembark is an assaulting stench. The second is a wishbone the size of a child flanking the side of the road.

Lamalera lives and breathes whale. A quick stroll reveals drying flesh, flyblown blubber and curious bits of anatomy dangling from bamboo

poles. The black sand beach is greasy with fat melting under the sun and vertebrae prop up pot plants. In the middle of the main street a choir harmonises under a tree outside a building decorated with murals depicting whales and Jesus on the cross.

Passing empty boatsheds on the sand I spot children sliding off a bloated white mass in the shallows. They lunge, thrusting imaginary spears into the carcass in lieu of the harpoon-tipped bamboo poles used by the hunters. The villagers believe whales are gifts from their ancestors and eat the flesh, crush the bones for fertiliser and burn the oil for fuel. Superstition underlies the tradition; it is thought that if the town is at peace there will be plenty of whales, if not crews fear an even more dangerous hunt. This rare waste, a rotting sperm whale – the most cherished of all whales besides the endangered blue, which is revered and never captured – put up a mean fight, tossing a lamafa (whaler) around like a doll. Perhaps it was punishment for a clan dispute. Incredibly, the lamafa survived and rests in a distant hospital waiting for crushed bones to bind while the creature’s cranium lurks in the sea, tainted with bad luck and well past its use by date.

One morning the beach resembles a butcher’s shop. The fishermen’s sacred boats, handmade using techniques passed down from forebears who sailed from Sulawesi hundreds of years ago, have returned to their shelters and dozens of villagers are at work carving three pilot whales into pieces. Despite whispers of abundance that bounce around Flores, the lamafa often return empty-handed. This is a generous catch. Seizing small quantities and avoiding rare species earn the hunters the badge of subsistence fishers, a term employed by the International Whaling Commission, which permits aboriginal whaling. Indonesia isn’t a member, but to toe the line the lamafa are banned from using modern fishing techniques, instead relying on rickety wooden boats, bamboo poles and the weight of their bodies to drive metal barbs into the graceful beasts.

The first thing I notice is an assaulting stench. The second is a wishbone the size of a child flanking the side of the road. Lamalera lives and breathes whale.

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get in the know It’s not uncommon for whales to drag the hunters’ boats underwater.

INDONESIA It’s smiles all round as the town divvies up the bounty.

A fishing boat heads out to sea to scout for a catch.

A ship rests in the port of Lewoleba on Lembata Island, a four-hour journey from the whaling village. get in the know An express speedboat with on-board karaoke travels between Lembata and Flores islands in an hour. It’s far more entertaining than the four-hour ride on the ferry.

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Oh what a night: Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay with Sugarloaf Mountain in the background.

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get in the know Suriname is the smallest country in South America at 163,270 kilometres square. Brazil is the largest at 8.5 million kilometres square.

It’s big. Huge, in fact. Plus, there’s Amazonian jungle, snow-capped peaks and some of the world’s best party cities on offer – no wonder it’s hard to know where to begin. To aid your planning, we’ve tracked down the coolest of the cool this fascinating continent has to offer. Your dream trip begins here.

get in the know The Amazon rainforest produces about 20 per cent of the world’s oxygen.

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CITY

VALPARAÍSO, CHILE when it comes to understated cool. A thriving port town in the 1800s, it fell upon hard times following the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. As the number of docking ships diminished, members of the city’s elite packed up and abandoned their mansions.

These days Valpo, as it’s affectionately known, is in the throes of a cultural revival and

Image: Huilo Huilo

South American cities boast plenty of personality, but seaside Valparaíso takes the cake

in 2003 was honoured with UNESCO World Heritage status. Artists have splashed walls of cobblestone alleys with swathes of colour, and graffiti – some political, some simply beautiful – is scrawled near murals. New restaurants dish up some of Chile’s finest cuisine, bars pour craft beer from local microbreweries, and a creative cultural scene flourishes between the crumbling manors that cling to the iconic cerros (hills). Spend your days wandering the ramshackle streets and riding the old ascensores (funiculars) for sweeping views of the city and harbour.

TREE HOUSE

NOTHOFAGUS HOTEL & SPA, CHILE There are four boutique properties in the pristine Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve, but nothing compares to Nothofagus Hotel, with its striking balance between whimsical design and luxe lodging. Ensconced in temperate rainforest, Nothofagus resembles an inverted cone of spiralling wood and glass that emerges from the forest like a tree sprite version of the Guggenheim. In keeping with the natural aesthetic, the hotel is accessed via wooden walkways elevated above the rainforest floor, and the interior is built around a large nothofagus beech tree. The cosy, woodpanelled rooms are a perfect base for exploring the lush, unspoiled reserve, and the hotel also includes a top-notch spa where you can unwind after a long day of trekking and bird-watching.

Image: David Holt

huilohuilo.com

SPA THERAPY

EL TOTUMO, COLOMBIA

Squelch mud through your fingers and feel it ooze between your toes inside Colombia’s El Totumo volcano. About an hour’s drive from Cartagena, this pillar of goop promises a soothing and somewhat bizarre activity for travellers willing to slither into its embrace. To give it a go, cough up some pesos, strip to your togs and clamber up a rickety wooden ladder to the top of the volcano’s cone. Once you are immersed in the warm slop, a masseuse will offer to pummel your shoulders and massage the sludge into your scalp, all in the name of relaxation. The experience doesn’t end when you emerge resembling a concrete-clad monster. Hand yourself over to one of the local ladies who will scrub you squeaky clean in the nearby lake. Just get ready to temporarily part with your swimsuit; the women are very, very thorough.

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get in the know According to legend, El Totumo housed evil spirits who filled the crater with lava. Holy water drowned the spirits, turning the lava to mud.

Image: Gretchen Freund, Punta Norte Orca Research

WILDLIFE EXPERIENCE

ORCA FEAST, ARGENTINA

Sea lions are cool. Orcas are cooler. And if you happen to be at Peninsula Valdés around February you just might witness one of the coolest, albeit most gruesome, showdowns between beasts in the wild. As sea lions give birth in huge numbers here, pods of orcas lurk in the shallows looking

for a feast of pups. The killer whales come with a killer instinct and often lunge out of the water, beaching themselves to grab their unsuspecting prey. If there’s no orca action, you can enjoy the purity of watching pups frolicking on the beach and bleating like lambs to their mothers. If you miss the February feast, never fear. Between June and December, the World Heritage-listed peninsula, on the central coast of Argentina, is prime whale-watching territory with scores of southern rights breaching off the coast.

To learn more about the region’s killer whale population visit the website of the non-profit research organisation Punta Norte Orca Research. pnor.org

BREW WITH A VIEW THE MAZE INN, BRAZIL There’s no better view in Rio than at The Maze Inn, and we’re not just talking about the over-balcony vistas. The bar and inn is a hit with Hollywood celebrities, including Sylvester Stallone and Edward Norton (Snoop Dogg was also a guest), and provides endless ogling opportunities. Nestled among the alleys of Tavares Bastos, Rio’s first favela guesthouse is also a world-class jazz venue, with a terrace boasting incredible views of Sugarloaf Mountain, the city and Guanabara Bay. The first Friday of every month is a party, attracting talent and crowds from all over the world, so keep your celebrity radar finely tuned – you might find yourself rubbing shoulders with a screen legend letting their hair down during a break in filming. Plonk yourself on the terrace with a caipirinha while a saxophone tootles in the background and watch the cable cars weave their way up Sugerloaf like fireflies. jazzrio.com get in the know The name Argentina comes from the Latin word argentum, which means silver. Early explorers believed there were vast amounts of the metal in the region.

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