http://sky-today.com/10-weird-and-mysterious-places-on-earth/
For a visit of Socotra Island, contact Eternal Yemen !
One of Socotrian giant succulents, Adenium obesum socotranum, known also as "bottle tree" or desert rose.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tina Zorman and Eternal Yemen: Our favorite landscape is Soqotra Island, a pearl of Indian Ocean
If you think the same, plan your holiday in Soqotra
Island, the Island of magic !
Travelling round Soqotra with Eternal Yemen will disclose you the secrets of this amazing island, a unique mozaic of splendid landscapes, exraordinary plants and animals. Our clients are well informed about the dress and behavior code and our tour programs are carefully planned to create the minimal impact on the fragile Socotrian environment and culture.
Responsible and experienced drivers, well versed
guides and high quality of cars and camping equipment, together with an optimal
program for your time, budget and preferences, will make your holidays in
Soqotra unforgettable!
Create
with us your eternal travel tale !
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Escape the cold with a visit of Soqotra Island, Yemen
Instead of being cold in your country, visit Soqotra Island, the Island of Magic, and enjoy hiking along the fabulous landscapes, swimming and snorkelling in the warm sea or simply relaxing along the unforgettable tour that Eternal Yemen, tour operator, will prepare for you !
Soqotra Island that lies 400 km south of Yemeni coast, on the meeting point of Arab Sea and Indian ocean, is one of the most amazing places in the world. Largely isolated island till a decade ago, is very well known among biologists round the world as a paradise of biodiversity. Due to the splendid landscapes, rich and distinct flora and fauna, globally significant populations of land and sea birds and diverse marine life, that is unique hybrid of species from the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, Soqotra was included on UNESCO World Heritage List in July, 2008 as a site of universal importance.
The best time for visiting Socotra Island is from October till the mid of April, so if you wish to jump to a splendid and warm place in the next months, Soqotra Island is the destination for you !
Upon your request, the tour can be prepared at any time from September till the mid of May
Guaranteed tour departure: Soqotra adventure – one week: 14.03. – 21.03. 2012
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Yemen; Fauna On The Brink Of Extinction (by Tarim C. Kennedy)
I'm republishing this wonderful article of a wonderful author, Tarim C. Kennedy.
Mikael Strandberg, a traveler, film maker, lecturer and life explorer, that lives his life to the fullest, and had first published this article on his blog (http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com), has described Tarim as an original human being, who fits in everywhere and with great positiveness heads out into the world.
After knowing Tarim, I totally agree with this. Tarim is kind, open minded teenager, passionate in his love of the nature. I’ve met him on one Friday afternoon at climbing in Sa’na village on the outskirts of Sana’a. He is the “guilty one” for my teaching for a short period in Sana’a International School, the kid’s friendliest school ever. I could see Tarim spreading good vibrations wherever he appeared; he is simply admired by everybody, from small preschool kids, teachers and the teenager girls from my class.
I strongly hope that we will be able to congratulate Tarim for being accepted to Berkeley for the next school year. I wish him a great future and that he will continue sharing his thoughts on ecological matters, like in his great article below.
Yemen; Fauna On The Brink Of Extinction
By
Tarim C. Kennedy
The word “Yemen” evokes a vast array of mental images in the minds of those who hear it. There’s the odd anthropologist, who upon hearing its name floats off into fantasies of Yemen’s diverse ethnic make up or the average Yemeni’s unequivocal sense of hospitality. There’s the photographer, who automatically pictures the breathtaking scenery from the mountainous landscape, or the artist who visualizes the near-mystical alleyways of the old city of Sana’a. There’s the avid naturalist who, like myself, instantly falls into reveries of the vibrant blue Agamas perched on the walls of houses, the almost psychedelic looking Veiled Chameleon as it stealthily glides from branch to branch or the jaw dropping majesty of the Griffon Vulture as it soars merely meters from your face on the cliffs of Mahweet. Lastly, and also most unfortunately, there’s the average person, who, upon hearing that peculiar country’s name sneers at the thought of a hostile terrorist haven, void of all moral values. Sadly the latter has become the most prevalent, and as a result, much like the trajectories of its many magnificent animal species, the more optimistic perspectives of Yemen in the eyes of the world have slowly begun to fade away.
Home to Socotra or “the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean”, Yemen plays an important role in the region’s biodiversity. Home to 51 endemic and 22 endangered animal species, steps must be taken rather quickly to ensure that their presence in Yemen doesn’t become history. Although Yemen is unique in so many ways, the outer forces that are plaguing its animal species are similar to those affecting the fauna of any other country. The chief menace to Yemen’s pristine natural habitat lies in the social spectrum. The mixture of poverty, lack of education, lack of law enforcement and a rapidly growing population, large amounts of once untouched land are being developed and wild, and often-endangered, wildlife is being unscrupulously traded both domestically and internationally. With this encroachment into animal habitat, encounters between humans and animals become increasingly common, usually ending in a similar fashion: the animal losing its life. A few years ago I witnessed this very act in its crudest form. While searching for Yemeni Veiled Chameleons, a regional endemic and a popular item on the international pet trade, I was invited by the sheikh of a village to search his Qat fields for chameleons, his reason being “these chameleons break all my Qat, they can change colors you know? They are evil spirits!” Upon my trying to explain that the chameleons did not break his Qat but rather benefitted it by eating the insects that did break it, the sheikh readily accepted my opinion and told all the children of the village to stop killing chameleons. After witnessing how quickly and compliantly the sheikh changed his mind from evil spirits to welcomed, all natural pesticides, I was struck with idea of why these horrible practices are still taking place if it so easy to combat them?
Yet like most everything else in the field of science its simply more complicated than that. Firstly, and mainly for political reasons, Yemen is not the prime destination for animal rights activists. Secondly, it’s not always the case that animal and human interactions are symbiotic like that of the chameleon and the Qat farmer. An example would lie in the Arabian Leopard. Only recently, hard working individuals on behalf of the Foundation for the Protection of the Arabian Leopard in Yemen established and documented live Arabian Leopards on Yemeni territory. Being more susceptible to extinction in the wild than the Bengal Tiger, this was a big step. Arabian Leopards are an example of species that do not cooperate too well with farmers and angry villagers. As infrastructural development reduces the number of the leopard’s natural prey, such as ibex and rock hyrax, the leopard looks to the easier and more readily available alternative; domestic livestock. In response, when the chance arises leopards are killed without qualms.
As anyone who has been to Suq Nuqom in Sana’a knows, Yemen’s exotic animal trade flourishes with the lack of law enforcement. An average trip to Suq Nuqom, or one of the many exotic animal suqs around Yemen, can reveal such animal species as baby striped hyenas kept in cardboard boxes, Barbary Falcons with feet eaten away by cellular necrosis due to tight leg braces, new born Hamadryas Baboons chained around the neck being sold for roughly $30 and on rare occasions foreign species such as cheetahs or lions brought over the Red Sea for sale to the many wealthy “animal lovers” in Yemen and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula. In 1997 Yemen became part of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Yemen has a government funded Environmental Protection Authority and yet nothing is done to halt the unethical imprisonment of endemic and potentially endangered animal species. In fact, the government run national zoo is just as bad. Emaciated lions greet you upon entry, followed by hyenas kept in cages barely large enough to walk in, native snakes dying of cold because of the lack of electricity to artificially heat their enclosures and a large and well built aviary dedicated solely to pigeons simply because the resident veterinarian has a personal love for pigeons while the globally endangered Egyptian Vulture is kept in an enclosure long three times its wing span. After my three years of volunteer work at the Sana’a Zoo I gathered some interesting observation on how such institutions work in Yemen. One of these observations presented me with a great irony; overall, Yemenis love the zoo! On an average month in 2009, the zoo would make around two million Yemeni Riyals (approximately $4690) in ticket sales, each ticket being only fifty Riyals. Approximately 20,000 visitors flood the relatively small zoo every month, which got me to thinking once again, how is it that none of them are doing anything about the animals? This, in turn, led me to my next observation: most of the zoo’s visitors love the zoo in the wrong way. They love the fact that for about $1 a “keeper” will go into the lion cage and beat the lions with a stick just so they move, they love that they can give balls, popcorn, or most anything else to the baboons and see what they will do with it, they don’t love the zoo for the beauty of its animals.
I went back home that day, sat down and thought to myself: what can I do to help the animals of this country? Eventually, the thinking led me to a number of different ideas. I could try and get some funding from NGOs, embassies and corporations to improve the general standards of the zoo, I could inform international organizations focused on animal rights about the immoral conditions of animal trade in Yemen or I could dedicate time and resources to one of the few organizations that already do focus on the issue. The list within my head went on. And that’s the beauty of it; it is really easier than one thinks to help such a cause. Behind the political turmoil, poverty and the futile government bureaucracy lies a population of people that when guided properly could accomplish the incredible. Like the humble sheikh that quickly changed his mind about the chameleon imposters, so can the general population of Yemen towards the animals it encounters and the general population of the world towards the country of Yemen. Like the spotty coat of the regal Arabian Leopard, the future of Yemen’s fauna will pass through periods of both dark and light. Yet measures can be and must be taken to ensure that the ancestors of the neonate Caracal kept in a birdcage in Suq Nuqom, will continue to enjoy their innate freedom.
Tarim C. Kennedy is an American-Italian that has grown up in Yemen. Living in such a diverse country, at a young age he developed a passion for the vast array of animals found in it. His email is tarimck@hotmail.com
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
VISIT OF SOQOTRA ISLAND IS POSSIBLE AGAIN - VISAS CAN BE ISSUED for the visitors of SOQOTRA ISLAND
Hey there,
it has been almost half a year since the Ministry of Interior in Sana'a has stoped issuing tourist visas due to the unrest in the country. This has affected many Yemeni people and especially inhabitants of magical Soqotra Island for whom tourism is an important source of income.
As Soqotra Island has always been peaceful and has not been affected by the Yemeni unrest, the authorities have decided to start issuing TOURIST VISAS for the visitors that will spend their time in Yemen in Soqotra Island and possibly 1-2 days in Sana'a.
If you wish to visit this extraiordinary Island, you are welcome to visit our website
http://www.eternal-yemen.com or contact us to info@eternal-yemen.com. For preparation of VISA, we will need a colorful scan of your passport main pages.
WHY TO TRAVEL WITH US ?
- We know the Island well and we know the traveller's expectations
- For all of our clients we prepare well considered, tailor made itineraries, according to the clients wishes, time and fitness that will allow you to see the optimum in your time
- We support Soqotrian communities and work exclusivelly with Soqotrian people
- Our drivers, guides and other colleagues are responsible, experienced and trustful persons
- High satisfaction of our past clients
Create with us your Eternal travel tale !
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