It's called Afar and specializes - or seems to, this is my first issue - in off-beat but not wacky travel destinations and specialized info for when you get there. First person accounts figure in, too. I particularly liked "Eats Well With Others" - Auckland - because we have friends living there.
Next up is the account of Ryan Knighton on his visit to Zimbabwe. "Oh, please," you say pettishly, "I've been on armchair safaris." Knighton is blind. The guide had several years earlier had a blind traveler and learned for himself what our other senses are capable of feeling. It's a fascinating account, no less so for Knighton's acceptance of and clever reportage on the experience of being blind on safari.
"Islands of Plenty" an article on the Las Isletas de Granada of Nicaragua was fascinating, too, because another friend of ours has family there and has visited often over the years.
In a section titled "Live Your Travel Fantasy" the reader is offered such as sleeping in an overwater bungalow; having an island all to your precious self; live like royalty in a palace (Scotland, Piedmont, Jaipur, India.)
Neither of these appeal to me, but, hey! Go for it. Bungee jump from Victoria Falls. it's a 230 ft. freefall down to a crushed skull and drowning. Or would you prefer to fly a MIG-29 jet fighter over Nizhny Novgorod? This is the good part: "a veteran test pilot guides you." And yet ... remember Gary Powell and the U-2 matter?
Speaking of Nicaragua, you can surf an active volcano - by grabbing a plank of wood, sitting down on it and sliding 2,388 ft. to the bottom, a trip of perhaps five minutes.
When you ponder the probable accident rate, when you consider the fact that many of these equipment-based rides have never heard of OSHA ... I think "armchair" is best.
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