Thilafushi: A Garbage Island of Maldives

In the initial thoughts, you would probably listen about the unimagined beauty of Maldives. But, what you have heard is that really Garbage Island in Maldives? Yes, millions of tourists and four hundred thousands of permanent residents dump garbage each day. They dump it into another island of course. What does an island with not a speck of land to spare do to get rid of garbage? The spectacular tropical island of Maldives is famous for its sandy beaches, luxury accommodation and turquoise waters. However, very people know the drawback of dirty side of Maldives.

As per official statistics, a single tourist produces 3.5kg of garbage a day, twice as much as someone from Malé and five times more than anyone from the rest of the Maldives archipelago. The landfill island is a sort of eerie, beautiful apocalyptic art piece. Instead of looking at this wasteland is really horrific. The west of Male’ we could clearly see the thick cloud of smoke that endlessly leaves Thilafushi and disperses ever so gently into the blue sky.

The Thilafushi, the location of Maldives’s municipal landfill few miles west of Male is the capital of Maldives and most densely populated islands on earth. Thilafushi, an artificial island 7km from the capital, is nicknamed Rubbish Island. You would be amazed to hear, that Thilafushi was not even an island and not always a garbage island. Somewhere 25 years ago, Thilafushi was a pristine lagoon called “Thilafalhu”. However in 1991 a decision was taken to reclaim the lagoon as a landfill to address the ongoing problems of waste disposal generated by tourism industry.

Hence within few months the garbage started to thrive here. Massive pits were dug into the sand and waste received from Male and other inhabited islands of Maldives were deposited into the pits. Then topped off with a layer of construction debris and then uniformly leveled with white sand. Much of the rubbish comes from the luxury resorts which, reportedly, do not follow the rules on crushing their waste. In a BBC report in May 2012, the island of waste was described as "apocalyptic" A local environmental organization “Bluepeace”, charges that used batteries, asbestos, lead and other possibly hazardous waste, mixed with the municipal solid waste from Malé, is seeping into the water and creating severe ecological and health problems in the Maldives.

Thilafushi,  obvious that this island isn’t like any other island in Maldives. There were NO white sandy beaches, swaying palm trees, grass huts or crystal clear turquoise water. As Thilafushi’s landmass started to grow, the Maldives government started leasing out land to industries such as boat manufacturing, cement packing, methane gas bottling and many large scale warehousing. So these days more than three dozen factories at Thilafushi, and homes of 200 Bangladeshi migrants who sift through the 330 hundred tons of waste that arrive on the island each day.

The routine is for mainly Bangladeshi workers to sift through the trash to look for materials their employers can sell. Therefore, much is being deposited that the island is developing by a square meter each day. One of drastic effect is, some of the waste is now drifting into the ocean and getting washed at Male’s beaches and polluting many dive sites around the region. Environmentalists also accuse impatient boatmen of dumping waste directly into the lagoon because proper unloading could take up to seven hours. Further waste became such a big problem that the government once banned dumping garbage on the island in 2011.

A little chunk of the waste is now getting exported to India to be recycled. However, these images show the darker side to the Maldives - with huge amounts of rubbish washed up on the island’s pristine sands. It saddens that islands are being trashed all over the place. Some of beaches are magnets for the world’s trash. The currents bring in debris literally from all over the world. It needs to stop because Thilafushi islands and the sea life are paying a heavy toll.

Presently this is a big problem but the country relies on bottled water for health and hygiene. The Garbage Island to take care of the rubbish and it's plume of smoke as you fly into Male. Many local islands have a garbage problem at the high tide line too. The culture is not educated in the ways of proper rubbish disposal and dropping litter is widespread. Just like the rest of the world, they all have to learn.

A plastic recycling company needs to create an agreement with the government to collect the plastic, educate the people and create a "greener" environment. The Maldives may claim to be the first carbon neutral Country but in reality they have isolation and bad infrastructure for waste management. They need help! Let's not forget the waters really are that clear, the sea life really it's that amazing, tourism is their life blood- let's not ruin that!

 

Island of Dolls, Mexico

Every year hundreds of photographers and thrill seekers travel to haunt Isla De Las Mulecas (island of the Dolls). That doesn’t mean it’s a tourist destination. After a two-hour canal ride from Mexico City, a nightmarish clearing deep in the woods where thousands of mutilated dolls hang from the trees and hide among the dense branches. A reclusive Mexican man who believed dedicated to the soul of young girl, appease the troubled ghost who passed away at a tender age there over 50 years ago, still haunts the woods today. It is also known locally as the 'chinampas' where, grew vegetables and flowers to sell in the nearest town but never spoke to anyone while he was there.

The island of dolls is a creepiest destination in Xochimilco, Mexico. It was a floating garden, now home to hundreds of terrifying, mutilated dolls. Their severed limbs, decapitated heads, and blank eyes hung on trees, fences and nearly every available surface. The dolls appear menacing even in the bright light of midday, but in the dark they are particularly haunting. The tragic story behind this haunted island lies occurred in 1950. Don Julian Santana Barrera was the only dweller and caretaker of the island. He found a little girl drowned, in a canal surrounding the island strangely. He wasn’t able to save her life. Hence, shortly thereafter, Julian saw a floating doll near the canal, assuming it to be the girl’s doll.

He later discovered a doll floating in the same waters and, assuming it belonged to the deceased girl, hung it from a tree as a sign of respect. His descent into madness began with this seemingly innocent act. He was feeling so guilty of not saving the girl’s life. She has made Julian restless. He felt that the island was haunted by the girl’s spirit. Only one doll, he felt was not enough to please the child, he felt the girl needed company. Barrera began to hear whispers, footsteps and the anguished wails of a woman in the darkness even though his hut - hidden deep inside the woods of Xochimilco - was miles away from civilization. Terrified by the spirit, he started collecting dolls. He would find in the canal, from heaps of trash and hundreds of toys. Then some missing body parts from the trees and the wire fencing which surrounded his wooden shack.

Over half a century, he collected more than 1,500 of these little horrors. All the dolls are still there untouched. They look like decaying corpses of children. Later Santana died of a heart attack in 2001, and a small white cross near the water marks his grave. Some stories say that he was found drowned in the canal in the same manner as the dead girl. Julian Santana Barrera retreated to the woods soon after she drowned in the nearby canal. Driven by fear, he hung the dismembered toys from the trees to protect himself from her ghost and spent the next 50 years 'decorating' the woods in a desperate attempt to appease her.

He was also claimed that he could hear her tormented screams and footsteps in the darkness. However, the truth behind the story is still a mystery. Some even doubt the existence of the drowned girl. Some say Julian had made up this story in his loneliness. Some say that Julian had gone mad and felt that the dolls were the tortured spirits of children who passed early. People close to Julian say that it felt as if he was driven by a certain force, which had changed him completely. Even today after the 14 years of his own mysterious death in those woods. The visitors say they hear whispers in the night and feel the dolls' eyes following them through the trees.

The area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, which expanded tourism to the area. But there excitement turns to horror when they stumble upon the Island of the Dolls. The truth, as told by his family members who now run the island as a tourist attraction. Barrera simply believed the island was haunted by the spirit of the dead girl he found in the canal. After his death, the area became a popular tourist attraction where visitors bring more dolls. The locals describe it as 'charmed' not haunted and even though travelers claim the dolls whisper to them. For decades, many dolls were exposed to the elements and are certainly weathered and decayed with only doll-heads hanging from rusty wires in the tree. Visitors leave coins and trinkets at several of the doll shrines found inside some of the Island’s loosely-constructed buildings. Source: CP

 

 

Providence Canyon, Georgia

 

Providence Canyon is about 150 miles southwest of Atlanta, in the US state of Georgia. This is a network of gorges and huge gullies lovingly called Georgia's “Little Grand Canyon.” Providence Canyon is considered to be one of Georgia’s “Seven Natural Wonders”. Providence Canyon is a perfect example of a testament to the power of man’s influence on the land. Surprisingly it isn’t at all natural. Many Georgians aren't aware of Providence Canyon It's situated in an outdoor recreation area that encompasses 1,103 acres and 16 canyons. These imposing canyons were formed not by the action of a river, erosion of more than millions. It is of years by rainwater runoff from farm fields in less than a century. The canyon exquisitely-hued sediment walls are a product of inexperienced farmers making a colossal mess of things, and Mother Nature just kind of worked with it from there.

 

Providence Canyon started creating in the start of 18th century due to poor farming practices. That prevailed across the nation and especially in the south. In those days, land and agriculture was very cheap, infinite and seemingly expendable giving way to a combination of plantations. A small farms sooner or later a sharecropper system that not only degraded the land. Hence it also kept farmers in debt and uneducated. Native forest cover was cleared so the land could be farmed. No measures were taken to avoid soil erosion leading to huge loss of topsoil. Therefore, small gullies started to form and speedily grew deeper and more extensive, until they were three to five feet deep by the 1850s. These small channels started to further focus runoff increasing the rate of erosion. Nowadays, some of the gullies at Providence Canyon are about 150 feet deep.

 

In spite of its current formation, Providence Canyon is a treasure trove for geologists and visitors. Because, over the times passes, erosion has exposed the geologic record of many million years within its walls.  The minerals have stained the sediments, making a wide range of colors. The Canyons are lies in a region that was formed by deposition of marine sediments between somewhere 60 to 74 million years ago. Moreover, the soil in the top part of the canyon wall was deposited about 65 million years ago. It was just after the age of the dinosaurs. It’s fairly coarse sand is a reddish color caused by the presence of iron oxide.

 

Providence Canyon continues to erode, however, the floor of the canyon is more resistant and growth of pine trees, buses and other vegetation has helped stabilize the soil. Underneath this formation lies what is acknowledged as the Providence Sand. It makes up most of the canyon walls. It is 119 feet thick and was deposited about 72 million years ago. The upper part of this layer is very fine sand mixed with white clay. Thus, the middle layer is coarse and more intriguing, with beds of yellow (limonite) and purple (manganese) deposits. The lowest and oldest layer is black and yellow mica-rich clay. In addition to sightseeing and taking photographs, Georgia's Little Grand Canyon offers the many activities, i.e. hiking, camping, stargazing, picnic, and geological. 

 

The bottom of the Providence Canyon floor was deposited about 75 million years ago. Its orange color is poorly exposed and overgrown by vegetation. Visitors are advised to enjoy views of canyons from the rim trail, but need to stay behind fences and off the fragile canyon edge. Providence Canyon has a few other eccentricities that make it stand out from your standard canyon hike. Hiker’s likes to explore the deepest canyons will usually find a thin layer of water along the trail, indication of the water table below. There is a playground, picnic tables and overnight campgrounds available, with several trails of varying difficulty.

 

Mount Mayon, Mexico

Mount Mayon, also known as the Mayon Volcano, is an active stratovolcano with a small central summit crater on the island of Luzon in the island of Luzon in Philippines. The Philippines, which has a population of 103,775,002, became an independent state in 1946, after gaining its sovereignty from Spain. The Mount Mayon is renowned for its almost symmetric conical shape. Mayon is considered to have the world's most perfectly formed cone due to its symmetry. It was formed through layers of pyroclastic and lava flows from past eruptions and erosion. Mayon is a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Mayon, in north-eastern Albay province, is the most active volcano in the Philippines having erupted about 50 times in the last 500 years. The distinctiveness of Mayon volcano is geographically shared by the eight cities and municipalities which meet at the cone’s summit, dividing the cone like slices of a pie when viewed from above. There are many festivals and rituals are associated with the volcano and its landscape. The most destructive eruption of Mayon occurred on in Feb 1, 1814.  Lava was flowed belched dark ash 30ft in depth and eventually bombarded the town of Cagsawa 1200 locals perished with tephra that buried it.

Trees burned, and rivers damaged and proximate areas were devastated by the eruption. Moreover, another massive eruption recorded in 1881. Everyone had to leave their homes, rice, vegetables and poultry farms within the danger zone. When Mayon underwent a strong volcano had poured out, for five months continuously, a stream of lava on the Legaspi side from the very summit. The viscid mass bubbled quietly but grandly, and overran the border of the crater, descending several hundred feet in a glowing wave, like red-hot iron. An eruption in 1993 caused 79 deaths. And subsequent eruptions in 2000, 2006, 2009, 2014, and 2018 forced tens of thousands of people in nearby villages to evacuate.

The Mayon Volcano is located on the convergent boundary where the Philippine Sea Plate is driven under the Philippine Mobile Belt. The lighter continental plate floats over top of the oceanic plate. It is forcing it down into the Earth's mantle, and allowing magma to well up from the Earth’s interior. The magma exits through weaknesses in the continental crust, one of which is Mount Mayon. The locals refers the volcano being named after the great princess-heroine Daragang Magayon

The active volcano has managed to retain its perfect cone shape without suffering any major slides or collapse. The volcano is the centerpiece of the Albay Biosphere Reserve, declared by UNESCO in 2016. The main landmark is rising 2462 meters above the Albay Gulf.  It has very steep upper slopes averaging 35 to 40 degrees capped by a small summit crater. Due to its perfect symmetric cone, the mountain was declared a national park and a protected landscape on July 20, 1938.

It was also reclassified a Natural Park and renamed as the Mayon Volcano Natural Park in 2000. Mount Mayon is the most active volcano in the Philippines. Hence its activity is regularly monitored by PHIVOLCS from their provincial headquarters on Ligñon Hill, about 12KM SSE from the summit. Three telemetric units are installed on Mayon's slopes, which relay information to the seven seismometers in different locations around the volcano and back to the Ligñon Hill observatory and the PHIVOLCS central headquarters. Despite of all facts, Mount Mayon is a popular destination for climbers and tourists.
Source: CP

 

Lanikai Beach, The Best Beach in America

Lanikai Beach is ranked among the best beaches in the world. The half mile strip of Lanikai Beach is located in Lanikai, in the town of Kailua on the windward coast of Oahu, Hawaii. Like several beaches in Hawaii, Lanikai Beach is public property, not a state land. The beach water temperatures are normally 24–26 °C so you can spend plenty of time in the water.

The beach itself position is very unique, as you can watch the moonrise over the Mokuluas, especially during the full moon. Sporadically during the year the sun will rise directly between the Na Mokulua islands. This hidden gem is not connected to Kailua beach, so most tourists pass it up. Lanikai Beach is populated mostly by locals, the rich and famous and the occasional wedding at Sunset. However, Lanikai Beach is most famous among Hawaii peoples, but lacking several public facilities.

Peoples are having problems like, no parking lot, restrooms, shower and lifeguards. The Lanikai means ‘Heavenly Sea’. Adjacent to Lanikai Beach is a mainly upper-class residential area, accessible through public beach access paths. This magnificent beach has extremely soft powdery clean white sand. Peoples are constraint to violate parking lot due to no near parking area. Although, parking violation fines have increased in order to keep people from illegally parking in the residential area.

There are legal parking areas in downtown Kailua, where you have to take the bus to the beach for a rational fee. Parking violations are strictly enforced and include, but are not limited to, no parking within four feet of a driveway entrance or apron, blocking the unimproved pedestrian right of way. The beach cove on one of the small islands and the surf between the two are big draws to kyakers and surfers.

The best time to go to Lanikai Beach is in weekdays due to less crowded compared to weekends. Even it is still very problematic to find parking close to public beach accesses. So, one can imagine the plight of parking on weekends. The Lanikai Beach overcrowded during summer and winter vacation seasons. In those days, beach is completely parked every single day. This is a great place to swim with the Hawaiian Green Sea turtles because the reef protects it from the big Hawaiian surf. Bring plenty of sunblock as there is not much shade when on the beach.

The Lanikai Beach is famous spot for photo lovers; they regularly shoot videos on nice days. The special thing about this beach, having the two Islands in the background. Which attract photographers to make their photoshoot plan here? The background called Na Mokulua or Mokes. Lanikai Beach is consistently voted as one of the best beaches in the United States.  This is the only beach in the USA that was voted as one of the best beaches in the world.

The beach is Flat Island which is a bird sanctuary and destination for swimmers and kyakers alike.  Moreover, myriad shade trees line the sand and shade a large park with many picnic tables, a bike path and bathroom/shower facilities.

The magical aqua blue calm waters are perfect for swimming, but not at all good for snorkeling.  There is no reef to attract the fish. The water can also become a little cloudy from the fine sand stirring up from the bottom shoreline.  Kayaking is a fantastic way to enjoy in at Lanikai calm waters.  This is an exclusive two hour adventure that you must plan and head to sign up before arriving at the beach. 

It includes transportation, lunch, snorkel gear, life jacket, dry bag, and caters to beginners to more advanced kayakers. It’s a peaceful setting that promotes a relaxing setting for everyone to enjoy! Make sure, also remember to be well-mannered to the local residents, and clean up after yourselves when leaving the beach.

Source: CP