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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Feb 22 2011 - 09:46:17 EST
3. Eritrea (Population: 5.8 million)
Railway enthusiast George Hart traveled from the United Kingdom to this Horn
of Africa country in March 2009 for one reason: To ride, photograph and film
the Eritrea Railway, a 74-mile mountain pass railway constructed between
1887 and 1932.
Passing through wild scenery, 39 tunnels and more than 65 bridges, he says
the railway is "one of the most spectacular in the world."
While the railroad was the high point of his trip, Hart also enjoyed
visiting the capital city of Asmara, an immaculate city -- "not a scrap of
litter to be found" -- with Italian roots, Art Deco buildings, and an
unusual open-air market selling household items made from scrap materials.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/IREPORT/12/15/global.challenge.irpt/index.html
iReport Global Challenge: Earth's most fascinating places This story started
on
CNN iReportBy Daphne Sashin, CNNDecember 15, 2010 1:06 p.m. EST
(CNN) -- Four years ago, CNN's citizen journalism community, iReport, was
born. Today, we have an iReport from every country in the world.
Our global community has documented Iran election protests after reporters
left the country, joined thousands to witness Obama's inauguration, used
iReport to find missing loved ones after the Haiti earthquake and given a
voice to victims of domestic violence. Our more than 700,000 registered
iReporters have taken us to places that are rarely talked about and opened
our eyes to settings of extreme beauty and harsh poverty.
iReport Global Challenge: See an iReport from every country
In 2010, we discovered we had iReports from all but about 50 of the world's
194 countries. So we embarked on a quest for the remaining nations. The
iReport Global Challenge, as we called the project, ended last week with
Nauru, the world's smallest republic.
>From majestic castles in the Pyrenees mountains, to a flaming gas crater in
the middle of the desert, to a diver's paradise in the South Pacific, we
introduce you to 10 of the most fascinating places:
1. Andorra (Population: 85,000)
When Rebecca Florence first visited Andorra in 2007, she fell in love with
the little-known country tucked between France and Spain in the Pyrenees
mountains.
"How had I not even heard of this place?" she thought.
Picturesque landscapes, clean air, top-notch ski resorts and low crime rates
are just a few of the many things that make the Catalan-speaking country
special, says Florence, who moved with her husband to Andorra in 2009. She
was so passionate about the region that she created a website to share the
country's secrets for English-speaking tourists.
View more submissions in the iReport Global Challenge
2. Tuvalu (Population: 10,500)
It looks like paradise, but this South Pacific country has become the face
of global climate change. Experts have warned that in the next 50 years,
Tuvalu could be the first country to totally disappear under water.
Florent Baarsch, 23, of Lyon, France, moved to the island nation in
September for a yearlong climate change research project. He says rising sea
levels have already caused significant coastal erosion, and parts of the
capital island, Funafuti, flood once a month from salt water seeping through
the ground. But Tuvaluans aren't going anywhere, Baarsch says.
"The Tuvaluans want to stay on this place, and carry on living as they have
always lived for centuries," he says.
3. Eritrea (Population: 5.8 million)
Railway enthusiast George Hart traveled from the United Kingdom to this Horn
of Africa country in March 2009 for one reason: To ride, photograph and film
the Eritrea Railway, a 74-mile mountain pass railway constructed between
1887 and 1932.
Passing through wild scenery, 39 tunnels and more than 65 bridges, he says
the railway is "one of the most spectacular in the world."
While the railroad was the high point of his trip, Hart also enjoyed
visiting the capital city of Asmara, an immaculate city -- "not a scrap of
litter to be found" -- with Italian roots, Art Deco buildings, and an
unusual open-air market selling household items made from scrap materials.
4. Djibouti (Population: 740,000)
Djibouti -- Eritrea's neighbor to the south and one of the hottest places on
earth -- was one stop on a long voyage in the Indian Ocean for Amalvict
Oliver of Nimes, France.
Oliver confessed that the small country, with its hostile climate and
intense poverty, was not his favorite. But he captured stunning images of
Lake Abhe Bad, the salt lake where the final scene of Charlton Heston's 1968
movie "Planet of the Apes" was filmed. Oliver's photos show a harsh
landscape marked with craters that resemble Mars or the moon.
Oliver also visited the Moucha Islands, located a few miles off the coast.
Djibouti has a thriving tourism and diving industry, and Oliver, a diver,
took advantage of the chance to photograph the beautiful marine life he
found.
5. Turkmenistan (Population: 5 million)
When Andrey Shapenko traveled from Moscow to this Central Asian country in
September to give a talk about the gas industry, he made stops at the
National Museum and other tourist sites.
But by far the best part of his visit was a gaping, flaming gas crater in
the middle of the desert -- the result of a 1971 Soviet gas exploration
accident, the crater has burned for nearly 40 years.
"In simple words, it was awesome ... There's nothing and nobody around. It's
just in the middle of desert. Nobody cares about it, nobody looks for safety
-- it's at your own risk," said Shapenko, who works for a Russian oil
company. "You understand the power of nature and real force of Earth when
you stand near it."
6. Guinea (Population: 10.3 million)
Few people know about Guinea, an impoverished West African country where
life is hard but joyful, and filled with dance and drumming, says Pam Camara
of High Falls, New York.
Camara's husband, Mimo, was a lead dancer with Guinea's national dance
troupe for 18 years. They go back as often as they can, bringing American
dancers and drummers to train with members of the troupe.
"The same way you might go to Little League here, kids in Guinea will go to
their community centers or wherever they can find a gathering space, and
they choreograph routines," she said.
7. Tonga (Population: 123,000)
Elena Borquist Noyes and her husband Mark have noticed that the residents on
this archipelago in the Pacific can do many things well: Open a green
coconut in just a few hacks of a machete, sew an outfit with no pattern in
less than a day, weave a palm leaf basket in 10 minutes.
But celebrations are their true forte, complete with "throngs of people,
heaps of food, a huge roast pig, and some spectacular dancing," says Noyes,
who arrived with her husband in Tonga in October 2009 to volunteer with the
Peace Corps.
The annual yam harvest is one, bringing communities together to help harvest
each others' fields, "often with much teasing about the size and quality of
each others' yams." When all the yams are successfully dug up, everyone
gathers to feast and give prayers of thanks. This country takes their yams
seriously, Noyes says: One big tuber can fetch more than $30.
The country had even more to celebrate with its first Democratic elections
in November.
8. Papua New Guinea (Population: 6 million)
Warriors covered in body paint are the common face of this collection of
islands east of Indonesia, but Brian Malone found so much more to discover:
Japanese World War II wrecks, clear blue waters "teeming with dolphins and
fish," and a volcano that erupted in 1994 and by 2009, was still spewing
enough ash that locals needed to use umbrellas to protect themselves from
the debris.
Malone works in Papua New Guinea as a sales manager for Digicel, an Irish
mobile phone company covering the Caribbean and the Pacific. The country got
its first nationwide cellular service two years ago, and he says it's common
to drive through the Southern Highlands "and see people walking by in full
tribal gear with a mobile phone glued to their ear."
9. Palau (Population: 21,000)
The most beautiful place on the planet -- that's how many visitors describe
this Pacific island nation, which draws scuba divers, snorkelers and
kayakers from all over the world to its coral reefs and other underwater
delights.
Ethan Daniels of Berkeley, California, lived in Palau for nine years as a
dive guide and biologist and still dreams of being in the sparkling waters.
The small-town feel of the country along with its natural beauty, vibrant
sea life and warm, welcoming inhabitants keep him going back every year.
"It was a fascinating culture to spend a good chunk of my adult life,"
Daniels says. "It was really hard to leave when I did."
10. Nauru (Population: 9,300)
The Global Challenge came down to Nauru, the tiniest republic in the world.
Lee Miller had read about "pretty much every country" and was looking for a
vacation spot where he would see no tourists. He found it, on this remote
island just below the equator.
iReporter and CNN special contributor Johnny Colt reports from Nauru
Nauru has had plenty of struggles. The country once enjoyed great wealth
from mining phosphate for fertilizer, but those resources are nearly
exhausted, and Miller observed dilapidated homes and beaches strewn with
garbage.
But there was a lot more about the country waiting to be seen. In 2008,
sitting on a beach where one could go hours without seeing another human
being, Miller basked in the feeling that he was "on the edge of the world."
"Overall, I had a great experience and met a lot of great people," says
Miller, who plans to return with his brother in 2011. "For this, I would go
back."
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