Barahona, Dominican Republic

The Bathing Dominican Republic of Barahona


The Caribbean Sea of ​​San Rafael
Very tropical view of San Rafael beach.
Walk under Coconut Trees
Resident walks along the seafront in the San Rafael area.
Fish and Seafood
Balneário San Rafael restaurant owners rest in the shade.
Tostones Wealth
Cooks have just prepared tostones in one of the various restaurants in the San Rafael resort.
Faith in Wifi
Customer helps himself to a Dominican Presidential beer, in a bar in San Rafael.
river baths
Bathers refresh themselves in the water of San Rafael's terraced river.
Presidential Conversation
Friends share a great Presidential beer at the counter of a bar in the San Rafael resort.
Leap to the Known
Bathers indulge in acrobatics and conversations at the Los Patos spa.
Caribbean coconut grove
Small coconut forest right on the edge of the Caribbean Sea.
The Balneario Los Patos
The resort of Los Patos is full of bathers from this part of the province of Barahona.
Trio Los Patos
Three young bathers pose for photography in the emerald water of the Los Patos resort.
La Cueva de Los Indios
Vases of swans adorn a wall indicative of La Cueva de los Índios in Los Patos.
little bath
A delicious late-afternoon bath in the fresh water of the Los Patos spa.
grill smoke
A restaurant maid controls the grilling in a smoky and improvised kitchen.
Los Patos Colors
Passengers in excess of a motorbike speeding in front of the introductory sign for Los Patos.
Los Patos ducks
A child gives bread to the ducks that always swim in Los Patos.
wet bike boy
Smiling young bather prepares to leave Los Patos bathhouse still wet.
Rolls Time
Residents of the province of Barahona in full hairdressing session.
An almost buffet
A row of Dominican snack stands serves the bathers of the San Rafael resort.
very grated coconut
A cook grates coconuts next to one of the restaurants in the San Rafael resort.
Saturday after Saturday, the southwest corner of the Dominican Republic goes into decompression mode. Little by little, its seductive beaches and lagoons welcome a tide of euphoric people who indulge in a peculiar rumbear amphibian.

That was what circumstances had led to. In particular, the Dominican Republic's internal rivalry regarding the promotion of tourism in its regions.

In the days when we were already discovering the eastern half of old Hispaniola, we passed by Puerto Plata, a northern city, pioneer of Dominican tourism and which bore the nickname of “New from the Atlantic".

For, in this of novels and of seas and oceans, the Dominicans, like their neighbors Puerto Ricans, it has to be said, do not play around in service. If the Atlantic already belonged to Puerto Plata, the region of Barahona took over the Caribbean.

Barahona called himself "La Novia of the Caribbean”. With obvious legitimacy.

The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, home hairdresser

Residents of the province of Barahona in full hairdressing session.

While northern Puerto Plata faced the bottom of the Lesser Antilles stepping stone and the Atlantic, Barahona appears in the middle of a sort of almost triangular peninsula that goes into the Caribbean Sea.

And that the island of Alto Velo is the southernmost tip of the nation.

In addition to being Caribbean, the lands we were then opening up revealed to be a delicious Dominican Republic on the sidelines. For days and hundreds of kilometers, we didn't see a single resort or private beach.

Our exploration base was Casa Bonita, a family ecolodge nestled on the banks of the Cacao River.

And at the foot of the Sierra de Bahoruco, a lush mountain range part of the Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that surrounded us.

On these days, sunrise after sunrise, we leave the lodge to Carretera 44 Barahona-Paraíso.

The Dominican Republic Bathing in Barahona, sunrise among coconut trees

Evening says goodbye to the province of Barahona and the Caribbean Sea.

This was the main road of the province, humble, but the successive curves and slopes, subject to the capricious relief of the mountains and the seashore, made adventurous, panoramic.

Stunning to match.

For the Caribbean Barahona Fora, in the Direction of Haiti

On these days, Señor Carlos, driver of the lodge, native of the region, the driver and guide at our disposal, takes us.

Good-natured, patient, conversational, Carlos knew the corners of the house like few others. He understood at a glance the type of scenarios and scenes we wanted to dedicate ourselves to.

The symbiosis that we formed with him and his role as a guide greatly contributed to the productive ease in which we quickly found ourselves.

Dawn after dawn, we descended the dirt ramp from the top that Casa Bonita occupied. As we passed the lodge's small den, an almost resident flock of ducks cawed as we passed. Carlos said goodbye to the guard and the birds. The ducks croaked back.

“They are always around here. They are already part of the life of those who are on duty there. As part of mine. And look, they've become more attached to us than many people!"

The ramp enters the road. To our right is a grassy baseball field. The field extends to the banks of the Cacau River, which we have crossed in the meantime and then crossed the people brothers of Baoruco Arriba and Baoruco Abajo.

We continued west, passing by Fudeco, Haiti, Bella Vista and La Ciénaga.

The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, San Rafael coconut grove

Small coconut forest right on the edge of the Caribbean Sea.

After this urbanized section, we wind our way through the forested bottom of the mountain, sometimes hidden in tropical vegetation, sometimes in communion with the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea.

We crossed another bridge, this one, in a campaign style, the one at La Cienaga-San Rafael.

We continue above a coast that an unexpected headland makes more abrupt. On the other side of this cape, we discover a smooth and translucent bay.

Little by little, we return to the imminence of the sea, separated from the green of the mountain by a thin line of coral sand.

The Bathing Dominican Republic of Barahona

Very tropical view of San Rafael beach.

In the meantime, counting the time of the journey and the time of several stops, we had entered the morning in earnest.

At first, almost deserted, the road started to admit more and more cars and carripans, pick ups and even some buses. Unexpected traffic intrigues us. “Calm down, go see where everyone is going! We're almost there,” Carlos assures us.

After another few hundred meters, we are forced to stop.

The Popular Fluvial Refuge of Balneario San Rafael

The road had narrowed. Indifferent, several pick ups improvised parking lots. A mini-bus rehearsed an irreverent U-turn.

Carlos knew that chaos well. “My friends, this is only going to get worse. If we cannot beat them, we join them. Let's do one thing: you leave right here and continue forward. I'll park as close as I can.”

We were at the entrance to the San Rafael spa. The place is considered special. It is revered at the same time by a crowd that worships the beach, the sun, the thermal waters and, in case such excuses do not serve, the famous Dominican rumba.

Over time, the San Rafael spa and its semi-aquatic binges became popular.

So famous that busloads of people from the capital Santo Domingo began to flow there, eager to clear their minds from the stresses of the week's work.

Without compromises or rival plans, we join the bandwagon.

The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, tables in San Rafael

Convivas share plastic tables in the San Rafael spa.

Just below the road, the most anxious part of us colonized the rounded and thick sand, almost rocky, of the beach. Certain guests drank beers.

Others had sunk into the water. They savored the soft, warm swell of the Caribbean Sea.

Ahead, the newly disembarked platoon of vehicles had already spread across a completely different scene.

A Pleasurable Life on the Terraces of the San Rafael River

Right there, one of the several rivers that descended from the mountain range, the São Rafael, drained. In its last meters, it flowed in a cascade mode.

Through a long sequence of terraces, each one, its pool of fresh and crystal clear water.

Dozens of bars and restaurants and a series of complementary stalls and stalls have adjusted to it.

These prolific businesses serve everything from drinks to the most popular Dominican snacks.

The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, grilled

A restaurant maid controls the grilling in a smoky and improvised kitchen.

As we wander through the terraces along the river, we taste and experience a little of everything, from the perspective of bathers customers and from the perspective of merchant families engaged in a myriad of culinary tasks.

At the entrance, a lady grates coconuts after coconuts, scraping them on a large, aged metal grater.

The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, grated coconut

A cook grates coconuts next to one of the restaurants in the San Rafael resort.

Soon, we invaded a kitchen adapted to four rough walls, covered with a bamboo roof darkened by greasy smoke.

The hustle and bustle we encountered there only speeds up the process.

Beer, Rum and Countless Dominican Snacks

two young women fry croutons (banana slices).

They are passed on to platters, like sides of the fried fish they are about to serve.

The Dominican Republic Bathing in Barahona, tostones

Cooks have just prepared tostones in one of the various restaurants in the San Rafael resort.

We moved to another walled establishment.

This one, for a change, is occupied only by men, who are busy cutting slices of lime and shaping the fish to which citrus fruits are supposed to lend flavor.

Aside from the restaurants, there is another advanced line of gastronomy, equipped with empanadas, quipos and an array of pastry more or less salty and spicy.

The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, snack stands

A row of Dominican snack stands serves the bathers of the San Rafael resort.

The rumba and, above all, the reggaeton that sounds great entertain diners scattered along the river.

And on tables covered by hut hats, unnecessary, given the shade provided by the leafy trees above.

Between dives, splashes and other acrobatics, amidst frantic jokes and endless jokes, the happy Dominican customers flock, stock up and feed the unstoppable festive dynamics of the weekend.

The Dominican Republic Bathing in Barahona, river bathers

Bathers refresh themselves in the water of San Rafael's terraced river.

A Fascinating Photographic Incursion

We wander and observe. We mess with Dominicans, no matter how hard we try, like the foreign body to the party we are.

One after another, groups of guests notice the cameras, challenge us to make art of them.

We pass two friends who share a beer Presidential the big ones, leaning against a bar that made out of a window frame as a counter.

The Dominican Republic Bathing in Barahona, beer

Friends share a great Presidential beer at the counter of a bar in the San Rafael resort.

The security and the smiles of both attract us. And the eccentricity of the beach lace they used, in an almost absolute transparency, over their gaudy bikinis dazzles us.

Alexandra and Carina recruit them. They assume sexy calendar poses that make the bar owner laugh out loud.

Shot after shot, tip after tip, we contribute to its promotion among the growing crowd of spectators.

Simultaneously, we produce peculiar memories of that unique place in Barahona.

The Dominican Republic Bathing in Barahona, faith in Wifi

Customer helps himself to a Dominican Presidential beer, in a bar in San Rafael.

Without our being aware of it, we had been at Balneario San Rafael for hours.

From San Rafael Spa, in Search of Other Spas

We remember the itinerary that Mr. Carlos had shown us. We feel the urgency to get back to it.

From San Rafael, we recover the course of the west, of the fascinating Oviedo Lagoon and neighboring Haiti.

The Dominican Republic Bathing in Barahona, tropical tour

Resident walks along the seafront in the San Rafael area.

Back on the road, we stopped next to huge multicolored letters that announced and classified the nearest city and coastal view of jungle and beach below: “PARAISO”.

Others, similar, would follow.

The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, Soggy Biker

Smiling young bather prepares to leave Los Patos bathhouse still wet.

As we saw it, the province of Barahona was, in fact, an Eden of Dominican happiness and genuineness. We decided to go through it until exhaustion.

Carlos takes us to another stop that assured us of merit.

The Dominican Republic Bathing in Barahona, Los Patos colores

Passengers in excess of a motorbike speeding in front of the introductory sign for Los Patos.

Los Patos: Prodigious spa and one of the Shortest Rivers in the World

We bumped into Los Patos, town and a spa that competes with San Rafael, although more contained, similar to the homonymous river.

The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, ducks from Los Patos

A child gives bread to the ducks that always swim in Los Patos.

At just 61 meters, Los Patos is the shortest in the Dominican Republic. And one of the smallest in the world.

When we got to the bridge over the river and started shooting, we unleashed a whole display of acrobatic jumps into the translucent lagoon.

The Dominican Republic Bathing in Barahona, diving

Bathers indulge in acrobatics and conversations at the Los Patos spa.

As we shoot, teens are motivated to move past their previous dives. They make us more elaborate and riskier.

They douse the scattered groups of bathers in the emerald green below, some standing, others floating on airlocks, buoys and gaudy inflatable mattresses.

The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, Balneario Los Patos

The resort of Los Patos is full of bathers from this part of the province of Barahona.

Instead of irritating them, the exhibitionist acrobatics of the young people awaken their eyes to the interest we show in Los Patos, in its spa, in its people.

Sometimes, like a music festival, to the rhythm of the Reggaeton, bathers wave their hands to one side and the other.

Thus, they make up an incredible photographic and choreographic tribute to the authentic Dominican Republic and the Caribbean that few visitors have the privilege of knowing.

The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, silhouette trio

Three friends enjoy the last rays of sunlight at the Los Patos resort.

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Home Silver

Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
Samaná PeninsulaLos Haitises National Park Dominican Republic

From the Samaná Peninsula to the Dominican Haitises

In the northeast corner of the Dominican Republic, where Caribbean nature still triumphs, we face an Atlantic much more vigorous than expected in these parts. There we ride on a communal basis to the famous Limón waterfall, cross the bay of Samaná and penetrate the remote and exuberant “land of the mountains” that encloses it.
Oviedo Lagoon, Dominican Republic

The Dead Sea (nothing) of the Dominican Republic

The hypersalinity of the Laguna de Oviedo fluctuates depending on evaporation and water supplied by rain and the flow coming from the neighboring mountain range of Bahoruco. The natives of the region estimate that, as a rule, it has three times the level of sea salt. There, we discover prolific colonies of flamingos and iguanas, among many other species that make up one of the most exuberant ecosystems on the island of Hispaniola.
Margarita Island ao Mochima NP, Venezuela

Margarita Island to Mochima National Park: a very Caribbean Caribe

The exploration of the Venezuelan coast justifies a wild nautical party. But, these stops also reveal life in cactus forests and waters as green as the tropical jungle of Mochima.
Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Virgin Gorda's Divine "Caribbeans"

Discovering the Virgin Islands, we disembark on a tropical and seductive seaside dotted with huge granite boulders. The Baths seem straight out of the Seychelles but they are one of the most exuberant marine scenery in the Caribbean.
Soufriere, Saint Lucia

The Great Pyramids of the Antilles

Perched above a lush coastline, the twin peaks Pitons are the hallmark of Saint Lucia. They have become so iconic that they have a place in the highest notes of East Caribbean Dollars. Right next door, residents of the former capital Soufrière know how precious their sight is.
Saba, The Netherlands

The Mysterious Dutch Queen of Saba

With a mere 13km2, Saba goes unnoticed even by the most traveled. Little by little, above and below its countless slopes, we unveil this luxuriant Little Antille, tropical border, mountainous and volcanic roof of the shallowest european nation.
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.
Florida Keys, USA

The Caribbean Stepping Stone of the USA

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.
Guadalupe, French Antilles

Guadeloupe: A Delicious Caribbean, in Counter-Butterfly Effect

Guadeloupe is shaped like a moth. A trip around this Antille is enough to understand why the population is governed by the motto Pas Ni Problem and raises the minimum of waves, despite the many setbacks.
Martinique, French Antilles

The Armpit Baguette Caribbean

We move around Martinique as freely as the Euro and the tricolor flags fly supreme. But this piece of France is volcanic and lush. Lies in the insular heart of the Americas and has a delicious taste of Africa.
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

The Desired City

Many treasures passed through Cartagena before being handed over to the Spanish Crown - more so than the pirates who tried to plunder them. Today, the walls protect a majestic city always ready to "rumbear".
Lagoa Oviedo a Bahia de las Águilas, Dominican Republic

In Search of the Immaculate Dominican Beach

Against all odds, one of the most unspoiled Dominican coastlines is also one of the most remote. Discovering the province of Pedernales, we are dazzled by the semi-desert Jaragua National Park and the Caribbean purity of Bahia de las Águilas.
Lake Enriquillo, Dominican Republic

Enriquillo: the Great Lake of the Antilles

Between 300 and 400 km2, situated 44 meters below sea level, Enriquillo is the supreme lake of the Antilles. Regardless of its hypersalinity and the stifling, atrocious temperatures, it's still increasing. Scientists have a hard time explaining why.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

The Longest Colonial Elder in the Americas

Santo Domingo is the longest-inhabited colony in the New World. Founded in 1498 by Bartholomew Colombo, the capital of the Dominican Republic preserves intact a true treasure of historical resilience.
Saona Island, Dominican Republic

A Savona in the Antilles

During his second voyage to the Americas, Columbus landed on an enchanting exotic island. He named it Savona, in honor of Michele da Cuneo, a Savoyard sailor who saw it as an outstanding feature of the greater Hispaniola. Today called Saona, this island is one of the beloved tropical edens of the Dominican Republic.

Montana Redonda and Rancho Salto Yanigua, Dominican Republic

From Montaña Redonda to Rancho Salto Yanigua

Discovering the Dominican northwest, we ascend to the Montaña Redonda de Miches, recently transformed into an unusual peak of escape. From the top, we point to Bahia de Samaná and Los Haitises, passing through the picturesque Salto Yanigua ranch.
Residents walk along the trail that runs through plantations above the UP4
City
Gurué, Mozambique, Part 1

Through the Mozambican Lands of Tea

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

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
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.
Thorong La, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal, photo for posterity
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 13th - High camp a Thorong La to Muktinath, Nepal

At the height of the Annapurnas Circuit

At 5416m of altitude, the Thorong La Gorge is the great challenge and the main cause of anxiety on the itinerary. After having killed 2014 climbers in October 29, crossing it safely generates a relief worthy of double celebration.
Treasures, Las Vegas, Nevada, City of Sin and Forgiveness
Architecture & Design
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.
The small lighthouse at Kallur, highlighted in the capricious northern relief of the island of Kalsoy.
Aventura
Kalsoy, Faroe Islands

A Lighthouse at the End of the Faroese World

Kalsoy is one of the most isolated islands in the Faroe archipelago. Also known as “the flute” due to its long shape and the many tunnels that serve it, a mere 75 inhabitants inhabit it. Much less than the outsiders who visit it every year, attracted by the boreal wonder of its Kallur lighthouse.
Roman morione on tricycle, moriones festival, Marinduque, Philippines
Ceremonies and Festivities
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.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Cities
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.
Lunch time
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.
Tombola, street bingo-Campeche, Mexico
Culture
Campeche, Mexico

200 Years of Playing with Luck

At the end of the XNUMXth century, the peasants surrendered to a game introduced to cool the fever of cash cards. Today, played almost only for Abuelites, lottery little more than a fun place.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Sport
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.
Cove, Big Sur, California, United States
Traveling
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.
Ethnic
Gizo, Solomon Islands

A Saeraghi Young Singers Gala

In Gizo, the damage caused by the tsunami that hit the Solomon Islands is still very visible. On the coast of Saeraghi, children's bathing happiness contrasts with their heritage of desolation.
Rainbow in the Grand Canyon, an example of prodigious photographic light
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Natural Light (Part 1)

And Light was made on Earth. Know how to use it.

The theme of light in photography is inexhaustible. In this article, we give you some basic notions about your behavior, to start with, just and only in terms of geolocation, the time of day and the time of year.
improvised bank
History
Ibo Island, Mozambique

Island of a Gone Mozambique

It was fortified in 1791 by the Portuguese who expelled the Arabs from the Quirimbas and seized their trade routes. It became the 2nd Portuguese outpost on the east coast of Africa and later the capital of the province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. With the end of the slave trade at the turn of the XNUMXth century and the passage from the capital to Porto Amélia, Ibo Island found itself in the fascinating backwater in which it is located.
Christiansted, Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands, Steeple Building
Islands
Christiansted, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands

In the Deep of the Afro-Danish-American Antilles

In 1733, Denmark bought the island of Saint Croix from France, annexed it to its West Indies where, based at Christiansted, it profited from the labor of slaves brought from the Gold Coast. The abolition of slavery made colonies unviable. And a historic-tropical bargain that the United States preserves.
Oulu Finland, Passage of Time
Winter White
Oulu, Finland

Oulu: an Ode to Winter

Located high in the northeast of the Gulf of Bothnia, Oulu is one of Finland's oldest cities and its northern capital. A mere 220km from the Arctic Circle, even in the coldest months it offers a prodigious outdoor life.
Couple visiting Mikhaylovskoe, village where writer Alexander Pushkin had a home
Literature
Saint Petersburg e Mikhaylovkoe, Russia

The Writer Who Succumbed to His Own Plot

Alexander Pushkin is hailed by many as the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. But Pushkin also dictated an almost tragicomic epilogue to his prolific life.
M:S Viking Tor Ferry-Wrapped Passenger, Aurlandfjord, Norway
Nature
Flam a Balestrand, Norway

Where the Mountains Give In to the Fjords

The final station of the Flam Railway marks the end of the dizzying railway descent from the highlands of Hallingskarvet to the plains of Flam. In this town too small for its fame, we leave the train and sail down the Aurland fjord towards the prodigious Balestrand.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
ala juumajarvi lake, oulanka national park, finland
Natural Parks
Kuusamo ao PN Oulanka, Finland

Under the Arctic's Icy Spell

We are at 66º North and at the gates of Lapland. In these parts, the white landscape belongs to everyone and to no one like the snow-covered trees, the atrocious cold and the endless night.
Kukenam reward
UNESCO World Heritage
Mount Roraima, Venezuela

Time Travel to the Lost World of Mount Roraima

At the top of Mount Roraima, there are extraterrestrial scenarios that have resisted millions of years of erosion. Conan Doyle created, in "The Lost World", a fiction inspired by the place but never got to step on it.
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.
La Digue, Seychelles, Anse d'Argent
Beaches
La Digue, Seychelles

Monumental Tropical Granite

Beaches hidden by lush jungle, made of coral sand washed by a turquoise-emerald sea are anything but rare in the Indian Ocean. La Digue recreated itself. Around its coastline, massive boulders sprout that erosion has carved as an eccentric and solid tribute of time to the Nature.
Braga or Braka or Brakra in Nepal
Religion
Annapurna Circuit: 6th – Braga, Nepal

The Ancient Nepal of Braga

Four days of walking later, we slept at 3.519 meters from Braga (Braka). Upon arrival, only the name is familiar to us. Faced with the mystical charm of the town, arranged around one of the oldest and most revered Buddhist monasteries on the Annapurna circuit, we continued our journey there. acclimatization with ascent to Ice Lake (4620m).
Serra do Mar train, Paraná, airy view
On Rails
Curitiba a Morretes, Paraná, Brazil

Down Paraná, on Board the Train Serra do Mar

For more than two centuries, only a winding and narrow road connected Curitiba to the coast. Until, in 1885, a French company opened a 110 km railway. We walked along it to Morretes, the final station for passengers today. 40km from the original coastal terminus of Paranaguá.
U Bein Bridge, Amarapura, Myanmar
Society
u-bein BridgeMyanmar

The Twilight of the Bridge of Life

At 1.2 km, the oldest and longest wooden bridge in the world allows the Burmese of Amarapura to experience Lake Taungthaman. But 160 years after its construction, U Bein is in its twilight.
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.
Etosha National Park Namibia, rain
Wildlife
PN Etosha, Namíbia

The Lush Life of White Namibia

A vast salt flat rips through the north of Namibia. The Etosha National Park that surrounds it proves to be an arid but providential habitat for countless African wild species.
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.