ABCDE Travel sunday, december 12, 2010 GIFTGUIDE
Hear, hear Check out our picks for the jetsetters on your list, online:
washingtonpost.com/travel.
What’s the Deal? The best travel bargains of the week. F2 Going OurWay A well-laid plan for a first-time trip to Japan. F3
Impulsive Traveler Toronto’s surprising South Asian accents. F6 CHAT We take your questions Monday at noon at
washingtonpost.com/travel.
BEDCHECK Inn with
the celebs This New York hotel boasts loads of star power. F2
Nova ScotiaChristmas Have yourself a F K EZ
DEAN CASAVECHIA FOR THE WASHINGTON POST In this neck of the woods, the holiday spirit is evergreen
Step inside the Christmas Island post office inNova Scotia and youwill feel it immediately, a rush of holiday spirit that hits you like a swig of eggnog or a whiff of roasting chestnuts. Santa figurines in various poses adorn the shelves, and bowls of candy canes and jelly beans provide envelope lickerswith a sweet reprieve. Seasonal cards hang froma string along the ceiling, prayer flags of a different denomination. And in the back left corner, a woman younger thanMrs. Claus and taller than an elf stamped the Christmas Island postmark on a tumbling stack of cards. ¶ “The peoplewho come here are so full of spirit,” said postmistress HughenaMacKinnon, who during the season dons an apron inspired by a Santa suit. “They like to add the special touch of the Christmas Island post stamp.” ¶ InNova Scotia, holiday traditions and sentiment stir up asmuch excitement as gift-wrapped baubles and Santa sightings. The spirit that blows in fromtheNorth Pole by
BY ANDREA SACHS
way of Bethlehemis powerful throughout the province, where deep culturalmores and a love-the-guy-next-door ethos still persist. It visits, like Saint Nick, the shore towns, rural villages and larger cities, and transforms the thickets ofBalsamfirs into an enchantedChristmas tree
forest.Most tellingly, it possesses the residents,who think nothing of driving severalhours for a wreath-shaped postmark.
TristanKelley gives a carriage ride through a Christmas tree farm in Bridgewater,Nova Scotia. The surrounding Lunenburg County is the Balsam Fir Christmas Tree Capital of theWorld.
nova scotia continued on F4
Tepoztlan, where throngs go to flow How’d she get up here? And what
In the middle of Mexico, a center of centeredness BY RUTH SAMUELSON
Special to The Washington Post It takes a lot of energy to “cargar
energia.” The devotional journey up toMexico’s
Tepozteco pyramid requires lots of water and snacks, as well as muchas pausas (breaks). And then, when you reach the top of the mountain where the pyramid perches, something amazing happens: A wrinkledoldwomanwithacaneplodsby.
about the lady in heels? And that family with four children under 5? It’s troubling, really, to be proud of a
hike that the wheezing elderly can con- quer. But what impels people here is faith, not just a steep hour-or-so nature walk. I visited last spring, a time when Mexicans loaduponenergy—that’swhat cargar energia means — by ascending various ancient pyramids, like this one in Tepoztlan, a town of about 33,000 an hour and a half south ofMexico City. At the top, believers and nonbelievers
alike share the same gorgeous viewover- looking the town. And the truth is, they’ve all probably come to Tepoztlan for roughly the same thing: A little tran-
quillity. The town is unofficially dedicat- ed to soothing and centering its guests, regardless ofhowthe job’s accomplished. I visited Tepoztlan numerous times
while studying at a language school in nearby Cuernavaca earlier this year. It’s at once cute (the cobblestone streets)and beautiful (the mountains and abundant purple flowers) and cheesily modern (the flier promoting amanwith knowledge of “themysteries of life and death”). Here, therapy is a choose-your-own- adventure experience. In at least two places, you can get your aura photo- graphed. A local tour guide advertises an obesity therapy. Tagline: “Lose weight
RUTH SAMUELSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST tepoztlan continued on F5 An ancient site forNewAgers, Tepozteco pyramid draws tourist seeking renewal.
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