Not fond of neighbors? A real stickler for boundaries? Do we have a treat for you—just look at this summer house with its rigorous hedges.
You're flying along the coast of a verdant island-nation that's full of waterfalls and birdlife. The tropics, right? Not so fast. The deep green of the plain below is temporal, and stark peaks like those on the horizon dominate the landscape. Arrive in the gloomy season and you'll think you're in a Lord of the Rings republic littered with deep canyons, volcanoes, glaciers, and geysers and dark bubbling lagoons. The upside is that you'll bask in the hot sulfurous waters.
The four national parks here have consonant-rich names that will twist your tongue: One will come out of your mouth sounding like Snuffleupagus. The most famous park lies in a rift valley where, a millennium ago, lawmakers gathered to hammer out rules (and pound the life out of miscreants). Snowcapped mountains cover the island, but it's a non-geologic summit and a quaint old house that first come to mind. Another home hosts a museum whose members are mounted on the wall and pickled in jars—the members of 245 mammal species. Visit if you have the cojones.
A sixteenth-century priest observed that "both sexes…have the same habite, so that by the garments you shall not easily discerne whether it bee Man or Woman.…The Women-kinde there are very beautifull, but ornaments are wanting." While the ladies are beautiful still, a brilliant pop singer's fame (musicians grow like moss here) rests on her eccentric adornments. She's not the only one with a feather in her cap. A gymnast created and stars in a kids' TV show that's broadcast worldwide, and a writer won a Nobel in literature (to read him in the original, first master his native script, which has a letter that looks like a spastic p but sounds like th).
These people are ecologically sensitive, yet they are constructing a hydroelectric smelting plant of frightening proportions. You'll pass it as you follow the ring road around the island. When you return to this region, don't be shy. Knock on the door of this house and share your adventures and environmental concerns with the owners over a shot of "burning wine." They'll memorize your tales for future generations. Just don't get suckered into trimming the hedges.
Where are you, anyhow?
http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/whereareyou/november2007
