Príncipe, São Tomé and Principe

Journey to the Noble Retreat of Príncipe Island


prince of the jungle
Aerial view of Príncipe, with the usual cloud cover that drowns out its tropical climate.
Wall of Aspirations
Children of Principe lined up along the wall that closes off the city of Santo António in their best clothes because it is Children's Day.
The green valley of Santo António
Casario de Santo António, the only city and capital of the island of Principe.
in the shadow of life
Residents of Santo António occupy the pews next to the church of Nª Senhora de Conceição.
A kind of MMA
Boys from the countryside of Porto Real given to easy jokes and laughs.
Beard, hair and TV
Barber on the banks of the river Papagaio, in Santo António. In addition to being a barber, the small establishment is also used by several young men in the city to watch movies on TV there.
Colors and flavors of the equator
Detail of a market stall in Santo António, always full of fruits and vegetables produced on the island.
rehearsal time
Chico Roque and other island musicians rehearse in a room, a kind of improvised studio in the center of Santo António.
St. Anthony's Core
The church of Nª Senhora da Conceição, the religious center of Santo António, at the time accompanied by a UNITEL poster.
Tropical Banana
Praia Banana, one of the best beaches in Africa, once used by the Bacardi brand, in a promotional advertisement for its rum.
Grape Moisture
View of the historic center of Santo António with Pico Papagaio high above the town's houses.
Princely Generations
Two young inhabitants of Roça Porto Real, one of the most productive plantations in Príncipe.
An exuberant panorama
Monte Papagaio, seen from the São Joaquim farm.
A chocolate farm
Guard at the entrance to the Terreiro Velho farm, now owned by the Italian chocolate producer Claudio Corallo, who lives in São Tomé.
Home Sweet Home
Small house in Santo António, surrounded by vegetation that grows on the banks of the river Papagaio.
Mother's love
Matilde and daughter on the wall that separates Santo António from the Atlantic Ocean, during Children's Day celebrated in schools on the island of Príncipe.
Multifunction
Cremilda, Márcia and Eula make up Késia's Afro braids while she follows chats on her cell phone.
150 km of solitude north of the matriarch São Tomé, the island of Príncipe rises from the deep Atlantic against an abrupt and volcanic mountain-covered jungle setting. Long enclosed in its sweeping tropical nature and a contained but moving Luso-colonial past, this small African island still houses more stories to tell than visitors to listen to.

The flight lasts for forty minutes. And yet, the fact that we follow almost just ourselves in the cabin and that, down below, the deep navy blue monopolizes the scenery, makes time seem to drag on. The monotony does not take long to be rewarded. A sudden glimpse reveals to us a blanket of dense clouds and a strange sketch of what Prince's Island could be.

Principe Island, São Tomé and Principe

Aerial view of Príncipe, with the usual cloud cover that drowns out its tropical climate.

They hover over a lush patch of Earth dotted with geological outgrowths. The pilot adjusts the plane to the island. After a few minutes, we are landing our feet on the warm soil of Príncipe Island.

And the next morning, on one of the most beautiful seasides in Africa, Praia Banana. In the 80s, Bacardi rum featured it in one of its advertisements. This media credit lasts.

The coming and going of the emerald waves over the golden sand suggests a memorable bathing playground, but we didn't delay. At the same time, a viewpoint on top of a pile of large basaltic rocks attracts us.

Banana Beach, Principe Island, São Tomé and Principe

Praia Banana, one of the best beaches in Africa, once used by the Bacardi brand, in a promotional advertisement for its rum.

We find the path to its heights through the dark coconut grove of Banana. Several steep meanders later, we catch our breath leaning on its decrepit wall, contemplating the sumptuousness of what, at sea level, had already delighted us.

That viewpoint and its Belo Monte property marked the first of several visits to ancient farms on the Ilha do Príncipe. Belo Monte was, however, transformed into a hotel. We just peeked at her.

On the way to Santo António do Príncipe

Back at Bom Bom resort, we took a ride from one of the service pick ups to Santo António, the island's solitary city. Along the way, Mr. João gives a lift to most of the walkers on the side of the road. Eventually, the van has a considerable capacity.

Everyone on board knows each other. Everyone finds our presence in that metal box strange, which is normally unworthy of customers. As soon as the admiration fades, the traveling partners give in to their uncomplicated jeers and laughs. Soon, they invite us to conversations between curiosity and forced formality.

We passed a series of basic houses in which small children and pets circulate. We left the airport behind. Finally, we descend into the valley towards the bay where the capital was housed.

The flow of a river, the Parrot, carved the alluvial plain where the worn semi-colonial houses now spread, bordered on all sides by a mountain jungle, except for the west-northwest, where the black flow of the river meets a Atlantic tamed by the bay.

The green valley of Santo António, Santo António, Ilha do Principe, São Tomé and Principe

Casario de Santo António, the only city and capital of the island of Principe

We got out of the van in front of the city's yellow and red church. Right there, a poster by the Angolan operator UNITEL that shows a surfer with a cell phone glued to his ear prophesies “for the better it always changes".

Wandering around the island's leisurely capital

An hour of walking is enough for us to realize that, with few exceptions, Santo António was slowly evolving. Next to the church, seated on four park benches, an equal number of residents watch the day slip away, undaunted and serene, in the shade of a leafy tree.

The church of Nª Senhora da Conceição, in Santo António, island of Principe, São Tomé and Principe

The church of Nª Senhora da Conceição, the religious center of Santo António, at the time accompanied by a UNITEL poster

Only the main road has real urban animation, around its untidy grocery stores, clothing stores, the central motorcycle taxi park and, further down, the secondary school.

There, between classes, Cremilda, Márcia and Eula compose Kélsia's Afro braids. She, with her eyes on her cell phone, remains in multichat mode with online friends and fellow “hairdressers”.

Students from Santo António, Ilha de Príncipe, São Tomé and Principe

Cremilda, Márcia and Eula make up Késia's Afro braids while she follows chats on her cell phone

On the opposite side of the avenue, the old headquarters of Sporting Clube de Príncipe has had better days. Only a tree that emerges from the mossy concrete of one of its corners shows signs of healthy greenery. On the facade of the tiled building, a health prevention panel advises: “Prolong your life by drinking treated water”.

We examine him when, from the middle of the road, Chico Roque confronts us. The time is morning. After a drawn-out introduction, he promotes himself as a musician. He convinces us to record a musical show for him and a colleague.

We set up at two hours from then to two days in Marcelo da Veiga square, the administrative heart of Santo António, one of its pleasant gardens and playful retreats.

Life on the banks of the river Papagaio

Until then, we wander through what became the capital and seat of the diocese of the colony of São Tomé and Príncipe, from 1753 to 1852, three centuries after the discovery of the archipelago in 1471, a few years before King João II baptized it in honor of Prince Afonso, his favorite son, who would die, at just 16 years old, fallen from a horse in the vicinity of the Tagus.

When we returned to the banks of the Parrot, contradicted by the beach-sea, the local river flowed towards the homonymous Pico that has always been imposing on the city. We stuck our nose in a barbershop overlooking the bank. Even surprised, the owner hair artist welcomes us and continues to beautify the client of the moment.

Barbershop and mini-cinema in Santo António de Principe, São Tomé and Principe

Barber on the banks of the river Papagaio, in Santo António. In addition to being a barber, the small establishment is also used by several young men in the city to watch movies on TV there.

Farther into the sky-blue wooden establishment, a squat of kids sitting on a long bench, barely taking their eyes off a movie on TV from that well-developed “Cinema Paradise” of theirs. On a parallel street, we come across Dª Juditinha's restaurant. It is there that we avoid the worst of the afternoon embers and replenish energy.

Children's Day. Not all Days are Days like this

During the meal, we see parents pass by with their children by the hand, loaded with cakes and other desserts. As elegant as possible, they go to a school on that street. "You know, today is Children's Day!" informs us Dª Juditinha while she serves us Rosema beers that we tasted for the first time, to the detriment of the usual Portuguese brands. “Here on the island of Príncipe, we treat the date with affection.”

Another of the celebrating schools faced the long white wall that separates the city from the Atlantic. There, as the setting sets in, the adults and their children fraternize, some leaning over, others sitting on the wall, all of them with the hypnotic view of the lush bay ahead.

Balcony of Santo António, Ilha do Principe, São Tomé and Principe

Children of Principe lined up along the wall that closes off the city of Santo António in their best clothes because it is Children's Day

During lunch, we had received a call from the Regional Secretary for the Economy. He summoned us to his office, half-walled with the post office in the city that seemed to have been taken from a Portuguese village in the 50s.

Enthusiastic, Silvino Palmer explains projects for the future of the island of Príncipe and the obstacles to its development, in particular, the dwarf scale of the economy, victim of isolation and of the nation being the second smallest in Africa, only behind Seychelles .

Silvino also has faith in our publicizing mission. Arrest us with the use of your pick up service and with the help of two guides. At eight o'clock on the new day, we greeted conductor Armandinho, Francisco Ambrósio and Eduardo. We aim south of the island.

Through the Jungle of Príncipe Island Above

The jungle that surrounds the Parrot smothers the winding path opened in the depths of colonial times. Even so, it proves to be much less closed than the one below on the map, this one, part of the Biosphere Reserve of Ilha do Príncipe. Throughout history, it has admitted farms and villages, today, some relics more decadent than others.

Like what remains of the mansion and property of Maria Correia, daughter of a native of the island of Príncipe and a Brazilian emigrant who went down in history as the owner and mistress of her two husbands and hundreds of servants.

Despite the British blockade of Portuguese slavery in the archipelago popularly addressed by Miguel Sousa Tavares in “Equador”, Maria Correia will have cheated her checks over and over again.

Even a mulatto, until she died in 1862, she was one of the biggest slave owners on the island.

Over time, he became a legendary character, worthy of thorough investigation, or whatever, from a good movie.

The First Roças: Porto Real and São Joaquim

The next farm as we passed, that of Porto Real, holds much more of its auspicious era. It was developed by the Sociedade Agrícola Colonial, with work areas, housing, a hospital and a 30km railway that transported diverse agricultural production, including a prodigious palm oil.

Now, it houses a community that, far from being able to recover and exploit it, is limited to subsisting on much of what the land and domestic animals provide.

In the same itinerary, we come across São Joaquim, a former dependency of Porto Real. We find it ruined, then handed over to women and children who share the old sanzalas and the grassy courtyard with a herd of cows, spotted pigs and other domestic animals. Our unexpected visit, for more, in a government vehicle intrigues them.

“Come here! You'll like this.” Francisco Ambrósio, a teacher on the island that the children we come across provoke to call a vampire (with the long and heavy errs, in good native fashion) appeals to us because of his resemblance to the Wesley Snipes that haunts them, in “Blade”, on TVs in the city.

View of Monte Papagaio, Principe Island, São Tomé and Principe

Monte Papagaio, seen from the São Joaquim farm.

In the distance, between the jungle that covered Monte Papagaio and part of the clouds that we had seen from the plane, there were two granite rocks. Erosion had carved the smallest one like a pillar.

The Old Chocolate Farm in Terreiro Velho

At that distance, the megalithic duo glowed, projected from the strange chlorophyll panorama. He encouraged us to go to Terreiro Velho, still a garden full of cocoa, stories and coastal views to delight. We only returned to the city at dusk. The next journey, we dedicate it to the extreme northwest of the island.

It was there, west of the Bom Bom islet, that the Portuguese discoverers founded Ribeira Izé, the first settlement on the island of Príncipe. We explore the ruins of the forerunner church that blessed it and that the centuries-old predation of the prickly pear trees involved an enigma.

Roça de Terreiro Velho, Príncipe island, São Tomé and Príncipe

Guard at the entrance of the Terreiro Velho farm, now owned by the Italian chocolate producer Claudio Corallo, resident in São Tomé

Then mr. Armandinho takes us on a shortcut up the slope, so submerged in the vegetation and in the waterlogged ground that he claims all its power from the pick up. Even so, it leads us to the desired destination: the Sundy farm.

Originally, Sundy emerged as another plantation of cocoa and island coffee. In a certain golden period, its profits determined expansion and greater organic complexity. Sundy, too, has succumbed to less expensive and larger-scale production from other parts of the world. The farm ended up as a holiday home for Portuguese royalty. It would not be the new owners who would contribute most to its notoriety.

Roça Sundy and the Confirmation of the Theory of Relativity

In 1919, British astrophysicist Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington estimated the island of Príncipe as an ideal place to examine a predicted eclipse. It aimed to exemplify that starlight was deflected by solar gravity and thus prove Einstein's Theory of Relativity on Newton's long-standing Law of Gravity.

Eddington certified the expected curvature of the light, installed in the Sundy garden. This honor remains marked on one of the terraced balconies of the main building which, at the time we looked at it, was undergoing – like the one completed in the Belo Monte farm – a serious conversion into a historic hotel.

It was hoped that the project would contribute to improving the life of the real village that Sundy has become, with dozens of families living side by side in small and Spartan sambalas, others in recent houses, installed around it.

Return to Santo António

We traverse its gray alleys to and fro, then the walls to its nooks and crannies in the colonial and functional heart of the huge farm. We do it with the fascination of those who watch History recycle and shuffle some of its almost forgotten variables. Until we remember our commitment to Chico Roque and anticipate returning to Santo António.

Chico Roque and other musicians from Santo António, Príncipe island, São Tomé and Principe

Chico Roque and other island musicians rehearse in a room, a kind of improvised studio in the center of Santo António

It was just past the agreed time and the two musicians were waiting for us seated by the cannons that protect the image of Marcelo da Veiga. At our signal, a repertoire of songs, sometimes popular, sometimes of his authorship, parade. We watch and record their performance when a group of kids playing in the garden approaches and leans over the cannons. The duo rejoices.

They then sing an ecological theme popular in São Tomé and recruit the children to choir. It's with this child-eared soundtrack of “Biosfera” in the head (sung Biosferrrrrrra) that we say goodbye to Santo António. The following afternoon, from the as or more memorable island of Príncipe.

historic center of Santo António, island of Principe, São Tomé and Principe

View of the historic center of Santo António with Pico Papagaio high above the town's houses.

TAP flies to São Tomé on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays departing Lisbon at 09:35 am and arriving at 17:35 pm. The trip from São Tomé to Lisbon is on Tuesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Thursdays with departures at 20:04 and arrival at 10:XNUMX the following day. 

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.
Ilha de Mozambique, Mozambique  

The Island of Ali Musa Bin Bique. Pardon... of Mozambique

With the arrival of Vasco da Gama in the extreme south-east of Africa, the Portuguese took over an island that had previously been ruled by an Arab emir, who ended up misrepresenting the name. The emir lost his territory and office. Mozambique - the molded name - remains on the resplendent island where it all began and also baptized the nation that Portuguese colonization ended up forming.
São Vicente, Cape Verde

The Volcanic Arid Wonder of Soncente

A return to São Vicente reveals an aridity as dazzling as it is inhospitable. Those who visit it are surprised by the grandeur and geological eccentricity of the fourth smallest island in Cape Verde.
São Tomé and Principe

Cocoa Roças, Corallo and the Chocolate Factory

At the beginning of the century. In the XNUMXth century, São Tomé and Príncipe generated more cocoa than any other territory. Thanks to the dedication of some entrepreneurs, production survives and the two islands taste like the best chocolate.
Goa, India

To Goa, Quickly and in Strength

A sudden longing for Indo-Portuguese tropical heritage makes us travel in various transports but almost non-stop, from Lisbon to the famous Anjuna beach. Only there, at great cost, were we able to rest.
Goiás Velho, Brazil

A Gold Rush Legacy

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

Journey to where São Tomé points the Equator

We go along the road that connects the homonymous capital to the sharp end of the island. When we arrived in Roça Porto Alegre, with the islet of Rolas and Ecuador in front of us, we had lost ourselves time and time again in the historical and tropical drama of São Tomé.
Rolas Islet, São Tomé and Principe

Rolas Islet: São Tomé and Principe at Latitude Zero

The southernmost point of São Tomé and Príncipe, Ilhéu das Rolas is lush and volcanic. The big news and point of interest of this island extension of the second smallest African nation is the coincidence of crossing the Equator.
São Tomé, São Tomé and Principe

Through the Tropical Top of São Tomé

With the homonymous capital behind us, we set out to discover the reality of the Agostinho Neto farm. From there, we take the island's coastal road. When the asphalt finally yields to the jungle, São Tomé had confirmed itself at the top of the most dazzling African islands.
Sao Tome (city), São Tomé and Principe

The Capital of the Santomean Tropics

Founded by the Portuguese, in 1485, São Tomé prospered for centuries, like the city because of the goods in and out of the homonymous island. The archipelago's independence confirmed it as the busy capital that we trod, always sweating.
Saudade, São Tomé, São Tomé and Principe

Almada Negreiros: From Saudade to Eternity

Almada Negreiros was born in April 1893, on a farm in the interior of São Tomé. Upon discovering his origins, we believe that the luxuriant exuberance in which he began to grow oxygenated his fruitful creativity.
Addiction São Tomé, São Tomé and Principe

From Roça to Roça, Towards the Tropical Heart of São Tomé

On the way between Trindade and Santa Clara, we come across the terrifying colonial past of Batepá. Passing through the Bombaim and Monte Café roças, the island's history seems to have been diluted in time and in the chlorophyll atmosphere of the Santomean jungle.
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.
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.
Hippopotamus displays tusks, among others
safari
PN Mana Pools, Zimbabwe

The Zambezi at the Top of Zimbabwe

After the rainy season, the dwindling of the great river on the border with Zambia leaves behind a series of lagoons that provide water for the fauna during the dry season. The Mana Pools National Park is the name given to a vast, lush river-lake region that is disputed by countless wild species.
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 5th - Ngawal a BragaNepal

Towards the Nepalese Braga

We spent another morning of glorious weather discovering Ngawal. There is a short journey towards Manang, the main town on the way to the zenith of the Annapurna circuit. We stayed for Braga (Braka). The hamlet would soon prove to be one of its most unforgettable places.
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.
Salto Angel, Rio that falls from the sky, Angel Falls, PN Canaima, Venezuela
Aventura
PN Canaima, Venezuela

Kerepakupai, Salto Angel: The River that Falls from Heaven

In 1937, Jimmy Angel landed a light aircraft on a plateau lost in the Venezuelan jungle. The American adventurer did not find gold but he conquered the baptism of the longest waterfall on the face of the Earth
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Ceremonies and Festivities
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.
view, Saint Pierre, Martinique, French Antilles
Cities
Saint-Pierre, Martinique

The City that Arose from the Ashes

In 1900, the economic capital of the Antilles was envied for its Parisian sophistication, until the Pelée volcano charred and buried it. More than a century later, Saint-Pierre is still regenerating.
Lunch time
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
Garranos gallop across the plateau above Castro Laboreiro, PN Peneda-Gerês, Portugal
Culture
Castro Laboreiro, Portugal  

From Castro de Laboreiro to the Rim of the Peneda – Gerês Range

We arrived at (i) the eminence of Galicia, at an altitude of 1000m and even more. Castro Laboreiro and the surrounding villages stand out against the granite monumentality of the mountains and the Planalto da Peneda and Laboreiro. As do its resilient people who, sometimes handed over to Brandas and sometimes to Inverneiras, still call these stunning places home.
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.
Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Traveling
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.
Meeting of the waters, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil
Ethnic
Manaus, Brazil

Meeting the Meeting of the Waters

The phenomenon is not unique, but in Manaus it has a special beauty and solemnity. At a certain point, the Negro and Solimões rivers converge on the same Amazonas bed, but instead of immediately mixing, both flows continue side by side. As we explore these parts of the Amazon, we witness the unusual confrontation of the Encontro das Águas.
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.
Trycicles, Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Filipinos
History
Bacolod, Philippines

Sweet Philippines

Bacolod is the capital of Negros, the island at the center of Philippine sugar cane production. Traveling through the Far East and between history and contemporaneity, we savor the fascinating heart of the most Latin of Asia.
Mahé Ilhas das Seychelles, friends of the beach
Islands
Mahé, Seychelles

The Big Island of the Small Seychelles

Mahé is the largest of the islands of the smallest country in Africa. It's home to the nation's capital and most of the Seychellois. But not only. In its relative smallness, it hides a stunning tropical world, made of mountainous jungle that merges with the Indian Ocean in coves of all sea tones.
Maksim, Sami people, Inari, Finland-2
Winter White
Inari, Finland

The Guardians of Boreal Europe

Long discriminated against by Scandinavian, Finnish and Russian settlers, the Sami people regain their autonomy and pride themselves on their nationality.
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.
travelers contemplate, monte fitz roy, argentina
Nature
El Chalten, Argentina

The Granite Appeal of Patagonia

Two stone mountains have created a border dispute between Argentina and Chile. But these countries are not the only suitors. The Fitz Roy and Torre hills have long attracted die-hard climbers
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.
Juvenile lions on a sandy arm of the Shire River
Natural Parks
Liwonde National Park, Malawi

The Prodigious Resuscitation of Liwonde NP

For a long time, widespread neglect and widespread poaching had plagued this wildlife reserve. In 2015, African Parks stepped in. Soon, also benefiting from the abundant water of Lake Malombe and the Shire River, Liwonde National Park became one of the most vibrant and lush parks in Malawi.
Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mayan History, heads of Kukulkan, El Castillo
UNESCO World Heritage
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.
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.
Cable car connecting Puerto Plata to the top of PN Isabel de Torres
Beaches
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.
gaudy courtship
Religion
Suzdal, Russia

Thousand Years of Old Fashioned Russia

It was a lavish capital when Moscow was just a rural hamlet. Along the way, it lost political relevance but accumulated the largest concentration of churches, monasteries and convents in the country of the tsars. Today, beneath its countless domes, Suzdal is as orthodox as it is monumental.
Executives sleep subway seat, sleep, sleep, subway, train, Tokyo, Japan
On Rails
Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo's Hypno-Passengers

Japan is served by millions of executives slaughtered with infernal work rates and sparse vacations. Every minute of respite on the way to work or home serves them for their inemuri, napping in public.
Society
Cemeteries

the last address

From the grandiose tombs of Novodevichy, in Moscow, to the boxed Mayan bones of Pomuch, in the Mexican province of Campeche, each people flaunts its own way of life. Even in death.
Saksun, Faroe Islands, Streymoy, warning
Daily life
Saksun, streymoyFaroe Islands

The Faroese Village That Doesn't Want to be Disneyland

Saksun is one of several stunning small villages in the Faroe Islands that more and more outsiders visit. It is distinguished by the aversion to tourists of its main rural owner, author of repeated antipathies and attacks against the invaders of his land.
Devils Marbles, Alice Springs to Darwin, Stuart hwy, Top End Path
Wildlife
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.
Napali Coast and Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii Wrinkles
Scenic Flights
napali coast, Hawaii

Hawaii's Dazzling Wrinkles

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