Travels4Yourself

See how artist Rich McCor from London changed his mind about travel photography. Cardboard figures, a little imagination, a good angle ... and a new original picture is ready!

Human civilization, originating somewhere in the heart of Africa, slowly spread over the Earth over several millennia, destroying the natural primordial nature of our planet. New Zealand is the last place Homo Sapiens got to and didn't manage to spoil anything! And now it’s not going to, because the 21st century is in the yard, and ecology rules the civilized world. In this article, we suggest that we go with us to a distant archipelago and explore all the most unusual and fascinating, which appeared before the eyes of researchers travelers only in the last couple of centuries.

Heat of the earth

After the catastrophic eruption that occurred 220 thousand years ago, the Rotorua caldera remained on the North Island of New Zealand. This is an almost round spot with a radius of 11 kilometers. The smell of sulfur is the first thing that will herald you of approaching the caldera. Inside it you can observe more than six dozen geysers and countless boiling puddles rich in minerals, as well as gurgling sources of bubbling mud and vaporizing cracks in the ground. Around all this, spa complexes are now rebuilt. By the way, the most powerful and tallest geyser on Earth, in the entire history of recorded observation, beat up only ten kilometers southeast of Rotorua, in the Waimangu region. In 1902, in one eruption, he raised up to 800 tons of water to a record 450 meters, but already in 1904 ceased operations.

Fjords of the southernmost seas

As if collecting the best from all over the planet, the nature of New Zealand will show its guests samples of the fjords, the most famous of which is Milford Sound, which regularly takes cruises. Overboard you can watch an unimaginable collage of white water cascades, green cliffs, tall peaks and dark cobalt waters, accompanied by flocks of dolphins and fur seals basking on the rocks. Even the rains here are a joy, because they transform everything around. The slopes protruding above the fjord at these moments are covered with hundreds of temporary waterfalls, and the surrounding peaks of one and a half kilometer height slowly open through the shimmering layers of rainfall. Having once visited Rudyard Kipling, it was not in vain that he dubbed the area the Eighth Wonder of the World. And by the way, this is where one of the most beautiful trekking, that is, hiking trails in the world takes place! The famous Milford track. However, you can’t just fly to New Zealand and immediately go to this track. All routes and shelters here are booked for six months in advance! It’s not possible to get in: environmental organizations strictly restrict access. However, a five-day itinerary is pre-booked for the Travel Club Expedition. And by the way, our group will spend the night not in ordinary huts, but in much more comfortable rooms with double occupancy, plus three meals a day on the entire route. Maximum comfort.

Magic dungeons

Is it possible to fly to New Zealand and end up in space? Easily! It is only necessary to go by boat to the underground kingdom - Waitomo cave complex on the North Island. The boat, quietly gliding along the surface of the water, appears under the ceiling, dotted with myriads of luminous points. This is Arachnocampa Luminosa - fireflies that try to attract insects in this way. The brighter the firefly star shines, the more hungry it is. Do you remember that in the open space of space, in a vacuum, there are no sounds, only absolute silence ?! It’s the same in Waitomo’s dungeons: if tourists start to sparkle with their lanterns, make noise and vigorously admire, the illusion of “travel between the stars” immediately disappears. The components of natural underground illumination are frightened by external stimuli and lose their luminescent properties.

Heart of mordor

The Tongariro National Park is located in the very center of the North Island, the tracking in which confidently holds the status of one of the best day-long walking trips in the world. The alien landscape of the highlands is diluted with three breathing and smoldering volcanoes. When the clouds scatter, glimmer of emerald lakes and the vast Central Plateau to the very limits of the horizon appear to the traveler. This place is frightening and mesmerizing at the same time, just like Mordor, in whose role Tongariro starred in the trilogy The Lord of the Rings.

Giant toys

A tiny fishing village and a former whaling station on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand bears the name Moeraki, which means “place for daytime sleep” and gives a complete picture of the pace of life in the vicinity. But here one of the secrets of the universe lurks, attracting a variety of specialists from geologists to ufologists. It seems that on a beautiful sandy beach near the village, a giant kid was having fun and left his toys in the sand. For 300 meters, perfectly round stone balls are scattered, with a diameter from half a meter to two and a few meters. Many of them are covered with cracks and green algae like a bloom of antiquity. Some are even broken. Who, when and why created them? Or is it the result of natural processes? Unclear. It is only clear that a visit to this beach is best planned at low tide, and even better at sunrise.

Chronicles of Moving Cities

Glaciers always ran down the gorges from high mountains. And the closer the mountains to the poles, the lower the glaciation zone begins above sea level. New Zealand is one of the southernmost and closest countries to Antarctica, therefore, here, at an altitude of only 240 meters above sea level, you can touch, touch and take a walk on a real mountain glacier, framed by a humid forest. Bulky and sparkling ice bridges, arches, pedestals and entire miraculous palaces slowly crawling down, obeying the laws of gravity and thermodynamics. Slowly - it is up to 2 centimeters per day, which is actually very fast for glaciology, and by this indicator turns the New Zealand Franz Josef Glacier into a world record among glaciers. And, even if on the map you see the name of the Austrian emperor as a name, local Aborigines tell a touching legend about the girl Hinehukateré, who adored walks through forests and mountains. Once she called with her lover, but he died under a landslide, and the glacier is a girl’s tears frozen in boundless mountain.

Residents of the country of the Great White Cloud

It’s time to tell about the aborigines who live not in New Zealand, but in the country of the Big White Cloud, as they call it. For the first time (according to archaeologists), they landed here from their canoes somewhere in the 13-14 centuries. Europeans, however, arrived in such a way as to thoroughly, only at the end of the 18th-beginning of the 19th centuries. Moreover, to the extreme opposite of neighboring Australia, it is always noted that these were not convicts. A clash between the two worlds could ruin the natives, but in the 19th century the British already thought less in terms of slavery and profit. Yes, and not the one attacked, the true legends go about the militancy of the Maori. Two completely different cultures mutually enriched themselves, while the lifestyle, traditions, and the most spectacular - Maori dances and tattoos - have survived to this day. On our expedition, we will talk with the elders of the tribe, prepare traditional hangi in the land, and, of course, we will dance the hack. A ritual Maori martial dance designed to frighten all rivals before a fight. The planet’s strongest rugby team has contributed to the worldwide fame of this incredibly awesome dance, recitative and grimace composition.

No matter what city of Morocco you are in, you can not predict for sure what awaits around the corner: an abandoned wasteland or a luxurious riad, a herbarist shop or artisan workshop, a royal palace or a palm grove.

Even an experienced traveler will tremble when he sees Marrakesh wake up at dawn and the first rays of the sun illuminate the horizon of the Atlas Mountains. As all shades of pink creep with every minute of sunrise and gradually turn from pale to bright - terracotta. When he first gets to the old bazaar of Fez and feels a vigorous mixture of aromas of spicy spices and fresh bread, and then gets lost in six thousand labyrinth alleys of the medina - the old part of the city, built in the ninth century in Arab times. Out of habit, the crowd of the city will knock down, and from the booth of dark-skinned Moroccans he will lay his ears, but he will get used to it. You can’t get used to it.

Why go?

1. Look at the fountains framed with colorful mosaics - an echo of the Portuguese Azulejos - which had been working all over the city some ten years ago, but because of the rapid population growth (many began to move from villages to the city), Fes began to suffer from acute lack of water.


2. Learn not to miss the desired turn - the one behind which is hidden a luxurious riad, stretching over several floors. Translated from Arabic, “garden” is a traditional Moroccan house or palace with a courtyard, from where natural light penetrates into all rooms of the house. Moroccans thus “hid” privacy from prying eyes.

3. See how city minarets turn into anthills. Five times a day, the herald muezzin calls on all the inhabitants of the city to pray: whether you are in at least Fez, even in Marrakesh, even in Casablanca or any other city in Morocco - prayer yells at the loudspeakers that are placed around the perimeter of the medina. An unprepared traveler will flinch from surprise, and more than once. As for the pilgrimage, then everything is prosaic. At the same time, everyone is ringing a phone with a reminder, in case they haven’t heard the call: so that there is enough time to wash, change clothes, and put everything in order.


4. Surprise incomprehensible. In order to photograph a person, you need to ask him for permission. Sometimes you can also buy coffee or give some amount of money. When asked whether this habit is associated with superstition, opinions diverged. Someone says, locals believe that the evil eye awaits them, and someone just does not want to "wander" through the expanses of social networks. Like, this is my personal space, please, do not violate it.

5. Find out what truly gastronomic delight is. Friday family couscous is a holy tradition for every family. Not only is this an occasion for everyone to get together and discuss what happened to someone over the week, but also to cook dinner together. And couscous is not just cereals cooked in one way or another. This is a full hearty dish - with vegetables, meat, seafood - for every taste. But not one couscous: Morocco is famous for tajine - made from meat or chicken, and fish in honey sauce with dried apricots, and numerous salad sets for every taste (from baked peppers to spicy pumpkin) and, of course, desserts.


6. Try to stay on your feet at the conditional intersections of Marrakech, since there are no traffic lights and pedestrian crossings in the center, and go ahead, despite the fact that cars and mopeds are rushing from all sides. And to accept that the Russian arrogant “where you go” is just an ordinary show off, in which there is no sense. To stop the endless stream, you need to raise your hand and quickly and quickly cross the road. There is still an option to wear a suit. Yes, yes, in this case, the Moroccan at the wheel will worry: they say, are you a cop? Better to give in.

7. Look in the herbarist's shop and try healing tea: perhaps green with spices, and possibly with the addition of other secret ingredients. In any case, only the owner of the shop will know the recipe and, of course, wink conspiratorially. Like, how are you?


8. And, finally, to find out a fact that may not be useful in life, but the piggy bank of memories will be replenished. After all, the oldest university in the world is not Oxford and not the Sorbonne, but Al-Karaouin, located in Fes al-Bali.

The Iranian island of Kish in the Persian Gulf is one of the most unusual resorts in the world. Vacationers here bathe and sunbathe, as in a bath. I mean, not because it's hot, but because it's separate. Women are on the women's beach behind a tall concrete fence, and their husbands, you guessed it, on the men's, barely covered with miserable vegetation.

There are, of course, joint beaches here, so to speak, unisex beaches. But there the ladies bathe in ... hmm ... I would call it a light summer coat over which a scarf is put on. And it is very correct! Iran is in a seismic zone.

How correctly noticed one of the local religious leaders! Women who frivolously put on tight-fitting or open clothes, with their appearance, cause indecent desires in men, provoking extramarital affairs and thereby increasing the frequency of earthquakes! But Kish is in all probability the only place in Iran where men are allowed to wear shorts, which, on the contrary, does not affect the tectonic activity of the earth's mantle. And I personally understand her, this mantle.

The appearance of the lower part of the male limb, as well as the upper one, does not cause any activity in me either. Although, according to common sense, I am ready to admit the existence of a diametrically opposite point of view on this subject.

Measures aimed at seismic stability of Iranian society, of course, are not limited to this. For example, shopkeepers are instructed not to display plastic copies of female organisms without a headscarf - a hijab - in shop windows. There is also a catalog of recommended hairstyles that should be worn under a hijab ... I made a courageous decision to abandon the idea to investigate: do Iranian beauties follow these recommendations?
Many people remember the sad story of a frivolous tourist from Germany who saw the sky in a cage after allowing himself an outrageous trick: he hugged his Iranian girlfriend who met him at the airport named after Imam Khomeini.

My Iranian friends say that all this is the horrors and fears of bygone days. Yesterday I myself just watched Tehran women of fashion dressed in a light hijab style sipping their ideologically alien Coca-Cola in a restaurant in Divani, a suburb of Tehran, gently hugging their companions, and they reciprocated.
Allah is a witness: the earthly firmament did not open.

In Argentina, there is one of the seven recognized wonders of nature - the incredible Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil. But, in fact, there are many more miracles here: natural, cultural, and gastronomic.

Do you know at least one person who saw Argentina and was left disappointed? Me not. From the bustling Buenos Aires to the harsh Patagonia, from the penguins at the end of the world to three hundred waterfalls on the northern border of Argentina - this is one big bag with wonders. And if suddenly it’s not enough, you can always look to the neighbors: they also have something to surprise and please.

Buenos Aires Rhythms and Montevideo Calm

The scale of Buenos Aires will catch your eye when a metropolis sparkling with lights appears in the porthole. “The city of good winds” is like a wind: in perpetual motion, always different, and sometimes it takes your breath away. The rhythm of the capital is especially acute during the daytime on the streets of the historical center, along which a crowd of “portenos” rushing off somewhere (“port dwellers”, as locals proudly call themselves), constantly plying. In this case, everything is done leisurely and thoroughly.

Buenos Aires - as several cities in one. The capital is divided into 48 districts, and each of them has its own face: bohemian Palermo, creative San Telmo, fashionable Puerto Madero, elegant Recoleta ... And sometimes there are even several faces, like La Boca: the bright, hospitable, touristy Piglet Caminito adjoins with dilapidated, gloomy quarters, where the ragged boys are chasing the ball, and where the prudent traveler should not meddle. But how not to meddle if here the luxurious La Bomboneroa is the stadium of the Boca Juniors team, the delight of which even a traveler far from football will experience.


These contradictions are the whole “Bayres": the city of immigrants, the port city where prestigious neighborhoods border on slums, skyscrapers on unpretentious buildings, boutiques on flea markets. As Istanbul combines Europe and Asia, Buenos Aires is both Europe and Latin America. Advanced and backward, rich and poor, passionate and slow, dangerous and benevolent - controversial, but very charming.

And quite nearby, on the other side of La Plata, is Uruguay. An hour of travel by ferry - and you are in the cozy colonial town of Colonia del Sacramento, founded by the Portuguese in the 17th century and repeatedly passing from them to the Spaniards and back (for several decades it even went to the Brazilians). From here it is a stone's throw to Montevideo. The capital of Uruguay is also a metropolis, where most of the country's population lives. But the rhythm here is not at all the same as in Buenos Aires. Montevideo will charm with old buildings and cars, cozy retro bars, calm, relaxed atmosphere. Go to the port in the late afternoon and see for yourself: people walk slowly, fish on the pier, enjoy the sunset and sip a mate (and every first one drinks it).

Uruguayans are funny, cute and simple: they talk to the first person they come across, sing all the way and do not lock the doors (it’s so safe here), and their former presidents lose their immunity, go unguarded and live a normal human life. By the way, in Montevideo souvenirs are still very popular with Jose Mukhika, nicknamed the “poorest president in the world” for modesty: while still being the head of state, Mukhika gave almost all his salary to charity, lived on a farm with his wife and three-legged dog, and rode an old one Volkswagen Beetle 1987.

"Big water"

But not only and not so many cities are rich in the region. In the north, divided between Argentina and Brazil, Iguazu Falls are noisy: not one, not ten, but as many as 275 powerful streams up to 80 meters high amid raging tropical greenery. Huge colorful butterflies flutter in the humid air, in one of the ponds an alligator froze warily, and cunning little animals scurry under their feet: they fight, dig the ground and brazenly rob gapeous tourists. Water falls down with tremendous force, and you stand wet through the spray, trying to shout down the roar and once again tell the world that you do not believe in the reality of what is happening. Because this reality is strikingly reminiscent of the scenery for the movie "Avatar". Iguazu (“big water” in the language of the Guarani Indians) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the seven natural wonders of the world and a place where you especially acutely feel how beautiful our world is and how lucky you are to see this part of it.

Perito Moreno (and all of Patagonia)

Well, lovers of the north - to the south, in the harsh and beautiful Patagonia. Like Buenos Aires, you appreciate it even from the air, looking at the endless pampas floating under the wing interspersed with unnaturally blue lakes. Patagonia is surprised even after Iguazu: take at least the Perito Moreno Glacier - a giant ice field the height of a skyscraper and an area larger than Buenos Aires. The giant lives its own life: it shimmers with the colors of the Argentine flag and constantly makes noise - sometimes lulling, like on the sea coast, then frightening with a deafening roar when huge boulders crack off from the blue-white mass and fall into the water.

Patagonia is Mount Fitzroy, whose capricious weather shows only to the most successful travelers, and the turquoise Lake Argentino, and the granite “towers” ​​of the Torres del Paine National Park on the Chilean side. These are fjords, lagoons, icebergs, mountains and timid guanacos on the sidelines of endless, empty Patagonian roads.

Gateway to Antarctica

Someone considers Ushuaia a well-advertised tourist destination, where they go for a show: they say, I was in the southernmost city on earth. But how can one remain indifferent when there are cozy village houses in the city, snowy mountains around, and ships sailing from the port to Antarctica?

If the white continent is not yet in your plans, be sure to go on a six-hour voyage along the Beagle Channel: to get acquainted in the natural environment with cormorants, cormorants, dolphins, lazy sea lions and hilarious penguins that settled on local islands. And to think - that you, indeed, are on the edge of the earth, what’s next - only Antarctica, from which a little more than 1000 kilometers separate you.

By the way, you can still do something for show (or rather, for fun): go to the city department of tourism and put a penguin stamp on your passport stating that you visited Ushuaia, the gateway to Antarctica. Checked: more than one border guard smiles at such a label.

People talking

A distinctive feature of the locals is the ease with which they get to know and start a conversation. Here is an elderly tango dancer in Patagonia discussing with you about Russian classical literature and its impact on Argentine authors. A young musician waiter retells the story of his wanderings while you sample wine. The owner of the bar draws for you a map of the trekking routes of El Chalten. The grandfather-driver flies free of charge from a broken bus to Paraguay to talk about the good and future of the Guarani language. A bookstore employee treats the Paraguayan terere infusion, a cold mate counterpart. The landlord in Ushuaia teaches you to drink Fernet liquor while making a fire for a barbecue. Each will bring his list of new friends from the trip, but he will definitely be, do not hesitate.

Football passions

And also - nowhere so passionately, madly do not like football. Diego Maradona, who made the Argentines world champions in 1986, and now for the locals is a living god, and the current star Lionel Messi will have to sweat solidly to share the Olympus with him. T-shirts with idols and talk about your favorite sport are everywhere here, and the ball is chased even at the end of the world, in Ushuaia. Go to the match of the Libertadores Cup - an analogue of the European Champions League - and you will get to the holiday. At the stadium - dancing and music, something fried, laughing, getting to know each other. At the stadium - they sing in a loud voice an hour before the match and do not fall silent until the final whistle.

Food and wine

Those who think that calling food a miracle is inappropriate just did not try the juicy Argentinean steak “Bifé de Choriso”. They didn’t crawl out of the restaurant after a good portion of asado fried meat. They did not drink the tender Patagonian lamb with a glass of Malbec. Argentina is a place where you regret not to eat ten times a day; where you promise yourself not to take so much more - and you do it again, and you remember a few more years a sandwich with a piece of meat in a street stall.

Hot as coals under asado, like tango, as the first big sip of wine. Cold as the glaciers of Patagonia, like crazy spray of Iguazu waterfalls. Argentina is a country where your head is spinning: from a whirlpool of faces in the crowd of Buenos Aires, from the colors of La Boca, from the cry of fans, from the contrasts of nature. From miracles.