By Julia Cosgrove  August 13th, 2010 3:08 pm  |  Comments (0)

Calling all social-media–savvy travelers! Afar is a sponsor of Blog Your Way Around the World, an online contest that gives travelers the chance to win a wildlife trip to the Galapagos, an off-the-beaten-path journey in Costa Rica, a biking excursion in Austria and the Czech Republic, and more. To enter, contestants must submit an essay of 400 words by December 31, 2010, explaining why they should win. Once you’ve posted your essay, reach out to your community for votes. The blogger with the most votes will receive eight trips for two, a gear package provided by such brands as Teva, Smith Optics, Eagle Creek Travel Gear, and a one-year subscription to Afar. Here’s an excerpt from one entry that resonates with Afar’s mission:

There is a distinct difference between a traveler and a tourist. A traveler wants to meet the local people, see and experience the way they live, eat the things they eat and attempt to speak their language. A tourist wants to pick up their safe and comfortable world and transport it with them.

By Jeremy Saum  July 23rd, 2009 11:01 am  |  Comments (1)

In the Talk department of Afar’s premier issue, you can read about how Czechs believe in the creative power of laziness. The great Adam Gopnik, in this essay from the New Yorker’s Innovators Issue (registration required to read the full story), thinks they might have it right.

Touching on disposable razors, medieval mousetraps (and lack thereof), booklights, candles, peacocks, starfish (which reproduce “as Brad and Angelina seem to, by mere proximity”), and Prince’s mustache, he discusses the idea that it’s not competition that drives innovation, but leisure and abundance: “Once we no longer have to pressure our bodies to chew and hunt, the big heads behind them, having nothing to do, start doing what they please.” He also questions whether innovation is always a good thing: “The peacock with its tail and buzzing batteries is dying. The starfish, by candlelight, inherits the earth.”

Plenty of material for a good discussion with friends, preferably over a drink. You just might experience what the Czechs call pohoda.