CAYOS ZAPATILLO
PULAU KAPAS
PRAIA LOPES MENDES
Apart from the obvious bliss we share at certain moments with loved ones, there is a special kind of bliss that I feel when I am in paradise. For me paradise involves a voyage in a sailing boat to a deserted tropical island, where I can then snorkel in crystal clear waters with the rich marine life there. This has happened to me several times during my life. The first time was when I lived in a wooden house on stilts at the edge of the South China Sea. Opposite my house, a few miles offshore, was an idyllic desert island, called Pulau Kapas (Cotton Wool Island), which I could visit in a local fishing boat. This was my first time snorkeling in clear, warm, tropical waters, and the coral and marine life were stunningly beautiful. Island hopping in the Seychelles was another blissful experience, but, for me, Ilha Grande off the coast of Brazil is even more beautiful. There, you can be dropped off by a schooner and walk through the rainforest to what I consider to be the best beach in the world, Praia Lopes Mendes. I have had some wonderful times in the Caribbean, but the most idyllic desert island I have visited there is, without doubt, in Cayos Zapatillo off the coast of Panama. It is a picture perfect paradise. The most blissful experience I have ever had snorkeling, however, was on the reef near Caye Caulker in Belize, where after a beautiful trip in a schooner, I was able to swim with and touch sharks, stingrays and turtles, which was incredibly exciting and sheer bliss!
Ever since I read Don Quixote, I have wanted to see the windmills on the plains of La Mancha, and this summer I finally made it. Coming as I do from a country of small hills and valleys, vast plains have always seemed exotic to me, and one of the most pleasurable travel experiences of my life was driving across the Canadian Prairies. The plains of La Mancha are not quite on that scale, but they more than lived up to my expectations. When local wheat farmers switched over to wine production, the windmills, which once used to grind huge quantities of wheat, sadly became derelict, but now many of them are being renovated in the hope that they will attract tourists to this rarely visited area between Madrid and Andalusia. If you get the chance, go there, sample the Manchego cheese, ham and wine (La Mancha produces 50% of all Spain's wine and is now the most extensive wine-growing region in the world), but, above all, visit the beautiful windmills, the finest of which are near Consuegra and Campo de Criptana .
