The Central Park Out-of-Towners Seldom See

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. See death-defying roller-bladers speed down a slalom course. Dodge a juggler’s flaming torches. Hear the sweet sounds of strolling saxophonists, barbershop quartets and Andean panpipe players. Ride an old-fashioned wooden carousel. Climb to the top of a castle. Place your bets on racing turtles as they sprint from the starting gate.

Racing turtles?

On a sunny weekend, Central Park becomes a nonstop, madcap carnival. Vaudeville acts vie with multi-ethnic musicians for the crowds that wander from show to show like tour groups at Disneyland or Sea World.

But unlike those two amusement capitals, most of Central Park’s pleasures are offbeat and practically free. The price is whatever you’re inspired to drop into a performer’s passed hat.

Following the nearest horse-drawn carriage into the park, you may come upon Central Park’s informal “carnival grounds” by chance. But don’t count on it.

Most acts are not on the map or in official park tour guides. However, many entertainers have their customary spots under particular elm trees or next to ponds, so you can find them with a little help from a local Central Park buff.

Many out-of-towners still avoid the park, clinging to the enduring notion that it’s a deserted, dark place where muggers lurk behind every blooming azalea. But in the past 10 years, the nonprofit Central Park Conservancy has spearheaded the park’s revitalization--landscaping gardens, restoring rusted statues, updating the emergency call-box system, replacing light fixtures and rebuilding playgrounds.

The result is that Central Park once again is an appealing public space that attracts crowds of New Yorkers of all races and classes. Parents bring children for picnic birthday parties, teen-agers toss Frisbees and women in suits and tennis shoes walk home after work.

Although its reputation as a high-crime area endures, “Central Park is actually one of the safest places in the city, even at night,” says New York Police Dept. Sgt. Michael Giacippi. Park rangers, however, say visitors should take basic precautions: Steer clear of heavily wooded areas, leave the park by sundown and travel in groups.

A familiar site for tourists who enter the park is the Loeb Boat House, where you can rent paddleboats or rowboats and have the disorienting experience of floating on a bucolic, tree-lined lake surrounded by looming skyscrapers and office towers on the park’s perimeter.

But it takes a New York native to know that just south of the boathouse, on a patchy lawn east of the Trefoil Arch, ringside seats are available for a Central Park exclusive--the World Turtle Federation races.

Get there early in the afternoon and you can pet the contestants in the paddock--a family-sized ice chest with the top removed. Presiding over the event is Mitch Cohen, the “voice of the turtles,” uniformed in a green denim jacket, green bandanna and green baseball cap shading--naturally--green eyes.

Meet the runners. No. 5 is Ivan the Terrapin, the first turtle to defect from the Soviet Union. No. 4 is Rumple Shell Skin. No. 2 and 8--Ike and Tina Turtle.

“Give them room,” Cohen warns through a megaphone. “If these turtles go over the wall, you are finished.”

We’ll return to the racing ring in a few hours, after the contestants finish their warm-up lap. Meanwhile, stroll by the lake toward nearby Bethesda Terrace, its graceful Angel of the Waters fountain dominating a wide circular plaza, where on a summer day you can sit at cafe tables under umbrellas and sip a cold drink bought from a mobile stand.

The terrace is a natural stage for street acts, among them the break-dancing United Street Artists, who made their mark last summer and may be back this year. One terrace regular is troubadour Jaz Angelo, a dimpled British juggler whose spicy act can draw an audience of several hundred on weekends.

Angelo, 23, throws fiery torches 30 feet in the air while also keeping aloft a sarcastic banter. Catching the torches with a flourish, he balances one on his nose and holds the others next to his head, hailing this configuration as the “New Jersey skyline.”

Holding the torches high in his outstretched hand, he stands on a milk crate and shouts: “If you went down to Battery Park, they would charge you $3.25 just to see one woman do this. And she doesn’t even juggle!”

While Angelo performs on the lower plaza, the lilting notes of an Andean panpipe ( zampona ) come wafting from the walkway above. The band, Antara del Barrio, is putting on an impromptu performance, running through some of the pieces they will perform weeks later at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Band members from Peru, Chile, Colombia and the boroughs of New York play traditional instruments such as the quena and tarka (flutes) and the charango (a miniature guitar strummed rhythmically). Their harmonious melodies are stirring and upbeat, with syncopated rhythms and energetic solos.

Perhaps you’re spending the day with hyperkinetic children or playful adults who have been dragged through one too many museums, and would rather entertain themselves than be entertained. In this case, it’s worth paying attention to the diversions listed in the Central Park Map and Guide that are available at the new information kiosks located at three park entrances: East 72nd Street, West 72nd Street and Central Park South at Sixth Avenue.

The map shows where you can ride hand-carved wooden horses on a restored carousel, rent bicycles, explore any of the park’s 22 playgrounds, jog the 1.6-mile track around the reservoir or skate at the Wollman Rink.

Across the lake from Bethesda Terrace is the Ramble, 37 acres of meandering paths leading to a stream, marshland and several lakefront overlooks ripe for picnicking.

Red-tailed hawks and goshawks are spotted in the Ramble, a favorite spot for bird watchers because Central Park is on the North Atlantic Flyway. Because the area is so heavily wooded, park rangers warn visitors to be wary of their possessions; children should be accompanied by an adult.

Past the Ramble is the Belvedere, a slate and granite Scottish castle that looks as if it materialized from a fairy tale. Climb the circular stone staircase to the upper lookout point for a grand vista of the park and the surrounding city. “I finally made it to the top of the world,” announced one 5-year-old recently as she took in the view.

One room of the Belvedere’s Learning Center has been converted into a children’s Discovery Chamber, with crafts activities and nature tables staffed by an education specialist on most weekends. On a recent visit, children made pinwheels, watched painted turtles in a tank and learned how a wind vane works.

From the castle’s high perch above Turtle Pond, you can clearly hear the sounds of lively Eastern European folk tunes coming from across the water.

Every Sunday afternoon for more than two decades, a loose-knit group of folk dancers has come to a small plateau in front of a statue of the fierce-looking Wladyslaw Jagiello, grand duke of Lithuania (1377-1401) and king of Poland (1386-1434).

There they perform slow and lively dances in lines and in couples, from a multitude of ethnic origins. Experts and beginners dance side by side, some in swinging skirts and others in blue jeans and tennis shoes, and if you watch for more than a few minutes you are likely to be invited to stumble along.

Meanwhile, back at the turtle races, Cohen announces the “traditional turtle call to the saddle” and blows a few notes on a bronze bugle. Asking for an assistant to help prevent the turtles from leaping over the race track wall, he collars a guy in the audience named Ralph and makes him don a “turtle-proof vest,” to the great humiliation of his girlfriend.

The race draws near, the crowd stirs and children jump up and down. “The ABC Sports helicopter is hovering overhead,” Cohen says, pointing out a passing chopper. He counts down to the starting gun and the turtles explode from the gate.

Before they cross the finish line, there’s time for a leisurely snack at the Conservatory Water, nearby on the eastern edge of the park at 74th Street. A food stand there dishes out carnival food with a New York twist--franks, frozen yogurt and potato knishes.

While you’re noshing, you might catch the radio-controlled model sailboat competition on the Conservatory pond. Saxophonists, flutists and guitarists serenade the spectators. Children clamber on the adjacent “Alice in Wonderland” sculpture, grabbing Alice’s nose and outstretched hand, and searching for Bill the Lizard, who’s hidden under the mushroom caps.

Napping was once plausible in grassy Sheep Meadow, a designated “quiet zone” south of the lake. But attractions on both sides of the meadow now interrupt its tranquillity, and you might as well follow the ruckus rather than try to ignore it.

Adjacent to the meadow on the park’s paved West Drive, where it passes Tavern on the Green, roller-bladers race down a slalom course, weaving around soda cans or cups placed every few feet.

Skaters come barreling down the track on two blades, or on one, trying to break their own and others’ records. With roller-blading a growing phenomenon, this competition is likely to draw more and faster skaters in the coming year.

On the meadow’s east side, skaters of another breed have been congregating for more than 10 years. This is the site of what must be the world’s funkiest outdoor roller disco. A disc jockey named Wayne presides over the stereo and mammoth speakers that blast everything from Sly & the Family Stone to Jeffrey Osborne.

Skaters in leather pants, bikinis, tuxedo jackets, bridal veils and clown makeup boogie in a large oval around the deejay.

They skim along in pairs, or just shuffle by in their own quiet reveries. During the week they are insurance salesmen, literary agents and car dealers, but in the park on the weekend they are defined only by their skating styles.

“For me, this is the melting pot,” said Suzanne Hunter, an interior designer, as she practiced dance steps with Jeff Perry, a clerk in a brokerage firm.

“This is a place where you can feel at home, feel accepted, do anything you want. We have no barriers with racism. It’s unlike anywhere else you go in the city.”

Marveling at the scene from the sidelines was Susan Flagg, visiting from Boston. “This fascinates me, all the different ages of people, just the mixture. That man in the red-and-black-striped shirt over there,” she said, pointing to a skater dancing blissfully with his eyes closed, “is probably a bank president.”

He isn’t. He is, however, an art historian and museum curator who didn’t want to be identified. “Some of the people in my profession might not understand this,” he said.

GUIDEBOOK

New York’s Central Park

Popular attractions:

Loeb Boat House, 72nd Street at East Drive, (212) 517-2233, open weekends 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Rowboat rentals $7 an hour.

Carousel, 65th Street at Center Drive, (212) 879-0244, open 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily, weather permitting. Admission: 75 cents.

Central Park Zoo, 64th Street at Fifth Avenue, (212) 439-6500, open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays (until 8 p.m. Tuesdays) and 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. weekends. Admission: 50 cents for children, $2.50 adults, $1.25 senior citizens.

Lehman Children’s Zoo, 65th Street at Fifth Avenue, (212) 408-0271, open 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily. Admission: 10 cents.

Conservatory Water, 73rd-75th streets at Fifth Avenue. Model-boat races begin about 10 a.m. on Saturdays.

Belvedere Castle Learning Center, 79th Street at West Drive, (212) 772-0210, open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and from 1-5 p.m. Fridays. Admission: free.

Free performances are offered by the New York Shakespeare Festival at Delacorte Theater, 80th Street at West Drive; New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera on Great Lawn, 80th-85th streets between East and West drives, and SummerStage at Naumburg Bandshell, 70th Street on the Mall. For more information and schedules, call (212) 397-3156.

Where to eat: Within Central Park are:

Ice Cream Cafe, Conservatory Water, 73rd-75th streets at Fifth Avenue, (212) 988-9510, 8 a.m-6:30 p.m. daily. Light fare ranges from sandwiches ($4) and knishes ($1.50) to ice cream ($2).

Loeb Boathouse Cafe, 72nd Street at East Drive, (212) 517-3623, noon-11 p.m. weekdays, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. weekends. The full-service cafe features lunch and dinner, with entrees $8 to $22. Reservations required for parties of six or more.

Tavern on the Green, Central Park at West 67th Street, (212) 873-3200, noon-3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 5:30-11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 5 p.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday. Brunch served 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Prix-fixe lunches are $13.50-$19.50; prix-fixe pre-theater dinners are $19.50-$24.50. A la carte lunches and brunches are about $28 per person, dinners about $40. Reservations recommended.

For more information: Maps of Central Park are available at 11 park entrances and three staffed kiosks at East 72nd Street, West 72nd Street and Central Park South at Sixth Avenue. For park events, call (212) 397-3156. Jogging information is available from the New York Road Runners Club, (212) 860-4455.