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Both Argentina and Brazil maintain national parks surrounding Iguazu Falls - nearly a quarter of a million hectares of virgin rain forest, home to jaguars, monkeys, giant anteaters, and caymans. The park infrastructure is comparable to what you'd find in North America: a well-maintained and modern visitor's center (with information, restaurants, and gift shops), well-marked trails, an electric eco-train to ferry visitors between trails, and a spectacular system of elevated metal walkways designed to keep a million visitors a year from trampling the fragile rain forest.

These walkways are divided into three "circuits" all of which are well within the capability of visitors with reasonable mobility. The lower circuit is the most strenuous, mostly at the base of the falls, and takes guests to spectacular panoramas of the waterfalls and right into the mist of the cataracts. The upper circuit allows visitors to wander at the very upper edge of the falls - sometimes within a few feet of the water on one side of the path and a hundred meters above the booming falls on the other side. The third circuit, known as Garganta del Diablo, or the Devil's Throat, (see video) takes visitors to the very edge of the most spectacular waterfall in the park, where you can stand, drenched in mist and the thunderous sounds of 270 degrees of waterfalls surrounding you - absolutely mind-blowing. Remarkably, the Devil's Throat pathway is wheelchair accessible - we saw at least two disabled visitors being wheeled out to this astounding overlook.

Visitors with more time to spend can easily extend a visit by taking one of the many excursions offered - you can take a jeep ride through the jungle where you're more likely to spot some of the resident wildlife, or take a boat trip up to the very base of the waterfalls. Be aware, you'll get completely soaked, so make sure your camera is enclosed in a sealable plastic bag. There are even short helicopter rides available on the Brazilian side, but these are controversial, as the rotor noise has scared away many of the toucans and parrots that formerly inhabited the area. All are conveniently located near the Sheraton Iguazú Resort & Spa, the only hotel within the boundaries of the park and within sight of the falls.

Iguazú Falls, an enormous complex of waterfalls on the Iguazu River near its confluence with the Parana River, lies amid the dense rain forest at the boundaries of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. The falls are a 90 minute plane ride north from Buenos Aires, the closest large city. It's an amazing, spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime place.

Visitors to the area will find lots of lodging options in the nearby Brazilian city of Foz do Iguacu or in the Argentine town of Puerto Iguazú. However, if you've come this far to see the falls, you would do well to consider staying at the Sheraton Iguazú Resort & Spa, which is the only hotel located within the boundaries of the park and within sight of the falls. It is unquestionably the most desirable lodging option.

The park is located about midway between the Puerto Iguazú airport and the town itself. Transportation from town to the falls is available via public bus (for a few pesos) or taxi ($10-15 one way). Travel time between the airport and the park is about 20 minutes, and it's another 15-20 minutes from the park to Puerto Iguazú.

By general consensus, the Argentine side of the falls offers closer, more exciting views of the falls, while the Brazilian side provides a more panoramic overview of the entire area. US visitors who want to see the Brazilian side are going to need a visa, which currently costs $160 per person. Don't blame Brazil - this tariff is reciprocal and is based on what it costs a Brazilian citizen to visit the US. Although it used to be possible to sneak across for an hour or two without a visa, authorities have recently cracked down on this practice, and there are no more loopholes - if you want to get into Brazil, you'll need that $160 stamp in your passport.

We went over to Cabo San Lucas. Whew it is hot and humid. My hair dried in 5 minutes. My body has tanned in places you will not see. My husband is at the black jack game and I am sunbathing. I want a coke from the mini bar badly, but my old values of paying extra are getting in the way. Oh the heck with it. I have the ice, the can snaps open, the deed is done and I am sipping. Nice.

Tonight our room and balcony is positioned west so that the sun is stunning. Sip, sip, getting good at it and feeling guilt free. In Cabo, we sat in a place that only people who live in the town would sit. They were eating huge ice cream sundae bowls full of fresh fish in a red sauce. When each person received their bowl, they put in gallons of hot sauce. They ate like they were in a grand palace. They were enjoying their food. One man ate up a plate of tacos, then asked for another, down it and asked for more. Oh my, he squeezed lime juice over every little bite. He even squeezed the remaining juice on his little finger and sucked it. The sights of travel are priceless.

Starwood has two properties in Cabo San Lucas, including the Westin Resort & Spa, Los Cabos.

Buenos Aires is often called the "Paris of South America," and lives up to that billing. 19th century European-style buildings lined both sides of Avenida de Mayo and other major streets, and even the people themselves, descended mostly from Italian and Spanish immigrants, are more reminiscent of Europe than South America. Café Tortoni, where we stopped for lunch, fit this mold with its dark wood and tall columns, and an art nouveau influence on the artwork and lamps.

Buenos Aires, like Paris, is also a city of neighborhoods, and better yet, most of them are walkable and not far from downtown. San Telmo was one of our favorites. Away from the hustle of downtown, San Telmo retains a more traditional feel with its cobblestone streets and two- or three-story European-style buildings, most with balconies providing perches for potted plants enjoying the cloudless, sunny day.

Every Sunday, San Telmo's central Plaza Dorrego hosts the Feria de San Telmo, a popular flea market. Streets are closed to cars, and are taken over by juice vendors, human statues and musicians entertaining the steady stream of visitors. In Plaza Dorrego itself are dozens of booths where merchants sell antiques and trinkets like old porcelain, jewelry and silverware -- and probably a good bit of junk as well.

The elegant Recoleta neighborhood houses Buenos Aires' elite. Indeed, looking at some of the stately facades and exclusive retailers, you could be forgiven for thinking you were actually in Paris.

Starwood has five hotels in Buenos Aires, including the Park Tower, a Luxury Collection Hotel.

Mexico. Hand painted billboards; grandiose, half-finished buildings; cactus, tattered palm trees, and bougainvillea. Welcome to San Carlos - the photogenic, tourist-and-expatriate-oriented sister city to Guaymas, in the Mexican state of Sonora. Located about 250 miles south of the US-Mexico border, on the shores of the Sea of Cortez, San Carlos is a future resort town, full of retirees and boating enthusiasts, who shuffle contentedly across the two or three paved roads in this small Mexican town.

Sonora is a sparsely-populated, desert state with a convoluted coastline of several shallow anchorages that twist beneath jagged desert rock formations and mountains. The defining landscape feature in this area is Tetakawi, a large, multi-peaked rock outcropping that dominates the western end of the San Carlos harbor. Sunsets and sunrises are spectacular, as the stark red rock landscape positively glows with warmth in the low rays of the sun. In the evening, when the sun silhouettes the rocks, the thin clouds that dapple the autumn sky burst into oranges, pinks, and purples.

The most striking impression of San Carlos, however, is of silence - the town is small, uncrowded, and laid back. The crowds have not come to San Carlos. Christmas and spring break bring greater numbers of tourists, and there are the occasional tour bus stops, but for many, many weeks of the year, it's a pleasantly pokey kind of place, with lots of amenities, but few people.

Along Boulevard Beltrones, the main road in town, there are a number of good, simple restaurants: Rosa's Cantina is bright, clean, and the perfect place for a cheap, filling breakfast. For dinner, Blackie's Bar and Grill serves good fresh fish and delicious steaks, as well as decent salads and desserts. At the edge of the harbor, the sports-oriented Marina Cantina, owned by a young expat, offers wireless internet, good margaritas and sandwiches.

Welcome to the future -- welcome to Shanghai.

In Shanghai, a city (depending on who's counting) of 15 to 20 million souls, you can feel the electric crackle of progress as you make your way through the crowded sidewalks and the manic traffic. A palpable sense of excitement, ambition, and destiny fills the air. The Shanghai Maglev train hustles commuters from the Longyang Road Metro station to Pudong airport. The elevated track vaults over apartments, alleyways, and modern freeways. This sleek aerodynamic train completes the 30 kilometer trip in less than 8 minutes, reaching speeds of 430 km/hour - that's over 250 miles per hour - in near silence. Within a couple of years there will be another maglev link between Pudong and Hongqiao Airports, and by 2010 another high-speed link to Hangzhou, a scenic lakeside city some 350 km away from Shanghai - so happy weekenders will make the hundred mile trip in less than half an hour.

Witness the Oriental Pearl TV tower, an informal symbol for the city. It's more than twice as big as the Space Needle in Seattle and way more than twice as futuristic. At night, animated neon lights flicker across its immense tower - part of the jaw-dropping and futuristic Pudong skyline, best viewed from the opposite shore in the shadow of the beautifully preserved early 20th century neoclassical architecture of The Bund. A thousand other skyscrapers rise from Shanghai's always-crowded streets, many of them anonymous concrete monoliths, but others paying exuberant homage to a variety of inspirations. There's a tower topped with an enormous stylized lotus blossom, which is supposed to attract money to flow into the building. Another building is a modern interpretation of the Art Deco Chrysler building. Shanghai resembles nothing so much as a futuristic, through-the-looking-glass view of Manhattan or Tokyo, about 15 years from now. It seems that the future has arrived - in the architecture and design of this exciting Chinese metropolis. Starwood has eight hotels in Shanghai, including the St. Regis Shanghai in Pudong District.

I could say it was the ouzo I'd had that morning in Rhodes, Greece that led me to to the steaming room I found myself in, crouched stark naked on a stool while a woman threw bowls of hot water over me. But the ouzo, the stiff national Greek drink, had worn off when I consumed my big fat Greek lunch an hour earlier. So it wasn't the ouzo. How did I, then, one of the most modest people I know (even by our relatively prudish American standards) end up lying on a marble slab in a 7th-century Byzantine structure while a stranger soaped, scrubbed and rinsed me -- while my good friend perched nearby on her own naked stool?
Part of travel, I suppose, is shedding your usual ways and self, and trying out a new culture. The Turkish bath sayeth Wikipedia played an important role in cultures of the Middle East, serving as places of social gathering, ritual cleansing and as architectural structures, institutions, and (later) elements with special customs attached to them.
I knew I wanted to try this exotic custom, but having been the girl at the slumber parties who went into the bathroom to change into my pajamas, wasn't sure I could muster the guts to strip down and go for it.