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French Polynesia Society Islands

Tahaa

Tahaa is an island located among the Society Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The islands of Tahaa and neighboring Raiatea are enclosed by the same coral reef, and may once have been a single island.

Administratively speaking, Tahaa and the surrounding islets emerging from the coral reef form a commune (municipality) part of the administrative subdivision of the Leeward Islands. The administrative centre of the commune of Tahaa is the settlement of Patio.

Tahaa produces 70-80% of all French Polynesia’s vanilla. Because of the pervasive aroma of vanilla, Tahaa is known as the “Vanilla Island”. Tahaa’s pearls are of exceptional quality.

Taha’a and its small motus (islets) can be reached by boat and outrigger from Raiatea. The short sail drops visitors on a motu beach with a perfect small lagoon, and in the near distance, a view of Bora Bora framed by the coconut palms and the lagoon. This is a short day trip to a more simple Tahiti.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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French Polynesia Society Islands

Maupiti

Maupiti is a small coral atoll with a volcanic island in its midst.

Maupiti is located to the west of the Leeward Islands in French Polynesia. It is the westernmost volcanic high island in the archipelago, 40 km west of Bora Bora. The central island of Maupiti has a high peak of 380 metres and a surface area of 11 square kilometers. The lagoon has large and flat coral islands in its northern reef half and two motus on both sides of the pass at its southern end.

At the August 2007 census, the island population was about 1,200 people. The primary economic activity on Maupiti is Noni production.

There are ancient Polynesian archaeological artefacts dating from at least AD 850 in Maupiti. The first European to arrive on the island was the Dutchman Jakob Roggeveen in 1722. Historically, the island has had strong cultural links with Bora Bora.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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São Tomé and Príncipe

Príncipe

Príncipe is the smaller of the two major islands of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa. It has an area of 136 km² and a population of around 5,000 people. It rises in the south to 948 metres at Pico de Príncipe, in a thickly forested area forming part of the Obo National Park. The north and centre of the island were formerly plantations but largely reverted to forest. The island forms one province and one district named Pagué. The languages other than Portuguese includes Principense or Lunguyê with a few Forro speakers.

The island has one town, Santo António, and an airport (IATA code: PCP, ICAO: FPPR?), as well as some small villages including Bela Vista, Bombom, Futuro, Neves Ferreira, Paciencia, Ponta Fonte, Ribeira Ize, Santo Antonio de Ureca, Vila Rosa and more – few connected to the small road network.

The island is a heavily eroded volcano over three million years old, surrounded by other smaller islands including Ilheu Bom Bom, Ilhéu Caroço, Tinhosa Grande and Tinhosa Pequena.

Príncipe was the site where Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was experimentally proved successful by Arthur Stanley Eddington and his team during an eclipse in 1919.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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São Tomé and Príncipe

Rolas II

Rolas is a small island lying south of São Tomé Island, being the third largest island of São Tomé and Príncipe. It lies directly on the equator and is known for its beaches, its palm trees, its lighthouse and its beach resort. The island rises to a volcano and is linked by boat to Porto Alegre on São Tomé Island.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Mozambique

Ibo

Ibo is one of the Quirimbas Islands in the Indian Ocean off northern Mozambique. It is part of Cabo Delgado Province. It grew as a Muslim trading port. Vasco da Gama reportedly rested on the island in 1502. The island was fortified in 1609 by the Portuguese.

In the late eighteenth century, Portuguese colonialists built the Fort of São João, which still survives, and the town, as a slave port, became the second most important in the region after Mozambique Island. The island is now a far quieter place, known for its silversmiths.

Ibo forms part of the Quiribas National Park and is linked by dhows to the mainland at Tandanhangue.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Tanzania

Pemba

The island of Pemba known as ‘Al Jazeera Al Khadra’ (the green island, in Arabic) is an island forming part of the Zanzibar archipelago, lying off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. It is situated about 50 kilometres to the north of the island of Zanzibar. In the 1960s Zanzibar was united with the former colony of Tanganyika to form Tanzania. It lies 50 kilometres east of mainland Tanzania. Together with Mafia Island (south of Zanzibar), they form the Spice Islands (not to be confused with Maluku Islands of Indonesia). In 1988, the estimated population was 265,000, with an area of 980 km².

Most of the island, which is hillier and more fertile than Zanzibar, is dominated by small scale farming. There is large scale farming of cash crops such as cloves — there are over 3 million clove trees.

Pemba is also becoming well-known for its dive sites, with vertiginous drop-offs, untouched coral and very abundant marine life. The central town Chake-Chake is located on a hill with a view to the west on the bay and the tiny Misali island where the tides determine when a dhow can enter the harbour.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Madagascar

Morondava

Morondava is a city located in the province of Toliara and the Region of Menabe, of which it is the capital, in Madagascar. It is located in the delta of the Morandava River at 20°17′5″S 44°19′3″E.

Air Madagascar has regular scheduled flights to Morondava Airport. The main road to the town, and indeed the roads in the town itself, are severely eroded with less than 30% of the original tarmac left in most places. Overland transport is therefore very slow and difficult, especially in the rainy season. Pirogues are consequently a popular mode of transport used to ferry people and goods up and down the coast, especially to Morombe.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Madagascar

Isle do Portugues

Still today, in the XXI century, near Tolanaro or Fort Dauphin, in an island at the mouth of the Vinanibe River the remains of this settlement are visible. The fort is square shaped and it is a very important historical witness, because it is the first European building build in Madagascar.

This fort is located some 10 km to the west of Fort Dauphin. It offers a testimony of a Portuguese presence that dates back to 1504. Originally the settlement was composed of the ten survivors of a shipwreck that sought shelter on a small island known as “Santa Cruz”. These men built a fort to protect themselves from the aggressive natives. Despite this measure, all settlers were killed in 1535. In 1616, a Portuguese mission tried to settle on the same island of Santa Cruz, but king Tsiambany refused to give them permission, so that the Jesuits had to leave in 1617.

Categories
Madagascar

Tana

Antananarivo is the capital and largest city in Madagascar. It is also known by its French colonial name Tananarive or the shorthand form Tana. The larger urban area surrounding the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra (“Antananarivo-Capital”), is the capital of the Analamanga region and of the Antananarivo autonomous province.

Unlike most capital cities in southern Africa, Antananarivo was already a major city before the colonial era. The city was founded circa 1625 by King Andrianjaka and takes its name (the City of the Thousand) from the number of soldiers assigned to guarding it. For many years it was the principal village of the Hova chiefs and gained importance as those chiefs made themselves sovereigns of the greater part of Madagascar, eventually becoming a town of some 80,000 inhabitants. In 1793 it was made the capital of the Merina kings. The conquests of King Radama I made Antananarivo the capital of almost all of Madagascar. Until 1869 all buildings within the city proper were of wood or rushes, but even then it possessed several timber palaces of considerable size, the largest being 120 ft (37 m) high. These crown the summit of the central portion of the ridge; and the largest palace, with its lofty roof and towers, is the most conspicuous object from every point of view.

Since the introduction of stone and brick, the entire city has been rebuilt and now contains numerous European-style structures, including the royal palaces, the houses formerly belonging to the prime minister and nobles, the French residency, the Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, and several stone churches. Museum of Ethnology and Paleontology is located in the city.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Belize

Caye Caulker

Caye Caulker is a small limestone coral island off the coast of Belize in the Caribbean Sea measuring about 5 miles (north to south) by less than 1 mile (east to west). The town on the island is known by the name Caye Caulker Village, though the correct name from old maps is Santa Elena. Some have said the island’s name is derived from the practice of caulking or sealing the seams in wooden boats to make them watertight, due to the high number of shipwrights on the island. “Caye Corker”, the alternative spelling of the name used by British cartographers, has largely fallen into disuse. This was a phonetic spelling which in older English was pronounced the same.

It is now generally agreed that the name was derived at a much earlier date from the Spanish name for the island “Cayo Hicaco”. This refers to the Hicaco plum which grows wild on the island and was gathered by Spanish seafarers to combat scurvy.

Caye Caulker is located approximately 20 miles (32 km) north-northeast of Belize City, and is accessible by high-speed water taxi or small plane. In recent years the island has become a popular destination for backpackers and other tourists. There are over 30 tiny hotels, and a number of restaurants and shops.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)