Mérida, Mexico

The Most Exuberant of Meridas


Pastimes
Chariot drivers entertain themselves while waiting for passengers.
Mayas
Mayan vendors loaded with handicrafts they try to sell to tourists they meet in Merida.
Agent Mian
Guard on duty in the historic building of the Merida cabildo.
Yucateca Vaqueria
Dance moment of a traditional show held on weekends in Mérida.
The Noche of Mérida
Trânsito skirts the central square of Mérida as the night strengthens over the Yucatan Peninsula.
Merida of All Colors
Bright colonial building against the blue sky of northern Yucatan.
A Blessed Life
Inhabitants of Mérida in front of the city's imposing cathedral.
Cathedral on Laurels
The Cathedral of Mérida overlooking the "forest" of laurels in the central square of Mérida.
good tone colleagues
Musicians rest in the central square of Mérida before entering service.
Mariachi painting
Shop owner repaints mariachi doll at entrance.
Mobile ice cream shop
Merida resident, next to the ice cream cart that supplies passersby in Plaza de Independencia.
Life under the Arcades
Merida residents walk in the shadow of the many arcades around Plaza de la Independencia.
Merida, colonial city
Limited traffic on one of the streets along the threshold of Plaza de la Independencia.
Framed Cathedral
The Cathedral of Mérida, seen from a cabildo balcony, overlooking the "forest" of laurel trees in the central square of Mérida.
The Garrida Life of Merida
Police and cyclist next to one of the exuberant walls of the city of Mérida.
History of Merida Below
Citizen of Mérida walks down the steps of a colonial building.
Near Night of Merida
Trânsito gives even more color to a street with colonial architecture from Merida.
Motherland Monument II
Indigenous Front of the Mexican Motherland Monument.
Motherland Monument
Taxi skirts one of the most emblematic monuments in Mérida, the Mexican Patria.
walk through history
Passersby pass by under old Mérida windows.
In 25 BC, the Romans founded Emerita Augusta, capital of Lusitania. The Spanish expansion generated three other Méridas in the world. Of the four, the Yucatan capital is the most colorful and lively, resplendent with Hispanic colonial heritage and multi-ethnic life.

Coming from the Caribbean Sea, the cold front that had visited that strange Mexican bulge was beginning to give way.

The owner of a souvenirs shop located in the Plaza Grande knew well that, when the sun began to peek through patches of azure blue, it would soon claim its tropical domain.

In agreement, not satisfied with some signs of premature aging of the mariachi doll at the door of his business, he armed himself with small paint cans and brushes and retouched it back to perfection.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, mariachi painting

Store owner renews the painting of the mariachi doll at the entrance.

Generated and rooted in the Midwest of the country, the tradition of the mariachi doll has little or nothing to do with Mérida or the isolated Yucatan Peninsula in general, apart from, in official terms, we are also in Mexico.

Cancun and the Riviera Maya it is a mere four hours by road.

Most of the gringos who land at their airports and on the lounge chairs of countless resorts do not know enough about Mexico to detect the incongruity.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, musicians

Musicians rest in the central square of Mérida before entering service.

Few people leave the plastic bathing refinement of Yucatecan Caribbean hotels and resorts determined to reach as far as Merida.

As a rule, the limit of their exploration of the interior of the Yucatan lies in the famous archaeological complex of Chichén Itzá, former political and economic center of the Mayan civilization, one of the various indigenous ethnic groups that make up the Mexican nation.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, Motherland Monument

Taxi skirts one of the most emblematic monuments in Mérida, the Mexican Patria.

Like Chichén Itzá, the place where Mérida sprawls today was already an important Mayan city centuries before the arrival of the Spanish conqueror Francisco de Montejo y León (El Mozo) and his men.

The Overlap of the Spanish Conquistadors on the Indigenous People

It was in 1542 that they conquered T'Hó, a village full of pyramids from which the settlers removed the stones carefully carved by the natives and built their own buildings with them.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, Motherland Monument

Indigenous Front of the Mexican Motherland Monument.

Some historians consider Mexican Mérida to be the city in the Americas that has been occupied the longest continuously, for many more years than the namesake town in neighboring Venezuela, and there are many more than the Philippines.

Concerned about the frequent revolts of the Mayan Indians, peninsular and mestizo residents kept the walled Mérida of the Yucatan peninsula.

Limestone walls, defenders, and epidemics of smallpox and others brought in from the Old World annihilated the natives' pretensions of reconquest.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, Cabildo and traffic

Trânsito skirts the central square of Mérida as the night strengthens over the Yucatan Peninsula.

Many of the colonial buildings erected until the XNUMXth century remain intact in the historic centre, around the leafy and rectangular park of Plaza Grande.

In rush hour, too infernal for the charm of this cientros deserved it, a traffic full of noisy old Volkswagen Beetles, skirts it.

At the peak of the heat, only a few vehicles travel through it.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, colonial architecture

Limited traffic on one of the streets along the threshold of Plaza de la Independencia.

The Mayan Presence and Life in the Colonial City of Merida

"Lords, by chance hammocks? “asks a Mayan woman, of very short stature – like almost all of them – who wears a white dress with embroidered borders, in the shade of a centuries-old tree and in the company of some mestizo residents.

We scanned its multicolored pile of tangled hammocks. The product does not seduce us. The seller bets on delaying the sale: "Maybe later?"

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, Cabildo, Mayan sellers

Mayan vendors loaded with handicrafts they try to sell to tourists they meet in Merida.

Like its Spanish counterparts, Venezuelan and Filipino, this Mérida has a strong Hispanic origins, but after the historic clashes, no other large Mexican city today hosts so many Mayan inhabitants as the capital of the state of Yucatan (about 60% of its population).

It is clear that, as a result of the long supremacy of the colonists, the businesses established in the main buildings of the city are handed over to the criollos (inhabitants already born in Mexico but with Hispanic descent).

Most of the Mayan women are left with a few stalls in the huge local market or patrol the tourist spots of the city with an eye on the authorities who do not always forgive them the fines owed for the illegality of street sales.

The Monumental Town Hall of Mérida and the Unobscured View from its Balconies

These and other laws emanate from the council, installed in another elegant secular building supported by vaulted arcades and from which a supreme clock tower projects.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, arcade

Merida residents walk in the shadow of the many arcades around Plaza de la Independencia.

We step out of the shade of the garden, cross a yellow walkway and climb an interior staircase that reveals several rooms with sumptuous antique decorations.

No one questions our incursion, which is why we only stopped on the parapet of the building's long balcony.

From there, we enjoyed the Plaza de la Independencia (official name of Plaza Grande).

We see it above the roof formed by the crowns of large laurel trees, pierced by the Mexican flag at its centre, by the pediment and towers of the Cathedral and the tops of other buildings almost as lofty.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, Cathedral

The Cathedral of Mérida overlooking the “forest” of laurels in the central square of Mérida.

As we do so, a troupe in artistic robes crosses the same walkway we had crossed and climbs up to the cabildo.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, Walk through History

Passersby pass by under old Mérida windows.

The Meridian Pride of Police Officer J. Mian

Before returning to the earthly reality of the city, police officer J. Mian appears from inside the building with the mission of controlling the legitimacy of the unexpected gathering.

Talk, talk, we ended up including him in our own photo shoot.

The cameras not only don't intimidate or worry him – something rare when it comes to an arm of the law – they also make him visibly proud, posing with his arms behind his back and his features set.

“To see, to see….” he begs us to be able to peek at the small monitor with the avidity of a narcissus in uniform and beside himself. ”Very goodbye, goodbye, i'm the agent Mian. "

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, agent Mian

Guard on duty in the historic building of the Merida cabildo.

Merida's Commercial Bustle and a Providential Gastronomic Center

At a certain point, the sun was at its peak, the heat and humidity intensified and aggravated the resident pollution in the streets clogged by sellers of everything.

We went through a succession of shoe stores and clothing stores, legacies far from the economic bonanza of the 80s and 90s, when countless maquiladoras (textile factories) in the area produced and sold, with huge profits, a panoply of garments.

We walk around several stores full of Chinese trinkets and the façade of Lucas de Galvez Municipal Market.

Afterwards, we went up a staircase and, at the back, we came across an intermediate terrace occupied by the unavoidable eaters (small restaurants) that almost always complement the markets. That's what we were looking for.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, staircase

Citizen of Mérida walks down the steps of a colonial building.

In a flash, nine or ten small restaurant owners started a frantic scramble for our attention and Mexican pesos, and forced us to pick the eight or nine we would reject. We didn't have the patience or even the energy to compare menus.

On one of the walls, a panel with a pyramid and other Mayan motifs painted in time-stained kitsch advertised Carmita La Mesticita's business!

That's where we sit, instigated by the softness of the owner's appeal: “Welcome seños. What can they serve?” and savor an invigorating traditional mestizo lunch, while we wait for the heat to kick in.

A taxi driver who makes conversation with us is interested in food and health. He testifies without any fear that traditional Yucatecan meals are halfway to a long life: “as long as you don't eat the crap that the gringos brought here, you have everything to live long and well.

My father is already 90 years old. My mother is 80. And two of my grandparents are alive at over 100.”

You will be quite right.

The Great Cathedral of Mérida and the Mestizo Life of Mérida around

At dusk, we walked towards Praça de Santa Lucia, a stage for musical and dance shows that we didn't want to miss.

On the way, we took a closer look at the Cathedral of Mérida.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, Cathedral

Inhabitants of Mérida in front of the city's imposing cathedral.

To the right of its south door, there is a painting by Tutul Xiú, a Mayan chief allied with Francisco de Montejo. Together, Montejo and Xiú defeated the Cocomes Maya.

Then Xiú converted to Christianity.

His descendants still live in Merida.

On the opposite side of the street, we see another scene worthy of the times of the lords and their vassals, albeit set in our days.

The owner of a small fleet of calluses tourist talks on a cell phone lying on the bench of one of them.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, calesa

Chariot drivers entertain themselves while waiting for passengers.

Five drivers and assistants, all alike under cowboy hats, make him an obvious subordinate company sitting in the rest of the seats and around.

They wait for instructions or for passengers who are late in arriving and smile with delight when we are obsessed with the picturesque scene.

Vaqueria Yucateca

We continue to move away from Plaza Grande towards Santa Lucia, among more and more facades of large stately homes adapted to museums, state or private institutions or elegant businesses.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, colonial building

Bright colonial building against the blue sky of northern Yucatan.

When we arrived, we noticed the laxity of Mexican punctuality.

We see no sign of the show that was supposed to be about to start. A street vendor even installs a snack stand.

Two young brothers hand us handcraft bracelets and spoons. Shortly after, the technicians in charge of tuning the sound and the first fans of the dairy farm Yucateca – that's what the regular exhibition is called – determined to get a front row seat.

After an hour, the audience is composed.

An octogenarian presenter but in great shape appears in typical costume, in a guayabera, white Yucatecan pants and espadrilles.

Inaugurates the show and a series of jokes between each performance that, popularuchas and truly sexist, provoke hysterical laughter among the female audience. "The women are like the yerbabuena. Arriba tienen la yerba and lower la cosa good”…

The Argentine artists with whom we had met in the cabildo and in the streets of the city stand out with great prominence. In between, there is poetry declamation.

Before the closing, there are events that the spectators are more than fed up with watching but that they still prefer.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, Cabildo, Vaqueria yucateca

Dance moment of a traditional show held on weekends in Mérida.

We get to know the fast-paced and diversified regional folklore of the state of Yucatan, which has come to be called dairy farm yucateca.

Fashion that originated in the popular parties that the great cattle raisers of those parts of the Americas organized, especially before the ironworks of the animals.

A task that involved an enormous effort. He deserved a worthy reward.

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.
Izamal, Mexico

The Holy, Yellow and Beautiful Mexican City

Until the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, Izamal was a center of worship for the supreme Mayan god Itzamná and Kinich Kakmó, the one of the sun. Gradually, the invaders razed the various pyramids of the natives. In its place, they built a large Franciscan convent and a prolific colonial houses, with the same solar tone in which the now Catholic city shines.
Yucatan, Mexico

The Sidereal Murphy's Law That Doomed the Dinosaurs

Scientists studying the crater caused by a meteorite impact 66 million years ago have come to a sweeping conclusion: it happened exactly over a section of the 13% of the Earth's surface susceptible to such devastation. It is a threshold zone on the Mexican Yucatan peninsula that a whim of the evolution of species allowed us to visit.
Mérida, Venezuela

Merida to Los Nevados: in the Andean Ends of Venezuela

In the 40s and 50s, Venezuela attracted 400 Portuguese but only half stayed in Caracas. In Mérida, we find places more similar to the origins and the eccentric ice cream parlor of an immigrant portista.
Mérida, Venezuela

The Vertiginous Renovation of the World's Highest Cable Car

Underway from 2010, the rebuilding of the Mérida cable car was carried out in the Sierra Nevada by intrepid workers who suffered firsthand the magnitude of the work.
Pueblos del Sur, Venezuela

The Pueblos del Sur Locainas, Their Dances and Co.

From the beginning of the XNUMXth century, with Hispanic settlers and, more recently, with Portuguese emigrants, customs and traditions well known in the Iberian Peninsula and, in particular, in northern Portugal, were consolidated in the Pueblos del Sur.
San Cristóbal de las Casas a Campeche, Mexico

A Relay of Faith

The Catholic equivalent of Our Lady of Fátima, Our Lady of Guadalupe moves and moves Mexico. Its faithful cross the country's roads, determined to bring the proof of their faith to the patroness of the Americas.
Campeche, Mexico

Campeche Upon Can Pech

As was the case throughout Mexico, the conquerors arrived, saw and won. Can Pech, the Mayan village, had almost 40 inhabitants, palaces, pyramids and an exuberant urban architecture, but in 1540 there were less than 6 natives. Over the ruins, the Spaniards built Campeche, one of the most imposing colonial cities in the Americas.
Tulum, Mexico

The Most Caribbean of the Mayan Ruins

Built by the sea as an exceptional outpost decisive for the prosperity of the Mayan nation, Tulum was one of its last cities to succumb to Hispanic occupation. At the end of the XNUMXth century, its inhabitants abandoned it to time and to an impeccable coastline of the Yucatan peninsula.
Cobá to Pac Chen, Mexico

From the Ruins to the Mayan Homes

On the Yucatan Peninsula, the history of the second largest indigenous Mexican people is intertwined with their daily lives and merges with modernity. In Cobá, we went from the top of one of its ancient pyramids to the heart of a village of our times.
San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico

The Home Sweet Home of Mexican Social Conscience

Mayan, mestizo and Hispanic, Zapatista and tourist, country and cosmopolitan, San Cristobal has no hands to measure. In it, Mexican and expatriate backpacker visitors and political activists share a common ideological demand.

Mexico City, Mexico

mexican soul

With more than 20 million inhabitants in a vast metropolitan area, this megalopolis marks, from its heart of zócalo, the spiritual pulse of a nation that has always been vulnerable and dramatic.

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.
Champoton, Mexico

Rodeo Under Sombreros

Champoton, in Campeche, hosts a fair honored by the Virgén de La Concepción. O rodeo Mexican under local sombreros reveals the elegance and skill of the region's cowboys.
Yucatan, Mexico

The End of the End of the World

The announced day passed but the End of the World insisted on not arriving. In Central America, today's Mayans watched and put up with incredulity all the hysteria surrounding their calendar.
Uxmal, Yucatan, Mexico

The Mayan Capital That Piled It Up To Collapse

The term Uxmal means built three times. In the long pre-Hispanic era of dispute in the Mayan world, the city had its heyday, corresponding to the top of the Pyramid of the Diviner at its heart. It will have been abandoned before the Spanish Conquest of the Yucatan. Its ruins are among the most intact on the Yucatan Peninsula.
Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon), Chihuahua, Mexico

The Deep Mexico of the Barrancas del Cobre

Without warning, the Chihuahua highlands give way to endless ravines. Sixty million geological years have furrowed them and made them inhospitable. The Rarámuri indigenous people continue to call them home.
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.
chihuahua, Mexico

¡Ay Chihuahua !

Mexicans have adapted this expression as one of their favorite manifestations of surprise. While we wander through the capital of the homonymous state of the Northwest, we often exclaim it.
Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico

On the Edge of the Cenote, at the Heart of the Mayan Civilization

Between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries AD, Chichen Itza stood out as the most important city in the Yucatan Peninsula and the vast Mayan Empire. If the Spanish Conquest precipitated its decline and abandonment, modern history has consecrated its ruins a World Heritage Site and a Wonder of the World.
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
Beaches
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.
The Zambezi River, PN Mana Pools
safari
Kanga Pan, Mana Pools NP, Zimbabwe

A Perennial Source of Wildlife

A depression located 15km southeast of the Zambezi River retains water and minerals throughout Zimbabwe's dry season. Kanga Pan, as it is known, nurtures one of the most prolific ecosystems in the immense and stunning Mana Pools National Park.
Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 9th Manang to Milarepa Cave, Nepal

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.
A Lost and Found City
Architecture & Design
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.
Aventura
Boat Trips

For Those Becoming Internet Sick

Hop on and let yourself go on unmissable boat trips like the Philippine archipelago of Bacuit and the frozen sea of ​​the Finnish Gulf of Bothnia.
Indigenous Crowned
Ceremonies and Festivities
Pueblos del Sur, Venezuela

Behind the Venezuela Andes. Fiesta Time.

In 1619, the authorities of Mérida dictated the settlement of the surrounding territory. The order resulted in 19 remote villages that we found dedicated to commemorations with caretos and local pauliteiros.
Family in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Cities
Discovering tassie, Part 1 - Hobart, Australia

Australia's Backdoor

Hobart, the capital of Tasmania and the southernmost of Australia, was colonized by thousands of convicts from England. Unsurprisingly, its population maintains a strong admiration for marginal ways of life.
Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.
Lunch time
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.
Saphire Cabin, Purikura, Tokyo, Japan
Culture
Tokyo, Japan

Japanese Style Passaport-Type Photography

In the late 80s, two Japanese multinationals already saw conventional photo booths as museum pieces. They turned them into revolutionary machines and Japan surrendered to the Purikura phenomenon.
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.
Herd in Manang, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Traveling
Annapurna Circuit: 8th Manang, Nepal

Manang: the Last Acclimatization in Civilization

Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
Impressions Lijiang Show, Yangshuo, China, Red Enthusiasm
Ethnic
Lijiang e Yangshuo, China

An Impressive China

One of the most respected Asian filmmakers, Zhang Yimou dedicated himself to large outdoor productions and co-authored the media ceremonies of the Beijing OG. But Yimou is also responsible for “Impressions”, a series of no less controversial stagings with stages in emblematic places.
portfolio, Got2Globe, Travel photography, images, best photographs, travel photos, world, Earth
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Portfolio Got2globe

The Best in the World – Got2Globe Portfolio

Luderitz, Namibia
History
Lüderitz, Namibia

Wilkommen in Africa

Chancellor Bismarck has always disdained overseas possessions. Against his will and all odds, in the middle of the Race for Africa, merchant Adolf Lüderitz forced Germany to take over an inhospitable corner of the continent. The homonymous city prospered and preserves one of the most eccentric heritages of the Germanic empire.
Bolshoi Zayatski Orthodox Church, Solovetsky Islands, Russia.
Islands
Bolshoi Zayatsky, Russia

Mysterious Russian Babylons

A set of prehistoric spiral labyrinths made of stones decorate Bolshoi Zayatsky Island, part of the Solovetsky archipelago. Devoid of explanations as to when they were erected or what it meant, the inhabitants of these northern reaches of Europe call them vavilons.
Northern Lights, Laponia, Rovaniemi, Finland, Fire Fox
Winter White
Lapland, Finland

In Search of the Fire Fox

Unique to the heights of the Earth are the northern or southern auroras, light phenomena generated by solar explosions. You Sami natives from Lapland they believed it to be a fiery fox that spread sparkles in the sky. Whatever they are, not even the nearly 30 degrees below zero that were felt in the far north of Finland could deter us from admiring them.
José Saramago in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, Glorieta de Saramago
Literature
Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain

José Saramago's Basalt Raft

In 1993, frustrated by the Portuguese government's disregard for his work “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ”, Saramago moved with his wife Pilar del Río to Lanzarote. Back on this somewhat extraterrestrial Canary Island, we visited his home. And the refuge from the portuguese censorship that haunted the writer.
Fluvial coming and going
Nature
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.
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.
Hippopotamus moves in the flooded expanse of the Elephant Plain.
Natural Parks
Maputo National Park, Mozambique

The Wild Mozambique between the Maputo River and the Indian Ocean

The abundance of animals, especially elephants, led to the creation of a Hunting Reserve in 1932. After the hardships of the Mozambican Civil War, the Maputo PN protects prodigious ecosystems in which fauna proliferates. With emphasis on the pachyderms that have recently become too many.
Roça Sundy, Príncipe Island, Theory of Relativity, Lookout
UNESCO World Heritage
Roca Sundy, Príncipe Island, São Tomé and Principe

The Certainty of Relativity

In 1919, Arthur Eddington, a British astrophysicist, chose the Roça Sundy to prove Albert Einstein's famous theory. More than a century later, the island of Príncipe that welcomed him is still among the most stunning places in the Universe.
View from the top of Mount Vaea and the tomb, Vailima village, Robert Louis Stevenson, Upolu, Samoa
Characters
Upolu, Samoa

Stevenson's Treasure Island

At age 30, the Scottish writer began looking for a place to save him from his cursed body. In Upolu and the Samoans, he found a welcoming refuge to which he gave his heart and soul.
Montezuma and Malpais, Costa Rica's best beaches, Catarata
Beaches
Montezuma, Costa Rica

Back to the Tropical Arms of Montezuma

It's been 18 years since we were dazzled by this one of Costa Rica's blessed coastlines. Just two months ago, we found him again. As cozy as we had known it.
Vairocana Buddha, Todai ji Temple, Nara, Japan
Religion
Nara, Japan

The Colossal Cradle of the Japanese Buddhism

Nara has long since ceased to be the capital and its Todai-ji temple has been demoted. But the Great Hall remains the largest ancient wooden building in the world. And it houses the greatest bronze Vairocana Buddha.
Flam Railway composition below a waterfall, Norway.
On Rails
Nesbyen to Flam, Norway

Flam Railway: Sublime Norway from the First to the Last Station

By road and aboard the Flam Railway, on one of the steepest railway routes in the world, we reach Flam and the entrance to the Sognefjord, the largest, deepest and most revered of the Scandinavian fjords. From the starting point to the last station, this monumental Norway that we have unveiled is confirmed.
Society
Margilan, Uzbekistan

An Uzbekistan's Breadwinner

In one of the many bakeries in Margilan, worn out by the intense heat of the tandyr oven, the baker Maruf'Jon works half-baked like the distinctive traditional breads sold throughout Uzbekistan
the projectionist
Daily life
Sainte-Luce, Martinique

The Nostalgic Projectionist

From 1954 to 1983, Gérard Pierre screened many of the famous films arriving in Martinique. 30 years after the closing of the room in which he worked, it was still difficult for this nostalgic native to change his reel.
A campfire lights up and warms the night, next to Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge,
Wildlife
Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, eSwatini

The Fire That Revived eSwatini's Wildlife

By the middle of the last century, overhunting was wiping out much of the kingdom of Swaziland’s wildlife. Ted Reilly, the son of the pioneer settler who owned Mlilwane, took action. In 1961, he created the first protected area of ​​the Big Game Parks he later founded. He also preserved the Swazi term for the small fires that lightning has long caused.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.