(upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) - I'm Jonathan Thompson, an international travel writer on a mission to discover the most dynamic, adrenaline-fueled destinations on the planet.

Come with me as I explore the world's best Adventure Cities.

Adventure Cities is made possible by the following Alaska by rail.

Passengers can travel the coasts and wilderness of Alaska with baggage, service, meals, and wheelchair access.

Information available at AlaskaRailroad.com Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations tours destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 ♪ upbeat music In4adventure.com Inspiring, educating and encouraging outdoor adventure Host- And by these additional sponsors ♪ upbeat music (bright music) Welcome to Adventure Cities, where we're exploring La Paz, Mexico.

(water splashing) (bright music) Hey, three of them just went right past me!

Whoa, it can really go, can't it?

Woo-hoo!

That is so good.

Whoa!

All right, guys, maybe we should change the horse.

What's interesting about La Paz is that it just seems to tick every single box there is.

Some destinations are great for food, and that's reason enough to go there, and La Paz definitely has that.

Some destinations are great for adventure, and La Paz definitely has that.

Some destinations are great for beaches, and La Paz has that.

Basically, La Paz is faultless.

Finding good food in La Paz is not hard, but with the right guide, you can find some truly spectacular local cuisine, and luckily I had one of those guides lined up.

You must be Lalo.

- You must be Jonathan.

- I am, yeah.

- Welcome to La Paz.

- Thank you very much.

I'm looking forward to our adventure.

- I'm gonna show you some good places to eat some local food.

- Brilliant, sounds like a plan.

- Let's go then.

(bright music) - All right, so there's no way that I would've found this if you hadn't been guiding me.

- Probably not, because you are in the middle of the city, but this is a good Marisquería.

- Yeah.

- (indistinct), it's amazing.

- All right, well, the proof is in the pudding, as we say, let's check it out.

- This is my friend Tigre, he's been running his restaurant for 30 years.

- 30 years?

- [Lalo] It can be labeled as street food.

That's really interesting for me in La Paz going to those kind of places, and you're having flavors that you might have in a proper, fancy restaurant, so you can have scallops and octopus and everything from the sea life, just in a carreta at the sidewalk.

Also, those business that we went are operated by their owners, and it's amazing to have them to serve you.

They become friends with every customer.

- When we first pulled up and we saw it, I didn't think it was much, but the food, my goodness me, that was something very, very special.

I knew at that point that Lalo knew exactly what he was talking about.

So, Lalo, if there's one specialty in La Paz, what would it be?

- Probably it's gonna be fish tacos.

- The second restaurant Lalo took me to was McFisher, where they've been serving some of the best fish tacos in Mexico for more than 20 years.

What makes the perfect fish taco?

Is it a batter?

Is it a fish?

Is it the taco?

- It's holistic, it's everything.

- Okay, all right.

(Lalo laughing) That was, again, an amazing treat, and again, so affordable.

If you know where to look in a town like La Paz, you can find some absolutely mind-blowingly delicious food for next to nothing.

Oh, wow, this, my friend, is a world champion.

- A world champion.

- Yeah.

- And that's one of the beauties of this place, because it's still a little bit of an international secret, everywhere that Lalo took me to and showed me just underlined that sense that La Paz itself is one big hidden gem.

(bright music) (upbeat music) So this morning, I'm about a mile and a half off the coast of La Paz, and I'm about to have an incredible experience, which is being able to swim with whale sharks, the biggest fish on the planet.

(upbeat music) (water splashing) Here we go, the whale shark's right there.

It feels a bit like The Meg.

A guy from London jumps in the water with a massive fish, what could go wrong?

Maybe Steven Spielberg's got something to do with it, or maybe it's just hardwired into our brains, but the first thing you feel when you see a whale shark is terror.

The size of that mouth alone is mind blowing.

That was insane to see something that big out in the wild.

You have to kind of force that out of your head and realize that these are just gentle giants.

They're like the cows of the ocean, and they don't mind at all if you swim along next to them, and that's exactly what I got the chance to do, and it was incredible.

(upbeat music) I'm at Las Islotes, which is a major sea lion colony, and I'm gonna be getting in the water, trying to make friends with them.

All right, Frank, so they call you the Sea Lion Whisperer.

- Ah.

- You spend a lot of time with these guys.

- Pretty much every day.

(laughing) What we have in Los Islotes, it's one of the largest sea lions colonies in Baja.

The full size of the colony have to be something above 750 sea lions.

- [Jonathan] And do they have names?

- Some of them are called like, (groans), (Jonathan laughing) and some of them are like, (grunts), depends.

(bright music) - Frank is gonna teach me the ways of the Sea Lion Whisperer, and we're gonna call his friends (roars) and (grunts), and maybe they'll come a play with us.

- [Frank] This is actually one of the very few colonies where they actually have interaction with you.

That's the very, very nice experience here.

- Once you're welcomed in, you become bonded to the colony, so now I'm bonded to this colony, and I guess I'm a little part sea lion now after this morning, and I'm happy with that.

(Jonathan mimics sea lion barks) (bright music) (bright guitar music) One of the things I didn't realize about La Paz was how reliable the weather is.

It only rains here 12 days a year, and because of that, you get these extraordinary sunrises and sunsets every day, which are the perfect time to go for an urban hike.

(bright guitar music) Wow, that is a big cactus.

- Oh yeah.

This actually is an endemic species, so it only lives here, it's a Cardon.

Important thing about the nature here is that we protect it.

There's always hungry developers and people that like to do bad things with nature here, but we in La Paz are very, very protective, because if we do not protect it, it will surely go away soon.

(Jonathan sighing) - This is pretty tough.

- [Gabriel] We're almost at the top.

(bright guitar music) - Wow, we made it.

High five.

- We totally did.

- Yeah.

- Yes, exactly.

- All right, what a way to start the day.

(gentle guitar music) Hey, I'm Jonathan.

- Jonathan, nice to meet you, Jonathan.

- Very nice to meet you.

I've got my hat, I'm ready.

- You're ready.

- Yeah.

- That's great.

- So what are we gonna be doing today?

- We're gonna go horseback riding, and you're gonna ride Sorita.

She's very special, we all love her here at the ranch.

- Well, let's hope she loves me.

There you go.

- Oh, oh, oh.

- Whoa, whoa.

- Loose, loose, loose.

- I mean, I was a little bit scared there, she was bucking.

- (indistinct) look at me.

Yeah.

Like this.

- So pull that, little one.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

All right guys, maybe we should change the horse.

Honestly, I've ridden a few horses in my life and I've been thrown from horses before.

I was a little bit worried.

What's the name of this horse?

- Victoria.

- Victoria.

- She's very calm.

- Nice, now we're talking uh?

(upbeat music) - It was very different to cowboy experiences that I've had in the United States, which were a little bit more mainstream, this was more of a rugged experience.

Even the horses felt a little bit more wild and so did the scenery.

(upbeat music) Just over an hour's boat ride from La Paz, and I've arrived in my accommodation for the night on Espíritu Santo Island.

The island is deserted, this is the only place you can stay.

What's amazing about Isla Espíritu Santo is that it's also a national park right in the middle of the Sea of Cortez.

So while the island is full of activities to enjoy, the sea around it is also full of life, it's an outdoor enthusiast's paradise.

What's both strange and wonderful about La Paz is the sheer diversity of environments In one place, you can hike a mountain in sunrise, go swimming with whale sharks or sea lions in the morning, ride a horse through the desert after lunch, and when the weather starts to cool in the afternoon, the conditions are perfect to get out in the sand dunes for a completely different experience.

(Dune buggy engine whirring) Hey, listen, any chance I could have a little drive?

- Yeah, sure.

- Yeah, woo hoo.

(upbeat music) (Dune buggy engine whirring) (upbeat music) Whoa.

(Dune buggy engine whirring) (upbeat music) So this is where the sandboarding happens.

- Exactly, all the way up there to the dunes.

- When you think of sandboarding, you think maybe it's a bit less intense than snowboarding, which it is, but it's still loads of fun, and I was going pretty fast, I enjoyed it, yeah, yeah I made it, yeah .

And it's strange to think that you're there in this big open wilderness and the dunes just emerge and then right behind them is the sea.

I mean you can't make this stuff up, it's almost Hollywood worthy.

(bright music) La Paz is definitely a foodie city, it's an adventure city, it's also a healing city.

It's a place where wellness comes to the fore, where things like glamping on an island where there's no cell phone reception, swimming with wild animals, where just relaxing under the big, enormous sky that's always with you, just help you feel like a cleaner, better version of yourself.

I mean, it's an awesome city.

(bright music) Welcome to Adventure Cities, where we're exploring Lafayette, Louisiana, take it away.

(zydeco music) Situated at the geographic heart of Louisiana, surrounded by lush swamps and bayous Lafayette is a rich mix of Cajun, Creole and American cultures creating a unique (indistinct) built firmly on good music, good company, good food, and good times.

It's a cultural gumbo that obviously works because Lafayette is officially the happiest city in the US.

I decided to travel down to Louisiana to find out why.

The Cajun food bus tour in Lafayette is actually very famous.

It's a really good way to see the city and a really good way to taste the different flavors that make Lafayette so unique.

- What we consider Cajun food now really is a blend of all the different groups of people who moved to this area.

Most of it is what has evolved here because of all these other influences, because of what the indigenous people here taught us, the Germans that were here, the free people of color that were here, the Spanish, and of course the French.

- So this is a classic Louisiana treat, it's king cake.

It looks delicious and it tastes delicious.

Lafayette is famous for many things.

One of those things is hot peppers.

- My seven part Primeaux is 1.79 million scovilles for a pepper, say a jalapeno is 5,000, it's like over 300 jalapenos to one of my peppers.

- Woo, you talk about things having a kick, that is a big horse kick.

- It's a big horse kick.

It's a horse kick.

(Troy laughing) Today I am going crawfishing just south of Lafayette in the little town of Kaplan.

We're going to be bringing up some of the cages, collecting some delicious specimens, and then learning how to turn them into a very special Cajun feast.

- A lot of these people first time seeing crawfish in their life and we're taking them and we're bringing them from the pond to the table, and they're just loving it.

I figured out a way to get people to actually pay me to do my work.

- The crawfish don't wanna be caught and they're trying to escape the whole time.

All right, this guy's been invited to the crawfish boil.

- [Barry] You know, 90% of the crawfish that are caught in the United States is caught here in Louisiana, and I'm so glad that God put the Cajuns and crawfish down in the same place.

- Now that they're cooked.

- That'd be a good one, just suck the head.

- All right.

Oh wow, (Barry laughing) that's like extreme Cajun vaping.

- Here you go.

- Ah, thanks.

- Don't think I'm gonna sit here and peel all your crawfish for you now.

(Jonathan laughing) - When you think of Louisiana, one of the first things that comes to mind is the swamps and bayous in this part of the world, and of course, the classic way to explore them is by airboat.

(airboat engine whirring) (bright music) Woof, I literally cannot think of a more fun way to travel.

- So an airboat tour, we bring you through a real dense cypress forest and pretty remote area that not many people go into, so that's where most of the wildlife's hanging out, they don't have the pressure of all the human traffic.

- The thing I'm most excited about is the opportunity to seek alligators in the wild.

- This is my coworker.

- Yeah?

What's his name?

- I think that's Fred.

(Nick speaking French) He only speaks French.

(Jonathan laughing) I know quite a few alligators out here.

Probably 25, 30 of 'em we have named.

- Just being out here in this dense swampland with the alligators gliding about is so alien, so exciting.

There's my water puppy.

- Fred looks like the kind of guy that give you a big smile and then bite your hand off.

To go out in this swamp land on an airboat, which is something that I've seen in TV and movies all my life was a real thrill, even more of a thrill.

I got a chance to drive one.

Do I have to drive on the right hand side or can I do it on the left like at home?

- No, well, you might be the first guy from London to drive an airboat, but just stay in the middle.

(airboat whirring) (upbeat music) - I think I maybe got a little bit too excited.

Nick told me to slow down a little bit.

I was perhaps speeding a little bit on the bayou.

I didn't realize that Bayou had speed limits, but obviously I'd broken one.

(upbeat music) So far I've explored the food, the nature, and the wildlife of Lafayette, but there's one other big factor that contributes to the happiness levels here, and that's the local music which infuses everything with a persistent, cheerful rhythm.

Zydeco music comes from this part of the world, and at the heart of Zydeco music, there's the rubboard.

You must be the famous Tee Don, I'm Jonathan.

- Nice to meet you.

- Tee Don, who is a legend in the music scene here, creates the rubboards for people all around the world and some really, really famous people like Rihanna, Kid Rock and all kinds of others.

- And Zydeco actually started out with the accordion and the rubboard only, then the drums were added in, guitar and organ and so forth and so on.

(zydeco music) - Awesome, that was so good.

Now all we need is a keyboard player, and we can take this on the road.

- Let's get the bus rolling.

(Jonathan laughing) Now I had the music part down, I just needed to get my Zydeco dancing sorted.

You must be Moriah, I'm Jonathan.

- I believe that Lafayette is the happiest city in America because people have centered their lives around music, dancing and fun.

Left together, left tap, right together, right tap, back left together, left tap, right- - It was really quite easy to learn the steps once I got my head around the way my feet were supposed to move, it was pretty smooth and pretty fluid.

(bright music) (Moriah laughing) Buddy hands.

- That's right.

(laughing) (bright music) (laughing) I'm ready for the dance hall.

(upbeat music) I was introduced to Jeremy, who is head and shoulders above many of his peers in the dining scene in Lafayette, but he's also one of the town's leading disc golf players.

So he took me down to one of the more popular courses and taught me a little bit about the sport.

- So disc golf is taking Frisbee and throwing it from a T location toward a hole, which is a basket supported by a pole with some chains to kind of catch your disc.

- Like with a set of golf clubs, you have different tools for different jobs, and so when the hole's further away, you need a different shaped disc to when you're putting.

- Oh, that's beautiful.

When I'm putting, I try to think about moving my arm up and down the line of that pole.

There it is.

- Yeah.

(Jeremy laughing) - All right, okay, let's play.

- All right, he's a pro now.

- [Jonathan] I can't see the basket.

- If you step over here to the other side, you can see the basket down through the alley of trees and out in the fields.

- Man, that is ridiculous.

- Yeah.

- This golf is a genius idea, because you're taking the best bits of golf, which is being outdoors with friends, walking around with a bit of competition and you're making it easier and more fun because you're throwing discs.

Okay, this is a bit weird, it feels a little bit like a cross between Robinhood and Tiger Woods.

- It's really accessible, it's inexpensive.

You can go play with yourself, you can play with your friends, you can play as competitively as you would like to.

- Okay, there is still one last boss at the end of this level.

Oh.

- Uh oh.

- (laughing) that was even worse.

It was even worse.

Okay, here we go.

Ah, all right.

- Good round.

- You beat me.

- I did.

- Funny there was something else we could compete out on a more even keel.

- And we can probably find something.

(bright music) - All right Jeremy, round two.

- Yep, so we're at the Cajun Heartland State Fair, and it has all the things you'd expect.

It has rides, games, and all kinds of great food.

- Oh, really?

- Yep.

- You know what else you're gonna be tasting?

- What's that?

- Defeat.

- Ah, well if it comes to that, I'll gracefully take the L.

- Let's go.

- All right.

(bell ringing) - [Jonathan] Come on.

- Mine slower.

- Come on, yeah.

(bell ringing) - [Fair Worker] Winner, winner, winner.

(upbeat music) - So this is gonna decide the ultimate winner.

- All right.

(hammer banging) - It's hammer time.

(grunting) (hammer banging) Oh, same, same.

All right, this looks like the one, machine gun alley.

(toy gun firing) I almost got this sucker.

- I think you won.

- Yes, I did.

- Well, you have to come back again soon and we'll have a rematch.

- You're on.

(bright music) After spending a week in Lafayette, it's clear that yes, this is an adventure city, but it's also a Cajun city, a Creole city, and above all, a cordial city where everyone is welcome to the party and everyone is expected to dance, especially when local Zydeco star Lil Nate's playing.

Once you've experienced this place firsthand, it's easy to see why they say this is the happiest city in America.

Adventure Cities is made possible by the following Alaska by rail.

Passengers can travel the coasts and wilderness of Alaska with baggage, service, meals, and wheelchair access.

Information available at AlaskaRailroad.com Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations tours destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 ♪ upbeat music In4adventure.com Inspiring, educating and encouraging outdoor adventure Host- And by these additional sponsors ♪ upbeat music