Chapada Diamantina, Brazil

Gem-stone Bahia


View of Pai Inácio Hill
The plateaus of Chapada Diamantina seen from the top of Morro do Pai Inácio.
About Pai Inácio Hill
Brazilian couple are studying a deep canyon in the Chapada Diamantina.
At the base of Chapada
Low meadow covers one of the canyons of Chapada Diamantina.
pretend jump
Guia Negão pretends to jump after telling visitors the legend of Pai Inácio.
Swimming in crystal clear water
Visitors swim in Pratinha, a lagoon with a marine view despite being more than 300km from the Atlantic Ocean.
natural arch
Visitors bathe in a pond on their way to the Sossego waterfall.
vacation yoga
Forasteira exercises yoga poses in Ribeirão do Meio.
Millennial wall
Old rock formation in front of Pai Inácio Hill.
Repair
Native changes tiles of a typical house in Igatu.
Igatu street
Colorful houses in the mining village of Igatu.
Angel
Angel sculpture at the entrance to a cemetery in Igatu.
twilight catinga
Sun sets over the capinga of Chapada Diamantina.
Gruta
Guia illuminates the entrance to the Lapa Doce grotto.
Until the end of the century. In the XNUMXth century, Chapada Diamantina was a land of immeasurable prospecting and ambitions. Now that diamonds are rare, outsiders are eager to discover its plateaus and underground galleries

The walk proves to be much shorter than we expected.

Favored by his thinness and the training of countless climbs, Negão reaches the top without gasping, settles down on a rounded stone and leaves us at ease to explore the nooks full of cacti on the plateau.

From there, we had the first of several 360º panoramic views of Chapada Diamantina and the inaugural notion of its unexpected magnificence. A canyon covered with meadow stretches as far as the eye can see, well marked by the slopes of the small opposite plateaus.

Other elevated canyons of the vast Sertão announce themselves in the distance in a sequence that seems to have no end. Scenarios of this type are almost always sculpted by high intensity erosion.

Chapada was no exception.

View from Morro Pai Inacio, Chapada Diamantina, Bahia Gem, Brazil

The plateaus of Chapada Diamantina seen from the top of Morro do Pai Inácio.

The Geological and Diamond Genesis of Chapada Diamantina

More than 600 million years ago, long before the fragmentation of the supercontinent Pangea, this region was adjacent to the current zone. Namíbia, still today one of the most important diamond reserves in the World.

Local diamonds were crystallized in that area, mixed with pebbles and dragged into the depths of the sea that covered what is now hiinterior of Brazil. Over time, the sea receded.

Its bed turned into a layer of conglomerate stone that trapped the gems. Later, this layer was raised by tectonic movements and exposed to intense wear that deposited the diamonds in the riverbed, waiting for the lucky pioneers.

Ancient rock, chapada diamantina, bahiagem, brazil

Old rock formation in front of Pai Inácio Hill.

A little drier – perhaps in a season of rare rain – the scenery we have before our eyes could have turned out to be perfect for hosting scenes from “spaghetti westerns”. The Chapada Diamantina region has remained a true “western” for centuries on end.

During this period, it was populated by the Maracás Indians.

These, attacked the adventurers and settlers who arrived attracted by news of the first of the riches found, the gold.

Later, with the discovery of diamonds, it didn't take long before thousands of pioneers and prospectors, merchants and settlers, Jesuits, smugglers and prostitutes from the most varied origins flocked there.

Villages without king or law appeared with dimensions and a growing concentration of inhabitants.

roof repair, chapada diamantina, bahiagem, brazil

Native changes tiles of a typical house in Igatu.

The bullets resolved any conflict that arose.

Accordingly, the colonels with the most influence and the jagunços at their service concentrated power and imposed their will by force of violence and torture.

The Story Told Times Account of the Slave Father Inácio

The episode that Negão tells the visitors of his smoothed mound comes to us as a theatrical proof of the rudeness of that era. The tone of your sentences is warm. The accent, from the hinterland of Bahia: “Hi guys, gather there near the cliff to hear that the story is good!”.

Composed of the audience, the narrator says that in bygone times, a slave lived in Chapada whom they called Father Ignatius. Father Inácio was secretly dating his master's daughter.

Yoga pose, chapada diamantina, bahiagem, brazil

Forasteira exercises yoga poses in Ribeirão do Meio.

But this one did not take long to find out about the case. He sent several henchmen in pursuit of the offender who had to take refuge on the same hill we were on.

Only someone informed the henchmen at the hideout. When he least expected it, the slave found himself between the persecutors and the abyss. The situation called for a drastic, preferably brilliant, exit. Pai Inácio lived up to the demands.

Under the pressure of rifles and pistols, he shouted that he would rather die in freedom than be slaughtered at the master's hands.

He opened his umbrella, jumped off the hill and continued his flight, unharmed, never to be seen again.

Negão always took his work to heart and at a certain point, the narrative already asked for something to illustrate it. The guide found an artifice to match the outcome of the soap opera.

When he reaches the climax of the action, Negão throws himself down and leaves the audience awestruck.

Salto Negao, chapada diamantina, bahia gema, brazil

Guia Negão pretends to jump after telling visitors the legend of Pai Inácio.

Moments later, some of the visitors approach the precipice and discover that the jump (repeated several times a day) ended in a ledge a meter or two below that the group could not see.

According to legend, the slave was gone for good.

He left Chapada to his increasingly soulless prospecting.

Feno meadow, chapada diamantina, bahiagem, brazil

Low meadow covers one of the canyons of Chapada Diamantina.

Diamonds and Prospectors that Subsist in Chapada

In the riverbeds, browned by iron, greedy miners found gems in surprising quantities.

They opened new paths to previously inaccessible areas around the towns that were growing before our eyes: Sheets (from Bahia), Mucugê, Palmeiras and Andaraí, among others of equal colonial elegance but lesser size and importance.

We descend from the hill and head towards the narrow valley of Mucugêzinho. There, we have the first contact with the beds still filtered by the most persistent prospectors in the region.

At Poço do Diabo, the water reveals iron-like gradations of orange. In that and other tight flows, we passed by miners.

sossego waterfall, chapada diamantina, bahiagem, brazil

Visitors bathe in a pond on their way to the Sossego waterfall.

They work leaning over the banks, stirring gravel over their sieves, like souls semi-retired from the world, moved as much by social disengagement as by the hope of getting rich and contradicting the past.

Success stories are rare. Most Chapada residents prefer bets with higher odds of success. At the moment, tourism proves to be the most assured.

In 1995, under pressure from the same environmental groups that managed to create the national park and waged long-standing destruction of the local ecosystem, the government banned non-traditional diamond mining.

Although not everything is still perfect, nature has come to be treated as the most precious asset in the area.

And Brazilian and foreign visitors and travelers flocked to Chapada Diamantina in large numbers.

Casal Canyon, Chapada Diamantina, Bahia Gem, Brazil

Brazilian couple are studying a deep canyon in the Chapada Diamantina.

The New Touristic Paths of Chapada Diamantina

After the long period of stagnation, migration and poverty that followed the end of mining, the local population welcomes this new invasion, in competition with other parts of the coast of Bahia such as the Morro de São Paulo.

He also wants to profit from the revelation of his blessed homeland.

Pratinha lagoon, chapada diamantina, bahiagem, brazil

Visitors swim in Pratinha, a lagoon with a marine view despite being more than 300km from the Atlantic Ocean.

On the days we dedicate to it, we walk dozens of kilometers a day.

We arrive at the most emblematic places in Chapada: Ribeirão do Meio, the Lençóis river and the Primavera waterfall, the Salão de Areias, the Sossego waterfall, the Lapão cave and the Marimbus swamp and its Quilombo Remanso.

Other adventurers try even harder.

They follow exhausting but rewarding guided itineraries such as the one that leads to the Fumaça waterfall, the longest in Brazil, 420m high, which they reach three days after departure.

Or they surrender to the Grand Circuit, which covers 100km, completed in five days, eight, if you want to investigate the old diamond-producing village of Xique-Xique Igatu.

Casario Igatu, chapada diamantina, bahiagem, brazil

Colorful houses in the mining village of Igatu.

Certain natives don't need to go to this trouble.

Scientists have come to the conclusion that part of the water in the Amazon basin, placed under pressure against the Atlantic Ocean, ends up finding and excavating alternative paths.

It feeds aquifers that reach the Brazilian Northeast. This water is released.

It irrigates the Chapada more than the surrounding area because the characteristic rock there is almost impermeable but conducive to the formation of “structural” breaches.

Incursion into the Underworld of the Lapa Doce and Torrinha Caves

As a matter of probability, the entrances to some of these gaps are found in the “sites” of lucky residents. We ended up following two of these promoters into the depths of Lapa Doce and Torrinha.

They lead us through these gigantic galleries, in the light of a robust Petromax-style lamp that they move from one shoulder to the other.

Cave, Chapada Diamantina, Bahia Gem, Brazil

Guia illuminates the entrance to the Lapa Doce grotto.

At the same time, shy and somewhat pressured by the weight of their new profession, they give us newly memorized encyclopedic information and the name of each underground section: “Here, you can see the Sugar Loaf.

This one is the “Curtain” and now we have the “Living Water”.

When we return to the surface, a blazing sunset ridicules the dim light that had revealed that piece of underworld.

It reddens the landscape and darkens the silhouettes of the “mandacarus” cactus forest of the great Sertão, plant forms characteristic of the Chapada Diamantina.

Sunset, Chapada Diamantina, Bahia Gem, Brazil

Sun sets over the capinga of Chapada Diamantina.

Sheets of Bahia, Brazil

The Swampy Freedom of Quilombo do Remanso

Runaway slaves have survived for centuries around a wetland in Chapada Diamantina. Today, the quilombo of Remanso is a symbol of their union and resistance, but also of the exclusion to which they were voted.
Sheets of Bahia, Brazil

Lençóis da Bahia: not Even Diamonds Are Forever

In the XNUMXth century, Lençóis became the world's largest supplier of diamonds. But the gem trade did not last as expected. Today, the colonial architecture that he inherited is his most precious possession.
Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil

In the Burning Heart of South America

It was only in 1909 that the South American geodesic center was established by Cândido Rondon, a Brazilian marshal. Today, it is located in the city of Cuiabá. It has the stunning but overly combustible scenery of Chapada dos Guimarães nearby.
Goiás Velho, Brazil

A Gold Rush Legacy

Two centuries after the heyday of prospecting, lost in time and in the vastness of the Central Plateau, Goiás esteems its admirable colonial architecture, the surprising wealth that remains to be discovered there.
Pirenópolis, Brazil

A Polis in the South American Pyrenees

Mines of Nossa Senhora do Rosário da Meia Ponte were erected by Portuguese pioneers, in the peak of the Gold Cycle. Out of nostalgia, probably Catalan emigrants called the mountains around the Pyrenees. In 1890, already in an era of independence and countless Hellenizations of its cities, Brazilians named this colonial city Pirenópolis.
Fazenda São João, Miranda, Brazil

Pantanal with Paraguay in Sight

When the Fazenda Passo do Lontra decided to expand its ecotourism, it recruited the other family farm, the São João. Further away from the Miranda River, this second property reveals a remote Pantanal, on the verge of Paraguay. The country and the homonymous river.
Serra Dourada, Goiás, Brazil

Where the Cerrado Waves Golden

One of the types of South America savannah, the Cerrado extends over more than a fifth of the Brazilian territory, which supplies much of its fresh water. Located in the heart of the Central Plateau and the state of Goiás, the Serra Dourada State Park shines double.
Pirenópolis, Brazil

Brazilian Crusades

Christian armies expelled Muslim forces from the Iberian Peninsula in the XNUMXth century. XV but, in Pirenópolis, in the Brazilian state of Goiás, the South American subjects of Carlos Magno continue to triumph.
Passo do Lontra, Miranda, Brazil

The Flooded Brazil of Passo do Lontra

We are on the western edge of Mato Grosso do Sul but bush, on these sides, is something else. In an extension of almost 200.000 km2, the Brazil it appears partially submerged, by rivers, streams, lakes and other waters dispersed in vast alluvial plains. Not even the panting heat of the dry season drains the life and biodiversity of Pantanal places and farms like the one that welcomed us on the banks of the Miranda River.
Manaus, Brazil

The Jumps and Starts of the former World Rubber Capital

From 1879 to 1912, only the Amazon River basin generated the latex that, from one moment to another, the world needed and, out of nowhere, Manaus became one of the most advanced cities on the face of the Earth. But an English explorer took the tree to Southeast Asia and ruined pioneer production. Manaus once again proved its elasticity. It is the largest city in the Amazon and the seventh in Brazil.
Pirenópolis, Brazil

A Ride of Faith

Introduced in 1819 by Portuguese priests, the Festa do Divino Espírito Santo de Pirenópolis it aggregates a complex web of religious and pagan celebrations. It lasts more than 20 days, spent mostly on the saddle.
Kolmanskop, Namíbia

Generated by the Diamonds of Namibe, Abandoned to its Sands

It was the discovery of a bountiful diamond field in 1908 that gave rise to the foundation and surreal opulence of Kolmanskop. Less than 50 years later, gemstones have run out. The inhabitants left the village to the desert.
Miranda, Brazil

Maria dos Jacarés: the Pantanal shelters such Creatures

Eurides Fátima de Barros was born in the interior of the Miranda region. 38 years ago, he settled in a small business on the side of BR262 that crosses the Pantanal and gained an affinity with the alligators that lived on his doorstep. Disgusted that once upon a time the creatures were being slaughtered there, she began to take care of them. Now known as Maria dos Jacarés, she named each of the animals after a soccer player or coach. It also makes sure they recognize your calls.
Curitiba, Brazil

The High-Quality Life of Curitiba

It is not only the altitude of almost 1000 meters at which the city is located. Cosmopolitan and multicultural, the capital of Paraná has a quality of life and human development rating that make it a unique case in Brazil.

Florianopolis, Brazil

The South Atlantic Azorean Legacy

During the XNUMXth century, thousands of Portuguese islanders pursued better lives in the southern confines of Brazil. In the villages they founded, traces of affinity with the origins abound.

Morro de São Paulo, Brazil

A Divine Seaside of Bahia

Three decades ago, it was just a remote and humble fishing village. Until some post-hippie communities revealed the Morro's retreat to the world and promoted it to a kind of bathing sanctuary.
Ilhabela, Brazil

Ilhabela: After Horror, the Atlantic Beauty

Ninety percent of the preserved Atlantic Forest, idyllic waterfalls and gentle, wild beaches live up to the name. But, if we go back in time, we also reveal the horrific historical facet of Ilhabela.
Ilhabela, Brazil

In Ilhabela, on the way to Bonete

A community of caiçaras descendants of pirates founded a village in a corner of Ilhabela. Despite the difficult access, Bonete was discovered and considered one of the ten best beaches in Brazil.
Brasilia, Brazil

Brasília: from Utopia to the Capital and Political Arena of Brazil

Since the days of the Marquis of Pombal, there has been talk of transferring the capital to the interior. Today, the chimera city continues to look surreal but dictates the rules of Brazilian development.
Itaipu Binational Hydroelectric Power Plant, Brazil

Itaipu Binational Hydroelectric Power Plant: Watt Fever

In 1974, thousands of Brazilians and Paraguayans flocked to the construction zone of the then largest dam in the world. 30 years after completion, Itaipu generates 90% of Paraguay's energy and 20% of Brazil's.
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
Beach
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.
Hippopotamus displays tusks, among others
safari
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.
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.
by the shadow
Architecture & Design
Miami, USA

A Masterpiece of Urban Rehabilitation

At the turn of the 25st century, the Wynwood neighbourhood remained filled with abandoned factories and warehouses and graffiti. Tony Goldman, a shrewd real estate investor, bought more than XNUMX properties and founded a mural park. Much more than honoring graffiti there, Goldman founded the Wynwood Arts District, the great bastion of creativity in Miami.
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.
orthodox procession
Ceremonies and Festivities
Suzdal, Russia

Centuries of Devotion to a Devoted Monk

Euthymius was a fourteenth-century Russian ascetic who gave himself body and soul to God. His faith inspired Suzdal's religiosity. The city's believers worship him as the saint he has become.
The Oswald Hoffman House, architectural heritage of Inhambane.
Cities
Inhambane, Mozambique

The Current Capital of a Land of Good People

It is a fact that such a generous welcome led Vasco da Gama to praise the region. From 1731 onwards, the Portuguese developed Inhambane until 1975, when they bequeathed it to the Mozambicans. The city remains the urban and historical heart of one of Mozambique's most revered provinces.
Cocoa, Chocolate, Sao Tome Principe, Agua Izé farm
Lunch time
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.
Tatooine on Earth
Culture
Matmata Tataouine:  Tunisia

Star Wars Earth Base

For security reasons, the planet Tatooine from "The Force Awakens" was filmed in Abu Dhabi. We step back into the cosmic calendar and revisit some of the Tunisian places with the most impact in the saga.  
Sport
Competitions

Man: an Ever Tested Species

It's in our genes. For the pleasure of participating, for titles, honor or money, competitions give meaning to the world. Some are more eccentric than others.
Two generations of pirogue riders on the Sangha River
Traveling
Ducret 3rd Expedition - Bomassa to Sangha Lodge, Central African Republic

The Journey to the Central African Republic

After visiting the Lobéké National Park and Wali Bai de Bon Coin, we sailed back up the Sangha River. Our destination is the Sangha Lodge, a convenient base for exploring the Dzangha-Sangha National Park and interacting with the Ba'Aka communities in the region.
Ethnic
Pentecost Island, Vanuatu

Naghol: Bungee Jumping without Modern Touches

At Pentecost, in their late teens, young people launch themselves from a tower with only lianas tied to their ankles. Bungee cords and harnesses are inappropriate fussiness from initiation to adulthood.
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

life outside

Sydney, Australia's exemplary criminal city, Harbor Bridge
History
Sydney, Australia

From the Exile of Criminals to an Exemplary City

The first of the Australian colonies was built by exiled inmates. Today, Sydney's Aussies boast former convicts of their family tree and pride themselves on the cosmopolitan prosperity of the megalopolis they inhabit.
Santiago, island, Cape Verde, São Jorge dos Órgãos
Islands
Santiago, Cape Verde

Santiago from bottom to top

Landed in the Cape Verdean capital of Praia, we explore its pioneer predecessor city. From Cidade Velha, we follow the stunning mountainous ridge of Santiago to the unobstructed top of Tarrafal.
Horses under a snow, Iceland Never Ending Snow Island Fire
Winter White
Husavik a Myvatn, Iceland

Endless Snow on the Island of Fire

When, in mid-May, Iceland already enjoys some sun warmth but the cold and snow persist, the inhabitants give in to an intriguing summer anxiety.
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.
Horseshoe Bend
Nature
Navajo nation, USA

The Navajo Nation Lands

From Kayenta to Page, passing through Marble Canyon, we explore the southern Colorado Plateau. Dramatic and desert, the scenery of this indigenous domain, cut out in Arizona, reveals itself to be splendid.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
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.
Young people walk the main street in Chame, Nepal
Natural Parks
Annapurna Circuit: 1th - Pokhara a ChameNepal

Finally, on the way

After several days of preparation in Pokhara, we left towards the Himalayas. The walking route only starts in Chame, at 2670 meters of altitude, with the snowy peaks of the Annapurna mountain range already in sight. Until then, we complete a painful but necessary road preamble to its subtropical base.
Starting moment of one of the races organized by the Barbados Turf Club
UNESCO World Heritage
Bridgetown, Barbados

Cannons and Horse Racing in the Old Barbadian Savannah

In the 1966th and 300th centuries, Bridgetown was home to the British Army and Navy Headquarters for the West Indies. In XNUMX, after XNUMX years, Barbados gained its independence. Garrison and, in particular, the racecourse-lawn at its heart exalt the vigor of the young nation.
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Characters
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
Jabula Beach, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
Beaches
Saint Lucia, South Africa

An Africa as Wild as Zulu

On the eminence of the coast of Mozambique, the province of KwaZulu-Natal is home to an unexpected South Africa. Deserted beaches full of dunes, vast estuarine swamps and hills covered with fog fill this wild land also bathed by the Indian Ocean. It is shared by the subjects of the always proud Zulu nation and one of the most prolific and diverse fauna on the African continent.
Golden Rock of Kyaikhtiyo, Buddhism, Myanmar, Burma
Religion
Mount Kyaiktiyo, Myanmar

The Golden and Balancing Rock of Buddha

We are discovering Rangoon when we find out about the Golden Rock phenomenon. Dazzled by its golden and sacred balance, we join the now centuries-old Burmese pilgrimage to Mount Kyaiktyo.
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.
Society
Markets

A Market Economy

The law of supply and demand dictates their proliferation. Generic or specific, covered or open air, these spaces dedicated to buying, selling and exchanging are expressions of life and financial health.
Young twin women, weavers
Daily life

Margilan, Uzbequistan

A Tour of Uzbekistan's Handicraft Fabrics

Located in the far east of Uzbekistan, in the Fergana Valley, Margilan was one of the essential stops on the Silk Road. Since the 10th century, the silk products produced there have made it stand out on maps; today, haute couture brands compete for its fabrics. More than just a prodigious center of artisanal creation, Margilan values ​​and cherishes an ancient Uzbek way of life.
Unaccustomed gorilla, a short distance from Bon Coin, Bomassa
Wildlife
Ducret Expedition 2st:  PN Lobeke, Cameroon - Wali Bai, Congo Rep.

Hyacinth and the Gorilla of Bon Coin: Peculiar Primate Encounters

Camped on an island in the Sangha River, we set out to discover the Lobéké and Wali Bai national parks, Nouabalé-Ndoki, in Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. There we are surprised by stunning but disparate creatures.  
Napali Coast and Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii Wrinkles
Scenic Flights
napali coast, Hawaii

Hawaii's Dazzling Wrinkles

Kauai is the greenest and rainiest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is also the oldest. As we explore its Napalo Coast by land, sea and air, we are amazed to see how the passage of millennia has only favored it.