At Chile's northernmost end, the dizzying railway from high Bolivia comes down to the sea. Arica, the City of Eternal Spring, has a population of 169,000. and is located in the Atacama Desert. See San Marcos Cathedral, designed by Gustave Eiffel, and marvel at Pre-Incan relics in the City Museum. Or leave the city to venutre to the White City of Arequipa, the Incan capital of Cuzco and Machu Picchu and the ancient Inca city in the clouds.

Port Augusta is the perfect crossroads to wherever you want to go. Whether heading west across the Nullarbor to Western Australia, north to Alice Springs in Northern Territory, east to Broken Hill in New South Wales, or south to Adelaide you can get there from Port Augusta.

The southernmost island in the crescent-shaped Comoros archipelago. Encircled by a barrier reef, Mayotte is blessed with one of the world's perfect lagoons. In its lush forests, the fragrant yellow flowers of the ylang-ylang tree are picked to extract their perfumed oil. Against a backdrop of waterfalls and volcanic peaks on Mayotte, there is a feeling of rural tranquility.

Rocamadour is a remarkable village set against a steep limestone cliff in the Lot department of southwestern France. Its stone buildings, narrow lanes and ancient sanctuaries rise in stages above the Alzou River valley, giving the settlement a striking silhouette that has drawn visitors for centuries. Pilgrims have come here since the Middle Ages to see the Black Madonna in the Chapelle Notre-Dame and to walk the Chemin de Croix.

An island off the northeast coast of Australia, south of Whitsunday Island, and part of the Cumberland Island Group.

Volcanoes National Park, in northwestern Rwanda, is a place where dramatic volcanic landscapes meet extraordinary wildlife encounters. Stretching across the Virunga Mountains, the park is dominated by five towering volcanoes whose slopes are cloaked in rainforest and bamboo.