Exploring Luleå and the church town of Gammelstad

Exploring Luleå and the church town of Gammelstad

Luleå (Luleju in Northern Sami, Julevu in Lule Sami, Luulaja in Finnish) is a coastal city and capital of Swedish Lapland in the northern province of Norrbotten. It is the largest city in Swedish Lapland as well as a modern city focused on the digital economy. Indeed,...
Frosty Fun in Luleå, Swedish Lapland

Frosty Fun in Luleå, Swedish Lapland

Swedish Lapland covers a quarter of Sweden, stretching from Sorsele and Skellefteå in the Västerbotten region to the country’s northernmost tip. Mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, and wild archipelagos shape this northern territory. Luleå is the largest city in...
Exploring the Costa Rican Pacific coast: the Manuel Antonio Park

Exploring the Costa Rican Pacific coast: the Manuel Antonio Park

The Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio is the smallest national park in Costa Rica. It lies on the Pacific coast, about 82 miles from the capital San José, and just south of Quepos. It is the most visited park in Costa Rica, was established in 1972 as a national park, and...
Exploring the Costa Rican Pacific coast: the Carara National Park

Exploring the Costa Rican Pacific coast: the Carara National Park

  The Carara and Manuel Antonio National Parks are both on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. They have very different atmospheres: you can pick which one you want based on what you are looking for! The Parque Nacional Carara, the less known one, transitions from...
Arenal Volcano National Park, A Natural Wonder

Arenal Volcano National Park, A Natural Wonder

Costa Rica is a land of volcanoes. These volcanoes are part of the Central American volcanic arc and part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Of the many volcanoes in Costa Rica, five are still active, Poás, Irazú, Arenal, Turrialba and Rincón de la Vieja. In the northwest...
Lapland: Northern lights like you’ve never seen them before!

Lapland: Northern lights like you’ve never seen them before!

Lapland offers an unparalleled spectacle during the Northern Lights season. Between fjords, tundra, steep cliffs and steep coasts, the region is known for its spectacular aurora borealis. What are the Northern Lights ? After touring Tromsø we turn to the beautiful...
The Head in the Clouds in the Reserve of Monteverde

The Head in the Clouds in the Reserve of Monteverde

Monteverde (Green Mountain) Located in the province of Puntarenas is one place not to be missed in Costa Rica. It is Costa Rica’s most important ecotourism destination. In 1951, American Quakers from Alabama purchased land in Costa Rica and moved there to avoid the...
The Caño Negro Refuge: Pointed teeth and Feathers along the Water

The Caño Negro Refuge: Pointed teeth and Feathers along the Water

The Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Caño Negro, the largest wetland in Costa Rica, is located on the northern plains of the province of Alajuela near the border with Nicaragua. The reserve is remote and off the beaten path and tourist circuit. The closest village...
Tenorio Volcano National Park, the most wonderful !

Tenorio Volcano National Park, the most wonderful !

Once almost unknown, the Tenorio Volcano National Park in northwest Costa Rica is home to a unique natural treasure: a sublime turquoise blue river and waterfall unlike any other in Central America or in the rest of the world ! On the Guanacaste mountain range, not...
Fauna and flora of the Arenal Volcano National Park

Fauna and flora of the Arenal Volcano National Park

How about a breath of fresh air in the heart of the Arenal Volcano National Park in Costa Rica ? This tiny Central American country is a vast nature sanctuary! The sumptuous Arenal Volcano National Park seduces in multiple ways: its omnipresent nature, its incredible...
Costa Rica: A Vast Reservoir of Biodiversity

Costa Rica: A Vast Reservoir of Biodiversity

Costa Rica is a small country in Central America bordering Nicaragua to the North and Panama to the South. It is home to 5% of the planet’s biodiversity ! Out of two million species identified in the world today, about 91,000 are found in Costa Rica. In other words,...
Journey to the Heart of the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica

Journey to the Heart of the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica

Costa Rica is located in Central American between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean and bordered by Nicaragua to the North and Panama to the Southeast. It is a small country (one tenth the size of France) but vast in its biodiversity. Costa Rica is the perfect...
The Sultanate of Oman in the time of Castles

The Sultanate of Oman in the time of Castles

Some 500 forts dot the mountains of the Sultanate of Oman. No matter where you go, you will run into a fort or a castles. There are so many you can’t visit them all! Those inland were influenced by Persian architecture, those on the coast by Portuguese. They dominate...
Escapes in the Hajar Mountain Range

Escapes in the Hajar Mountain Range

In the Sultanate of Oman, the landscape is tinted with three colors: ochre, the green of lush palm groves and the white of village houses embracing the mountain walls. Ochre is the dominant color and extends from the mountains to the desert and canyons. For...
The Natural Wonders of Oman: Green Wādī and Moving Sand

The Natural Wonders of Oman: Green Wādī and Moving Sand

Without a doubt Mother Nature gave the Sultanate of Oman her best ! As soon as you leave the city of Muscat, the scenery changes abruptly, and you find yourself in a mineral world of stony plains and jagged mountains. In the 14th century, Ibn Battûta, a Muslim Berber...
The East Coast of the Sultanate of Oman: A Walk along the Coastline

The East Coast of the Sultanate of Oman: A Walk along the Coastline

The coast of the Sultanate of Oman, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula, offers many attractions. For millennia fishermen have navigated this long, pristine coastline of over 1,865 miles (3,165 kilometers.) The coast is lined with sand-colored forts built...
El Tatio Geysers: the magical Atacama’s geothermal field

El Tatio Geysers: the magical Atacama’s geothermal field

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile… In this mineral world where everything seems so big, so infinite, and so calm. But some rocks are impatient. They wait for the morning surge of the geysers to warm up from the cold night ! Located about 50 miles north of San Pedro...
The Atacama Desert: See Life in Pink (Flamingo)

The Atacama Desert: See Life in Pink (Flamingo)

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile reveals astonishing landscapes at the feet of the Andes Mountains. The Salar de Atacama is about 34 miles south of San Pedro de Atacama. This salt flat covers an area of 1,200 square miles and is roughly 62 miles long and 50 miles...
The Atacama Desert, welcome to Mars !

The Atacama Desert, welcome to Mars !

Lunar landscapes, snow-topped volcanoes, vast salt lakes, bubbling geysers: the landscape of the Atacama is breathtaking. The Atacama Desert lies in the northernmost part of Chile. The region is sometimes called “El Norte Grande” and extends from the Peruvian border...
Easter Island, « The Mysterious Island »

Easter Island, « The Mysterious Island »

Like the island described in Jules Verne’s, “The Mysterious Island”, Rapa Nui or Easter Island, lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, holds many archaeological and cultural treasures. Indeed, Easter Island could have been an integral part of Verne’s series...
Easter Island, Mysterious Rapa Nui

Easter Island, Mysterious Rapa Nui

Isolated in the middle of the southeastern Pacific Ocean nearly 2,340 miles from Santiago de Chile, 2,646 miles from Tahiti, 4,650 miles from Honolulu, and 4,245 miles from Los Angeles, Easter Island is one of the world’s most isolated spots. It is about 15,3 miles...
A visit to Valparaiso, the Chile’s Colorful Coastal City

A visit to Valparaiso, the Chile’s Colorful Coastal City

A stop in Valparaíso (Valpo to locals) is a must-do when visiting Chile. Valparaiso is located 70 miles northwest of the capital Santiago and is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Its name means “Valley of Paradise”. In 2003 the historic center of...
Los Lagos Region or Araucania, a Mythical Land

Los Lagos Region or Araucania, a Mythical Land

The Los Lagos Region or the Araucania in southern Chile is located 435 miles from Santiago and stretches between the cities of Temuco and Puerto Montt. It is a popular holiday destination for Chileans. The mildness of its climate and the beauty of the landscape...
Chiloé, Patagonia seen from the Sea

Chiloé, Patagonia seen from the Sea

The Chiloé archipelago, in southwestern Chile, consists of 40 small islands, 36 of which are inhabited, and lies off the coast of the Los Lagos Region. The main island, Isla Grande Chiloé, is as big as Corsica and separated from the mainland by the Chacao Strait. It...
Torres del Paine, 50 shades of blue

Torres del Paine, 50 shades of blue

The Aymara people gave this narrow strip of land squeezed between the Andes to the East and the Pacific Ocean to the west the name “Chile”, meaning “the land lost in the sea”. Full of unusual places, surprises, and contrasts it stretches over 2,670 miles between...
Lapland, a Winter Paradise

Lapland, a Winter Paradise

Hyvää päivää, Lapland (or Sápmi in the Sámi language) stretches over four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola peninsula of Russia. The region is bounded by the Norwegian Sea on the west, the Barents Sea to the north and the White Sea in the east. This...
Saint Augustine: Back to the Future…

Saint Augustine: Back to the Future…

Can we take the wheel of the DeLorean Speed Machine on display at Universal Studios and at 88 miles per hour create a time vortex ? We are in the middle of “Back to the Future” as projected on to a small, historic and picturesque town along a beach lined with by sand...
Feel like a child again !

Feel like a child again !

If you don’t want to become an adult, just don’t grow up. Peter Pan succeeded in Neverland surrounded by his lost boys and the fairy Tinkerbell 🙂 . Let’s face it, it is tempting to rediscover a carefree childhood… even for a single day ? So, direction Orlando, a giant...