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81
galápagos
islands
ECUADOR
The “Enchanted Isles”—or the “Islas
Encantadas,” as the earliest Spanish
sailors called them—still cast a spell.
Visitors leapfrog by small boat from
one island to the next, mesmerized
by exotic creatures that, almost
predator-free over evolutionary
millennia, remain unfazed by their
strange, two-legged guests.
An iguana on Floriana, one of the
islands of the Galápagos archipelago
83
chocolate
hills
BOHOL ISLAND,
THE PHILIPPINES
It’s easy to see how the hundreds of
conical hills—a rare karst landscape—
on Bohol, the Philippines’ tenth larg-
est island, got their name, at least if
you visit in the dry season, when the
grass covering the hillocks withers to
a chocolate brown.
Sun-browned grass during the dry
season gives the Chocolate Hills
their name.
82
landmanna-
laugar »
SOUTHERN ICELAND
A vivid volcanic terrain—steaming hot
springs, bubbling sulfurous pools, and
a mountainous moonscape streaked
with strangely colored lava—draws
visitors to Landmannalaugar. Hikers
in particular come to tackle Bláhn-
júkur (Blue Peak) and the four-day
Laugavegur Trail, two of Iceland’s
most popular hikes.
Hikers are dwarfed by Landmannal-
augar’s immense volcanic landscapes.