From the eccentric to the spiritual to the dangerous, this latest edition of the award winning Perceptive Travel webzine provides armchair traveller with thought provoking travel stories.

Regular contributor Bruce Northam kicks off this edition of Perceptive Travel webzine with A Different State of Mine in Canada’s Yukon Territory, discovering his own inner grown-up in the place full of ‘bearded brew-sippers, sassy female bartenders sporting armpit hair, and at-home First Nations artists’.

In Setting Foot on Celtic Sod, Becky Garrison’s traveler’s pilgrimage to Glendolough takes an unexpected turn when the quiet and deserted ruins she heads off to visit appears, at first glance, to be nothing more than an overcrowded tourist trap.

In No Salad Days at the Buenos Aires Thieves Market, Camille Cusumano has to cross over a river of toxic garbage to experience the world’s largest illegal market.

Editor Tim Leffel covers this month’s world music reviews, looking at some albums from  Brazilian and Central Africa.

And another regular contributor Susan Griffith writes this month’s travel book reviews.

Plus, as usual, there is some free stuff to win. This month’s grab bag will be a pair of

travel chopsticks from Grand Trunk, a set of three Dry Organizer Sacs from Innate, and a Survival Medic kit from Adventure Medical.

Of course, you have to be in to win.

If you’re a subscriber to the monthly Perceptive Travel e-mail, then just follow the instructions in the latest newsletter.

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The Perceptive Travel website, of which this blog is an offshoot, just picked up a Silver for ‘Best Travel Journalism Website’ at the 2011 North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) awards announced earlier this week.

But that’s not all.
Many of the stories published on Perceptive Travel website throughout the year also garnered awards:

* Amy Rosen, “Can a Croissant Change Your Life?” (Gold, Cultural, Educational, Self-Improvement Travel category)

* Tim  Leffel, “Side Saddle Girls at a Mexican Rodeo”   (Gold – Special Focus Travel Articles category)

* Lisa Te Sonne, “Voices & Choices When a Human Flies”  (Sliver, Leisure Activity category)

* Tim Leffel, “The Dreams of Man in Stone and Concrete”  (Bronze, Personality and Profiles category)

* Amy Rosen, “My Life & Times with the CN Tower” (Silver, Historical or Hobby Travel category)

Congratulations to Tim Leffel and all the great PT writers.

Congratulations are also in order for the other two travel websites in the the ‘Best Travel Journalism Website’ – USA Today Travel (Veronica Stoddart) picked up the Gold and Travel with Lisa Online (Lisa Codianne Fowler) picked up the Bronze.

In the Travel Blog Category, our editor Tim Leffel also picked up a Gold for his Cheapest Destinations Blog, with Gary Arndt’s Everything-Everywhere picking up Silver and The Vacation Gals (Jennifer Miner, Beth Blair, and Kara Williams) picking up Bronze.

According to influential global magazine Foreign Policy, Christchurch is destined to become one of the world’s best cities.

But those of us who live there already think it is.

Sure, the city might have the shakes and look a little worse for wear.

Despite this, Christchurch has maintained its character and grace and sense of humor.

Lonely Planet writer Brett Atkinson, in town for a couple of weeks to update the Christchurch chapter of Lonely Planet’s New Zealand guide, discovered that a lot had changed since his last visit to the city.

The bars, cafes, and restaurants that he had written about for the 2010 edition of Lonely Planet New Zealand were no longer open. The February earthquake had made sure of that, as well as destroying many of the hotels listed in that guide.

Instead, Atkinson found a city that was reinventing itself.

Bars and cafes were popping up in unexpected places.

A whole new social hub, dubbed SoMo (south of Moorhouse Ave), has risen from the ruins and is now home to Christchurch’s iconic Court Theater (usually housed in the Art Center) and numerous cafes and bars.

Highlighting innovative actions such as the ‘gap filler’ and the container mall projects, Atkinson has labeled Christchurch one of New Zealand’s most exciting cities (a statement that warms the hearts of die-hard Cantabrians who have always felt a little like the ‘poor cousin’ to capital city Wellington and super-city Auckland).

To find out more, have a read of Atkinson’s 48 page post-quake Christchurch and Canterbury chapter that Lonely Planet is offering as a free download.

The chapter will eventually be inserted into the 16^th edition of the New Zealand guidebook (to be published in September).

Christchurch is rocking again but this time with laughter as the annual World Buskers Festival takes center stage this week.

More than 50 highly versatile and talented buskers from around the world are setting up their pitch and strutting their stuff in some of the most colorful, musical, and flexible ways.

From contortionists to ventriliquists, knife throwers to knife swallowers, jugglers to dancers, rappers to hip hop, they have put one aim – to get people smiling and shaking with laughter.

Past years have seen street performers from around the world set up their portable stages in Cathedral Square, the City Mall, and the Art Center.

But in post-earthquake Christchurch, that’s just not possible.

Instead, the organizers has created a mini-village in Hagley Park (the city’s new ‘cultural’ city center), complete with numerous stages, stalls, and even a ‘container’ garden wine bar.

This year’s line up includes many of the city’s favorites – Mullethead, Rubberband Boy, and the open-air Street Circus – name but a few.

There’s even a small 52 seat theater tent (Le Tigre Bleu) set amongst the trees. Close to show times, an old-time carnival barker entices the crowds to enter, promising everything from mime to burlesque.

If this doesn’t get the people of Christchurch shaking with laughter, I’m not sure what will.

Hidden behind dense bush and forest, many a spectacular waterfall is missed by those traveling New Zealand’s highways and byways.

The Marakopa Falls, just 30 kilometers west of Waitomo Caves, is one such waterfall.  Like many of the waterfalls in New Zealand, the Marakopa Falls were formed by an earthquake fault that forces the river water to intially bound along small steps and then plunge down the forested cliff.

Access to the falls is easy. A lookout built at the top of the hill provides an overview of the falls.  But if you want to get up close and personal, a short walk through the forest will get you close enough to feel the spray across you face

The Bridal Veil Falls, located 21 kilometers south of the small surfing town of Raglan on the west coast of the North Island, is yet another spectacular waterfall that has been enthralling travellers for decades.

As far back as 1898, a Lands and Survey report was advising visitors not to miss these waterfalls.

There is a track that will lead you to a lookout that offers a view of the quietly meandering Pakoka stream as it disappears through a gap in the fern and transforms into a thundering casade plummeting over a steep cliff into a rocky basin. Having dropped 55 meters, the water than continues to meander along the stream.

For an even more dramatic view, hike another ten minutes down a fairly steep path to the waterfall basin. Here, the misty spray from water cascading over a moss-covered ridge evokes images of fine white lace, giving meaning to the name ‘Bridal Veil Falls.’

To discover more of New Zealand’s spectacular waterfalls, get a hold of a copy of Walks to Waterfalls: 100 New Zealand Waterfalls by Russell Kirkpatrick.

(Image credits: Marokopa Falls via flickr  xoque; Bridal Veil Falls via flickr Angela Bethell)