It’s a scene right out of Lawrence of Arabia: enormous mountains of sand — some as tall as 300 feet — their surfaces sculpted into soft, geometric designs by the wind, and extending as far as the eye can see. My wife and I stand captivated, feeling the heat of the day rising up out of the soft sand and watching the interplay of golden light and pale shadow as the sun dips behind a distant ridge of solid beige.

I stood on the deck of the houseboat with a boa constrictor draped around my neck. Her tongue rapaciously darting in and out, the snake slithered down my arm. Then, unexpectedly, she turned to look at me, and her head began maneuvering back towards my face.

How adventurous travelers can find health-and-fitness trips

Until recently, Baja California’s culinary contribution to the world amounted to the Caesar salad, a dish hardly associated with Mexican food. Beyond that, this long, thin peninsula was known more for its Chinese food and pizza thanks to the thousands of migrants from all over the world who began to settle the Mexican state south of California in the 19th century.

Happy, clean and tropical, Costa Rica has almost too much to love about visiting. The bars are no exception. On the west coast, the drinking options will satiate any style of imbiber. Kick back to some reggae or pop the cork on a fine bottle of bubbly and enjoy an equally indulgent view — the bars here will make a local out of you, even if only in spirit.

At Bimini Big Game Club’s up-close adventure, visitors are in a cage and the bull sharks swim free.

Derrick, our garrulous tour guide, offers a biriba, a prickly looking pod he’s cut open to expose a pale and pulpy fruit, as well as some peer pressure.“What’s the matter?” he asks.“Don’t you want to live forever?”

In Brazil, soccer is not just a game — it’s a national drama.

The ancient Mayans played a soccer-like sport with great ferocity, according to our guide, Victor. So seriously did the Mayans take this game, Victor said, that when it was over, the winning team’s captain was beheaded.

Hiking the rainforest in northwest Ecuador, an area packed with some of the world’s highest concentrations of plant and animal life, I’m wondering if there are any dangerous creatures on the trail — poisonous snakes, perhaps.