Field Trips for Fertile Minds

You have 10 choices. And when you hear that five of them involve learning about dancing in Ireland, mining in Brazil, diving in Bermuda, ranching in Chile or singing in Italy, you may begin to see what we’re up to here.

This is the annual “Trips for the Thinking Person” issue, and as in years past, we’ve asked Ann Waigand, publisher of the Educated Traveler newsletter, to select 10 promising educational tours scheduled for this year. In choosing, she sifted through offerings sponsored by education organizations and tour operators from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with destinations that range from Peruvian ruins to an Arctic ice station.

In the listings below, in no particular order, prices are per person, presuming double occupancy. Unless the entry notes otherwise, tours include lodging and most meals, and exclude air fare. Keep in mind that tour rosters can fill quickly and changes in itinerary are possible.

The Educated Traveler publishes six issues yearly. Subscribers pay $48 and, besides the newsletter, receive two annual directories: one of special-interest travel opportunities and one of museum-sponsored tours. For information, telephone (800) 648-5168; Internet https://www.educated-traveler.com.

The Music and Dance of Ireland

Sept. 7 to 17. Sponsored by Smithsonian Study Tours and Seminars. Information: Amy Kotkin, Smithsonian Study Tours, 1100 Jefferson Drive SW, Washington, DC 20560; tel. (202) 357-4700, Internet https://www.si.edu/tsa/sst. Price: $3,965, including air fare from New York or Boston.

Folklorist, professional musician, arts administrator and radio and TV personality Mick Moloney, recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, leads this exploration of traditional Irish music and its influences. Highlights include visits to a dance school, the workshop of the most famous music-pipe maker in Ireland, the workshop of the foremost maker of bodhrans (goatskin drums) in Ireland, and the Irish Traditional Music Archive. Also included are concerts by Irish step dancers, musicians and singers, and a performance by the country’s best-known singer of old church music.

The Gem Mines of Minas Gerais, Brazil

June 26 to July 11. Sponsored by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Information: Christine Robison, Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007; tel. (213) 763-3534, fax (213) 744-1042, Internet https://www.nhm.org. Price: $3,000, including air fare from Los Angeles.

Led by Tony Kampf, curator of mineral sciences at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, this trip features visits to mines, meetings with dealers and collectors, and a chance for participants to dig for gemstones. Travelers will visit the School of the Mines in Ouro Preto, the former capital of the state of Minas Gerais; topaz, emerald and tourmaline mines; the largest gem distributor in Brazil; and the annual outdoor Gem Fair and indoor Gem Fest in Teofilo Otoni.

Beneath Bermuda: A Learning Adventure for Divers

April 16 to 23. Sponsored by the Science Museum of Minnesota. Information: Bill Allen, Science Museum, 120 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102; tel. (651) 221-9488, fax (651) 221-4777, Internet https://www.smm.org/home_zones/smm_home.htm. Price: $2,827, including air fare from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Discounts are available for museum members and customers who pay by check.

You may see a lot of diving trips, but you rarely find one with a learning perspective. Tour participants spend a week at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, learning about the reef from the Biological Station scientists who study it. The trip includes 12 dives, one of which is at night; field trips to caves, mangroves and Nonsuch Island, home of the endangered Bermuda petrel; evening lectures; and a day on the water watching for humpback whales. Before arriving in Bermuda, participants must have received their open-water dive certification by PADI, NAUI or any of the other internationally recognized organizations.

The Many Faces of Peru

May 5 to 19. Sponsored by Journeys of the Mind Inc. Information: Temma Eckar, Journeys of the Mind, 221 N. Kenilworth Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302; tel. (800) 527-5520 or (708) 383-8739, fax (708) 524-5141, Internet https://www.journeysofthemind.com. Price: $5,500.

Luis Jamie Castillo, professor of archeology at Universidad Catolica del Peru, takes tour participants to visit a shaman and to see private homes and collections. The group also may go behind the scenes at two top archeological collections, the Bruning Museum in Lambayeque and the Museo Cassinelli in Trujillo. An excursion accompanied by the site director will go to El Brujo, one of the most important archeological sites on the north coast of Peru. The ruins are remnants of Moche culture dating to AD 500, and the site normally is not open to the public. The group also visits the ruins of Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca city, twice--first in the early morning before the site opens to the public.

Free Blacks and Plantation Life of Central North Carolina

June 21 to 25. Sponsored by Carolina Culture Tours. Information: Jan Schochet, Carolina Culture Tours, 1821 Hillandale Road, Suite 1B-120, Durham, NC 27705; tel. (888) 286-6272 or (919) 416-0788, Internet https://www.culturetours.com. Price: $1,490.

A team of scholars provides background and perspective on the daily lives of North Carolina plantation slaves and free blacks in the antebellum period. The itinerary includes former slave quarters on a Durham plantation and the Milton, N.C., home and workshop of Thomas Day, a free black born in 1802 who became a woodworker and furniture maker acclaimed by collectors. Participants also can experience African American Southern cuisine and music, as well as a traditional African American libation ceremony that honors participants’ ancestors. Tour members form a circle, hold hands and call out the names of ancestors as libations are poured on the ground.

Fire and Ice: Japan, Kuril Islands and Kamchatka Peninsula

May 21 to June 1. Sponsored by the Explorers Club. Information: Robert DeMayo, Explorers Club, Rural Route 1, Box 12, Brewery Road, Walpole, NH 03608; tel. (800) 856-8951, fax (603) 756-2922, Internet https://www.explorers.org. Price: $5,490 to $8,990, depending on choice of lodging.

This voyage includes five days of touring in inflatable boats around the Kurils, a chain of volcanic islands that is home to one of the world’s largest birds of prey, the Steller’s sea eagle, as well as pods of more than 50 orcas. Tour leader Don Walsh, an explorer and oceanographer, and a team of experts also will take participants to the Kamchatka Peninsula, one of the largest protected wildlife areas in Russia, where 29 of more than 300 volcanoes are active.

Private Collections and Estancias in Chile and Argentina

March 16 to 27. Sponsored by Archives of American Art. Information: Harriet Friedlander, Academic Arrangements Abroad, 50 Broadway, New York, NY 10004; tel. (212) 514-8921, fax (212) 344-7493. Price: $6,195.

Edward Shaw, an art critic, journalist and collector who has lived in Buenos Aires since 1958, is guest lecturer on this trip, inviting participants into his homes in Tunquen, Chile; Buenos Aires; and Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. Travelers have insider’s access to numerous private collections while visiting Santiago, Chile, and Buenos Aires and also can make excursions to the Santiago and Isla Negra homes of Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda in Chile and to Iguacu Falls.

Operatic Arias in Italy and the Riviera

March 8 to 19. Sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Information: Ida Singelenberg, National Trust, 1785 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036; tel. (202) 588-6300, fax (202) 588-6246, Internet https://www.nthp.org. Price: $5,400 excluding air fare, $5,780 including air fare from Newark, N.J.

Former opera critic and editor Arthur Kaplan accompanies this group on a series of events, visits and performances for music lovers. Included are visits to a musicians’ retirement home founded by Verdi; a tour of an instrument museum, with a concert on antique harpsichords; lunch at a restaurant owned by the family of a famous Verdi tenor; an exploration of Arturo Toscanini’s hometown of Parma; and a backstage tour of the Monte Carlo Opera. Of particular interest is a specially arranged reception with members of Parma’s Verdi club, where each member represents a character from one of Verdi’s operas.

Wildflowers of Western Turkey

April 22 to May 6. Sponsored by Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. Information: Marsha Ray, Morris Arboretum, 9414 Meadowbrook Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19118; tel. (215) 247-5777, fax (215) 248-4439, Internet https://www.upenn.edu/morris. Price: $4,895, including air fare from New York, plus $250 donation to arboretum.

Led by Naomi Miller, a paleo-ethnobotanist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Anthony Aiello, director of horticulture at Morris Arboretum, this springtime exploration travels from Antalya through Lycia, the Taurus Mountain region, Turkey’s alpine and lake country, and Cappadocia to Istanbul. Along the way, tour participants will see wild roses, one of the country’s two Liquidambar orientalis forests (where the government is protecting trees indigenous to Turkey), the Apollonia butterfly (endemic to Turkey) and the poisonous mandrake plant. Of special note is a visit to the largest Japanese garden outside Japan, part of an excavation site sponsored by the Japanese Crown Prince.

Breadalbane: Under the Arctic Ice

March 24 to 31. Sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Information: Phillip Lovejoy, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138; tel. (617) 495-2463, fax (617) 495-5667, Internet https://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/travel. Price: $9,980.

Only 12 people can join this expedition, in which participants ride submersibles to view the wreck of the Breadalbane. The 500-ton wooden supply ship rests 350 feet under the Arctic ice after capsizing in 1853 during a search for Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated Northwest Passage expedition. Accommodations are at an ice station on Beechey Island, part of the Canadian Arctic. Scientists and expedition leaders provide lectures, briefings, lessons on building igloos and excursions to view polar bears, whose dens are nearby.