São Tomé, São Tomé and Príncipe

Journey to where São Tomé points the Equator


Pantufo bay
Tropical and fishing inlet in the town of Pantufo.
Freshly caught
Young family of fishermen displays freshly caught fish.
Pantufo fishing boats
Native of Pantufo passes among the fishing boats fleet of the village.
brown lady
Resident of Roça São João Angolares.
João Carlos Silva in Roça São João
Cook João Carlos Silva and helpers prepare snacks in Roça São João Angolares.
Brown Lady II
Resident of Roça São João Angolares.
Boca do Inferno
The slab and formation of volcanic origin off São João dos Angolares.
Angolares Kindergarten
Children play in a tropical nursery in São João dos Angolares.
Washers from Ribeira Afonso
Women from the surroundings of the Afonso river in an intense fluvial washing of clothes.
Angolares curve
Motorcycle completes a meander of the road, on the verge of the São João de Angolares farm.
Porto Alegre residents
Inhabitants of buildings bequeathed by the Porto Alegre countryside.
Maternal washing
Woman washes clothes with a baby strapped to her back.
Fut Beach in Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre boys play ball on the low tide.
The Ducks of the Country
Flock of ducks at the entrance to the São João de Angolares farm.
spoils of war
Abandoned battle tank in Roça de Porto Alegre.
Porto Alegre
Brand image of the Porto Alegre farm, its boulevard of palm trees.
farmhouse
Building of colonial origin on the São João de Angolares farm.
Roça Sao Joao dos Angolares
Lawn and building in Roça São João Angolares.
Young Residents of Agua Izé
Young residents of the Água-Izé farm.
Roça Água Izé Building
Semi-abandoned building on the Água-Izé farm.
We go along the road that connects the homonymous capital to the sharp end of the island. When we arrived in Roça Porto Alegre, with the islet of Rolas and Ecuador in front of us, we had lost ourselves time and time again in the historical and tropical drama of São Tomé.

As for itself, the journey towards the extreme south of São Tomé had everything to drag on.

The fact that we were faced with an obligatory first stop in Pantufo did little to help.

Pantufo was a mere 3km away from the island's big city. With almost two thousand inhabitants, this outskirts on the capital's seafront planted together with abundant houses blessed by the church of São Pedro, in the vicinity of the lawn of FC Aliança Nacional, the club that concentrates the sporting passions of the land.

And yet, what catches our attention is the frenzy in which we found the sand below the Estada de Pantufo, at a time when its fishermen were returning from their work.

Groups of them join forces to pull the boats out of reach of the high tide. Others, already in the company of families, examine the caught fish.

Not sure how to deal with our unexpected interest, they choose the most voluminous and impressive specimens of fish, for example, a beautiful fish that still has a lot of the blue of the Atlantic.

Travel Sao Tome, Ecuador, Sao Tome and Principe, Pescador de Pantufo and BonitoAnd three or four, less exuberant, that a young family member gathers and shows us in a bunch, then slips between the artisanal boats in a dry dock and disappears behind the hedge of trees that separates the bay from the village.

The route remains close to the sea. At the doors of the yellow and pointed Church of Santana, the two directions separate.

South-North transit is almost over the ocean. On the opposite side below, we head towards Água Izé, a village and site of another unavoidable garden in São Tomé and Príncipe.

Roça Água-Izé. A Slave Project of a Black Made Baron

An unusual historical fact, it sets it apart from the rest. The Roça Água Izé was the work of João Maria de Sousa Almeida (1816-1869), a prince of black origin. Son of a landed colonel, member of a surprisingly wealthy and influential black family for the time.

According to his resources, the Baron of Água Izé, as D. Luís proclaimed in 1868, traveled the world. He has accumulated a curriculum and life experience that, in and of themselves, is a story.

He was a military commander, governor of Benguela and a trader in Angola.

He lived in Lisbon, from where he left for a European tour. Later, he crossed the Atlantic to discover South American Portugal.

In Brazil, Portuguese settlers maintained one of the largest plantations in the world, at the expense of the labor of millions of slaves kidnapped in Africa.

Also in this chapter of the Portuguese colonial era, João Maria de Sousa Almeida proved to be a case apart. Or not so much.

The Agricultural and Slavery Investments of João Maria de Sousa Almeida

Despite his black origins, the Baron got rich from the slave trade.

Returning from Brazil to São Tomé and Príncipe in 1853, he took with him a series of novelties that would prove the basis of the archipelago's colonial agricultural success: coffee, tobacco, palm oil and cocoa, which he claimed to be the tree of the poor.

Two years later, in Praia-Rei, now known as Água Izé, he planted the first cacao trees and inaugurated what would later be revealed to prolific cocoa production of the Principe Island Company.

And after half a decade, he already had such a command of the secrets of cocoa that he published a complete study on its planting and processing.

The obedience of her slave workers, this one, won her over by cruelty. Indifferent to his origins, João Maria de Sousa Almeida resorted, over and over again, to violence and heartless punishment.

When we descend to Boca do Inferno, a volcanic slab that generates exuberant marine geysers, such blows from the Atlantic are almost null.

Accordingly, the guide who takes us there places the emphasis of the visit on the myth forever associated with the place: “they know that Baron João Maria de Sousa Almeida so impressed the São Toméans that they began to see him as supernatural.

Travel Sao Tome, Ecuador, Sao Tome and Principe, Boca do InfernoIt was said that he had the power to ride into this Boca do Inferno and go straight out into Cascais.”

With regard to the Baron of Água-Izé, between mythical and real but surreal stories, it would make for a novel on its own.

The Free but Very Humble Life of Roça Água Izé Post-Independence

Returning to the houses surrounded by coconut trees, banana trees and other tropical flora of Água Izé, we find the old farm in full activity.

In a warehouse, a team of natives choose the cocoa, bag it and stack sacks, a job that is not enough for the more than 1200 inhabitants of Água Izé.

As we walk around, we cross your non-cacao day-to-day life.

Children who, in the street, wash dishes, pick freshly picked bananas or take school TPCs by light outside their home. Mothers who breastfeed newborns, others who grill fish.

Still others who rest seated against the walls of the old sanzalas, engaged in good-natured conversations.

Ribeira Afonso and his Unconformist Washers

Having completed another 6km to the south, a new expression of Santomean life proves too exuberant for us to ignore.

Travel Sao Tome, Ecuador, Sao Tome and Principe, washerwomen Ribeira AfonsoThe narrow way. Fits into a bridge. To both sides, the Ribeira Afonso, which we crossed, was full of washerwomen and already washed clothes, stretched out in the sun on the rocky banks.

In good African fashion, some women had babies strapped to their backs. They rocked the shoots with the rubbing and back and forth of their vigorous bodies.

Unsurprisingly, that profusion of washerwomen attracted the attention of foreigners who passed by. The women were more than fed up with being photographed, so our efforts met with near-immediate disapproval.

"Stop it! It's the same thing every day, do you think this is the zoo or what?”

From Ribeira Afonso down, the road gives way to a series of intricate meanders. It conquers the jagged coves of Micondo and returns to the interior.

A new sharp curve leaves us at the entrance to Roça São João dos Angolares.

Travel São Tomé, Ecuador, São Tomé and Principe, Angolares curve

In Roça with the Tachos in São João dos Angolares

It was about lunchtime. And it was the São Toméan dishes and snacks from the TV show “In the countryside with the pots” that made Roça São João and the cook João Carlos Silva famous.

We are greeted by an assorted flock of ducks too busy with their feather arrangement to make way for us.

Travel São Tomé, Ecuador, São Tomé and Principe, ducks from Roça São João de AngolaresWe went up to the house. We admired the simple, elegant decor that blended in perfectly with the colonial features of the doors and windows.

We pass to the terrace. We found it shared by groups of guests, friends and family, who enjoyed appetizers.

João Carlos Silva is also there, it couldn't be otherwise. The host starts his gastronomic show of the day.

Supported by some helpers, he creates a sequence of traditional snacks, made with banana, passion fruit, peanuts, chocolate, seafood and many flavors from São Tomé.

Travel São Tomé, Ecuador, São Tomé and Principe, João Carlos Silva, Roça São João AngolaresJoão Carlos Silva serves them on towels with African patterns that we could find in capulanas and handkerchiefs.

And with a privileged view over the surrounding property and the bay of Angolares in front. Such a meal and the setting in which it was served deserved the rest of the afternoon in contemplative rest.

Accustomed to photographic nomadism, we force ourselves to take up the itinerary again.

The Tropical and Eccentric Pico Cão Grande Mirage

As we had prepared it, we knew that the way to the southern tip passed through one of the strange and emblematic elevations of São Tomé.

We expected to catch a glimpse of him at any moment. The vision did not take long, lacking the vegetal purity it deserved.

After the village of Dª Augusta and Praia de Pesqueira, São Tomé, lined with its natural and endemic vegetation, gives way to an endless planting of palm oil palm trees, the same ones that Barão de Água Izé introduced to the island and which , increasingly, throughout this world, profane the tropics.

Travel Sao Tome, Ecuador, Sao Tome and Principe, Pico Cão GrandeWe saw the sharp mountain of Pico Cão Grande, towering above an endless number of palm trees and, from time to time, half sunk in a low cloud cover that drowned the dense and mysterious rainforest of the Ôbo Natural Park, a jungle, instead, protected .

We proceeded south. We left behind Monte Mário and Henrique. We arrive at Ponta da Baleia, which serves as an anchorage for boat connections to Ilhéu das Rolas.

We cross Vila Malaza.

Porto Alegre, its own Roça and the Funds of the island of São Tomé

On the other side of the bay that welcomed it, we arrived at Roça Porto Alegre, and returned to the historical sphere of the Sousa Almeida family.

Jacinto Carneiro, son of the Baron of Água-Izé, was founded.

Although remote and accessible almost only by boat, Jacinto Carneiro managed to expand it and turn it into a serious case of agricultural multi-production, to the point where, in a self-sufficiency regime, it became the second largest property in the south of São Tomé , with a vast territory that included the Ilhéu das Rolas and six dependencies.

Roça de Porto Alegre maintains a configuration that is unique, with an alley of palm trees leading to its main house, next to the employees' homes and the long swathes.

Travel Sao Tome, Ecuador, Sao Tome and Principe, Roça Porto AlegreOnce again, we find the garden given over to the kind of historic backwater that São Tomé found itself in after independence. Goats and chickens dot the pasture at the entrance, the palm lane and the dilapidated courtyards.

A single element clashed with the expected scenario of a Santomean farm. By some war contingency, rusted and taken over by vegetation, an old battle tank had found the last landing there.

Travel Sao Tome, Ecuador, Sao Tome and Principe, Roça Porto Alegre tankA few kilometers to the south, Inhame beach proved to be the last of the bathing spots on the island of São Tomé. A kind of geological finger inaccessible by road showed us the imminent Ilhéu das Rolas.

And, crossing it, the equator line that marks the tropical environment of the Planet.

Príncipe, São Tomé and Principe

Journey to the Noble Retreat of Príncipe Island

150 km of solitude north of the matriarch São Tomé, the island of Príncipe rises from the deep Atlantic against an abrupt and volcanic mountain-covered jungle setting. Long enclosed in its sweeping tropical nature and a contained but moving Luso-colonial past, this small African island still houses more stories to tell than visitors to listen to.
São Tomé and Principe

Cocoa Roças, Corallo and the Chocolate Factory

At the beginning of the century. In the XNUMXth century, São Tomé and Príncipe generated more cocoa than any other territory. Thanks to the dedication of some entrepreneurs, production survives and the two islands taste like the best chocolate.
Chã das Caldeiras, Fogo Island Cape Verde

A "French" Clan at the Mercy of Fire

In 1870, a Count born in Grenoble on his way to Brazilian exile, made a stopover in Cape Verde where native beauties tied him to the island of Fogo. Two of his children settled in the middle of the volcano's crater and continued to raise offspring there. Not even the destruction caused by the recent eruptions deters the prolific Montrond from the “county” they founded in Chã das Caldeiras.    
island of salt, Cape Verde

The Salt of the Island of Sal

At the approach of the XNUMXth century, Sal remained lacking in drinking water and practically uninhabited. Until the extraction and export of the abundant salt there encouraged a progressive population. Today, salt and salt pans add another flavor to the most visited island in Cape Verde.
Boa Vista Island, Cape Verde

Boa Vista Island: Atlantic waves, Dunas do Sara

Boa Vista is not only the Cape Verdean island closest to the African coast and its vast desert. After a few hours of discovery, it convinces us that it is a piece of the Sahara adrift in the North Atlantic.
Santa Maria, Sal Island, Cape Verde

Santa Maria and the Atlantic Blessing of Sal

Santa Maria was founded in the first half of the XNUMXth century, as a salt export warehouse. Today, thanks to the providence of Santa Maria, Sal Ilha is worth much more than the raw material.
Santo Antão, Cape Verde

Up and Down the Estrada da Corda

Santo Antão is the westernmost of the Cape Verde Islands. There lies an Atlantic and rugged threshold of Africa, a majestic insular domain that we begin by unraveling from one end to the other of its dazzling Estrada da Corda.
Fogo Island, Cape Verde

Around the Fogo Island

Time and the laws of geomorphology dictated that the volcano-island of Fogo rounded off like no other in Cape Verde. Discovering this exuberant Macaronesian archipelago, we circled around it against the clock. We are dazzled in the same direction.
São Nicolau, Cape Verde

São Nicolau: Pilgrimage to Terra di Sodade

Forced matches like those that inspired the famous morna “soda” made the pain of having to leave the islands of Cape Verde very strong. Discovering saninclau, between enchantment and wonder, we pursue the genesis of song and melancholy.
Chã das Caldeiras a Mosteiros, Fogo Island, Cape Verde

Chã das Caldeiras to Mosteiros: descent through the Ends of Fogo

With the Cape Verde summit conquered, we sleep and recover in Chã das Caldeiras, in communion with some of the lives at the mercy of the volcano. The next morning, we started the return to the capital São Filipe, 11 km down the road to Mosteiros.
São Nicolau, Cape Verde

Photography of Nha Terra São Nicolau

The voice of the late Cesária Verde crystallized the feeling of Cape Verdeans who were forced to leave their island. who visits São Nicolau or, wherever it may be, admires images that illustrate it well, understands why its people proudly and forever call it their land.
Ilha de Mozambique, Mozambique  

The Island of Ali Musa Bin Bique. Pardon... of Mozambique

With the arrival of Vasco da Gama in the extreme south-east of Africa, the Portuguese took over an island that had previously been ruled by an Arab emir, who ended up misrepresenting the name. The emir lost his territory and office. Mozambique - the molded name - remains on the resplendent island where it all began and also baptized the nation that Portuguese colonization ended up forming.
Rolas Islet, São Tomé and Principe

Rolas Islet: São Tomé and Principe at Latitude Zero

The southernmost point of São Tomé and Príncipe, Ilhéu das Rolas is lush and volcanic. The big news and point of interest of this island extension of the second smallest African nation is the coincidence of crossing the Equator.
São Tomé, São Tomé and Principe

Through the Tropical Top of São Tomé

With the homonymous capital behind us, we set out to discover the reality of the Agostinho Neto farm. From there, we take the island's coastal road. When the asphalt finally yields to the jungle, São Tomé had confirmed itself at the top of the most dazzling African islands.
Sao Tome (city), São Tomé and Principe

The Capital of the Santomean Tropics

Founded by the Portuguese, in 1485, São Tomé prospered for centuries, like the city because of the goods in and out of the homonymous island. The archipelago's independence confirmed it as the busy capital that we trod, always sweating.
Saudade, São Tomé, São Tomé and Principe

Almada Negreiros: From Saudade to Eternity

Almada Negreiros was born in April 1893, on a farm in the interior of São Tomé. Upon discovering his origins, we believe that the luxuriant exuberance in which he began to grow oxygenated his fruitful creativity.
Addiction São Tomé, São Tomé and Principe

From Roça to Roça, Towards the Tropical Heart of São Tomé

On the way between Trindade and Santa Clara, we come across the terrifying colonial past of Batepá. Passing through the Bombaim and Monte Café roças, the island's history seems to have been diluted in time and in the chlorophyll atmosphere of the Santomean jungle.
Roca Sundy, Príncipe Island, São Tomé and Principe

The Certainty of Relativity

In 1919, Arthur Eddington, a British astrophysicist, chose the Roça Sundy to prove Albert Einstein's famous theory. More than a century later, the island of Príncipe that welcomed him is still among the most stunning places in the Universe.
Residents walk along the trail that runs through plantations above the UP4
City
Gurué, Mozambique, Part 1

Through the Mozambican Lands of Tea

The Portuguese founded Gurué in the 1930th century and, from XNUMX onwards, flooded it with camellia sinensis the foothills of the Namuli Mountains. Later, they renamed it Vila Junqueiro, in honor of its main promoter. With the independence of Mozambique and the civil war, the town regressed. It continues to stand out for the lush green imposing mountains and teak landscapes.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beaches
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Esteros del Iberá, Pantanal Argentina, Alligator
safari
Iberá Wetlands, Argentina

The Pantanal of the Pampas

On the world map, south of the famous brazilian wetland, a little-known flooded region appears, but almost as vast and rich in biodiversity. the Guarani expression Y bera defines it as “shining waters”. The adjective fits more than its strong luminance.
Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 9th Manang to Milarepa Cave, Nepal

A Walk between Acclimatization and Pilgrimage

In full Annapurna Circuit, we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). we still need acclimatize to the higher stretches that followed, we inaugurated an equally spiritual journey to a Nepalese cave of Milarepa (4000m), the refuge of a siddha (sage) and Buddhist saint.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Architecture & Design
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
The small lighthouse at Kallur, highlighted in the capricious northern relief of the island of Kalsoy.
Aventura
Kalsoy, Faroe Islands

A Lighthouse at the End of the Faroese World

Kalsoy is one of the most isolated islands in the Faroe archipelago. Also known as “the flute” due to its long shape and the many tunnels that serve it, a mere 75 inhabitants inhabit it. Much less than the outsiders who visit it every year, attracted by the boreal wonder of its Kallur lighthouse.
MassKara Festival, Bacolod City, Philippines
Ceremonies and Festivities
Bacolod, Philippines

A Festival to Laugh at Tragedy

Around 1980, the value of sugar, an important source of wealth on the Philippine island of Negros, plummeted and the ferry “Don Juan” that served it sank and took the lives of more than 176 passengers, most of them from Negrès. The local community decided to react to the depression generated by these dramas. That's how MassKara arose, a party committed to recovering the smiles of the population.
Victoria, capital, Seychelles islands, Mahé, Capital Life
Cities
Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles

From Francophone “Establishment” to the Creole Capital of Seychelles

The French populated their “Etablissement” with European, African and Indian settlers. Two centuries later, British rivals took over the archipelago and renamed the city in honor of their Queen Victoria. When we visit it, the Seychelles capital remains as multiethnic as it is tiny.
Singapore Asian Capital Food, Basmati Bismi
Lunch time
Singapore

The Asian Food Capital

There were 4 ethnic groups in Singapore, each with its own culinary tradition. Added to this was the influence of thousands of immigrants and expatriates on an island with half the area of ​​London. It was the nation with the greatest gastronomic diversity in the Orient.
Tombola, street bingo-Campeche, Mexico
Culture
Campeche, Mexico

200 Years of Playing with Luck

At the end of the XNUMXth century, the peasants surrendered to a game introduced to cool the fever of cash cards. Today, played almost only for Abuelites, lottery little more than a fun place.
Spectator, Melbourne Cricket Ground-Rules footbal, Melbourne, Australia
Sport
Melbourne, Australia

The Football the Australians Rule

Although played since 1841, Australian Football has only conquered part of the big island. Internationalization has never gone beyond paper, held back by competition from rugby and classical football.
Aswan, Egypt, Nile River meets Black Africa, Elephantine Island
Traveling
Aswan, Egypt

Where the Nile Welcomes the Black Africa

1200km upstream of its delta, the Nile is no longer navigable. The last of the great Egyptian cities marks the fusion between Arab and Nubian territory. Since its origins in Lake Victoria, the river has given life to countless African peoples with dark complexions.
Jumping forward, Pentecost Naghol, Bungee Jumping, Vanuatu
Ethnic
Pentecost Island, Vanuatu

Pentecost Naghol: Bungee Jumping for Real Men

In 1995, the people of Pentecostes threatened to sue extreme sports companies for stealing the Naghol ritual. In terms of audacity, the elastic imitation falls far short of the original.
sunlight photography, sun, lights
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Natural Light (Part 2)

One Sun, So Many Lights

Most travel photos are taken in sunlight. Sunlight and weather form a capricious interaction. Learn how to predict, detect and use at its best.
History
Castles and Fortresses

A Defending World: Castles and Fortresses that Resist

Under threat from enemies from the end of time, the leaders of villages and nations built castles and fortresses. All over the place, military monuments like these continue to resist.
Visitor risks his life atop the basalt columns of Reynisfjara.
Islands
South of Iceland

South Iceland vs North Atlantic: a Monumental Battle

Volcano slopes and lava flows, glaciers and immense rivers all hang and flow from the high interior of the Land of Fire and Ice to the frigid and often angry ocean. For all these and many other reasons of Nature, the Southland It is the most disputed region in Iceland.
Maksim, Sami people, Inari, Finland-2
Winter White
Inari, Finland

The Guardians of Boreal Europe

Long discriminated against by Scandinavian, Finnish and Russian settlers, the Sami people regain their autonomy and pride themselves on their nationality.
Cove, Big Sur, California, United States
Literature
Big Sur, USA

The Coast of All Refuges

Over 150km, the Californian coast is subjected to a vastness of mountains, ocean and fog. In this epic setting, hundreds of tormented souls follow in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and Henri Miller.
Facing Ponta do Passo.
Nature
Ilhéu de Cima, Porto Santo, Portugal

The First Light of Who Navigates From Above

It is part of the group of six islets around the island of Porto Santo, but it is far from being just one more. Even though it is the eastern threshold of the Madeira archipelago, it is the island closest to Portosantenses. At night, it also makes the fanal that confirms the right course for ships coming from Europe.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Lenticular cloud, Mount Cook, New Zealand.
Natural Parks
Mount cook, New Zealand

The Cloud Piercer Mountain

Aoraki/Mount Cook may fall far short of the world's roof but it is New Zealand's highest and most imposing mountain.
Military Religious, Wailing Wall, IDF Flag Oath, Jerusalem, Israel
UNESCO World Heritage
Jerusalem, Israel

A Festive Wailing Wall

The holiest place in Judaism is not only attended by prayers and prayers. Its ancient stones have witnessed the oath of new IDF recruits for decades and echo the euphoric screams that follow.
female and cub, grizzly footsteps, katmai national park, alaska
Characters
PN Katmai, Alaska

In the Footsteps of the Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell spent summers on end with the bears of Katmai. Traveling through Alaska, we followed some of its trails, but unlike the species' crazy protector, we never went too far.
mini-snorkeling
Beaches
Phi Phi Islands, Thailand

Back to Danny Boyle's The Beach

It's been 15 years since the debut of the backpacker classic based on the novel by Alex Garland. The film popularized the places where it was shot. Shortly thereafter, the XNUMX tsunami literally washed some away off the map. Today, their controversial fame remains intact.
Detail of the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati, Assam, India.
Religion
Guwahati, India

The City that Worships Kamakhya and the Fertility

Guwahati is the largest city in the state of Assam and in North East India. It is also one of the fastest growing in the world. For Hindus and devout believers in Tantra, it will be no coincidence that Kamakhya, the mother goddess of creation, is worshiped there.
Back in the sun. San Francisco Cable Cars, Life Ups and Downs
On Rails
San Francisco, USA

San Francisco Cable Cars: A Life of Highs and Lows

A macabre wagon accident inspired the San Francisco cable car saga. Today, these relics work as a charm operation in the city of fog, but they also have their risks.
Ijen Volcano, Slaves of Sulfur, Java, Indonesia
Society
Ijen volcano, Indonesia

The Ijen Volcano Sulphur Slaves

Hundreds of Javanese surrender to the Ijen volcano where they are consumed by poisonous gases and loads that deform their shoulders. Each turn earns them less than €30 but everyone is grateful for their martyrdom.
the projectionist
Daily life
Sainte-Luce, Martinique

The Nostalgic Projectionist

From 1954 to 1983, Gérard Pierre screened many of the famous films arriving in Martinique. 30 years after the closing of the room in which he worked, it was still difficult for this nostalgic native to change his reel.
The Zambezi River, PN Mana Pools
Wildlife
Kanga Pan, Mana Pools NP, Zimbabwe

A Perennial Source of Wildlife

A depression located 15km southeast of the Zambezi River retains water and minerals throughout Zimbabwe's dry season. Kanga Pan, as it is known, nurtures one of the most prolific ecosystems in the immense and stunning Mana Pools National Park.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.