Tag

Diving

10 days, Culture, Experiences, Itineraries, Oceania, Papua New Guinea, Trekking, Wildlife

The tribespeople of Papua New Guinea

It’s the first morning of our expedition in Papua New Guinea. We trek through a dense jungle punctuated with waterfalls and scored by deep gorges, which in turn are crisscrossed by thickly knotted vine bridges. In the distance, the music of rare species of birds, and that feeling of life being as close to perfect as it could ever possibly be. We hike up alongside dozens of types of wildflowers until Thomas, our local fixer in the Highlands, Max – a photographer -and I reach the first tribal village. “This is a fortune-teller tribe,” says Thomas, “The men here use their ancestor’s skulls as instruments to foretell the future.” I look around and find a bunch of red and yellow-painted skulls lined up in a hut. There is nothing more bizarre.

Continue reading
14-18 days, Beach, Culture, Destinations, Diving, Experiences, Itineraries, Oceania, Papua New Guinea

The coral reefs of Papua New Guinea

My search for the world’s most exotic tribes in one of the most undocumented landscapes left on the planet ends in dramatic encounters. In Papua New Guinea, not only do I come across extraordinary indigenous peoples who adorn themselves with wondrous ornamentation and keep alive ancient rituals, but I also discover the most pristine offshore reefs that remain.

Continue reading

4 days, 5 days, Beach, Diving, Maldives, Wildlife

Where the Mantas run wild 

When the seaplane lands on the waters of a remote atoll, in an Equator-straddling island somewhere in the Indian Ocean, I am not able to anticipate the dramatic wilderness of the place. The navy-blue waters sometimes interrupted by shades of infinite turquoise are, perhaps, the most obvious appeal of the idyllic paradise where I am headed. But there is so much beyond that. Beneath the surface of this ridiculously alluring ocean, lies one of nature’s most extraordinary events – and this is what drives me to this part of the world in the first place.

Continue reading
Diving, Experiences, Uncategorized

Freediving

Five years ago, on a trip to Venezuela, I scuba dived for the first time. It was a journey that kicked off my passion for the ocean and its conservation. Since then, I’ve been traveling the world improving my diving skills in search of the most pristine coral reefs and wildlife. The more I understood the ocean, though, the more I challenged myself to be in harmony with the sea. I desired to dive with no weights and tanks, in the most natural way possible alongside the greatest’s marine creatures on earth. Then, I went to Hanifaru Bay – the world’s largest manta ray feeding station located in the Maldives – where one is not allowed to scuba dive.

Continue reading

10 days, Beach, Culture, Diving, Indonesia, Motorcycle

Inside Flores

There is something about Flores that is rather unearthly. This diverse island in Eastern Indonesia with its savannah landscape, pristine oceans, impressive volcanoes and lakes resemble a wilderness that seems to belong to another place and time. Though it is just an hour flight from the internationally-acclaimed Bali, Flores is an island still covered in relative obscurity.

Continue reading
12 days, Beach, Diving, Mozambique, Wildlife

Beyond the waters of Mozambique

From the sky of an almost empty Savannah, we spot three herds of elephants running across Mozambique’s once war-torn plains. As we move from the city to the wilderness, it is the untouched that excites me – Africa at her most genuine. But the open vista has never been like this. 15 years of civil war tore apart one of the densest wildlife populations in Africa, and now, 25 years later, the megafauna is slowly getting back on track. Unlike our previous trips to Africa, though, this time we are not looking for the Big Five. We travel to Mozambique in search of what lies beneath the surface. As our chopper turns from the Bush to the Beach, I’m seduced by 2,500 Km of a dramatic and untouched coastline. And then I’m convinced this journey is all about the ocean.

Continue reading
3 days, 4 days, Australia, Beach, Diving, Oceania, Wildlife

The Ningaloo Coast, Western Australia

It’s six o’clock in the morning, and we are sitting in a safari car in the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan. Another jeep parks alongside just before we spot a beautiful tiger. We start talking to two photographers in the car next to us about remote locations to travel to. They are from Australia and seem to be the type of people who know where the wild things are. We share our experiences. They mention their favourite wildlife places in Australia, and that’s how I hear about Ningaloo Coast for the first time, two years ago, while tracking tigers in India.

Continue reading
3 days, Beach, Diving, Indonesia

Diving in Komodo Island on board of Alexa

Life is never as amazing as when we share the special moments with our loved ones. When looking for a unique experience to share with our dear friends visiting us from Brazil, Fernanda, and Claudinho, we came across diving in Komodo Island, a board of Alexa. Nothing sounded to beat such a beautiful boat navigating towards one of the best diving spots on earth (CNN Survey 2015).

Continue reading

4 days, Culture, Diving, East Timor, On the road

Timor-Leste or East Timor: What is it like?

If you have the curiosity to experience what an undeveloped and new nation is like you should go to East Timor. I say a new nation because this former Portuguese colony became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century in 2002. The country was utterly ruined in 1999 when the Indonesian troops who had occupied it for 24 years were forced to withdraw after a United Nations referendum resulted in its independence. Almost 15 years after this event, it still lacks in resources, and there is not too much happening in East Timor. And this is the reason why we decided to visit this little nation in the Indian Ocean. We wanted to see with our eyes how a country in its very beginning looks like.

Continue reading