Amager Bakke in Copenhagen

12 December 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Sustainability, Environment Reading Time:  3 minutes

© Kallerna/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Kallerna/cc-by-sa-4.0

Amager Bakke (lit. ‘Amager Hill’), also known as Amager Slope or Copenhill, is a combined heat and power waste-to-energy plant (new resource handling centre) and recreational facility in Amager, Copenhagen, Denmark, located prominently within view of the city’s downtown.   read more…

Gulf Islands in Canada

2 November 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Environment Reading Time:  10 minutes

View from Baynes Peak on Saltspring Island © Michal Klajban/cc-by-sa-4.0

View from Baynes Peak on Saltspring Island © Michal Klajban/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Gulf Islands is a group of islands in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia. The name “Gulf Islands” comes from “Gulf of Georgia“, the original term used by George Vancouver in his mapping of the southern part of the archipelago and which before the San Juan Island dispute also was taken to include what have since been called the San Juan Islands. While geopolitically divided, the San Juan Islands and Gulf Islands geologically form part of the larger Gulf Archipelago.   read more…

Theme Week Puerto Rico – Desecheo Island

27 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Environment Reading Time:  8 minutes

© US Fish & Wildlife Service

© US Fish & Wildlife Service

Desecheo (Spanish: Isla Desecheo) is a small uninhabited island of the archipelago of Puerto Rico located in the northeast of the Mona Passage; 13 mi (21 km) from Rincón on the west coast (Punta Higüero) of the main island of Puerto Rico and 31 mi (50 km) northeast of Mona Island. It has a land area of 0.589 sq mi (377 acres; 153 ha; 1.53 km²). Politically, the island is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the Desecheo National Wildlife Refuge, but part of Barrio Sabanetas of Mayaguez.   read more…

Theme Week Puerto Rico – Mona Island

26 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Environment Reading Time:  6 minutes

Pajaros Beach © Serge Aucoin/cc-by-sa-4.0

Pajaros Beach © Serge Aucoin/cc-by-sa-4.0

Mona (Spanish: Isla de Mona) is the third-largest island of the Puerto Rican archipelago, after the main island of Puerto Rico and Vieques. It is the largest of three islands in the Mona Passage, a strait between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the others being Monito Island and Desecheo Island. It measures about 7 miles by 4 miles (11 km by 7 km), and lies 41 mi (66 km) west of Puerto Rico, of which it is administratively a part. It is one of two islands that make up the Isla de Mona e Islote Monito barrio in the municipality of Mayagüez.   read more…

Caprarola in Lazio

19 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Environment Reading Time:  4 minutes

© Livioandronico2013/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Livioandronico2013/cc-by-sa-4.0

Caprarola is a town and comune in the province of Viterbo, in the Lazio region of central Italy. The village is situated in a range of volcanic hills known as the Cimini Mounts.   read more…

Theme Week Patagonia – Los Glaciares National Park

26 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Environment, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  3 minutes

Perito Moreno Glacier © flickr.com - Tibby Jones/cc-by-2.0

Perito Moreno Glacier © flickr.com – Tibby Jones/cc-by-2.0

Los Glaciares National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Los Glaciares) is a federal protected area in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. The park covers an area of 726,927 ha (7,269.27 km²; 2,806.68 sq mi), making it the largest national park in the country. Established on 11 May 1937, it hosts a representative sample of Magellanic subpolar forest and west Patagonian steppe biodiversity in good state of conservation. In 1981, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.   read more…

Chocolate Hills on Bohol island

9 July 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Environment, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Chocolate Hills and tourists © flickr.com - Dan Ingham/cc-by-2.0

Chocolate Hills and tourists © flickr.com – Dan Ingham/cc-by-2.0

The Chocolate Hills (Cebuano: Mga Bungtod sa Tsokolate, Tagalog: Mga Tsokolateng Burol) are a geological formation in the Bohol province of the Philippines. There are at least 1,260 hills, but there may be as many as 1,776 hills spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometers (20 sq mi). They are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, hence the name.   read more…

Gulf Stream

20 May 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Environment Reading Time:  8 minutes

Evolution of the Gulf Stream © ngdc.noaa.gov - RedAndr/cc-by-sa-4.0

Evolution of the Gulf Stream © ngdc.noaa.gov – RedAndr/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States then veers east near 36 latitude (North Carolina) and moves toward Northwest Europe as the North Atlantic Current. The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northwards accelerating current off the east coast of North America. At about 40°0′N 30°0′W, it splits in two, with the northern stream, the North Atlantic Drift, crossing to Northern Europe and the southern stream, the Canary Current, recirculating off West Africa.   read more…

Saba in the Caribbean

25 February 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Environment Reading Time:  14 minutes

View of Windwardside from Mount Scenery © Radioflux/cc-by-sa-3.0

View of Windwardside from Mount Scenery © Radioflux/cc-by-sa-3.0

Saba is a Caribbean island and the smallest special municipality (officially “public body“) of the Netherlands. It consists largely of the active volcano Mount Scenery, which at 887 metres (2,910 ft) is the highest point of the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands. Together with Bonaire and Sint Eustatius it forms the BES islands.   read more…

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