tombstone, USA

Tombstone: the City Too Hard to Die


gang of 4
The Tombstone Law Enforcement Court formed by the Earp brothers and their friend Doc Holliday, featured here in the re-enactment of the OK Corral duel held in the city.
on the way to somewhere
Stagecoach runs along E. Allen Street, the main thoroughfare of Tombstone.
western lace
Maids of the Big Nose Kate saloon, one of the city's historic establishments.
gold tombstone
Sol gilds one of Tombstone's Western architectural lines.
Eminent clash
Moment of the re-enactment of the OK Corral duel in a wooden setting that emulates the place of confrontation.
Time to refresh the soul
Colorful and lively interior of the Big Nose Kate saloon.
OK Corral ON/OFF
One of the duel actors triggers the voiceover that explains the OK Corral duel event.
R.I.P.
Tombstones and crude graves of rival assassins of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday, shot down during the OK Corral duel.
Duel Time
Gunmen rush down Tombstone's main street ready for conflict.
Silver veins discovered at the end of the XNUMXth century made Tombstone a prosperous and conflictive mining center on the frontier of the United States to Mexico. Lawrence Kasdan, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and other Hollywood directors and actors made famous the Earp brothers and the bloodthirsty duel of “OK Corral”. The Tombstone, which, over time, has claimed so many lives, is about to last.

Tucson to Tombstone: through Arizona below

We are not big fans of theme parks. We were afraid to find little more than one in Tombstone. In any case, through the ages, Tombstone has always inspired fear. Aware of its epic and fascinating Western past, we give it the benefit of the doubt and leave Tucson pointed that way.

Less than half an hour from the border with the Mexico, soon we have to stop at a police checkpoint. The officers find the context in which they found us strange: a couple with Portuguese passports – she with more Mexican than Portuguese features – aboard an old and classic Buick Le Saber, not rented, with California license plate and signs of having recently traveled many kilometers in a way semi-domicile.

Even Americans, the agents themselves have obvious Mexican genetics and looks. They check ownership of the car and inquire about the relationship we had with the owner. After confirming that the Buick was not on the list of stolen vehicles and explaining to them that the owner was an uncle of ours, they tell us to move on. They say goodbye with warm smiles.

We passed Sonoita, Whetstone and Fairbank. An hour and a half of driving along the edge of the Sonoran Desert later, we enter a surreal colonnaded redoubt.

Tombstone's Western Ways

Stages cross the main street of the city, delimited by two rows of ground-floor wooden buildings, extending to a long communal walkway formed by successive porches. A multitude of commercial establishments occupy the shaded ground floors.

Stage in Tombstone, Arizona

Stagecoach runs along E. Allen Street, the main thoroughfare of Tombstone.

Craft and souvenir shops, bars, breweries and restaurants but also saloons and the theater are identified by signs that reinforce the peculiarity of the place: “Politicians wipe their shit off their boots before they go inside." or "Prohibited Weapons. The cemetery is already full."

The various characters from the West that we come across are so trustworthy that, more than leaving us perplexed, they convince us that we have retreated to the bellicose closing of the XNUMXth century of these inhospitable and marginal places.

Even at the end of a so-called winter, the desert heat tightens. We drank cold beers in the shade of one of the porches, in the company of what appeared to be the village's bearded gravedigger. Unexpectedly, rival groups of gunmen charge from opposite ends of E. Ellen Street until they come face to face, in front of a store identified as “Outlaw Outfitter".

A crowd of onlookers gathers on both sides of the road and follows the course of the duel. On that occasion, as in all the more recent ones, the shooting and the killings followed a theatrical script, but since its troubled gestation, for decades to come, Tombstone was the scene of countless of these confrontations, as real as they were deadly.

Duel in Tombstone, Arizona, United States of America

Gunmen rush down Tombstone's main street ready for conflict.

How Ed Schieffelin's Luck Originated the City

Tombstone was founded by Ed Schieffelin in 1879, 15 years after the end of the American Civil War. Schieffelin was a scout in the army of the USA parked at Camp Huachuca. I used to roam the desert vastness around in search of valuable ores. By that time, three other superintendents had been killed by Indians.

When a colleague and friend found out about the places that Schieffelin had started to prospect, he said: “The only stone you'll find around these parts will be your own tombstone” or, in another version: “You'd better take your coffin with you; you'll only find your tombstone around there, nothing else” (Tombstone, in English).

Schieffelin ignored him. In 1877, he found silver samples in a plate called Goose Flats. It took months to ascertain its origin. When he got it, he estimated that the lode would be 15m long by 30cm wide. He hurried to register the land plot of “Tombstone".

Even far from other cities, propelled by the 40 to 85 million dollars of silver that made it the largest mining district in Arizona, the place has become one of the last mining hubs in the American West.

Just two years later, Tombstone had 110 saloons, a bowling hall, 14 games, several dance halls, an ice house and an ice cream parlor, a school, two benches, a church and several brothels. These establishments and buildings were erected on a series of mines deepened by the greed of newly arrived miners.

Big Nose Kate Saloon in Tombstone, Arizona, United States of America

Colorful and lively interior of the Big Nose Kate saloon.

Due to hasty, neglectful construction and non-existent structural fire precautions, Tombstone was devastated by two major fires in consecutive years. The first, in 1881, began when a lit cigarette burned a whiskey barrel in one of the saloons. It devastated sixty-six businesses, the entire eastern section of the city's commercial area.

Saloons, theaters and the like: reliving the past in Tombstone

They may not be the 100% original, but they should live up to the status achieved by the city, in 1961, of National Historic Landmark District. As such, the authorities and the inhabitants of Tombstone (today circa 1300) strive to preserve several of its iconic buildings.

These were the cases of the Birdcage Theatre, the Saloon and the Schiefflin mine, the Longhorn restaurant, the Cochise district court, the City Hall, the Big Nose Kate saloon and, for events that we are yet to discuss, the most famous of all remaining together OK Corral, this despite the second fire only leaving the raised sign intact.

The sun was already descending from its apex but the temperature hovered well above 30º. Accordingly, visitors stayed inside establishments, determined to avoid the turret that was felt. We took refuge in the Big Nose Kate saloon.

There, we are served by two young ladies of pleasure extras, in short black satin dresses, with high breasts and corsets to match the voluptuous lacy legs. And, right next door, a middle-aged visitor crawls into a coffin. Photographs are taken holding a small sign that reads “hooker” with a noose around his neck, which a sheriff helps to hold.

Maids of the Big Nose Kate Saloon in Tombstone, Arizona, United States of America

Maids of the Big Nose Kate saloon, one of the city's historic establishments

We didn't know what to think about the fact that most of the serious customers wear snake clothes, have a posture like a snake, and most likely are. We were in the near-Mexican confines of Arizona, one of the American states most faithful to the nation's conservative, gunslinging past. In Tombstone, the threshold between past and present, between fiction and reality, was increasingly blurred.

The Reenacted Slaughter of OK Corral

To confirm it, 15:30 pm arrived, the time of the last re-enactment of the day of OK Corral's duel. We moved to the small bench set up facing the gaudy scenery and let the action unfold. Every year, more than 400.000 outsiders watch this neat little theatre.

Duel at OK Corral, Tombstone, Arizona, United States of America

Moment of the re-enactment of the OK Corral duel in a wooden setting that emulates the place of confrontation.

If we take into account the cinematographic and television re-enactments spread all over the world, the number of spectators and those familiar with the events that precipitated from March 15, 1881 to April 15, 1882 increases exponentially.

The confrontations between good and evil, law and outlaws, had such bloodthirsty and moving endings that they entered like piercing bullets in the profuse Western historical imagination of the USA.

Democrats, Republicans and the Outlaw Cowboys

In the wake of the American Civil War, shrouded in greed, resentment and treachery, Tombstone had seen various tensions escalate from his early days. Most of its cobols, semi-exiled earth men, were “Democrats” from the South, especially from Texas, attached to the Confederate and defeated side of the conflict that had just begun to heal.

Tombstone, Arizona, United States of America

Sol gilds one of Tombstone's Western architectural lines.

Mine and business owners, miners, inhabitants and law enforcement officers were almost all Republicans. More ideologically receptive and resourceful capitalists from the northern states.

From 1880 onwards, the Mexican government severely taxed US imports of alcohol, cattle and tobacco. The smuggling of these goods has intensified. It spread the criminal action of outlaw gangs who called themselves “Cowboys”.

So much so that, in Cochise County to which Tombstone belonged, it was considered insulting to use the term to refer to men who handled cattle. Instead, they should be called “Stake".

The Earps vs Pack McLaury, Clanton and Claiborne

Part of this picture, on the night of March 15, 1881, three cobols tried to steal a stagecoach carrying $26.000 in bar silver. They killed their popular driver and another passenger. Sheriff Virgil Earp and his brothers and temporary deputies Wyatt and Morgan Earp set out on the criminals' trail.

The persecution turned out to involve a familiar and rival clan of Cobols who despised the Earp brothers' ancestry in Tombstone and the legal and moral counterpower they represented. It triggered a sequence of ambushes and counter-ambushes, murders and revenge, which, in turn, led to the confrontation of OK Corral.

Then, in thirty seconds, the Earp brothers, and their physical friend Doc Holliday, shot down Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton. Even though they were fatally wounded, the latter two still managed to fight back and wounded Virgil, Morgan and Doc. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne fled.

Earp brothers look-alikes and friend Doc Holliday in Tombstone, USA

The Tombstone Law Enforcement Court formed by the Earp brothers and their friend Doc Holliday, featured here in the re-enactment of the OK Corral duel held in the city.

Wyatt, an Earp Doomed to Revenge

Despite the impact and notoriety of this particular duel, the conflict would continue. The new Sheriff Beham who had watched the duel detained the Earps and Holliday, who were accused of murder. A month later, after Tombstone legal authorities ruled that the killings had been justified, he released them.

Meanwhile, Virgil Earp was trapped, shot by wildebeests hiding in a street in Tombstone. After another three months, his brother Morgan succumbed to a bullet that hit his spine while playing pool. In both cases, the responsible gunmen escaped justice.

Frustrated by the growing cowardice and inefficiency of the city's Law, Wyatt, the surviving Earp, organized a squadron on horseback that chased and slaughtered the four wildebeests who had fired at the brothers. This ultimate chase went down in history as Earp Vendetta Ride.

OK Corral Show actor activates voiceover in Tombstone, Arizona, United States of America

One of the duel actors triggers the voiceover that explains the OK Corral duel event.

The Hollywood Versions of Tombstone

Since 1939, Hollywood has reinforced Tombstone's media firepower. “Frontier Marshall”, “Sheriff of Tombstone","My Darling Clementine” by John Ford with Henry Fonda, “Gunfight at the OK Corral","hour of the gun","Tombstone"and "Wyatt Earp”, these feature films and several other television works addressed the bloody sequel.

Kevin Costner was expected to star in "Tombstone” by George P. Cosmatos, with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer, but he was displeased by screenwriter Kevin Jarre's refusal to give more weight to Wyatt Earp's character. Kostner abandoned that stage. He teamed up with Laurence Kasdan (the director of the epic “Silverado” from 1985) in the rival project “Wyatt Earp".

According to Kurt Russell, he also did everything to prevent the big Hollywood studios from distributing “Tombstone”. However, the Buena Vistas boycotted his boycott. The two films premiered six months apart in their own commercial duel.

As for Tombstone village, the censuses of USA they showed that, once silver mining had ended, the population had dropped from 1900 inhabitants in 1890 to less than 700 in 1900.

As of October 26, 1881, Billy Clayton, Tom McLaury and Frank McClaury who, as we have witnessed, have their headstones just below the OK Corral, among cacti and under a blanket of pebbles, no longer contribute to local demography.

Earp and Doc Holliday brothers graves in Tombstone, United States of America

Tombstones and crude graves of rival assassins of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday, shot down during the OK Corral duel.

Tombstone, however, remained the county seat of Cochise county until 1929 and saved itself from becoming a ghost town. Ten years later, its media coverage via Hollywood began to encourage the intense tourism that now sees it. Nearly 140 years after its founding, the tormented Tombstone endures.

More tourist information about Tombstone on the website visit Arizona.

Key West, USA

The Tropical Wild West of the USA

We've come to the end of the Overseas Highway and the ultimate stronghold of propagandism Florida Keys. The continental United States here they surrender to a dazzling turquoise emerald marine vastness. And to a southern reverie fueled by a kind of Caribbean spell.
Grand Canyon, USA

Journey through the Abysmal North America

The Colorado River and tributaries began flowing into the plateau of the same name 17 million years ago and exposed half of Earth's geological past. They also carved one of its most stunning entrails.
sitka, Alaska

Sitka: Journey through a once Russian Alaska

In 1867, Tsar Alexander II had to sell Russian Alaska to the United States. In the small town of Sitka, we find the Russian legacy but also the Tlingit natives who fought them.
Monument Valley, USA

Indians or Cowboys?

Iconic Western filmmakers like John Ford immortalized what is the largest Indian territory in the United States. Today, in the Navajo Nation, the Navajo also live in the shoes of their old enemies.
Las Vegas, USA

Where sin is always forgiven

Projected from the Mojave Desert like a neon mirage, the North American capital of gaming and entertainment is experienced as a gamble in the dark. Lush and addictive, Vegas neither learns nor regrets.
Navajo nation, USA

The Navajo Nation Lands

From Kayenta to Page, passing through Marble Canyon, we explore the southern Colorado Plateau. Dramatic and desert, the scenery of this indigenous domain, cut out in Arizona, reveals itself to be splendid.
Death Valley, USA

The Hottest Place Resurrection

Since 1921, Al Aziziyah, in Libya, was considered the hottest place on the planet. But the controversy surrounding the 58th measured there meant that, 99 years later, the title was returned to Death Valley.
Skagway, Alaska

A Klondike's Gold Fever Variant

The last great American gold rush is long over. These days, hundreds of cruise ships each summer pour thousands of well-heeled visitors into the shop-lined streets of Skagway.
Albuquerque, USA

When the Drums Sound, the Indians Resist

With more than 500 tribes present, the pow wow "Gathering of the Nations" celebrates the sacred remnants of Native American cultures. But it also reveals the damage inflicted by colonizing civilization.
Las Vegas, USA

The Sin City Cradle

The famous Strip has not always focused the attention of Las Vegas. Many of its hotels and casinos replicated the neon glamor of the street that once stood out, Fremont Street.
Florida Keys, USA

The Caribbean Stepping Stone of the USA

Os United States continental islands seem to close to the south in its capricious peninsula of Florida. Don't stop there. More than a hundred islands of coral, sand and mangroves form an eccentric tropical expanse that has long seduced American vacationers.
Miami, USA

A Masterpiece of Urban Rehabilitation

At the turn of the 25st century, the Wynwood neighbourhood remained filled with abandoned factories and warehouses and graffiti. Tony Goldman, a shrewd real estate investor, bought more than XNUMX properties and founded a mural park. Much more than honoring graffiti there, Goldman founded the Wynwood Arts District, the great bastion of creativity in Miami.
Miami beach, USA

The Beach of All Vanities

Few coasts concentrate, at the same time, so much heat and displays of fame, wealth and glory. Located in the extreme southeast of the USA, Miami Beach is accessible via six bridges that connect it to the rest of Florida. It is meager for the number of souls who desire it.
Little Havana, USA

Little Havana of the Nonconformists

Over the decades and until today, thousands of Cubans have crossed the Florida Straits in search of the land of freedom and opportunity. With the US a mere 145 km away, many have gone no further. His Little Havana in Miami is today the most emblematic neighborhood of the Cuban diaspora.
Mount Denali, Alaska

The Sacred Ceiling of North America

The Athabascan Indians called him Denali, or the Great, and they revered his haughtiness. This stunning mountain has aroused the greed of climbers and a long succession of record-breaking climbs.
Juneau, Alaska

The Little Capital of Greater Alaska

From June to August, Juneau disappears behind cruise ships that dock at its dockside. Even so, it is in this small capital that the fate of the 49th American state is decided.
Talkeetna, Alaska

Talkeetna's Alaska-Style Life

Once a mere mining outpost, Talkeetna rejuvenated in 1950 to serve Mt. McKinley climbers. The town is by far the most alternative and most captivating town between Anchorage and Fairbanks.
San Francisco, USA

San Francisco Cable Cars: A Life of Highs and Lows

A macabre wagon accident inspired the San Francisco cable car saga. Today, these relics work as a charm operation in the city of fog, but they also have their risks.
Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Mauna Kea: the Volcano with an Eye out in Space

The roof of Hawaii was off-limits to natives because it housed benevolent deities. But since 1968, several nations sacrificed the peace of the gods and built the greatest astronomical station on the face of the Earth.
pearl harbor, Hawaii

The Day Japan Went Too Far

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor military base. Today, parts of Hawaii look like Japanese colonies but the US will never forget the outrage.
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.
Skipper of one of the bangkas at Raymen Beach Resort during a break from sailing
Beach
Islands Guimaras  e  Ave Maria, Philippines

Towards Ave Maria Island, in a Philippines full of Grace

Discovering the Western Visayas archipelago, we set aside a day to travel from Iloilo along the northwest coast of Guimaras. The beach tour along one of the Philippines’ countless pristine coastlines ends on the stunning Ave Maria Island.
Hippopotamus moves in the flooded expanse of the Elephant Plain.
safari
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.
Monks on the steps of Tashi Lha Khang Monastery
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit 16th - Marpha, Nepal

Marpha and the Early End of the Circuit

After thirteen days of walking from the distant Chame, we arrive at Marpha. Sheltered at the foot of a hill, on the edge of the Gandaki River, Marpha is the last preserved and charming village on the route. The excessive construction work along the F042 route that would take us back to Pokhara has forced us to shorten the second part of the Annapurna Circuit.
holy plain, Bagan, Myanmar
Architecture & Design
Bagan, Myanmar

The Plain of Pagodas, Temples and other Heavenly Redemptions

Burmese religiosity has always been based on a commitment to redemption. In Bagan, wealthy and fearful believers continue to erect pagodas in hopes of winning the benevolence of the gods.
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.
Conflicted Way
Ceremonies and Festivities
Jerusalem, Israel

Through the Belicious Streets of Via Dolorosa

In Jerusalem, while traveling the Via Dolorosa, the most sensitive believers realize how difficult the peace of the Lord is to achieve in the most disputed streets on the face of the earth.
Athens, Greece, Changing of the Guard at Syntagma Square
Cities
Athens, Greece

The City That Perpetuates the Metropolis

After three and a half millennia, Athens resists and prospers. From a belligerent city-state, it became the capital of the vast Hellenic nation. Modernized and sophisticated, it preserves, in a rocky core, the legacy of its glorious Classical Era.
Lunch time
Markets

A Market Economy

The law of supply and demand dictates their proliferation. Generic or specific, covered or open air, these spaces dedicated to buying, selling and exchanging are expressions of life and financial health.
mini-snorkeling
Culture
Phi Phi Islands, Thailand

Back to Danny Boyle's The Beach

It's been 15 years since the debut of the backpacker classic based on the novel by Alex Garland. The film popularized the places where it was shot. Shortly thereafter, the XNUMX tsunami literally washed some away off the map. Today, their controversial fame remains intact.
combat arbiter, cockfighting, philippines
Sport
Philippines

When Only Cock Fights Wake Up the Philippines

Banned in much of the First World, cockfighting thrives in the Philippines where they move millions of people and pesos. Despite its eternal problems, it is the sabong that most stimulates the nation.
Eternal Spring Shrine
Traveling

Taroko George

Deep in Taiwan

In 1956, skeptical Taiwanese doubted that the initial 20km of Central Cross-Island Hwy was possible. The marble canyon that challenged it is today the most remarkable natural setting in Formosa.

Cobá, trip to the Mayan Ruins, Pac Chen, Mayans of now
Ethnic
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.
Sunset, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio

days like so many others

Canoe fishermen, Volta River, Ghana
History
Volta, Ghana

A Tour around Volta

In colonial times, the great African region of the Volta was German, British and French. Today, the area east of this majestic West African river and the lake on which it spreads forms a province of the same name. It is a mountainous, lush and breathtaking corner of Ghana.
The small lighthouse at Kallur, highlighted in the capricious northern relief of the island of Kalsoy.
Islands
Kalsoy, Faroe Islands

A Lighthouse at the End of the Faroese World

Kalsoy is one of the most isolated islands in the Faroe archipelago. Also known as “the flute” due to its long shape and the many tunnels that serve it, a mere 75 inhabitants inhabit it. Much less than the outsiders who visit it every year, attracted by the boreal wonder of its Kallur lighthouse.
Boats on ice, Hailuoto Island, Finland.
Winter White
Hailuoto, Finland

A Refuge in the Gulf of Bothnia

During winter, the island of Hailuoto is connected to the rest of Finland by the country's longest ice road. Most of its 986 inhabitants esteem, above all, the distance that the island grants them.
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.
Iguana in Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Nature
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.
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.
Lake Manyara, National Park, Ernest Hemingway, Giraffes
Natural Parks
Lake Manyara NP, Tanzania

Hemingway's Favorite Africa

Situated on the western edge of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park is one of the smallest but charming and richest in Europe. wild life of Tanzania. In 1933, between hunting and literary discussions, Ernest Hemingway dedicated a month of his troubled life to him. He narrated those adventurous safari days in “The Green Hills of Africa".
Cambodia, Angkor, Ta Phrom
UNESCO World Heritage
Ho Chi Minh a of Angkor, Cambodia

The Crooked Path to Angkor

From Vietnam onwards, Cambodia's crumbling roads and minefields take us back to the years of Khmer Rouge terror. We survive and are rewarded with the vision of the greatest religious temple
now from above ladder, sorcerer of new zealand, Christchurch, new zealand
Characters
Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand's Cursed Wizard

Despite his notoriety in the antipodes, Ian Channell, the New Zealand sorcerer, failed to predict or prevent several earthquakes that struck Christchurch. At the age of 88, after 23 years of contract with the city, he made very controversial statements and ended up fired.
Soufrière and Pitons, Saint Luci
Beaches
Soufriere, Saint Lucia

The Great Pyramids of the Antilles

Perched above a lush coastline, the twin peaks Pitons are the hallmark of Saint Lucia. They have become so iconic that they have a place in the highest notes of East Caribbean Dollars. Right next door, residents of the former capital Soufrière know how precious their sight is.
Religion
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.
End of the World Train, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
On Rails
Ushuaia, Argentina

Last Station: End of the World

Until 1947, the Tren del Fin del Mundo made countless trips for the inmates of the Ushuaia prison to cut firewood. Today, passengers are different, but no other train goes further south.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Society
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.
Young twin women, weavers
Daily life

Margilan, Uzbequistan

A Tour of Uzbekistan's Handicraft Fabrics

Located in the far east of Uzbekistan, in the Fergana Valley, Margilan was one of the essential stops on the Silk Road. Since the 10th century, the silk products produced there have made it stand out on maps; today, haute couture brands compete for its fabrics. More than just a prodigious center of artisanal creation, Margilan values ​​and cherishes an ancient Uzbek way of life.
Curieuse Island, Seychelles, Aldabra turtles
Wildlife
Felicité Island and Curieuse Island, Seychelles

From Leprosarium to Giant Turtles Home

In the middle of the XNUMXth century, it remained uninhabited and ignored by Europeans. The French Ship Expedition “La Curieuse” revealed it and inspired his baptism. The British kept it a leper colony until 1968. Today, Île Curieuse is home to hundreds of Aldabra tortoises, the longest-lived land animal.
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.