Category: Travel

The one where no one will read your book (and other truths about publishing)Elle GriffinMar 20 5124After I completed my first novel, I had dreams of a beautiful black book, its ivory pages sewn into the binding, the title embossed in gold leaf, a single red ribbon denoting the place where a reader might pause in their reading, adrift in another world.Perhaps, if I was lucky enough, more than a few readers would love it. Perhaps, in my wildest dreams, Reese Witherspoon would even recommend it to her book club. Perhaps it would go on to become a New York Times bestseller and Hello Sunshine would adapt it into a series for HBO. Perhaps I could spend my life as an author, writing books from the far corners of the world.Yes, perhaps. The unicorns of the publishing industry—Dan Brown, Anne Rice, Stephen King, Paulo Coelho—allow us to dream that maybe, just maybe, our books will make it too. If we just write well enough and persist long enough, by some miracle our books will make it onto Oprah’s nightstand and our dreams of being an author will be realized.Alas, that’s all it is. A dream.No one will read your book“One of the biggest ironies about this business is that there are lots of people who want to become authors, but that doesn’t necessarily equate with the number of people who are voracious readers,” says Rachel Deahl, news director at Publishers Weekly. “There is a disconnect. Not enough people read enough books.”Deahl, who has covered book deals for more than a decade, tells me the problem is a supply and demand one. “If you ask people how many books they read in the past year, they’ll say four. Or two,” she says. “There are lots and lots of people eager to become writers. But we need more readers. We need more people who are readers than we have writers.”Almost a third of Americans don’t read books at all. And, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ones that do spend only 16 minutes per day reading. Compare that to the average Netflix watcher who spends close to three hours per day consuming video content. At that pace, a watcher might get through 681 movies in a year while a reader gets through only 16 books—and that’s presuming those 15 minutes are spent reading books.In reality, books compete for our reading time alongside newspapers, magazines, and other online publications. Even this year, when leisure time increased as a result of the pandemic, novels saw only a subtle increase in sales over last year—by 2.8 percent. News consumption, however, saw an increase of 215 percent with most of that time taking place on Facebook (23 minutes per day), Google (14 minutes per day), and MSN (five minutes per day).If the market for our attention is intensely crowded, the sliver of that market devoted to reading books is very, very small. And if the demand for books is small, the supply of books is great. To make it onto a reader’s nightstand, an author will have to compete with the roughly 3 million books currently in print to get there—and a seemingly endless supply of ebooks.And how a reader chooses those carefully selected few is a rather convoluted (and heavily commercialized) system. It has more to do with what Amazon recommends, what’s trending on The New York Times Best Seller list, and what a friend is obsessed with on Audible—and those algorithms are heavily dictated by what is already selling.“People tend to buy the books that are already really popular,” Deahl says. “They look at the bestseller list to see what they want to buy and that reinforces this tiny amount of books at the top. It’s a very top-heavy system. The tricky thing in publishing is success begets success. But it’s really hard to create that spark.”

Source: The one where no one will read your book (and other truths about publishing) – by Elle Griffin – The Novelleist

Gaps on supermarket shelves. Fast food outlets pulling milkshakes and bottled drinks from their menus. Restaurants running out of chicken and closing. Empty vending machines. Online grocery orders full of substitutions. Fruit and vegetables rotting in the fields.These are just some of the most visible signs of Britain’s deepening supply chain crisis, which has seen stocks in shops and warehouses slump to their lowest levels since the Confederation of British Industry began surveying in 1983.It has led to dire warnings that the UK’s food system, which has been hit hardest by delivery delays and labour shortages, is in danger of reaching breaking point and may not be able to meet Christmas demand.AdvertisementCustomers may have only started noticing this crisis in recent weeks but it has been building for months, with businesses, road hauliers and transport unions telling ministers at the start of the summer that a shortage of lorry drivers could lead to empty shelves.The logistics industry estimates around 100,000 more HGV drivers are needed to get goods and materials moving again. The shortfall has emerged, in part, because 14,000 EU drivers have left the country and only 600 have returned since Brexit. The pandemic has also disrupted training and tests for new drivers: around 40,000 HGV driving tests were cancelled last year.

Source: Food, beer, toys, medical kit. Why is Britain running out of everything? | Brexit | The Guardian

Some memorable things you learn on your first trip to Costa Rica: First, howler monkeys in the jungle scream louder than roller coaster riders at theme parks. Next, you can absolutely scuba dive in a shark cave, as long as you don’t mind sharks brushing against your body. And last, when barreling down a Class-4 rapid and the guide yells “Down!”, duck into the middle of the raft—fast.I learned these vital facts several years ago, as a guest on a yacht passing through the country, known for its rain forests, white beaches, sportfishing, wildlife and adventure sports. Back then, that was pretty much the only way someone could vacation in Costa Rica by yacht; legal restrictions made traditional seasonal yacht charter all but impossible.

Source: Costa Rica’s New Superyacht Rules Allow Anchoring and Charters – Robb Report

If you love taking trips on luxury trains, the Western U.S., or both, you’re in luck.Canadian rail company Rocky Mountaineer has expanded operations into the U.S. and now offers a route called “Rockies to the Red Rocks.” The 2-day, 1-night trips run back and forth between Denver, Colorado, and Moab, Utah.“Vast canyons, chromatic deserts, natural archways, and enchanting hoodoos are just the beginning,” a Rocky Mountaineer blog post explains. “The train winds alongside rivers, through mountain ranges, and past ancient rock canyons as it travels between the mile-high city of Denver to the red rock formations of Moab. The rail route is filled with highlights best seen by train, including Ruby Canyon, Mount Logan, and crossing the Continental Divide.”

Source: Rocky Mountaineer Offering Luxury Train Trips From Rockies To Red Rocks – TravelAwaits

About Vilcabamba Vilcabamba means “sacred plain” in the Inca language Quechua and today it is located in La Convecion Province in the Cuzco Region in Peru.Date: Capital Of The Remains Of The Inca Empire 1539-1572Discovered By: Explore Hiram Bingham in 1911In 1911 the explorer Hiram Bingham was exploring the mountains and forests of Peru and he discovered this lost city after the local Peruvians showed him the way. He described the city in his book “The Lost City of The Incas”. But it seems he was confused because he seems to have thought that Machu Picchu was the fabled lost city of Vilcabamba. Machu Picchu may have been more of a royal sacred site than an actual city.It wasn’t until 1964 that Gene Savoy was able to identify these ruins (which were then called Espiritu Pampa) with the fabled stories of the lost Vilcabamba. The site is still continuing to release its secrets, in 2010, artifacts have been shown to belong to the ancient Wari culture from around 700 AD. This means the site had been in use long before the Inca arrived in the 1400s.Size: Vilcabamba Occupies An Area of 15 HaRuins: Ruins Include Canals, Terraces, Inca Temples, Traces of BuildingsAccess: Via Long And Difficult Hiking Trails, No Road AccessThe Inca emperor, Manco Inca Yupanqui, guarding the last of his empire managed to defeat the Spanish and their Indian allies in 1537. But even so, it wasn’t enough to stop the Spanish, and he had to move his capital. While he managed to escape, his principal wife was captured.RELATED: The Exclusive And Expensive Hotels Adding Luxury To Machu PicchuSome of the buildings and ceramics here have Spanish influence. This shows that despite being the last refugee for the weakened Inca Empire, there was influence from the warring Spanish. There is also evidence of fire, that could indicate damage caused by the victorious Spanish as they eventually overran the last redoubt of the disintegrating Inca Empire.Visiting VilcabambaToday the site is open for tourists. For much of the site, the jungle has been cleared, but other parts still remain covered by the dense Cusco forest.While one needs a tour to hike to Machu Picchu, tourists can go to Vilcabamba by themselves if they prefer. There are of course options for organized tours too and this is the most popular way to visit. Going through a tourism agency means that food, camping, transportation, etc. are covered. Tours are available that include guided tours to the iconic city of Machu Picchu.To reach this remote location by oneself, one needs to take a long bus ride from the modern town of the same name, Vilcabamba. And then there is a long hike to this forgotten site deep within the jungle. See here for hiking the Inca trail to Machu Picchu.Getting To Vilcabamba: One Can Hike By Oneself, But Via Guided Tour Is RecommendedRELATED: Skip Machu Picchu And Consider Visiting The Ancient City Of Chan Chan, InsteadThe extremely rugged terrain of the region (that includes snow-capped mountains, forests, lowland jungles, and deep canyons), is why it is difficult to reach today. It is also why the Inca chose it as their retreat from the Spanish, why it resisted the Spanish for so long, and why it was forgotten. Getting there remains no easy feat and is recommended only for experienced hikers. But as the saying goes, no pain no gain, the site is very rewarding to those who do hike through the snow-capped mountains, through the jungle, and across rugged and even dangerous terrain.How To Book ToursGuided and professional tours to the site can be booked through an agency in the Historic Center of Cusco. Alternatively, to get an online quote, see Mountain Macchu Picchu Guide.Vilcabamba is a great option for those really interested in seeing and discovering more of the Ancient Inca culture than just the popular Machu Picchu. While Machu Picchu really is stunning, which is far from the only attraction of the Inca Empire to survive.NEXT: 20 Things Tourists Do At Machu Picchu (That Locals Can’t Stand)SHARETWEETEMAILCOMMENT’THE SOUND OF MUSIC’ WAS FILMED IN THIS ICONIC AUSTRIAN CITYRELATED TOPICSDESTINATIONSABOUT THE AUTHORAaron Spray (172 Articles Published)Aaron is a first-hand traveler who has visited more than 70 countries around the world. He is passionate about traveling and opening up the world for other intrepid explorers.More From Aaron SprayPOPULAR NOWAre There Really Tunnels Under New York City? This Is What We KnowWhy Everyone Should Visit The Geyser Wonderland of El Tatio

Source: Where The Lost City Of Vilcabamba Is (And It’s Not The Same As Machu Picchu)

Set against the magnitude of this crisis, our inescapable smallness. There’s just no way around it: I can swear off the internal combustion engine, renounce meat, cover my roof in solar panels, touch no plastic, and plant a hundred trees a day for the rest of my life, and none of it will bring the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide any closer to 350 parts per million, nor ease the world’s biodiversity crisis. Those things will only happen when hundreds of millions of people change their consumption habits. And that will only happen when governments pass the right laws.That’s why focusing on government and industry, as opposed to individual behaviour, has become the default position of the environmental movement. For too many years, governments and corporations alike urged us puny citizens to do our part without bothering to do theirs. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and shop green while you’re at it; refrains like these have allowed the big players of industrial society to shift their ecological responsibility onto our frail shoulders.

Source: Election 2021: We’re choosing our politicians while the world burns around us

CALLING ALL BOURBON LOVERS: My Old Kentucky Dinner Train is back on the tracks as of Aug. 21. It’s like those popular wine trains, but with a little more heft from America’s classic spirit.The train covers 36 miles over the course of two and a half hours on 1940s vintage dining cars that are pulled by two 1950s F-unit locomotives. The train ride begins in Bardstown, Kentucky, also known as the Bourbon Capital of the World thanks to its 11 local and regional distilleries. You’ll pass by notable sites including the Jim Beam distillery, Jesse James’s safe house, and the Jackson Hollow Trestle in the Bernheim Forest.

Source: The Kentucky bourbon train is once again running in 2021