Florida Keys, USA

The Caribbean Stepping Stone of the USA


via caribbean
Detached sailboat on Manatee Creek, a few miles from Key Largo.
golden freedom
Bather over shallow water on a beach at Bahia Honda State Park.
To Bridge
Sign indicates access to the Overseas Highway, a succession of bridges over the eastern edge of the Gulf of Mexico.
Tropicality
Bather strolls along the coast of Bahia Honda State Park.
the possible beach
Demarcation of parking at Anne's Beach, south of Islamorada.
O 900136
Cataloged ID of a Crocodile Crossing on its way to Key Largo.
Docking Lot
Speedboats anchored in a Lower Matecumbe Key sea arm.
A case in point
Pedestrians on Henry Flagler's old Florida East Coast Railway highway structure at Bahia Honda State Park
"Pelican Dossier"
Pelicans dominate a Matecumbe Key pier walkway
shaded
Security controls the entrance to one of the many private waterfront resorts.
The other side
Sol illuminates one of the Overseas Highway's long concrete trays.
among mangroves
Bathers enjoy themselves in the waters of John Kennencamp Marine Park, near Key Largo.
Locust
Monument thanks to to lobster and the eccentric sea of ​​the Florida Keys in Islamorada.
night spell
Dusk seizes Anne's Beach outside Islamorada.
A convenient landing
Marine signal tower off John Kennencamp Marine Park.
road over the sea
Overseas Highway perspective from Pigeon Key.
silver beach
Moments before sunset on a beach in the Bahia Honda National Park, with the old railway line in the background.
to coke
Pelicans await their opportunity as a fisherman baits big fish just outside Islamorada.
From this side
Fishermen on a side and bottom deck of the Overseas Highway, a long succession of road bridges
sea ​​route
Signposts & in Caribbean waters at John Kennencamp Marine Park off Key Largo.
Os United States continental islands seem to close to the south in its capricious peninsula of Florida. Don't stop there. More than a hundred islands of coral, sand and mangroves form an eccentric tropical expanse that has long seduced American vacationers.

It's half past ten in the morning. Miami it was an hour and ninety kilometers behind. We had also left the soggy, green expanse of the Southern Glades and were continuing toward the origins of US Hwy 1, largely called the Overseas Highway because its asphalt and concrete structure rested on the sea.

This emblematic road in the United States took us through the amphibious region of the Sounds of the Florida Keys into the Florida Keys, sometimes through elevated viaducts facing the vast expanse of mangroves and flooded groves, sometimes through dirt roads, but where fences and successive prohibitive signs kept the surrounding landscape inaccessible. .

No wonder. Like the famous Everglades, the Southern Glades and its marine expanse remain wild for a while.

Swampy and labyrinthine, they are home to species such as American crocodiles, alligators and Florida panthers (endemic cougars) that, faced with need and opportunity, would not waste a human meal.

It is, therefore, with some relief that we see a detour appear in the road to a stronghold where, everything seemed, we could get out of the car safely and unwind our legs.

Pelican Cay RV park: An Unusual Refuge from the Glades

A sign signaled the eminence of a Pelican Cay RV park. A second signal warned that we were in an "Crocodile Crossing” and a graffiti print on the wall that delimited the road specified that it was the crossing area of ​​the US1 900136 reptiles.

Crocodile Crossing, next to Pelican Cay RV park, Florida Keys, United States of America

Cataloged identification of a Crocodile Crossing on its way to Key Largo.

The authorities had the animals and their movements cataloged and controlled. Unlike us who quickly suspect that we shouldn't stay there much longer.

We come with a car park and a private and guarded recreation complex to match. Before reaching the entrance portico, a new notice with translation into Spanish calls our attention "No coolers, No Outside Food or Beverage".

Owners took their right to profit seriously. In such a way that the security guard responsible for the gate makes us open the trunk and searches the cabin and the trunk in search of transgressions.

We tell him we're just going to take a look around the place. The employee relaxes from his duties and grants us entry.

An Elaborate Basis for Fisheries

We pass through a large open bar with a resort look.

Only on the other side did we realize that we were on the edge of one of the many arms of the sea that crossed the region, one called Manatee Creek that connected that sliver of land to the marine immensity of the Florida Keys.

Manatee Creek, Florida, United States of America

Detached sailboat on Manatee Creek, a few kilometers from Key Largo

In the absence of sand, taking into account the animal danger of those waters, the complex functioned as one of the countless dens where Florida fishermen stayed.

From where they set sail for offshore fishing, where they lived together and exchanged their adventures on well-watered nights.

The establishment's own rooms, on stilts, faced the canal.

Instead of cars – as was the case in almost all the motels spread across the United States – had at the doors docks and launches equipped with large fishing rods.

We sat for a few moments examining the place. We also followed the departure of two of these vessels to the high seas. Then we resumed our own journey.

Towards Florida's Long Stepping Stone

From there, US Hwy 1 continued southwest until it encountered the long barrier of land that separated the Florida Keys from the Caribbean Sea. We intersected it at Key Largo, the largest of the Keys (islets), almost 53 km long. Key Largo is a diving mecca.

Its south coast overlooks a well-preserved coral reef that attracts snorkelers and divers in droves to its John PennenKamp Coral Reef State Park, the world's first underwater park. USA

among mangroves

When we passed there, the strong wind and a persistent layer of clouds reduced underwater visibility to almost nothing.

Keen to keep the seductive and tropical reputation of that threshold of the Caribbean intact, we remain on land.

We explored how American vacationers were entertained there, devoted to kayaking expeditions and paddle board among the mangroves, to American football passes or readings in the coves hidden by the greenery of the seashore.

Meanwhile it starts to rain. It was the ideal pretext to cut short our return to the road. We were scheduled to stay in Islamorada. The day's destination was 40km away. In this stretch, the splendid and bold engineering of the Overseas Highway would start to surprise us.

Travel through the history of the Florida Keys

Around 1920, Florida's peculiar, island expanse sparked great interest from real estate investors.

Interested in valuing thousands of hectares on the edge of the archipelago that would delight the nation's fishing community, these investors allied themselves with the Miami Motor Club.

With the railway now complete and the ferry service that transported vehicles to certain areas insufficient, it seemed to everyone that the construction of a road would not only be feasible but urgent.

Little by little and against successive setbacks, the project was completed even though the spaces between the most distant islands continued to depend on ferries.

Indication of access to an Overseas Highway bridge, Florida Keys, United States of America

Sign indicates access to the Overseas Highway, a succession of bridges over the eastern edge of the Gulf of Mexico.

After the financial difficulties of the Great Depression of the 30s, work was resumed.

Thousands of men, still disqualified from participating in the First World War and lacking income, built a long, unique marine highway, much of it based on fixed pillars on the seabed.

In 1935, a category 5 cyclone swept through the area.

It destroyed much of the road infrastructure and killed 400 workers, more than half of whom were veterans of the First World War and, in some cases, also their families. The catastrophe caused authorities to abort construction.

Once the intense controversy raised by the hurricane had dissipated, it would be resumed on a different path.

The complete Overseas Highway from South Florida to Key West that we were now driving on would not open until 1938.

The following year, President Roosevelt toured it with due pomp and circumstance.

Golden Arches of the Overseas Highway, Florida Keys, United States of America.

Sol illuminates one of the long concrete decks on the Overseas Highway.

From Key Largo, we descend through the narrow strip of land that, as if for geological mercy, the millennia bequeathed to the Caribbean Sea.

The Overseas Highway was imposed on the biggest of all Florida keys, a long chain that stretches from Biscaine Bay, south of Miami, and extends for almost 200km to the unlikely peninsular extreme of Key West, the largest of its cities.

Lower Matecumbe Key sea arm, Florida Keys, United States of America

Speedboats anchored in a Lower Matecumbe Key sea arm.

Seven Mile Bridge and a few more Miles to Key West

Arriving in Islamorada, which would welcome us that night, we checked into the hotel. We immediately set out to discover it.

A reality that we should be aware of in that marginal but still capitalist context of the USA, surprised us.

No matter how hard we tried, access to the imminent coastline was monopolized by private properties, vacation homes, hotels, resorts and the like.

Street of Islamorada with the blue sea in the background.

Security controls the entrance to one of the many private waterfront resorts.

From time to time, there appeared the end of a cross street that allowed the view of the ocean, in uncharacteristic patches, little or not at all attractive.

Just 10km to the southwest, we came across a public beach, a patch of sand dotted with mangroves that the receding low tide revealed, as revealed by the immense surface bed ahead.

Anne’s Beach was more suitable for amphibious Caribbean tours than for bathing.

Entrance to Anne's Beach, Islamorada, Florida Keys, United States of America

Anne's Beach car park, south of Islamorada

We abandoned it in search of alternatives. In Lower Matecumbe Key, we found “Robbies”, a new surreal corner of the Keys, a bar-terrace complex, equipped with fishing and souvenir shops with an extension to a new boat dock.

Part of its walkways bordered ponds full of large fish.

Visitors bought buckets of bait and entertained themselves by feeding them. As expected, Caribbean pelicans have become regular customers there.

Matecumbe Key pier, Florida Keys, United States of America

Pelicans dominate a Matecumbe Key pier bridge

When we got there, they were patrolling the walkways.

They stole pieces of fish and fought over them loudly, to the entertainment of the families who were having lunch there or preparing to set sail for their sacred fishing afternoons.

Seven Mile Bridge and a few more Miles to Key West

From Islamorada south, we travel literally over the Caribbean Sea with “jumps” and investigative stops at other intriguing fillies. We went through Vaca Key and Boot Key.

Shortly after, we entered the Seven Mile Bridge, the longest in the Florida Keys, at 11.2 km.

It maintains the parallel company of the original bridge, much tighter, still considered a world engineering marvel when it was completed in 1916.

The work was mainly due to the obsession of Henry Flagler, an oil magnate who bet on taking his Florida East Coast Railway de Miami, over the sea, to Key West.

Flagler spent $30 million of his own money on what was called “Flagler’s Madness.”

In September 1935, the most powerful cyclone to hit the USA devastated much of the structure.

Overseas Highway seen from Pigeon Key, Florida Keys, United States of America

Overseas Highway Perspective from Pigeon Key

Pigeon Key: A Legacy of Henry Flagler's Determination

We advance to Pigeon Key, an islet and former camp where, between 1908 and 1912, around 400 of the thousands of workers hired by Flagler lived for 1.5 dollars a day.

There we learned about many other curiosities and adventures, protected from another sudden surge of water in the old museum buildings.

From Pigeon Key, we proceed to Bahia Honda Key and Bahia Honda State Park. There, finally, the Florida Keys reveal a little of its bathing facet: white coral sands, coconut trees standing out above a mangrove forest, but not only that.

coast of Bahia Honda State Park, Florida Keys, United States of America

Bather strolls along the coast of Bahia Honda State Park.

Ibys roamed the beach in search of food, even among bathers who sometimes soaked up the winter sun and sometimes enjoyed themselves in the shallow water.

The old Seven Mile Bridge also passed by. First lost among the coconut trees. Then, extended along the sea in all its geometric eccentricity of concrete and steel.

The sun falls over the horizon. It transforms the bridge and the beach into an unusual silhouette, in a lacy background that receives the first silver painting, however gilded, from that noble late afternoon.

Bahia Honda National Park beach, with the old railway line, Florida Keys, United States of America

Moments before sunset on a beach in the Bahia Honda National Park, with the old railway line in the background.

Henry Flagler's old Florida East Coast Railway road structure at Bahia Honda State Park, Florida Keys

Pedestrians on Henry Flagler's old Florida East Coast Railway road structure at Bahia Honda State Park

It's already dark when we enter Key West, the southernmost city in the continental US and the inhabited point of the most advanced Yankee nation in the Florida Keys.

In the image of the Alaska, Key West gained a reputation for being a bit crazy. As some residents proudly theorize “it's as if they had shaken the USA and all the crazy people fell to the bottom.”

A Key West, we will dedicate an article as separate as the city.

HOW TO GO: 

Book and fly with TAP Air Portugal – TAP operates daily flights from Lisbon to Miami.

TAP plane

Miami, Florida, USA

The Gateway to Latin America

Not only is the privileged location, between a lush ocean and the green of the Everglades, with the vast Caribbean just to the south. It is tropical, climate and cultural comfort and exemplary urban modernity. Increasingly in Spanish, in a Latin American context.
Miami beach, USA

The Beach of All Vanities

Few coasts concentrate, at the same time, so much heat and displays of fame, wealth and glory. Located in the extreme southeast of the USA, Miami Beach is accessible via six bridges that connect it to the rest of Florida. It is meager for the number of souls who desire it.
Little Havana, USA

Little Havana of the Nonconformists

Over the decades and until today, thousands of Cubans have crossed the Florida Straits in search of the land of freedom and opportunity. With the US a mere 145 km away, many have gone no further. His Little Havana in Miami is today the most emblematic neighborhood of the Cuban diaspora.
Key West, USA

The Tropical Wild West of the USA

We've come to the end of the Overseas Highway and the ultimate stronghold of propagandism Florida Keys. The continental United States here they surrender to a dazzling turquoise emerald marine vastness. And to a southern reverie fueled by a kind of Caribbean spell.
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.
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.
Kennedy Space Center, Florida, United States

The American Space Program Launch Pad

Traveling through Florida, we deviated from the programmed orbit. We point to the Atlantic coast of Merrit Island and Cape Canaveral. There we explored the Kennedy Space Center and followed one of the launches that Space X and the United States are now aiming for in Space.
Saint Augustine, Florida, USA

Back to the Beginnings of Hispanic Florida

The dissemination of tourist attractions of questionable taste becomes superficial if we take into account the historical depth in question. This is the longest inhabited city in the contiguous US. Ever since Spanish explorers founded it in 1565, St. Augustine resists almost anything.
Anchorage to Homer, USA

Journey to the End of the Alaskan Road

If Anchorage became the great city of the 49th US state, Homer, 350km away, is its most famous dead end. Veterans of these parts consider this strange tongue of land sacred ground. They also venerate the fact that, from there, they cannot continue anywhere.
unmissable roads

Great Routes, Great Trips

With pompous names or mere road codes, certain roads run through really sublime scenarios. From Road 66 to the Great Ocean Road, they are all unmissable adventures behind the wheel.
Great Ocean Road, Australia

Ocean Out, along the Great Australian South

One of the favorite escapes of the Australian state of Victoria, via B100 unveils a sublime coastline that the ocean has shaped. We only needed a few kilometers to understand why it was named The Great Ocean Road.
Alice Springs to Darwin, Australia

Stuart Road, on its way to Australia's Top End

Do Red Center to the tropical Top End, the Stuart Highway road travels more than 1.500km lonely through Australia. Along this route, the Northern Territory radically changes its look but remains faithful to its rugged soul.
tombstone, USA

Tombstone: the City Too Hard to Die

Silver veins discovered at the end of the XNUMXth century made Tombstone a prosperous and conflictive mining center on the frontier of the United States to Mexico. Lawrence Kasdan, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and other Hollywood directors and actors made famous the Earp brothers and the bloodthirsty duel of “OK Corral”. The Tombstone, which, over time, has claimed so many lives, is about to last.
Grand Canyon, USA

Journey through the Abysmal North America

The Colorado River and tributaries began flowing into the plateau of the same name 17 million years ago and exposed half of Earth's geological past. They also carved one of its most stunning entrails.
Mount Denali, Alaska

The Sacred Ceiling of North America

The Athabascan Indians called him Denali, or the Great, and they revered his haughtiness. This stunning mountain has aroused the greed of climbers and a long succession of record-breaking climbs.
Juneau, Alaska

The Little Capital of Greater Alaska

From June to August, Juneau disappears behind cruise ships that dock at its dockside. Even so, it is in this small capital that the fate of the 49th American state is decided.
Monument Valley, USA

Indians or Cowboys?

Iconic Western filmmakers like John Ford immortalized what is the largest Indian territory in the United States. Today, in the Navajo Nation, the Navajo also live in the shoes of their old enemies.
Talkeetna, Alaska

Talkeetna's Alaska-Style Life

Once a mere mining outpost, Talkeetna rejuvenated in 1950 to serve Mt. McKinley climbers. The town is by far the most alternative and most captivating town between Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Las Vegas, USA

Where sin is always forgiven

Projected from the Mojave Desert like a neon mirage, the North American capital of gaming and entertainment is experienced as a gamble in the dark. Lush and addictive, Vegas neither learns nor regrets.
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.
Serengeti, Great Savannah Migration, Tanzania, wildebeest on river
Safari
Serengeti NP, Tanzania

The Great Migration of the Endless Savanna

In these prairies that the Masai people say syringet (run forever), millions of wildebeests and other herbivores chase the rains. For predators, their arrival and that of the monsoon are the same salvation.
Aurora lights up the Pisang Valley, Nepal.
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 3rd- Upper Banana, Nepal

An Unexpected Snowy Aurora

At the first glimmers of light, the sight of the white mantle that had covered the village during the night dazzles us. With one of the toughest walks on the Annapurna Circuit ahead of us, we postponed the match as much as possible. Annoyed, we left Upper Pisang towards Escort when the last snow faded.
Sculptural Garden, Edward James, Xilitla, Huasteca Potosina, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Cobra dos Pecados
Architecture & Design
Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Edward James' Mexican Delirium

In the rainforest of Xilitla, the restless mind of poet Edward James has twinned an eccentric home garden. Today, Xilitla is lauded as an Eden of the Surreal.
Adventure
Volcanoes

Mountains of Fire

More or less prominent ruptures in the earth's crust, volcanoes can prove to be as exuberant as they are capricious. Some of its eruptions are gentle, others prove annihilating.
Balinese Hinduism, Lombok, Indonesia, Batu Bolong temple, Agung volcano in background
Ceremonies and Festivities
Lombok, Indonesia

Lombok: Balinese Hinduism on an Island of Islam

The foundation of Indonesia was based on the belief in one God. This ambiguous principle has always generated controversy between nationalists and Islamists, but in Lombok, the Balinese take freedom of worship to heart
Mannequins and pedestrians reflected
Cities
Saint John's, Antigua (Antilles)

The Caribbean City of Saint John

Situated in a cove opposite the one where Admiral Nelson founded his strategic Nelson Dockyards, Saint John became Antigua's largest settlement and a busy cruise port. Visitors who explore beyond the artificial Heritage Quay discover one of the most genuine capitals of the Caribbean.
Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.
Meal
Tonga, Western Samoa, Polynesia

XXL Pacific

For centuries, the natives of the Polynesian islands subsisted on land and sea. Until the intrusion of colonial powers and the subsequent introduction of fatty pieces of meat, fast food and sugary drinks have spawned a plague of diabetes and obesity. Today, while much of Tonga's national GDP, Western Samoa and neighbors is wasted on these “western poisons”, fishermen barely manage to sell their fish.
Women with long hair from Huang Luo, Guangxi, China
Culture
Longsheng, China

Huang Luo: the Chinese Village of the Longest Hairs

In a multi-ethnic region covered with terraced rice paddies, the women of Huang Luo have surrendered to the same hairy obsession. They let the longest hair in the world grow, years on end, to an average length of 170 to 200 cm. Oddly enough, to keep them beautiful and shiny, they only use water and rice.
Swimming, Western Australia, Aussie Style, Sun rising in the eyes
Sport
Busselton, Australia

2000 meters in Aussie Style

In 1853, Busselton was equipped with one of the longest pontoons in the world. World. When the structure collapsed, the residents decided to turn the problem around. Since 1996 they have been doing it every year. Swimming.
Train Fianarantsoa to Manakara, Malagasy TGV, locomotive
Traveling
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.
Network launch, Ouvéa Island-Lealdade Islands, New Caledonia
Ethnic
Ouvéa, New Caledonia

Between Loyalty and Freedom

New Caledonia has always questioned integration into faraway France. On the island of Ouvéa, Loyalty Archipelago, we find an history of resistance but also natives who prefer French-speaking citizenship and privileges.
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.
Music Theater and Exhibition Hall, Tbilisi, Georgia
History
Tbilisi, Georgia

Georgia still Perfumed by the Rose Revolution

In 2003, a popular political uprising made the sphere of power in Georgia tilt from East to West. Since then, the capital Tbilisi has not renounced its centuries of Soviet history, nor the revolutionary assumption of integrating into Europe. When we visit, we are dazzled by the fascinating mix of their past lives.
Blue Hole, Gozo Island, Malta
Islands
Gozo, Malta

Mediterranean Days of Utter Joy

The island of Gozo is a third the size of Malta but only thirty of the small nation's three hundred thousand inhabitants. In duo with Comino's beach recreation, it houses a more down-to-earth and serene version of the always peculiar Maltese life.
coast, fjord, Seydisfjordur, Iceland
Winter White
Seydisfjordur, Iceland

From the Art of Fishing to the Fishing of Art

When shipowners from Reykjavik bought the Seydisfjordur fishing fleet, the village had to adapt. Today, it captures Dieter Roth's art disciples and other bohemian and creative souls.
shadow vs light
Literature
Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto Temple Reborn from the Ashes

The Golden Pavilion has been spared destruction several times throughout history, including that of US-dropped bombs, but it did not withstand the mental disturbance of Hayashi Yoken. When we admired him, he looked like never before.
Navimag Cruise, Puerto Montt to Puerto-natales, Chile
Nature
Puerto Natales-Puerto Montt, Chile

Cruise on board a Freighter

After a long begging of backpackers, the Chilean company NAVIMAG decided to admit them on board. Since then, many travelers have explored the Patagonian canals, side by side with containers and livestock.
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.
Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Véu de Noiva waterfall
Natural Parks
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.
A Lost and Found City
UNESCO World Heritage
Machu Picchu, Peru

The City Lost in the Mystery of the Incas

As we wander around Machu Picchu, we find meaning in the most accepted explanations for its foundation and abandonment. But whenever the complex is closed, the ruins are left to their enigmas.
In elevator kimono, Osaka, Japan
Characters
Osaka, Japan

In the Company of Mayu

Japanese nightlife is a multi-faceted, multi-billion business. In Osaka, an enigmatic couchsurfing hostess welcomes us, somewhere between the geisha and the luxury escort.
Fisherman maneuvers boat near Bonete Beach, Ilhabela, Brazil
Beaches
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.
orthodox procession
Religion
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.
Train Kuranda train, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
On Rails
Cairns-Kuranda, Australia

Train to the Middle of the Jungle

Built out of Cairns to save miners isolated in the rainforest from starvation by flooding, the Kuranda Railway eventually became the livelihood of hundreds of alternative Aussies.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Society
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.
Daily life
Arduous Professions

the bread the devil kneaded

Work is essential to most lives. But, certain jobs impose a degree of effort, monotony or danger that only a few chosen ones can measure up to.
Fluvial coming and going
Wildlife
Iriomote, Japan

The Small Tropical Japanese Amazon of Iriomote

Impenetrable rainforests and mangroves fill Iriomote under a pressure cooker climate. Here, foreign visitors are as rare as the yamaneko, an elusive endemic lynx.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.