Many observers have suggested, some with great hilarity, that to reach that coastline, the governor would first have had to drive at least four or five hours through hundreds of miles of pasturelands, on short mid-winter days, before reaching the scenic coast of southern Buenos Aires province. If not, his best alternative was the Avenida Costanera (pictured here), which runs past the Buenos Aires city airport Aeroparque before dead-ending a few miles north.

For more details please go to Southern Cone Travel.

Now, as a mom I have become somewhat of a cupcake connoisseur, both as a baker and a consumer. My older son was such a cupcake fan I would make them for each birthday. We have a picture of him just about to bite one at his party for practically each year of his life. They are displayed in frames on our fridge to this day.

Every time I go home to visit my mom in NYC, I have to hit Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker Street in the West Village. I often claim the kids really would LOVE to go, but in truth, I look forward to the pilgrimage and I am not alone. Usually there is a line around the block. Since it opened in 1996, Magnolia has been featured in Sex in the City, The Devil Wears Prada and Saturday Night Live mock rap which is hilarious, among other shows and films shot in the Village.In summer, we often go, get our cupcakes and then sit in the park across the street, savoring the sumptuous, velvety treats. We then watch my kids run like mad in the sprinklers on a complete sugar, frosting, sprinkle induced high.

My long love affair with cupcakes was re-ignited recently when I read a small article in the New York Times Dining section earlier this month about the Cupcake-Stop. Apparently, now there is a mobile cupcake truck (not connected to Magnolia). The sugared-up van prowls the Union Square area Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5p.m. You can follow them on twitter and the “red velvet” comes highly recommended. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Do you have any cupcake hotspots to recommend?

Yet there are wildlife sanctuaries in India and Nepal where tourists can see them despite their dwindling numbers. Tourism brings money into local economies and can contribute to conservation efforts in and around the parks, and can provide a financial incentive to local residents for protecting the animals. But not everyone thinks tourists looking for tigers in wildlife preserves is a good idea.

Indian wildlife officials are now taking a dim view of tiger tourism, and according to reports in the Indian press, have decided to curtail it. They feel the tourists are making the tigers tolerant of humans, and thus more vulnerable to poachers.

Brian Weirum, leader of fund-raising tours to tiger reserves and chairman of The Fund for the Tiger, a California non-profit agency that has put more than $370,000 into the field in India and Nepal in the past 14 years (full disclosure: I am on the board of directors), staunchly defends tiger tourism as a way to help save the tiger rather than as a threat (see below). And Paul Kvinta’s story “Cat Fight: The War on India’s Tigers” in National Geographic Adventure raises serious questions about the competence of India’s wildlife officials.

Who’s right? If you’ve ever seen a tiger in the wild no doubt you will agree with Brian that the right kind of tourism is a good thing. And if we lived in a perfect world, tigers would have ample habitat and protection from poachers so we wouldn’t have to worry about whether our desire to lay eyes on them in their natural surroundings was good or bad. But we don’t, and if left to their own in poorly protected parks, the tigers would most certainly fall to poachers, and once they’re gone, they’re gone.

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Brian Weirum’s defense of tiger tourism:

As the Leader of a Mountain Travel Sobek Save The Tiger trip, I’ve been taking tourists to Bandhavgarh for 15 years on tiger conservation trips.  Here are some thoughts on tigers and tourism:

1. Tourism is not killing tigers — poachers, wildlife crime syndicates, and the perpetuation of the myth of the efficacy of tiger medicines thousands of miles away are.

2. The two tiger reserves in India that have lost every single tiger, Sariska and Panna, have had little or no tourism. Bandhavgarh, on the other hand, possibly the most tourist-intense tiger park has it’s tiger population flourishing in the core area. [Admittedly, when a tiger is sighted, it often gets too crowded with vehicles. In 2009 officials restricted the number of vehicles allowed in the core area and have opened up other areas for tourism.]

3. Vehicles driving around with tourists are, in effect, anti-poaching patrols, often in the notable absence of official patrolling. Word of mouth among drivers and guides are an excellent source of keeping tabs on where the tigers are and where they are not.

4. The tourism industry at any of the reserves provides income to countless individuals who might otherwise be tempted to seek money from other sources. The hotel and lodge industry has an immense financial stake in the survival of the tiger. The millions of dollars invested in the lodges surrounding Ranthambhore, Kanha, and Bandhavgarh would dry up overnight if there were no tigers.

5. Tourism could and should be used to fund and support tiger conservation. The Mountain Travel Sobek Save The Tiger trip I lead has taken 146 people into tiger country and generated more than $176,000 which we have been able to put back into the field in India and Nepal for various tiger protection programs.

6. Many people who have seen a tiger in the wild have become fierce tiger advocates and continue to support tiger conservation efforts.

7. There is a good model in Nepal that might be considered for India. A certain percentage of money raised through tourism (park fees, etc.) is available to buffer zone villages. Dr. Bhim Gurung of the University of Minnesota reports that in the Madi Valley (adjacent to Chitwan) positive community management with funding from park revenues has resulted in limiting grazing and logging and the restoration of good tiger habitat. We have initiated such a program in Meghauly village (again adjacent to Chitwan) to increase the capacity of the community forest guards to help the local rangers be the eyes and ears on the health of the forest, in effect unofficial anti-poaching patrols and information gathering sources, and to protect their community forest from illegal harvest of forest projects such as timber and illegal grazing of livestock.

As coach service has become worse and worse, the lure of Business and First Class seems more appealing. Yet with the cost so high, one feels like a kid looking at candy or toys through a shop window: it’s there but so out of reach. I chuckled recently when I read about how the downturn in the economy has hit business and first class travelers hardest…seems we are all flying cattle car coach these days.

Triporati Producer Gwynn Gacosta recently returned from a trip to the Philippines and has this take on the issue of “Class” travel.

Slumming It in Business Class

I tend to hate air travel and lately, there’d been little to like about it.  The food, or lack thereof, is terrible; the service rude or indifferent.  I hate that we in coach class aren’t allowed to use the bathrooms in business class, even if those are the ones we are seated closest to.  That there is no comfortable way to sit in order to avoid the people directly in front of us, behind us, next to us.  Certainly not with the leg room provided.

For my recent trip to the Philippines, I had to mentally prepare for an over 12-hour flight each way.  And really, there’s really no other way to prepare for that except to accept that it’s going to be uncomfortable and hellish.  I always wondered what first class and business class would be like, but I never thought I’d be so lucky to experience it.

When I arrived at the airport, a Cathay Pacific customer service rep informed me that my flight had been overbooked.  “Would you mind switching to a Japan Airlines flight, which leaves at around the same time, but arrives in Manila earlier?  And for your inconvenience, might we also offer you $200 spending cash as well as a coupon voucher for a free business class upgrade and access to our business class lounge for your next Cathay Pacific flight?”

Uh…is this a trick question?

True to their word, after signing some paperwork and given my new JAL boarding passes, I was handed my $200 dollars and my coupon.  I hadn’t even left for the Philippines, and yet I couldn’t wait until I could get my upgrade for the flight back.

That day came soon enough and I check in at Ninoy Aquino International in Manila, voucher in hand.  Turns out that I could only do it for one leg of the trip, and obviously I wanted to do it for the Hong Kong to Manila leg, so they told me to check in at the transfer desk in Hong Kong.

At Hong Kong International Airport, I headed right up to the transfer desk and stood in the coach class line.  There were lots of people, most were tired and disgruntled.  Then I noticed that there was no line at the business class window.  Could I get away with marching right on over?  Five minutes later I had a pass for the airport lounge and a boarding pass for the flight.  I glanced sheepishly at my former line-mates, rolling their eyes and looking annoyed.

Airport lounges are places I’d always been curious about.  You’d see the doors open briefly to let a patron in, and then shut, leaving people like me, out.  I just knew there was a different world in there – a paradise, perhaps?  Free drinks?  Spa treatments?

Through the hallowed doors I went, and inside was a long bar, serving whatever you pleased.  At the end of the lounge was a dining area with a variety of food served cafeteria-style.  They also served hot soups, made to order.  I grabbed a tuna sandwich and a pastry with a bottle of water, and I stopped and looked around.  Where do I pay for all this?

And this is the beauty of the airport lounge: you don’t.

Belly satisfied and feeling rested, I thought of taking advantage of the private shower stalls at the other end of the lounge but I didn’t have a change of clothes with me nor any toiletries.  I sat down on one of the big, comfy club chairs and journaled.  People were either on their computers or stretched out on the chairs with their feet propped up, sound asleep.

When I arrived at the gate, I started to line up behind the crowd of people already in front of the gate.  A gate agent, spotting my ticket, waved me over to where she was – where the other business class/first class ticket holders were – about eight people in all.

I liked this treatment.  I liked it a lot.  But I couldn’t help but think that maybe there was some mistake.

I boarded the plane and searched for 12A.  There before me was an individual seat with an entertainment console right next to it.  My seat reclined at the touch of a button to a bed.  I had, at my fingertips, endless choices for movies and music and games to play and a TV screen that swiveled around at whatever angle was most comfortable.  A businessman in the seat next to me sensed I was new to the club.

“This is actually better, you know.  You’re not climbing over anybody to get to the bathroom or to get to your seat.  It’s like having your own office.”

I looked at him.  “Oh, you misunderstand, sir.  This is not a complaining face. This is the face of someone who has seen the light.”

He looked amused.  “The light?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “No way should anyone have to travel any other way again.  Ever.”

He smiled and put his jacket away.  “I wholeheartedly agree.”

For the duration of my flight, when I was not reclined and sleeping like a baby, I was treated to great service: real table linens, breakable stemware filled with fine wines, and decent, filling meals.  My legs were propped up, and at the touch of a button, I felt the vibrating massage at my back.  I was wrapped in a comforter, not a scratchy wool blanket.  I had movies to watch and music from a programmable CD library, and the use of large, comfortable headphones.  Oh, and a cute complimentary toiletry kit that included Murad skin products and a comfy pair of socks.  If I wanted to, in the middle of the night, I could ask for a sandwich, a bottle of water, chocolate truffles, whatever I wanted.  And I did.  I most certainly did.

Twelve hours came and went, and I was sad when I landed.  Yeah, I was going to see my kids again, but I wasn’t so sure I was ever going to be in business class again.  Now that I have seen what goes on behind those curtains, how could I ever go back to coach?

Is a road from an airstrip to town such a transgression? Well, maybe if it’s through landscape Wayne describes as “one of the most scenic and solitary [walks] I’ve ever done.” Right now to go from the village to the airstrip requires a four-hour walk or a one-hour sail, but isn’t that what you’d expect on an island where castaway Alexander Selkirk lived alone for four years to become the inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s famous novel, Robinson Crusoe?

Further, Wayne says the road would wipe out this trail, do incalculable damage to the flora and fauna on an island that has and needs few motorized vehicles, and wouldn’t produce a faster route into town. Who needs it?

It sure makes me want to get down there, maybe in the North American winter when the weather in the south should be milder.

Here are a few of the many things she loves about Cuba:

• The way the palm trees smell after it rains
• 5 cent cigars
• Drinking little cups of sweet, black coffee around the kitchen table with friends
• Yucca with mojo
• The music – from Pancho Amat to Pancho Terry, Los Van Van to Los López-Nussas.1
• How anything under the sun can be fixed and rendered functional

There’s more, so check it out.

Conner has covered many Latin American destinations for us, including Belize, Guatemala, Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and Panama.