Castro Laboreiro, Portugal  

From Castro de Laboreiro to the Rim of the Peneda – Gerês Range


equine running
Garan herd gallops on the Plateau above Castro Laboreiro, with Galicia in sight.
From Monday to Sunday
Granite landmark marks a point where Portugal and Spain meet.
glimpse of people
Castro Laboreiro's houses, in addition to the cliff that housed the old castle of the now town.
Sara & Ramon
Dª Sara Domingues and Ramon, a castro-laboreiro dog, in the village of Pontes, an Inverneira village below Castro Laboreiro.
Pseudo-mountain goats
House goats with mountain behavior cool off on a sultry day on the cliffs above Castro Laboreiro.
pure canyoning
João Barroso slides down Ribeira da Varziela, in front of a group of Spanish visitors.
closest people
The houses in the historic center of Castro Laboreiro, in the distance mostly made of granite and reddish tile.
working hands
Rural hands rest on a hoe handle.
between hills and valleys
Visitor contemplates the wild scenery of the Peneda and Laboreiro mountains.
Castro-Laboreiro
Ramon, an autochthonous castro-laboreiro breed, at the entrance to one of the houses in the village of Pontes.
ends of the day
Exuberant sunset above the Serra da Peneda and the village of Castro Laboreiro.
Tradition III
Sara Domingues, dressed in fortified fashion in the village of Pontes.
asphalt safari
A herd of cows on a road in Castro Laboreiro stops traffic.
People (even) closer
Rooftops of the historic center of Castro Laboreiro, a millenary village in the far north of Portugal.
End of Day II
The sunset fills the silhouette of Serra da Peneda with color.
No. of (A) Numão
The outer granite pulpit of the Chapel of the Lady of Anumão, where the newlyweds from abroad asked the hand of the maidens of the land. nbsp;
Unique crossings
Sara Wong crosses the Bridge of Dorna, one of several bridges with Roman or even Celtic origins in the Peneda-Gerês region.
local stone fauna
Turtle Stone, a strange geological view on the trail that leads to the village's fort.
c278b442-c070-40bd-84c9-db8070b58470
The red tile houses of Castro Laboreiro.
We arrived at (i) the eminence of Galicia, at an altitude of 1000m and even more. Castro Laboreiro and the surrounding villages stand out against the granite monumentality of the mountains and the Planalto da Peneda and Laboreiro. As do its resilient people who, sometimes handed over to Brandas and sometimes to Inverneiras, still call these stunning places home.

It's half past eight in the morning. For some time now, the summer dawn has been impinging on the mountains that surround Castro Laboreiro and incites the castrejos to resume their toil.

A distinct morning mission was imposed on us: to conquer the fort overlooking the town which, after centuries of Visigothic, Leonese, Muslim, Portocalense and, finally, Portuguese rule, resists the dictatorship of weather, rain, snow and of the wind.

Turtle stone on the way to Castro Laboreiro Castle, Minho, Portugal

Turtle Stone, a strange geological view on the trail that leads to the village's fort.

We take the trail that starts at the southern end of the village. Between rocks, gorse, broom, ferns and brambles that bind us with blackberries, we ascend the hill that welcomed the old, worn castle. A staircase carved into the granite takes us through one of the pointed doors and up to the heights of the walled redoubt.

A Castle between Portuguese origins and the Minho of today

There we give ourselves to a fierce dispute between vision and imagination. To the north, in the stone and tiled valley below, stretched the reddish-grey houses of Castro Laboreiro now.

Castle Wall of Castro Laboreiro, Minho, Portugal

The houses in the historic center of Castro Laboreiro, in the distance mostly made of granite and reddish tile

In our imaginations, the adventures and misadventures of Count Hermenegildo (Mendo) Guterres and a Dux Vitiza who rebelled against Afonso III of Asturias took place.

At the behest of the monarch, the Butler Dom Mendo united the nobility, put an end to the seven-year-old revolt that had sabotaged the solidity of the kingdom of Galicia and imprisoned the renegade. As a reward, during the first half of the XNUMXth century, he was gifted with domains still full of medieval charm that, at great cost, we failed to contemplate.

Years later, Muslims from North Africa took over.

It was only in 1141 that Afonso Henriques was able to reconquer them to the Christian side, reinforcing the old castle of Mendo Guterres and turning it into a key fortress in the line of defense of the increasingly less embryonic Portuguese nation.

The Entrepreneurial Life of a Castrejo of Our Times

In this enchantment, nine in the morning had passed us. We return to the foot of the fort and let ourselves flow in the history and stories of Castro Laboreiro.

We meet host and guide Paulo Azevedo at the restaurant “Miradouro do Castelo” that his parents built, after fifteen years of prolific emigration, in another of the ancient territories of the mountainous top of Iberia: Andorra.

Paulo was born and lived until he was eight years old in the deepest lands of Ribeiro de Baixo, in the middle of the canyon at the foot of the Serra da Peneda and Serra da Laboreiro, with the border and the Spanish village of Olelas in sight.

From one side to the other of that streak, embarrassing only for the less industrious, like so many others, his family found sustenance: “My grandfather took many cows to Spain. And from there he brought coffee and chocolate so rare and valuable in those parts. Back then, getting out of here was an adventure.

We dreamed of going even if it was only to Melgaço. In 4th grade I remembered to invent a pain so I had to go to the doctor, but the game got out of control.

When I noticed her, the doctor was sending me to Viana do Castelo. At school, those who went to Melgaço were almost heroes. Without quite knowing how, I was the only one who had arrived in Viana do Castelo.”

Dorna Bridge, Castro Laboreiro, PN Peneda-Gerês, Minho, Portugal

Sara Wong crosses the Bridge of Dorna, one of several bridges of Roman or Celtic origin in the Peneda-Gerês region

From an early age, Paulo and his industrious family learned to build bridges. With him we wind down the road and, once again, in time. Until we find one of the many on the rivers and streams that furrow the hills and valleys of Peneda and Laboreiro.

Castro Laboreiro Bridges: From One Side of Time to the Other

The one at Varziela appears on the homonymous stream, surrounded by one of those small river lakes in which you immediately feel like diving. It is believed to have been reformulated between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, from a base erected long before by the Romans, part of the network of roads that connected Augusta Bracara (Braga) to Asturica Augusta (Astorga) and many others.

To Rómulo, who took us and accompanied us since the first of the cities, a break for bathing there seemed to make as much sense as the mythological origin of its name.

In the long Latin era in which we were dazzled by the successive idyllic and crystalline settings of Castro Laboreiro, the bridge of Varziela stood as rounded and firm as it had been sketched.

Lacking the comitans e limited that once crisscrossed the gold-rich region, a small Spanish detachment of canyoners led by Portuguese guide João Barroso paraded through the immaculate stream in contemporary neoprene uniforms and gaudy helmets. We envy them for a moment.

The Ponte Nova, and Back to the Miradouro do Castelo

After which we resumed our much leaner journey in search of some neighbors, the Ponte Nova. And, nearby, the Cava da Velha bridge, or the Cavada Velha bridge, built with a surprising anti-gravity ingenuity over the Castro Laboreiro river, which, higher up, the Varziela stream supplied, in the XNUMXst century, by the Romans.

Despite the solidity of the facts, it is also called by the people Ponte Nova.

We stopped the tour for a refreshing lunch at the “Castle Viewpoint” where Paulo captivates us with new stories and delicious fortified gastronomic specialties. As we leave the restaurant, we pass our eyes over the castle and the massive cliff that crowns the surrounding mountain range.

We noticed that, from the distant thickets, animal figures stand out. Paul tells us they are goats. Let's get our most powerful lens and examine the specimens. In fact, they were goats.

But domestics, not the mountainous ones that abound in the Peneda-Gerês National Park. "When we go to the Planalto, it's likely that we'll see the others."

Goats on a cliff above Castro Laboreiro, PN Peneda-Gerês, Portugal

House goats with mountain behavior cool off on a sultry day on the cliffs above Castro Laboreiro.

The Apicultural Blessing of Our Lady of (A) Numão

We climb the slope of the Serra de Laboreiro towards other huge cliffs, territory of golden eagles that we see hovering in an unexpected flock of seven or eight. Farther down the dirt road, at the base of one of these cliffs, we come to a granite chapel.

A swarm of wild bees was taking up arms and baggage in a crack above the closed door. The chapel had been erected to celebrate a miracle. Not even a miracle saved Paul from a fateful blow.

Even though the most atheists and unbelievers claim that it was the believers themselves who placed the figures there, legend has it that, when drilling a boulder, an image of Our Lady was found, then taken to the Igreja Matriz in Castro Laboreiro.

The Mystical Stubbornness of Our Lady of (A) Numão

She also prayed that she escaped from there and returned to where she had been found or to the surroundings, even after being returned to the mother church. Such was the persistence of this Our Lady who deserved her own sanctuary of Our Lady of (A) Numão.

It remains surrounded by granite boulders and a peculiar pulpit added to the face of one of them. And adorned with an Asturian water flower, probably of Celtic root.

A rose window with six petals symbolizing purity and beauty associated with janas (Asturian fairies) and the rest of the mythology that, coming from the near north, arrived in these parts.

Pulpit of the Chapel of Our Lady of Numão, Castro Laboreiro, PN Peneda-Gerês, Portugal

The outer granite pulpit of the Chapel of the Lady of Anumão, where the outside bride and groom asked for the hand of the maidens of the land.

Several masses were said in the chapel. Some in freezing weather when, according to the book Santuário Mariano, from 1712, by Friar Agostinho de Santa Maria “…to prove the coldness of the land, all that is needed is for the wine to freeze in winter, so that for Mass it is necessary warm it up”.

As Paulo describes us from the popular imagination of Castro Laboreiro, the pulpit was also used to seal unions in which the groom from other places proposed to local maidens.

In such cases, the maiden went up to the pulpit. And from there he heard the words that the groom spoke from the ground.

From Barreiro to the Raiano Plateau of Serra de Laboreiro

From Anumão we return to populated areas of the Laboreiro slope. We pass through the village of Barreiro. And by two old women in traditional black dress who work there in semi-detached fields separated by modern fences that prevent their cattle from straying.

In one of them, 85-year-old Dona Maria da Conceição picks potatoes for the only one of several unfilled sacks. "Good afternoon, was it you who already got all these?" that's how we got into conversation. “No, they think so. At my age I can't handle all that. It was my daughter who took care of most of them.”

We continued to talk and soon asked him for permission to photograph her, which we do alternately and quite persistently. “Alas, these gentlemen from Lisbon are really rogues”, complains Dª Maria da Conceição, without ever giving up her patience, sympathy and kindness.

Alzira de Fátima, her daughter enters the field in front of a herd. Sheep waste no time. They are thrown to the vines and also to the potatoes.

Paulo had joined us and assured the lady who was from the land. “Ah! I can see it!”, Maria da Conceição tells him, you are the son of Maria dos Prazeres, from the restaurant. You married a Brazilian, didn't you?” The old woman and her daughter alternate efforts.

Sometimes they interrogate Paul to catch up on their gossip, sometimes they turn around and stone the sheep that insisted on devouring the potatoes. As is said with increased logic in the field, someone has to work. We didn't want to disturb the ladies' work anymore.

Visitor admires the sunset in the mountain range above Castro Laboreiro, Gerês, Portugal

Visitor contemplates the wild scenery of the Peneda and Laboreiro mountains

We told them that we were going up to the Planalto and said goodbye. "Highland? And where is this?" questions Maria da Conceição, intrigued, who had never heard the flatter lands above her village and Castro Laboreiro referred to by that name.

The Plateau: between the cachenas and the garronos of Castro Laboreiro

We return to the jeep. We cross Curral do Gonçalo which, at almost 1200 m, is the highest village in the parish of Castro Laboreiro and Lamas de Mouro, one of the highest in Portugal. We conquered the steep slope of the Serra de Laboreiro.

We enter an uninhabited and wild world that stands out above the reality we were living in, but it has been traversed by the peoples who have succeeded there for a long time.

We stop at the small Ponte dos Portos, which is believed to have been built by the Celts as part of the road network that connected these stops to the imminent north of Galicia.

A few hundred meters later, the green gives way to a vast multicolored meadow of yellow-green gorse, fern and purple heather.

In the eastern areas, herds of Cachaña and Barrosã cows share the tender pastures with others of semi-wild and aristocratic groves. Some are so averse to human incursions that, to avoid us, they gallop heartlessly, mane in the wind.

Garranos gallop across the plateau above Castro Laboreiro, PN Peneda-Gerês, Portugal

Garan herd gallops on the Plateau above Castro Laboreiro, with Galicia in sight.

The fauna does not stop there. In another meander of the trail, with Galicia in sight, we come across a family of wild boars, also in a hurry. After some discussion, we agreed that, at least until they disappeared into the tall fetuses, a juvenile wolf was chasing them.

We continue along the plateau streak with Spain. We take a peek at one of the tapirs that endow the prolific megalithic field.

We are satisfied with the absence of mountain goats.

And we enjoy the sunset of a border promontory overlooking the armada of wind turbines that now rotate over the summits of the Serra da Peneda and Laboreiro.

Sunset over the Serra da Peneda, Portugal

The sunset fills the silhouette of Serra da Peneda with color.

The authors would like to thank the following entities for supporting the creation of this article:

Porto and North Tourism

Laborer heaps

Book your tour and activities in the Peneda-Gerês region on the website, Facebook and App Montes de Laboreiro

Campos do GerêsTerras de Bouro, Portugal

Through the Campos do Gerês and the Terras de Bouro

We continue on a long, zigzag tour through the domains of Peneda-Gerês and Bouro, inside and outside our only National Park. In this one of the most worshiped areas in the north of Portugal.
Sistelo, Peneda-Gerês, Portugal

From the "Little Portuguese Tibet" to the Corn Presidia

We leave the cliffs of Srª da Peneda, heading for Arcos de ValdeVez and the villages that an erroneous imaginary dubbed Little Portuguese Tibet. From these terraced villages, we pass by others famous for guarding, as golden and sacred treasures, the ears they harvest. Whimsical, the route reveals the resplendent nature and green fertility of these lands in Peneda-Gerês.
Montalegre, Portugal

Through Alto do Barroso, Top of Trás-os-Montes

we moved from Terras de Bouro for those of Barroso. Based in Montalegre, we wander around the discovery of Paredes do Rio, Tourém, Pitões das Júnias and its monastery, stunning villages on the border of Portugal. If it is true that Barroso has had more inhabitants, visitors should not miss it.
Terceira Island, Azores

Terceira Island: Journey through a Unique Archipelago of the Azores

It was called the Island of Jesus Christ and has radiated, for a long time, the cult of the Holy Spirit. It houses Angra do Heroísmo, the oldest and most splendid city in the archipelago. These are just two examples. The attributes that make Terceira island unique are endless.
Flores Island, Azores

The Atlantic ends of the Azores and Portugal

Where, to the west, even on the map the Americas appear remote, the Ilha das Flores is home to the ultimate Azorean idyllic-dramatic domain and almost four thousand Florians surrendered to the dazzling end-of-the-world that welcomed them.
São Miguel, Azores

São Miguel Island: Stunning Azores, By Nature

An immaculate biosphere that the Earth's entrails mold and soften is displayed, in São Miguel, in a panoramic format. São Miguel is the largest of the Portuguese islands. And it is a work of art of Nature and Man in the middle of the North Atlantic planted.
Pico Island, Azores

Pico Island: the Azores Volcano with the Atlantic at its Feet

By a mere volcanic whim, the youngest Azorean patch projects itself into the rock and lava apogee of Portuguese territory. The island of Pico is home to its highest and sharpest mountain. But not only. It is a testament to the resilience and ingenuity of the Azoreans who tamed this stunning island and surrounding ocean.
Santa Maria, Azores

Santa Maria: the Azores Mother Island

It was the first in the archipelago to emerge from the bottom of the sea, the first to be discovered, the first and only to receive Cristovão Colombo and a Concorde. These are some of the attributes that make Santa Maria special. When we visit it, we find many more.
Porto Santo, Portugal

Praised Be the Island of Porto Santo

Discovered during a stormy sea tour, Porto Santo remains a providential shelter. Countless planes that the weather diverts from neighboring Madeira guarantee their landing there. As thousands of vacationers do every year, they surrender to the softness and immensity of the golden beach and the exuberance of the volcanic sceneries.
Pico do Arieiro - Pico Ruivo, Madeira, Portugal

Pico Arieiro to Pico Ruivo, Above a Sea of ​​Clouds

The journey begins with a resplendent dawn at 1818 m, high above the sea of ​​clouds that snuggles the Atlantic. This is followed by a winding, ups and downs walk that ends on the lush insular summit of Pico Ruivo, 1861 meters away.
Paul do Mar a Ponta do Pargo a Achadas da Cruz, Wood, Portugal

Discovering the Madeira Finisterre

Curve after curve, tunnel after tunnel, we arrive at the sunny and festive south of Paul do Mar. We get goosebumps with the descent to the vertiginous retreat of Achadas da Cruz. We ascend again and marvel at the final cape of Ponta do Pargo. All this, in the western reaches of Madeira.
Terra Chã and Pico Branco footpaths, Porto Santo

Pico Branco, Terra Chã and Other Whims of the Golden Island

In its northeast corner, Porto Santo is another thing. With its back facing south and its large beach, we unveil a mountainous, rugged and even wooded coastline, dotted with islets that dot an even bluer Atlantic.
Graciosa, Azores

Her Grace the Graciosa

Finally, we will disembark in Graciosa, our ninth island in the Azores. Even if less dramatic and verdant than its neighbors, Graciosa preserves an Atlantic charm that is its own. Those who have the privilege of living it, take from this island of the central group an esteem that remains forever.
Corvo, Azores

The Unlikely Atlantic Shelter on Corvo Island

17 km2 of a volcano sunk in a verdant caldera. A solitary village based on a fajã. Four hundred and thirty souls snuggled by the smallness of their land and the glimpse of their neighbor Flowers. Welcome to the most fearless of the Azorean islands.
São Jorge, Azores

From Fajã to Fajã

In the Azores, strips of habitable land at the foot of large cliffs abound. No other island has as many fajãs as the more than 70 in the slender and elevated São Jorge. It was in them that the jorgenses settled. Their busy Atlantic lives rest on them.
Funchal, Wood

Portal to a Nearly Tropical Portugal

Madeira is located less than 1000km north of the Tropic of Cancer. And the luxuriant exuberance that earned it the nickname of the garden island of the Atlantic can be seen in every corner of its steep capital.
Ponta de Sao Lourenco, Wood, Portugal

The Eastern, Somehow Extraterrestrial, Madeira Tip

Unusual, with ocher tones and raw earth, Ponta de São Lourenço is often the first sight of Madeira. When we walk through it, we are fascinated, above all, with what the most tropical of the Portuguese islands is not.
Vale das Furnas, São Miguel

The Azorean Heat of Vale das Furnas

We were surprised, on the biggest island of the Azores, with a caldera cut by small farms, massive and deep to the point of sheltering two volcanoes, a huge lagoon and almost two thousand people from São Miguel. Few places in the archipelago are, at the same time, as grand and welcoming as the green and steaming Vale das Furnas.
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.
Pico Island, Azores

The Island East of the Pico Mountain

As a rule, whoever arrives at Pico disembarks on its western side, with the volcano (2351m) blocking the view on the opposite side. Behind Pico Mountain, there is a whole long and dazzling “east” of the island that takes time to unravel.
Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
City
Bukhara, Uzbequistan

Among the Minarets of Old Turkestan

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, Bukhara has developed for at least two thousand years as an essential commercial, cultural and religious hub in Central Asia. It was Buddhist and then Muslim. It was part of the great Arab empire and that of Genghis Khan, the Turko-Mongol kingdoms and the Soviet Union, until it settled in the still young and peculiar Uzbekistan.
Skipper of one of the bangkas at Raymen Beach Resort during a break from sailing
Beaches
Islands Guimaras  e  Ave Maria, Philippines

Towards Ave Maria Island, in a Philippines full of Grace

Discovering the Western Visayas archipelago, we set aside a day to travel from Iloilo along the northwest coast of Guimaras. The beach tour along one of the Philippines’ countless pristine coastlines ends on the stunning Ave Maria Island.
Masai Mara Reservation, Masai Land Travel, Kenya, Masai Convivial
safari
Masai Mara, Kenya

A Journey Through the Masai Lands

The Mara savannah became famous for the confrontation between millions of herbivores and their predators. But, in a reckless communion with wildlife, it is the Masai humans who stand out there.
Mount Lamjung Kailas Himal, Nepal, altitude sickness, mountain prevent treat, travel
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 2th - Chame a Upper BananaNepal

(I) Eminent Annapurnas

We woke up in Chame, still below 3000m. There we saw, for the first time, the snowy and highest peaks of the Himalayas. From there, we set off for another walk along the Annapurna Circuit through the foothills and slopes of the great mountain range. towards Upper Banana.
Traditional houses, Bergen, Norway.
Architecture & Design
Bergen, Norway

The Great Hanseatic Port of Norway

Already populated in the early 1830th century, Bergen became the capital, monopolized northern Norwegian commerce and, until XNUMX, remained one of the largest cities in Scandinavia. Today, Oslo leads the nation. Bergen continues to stand out for its architectural, urban and historical exuberance.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Aventura
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.
Big Freedia and bouncer, Fried Chicken Festival, New Orleans
Ceremonies and Festivities
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

Big Freedia: in Bounce Mode

New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz and jazz sounds and resonates in its streets. As expected, in such a creative city, new styles and irreverent acts emerge. Visiting the Big Easy, we ventured out to discover Bounce hip hop.
Virgil Allen, on the offshore oil extraction platform "Mr. Charlie"
Cities
Morgan City, Louisiana, USA

The Cajun Town Fueled by Oil and Shrimp

Situated at the end of the Atchafalaya River's path to the Gulf of Mexico, Morgan City was gifted with an abundance of shellfish and black gold. It even hosts a festival that celebrates them simultaneously. Despite starring in the paranormal series “Ghosts of Morgan City”, this city of Cajun culture is down-to-earth and prolific.
Fogón de Lola, great food, Costa Rica, Guápiles
Lunch time
Fogón de Lola Costa Rica

The Costa Rica Flavour of El Fogón de Lola

As the name suggests, the Fogón de Lola de Guapiles serves dishes prepared on the stove and in the oven, according to Costa Rican family tradition. In particular, Tia Lola's.
Efate, Vanuatu, transshipment to "Congoola/Lady of the Seas"
Culture
Efate, Vanuatu

The Island that Survived “Survivor”

Much of Vanuatu lives in a blessed post-savage state. Maybe for this, reality shows in which aspirants compete Robinson Crusoes they settled one after the other on their most accessible and notorious island. Already somewhat stunned by the phenomenon of conventional tourism, Efate also had to resist them.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Sport
Seward, Alaska

The Longest 4th of July

The independence of the United States is celebrated, in Seward, Alaska, in a modest way. Even so, the 4th of July and its celebration seem to have no end.
Men dredge sand from the bed of the Sangha River for platform pirogues.
Traveling
Ducret Expedition 1st:  OuéssoPN Lobeke, Congo Rep.; Cameroon

The Inaugural Ascent of the Sangha River

For an hour, we flew over the immense tropical expanse that separates the capital Brazzaville from the small riverside town of Ouésso. From its banks, we ascended the Sangha River to the Cameroonian national park of Lobéké, in a landscape still very much of “Heart of Darkness".
Maksim, Sami people, Inari, Finland-2
Ethnic
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.
portfolio, Got2Globe, Travel photography, images, best photographs, travel photos, world, Earth
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Portfolio Got2globe

The Best in the World – Got2Globe Portfolio

Torshavn, Faroe Islands, rowing
History
Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

Thor's Faroese Port

It has been the main settlement in the Faroe Islands since at least 850 AD, the year in which Viking settlers established a parliament there. Tórshavn remains one of the smallest capitals in Europe and the divine shelter of about a third of the Faroese population.
Fog and sideways sun make the village of Gásadalur shine
Islands
Vágar, Faroe Islands

Sorvagur to Gásadalur: Towards the Sunset of the Faroe Islands

Discovering the westernmost reaches of Vagar, the westernmost of the large Faroese islands, we travel along the SØrvag fjord. Where the road gives way, we are dazzled by the Múlafossur waterfall and, above, the intrepid, almost uninhabited village of Gásadalur.
Northern Lights, Laponia, Rovaniemi, Finland, Fire Fox
Winter White
Lapland, Finland

In Search of the Fire Fox

Unique to the heights of the Earth are the northern or southern auroras, light phenomena generated by solar explosions. You Sami natives from Lapland they believed it to be a fiery fox that spread sparkles in the sky. Whatever they are, not even the nearly 30 degrees below zero that were felt in the far north of Finland could deter us from admiring them.
On the Crime and Punishment trail, St. Petersburg, Russia, Vladimirskaya
Literature
Saint Petersburg, Russia

On the Trail of "Crime and Punishment"

In St. Petersburg, we cannot resist investigating the inspiration for the base characters in Fyodor Dostoevsky's most famous novel: his own pities and the miseries of certain fellow citizens.
Motorcyclist in Sela Gorge, Arunachal Pradesh, India
Nature
Guwahati a Saddle Pass, India

A Worldly Journey to the Sacred Canyon of Sela

For 25 hours, we traveled the NH13, one of the highest and most dangerous roads in India. We traveled from the Brahmaputra river basin to the disputed Himalayas of the province of Arunachal Pradesh. In this article, we describe the stretch up to 4170 m of altitude of the Sela Pass that pointed us to the Tibetan Buddhist city of Tawang.
Girl plays with leaves on the shore of the Great Lake at Catherine Palace
Autumn
Saint Petersburg, Russia

Golden Days Before the Storm

Aside from the political and military events precipitated by Russia, from mid-September onwards, autumn takes over the country. In previous years, when visiting Saint Petersburg, we witnessed how the cultural and northern capital was covered in a resplendent yellow-orange. A dazzling light that hardly matches the political and military gloom that had spread in the meantime.
Natural Parks
Moçamedes to PN Iona, Namibe, Angola

Grand entrance to the Angola of the Dunes

Still with Moçâmedes as a starting point, we traveled in search of the sands of Namibe and Iona National Park. The cacimbo meteorology prevents the continuation between the Atlantic and the dunes to the stunning south of Baía dos Tigres. It will only be a matter of time.
Hippopotamus displays tusks, among others
UNESCO World Heritage
PN Mana Pools, Zimbabwe

The Zambezi at the Top of Zimbabwe

After the rainy season, the dwindling of the great river on the border with Zambia leaves behind a series of lagoons that provide water for the fauna during the dry season. The Mana Pools National Park is the name given to a vast, lush river-lake region that is disputed by countless wild species.
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.
Promise?
Beaches
Goa, India

To Goa, Quickly and in Strength

A sudden longing for Indo-Portuguese tropical heritage makes us travel in various transports but almost non-stop, from Lisbon to the famous Anjuna beach. Only there, at great cost, were we able to rest.
Boat on the Yellow River, Gansu, China
Religion
Bingling Yes, China

The Canyon of a Thousand Buddhas

For more than a millennium and at least seven dynasties, Chinese devotees have extolled their religious belief with the legacy of sculpture in a remote strait of the Yellow River. If you disembark in the Canyon of Thousand Buddhas, you may not find all the sculptures, but you will find a stunning Buddhist shrine.
Train Fianarantsoa to Manakara, Malagasy TGV, locomotive
On Rails
Fianarantsoa-Manakara, Madagascar

On board the Malagasy TGV

We depart Fianarantsoa at 7a.m. It wasn't until 3am the following morning that we completed the 170km to Manakara. The natives call this almost secular train Train Great Vibrations. During the long journey, we felt, very strongly, those of the heart of Madagascar.
Buffaloes, Marajo Island, Brazil, Soure police buffaloes
Society
Marajó Island, Brazil

The Buffalo Island

A vessel that transported buffaloes from the India it will have sunk at the mouth of the Amazon River. Today, the island of Marajó that hosted them has one of the largest herds in the world and Brazil is no longer without these bovine animals.
Fruit sellers, Swarm, Mozambique
Daily life
Enxame Mozambique

Mozambican Fashion Service Area

It is repeated at almost all stops in towns of Mozambique worthy of appearing on maps. The machimbombo (bus) stops and is surrounded by a crowd of eager "businessmen". The products offered can be universal such as water or biscuits or typical of the area. In this region, a few kilometers from Nampula, fruit sales suceeded, in each and every case, quite intense.
Cape cross seal colony, cape cross seals, Namibia
Wildlife
Cape Cross, Namíbia

The Most Turbulent of the African Colonies

Diogo Cão landed in this cape of Africa in 1486, installed a pattern and turned around. The immediate coastline to the north and south was German, South African, and finally Namibian. Indifferent to successive transfers of nationality, one of the largest seal colonies in the world has maintained its hold there and animates it with deafening marine barks and endless tantrums.
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.