Costa Rica's Green Sitting at an umbrella table in downtown San Jose overlooking the Plaza de la Cultura is like a page out of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises." The plaza is laid out in a maze of stalls where passive vendors sell sparkling silver jewelry by the trayfull, hand-carved clay masks, colorful Guatemalan belts, area rugs, and hammocks perfect for a midday siesta. Three men play an old wood marimba over the buzz of the crowd while a steaming plate of Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) is served to an elegant lady who was performing with her guitar...

Tim Robbins On His Road To Stardom Award-winning Tim Robbins began his career on episodic television. Robbins' film work, however, is what catapulted him into becoming a major movie star including "Bull Durham" and "Mystic River" for which he won multiple awards. Equally at home behind the camera, he directed the riveting "Dead Man Walking." He is Founder and Artistic Director of The Actors' Gang, which he formed thirty-five years ago and has directed multiple provocative productions.

Puerto Vallarta: Magic and Mayhem on the Malecon So I heard that you could spend from dawn to dusk on the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and never get bored and I thought, "Okay, I'm up for that challenge." Well, maybe not the dawn part – I'm not a morning person – so I had no problem leaving those early hours to the joggers and those seeking an early start to catch their red snapper for dinner.

Monte Verità: In the Footsteps of Anarchy Just as I reach the end of a squiggling, multicolored path, an acorn plummets from an oak tree above me. It lands at my feet, just as the path culminates at a mandala of Venetian glass, eight feet in diameter. On the worn-out front lawn of Monte Verità, the Mountain of Truth, this path, Chiara's Rainbow, evolves through the colors of the spectrum – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and finally violet – before arriving at the mosaic mandala where psychic energies supposedly prevail. The falling acorn brings me to the present moment.

The Mermaid Parade By Michael Schlueter The Mermaid Parade is the largest art parade in the nation. A celebration of ancient mythology and honky-tonk rituals of the seaside, it showcases over 1,500 creative individuals from all over New York City’s five boroughs and beyond, opening the summer with incredible art, entrepreneurial spirit and community pride.

Lake Charles’ Family-Size Low-Key Mardi Gras The Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras in Lake Charles, the second largest in Louisiana, does not need parents there to avert their children’s eyes. This is family entertainment and children are very much part of it. The main office of the Lake Charles CVB has costumes from last year’s Mardi Gras but it also has figures to fascinate little ones from country boys fishing for their dinner to alligators who have already fed and are rubbing their stomachs.

Above Innsbruck: Climbing Karwendel Breathtaking. Mind-boggling. I am reading about Alex Honnold's free climb of El Capitan in Yosemite but my mind cannot gain a firm foothold on what Alex does and how he ticks. However, reading the story of his El Cap climb rekindled memories of my first experience dipping my toes into the dimensions of what he does. Welcome to a story set among the magnificent beauty and outdoor spirited, playful people of the Tirol, Austria.

John January and Linda Berry Have Chemistry Chemistry by its very definition is the spontaneous reaction of two people to each other, especially that sense of mutual attraction and understanding. This month John January and Linda Berry release their new project, Chemistry 101 and together they explore a range and depth of musical styles on both organic and physical levels. As a joint labor of love, January says Chemistry 101 is pretty straight-forward.

Remembering My Dad My father died while I was roaming through Northern Italy. He was 52. He passed away peacefully in his sleep in his home in Florida. I found out about it at the American Express office in Istanbul three weeks later when I opened a letter my brother sent me. This was 1970. There were no computers, no smartphones, no Skype.

Two "MUST SEE" Truly Spectacular Places in Europe. Here's Why. The Han Grotto and Culzean Castle. As the name of my Traveling Boy feature is "Travel With a Difference," it's important to me to always bring you offbeat and unusual tourist places around the world you may not know about. These two fit that category to a T, and they're absolutely worth a visit. One's in Scotland and one's in Belgium. Culzean (pronounced CULLANE) Castle is located near Maybole, Carrick, on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland.

NOLA: New Orleans, Louisiana Mardi Gras, the French Quarter, the Garden District, the streetcar (now a bus) to Desire, the jazz clubs, the beignets at the Café du Monde and breakfast at Brennan’s come to mind when you think of New Orleans. But that’s not all there is to this unique American city, filled with treasures both culinary and cultural.

Tim Robbins Gives a Brief Primer on Theatre: Parallels on Indentured Servants & Student Debt One of America's acting treasures, the award-winning Tim Robbins excels in any medium in which he works. He began his career on episodic television. Robbins' film work, however, is what catapulted him into becoming a major movie star beginning with his role as Ebby Calvin 'Nuke' LaLoosh in "Bull Durham." One of his most memorable roles was in "Mystic River" for which he won multiple awards. Equally at home behind the camera, he directed the riveting "Dead Man Walking."

The Shortest Road Trip The Canadian side of Niagara Falls has a 35 mile linear park, called Niagara Park, with seemingly endless attractions stretched along the full length of the Niagara River. I recently spent several days driving to each, sampling fantastic wines and great food while enjoying the rugged beauty of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. It became one of the shortest road trips ever. From tunnels under the falls, to zip lines into the gorge, and from a soaking boat ride to the base of the falls, to a challenging hike along the shore of the rapids, Niagara Park's attractions are amazing.

Highway 49 Revisited: Exploring California's Gold Country In the 1840s, the population of California was only 14,000, but by 1850 more than 100,000 settlers and adventurers had arrived from all over the world – and they came for one reason: gold. James Marshall had discovered the first gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in El Dorado County, creating the largest gold rush in history.

Rolling Through the Outback on the Indian Pacific's Christmas Train It was mid December and a heat wave had embraced the country. Record setting temperatures were searing the land from high 90s in Sydney and Adelaide to blast furnace heat in the great Outback. Fires were raging throughout the country. But we were cool, riding the air-conditioned Indian Pacific railway across the southern expanse of Australia to the west coast city of Perth, a four-day transcontinental tour...

Three Musical Pilgrimages: Mozart, Grieg and Hendrix Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791) could read and compose music, plus play the violin and piano, when he was five years old. Born into a musical family in Salzburg, Austria (then the Holy Roman Empire), he had a unique ability for imitating music, which first became evident when he recited a musical piece by simply observing his father conducting a lesson to his older sister. This led to a childhood on the road, where the young prodigy performed before many of the royal courts of Europe.

A Penne Peppered Pranzo With Pavarotti Have you ever glanced across the room in a restaurant and seen someone at another table engrossed in a business lunch? The poor frontline employee is talking frantically on an iPhone with someone back at the office while simultaneously crunching sales projections on an iPad as his/her regional manager, waiting impatiently, strums his/her fingers on the table and remarks, "Well?" Non è una problema per me (It's not a problem for me). Today, I'm throwing away the gadgets and having lunch, virtually, with the late, great tenor-of-all-tenors, Luciano Pavarotti. "The King of the High C's" and I have all the time in the world, just like the length of one his operas. In between arias, we'll lunch on a simple concoction I've whipped up in the kitchen many times before. Go to Recipes

Traveling Boy's other helpful resources for your travel adventures

Webcam Section: See real time images of some of the world's most interesting views. Traveling Blues Features (partial list) – blues aficionado Tim Mattox writes about the blues: Honeyboy Edwards John Hammond Eddie Vinson Willie Dixon Mark Hummel & the Blues Survivors John Mayall Lowell George (Little Feat) BB King Johnny Winter Joe Bonamassa Preston Smith Rory Block Mick Taylor Dennis Jones Rod Piazza Buddy Guy Pinetop Perkins The Blues & Lives Well-Lived Promise of the Real/Lukas Nelson Jimmy Carl Black Stephen Stills Otis Rush Little Walter Johnny Otis Kinsey, Perkins & Sumlin Charlie Musselwhite Phil Gates JW Jones Billy Watson Kim Simmonds (Savoy Brown) 'Iceman' Albert Collins Lightnin' Malcolm Nathan James The 44's Anthony Gomes Travel Humor (partial list) – a collection of jokes (with bits of travel adventures) from graphics artist Raoul Pascual: Can You Get Married in Heaven? 3 Men, 3 Women and 3 Bears Dangerous Snake The Truth About Reindeer Health Warning Do You Want to be a Mermaid or a Whale? Irish Jokes Outback Half-Wit Irish Millionaire Laundry Man Moses and the Red Sea Two Norwegians How the War Between Ireland and France was Averted Jewish Haikus Italian Profiling Paraprosdokians The Middle Wife Welsh Holiday Alberta Snow Complete and Finished Alzheimer's Test Agricultural Inspector News from Libya Chinese Food Baby Polar Bear Spanish Delicacy Mexican Jews British Humor A Chicken Walks Into a Bar First Child Hello? Irish Babes Italian Golfer Sleeping With Bob The Crows of Massachusetts Snow Parking Hamburg Visits Los Angeles CA Airplane Water Landing Team Effort Freeloaders Leviticus 20:13