7 posts tagged “island”

At least six weeks after the Cosco Busan oil spill struck San Francisco Bay, the popular beaches at Angel Island will reopen on Saturday.The reopening is with an asterisk. State officials are warning visitors there still may be tar balls of oil remaining on the island beaches. The same oil killed thousands of birds and marred miles of coastline.Angel Island is the largest island in San Francisco Bay. It's beaches were closed shortly after the November 7, 2007 oil spill. The spill was caused when a South Korea bound container ship, the Cosco Busan, struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge dumping 58,000 gallons of bunker oil.There are some bay area beaches that are still closed, including Rodeo Beach and Pirates Cove in Marin County. Point Isabel and Eastshore State Park are expected to open by the end of next week.Some other areas of the bay have been slow to be cleaned. In fact in the East Bay, many locals and bird watchers are still complaining of insufficient cleanup around the shoreline in Richmond

Rarotonga is a lush, beautiful place, fringed with beaches and crowned with mountains at its centre. Two concentric roads ring the island, and most of its attractions are on or near one of them. Situated on the western coast, Άrorangi was the first mission-built village on the island.

The Spanish made their first Ecuadorian landfall on this broad, sandy bank flanked by a sparkling river and surrounded by low green hills. Esmeraldas has been an influential port town throughout history but its modern incarnation is not pretty - even the forests have surrendered to scrub brush.

Consisting of two islands, Phi-Phi Leh and Phi-Phi Don, Ko Phi-Phi is the Thailand of holiday dreams and tourist brochures. The emerald waters and remarkable sea- and bird-life are sublime, but rampant over-development of Phi-Phi Don threatens to spoil the island's riches.

The Bahamas has successfully promoted itself as a destination for US jetsetters, and a lot of it is Americanised. Yet there are still opportunities among its 700 islands and 2500 cays to disappear into a mangrove forest, explore a coral reef and escape the high-rise hotels and package-tour madness.