Adventure Beat

Risk will always be a part of adventure travel, but the level of risk can change with time due to many factors -- politics foremost. Adventure travel pioneer Richard Bangs takes the long view. 

Adventure across the ages — in style, purpose and destination — has rarely suffered stasis. Almost by definition it is in a constant state of evolution, a complex rolling skein of commerce, geopolitics, faddism and shifting belief systems.

The original adventure travelers were merchants on expedition, seeking proceeds for their imperial backers, and their voyages were closer to war than romance. More often than not, their adventures were distinguished by their accidents, either in geographic discovery, or loss of life; they were, in essence, well-planned trips gone wrong. Leif Ericson was blown off course sailing from Norway to Greenland about A.D. 1000 and ended up in North America. Nearly five centuries later, Christopher Columbus imagined he had arrived in the East Indies, when he was in fact a half world away.

The advent of modern international adventure travel traces to some 35 years ago, with the first organized treks to the Nepalese Himalayas, and soon thereafter the first commercial raft trips in Africa.

So much has changed. Nepal, which throughout the 1980's was the archetypal adventure travel destination, has been embroiled in a Maoist revolution the last several years and is on few itineraries today. The nearby kingdom of Bhutan has been the beneficiary, and is seeing record tourism. Virtually all the trekkers who go to Bhutan wander among the high peaks and immerse themselves in the Buddhist culture. The original raft trips in Ethiopia, down the Omo and Blue Nile, are no longer available, casualties of revolution, droughts and border wars.

Every year brings new adventure destinations and activities, and loses others. In the 1970's, there were overland treks in

In the 90's, hikes in the Alps were popular, but the rise of the euro against the dollar in the 21st century has dampened that enthusiasm. Even natural disasters take their toll. Thailand had long been a top adventure destination until the tsunami hit in 2004; more than a year later, visitation numbers remain significantly down. And then there are health scares. When

Conversely, destinations rarely visited by American adventurers in the 70's, 80's and 90's have in recent years become popular, like Libya, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Panama, all of which I've traveled to in the last 18 months, delighting in their incipient adventure offerings. Americans are joining camel caravans across the dunes of the Libyan Sahara; diving for Portuguese wrecks off the coast of Mozambique; kayaking across Lago Nicaragua (rumored to hold fresh-water sharks); and jungle trekking through the jaguar-rich Darien rainforest of Panama.

Throughout this span, a few destinations have found continued currency and attraction, with an array of adventure activities, low prices, and political stability. Northern Queensland in Australia is one, with its Great Barrier Reef diving, rainforest rafting, and superb hiking and biking in year-round good weather.

The other great evergreen adventure destination is Costa Rica. Though my job takes me around the world seeking adventure, the one place I return to for my own busman's holiday is Costa Rica, not just for its well-known attributes of long-standing democracy, model conservation efforts, and panoply of adventures; but for the fact that most Costa Ricans genuinely like Norte Americanos.

I recently spent a week in Costa Rica with longtime friends including Michael Kaye, owner of one of the original Latin American adventure companies, which he founded in 1978. We rafted the Class-IV Pacuare River (which he pioneered), surfed the Pacific coast, biked some 80 miles through the rainforest, deep-sea fished the Caribbean, and went wildlife, whale and bird watching.

Kaye, who owns a chain of ecolodges here, struggled at first to attract foreigners to what was then a lesser-known banana republic. He attributes the fugitive Robert Vesco for putting the country on the map, and saw his business, and all the boats of adventure travel, lift for the next 20 years as more and more discovered the qualities of Costa Rica, including its proximity to the United States, its paradisiacal weather, and comparatively low prices.

The former railroad town of Turrialba, once nicknamed ''the inland port'' for its abundance of prostitutes, is now known for its abundance of adventure activities, especially whitewater rafting and kayaking, minutes away on the Pacuare and Reventazon Rivers. It has bred a generation of Costa Rican adventure guides who competently and enthusiastically delight visitors, piloting them down wild rivers, up volcanoes and through primary rainforests.

So, while risk is a key to adventure travel — not everything will run like a Swiss train, and there may be scratches, sunburn, sore muscles, and insect bites — there is also a desire to manage the risk dosage. And places like Costa Rica that are affordable, diverse, exotic yet close, beautiful and friendly to Americans seeking adventure become popular picks, at least for now, for those who choose adventure.

Copyright © 2006 The New York Times Company.  Reprinted by permission.

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