Hear ye, hear ye! Get to thy nearest newsstand and pick up the latest issue of AFAR!
It honestly may be one of my favorite issues I've worked on to date. Inside is our annual "Where to Go" list, which are love letters to 25 places around the world, from Bhutan to Manchester to Texas to Tangier and beyond. The feature well will make you want to pack your bags to chase cherry blossoms across Japan, search for remnants of a utopian art movement in Utrecht, or find remnants of the Chumash people who once inhabited California's biodiverse Channel Islands National Park.
My two written contributions are both, by coincidence, about islands that feel removed from time and place. First, in the Where to To package, I profess my admiration for Kenya's Lamu Island, which is free of cars and has a unique culture that blends bits of the Arab Peninsula, Portugal, India, China, Persia, and of course, the Bantu people. It's a place where I feel like a complete outsider, yet feels so inviting and always leaves me feeling at complete peace.
Second, I write about the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California. Truly, check out the story less for my words and more for the richly textured photos by Justin Fantl. The archipelago is known for its flora and fauna, including species that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. It's come in the news today because the Northern Chumash tribe is proposing an expansion to the marine sanctuary surrounding the islands to form a 20,000-square-mile ocean conservation zone that would limit offshore oil drilling, protect sacred Chumash sites, and offer marine animals such as gray whales
a wider migratory corridor.
I am so curious to know how you find this issue. It's one that goes deep into specific places and hopefully makes you more curious about the world.
Where are you traveling in 2024? 🌎 AFAR's Where to Go 2024 issue is here with the 25 most exciting destinations to visit this year—plus, an exploration of Japan’s cherry blossom season with Latria Graham, a photographic journey into the “Galápagos Islands of North America,” by Justin Fantl, and Chris Colin’s deep dive into obscure art movement that believed global harmony could be achieved through geometry.
➡️ Get your copy here: https://bit.ly/3tTwRhI
📸 Cover shot by Geoffrey Haggray in Kyoto, Japan
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