BIOLOGY
The Hawaiian Islands have a wide variety of plant, marine and animal life. Vegetation zones include: coastal, dryland forest, mixed open forest, rain forest, subalpine and alpine. More than 90 percent of the native plants and animals living in Hawaii are found nowhere else in the world, and a greater variety of fish exist in Hawaiian waters than elsewhere. The humuhumunukunukuapuaa is the official state fish.
Hawaii is sometimes called the Endangered Species Capital of the World. At least one third of all the endangered species in the United States are found in Hawaii including th...
Largest of the many Islands of The Bahamas (104 x 40 miles), mysterious, mangrove-choked Andros is also the least explored, which means that you'll be sharing space with more terns and whistling tree ducks than humans--and maybe even a chickcharnie or two, those mischievous mythical inhabitants that are exclusive to this island. Reputed to be elfin creatures with three fingers, three toes, and red eyes, chickcharnies bring lifelong good luck to anyone lucky enough to see one. Andros even has its own "Loch Ness Monster," a dragon-like sea monster called the Lusca. No wonder the island was c...
At the very center of Polynesia, Upolu and Savaii are the twin islands that truly fulfill the South Seas vision of palm-lined, white-sand beaches and blue ocean beyond the reef. And in the capital of Apia, which has at least some of the trappings of a modern city, you’ll also find a slightly timeworn, sultry townscape out of the old South Pacific.
Until 1997, the country was known as Western Samoa – long famous throughout the South Pacific for Fa’a Samoa, a way of life in which traditional customs (dance, a love of kava, and the art of tattooing among them) and strong community ties shape ...
The words on the license plates are a clue: "Diver's Paradise. " From fantastic snorkeling just off the beach (just imagine being dropped into a tropical fish tank) to deep wall dives, Bonaire offers what is arguably the best diving in the Caribbean. Much of the credit goes to its visionary Marine Park – the island waters have been protected since 1979.
Yet Bonaire is no one-hit wonder. Sure, other watersports are popular (windsurfers find steady tradewinds and a conveniently shallow sandy bottom at Lac Bay) and it's not hard to find a secluded beach (the black sands of Boca Cocolis...
The Perhentian Islands are a small group of beautiful, coral-fringed islands off the coast of northeastern Malaysia in the state of Terengganu, not far from the Thai border. The two main islands are Perhentian Besar ("Big Perhentian") and Perhentian Kecil ("Small Perhentian"). Kecil, the more popular of the two, has cheap accommodation and a bit of a backpacker party scene, while Besar is slightly more expensive and caters more to families.
The small, uninhabited islands of Susu Dara, Seringgi and Rawa lie off Kecil. All the islands belong to a protected marine park, which means that fishing...
Barbados, the easternmost of the West Indies, is sometimes called "Little England" for its resolutely British character. Here you can read the cricket headlines over a breakfast of bangers, enjoy afternoon tea at your hotel, even don a jacket for dinner. But those traditions sometimes take on a Bajan twist. Breakfast can also feature fried flying fish, the rum shops function as local versions of British pubs, and the island "tuk bands" feature both drums and pennywhistles.
Beyond the busy streets of Bridgetown, this highly developed island offers all the creature comforts of a longstanding ...
Belize isn't an island – but it should be. When visitors first started coming in numbers to this country just south of Mexico on the Caribbean a decade or so ago, they usually made a quick bead to its offshore islands. The largest of them, Ambergris Caye (pronounce it KEY, as in Key West), has a scattering of mostly low-key resorts popular with divers and fishermen and a town (San Pedro) with sand streets and a lively nightlife of dance clubs. Sound a bit like Margaritaville?
Well, Margaritaville should have diving this good. The barrier reef that stretches the length of Belize (and con...
Longing for the bygone, uncrowded days of the Cote de Azur? Look no further than offshore, to Iles d’Hyeres, a trio of islands that still proffer the best of the South of France: long days of sun, warm water, and Provencal cuisine. The largest and most popular of the group is Porquerolles, which in 1912 was purchased as a wedding present by a wealthy Frenchman – who promptly planted a large vineyard. Today the island and its small village remain a place where the good things in life (food, wine, sailing) are still the cornerstones of day-to-day living.
A 20-minute ferry ride from the mainl...
In 1940, author John Steinbeck and his marine biologist friend, Ed Ricketts, journeyed into the seldom-visited Gulf of California to begin a Baja collecting expedition that was later immortalized in the book The Log from the Sea of Cortez. And what makes Baja’s many islands magical is that now, six decades after Steinbeck’s visit, they remain virtually unchanged.
Which is why these remote, mostly uninhabited islands have become a prime destination for adventurous travelers looking for that rare combination of desert and blue sea.
Not all of isles bordering the 800-mile-long peninsula a...
Thirty or so years ago, Little Cayman was a backwater Caribbean hideaway for a handful of hardy divers and fishermen who didn’t mind roughing it at lodges where electricity meant cranking up the generator. Needless to say, the amenities at the handful of small resorts have been upgraded (air-conditioning and satellite TV do make life a little easier), but the island’s population still barely tops 100, and diving and fishing remain the main attractions.
Little Cayman may be only 10 miles long, but it’s often ranked among the world’s top 10 dive spots. Of the more than 50 dive sites, the bes...
