http://www.stjoepride.com Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:35:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 http://www.stjoepride.com/bali-volcanoes-helicopter-tour.html http://www.stjoepride.com/bali-volcanoes-helicopter-tour.html#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:11:16 +0000 admin http://www.crawbot.co.cc/?p=4067

Bali island in Indonesia is renowned for its natural beauty and as a fabulous tourist attraction. However, the island is also known for its terrorist attacks in recent years. Since then, the people of Bali have recovered and the island is now a hotspot for tourists from all over the world once again, especially for its beach resorts and volcano helicopter tours.

The island’s ecology and geography are greatly influenced by the towering mountain range of volcanoes that dominate the island. These majestic volcanoes created Bali’s stunning mountainous landscape and they occasionally regenerate its soils and help produce heavy rains that provide this resort island with precious fresh water.

The Balinese considered the island’s many volcanoes, lakes and spring as sacred and treat them with respect and awe. If you are a tourist traveling to Bali for your holiday vacation, you will be awestruck with the sheer majesty of the volcanoes. These natural landscapes are major tourist attractions and many tourist go sightseeing the volcanoes on helicopter tours so that they can view the volcanoes in all its splendor and take awesome pictures. The island is still continually being formed by volcanic activities.

Bali is located over a major fault zone where the Indo-Australian plate collides with the Sunda plate. In 1963, a violent eruption on Mount Agung killed thousands of people and utterly destroyed many rice fields and irrigation network.

The dramatic lava flows on the north eastern faces of Mt Agung is the newest landforms, showing what the island may look like in ancient pre-historic time. It is a fascinating sightseeing experience, almost like a scene out of Jurassic Park.

Perhaps, the most popular volcano for tourists to visit and go sightseeing is Mount Batur. This grand old dame of a volcano sits in a giant caldera that contains a lake that is a few miles long and over a mile wide. Mount Batur is actually a very active volcano and can erupt moment as it erupted with great frequency but the eruptions are less violent these days except in a giant eruption in 1917 which claimed thousands of lives and destroyed hundreds of temples and villages.

Hiking up Mount Batur in the wee small hours of the the morning has become something of a “must do” thing for many tourists in Bali. You will need to bring along a sweater as it can get a little chilly at the volcano summit.

There is also a little coffee shop at the rim selling drinks for thirsty hikers and many children and women in flip flops balancing buckets of soft drinks on their heads scampering around trying to earn your tourist dollar. As the sun rises, you will get a picturesque view of Lombok and other surrounding islands.

One very interesting hike on Mt Batur is the climb down the inside of the crater from Penelokan to Kedisan. There are boats at Toya Bungkah Lake to take you across the lake to a village called Trunyan. This village is notorious for its mortuary traditions because instead of cremating or burying their deceased, the Trunyan villagers leave dead human bodies to decompose naturally in a designated cemetery.

Although Bali is known for rice cultivation, its volcanic soil is actually not well suited for such activities. The soil is finely textured and well drained, so water soaks through the soil rapidly and thus precious water is wasted. The solution therefore lies in repeated and vigorous ploughing which make the soil less permeable.

So if you are visiting Bali for your holiday vacations, do not miss out a sightseeing trip to view Bali’s majestic volcanoes, better yet, take a helicopter tour of this spectacular tourist attraction.

]]> http://www.stjoepride.com/bali-volcanoes-helicopter-tour.html/feed 0 http://www.stjoepride.com/cuban-county-house-nowadays-an-innermost-hotel-in-havana-city.html http://www.stjoepride.com/cuban-county-house-nowadays-an-innermost-hotel-in-havana-city.html#comments Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:05:19 +0000 admin http://www.crawbot.co.cc/?p=4075

The Old Havana charms any person who is interested in innermost places. When talking about holidays, this city is something very special for the most exquisite travelers, a Cuban feast for the eyes.

It’s particular contrasts stimulate dreams and make it an obligation for tourists to capture such a beauty in a picture and, much better, in an unforgettable memory of the active rest.

That’s why it constitutes a real pleasure the necessary walk through the paved streets of the old part of the wonderful island’s capital.

So, as a part of the efforts to provide the Cuban capital city with a more and more cultural and historical tourism, comes into being the San Beltrán de Santa Cruz hotel in the old Conde de Jaruco’s house, considered today an innermost resting place.

This hotel, managed by the touristic company of the City Historian’s Office, Habaguanex S.A, which is responsible for the amusement in La Habana Vieja, could be considered as a cultural jewel; the perfect lodge.

Located in Calle San Ignacio 411, between the streets of Muralla and Sol in Old Havana – declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site in 1982 – shows now an appropriate elegance and intimacy.

This hotel is composed by 11 colonial rooms, one suite and the other 10, standard rooms. It also boasts a breakfast-room called “San Juan de Jaruco” and a snack-bar baptized as “Don Gabriel”.

According to historians, in 1732, Don Gabriel Beltrán de Santa Cruz ordered the construction of a house at the Plaza Vieja, – the Conde de Jaruco’s house – but he died at the beginning of the works.

Hes widow, Doña Antonia Aranda y Avellaneda, daughter of the major of the San Salvador de la Punta fortress, extended the project and asked the contractor to build a small imitation of it in the backyard of the main house, called since then “La Casa Chica” (1739).

During the time, several families and prominent personalities of the society of the capital city lived in the house like the Count of San Juan de Jaruco, Pedro Beltrán de Santa Cruz and the sister of the Marchioness of Cárdenas de Monte Hermoso, Josefa Catalina de Santa Cruz.

In that mansion were received and lodged the most prominent personalities that visited the city, including the Baron Alexander von Humboldt, an eminent German scientist, and three French princes: the Count of Beaujolais, the Duke of Montpensier and the Duke of Orléans, who became later the king of France, Louis Philippe.

“La Casa Chica” hasn’t suffered great transformations, preserving its old components and its colonial ambience. This great house is located near the Plaza Vieja and has opened its doors as a new charming hotel, combining antique and modern elements with an attractive design.

This hotel is part of a very delicate structure admired by hundreds of travelers from all over the world; especially Europeans that are daily accommodated in this houses of the old part of the city.

]]> http://www.stjoepride.com/cuban-county-house-nowadays-an-innermost-hotel-in-havana-city.html/feed 0 http://www.stjoepride.com/the-great-mosque-of-djenne.html http://www.stjoepride.com/the-great-mosque-of-djenne.html#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:00:12 +0000 admin http://www.crawbot.co.cc/?p=4081

Djenne is a historically and commercially important small city in the Niger Inland Delta of central Mali. It is just west of the Bani River. It has an ethnically diverse population of about twelve thousand in 1987.

The Great Mosque of Djenne is the largest mud brick or adobe building in the world and is considered by many architects to be the greatest achievement of the Sudano Sahelian architectural style, albeit with definite Islamic influences.

The mosque is located in the city of Djenne, Mali on the flood plain of the Bani River. The first mosque on the site was built in the 13th century, but the current structure dates from 1907. As well as being the centre of the community of Djenne, it is one of the most famous landmarks in Africa.

The entire community of Djenne takes an active role in the mosques maintenance via a unique annual festival. This includes music and food, but has the primary objective of repairing the damage inflicted on the mosque in the past year, mostly erosion caused by the annual rains and cracks caused by changes in temperature and humidity.

In the days leading up to the festival, the plaster is prepared in pits. It requires several days to cure but needs to be periodically stirred, a task usually falling to young boys who play in the mixture, thus stirring up the contents. Men climb onto the mosques built in scaffolding and ladders made of palm wood and smear the plaster over the face of the mosque.

Another group of men carries the plaster from the pits to the workmen on the mosque. A race is held at the beginning of the festival to see who will be the first to deliver the plaster to the mosque. Women and girls carry water to the pits before the festival and to the workmen on the mosque during it. Members of Djennes masons guild direct the work, while elderly members of the community, who have already participated in the festival many times, sit in a place of honour in the market square watching the proceedings.

The original mosque presided over one of the most important Islamic learning centres in Africa during the middle Ages.

The historic areas of Djenne, including the Great Mosque, were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988. While there are many mosques that are older than its current incarnation, the Great Mosque remains the most prominent symbol of both the city of Djenne and the nation of Mali.

]]> http://www.stjoepride.com/the-great-mosque-of-djenne.html/feed 0