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Quebec really knows how to throw a party. It may be cold, but the Quebecois absolutely love it. The Hotel de Glace is just one example. Covering 32,000 square feet, this glistening example of “ice engineering” is just too much fun to pass up. If you’re feeling adventurous, make a reservation and spend the night, all of the rooms are themed differently with unique ice carvings in each room. The hotel will provide you with arctic-style sleeping bags designed to keep you warm well below zero. If perhaps you would like a libation, there is a bar that serves signature drinks. I sampled a Hotel De Glace cocktail that consisted of vodka and ice cider served in a shot glass carved from ice. After dark, the hotel comes to life with beautiful colored lighting that really highlights the structure. For a bit more fun for you adrenaline junkies, you will find a climbing wall made of ice, the gauntlet is now thrown down. For more information visit the hotel’s web site at http://www.hoteldeglace-canada.com. Photograph by www.xdachez.com

If you’re looking for a break from Oaxaca‘s cultural delights and would like some downtime, maybe to enjoy some swimming during your stay, the best place is in San Agustin Etla. It’s about a 20-minute drive from the Oaxaca city center, but it’s well worth making the excursion. This swimming place has five pools, with a couple that are good for kids and one that is heated, as well as a couple of water slides. The setting is beautiful with great views of the surrounding mountains. You can choose a table near the pool of your choice and order drinks and food from passing waiters. During Easter break and on weekends when the weather is hot, Vista Hermosa Balneario can get very crowded. For a quiet and relaxing time, head there during the week.

Just South of Ubud in the village of Singakerta are some of the most talented wood carvers on the island of Bali. In this village in the myriad of carving workshops you can buy everything from tiny detailed dancers to full sized Komodo dragons. The skill of carving is generally passed down the male side of the family, but women are also involved in the smoothing and polishing of the carvings and you’ll probably meet them sitting outside chatting while they work. Many of the shops sell basic souvenir style carvings, which are generally a bit cheesy, but there are also more original pieces lurking in the background as well. Many of the carvers will give half day lessons if you ask, so don’t be shy to learn a little while you’re there as well.

If there’s a hub of the hubbub in Kennebunkport, it’s Dock Square, a colorful jumble of onetime fishing shacks that now house galleries, stores, and restaurants. Prowl through the shops to find unusual clothing, distinctive souvenirs, fine art, crafts, taffy and fudge, pottery, canvas bags, specialty foods, presents for pets, and, of course, the usual trinkets and T-shirts. Most of these spots are built on wharves over the tidal Kennebunk River, and it’s worth climbing to second-floor ones, such as Good Earth, for the water—or mudflat—views. The bridge connecting Dock Square to Kennebunk’s Lower Village offers another good vantage point, and the Clam Shack is one of the area’s best places to indulge in fried clams or a lobster roll.

The 17th century mansion that houses Oaxaca‘s contemporary art museum is commonly referred to as “La Casa de Cortes,” although it was in fact built over a century after the death of Hernan Cortes, it is certainly lavish enough to have been worthy of the great conquistador. The front of the building has the family seal of the Lazo de la Vega and Pinelo families, who were the home’s original inhabitants. The state government acquired the building in 1986 and it housed a different museum prior to the opening of the MACO (Museo de Arte Contemporareo de Oaxaca) in 1992. The museum has 13 exhibit rooms, with the permanent collection on the second floor, and downstairs areas are used for temporary exhibits, which change frequently.

Some visitors to Santa Fe are surprised to find this Gothic revival structure in the middle of all of the adobe buildings in the historic district, like a piece of medieval Paris transplanted to the Wild West. The French connection is real—the 19th-century Loretto Chapel was designed by a French architect who modeled it after La Sainte Chapelle in Paris. According to legend, though, the plans failed to include access from the chapel floor to the choir loft. So, the nuns who ran the girls’ school for which this stone structure was built began praying, and after nine days, a mysterious carpenter arrived. Neither nails nor glue nor any visible external support were used in this doubly-twisting staircase, and no one ever found out the name of the carpenter, who left without seeking payment. It must’ve been St. Joseph himself...so goes the legend of “the miraculous staircase.” The physics of the structure can be explained by architects today, but that doesn’t stop about a quarter-million visitors every year from marveling at the elegant spruce spiral. Open to the public as a privately run museum, the Loretto Chapel hasn’t been a church for decades. It can, however, be rented: a spectacular setting for a private wedding.

One of the traditions associated with Day of the Dead in Oaxaca is the creation of colorful sand tapestries. You’ll find them all over the city throughout the week of the holiday, but in the plaza adjacent to La Soledad church, they set up some large ones that are truly monumental, It’s interesting to see when they’re being made, they bring in truckloads of sand and then the young artists painstakingly fill in their design to bring their vision to life. The theme of the tapestries is invariably death, but often there is a playful aspect to these creations. The ephemeral nature of this art form reminds us of the fleeting nature of life. After the holiday has passed, they scoop up the sand and return the plaza to its unadorned condition.

The Aguilars are a family of folk artists who live in Ocotlan, a town about 20 miles south of Oaxaca city. There are four sisters; Josefina, Guillermina, and Irene live in a row of houses at the entrance to the town, and Concepcion lives a bit farther out. They all make similar pieces, though each brings her own particular style to her work. Their pieces reflect the colorful rural life in Oaxaca and depict market women, Frida Kahlo replicas, religious symbols and nativity scenes, as well as cantinas and “women of the night.” Although their work can sometimes be purchased outside of Oaxaca, if you visit the Aguilar family workshops, prices are much more accessible and you get the bonus of meeting the artists and their families and seeing how they live and work.

A ten-mile drive from downtown Flagstaff will take you back about a thousand years if you take a quick hike down into Walnut Canyon National Monument. From about 1150 AD to the early 1300’s, this meandering section of forested canyon was home to a thriving village of cliff-dwellers, part of the Sinagua culture. A series of steep stone steps leads down from the visitor center to the dwellings. The area is often snowy in winter; blanketed in white, it’s a striking contrast to most people’s mental images of Arizona. Coming from Flagstaff’s Victorian downtown, these ancient ruins are a testament to the complex layers of human settlement in the Southwest. The Sinagua culture is thought to have eventually merged with the modern Hopi people to the northeast.

Three friends who found themselves thrown together in the New York of the 1990s—artist Gabriel Orozco, who has been featured at MoMA, the Pompidou Center, and the Tate Modern; Mónica Manzutto, who worked at the Marian Goodman Gallery; and José Kuri, who was completing an M.A. at Columbia—originally came up with the idea for what is now arguably Mexico’s most influential gallery. Kurimanzutto began with some ephemeral Colonia Roma events, often in nontraditional spaces. Today the gallery occupies a structure commissioned from renowned architect Alberto Kalach; its stable of artists includes Mexican creators of international stature like Dr. Lakra, Miguel Calderón, Carlos Amorales, and Damián Ortega, as well as global talents like Akram Zaatari, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Anri Sala, Danh Vo, Jimmie Durham, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Monika Sosnowska. Kurimanzutto’s shows—not to mention the openings—mark the pulse of the Mexico City arts scene.

The fact that Oaxaca is a hub of art and creativity is evident almost everywhere you look. Besides the abundance of beautiful architecture and colorful folk art and handicrafts, several important contemporary artists hail from Oaxaca, including three internationally renowned painters: Rufino Tamayo, Rodolfo Morales and Francisco Toledo. The Oaxacan painters museum is a space that celebrates the art and creativity of these, and other less well-known but also extremely talented artists from this southern Mexican state. The two-story restored colonial mansion that houses the Oaxacan painters museum has elegant arches surrounding a central courtyard, and rooms with pristine white walls that form the backdrop to paintings and other artwork. There’s no permanent collection here, but temporary exhibits run throughout the year, and the space is also used for workshops and courses.

If Torre Latinoamericana, whose construction was completed in 1956, looks familiar, it shouldn’t be hard to place the resemblance: this skyscraper, once Mexico City‘s tallest at just under 600 feet, looks quite a bit like New York City‘s Empire State Building. What makes the torre significant, other than that fun historical fact, is this: It has survived many earthquakes, including the devastating 1985 earthquake. As such, it is widely considered to be the first major skyscraper in the world to be built on active seismic land. From its mirador, or observatory, you can see for miles and miles, getting a true appreciation of the city’s vast expanse. You can also take some excellent photos of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, which is just across the street.

You have to be a little bit loco to want to visit Central de Abasto, much less actually go there, but it is the ultimate market experience. Central de Abasto is the market that supplies all of the other fruit and vegetable markets in the city and many others throughout the country. More than 30,000 tons of fresh produce enter and leave the market daily, or the equivalent of 80% of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the capital. It’s not for the faint of heart, though; this market is all business and hustle is the name of the game. Browsing and taking photos of towers of colorful vegetables are not recommended because aisles are crowded and fleet-on-their-feet workers moving hand trucks of goods don’t tolerate dawdling slowpokes.

The Mursi tribe of Ethiopia lives within the boundaries of Mago National Park in one of the most remote regions of the country. As is true with other Ethiopian tribes, the Mursi live difficult and often dangerous lives. But as I learned, they also know how to enjoy themselves. Dueling or stick fighting is a popular past time and for the women, beautifying themselves. Men, women, and even children love to paint their faces and wear jewelry and elaborate headdresses. For the women, signs of beauty also include scarification and the wearing of large pottery discs or ‘plates’ (debhinya) in their lower lips. I have to admit that the Mursi sense of beauty is a not pleasant to my eyes and when I found out how they work the plate into their lower lip, it was even more disconcerting. But that’s just on the outside. Through my guide, I was able to exchange a few words with the women in the photo. Despite any hardships they have, they were very friendly and welcoming towards me – we were even able to share a few laughs. In the end, the beauty of the Mursi woman is truly on the inside – they’re not so scary after all.

Bouchon Bakery, with its origins in Yountville, California, and under the aegis of world renowned chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry, now has three locations—and, lucky enough for Vegas, one of them is on the Strip. The menu is classic French bistro, done extremely well, and with a carefully selected (and extensive) wine list to match. It’s also open for breakfast & brunch.