Indelible Travel Memories From 2012

Travel is often exhilarating and intoxicating, but it also bequeaths a fund of memories that is a lifelong source of solace and delight. Here are six trip highlights from 2012 that will forever inspire interludes of fireside reverie.

A Drive Around Rosguill Peninsula

While staying in the lovely 18th-century Rathmullan House in northern Donegal, we meandered along the nearby nine-mile “Atlantic Drive” around the famously scenic Rosguill Peninsula. Each bend in the road presented a vista that invited a photograph: windblown fields dotted with whitewashed cottages; rugged, rock-bordered bays; beaches of golden sand scoured by unrelenting surf; and restless expanses of ocean, reflecting the Wedgwood blue of the sky. 

Lunch on the Atacama Salt Flats

Staff at Awasi in northern Chile assured us that the one sight we would not want to miss during our stay was the vast Tara Salt Flat. A daylong excursion took us through tracts of red desert overlooked by snowcapped mountains. The flats themselves are dotted with turquoise oases — sprinkled with pink flamingoes — and towering, wind-sculpted rock “cathedrals.” It was amid this scene of unearthly beauty that our guide set up a table, spread out a red-checked tablecloth and served a picnic lunch of smoked salmon, roast beef, potato salad and cookies.

Hiking in the Napa Valley

Calistoga Ranch in the Napa Valley is sequestered at the base of a canyon filled with shady stands of moss- covered live oaks. Two trailheads on the property climb to opposing ridges; both switchback through low-lying coastal redwood trees to peaceful copses of twisted, red-barked manzanita. One morning, I opted for a hike instead of the treadmill, and from a lookout point on a Palisades ridge, I watched the mist flow down the Mayacamas range across the valley.

An Encounter in Vientiane

Wandering down a side street in Vientiane on a hot, sleepy afternoon, we were surprised to see a tidy wooden sign hung out front of a handsome French Colonial villa: “Lao Textiles.” Curious, we stepped inside and promptly met Carol Cassidy, a longtime resident of Vientiane, and a native of Woodbury, Connecticut. She showed us around the workshop that she founded to preserve traditional Laotian weaving skills. The smiles of the women working at their looms in the villa’s peaceful garden return to us every time we wear the beautiful silk scarves that we purchased.

Keeping Lookout With the Meerkats

While sipping a glass of chilled lemonade overlooking the sun-seared plains of the Kalahari, our guide, Super, proposed a late-afternoon visit to the meerkats. The occupants of the nearby colony, he explained, had become habituated to human visitors. Meerkats are small mammals belonging to the mongoose family, which characteristically use their long tails to stand upright to spot predators. After a short drive from Jack’s Camp, we came to their network of burrows and sat down to await their return. Within minutes, around 20 of the creatures had arrived, squeaking excitedly. Being in constant danger of attack, meerkat groups appoint sentries, who seek out the highest vantage point from which to keep watch. To my amazement, one meerkat identified an ideal observation tower and promptly ran up my arm to stand on the top of my head, where it remained for close to five minutes.

A Tranquil Evening in Kandy

The pretty town of Kandy is surrounded by tea plantations whose dark-green bushes quilt the slopes of the nearby hills. Kandy occupies a unique place in Sri Lankan culture because of the Temple of the Tooth, a shrine said to house one of the Buddha’s teeth. As well as being an object of religious veneration, the tooth is a powerful symbol of Sinhalese nationalism. Which is why, in January 1998, Hindu Tamil Tiger terrorists detonated an 800-pound truck bomb outside, killing 16 people, including a 2-year-old child. The Sri Lankan civil war ended in May 2009, and Kandy is returning to normal. Every day, the elaborate casket containing the tooth is displayed to throngs of worshippers. On the evening we visited the temple, the atmosphere was calm and benign. Saffron-robed monks mingled with the sizeable crowd, among which were dozens of parents with their children. A wound was perceptibly beginning to heal, and I dared to hope that the next generation would not inherit the ancient quarrel.