Santo Antão, Cape Verde

Porto Novo to Ribeira Grande the Seaside Way


New Port
The pastel houses of Porto Novo, the largest city in Santo Antão.
Praia dos Pescadores
Hammocks and boats in a fishing cove south of Porto Novo.
Shark's Hill
Car moves away from the almost conical Morro do Tubarão.
Tomb Tip
The first inlet in the north of Santo Antão, as seen from the top of Ponta Tumba.
The Tomb Tip Light
The Ponta Tumba lighthouse, shortly before its restoration.
the little tip
Pontinha da Janela, so called for very visible reasons.
Window Beacons
Two beacons on a field rendered useless by unexpected relief on the beach.
The window
The hole in the rock that inspired the name Window.
Google Store
Owner of Google grocery in conversation with a young and small family member.
The City of Pombas
The houses of Pombas extended along a well-defined coastal vertex.
Complicated Bath
Two friends help each other during a bath complicated by the large rolling boulders and the swell.
Dove Marginal
Coconut trees above a coastline of small pebbles, before the center of Pombas.
Old Trapiche
Cows run the centuries-old pier at the Ildo Benros farm.
Ildo Benros
Mr. Ildo Benros and an assistant next to a window of drinks on the farm.
Sugarcane Load
A worker on the Ildo Benros farm, he takes sugar cane to the warehouse.
Trapiche cattle
Cow and goat accompany the work of Mr. Ildo Benros's warehouse.
The squeezer Press
Farm worker Ildo Benros introduces sugar cane into the farm's old warehouse.
The houses of Janela
A sector of houses taken from the village of Janela.
walled corrals
Numbered structures that serve as corrals for various pig breeding, outside Ribeira Grande.
Once settled in Porto Novo, Santo Antão, we soon notice two routes to the second largest village on the island. Once surrendered to the monumental up-and-down of Estrada da Corda, the volcanic and Atlantic drama of the coastal alternative dazzles us.

As soon as we leave the pastel houses of Porto Novo behind, Santo Antão returns to the rawness and haughtiness of its geological origins, made of millions of years of upheaval and erosion.

In the almost absence of human marks, the splendor of the volcanism that raised it from the depths of the ocean. All this time expired, the Atlantic renews, moment by moment, its intimate relationship with the iron mountains of the island.

The first vision that catches us is that of a set of measured peaks that the sunlight makes to shine and that a cloak of dry mist, very dry and very white, tries, in vain, to embrace.

The coastal road completely clashes with the Rope Road. Zigzags to the northeast. It crosses a series of streams that, at mid-year, only dust and sand flowed.

Crossing André Col's road, the asphalt reveals the almost perfect cone of Morro de Tubarão.

Measuring a mere 325m, well below the 1585m of Pico da Cruz overlooking these parts, this striated legacy of the island's mother eruption leaves us awestruck, eager for what would follow.

We cross the arid bed of Ribeira Brava and the imaginary line that separates the municipalities of Porto Novo and Paul. Twenty minutes later, we were confronted with Ponta de Tumba.

Ponta de Tumba and the Old Lighthouse of Fontes Pereira de Melo

We still see the white, octagonal, dirty and ruined tower of a lighthouse. On a rusty structure, its old bell has several broken glass.

Just above, the sun, much higher, lights a jagged and deep bay.

Each time the dry mist releases it, it reinforces the watery, almost emerald green of the wind-beaten sea.

From where we were, we could only glimpse the northwest coast of Santo Antão.

Interested in unraveling it, intrigued by the lighthouse's stoic resistance, we decided to climb the walled trail, littered with thistles and cactus, and investigate it.

A sign as worn as the rest of the structure identified the "Pharol Antonio Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo” built in 1886, in the reign of Dom Luís “the Popular”.

It remained active until 2006. Shortly after our visit, it was recovered and resumed contributing to the safety of navigation, treacherous in these parts of the Atlantic, the Alísios rock and shake mercilessly.

When we reach its base, the old lighthouse serves as an observation point.

Its promontory reveals the vagaries of the coast and a series of coves furrowed by the continuation of the road that has welcomed us for a long time.

Pontinha de Janela: another Unusual Village of Santo Antão

After more than an hour without hardly seeing any buildings, the lighthouse suggests a sharp peninsula that extended into the ocean, covered with houses and agricultural terraces until the sea made it impossible.

No reason to complicate matters, the place was handled by Pontinha. Less obvious, would be the reason why, out of nowhere, that almost amphibious patch welcomed so many people.

As we approached it, we realized how abrupt and inhospitable the north of Santo Antão was.

We understand how, accordingly, even more exposed to the wind and waves, an almost flat strip of land with easy access to the sea had been inhabited as a divine blessing, with the effort and merit with which Cape Verdeans became accustomed to survive.

Despite the tightness, there is room for a football pitch that gives meaning to the União Desportiva da Janela club, another reason for the commitment and pride of the villagers.

A hitherto hidden bay surprises us with several of the organic contrasts that the island is lavish.

The white marine foam breaks up on a threshold of basalt pebbles and boulders.

A few dozen meters inland, the stones and pebbles give way to some rough sand, two wooden goal posts planted in it, in an obvious footballistic despair.

Further up, on the slope side of the road, coconut and palm trees sprout from a narrow but lush agricultural plantation.

After the Tip of the Window, follows the Window.

As we walk along the village, made up of houses, some white, some colored, others the characteristic gray of unpainted cement blocks, a few more palm trees and coconut trees sprout, graced with the moisture the Trade Winds carry.

In terms of landscape, there is the perforated cliff that frames the ocean on the other side and which inspired the name of the town.

As far as history and its controversies are concerned, a small scrawled rock focuses attention.

The Pedra de Letreiro and Gavin Menzies' Despised Theory

In 2002, Gavin Menzies, a retired British Navy officer published “1421 – The Year China Discovered the World".

In the work, he explains what they consider evidence of maritime exploration in the world prior to the European one, between 1421 and 1423, by Chinese navigators, including the Cape of Good Hope folding, the Strait of Magellan and the arrival to Australia.

Menzies substantiated his theories during his travels through 120 countries and almost a thousand museums, libraries and medieval ports around the world.

Now, the slew of information he studied included a famous rock of Janela, the Pedra de Letreiro, which the locals call the Written Stone.

Like other authors, Menzies guarantees that he preserves inscriptions made by visitors to Santo Antão prior to the supposedly European pioneers.

An alliance of distinguished historians lashed out at Menzies. In three strokes and without embarrassment.

They confronted him with his theoretical bravado, in reality, based on a total lack of methodology and scientific seriousness.

Along with the inability to question and interpret historical data that reduced Menzies investigative wandering around the world to nothing.

The controversy intrigues us. We are committed to investigating the book, a task that remains on an accurate list arising from our own ramblings.

We hurried to return, to Santo Antão, along the increasingly steep coastline of the north coast.

By Lands of Paul and Vila (now city) das Pombas

After Pontinha de Janela, there is the Paul area, which gives the name to the municipality we were visiting.

Denotes a hillside area irrigated by three streams that flow from the higher lands (including Pico da Cruz), Paul, Janela and Penedo, responsible for a much more drenched and verdant soil than is normal in Santo Antao.

It is so fertile that it allows for several crops of sugar cane, bananas, cassava and even coffee.

In Paul, the car we were driving broke down. We took advantage of the wait for its replacement, to walk along the streets, especially the seaside, more airy ones.

We surrender to the heat and some tiredness. We settled in a restaurant to lunch freshly caught fish off the coast, with other Cape Verdean snacks.

In the meantime, a rent-a-car employee arrives with a replacement pick-up truck. Once again on motorbikes, we discovered observation points over Vila das Pombas, today promoted to the main city of the municipality of Paul.

Pombas extends over a fajã comparable to Pontinha, although laterally.

From where we admired it, a hedge of coconut trees rose above the seashore.

Not to vary, made of large rolling boulders on which, even in precocious balance, two young men faced the vigorous surf, given a refreshing sea bath.

followed by the cemetery .

And, to the north, the seaside houses, once again with unpainted blocks, with a few exceptions, in pastel tones, in one case or another, with bright, clashing colors.

We proceed on the seaside road, paying attention to the picturesque fashions, uses and customs of these parts.

A lady had turned part of her house into a grocery store. Betting that customers would find a little of everything there, she named it Google.

In the absence of customers, she remained at the window, accompanied by a child whose nose only reached the parapet, left to figure out who were the strangers her mother was chatting with.

The centuries-old trapiche of Mr. Ildo Benrós

“Sõ Ildo? It's a very simple door that you find in a long wall”, she informs us in a Portuguese as little Creole as possible.

The door opens onto a farmhouse arranged around an old country house, worn pink, with a walled earthen courtyard in front of it.

From the center of the land, the fulcrum of all operations emerges, a traditional warehouse that is at least four hundred years old.

The owner, Mr. Ildo Benrós, welcomes us.

Accustomed to tourist visits, more pragmatic than smiling.

Ildo puts us at ease, so we follow as closely as possible the various steps in the manufacture of the grog:

Carrying sugar cane from the plantation above the house.

The rigging of the oxen on the arm, the rotation of the mechanism.

The gradual insertion of sugarcane into the press, the source of the sweet and still fresh juice that one of the workers gives us to taste, in preparation for the grogue and poncha we ended up buying.

On the last stretch to Ribeira Grande, we pass through the village of Sinagoga.

And, a few kilometers ahead, along a slope that housed dozens of pig corrals, twinned in stone walls, placed there so as to ensure a hygienic distance from the owners' houses and the city in general.

Ribeira Grande did not take long.

It would be the first of several incursions into the big city on the other side of Santo Antão.

Santo Antão, Cape Verde

Up and Down the Estrada da Corda

Santo Antão is the westernmost of the Cape Verde Islands. There lies an Atlantic and rugged threshold of Africa, a majestic insular domain that we begin by unraveling from one end to the other of its dazzling Estrada da Corda.
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 Nicolau, Cape Verde

Photography of Nha Terra São Nicolau

The voice of the late Cesária Verde crystallized the feeling of Cape Verdeans who were forced to leave their island. who visits São Nicolau or, wherever it may be, admires images that illustrate it well, understands why its people proudly and forever call it their land.
Chã das Caldeiras, Fogo Island Cape Verde

A "French" Clan at the Mercy of Fire

In 1870, a Count born in Grenoble on his way to Brazilian exile, made a stopover in Cape Verde where native beauties tied him to the island of Fogo. Two of his children settled in the middle of the volcano's crater and continued to raise offspring there. Not even the destruction caused by the recent eruptions deters the prolific Montrond from the “county” they founded in Chã das Caldeiras.    
Cidade Velha, Cape Verde

Cidade Velha: the Ancient of the Tropico-Colonial Cities

It was the first settlement founded by Europeans below the Tropic of Cancer. In crucial times for Portuguese expansion to Africa and South America and for the slave trade that accompanied it, Cidade Velha became a poignant but unavoidable legacy of Cape Verdean origins.

Boa Vista Island, Cape Verde

Boa Vista Island: Atlantic waves, Dunas do Sara

Boa Vista is not only the Cape Verdean island closest to the African coast and its vast desert. After a few hours of discovery, it convinces us that it is a piece of the Sahara adrift in the North Atlantic.
Santa Maria, Sal Island, Cape Verde

Santa Maria and the Atlantic Blessing of Sal

Santa Maria was founded in the first half of the XNUMXth century, as a salt export warehouse. Today, thanks to the providence of Santa Maria, Sal Ilha is worth much more than the raw material.
Fogo Island, Cape Verde

Around the Fogo Island

Time and the laws of geomorphology dictated that the volcano-island of Fogo rounded off like no other in Cape Verde. Discovering this exuberant Macaronesian archipelago, we circled around it against the clock. We are dazzled in the same direction.
São Nicolau, Cape Verde

São Nicolau: Pilgrimage to Terra di Sodade

Forced matches like those that inspired the famous morna “soda” made the pain of having to leave the islands of Cape Verde very strong. Discovering saninclau, between enchantment and wonder, we pursue the genesis of song and melancholy.
Chã das Caldeiras a Mosteiros, Fogo Island, Cape Verde

Chã das Caldeiras to Mosteiros: descent through the Ends of Fogo

With the Cape Verde summit conquered, we sleep and recover in Chã das Caldeiras, in communion with some of the lives at the mercy of the volcano. The next morning, we started the return to the capital São Filipe, 11 km down the road to Mosteiros.
Brava, Cape Verde

Cape Verde Brave Island

During colonization, the Portuguese came across a moist and lush island, something rare in Cape Verde. Brava, the smallest of the inhabited islands and one of the least visited of the archipelago, preserves the authenticity of its somewhat elusive Atlantic and volcanic nature.
Santiago, Cape Verde

Santiago from bottom to top

Landed in the Cape Verdean capital of Praia, we explore its pioneer predecessor city. From Cidade Velha, we follow the stunning mountainous ridge of Santiago to the unobstructed top of Tarrafal.
island of salt, Cape Verde

The Salt of the Island of Sal

At the approach of the XNUMXth century, Sal remained lacking in drinking water and practically uninhabited. Until the extraction and export of the abundant salt there encouraged a progressive population. Today, salt and salt pans add another flavor to the most visited island in Cape Verde.
Ponta do Sol a Fontainhas, Santo Antão, Cape Verde

A Vertiginous Journey from Ponta do Sol

We reach the northern tip of Santo Antão and Cape Verde. On a new afternoon of radiant light, we follow the Atlantic bustle of the fishermen and the less coastal day-to-day life of Ponta do Sol. With sunset imminent, we inaugurate a gloomy and intimidating quest of the village of Fontainhas.
Mindelo, São Vicente, Cape Verde

The Miracle of São Vicente

São Vicente has always been arid and inhospitable to match. The challenging colonization of the island subjected the settlers to successive hardships. Until, finally, its providential deep-water bay enabled Mindelo, the most cosmopolitan city and the cultural capital of Cape Verde.
Nova Sintra, Brava, Cape Verde

A Creole Sintra, instead of Saloia

When Portuguese settlers discovered the island of Brava, they noticed its climate, much wetter than most of Cape Verde. Determined to maintain connections with the distant metropolis, they called the main town Nova Sintra.
Tarrafal, Santiago, Cape Verde

The Tarrafal of Freedom and Slow Life

The village of Tarrafal delimits a privileged corner of the island of Santiago, with its few white sand beaches. Those who are enchanted there find it even more difficult to understand the colonial atrocity of the neighboring prison camp.
Ribeira Grande, Santo AntãoCape Verde

Santo Antão, Up the Ribeira Grande

Originally a tiny village, Ribeira Grande followed the course of its history. It became the village, later the city. It has become an eccentric and unavoidable junction on the island of Santo Antão.
Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
City
Bukhara, Uzbequistan

Among the Minarets of Old Turkestan

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, Bukhara has developed for at least two thousand years as an essential commercial, cultural and religious hub in Central Asia. It was Buddhist and then Muslim. It was part of the great Arab empire and that of Genghis Khan, the Turko-Mongol kingdoms and the Soviet Union, until it settled in the still young and peculiar Uzbekistan.
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.
Juvenile lions on a sandy arm of the Shire River
safari
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.
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.
Bertie in jalopy, Napier, New Zealand
Architecture & Design
Napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s

Devastated by an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in an almost ground-floor Art Deco and lives pretending to stop in the Thirties. Its visitors surrender to the Great Gatsby atmosphere that the city enacts.
lagoons and fumaroles, volcanoes, PN tongariro, new zealand
Aventura
Tongariro, New Zealand

The Volcanoes of All Discords

In the late XNUMXth century, an indigenous chief ceded the PN Tongariro volcanoes to the British crown. Today, a significant part of the Maori people claim their mountains of fire from European settlers.
Ceremonies and Festivities
Pentecost Island, Vanuatu

Naghol: Bungee Jumping without Modern Touches

At Pentecost, in their late teens, young people launch themselves from a tower with only lianas tied to their ankles. Bungee cords and harnesses are inappropriate fussiness from initiation to adulthood.
St. Paul's Cathedral, Vigan, Asia Hispanica, Philippines
Cities
Vigan, Philippines

Vigan: the Most Hispanic of Asias

The Spanish settlers left but their mansions are intact and the Kalesas circulate. When Oliver Stone was looking for Mexican sets for "Born on the 4th of July" he found them in this ciudad fernandina
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.
Mural displays Jazz musicians above a New Orleans parking lot.
Culture
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

To the Rhythm of Orleanian Music

New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz and jazz sounds and resonates in its streets. As expected, in such a creative city, jazz set the tone for new styles and irreverent acts. When visiting the Big Easy, we have the privilege of enjoying a little of everything.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Sport
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.
Christmas in Australia, Platipus = Platypus
Traveling
Atherton Tableland, Australia

Miles Away from Christmas (part XNUMX)

On December 25th, we explored the high, bucolic yet tropical interior of North Queensland. We ignore the whereabouts of most of the inhabitants and find the absolute absence of the Christmas season strange.
Christmas scene, Shillong, Meghalaya, India
Ethnic
Shillong, India

A Christmas Selfiestan at an India Christian Stronghold

December arrives. With a largely Christian population, the state of Meghalaya synchronizes its Nativity with that of the West and clashes with the overcrowded Hindu and Muslim subcontinent. Shillong, the capital, shines with faith, happiness, jingle bells and bright lighting. To dazzle Indian holidaymakers from other parts and creeds.
Sunset, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio

days like so many others

Resident of Dali, Yunnan, China
History
Dali, China

The Surrealist China of Dali

Embedded in a magical lakeside setting, the ancient capital of the Bai people has remained, until some time ago, a refuge for the backpacker community of travelers. The social and economic changes of China they fomented the invasion of Chinese to discover the southwest corner of the nation.
La Digue, Seychelles, Anse d'Argent
Islands
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.
coast, fjord, Seydisfjordur, Iceland
Winter White
Seydisfjordur, Iceland

From the Art of Fishing to the Fishing of Art

When shipowners from Reykjavik bought the Seydisfjordur fishing fleet, the village had to adapt. Today, it captures Dieter Roth's art disciples and other bohemian and creative souls.
On the Crime and Punishment trail, St. Petersburg, Russia, Vladimirskaya
Literature
Saint Petersburg, Russia

On the Trail of "Crime and Punishment"

In St. Petersburg, we cannot resist investigating the inspiration for the base characters in Fyodor Dostoevsky's most famous novel: his own pities and the miseries of certain fellow citizens.
Visitor risks his life atop the basalt columns of Reynisfjara.
Nature
South of Iceland

South Iceland vs North Atlantic: a Monumental Battle

Volcano slopes and lava flows, glaciers and immense rivers all hang and flow from the high interior of the Land of Fire and Ice to the frigid and often angry ocean. For all these and many other reasons of Nature, the Southland It is the most disputed region in Iceland.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Iguana in Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Natural Parks
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.
Uxmal, Yucatan, Mayan capital, the Pyramid of the Diviner
UNESCO World Heritage
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.
Correspondence verification
Characters
Rovaniemi, Finland

From the Finnish Lapland to the Arctic. A Visit to the Land of Santa

Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
Bather rescue in Boucan Canot, Reunion Island
Beaches
Reunion Island

The Bathing Melodrama of Reunion

Not all tropical coastlines are pleasurable and refreshing retreats. Beaten by violent surf, undermined by treacherous currents and, worse, the scene of the most frequent shark attacks on the face of the Earth, that of the Reunion Island he fails to grant his bathers the peace and delight they crave from him.
Pemba, Mozambique, Capital of Cabo Delgado, from Porto Amélia to Porto de Abrigo, Paquitequete
Religion
Pemba, Mozambique

From Porto Amélia to the Shelter Port of Mozambique

In July 2017, we visited Pemba. Two months later, the first attack took place on Mocímboa da Praia. Nor then do we dare to imagine that the tropical and sunny capital of Cabo Delgado would become the salvation of thousands of Mozambicans fleeing a terrifying jihadism.
Chepe Express, Chihuahua Al Pacifico Railway
On Rails
Creel to Los Mochis, Mexico

The Barrancas del Cobre & the CHEPE Iron Horse

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

Tokyo's fashion

In ultra-populous and hyper-coded Japan, there is always room for more sophistication and creativity. Whether national or imported, it is in the capital that they begin to parade the new Japanese looks.
Coin return
Daily life
Dawki, India

Dawki, Dawki, Bangladesh on sight

We descended from the high and mountainous lands of Meghalaya to the flats to the south and below. There, the translucent and green stream of the Dawki forms the border between India and Bangladesh. In a damp heat that we haven't felt for a long time, the river also attracts hundreds of Indians and Bangladeshis in a picturesque escape.
El Tatio Geisers, Atacama, Chile, Between ice and heat
Wildlife
El Tatio, Chile

El Tatio Geysers – Between the Ice and the Heat of the Atacama

Surrounded by supreme volcanoes, the geothermal field of El Tatio, in the Atacama Desert it appears as a Dantesque mirage of sulfur and steam at an icy 4200 m altitude. Its geysers and fumaroles attract hordes of travelers.
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.