LifouLoyalty Islands

The Greatest of the Loyalties


Mme Moline Popinee
Moline in a popinée dress, next to the gite where she serves her prized bougnas.
outdoor drying
Resident spreads clothes under the canopy of tall coconut trees on the coast of Lifou.
a translucent sea
The seductive sea of ​​the South Pacific off Cape Escarpé at the northern end of Lifou.
Vanilla flavor
Lues Rokuad in his organic vanilla plantation in the south of the island.
Tones of Loyalty
The jagged, blue-green coastline of Lifou.
the chefferi
Nativo carries a crate out of Mucaweng's chefferie.
bougna
The famous traditional New Caledonian stew, as made by Madame Moline.
lifu-islands-loyalty-new-caledonia-snacks
Family sharing an evening snack by lantern light.
Kanak Crafts
Floral vegetable bag, an example of the simple but exuberant craftsmanship of the Loyalty Islands.
Coast Cutout
Crystal clear water of the South Pacific around an eroded shore.
Gabriele in Chief
Guide Gabriele poses in front of the Chiefrie.
tangled coconut trees
Coconut hedge on the seafront of Lifou.
Our Lady of Lourdes
The back of the most charismatic church in Lifou.
Race
Lifou resident runs over an abrasive boulder.
Lady Louise
Dª Louise from the vanilla farm La Vanille Jouese.
Beaches
Lifou tropical coastline.
Lifou is the island in the middle of the three that make up the semi-francophone archipelago off New Caledonia. In time, the Kanak natives will decide if they want their paradise independent of the distant metropolis.

It's just after ten in the morning when we leave the small airport in Ouanaham.

An employee hands us a French car and introduces us to Gabriela, the bilingual guide who would accompany us.

We had already found the advance notice that we would have to drive the car. Shortly after settling in the vehicle, the native reinforces the idea: “I don't have a license nor do I want to have one. It's too stressful for me!”

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, chief

Guide Gabriele poses in front of the Chiefrie.

Seriously bulky, the lady adjusts to the space in the rear seat and transmits some indications consistent with the basic road network of the island.

In three strokes, we reached its northern limit.

Gabriela tells us that we've arrived at the first stopover, tells us where to go and, as she has done several times, victim of her inertia and reduced mobility, she stays in the car waiting for our return.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Cape Escarpe

The seductive sea of ​​the South Pacific off Cape Escarpé at the northern end of Lifou.

We peek at the cliffs of Jokine and Cape Escarpé onwards.

Among the large Cook pine trees that rise from them, also prolific in the neighboring Île-des-Pins we also admire the green, blue marine lagoon lined with a mixture of rock and coral in that exuberant corner of the Pacific Ocean.

Blessing her and the Melanesian sailors and visitors from all over the world, a Notre Dame de Lourdes perched above the pediment of the small church on the threshold of the great cliff of Easo.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Notre Dame de Lourdes

The back of the most charismatic church in Lifou.

The Virgin and all the island's faith in itself can do little against the weather. We descend the path we had traveled in his honor when, at a glance, a cluster of tenebrous clouds forms above our heads.

The sky opens floodgates and releases a flood of water that subjects us to the refuge of little Clio. “Well, this doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon, predicts Gabriela. It seems better to go straight to the restaurant. It's not far from here.”

Along the way, Gabriela enlightens us on her perspective of how special the meal was going to be. “Let's go to Fene Paza. Guillaume Waminya, the owner, opened this restaurant underneath (hay in local dialect drehu) from a hibiscus tree (peace).

In Lifou, the hibiscus flower (bouro) can only be eaten or sold for consumption in the territory of the Mucaweng tribe that we continued to explore.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, clothesline

Resident spreads clothes under the canopy of tall coconut trees on the coast of Lifou.

Here on the island, we believe that if we eat it from others "tribes” we can go deaf. As long as our boss doesn't authorize otherwise, I'll just eat at this restaurant.”

Hibiscus flowers are considered among the most therapeutic in the tropical universe, highly antioxidant, excellent for lowering bad cholesterol and blood pressure.

Even so, on the platter that, in the meantime, they brought us, the enormous scarlet stuffed lobsters that occupied the center of a complex traditional accompaniment caught our attention.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia,

Flowery vegetable bag, an example of the simple but exuberant craftsmanship of the Loyalty Islands.

More than a luxurious meal, they were serving us a dish as traditional and representative as possible. We enjoyed it with pleasure and the gastronomic and ethnic admiration it deserved.

The rain shows no signs of mercy. Also to save ourselves from her excessive liquidity, we stay at the table and chat with the increasingly less reserved Gabriela.

The Kanak guide had lived for two years and learned English in the Australian outskirts of Brisbane, where she didn't feel exactly comfortable: “at the school I attended, no one had any idea where New Caledonia was.

Everyone thought I was Fijian… I never got along very well with Australians. I had friends from Japan and from other parts of Asia.”

Gabriela was part of a women's association. This affiliation allowed him to travel frequently, attend international congresses and meetings of other groups, Tahiti and Bora Bora, also the Vanuatu, among other magical places in Oceania, Melanesia and Polynesia: “They know that the mahu (the so-called third sex of Polynesia; effeminate men) have a strong participation in my association and others.

They want to be recognized and supported but, after a long debate, their role still remains to be defined. I think they give us a bad name. But it's just my opinion…”

We take advantage of its packaging and the fact that the rain persists to probe it about the eccentric political status of New Caledonia, a Collectivité quite different from other COMs (Collectivites d'outre-Mer) how are the French Polynesia or Saint Martin-Sint Maarten, Caribbean island, thanks largely to the Kanak people's historic resistance to submitting themselves completely to the yoke of Paris.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Chefferie

Nativo carries a crate out of Mucaweng's chefferie.

Referendums to this same statute were repeated, with a choice between the associated state of France, great autonomy within the French Republic or independence.

The blurring of the future of her beloved archipelago made Gabriela and many other natives uneasy: “I think independence could happen but I am very afraid of what New Caledonia could become without France behind it.

People here are already used to everything being solved by France. I am afraid that we will lose the standard of living and the facilities we now have in a flash. Have you seen if we're back to being a kind of Vanuatu?” she questions us, indignant, unaware that she referred to one of the nations that we most admired and esteemed.

The tropical rain, dense and warm, not only persisted but intensified.

It drenched that meager land lost in the vastness of the Pacific and carried the green of the hibiscus trees and the surrounding coconut trees, beneath low clouds that had meanwhile changed from blue to a strange lilac.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, coconut trees

Coconut hedge on the seafront of Lifou.

That afternoon, we did little more than eat, talk at the table and enjoy the exuberance of the storm settling camps.

At around 17:20, with the unexpected sky dim wanting to welcome the night, we retired to the hotel on the seafront where we had previously checked in, next to the almost imperceptible capital of We, still the largest village in the three Loyaldade Islands .

By that time, the fatigue accumulated during the previous exploration of the mother island Grande Terre and Lifou's sister, Ouvéa, almost always under a relentless sun, took its toll.

We only met up with Lifou and Gabriela again the next morning.

We pass pristine beaches: Luengoni, Oulane and Baie de Mou. We dive and splash in its turquoise seas and thus complete the recovery of previously depleted energies.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Shades of Loyalty

The jagged, blue-green coastline of Lifou.

Then, we point to La Vanille Jouese, a farm that produces the most emblematic export in the place, vanilla, taken there from Madagascar by a British minister and, today, with around one hundred and twenty organically-produced producers.

In Mu, in the far southeast of the island, we are greeted by two of them.

Lues Rokuad and Louise explain to us the procedures and wonders of their plantation, full of feet curled up in poles and between them, that they formed a veritable fragrant jungle.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Lues Rokuad

Lues Rokuad in his organic vanilla plantation in the south of the island.

But there, in that verdant and improbable corner on the other side of the world, what amazes us is that we quickly detect our mother tongue. Donziela, the lady who employed him, had emigrated to France in the 70s.

From France, already married to a Gaul, she moved to Nouméa, the increasingly French-speaking capital of New Caledonia, where so many French people seek the dream of wealthy, light and sunny tropical lives.

She had been doing it for sixteen years.

As we had noticed, the lady continued to speak good Portuguese, even if she almost only practiced it with her parents when she was in the metropolis and, since she had had children, from time to time with them, so that her parents would not be lost. Portuguese origins.

From Mu, we travel to Tanukul.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, exercise

Lifou resident runs over an abrasive boulder.

A new lunch hour was approaching. As Gabriela had solemnly announced to us, we couldn't leave Lifou without tasting the local version of the great gastronomic specialty of New Caledonia: the boogna.

One of the best and most highly regarded was that of Madame Moline, a young Kanak lady who had moved from Noumea to Lifou to live permanently in the land of her parents and sister. Your plan was simple.

if so many Kanak and outsiders yearned for the boogna and she made them so well, and on top of that she could serve them in a traditional home setting planted by the sea and a natural turtle pool, why not make it your business and your family's life?

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Rocky Cape

Crystal clear water of the South Pacific around an eroded shore.

Moline welcomes us with a big smile on his childish face, shows us his small property placed on a lawn around some gites (housing) and installs us in the shade of a large straw sun hat, on a table with a plastic tablecloth full of fruit illustrations.

The preparation of boogna It had been going on for some time, which is why we had little to wait. After about fifteen minutes, Moline emerges with a large casing made of plaited palm leaves and decorated with orange and yellow carnations.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Bougna

The famous traditional New Caledonian stew, as made by Madame Moline.

He opens this bag, which seemed almost ceremonial to us, and then the banana leaves that served as an interior wrapping. Finally, he reveals to us the delicacy we were waiting for: an exuberant cassava stew, sweet potatoes, ripe bananas, yams and chicken, seasoned with herbs and spices.

He presents it and explains it with an obvious passion for the craft, but it doesn't take long to leave us to the noble meal.

Afterwards, we walked with Moline along the small waves that caressed Lifou. We had the idea of ​​photographing her and, unlike Gabriele and so many natives, the dolled lady immediately volunteered, with obvious pride: “Let me just put on my dress kanak.

I, on a day-to-day basis, usually walk around with only these shorts and t-shirt. The dress is no way for me to sit on the floor or to work the land. But I think I look much better with the robe popinee traditional."

He returned in three stages, with a twig formed by the carnations that used to decorate the casing of the boogna in hand.

Already composed, he climbed a rock at the end of the natural turtle pool and posed with the greatest naturalness and dignity in the world, with the blue sky, the Pacific Ocean, Cook pine trees and coconut trees in the background, sheltering its contagious beauty.

Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Mme Moline popinée

Moline in a popinée dress, next to the gite where she serves her prized bougnas.

We sent in some more invigorating dives. The sun did not take long to leave those remote but paradisiacal places.

That afternoon, we returned to Nouméa where we made another night stopover before traveling to Maré, the ultimate Loyalty.

Cilaos, Reunion Island

Refuge under the roof of the Indian Ocean

Cilaos appears in one of the old green boilers on the island of Réunion. It was initially inhabited by outlaw slaves who believed they were safe at that end of the world. Once made accessible, nor did the remote location of the crater prevent the shelter of a village that is now peculiar and flattered.
Tahiti, French Polynesia

Tahiti Beyond the Cliché

Neighbors Bora Bora and Maupiti have superior scenery but Tahiti has long been known as paradise and there is more life on the largest and most populous island of French Polynesia, its ancient cultural heart.
Grande Terre, New Caledonia

South Pacific Great Boulder

James Cook thus named distant New Caledonia because it reminded him of his father's Scotland, whereas the French settlers were less romantic. Endowed with one of the largest nickel reserves in the world, they named Le Caillou the mother island of the archipelago. Not even its mining prevents it from being one of the most dazzling patches of Earth in Oceania.
Maupiti, French Polynesia

A Society on the Margin

In the shadow of neighboring Bora Bora's near-global fame, Maupiti is remote, sparsely inhabited and even less developed. Its inhabitants feel abandoned but those who visit it are grateful for the abandonment.
Île-des-Pins, New Caledonia

The Island that Leaned against Paradise

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Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu

Divine Melanesia

Pedro Fernandes de Queirós thought he had discovered Terra Australis. The colony he proposed never materialized. Today, Espiritu Santo, the largest island in Vanuatu, is a kind of Eden.
Papeete, French Polynesia

The Third Sex of Tahiti

Heirs of Polynesian ancestral culture, the Mahu they preserve an unusual role in society. Lost somewhere between the two genders, these men-women continue to fight for the meaning of their lives.
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.
Moorea, French Polynesia

The Polynesian Sister Any Island Would Like to Have

A mere 17km from Tahiti, Moorea does not have a single city and is home to a tenth of its inhabitants. Tahitians have long watched the sun go down and transform the island next door into a misty silhouette, only to return to its exuberant colors and shapes hours later. For those who visit these remote parts of the Pacific, getting to know Moorea is a double privilege.
Bora-Bora, Raiatea, Huahine, French Polynesia

An Intriguing Trio of Societies

In the idyllic heart of the vast Pacific Ocean, the Society Archipelago, part of French Polynesia, beautifies the planet as an almost perfect creation of Nature. We explored it for a long time from Tahiti. The last few days we dedicate them to Bora Bora, Huahine and Raiatea.
Residents walk along the trail that runs through plantations above the UP4
City
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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

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safari
Serengeti NP, Tanzania

The Great Migration of the Endless Savanna

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Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
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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.
Music Theater and Exhibition Hall, Tbilisi, Georgia
Architecture & Design
Tbilisi, Georgia

Georgia still Perfumed by the Rose Revolution

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Volcanoes

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Ceremonies and Festivities
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Fia Fia – High Rotation Polynesian Folklore

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Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul, Travel Korea, Color Maneuvers
Cities
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A Glimpse of Medieval Korea

Gyeongbokgung Palace stands guarded by guardians in silken robes. Together they form a symbol of South Korean identity. Without waiting for it, we ended up finding ourselves in the imperial era of these Asian places.
Beverage Machines, Japan
Lunch time
Japan

The Beverage Machines Empire

There are more than 5 million ultra-tech light boxes spread across the country and many more exuberant cans and bottles of appealing drinks. The Japanese have long since stopped resisting them.
Tombola, street bingo-Campeche, Mexico
Culture
Campeche, Mexico

A Bingo so playful that you play with puppets

On Friday nights, a group of ladies occupy tables at Independencia Park and bet on trifles. The tiniest prizes come out to them in combinations of cats, hearts, comets, maracas and other icons.
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.
Traveling
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.
Aswan, Egypt, Nile River meets Black Africa, Elephantine Island
Ethnic
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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.
portfolio, Got2Globe, Travel photography, images, best photographs, travel photos, world, Earth
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Portfolio Got2globe

The Best in the World – Got2Globe Portfolio

Front of Fort Christian, Charlotte Amalie's main defensive structure.
History
Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands

From Denmark's Brewing Port to the Capital of the American Caribbean

The Danes founded Charlotte Amalie in 1666, and soon thereafter, beer halls abounded there. The town prospered until successive tragedies and the abolition of slavery condemned it to decline. In the early XNUMXth century, the United States acquired the Danish West Indies. Charlotte Amalie evolved into a busy cruise port.
Gran Canaria, island, Canary Islands, Spain, La Tejeda
Islands
Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Grand Canary Islands

It is only the third largest island in the archipelago. It so impressed European navigators and settlers that they got used to treating it as the supreme.
coast, fjord, Seydisfjordur, Iceland
Winter White
Seydisfjordur, Iceland

From the Art of Fishing to the Fishing of Art

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Literature
Upolu, Samoa

Stevenson's Treasure Island

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Teide Volcano, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Nature
Tenerife, Canary Islands

The Volcano that Haunts the Atlantic

At 3718m, El Teide is the roof of the Canaries and Spain. Not only. If measured from the ocean floor (7500 m), only two mountains are more pronounced. The Guanche natives considered it the home of Guayota, their devil. Anyone traveling to Tenerife knows that old Teide is everywhere.
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.
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Natural Parks
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.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
UNESCO World Heritage
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.
Characters
Look-alikes, Actors and Extras

Make-believe stars

They are the protagonists of events or are street entrepreneurs. They embody unavoidable characters, represent social classes or epochs. Even miles from Hollywood, without them, the world would be more dull.
Vietnamese queue
Beaches

Nha Trang-Doc Let, Vietnam

The Salt of the Vietnamese Land

In search of attractive coastlines in old Indochina, we become disillusioned with the roughness of Nha Trang's bathing area. And it is in the feminine and exotic work of the Hon Khoi salt flats that we find a more pleasant Vietnam.

Roman morione on tricycle, moriones festival, Marinduque, Philippines
Religion
Marinduque, Philippines

When the Romans Invade the Philippines

Even the Eastern Empire didn't get that far. In Holy Week, thousands of centurions seize Marinduque. There, the last days of Longinus, a legionary converted to Christianity, are re-enacted.
Chepe Express, Chihuahua Al Pacifico Railway
On Rails
Creel to Los Mochis, Mexico

The Barrancas del Cobre & the CHEPE Iron Horse

The Sierra Madre Occidental's relief turned the dream into a construction nightmare that lasted six decades. In 1961, at last, the prodigious Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad was opened. Its 643km cross some of the most dramatic scenery in Mexico.
A kind of portal
Society
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.
Busy intersection of Tokyo, Japan
Daily life
Tokyo, Japan

The Endless Night of the Rising Sun Capital

Say that Tokyo do not sleep is an understatement. In one of the largest and most sophisticated cities on the face of the Earth, twilight marks only the renewal of the frenetic daily life. And there are millions of souls that either find no place in the sun, or make more sense in the “dark” and obscure turns that follow.
Gandoca Manzanillo Refuge, Bahia
Wildlife
Gandoca-Manzanillo (Wildlife Refuge), Costa Rica

The Caribbean Hideaway of Gandoca-Manzanillo

At the bottom of its southeastern coast, on the outskirts of Panama, the “Tica” nation protects a patch of jungle, swamps and the Caribbean Sea. As well as a providential wildlife refuge, Gandoca-Manzanillo is a stunning tropical Eden.
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.