As ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ skids on to the big screen, Sarah Barrell fufills a dream – to clamber into the original Dodge Charger and burn rubber in the backstreets of Louisiana

Ever since the General Lee lit up the grey evenings of 1970s British television with a burst of Georgia Peach orange and blast of Dixie horns, I have harboured driving desires. For the generationally challenged among you, the General Lee was the Dodge ’69 Charger that belonged to Bo and Luke Duke, the fast-drivin’, rubber-burnin’ boys of Hazzard County.

Along with their honey-limbed cousin Daisy and the moonshine-making Uncle Jessie, The Dukes of Hazzard was a kind of The Waltons for petrol heads: Americana at its most irresistible. The show ran into the mid-Eighties, a time when my brother and I fought like bobcats in a bear trap for control of our own General Lee (a go-kart dad built from an old pram). Even now, 20 or so years later, I’m still reduced to a near feral state of mouth-frothing at the sight of any Dodge car circa 1970. The latest movie remake of The Dukes of Hazzard TV series finally spurred me into action. After several months of searching, aided by the Louisiana Film Commission, various Deep South tourist boards and a shady dude called Big Al, a date was set.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/americas/driving-like-daisy-in-the-backstreets-of-louisiana-503491.html

Catch a free concert in Central Park, enjoy the art and a cocktail at Moma, and shop till you drop along Fifth Avenue. Sarah Barrell gives an insider’s guide

An air of pre-party excitement always prevails on Virgin’s Friday flights into New York return flights to New York JFK. You’ve watched Melinda and Melinda to get you in the mood for Woody Allen’s Manhattan, ordered one too many glasses of bubbly, snagged a couple of hours’ sleep, and by the magic of time zone change, you land at almost the same time you left. Hurrah! You get to enjoy that Friday feeling all over again, only with cocktails, yellow cabs, and a large serving of shopping on the side.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/americas/longhaul-short-breaks-new-york-497463.html

Ecuador’s mysterious cloud forest has more bird and plant species than the whole of the US. Sarah Barrell explores its ecological riches

It’s dusk in the Ecuadorian cloud forest, and, as far as the untrained eye can make out, high tide. We are, in fact, several hundred metres above sea level. But standing in a small clearing in a forest that carpets a sharp, pyramidal mountain, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d been cast out into the misty Pacific. White nebulous matter rolls out around us like a milky sea, obscuring the neighbouring peaks and mossy valleys below. It’s all I can do to stop myself stepping off the edge and stretching into a languid breaststroke. The Peruvians call it “the eyebrow of the forest”, but this hardly does the place justice. As my Andean companion suggests, “eyelash” would be more apt, for where cloud forest occurs, in a verdant arc above the rainforest and below the harsh brow of the sierra, nature could not be more seductively dressed.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/americas/a-bed-in-the-clouds-489732.html

Great pool. Which is nice when …
… you’re in one of the driest places on earth. With no fear of rainfall, Sarah Barrell heads to Chile’s Atacama Desert, and a deeply fashionable Explora lodge.

Llamas. Not the kind of creature one expects to see by the pool of a luxury hotel. There it was, grinning slightly salaciously, I thought, as I headed for a twilight swim. But then Explora, a luxury lodge in Chile’s Atacama Desert, is not your average hotel. And voyeuristic llamas aside, there is nothing like doing al fresco backstroke to get rid of hours of planes, pains and bumpy automobiles.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/americas/great-pool-which-is-nice-when-533454.html

The American capital is abuzz with election fever. Sarah Barrell votes the city a winner at any time of year

WHY GO NOW?
Because there is never a better time to visit the American capital than during the frenzy of a presidential election. At any time of year this city is the hub of the political world but right now everywhere from Washington’s restaurants and museums to hotels and concert halls are alive with election fever. You can eat lunch next to bright young things as they compose drafts of speeches on café counter-tops, and watch lobbyists make frantic political predictions over happy-hour cocktails. Just watch out for those motorcades whizzing up and down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/americas/48-hours-in-washington-545411.html