Best of BT March
At The Mindful Tourist corporate headquarters (i.e., the cardboard box under the subway bridge), we receive several travel magazines. Our current favorite is Budget Travel. While the name seems to be a bit of a misnomer (we don’t think what they report on is especially frugal), the fact is their writers do a very good job finding interesting locales – both domestic and abroad. So, our newest monthly feature is The Best of BT. Click through to see the best of March.
The theme for this month’s Best of BT is the ultimate eco-friendly mode of 
transportation: walking.
We are anxious to go to Turkey and one of the places we’ll visit when we go is Cappadocia, a region made up of natural drip rock formations that were transformed into cave cities from about 100-800 A.D. Gisela Williams’s BT article about Cappadocia is great, but the best part is her tip about Walking Mehmet:
“You’ll be in expert hands if you sign on for a half-day hike with guide Mehmet Gungor. A Goreme native, Gungor is a one-man operation, Walking Mehmet, with a sales pitch: “I bet walking with me will be the highlight of your trip.” He’s right, especially if you ask him to lead you from Goreme to the astonishing red-banded pillars and chimneys of Rose Valley. Along the way, you’ll pick walnuts from trees, stop to chat with farmers, and hear about Mehmet’s childhood escapades. Be sure to ask him to show you the White Church, a cave with high ceilings and soaring columns that look as though they’re made of ivory.”
Also in the March issue of BT, Scott Hutchins regales readers with his adventure scaling a volcano in Ecuador. Scott and his teenage brother have a long hike up the mountain, sometimes wondering if they’ll ever arrive. But, in the end it’s all worth it:
“Finally, huffing and puffing, we arrive at the crater rim, 14,000 feet above sea level, and look down into Laguna Amarilla, or Yellow Lake, which is actually more of a gray-green giant. We try to count El Altar’s snow-covered peaks and identify the Great Nun, Tabernacle, and Bishop, but we can’t see all of them in the swirling fog. Wind blows out of the crater with the roar of a jet engine. Joseph isn’t given to spontaneous displays of excitement, but he reaches over and gives me an enthusiastic high five. “We made it!” he cries.”
[...] you know, we like Budget Travel magazine. But not even BT can protect you from nasty resorts. In every issue, BT [...]