Truly Explosive Holidays

by Brett Atkinson on

This week’s the anniversary of the eruption of Pompei. On August 24 AD 79, Mount Vesuvius near Naples erupted to destroy the towns of Pompei and Herculaneum creating a legend that scared a young Kiwi at bedtime for longer than he’d like to admit. (It didn’t really matter that the mountain I grew up under in Rotorua, New Zealand was actually extinct).

A recent post on Forbes Traveler listed the top ten volcanic adventures for the intrepid globetrotter. Here’s their top three.

  1. Kilauea in Hawaii. Since 1983 the 4091 foot peak has been putting on a spectacular show.
  2. Mount Liamuiga in St Kitts. You’ll need to travel for six hours through rainforest to reach the summit.
  3. Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania . Technically it’s not an active volcano, but you can spy hot magma at 1300 beneath the summit. Count on a 5 day hike to conquer Africa’s highest peak.

Here’s three more I’ve been lucky enough to experience.

  1. Mount Kelimutu on the Indonesian island of Flores. There are 3 different crater lakes, all a different colour.
  2. Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador. The most fun you’ll have mountain biking from the snowline to a temperate forest.
  3. Mount Yasur on Tanna island in Vanuatu. The most fun you’ll have mountain biking on a South Pacific island.

Thanks to Matthew Winterburn on Flickr for the pic of Kelimutu.

Tiny Island Nation Seeks Tourists

by Willy Volk on

Love beachside bungalows? Does the thought of few (or no) other travelers excite you? Lemme guess: you like friendly locals? If this combination sounds too good to be true, it’s not. I’ve got one word for you: Principe.

Located off the coast of western Africa, Principe — the sister island of Sao Tome, and uttered almost always together, as in “Saotomeandprincipe” — is covered with dense, tropical jungle; ringed by khaki-colored beaches; and surrounded by warm, turquoise water. Located in the Gulf of Guinea, this volcano-tipped island also boasts desperately few — only 20 per week! — tourists. Moreover, as the local population hovers near 6000, you’re not likely to bump into many Principe-ians, either (if you don’t want to). In other words, the island is scenic, serene, and solitary. To me: the ideal vacation destination.

According to this piece in CNN, Principe is working hard to become the latest in a long line of underdeveloped African nations that have reinvented themselves as rich, wildlife-packed, ecotourist hotspots. Featuring opportunities to scuba dive, hike protected forests, and soak up year-round sun, Principe believes it can learn from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya — a country whose high-volume, low-cost tourism led to massive exploitation of resources, both natural and human — and become the next off-the-beaten-track “must visit” for adventure-minded travelers.

Today, the capital boasts two hotels. A Dutch woman is busy transforming two other buildings into hotels, and a casino complex is in the works. If you want to be among the first to visit this still-pristine wonderland, check out the excellent piece from CNN, which provides tips on when to go, where to stay, and what to do. Way to go.

[Via Sk*rt]

St. Lucia There & Back Part 4: Soufriere Day Trip

by Adrienne Wilson on


There are few destinations that have a special place in my heart reserved all for their own. Soufriere, a fishing town about 45 minutes south of Rodney Bay found its way in and I will forever remember it for a number of reasons, although the one that stands out the most isn’t something I’d recommend anyone trying to duplicate. I was told going down to Soufriere was a MUST and shouldn’t be missed with the amount of time I was spending on the island. Intrigued by most of what I had heard I decided to follow what everyone was saying and make the journey down.

My only initial dilemma was finding the best method to carry me there. At first I tried booking one of the open-air jeep safari adventures that take approximately six hours to show you all the key attractions and averages $65 in cost. If it includes a meal it might be a little more, but I didn’t go with this because there weren’t enough people to fill a jeep and head on out during my planned day trip dates. My second option was to venture down with a Rasta I had recently befriended and was willing to show me around provided I rent a car. I was too lazy to rent a car and as much as I liked the Rasta fellow, I went with a pal of the hotel chef and paid around $90 for a full day of sightseeing. Most taxi’s will get you there and around for something around $120-$150 and the local mini-buses (red and green) will certainly get you there for far, far cheaper, but you’ll need a way around to all the tourist attractions once you’re there and then a way back.

After solving the ride down issue it was all down hill or should I say there were some twists and turns and steep uphill climbs in the semi-long road to Soufriere, but if one can handle it then do it! It is a natural place and full of nature. Walk with me through my day adventure into the village, the volcano and waterfalls.

For starters, Soufriere is the home of a UNESCO World Heritage site known as the Pitons. Gros Piton and Petit Piton are two volcanic plugs rising from the sea’s surface in a visually striking manner. There are a number of ways to view the dramatic peaks aside from the marked view points on the way into the village. There are boat trips, day hikes, and then there is the view from a helicopter window which I’ll cover in another two days. The point is they are a work of art from Mother Nature. When I stopped at one view point there was a pleasant woman named Mary wearing a St. Lucia tourism shirt awaiting any tourist that popped in to tell them a few facts about the area like what films had been shot there (Pirates of the Caribbean), population and when the area last felt the wrath of a volcanic eruption.

Soufriere boasts itself for having the Caribbean’s only drive-in volcano, meaning the town sits in the volcano and that the volcano is still very much active even if it has been centuries since the last eruption. I’ve lived in an inactive crater in Hawaii, but I don’t think I would live where there could potentially be some future molten lava action. Hats off to the residents of Soufriere.

We kept driving on down and through the city until we finally reached the first real stopping point and attraction – the sulphur springs. Before you enter the springs the smell of sulphur fills your nostrils to let you know you’ve arrived. My driver shared his thoughts on the whole sulphur phenomenon by saying he didn’t buy everything they said about it. He didn’t think bathing in that kind of mineral filled water was really as good for the skin as they said it was and still you find tourist after tourist dipping their toes and hands into the water. I told him I actually use sulphur soap back home and love what it does for my skin, but I wasn’t going to be plunging into the waters that day.


They give short guided tours to see the steam rising from the boiling pools and offer a little info, such as how the most dangerous volcano in the Caribbean right now is in Grenada because it is under water and should a tsunami or something like it occur some very scary things could happen. Things we don’t even want to imagine. Things we won’t mention here. Things like destruction. One of the women on the tour looked pretty shaken up by this news which my travel companions for the day found sort of funny for some odd reason.

From the sulphur springs we headed to the Toraille Waterfall. At the Toraille Waterfall you can spend a moment or two bathing underneath the falls, but on this particular day the water was quite cold and so there weren’t many splashing around. I took it as an opportunity to wonder around the land and snap a few photos. I was blown away by all the beautiful flowers and hummingbirds and other creatures crawling around. My guides were well-informed on the various plant life and called out the name of each as I photographed them. I was so caught up by their beauty that the names just breezed through one ear and out the other. I did manage to remember the Bird of Paradise.

Oh, wait -it’s me at the Toraille waterfall! Hi all!

The name of the next waterfall escapes my mind, but it wasn’t any of the ones found at the Diamond Botanical Gardens. When we pulled up there we were told by a Rasta selling handicrafts that there were others that were much better and less crowded. He directed us to the warm waterfall which I think is called the Pitons waterfall and was indeed very warm. There were tons of people bathing in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall and my travel companions quickly joined in on the fun. I gladly sat this one out as I was still fighting a little cold and didn’t want to chance the current feel good feeling I was having by simply being an onlooker. This typically isn’t my way of doing things, but it worked well for the day.


And here we have a charming little lizard.

Beyond waterfalls and volcanoes there are several other activities to take part in while touring the area that I just didn’t have the time to do. The Morne Coubaril Estate is a working family plantation offering tours and a demo on how the coffee and cocoa are processed. Additionally they have horseback riding tours for only $30. There are a number of banana plantations on the ride up and back worth stopping to look at if time permits. For additional ideas try the Tropical Traveller. I used the magazine as a reference many times and it stays well up-to-date with events happening in Soufriere and across the island.

Dome of Montserrat’s Soufriere Hills Volcano Collapses

by Karen Walrond on

Yesterday, on our way back to Trinidad from Miami, my friend Joanna and I were astonished to hear the pilot of our airplane say the following over the intercom:

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to take a bit of a scenic route to Trinidad today — instead of our normal route, we’re going to head towards Haiti, and then towards Aruba and Bonaire and follow the north coast of Venezuela into Trinidad.  This is because of the eruption of the volcano in Montserrat this morning, which is spewing volcanic ash into the atmosphere, and it is against FAA regulations to fly through volcanic ash.”

Joanna and I looked at each other with astonishment.  We hadn’t heard anything about a volcano erupting.   This wasn’t good news:  About a decade ago, the Montserrat volcano erupted, resulting in a decline in the local population from  12,000 to 4,000 people.  More than half of the island became uninhabitable. Although only 20 people were killed by the mud volcano, most migrated overseas.

A few hours later, the pilot came back on, directing our attention to the left side of the airplane, where the cloud of volcanic ash had risen to over 60,000 feet.  Strangely, once I arrived home I couldn’t find any news report about the eruption.

Finally, this morning, I found this article in the Washington Post, published late last night.  It appears the inhabitants of the island are safe.

Good news.

(Photo courtesy of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.)

New US National Natural Landmark: Nebraska’s Ashfall Fossil Beds

by Karen Walrond on

National Geographic News is reporting that the U.S. Department of the Interior has designated Nebraska’s Ashfall Fossil Beds a national natural landmark.  The fossil beds, located near the town of Neligh, contain hundreds of fossils, including those of ” five species of horses, three species of camels, barrel-bodied rhinos, saber-toothed deer, several species of dogs, and two species of turtles.”  Like the fossils found in Pompeii, the skeletons of these animals are “preserved in their death positions, complete with evidence of their last meals in their mouths and stomachs.”

 “Many of these animals are subtropical or tropical, which shows how different our environment was in this area 12 million years ago,” said Rick Otto, the superintendent of the park.  “When you look at the fossil bed, you not only have an idea of what these prehistoric animals looked like, but the fact that they’re buried in this pure volcanic ash gives you an idea of the catastrophe that resulted in their death.”