It was a quiet afternoon on Raratonga, in the Cook Islands, when Lydia Nga heard the news. With the stroke of a pen, her homeland, 15 scattered islets west of Tahiti, a country smaller than Detroit, had grown exponentially, reborn as a 690,000 square-mile nation. But it wasn't the islands that grew. In 1982, the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ruled that coastal nations had jurisdiction over their own "exclusive economic zone," defined as 200 miles of the ocean floor, measured from the shore.

Since my visit to Asturias, Spain, last October, I’ve been dreaming about a rustic chicken dish I was served there. I was visiting for the natural paradise that is Asturias, with hiking, climbing, horseback riding, kayaking, even coal mining on my itinerary. But all that exercise led me to explore the fantastic kitchens of the region too.

I can only guess what’s happening. Since a majority of westerners roll in and order something like the stock Jasmine tea in a box—the generic uncreative stuff—maybe she assumes I’m a different kind of customer, that is, one who at least knows pu’erh, one who has a preference. As my wannabe Zappa-turned-Kerouac self sits there scribbling in my notebook and scarfing the pumpkin seed candy, there’s nothing for her, or me, to be confused about. By now, the pu’erh has elicited serenity of the utmost sort.

Almost everywhere you turn there is a carinderia (a small canteen). You find them in the mall in fast food chains like Jollibee, Inasal and Chow King that serve hamburgers, fried chicken and noodles. I didn't see much of McDonalds … I think the local competition is driving them out of town. You can also find food along the major and minor streets.

I had to show my passport, proof of vaccination and a 2-day old negative Covid Test result. I was surprised that I needed a Philippine Health pass. My online research didn’t mention any need for that. Fortunately, I was directed to a website that allowed me to fill it up online.

The first thing you notice is the fragrance; where the intoxicating scent of the tiare flower announces to your senses that you are in a magical place, overflowing with tropical vegetation and soothing trade winds. It is the same perfume that the English seamen on the HMS Bounty first encountered; but they came not for flowers, but for breadfruit, intended as a new food staple for their African slaves in the West Indies. But that was another time and another emotional place. Today, Papeete, located on Tahiti Nui ('Big.), is Tahiti's vibrant capital city and gateway to her islands. Roughly one-half of all of the Tahitian islands' population live in this city.

Picasso even famously sketched and painted Angela Rosengart herself. Another floor features David Douglas Duncan’s photographs of Picasso at work in his studio, including a few shots from October, 1963, with Angela sitting in a chair, as Picasso draws her. “I had to sit there and endure the looks from his eyes,” Angela tells me. “The looks were like arrows.”

People and art have been recurring themes in Deb Roskamp's photographic studies. In The People of Guadalajara, Ms. Roskamp explores the relationships between the Mexican people and the great plazas, cathedrals, architecture and sculptures of Guadalajara. Considered to be the most Mexican of Mexico's cities, Guadalajara has long been a favorite domestic tourist destination for Mexican families. Ms. Roskamp captures the joy, excitement and spirit of locals and tourists as they experience the city's great art, and thus become part of the artistic landscape themselves.

With its jagged mountain peaks that jolt vertically from the sea, stunning waterways, cascading waterfalls, tiny fishing villages and mountain farmhouses, the fjords of Norway would be my pick for the most visually striking place on the planet. I'm not exactly going out on a limb when I say this. Two of Norway's most famous fjords, the Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord, have already joined the Great Wall of China, the pyramids of Egypt, and the Grand Canyon as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And National Geographic Traveler Magazine also rated Norway's fjords as the top travel destination in the world in their first "Index of Destination Stewardship" –  an elite list of the least spoiled, great places on earth.

I made my first trip to Quebec City (population, just under 3.5 million) in 2019, and despite having been to many other destinations in Canada several times apiece, Quebec City had eluded me.  And I can honestly say, shame on me. The city and its environs offer the sensation of a more "exotic" trip abroad, and yet, it is in our backyard—and everyone (and I mean everyone, including the bus boy clearing your restaurant table) is bi-lingual. There is much to see and do in this appealing town, not merely in the Old City (Vieux-Québec), which is a UNESCO World Heritage site (and the only walled city north of Mexico).