Solomon Islands
Santa Ana Island
Canoe houses carved inside and out, on an island where the coffins are canoes too.
Firelight moves across dancers painted in lime white and charcoal, drums building until the clearing shakes with it. The ceremony runs on the island's own calendar.
Owaraha, off the eastern end of Makira, keeps canoe houses carved end to end inside, and canoe coffins belong to the same tradition. Nothing is staged here, and no ceremony happens because a visitor has arrived. Flights reach Kirakira and the sea leg onward is arranged from there, together with the village stay itself. Days go on walking, sitting with carvers, and following whatever the household is doing. When a feast day comes round, dancers painted in lime white and charcoal re-enact the island's origin stories, and the elders set that timing.
Solo
A village stay works because one guest is a guest: the household simply absorbs you into its day.
Couple
There is nothing to do here in the organised sense, which is the point. Carving, music and the sea, at whatever pace the village keeps.
- Owaraha's canoe houses are carved inside and out, and canoe coffins belong to the same tradition.
- Cultural practice in Makira-Ulawa is lived: carving, music and feast dances belong to the island's own calendar.
- Flights reach Kirakira, and the sea leg to the island is arranged from there.
- A named village host is what turns this into a stay, and no performance is promised.
Ask an Owaraha homestay for reef fish grilled over fire or simmered gently in coconut cream.
Cassava pudding baked with coconut makes the island’s rewarding sweet finish when hosts are preparing it.
Tarout Island
Saudi Arabia
A Dilmun temple buried beneath a Portuguese-era fort on one of Arabia's oldest inhabited islands.
Wadi el-Seboua
Egypt
A sphinx-lined avenue rising from Lake Nasser's shore to Ramesses II's relocated Nubian temple.
Skyros
Greece
Wild Skyrian ponies roam the southern hills of an island where Carnival masks hide ancient rites.
Taro Island
Solomon Islands
A provincial capital on an island low enough that the plan is to move it.
Savo Island
Solomon Islands
Megapodes bury their eggs in black sand that an active volcano keeps warm from below.
Nendo
Solomon Islands
Money made from red feathers came from here, and the memory of it has not gone.