Réunion - December 2004

(Click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Adiós, el español; vivant en France je pensais qu´il faudrait essayer le Monde Francophone cette fois.  A quick look in the good old ATLAS showed me that the island "la Réunion" could be a pretty good place to start the tour of the DOM-TOMs.


What is the Réunion island?

 

Very close to Mauritius, Réunion is  a beautiful island  located in the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean.

But, unlike Mauritius, Réunion has spectacular mountains and valleys.

 


...and why ?

Réunion rose from the ocean, long, long time ago, from a series of volcanic eruptions.  The craters go above 3000 meters height.  And... one of the volcans, le Piton du Fournaise, is still active... However, with today's technology due prewarning is given, and it is thus safe to tread the craters when the activity is low. 

Welcome to volcano-land!

Réunion, usually fertile and green, goes completely lifeless on the edge of the crater of the Fournaise.

 

Walking in the Lands of the Fournaise...

 ...I suddenly found a gateway to the interior of the Earth.

And to my great surprise, I found that the interior of the earth was not rocky.  It was organic!  This was the most amazing sight of the trip.

 


The people

The Créoles, the locals, speak a beautiful, singing accent of Old French.  In the bottle you see the local drink, "Rhum Arrangé".  I slept well that night.

In the innermost valley of Réunion lies the villages of Mafate.  No road leads to these villages and a good walk of at least 2 hours is needed to reach Marla, behind me.

Qqs z´oreilles a St. Gilles.

 


20th December in St. Pierre

Les Folles.

Raol de Souza.

 


Sunset

 


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