Photo story: uncovering the charm of Bermuda
Photographs by Michael George Bermuda is often mistaken for a Caribbean island, but in reality, it is located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A British Overseas Territory, this subtropical paradise is situated on approximately the same latitude as North Carolina and is just a two-hour flight from the East Coast of the United States. Millions of years ago, it formed as part of a volcanic seamount near a section of the Atlantic known as the Sargasso Sea. While stories of mysterious disappearances in the "Bermuda Triangle" may be fictional, its shipwrecks are very real. Bermuda is home to over 300 shipwrecks, earning it the nickname "shipwreck capital of the world." Here, tour boats visit the HMS Vixen, an intentionally sunk wreck that dates back to World War II. The HMS Vixen is located a short boat ride from shore. Companies such as Bermuda Watersports offer tours and provide snorkel gear rentals. Locals affectionately refer to Bermuda as "de Rock" due to its abundance of aeolian limestone cliffs. Admiralty House Park in Hamilton has long been a favorite spot for cliff jumpers, but for Bermudian Grant Farquhar, it holds a different allure: rock climbing. The author of Climb de Rock: A Climber's Guide to Bermuda, Grant has mapped rock climbing routes throughout the island. Bermuda's distinctive "boiler" reefs, seen here near the South Shore Beaches, create a churning effect in the water that resembles boiling. Bermuda sees an influx of part-time residents in the spring and summer: Longtails. These black-and-white tropicbirds, named for their long feathered tails, spend the winter at sea and return to Bermuda from March through August to nest in its cliffs and crevices. Bermuda's cliffs and shore reefs make for scenic coastal kayaking. Here, a couple paddles in clear-bottom kayaks in the parish of Somerset past a structure with a uniquely Bermudian stepped limestone roof designed to catch rainwater. One of Bermuda's most iconic structures is the Unfinished Church in the Town of St. George. As its name suggests, this Gothic-style church from the 1800s was never completed. St. George's is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest English settlement in the New World still in existence. The town dates back to 1609 when British passengers aboard the Virginia-bound Sea Venture were shipwrecked on the uninhabited island. A staff member at the Hamilton Princess Hotel in downtown Hamilton, Bermuda, wears a traditional outfit: Bermuda shorts worn just above the knee, high socks, a button-down shirt, and a blazer. The evolution of Bermuda shorts as we know them today is often attributed to Nathaniel Coxon, a Bermudian tea merchant in the 1920s who adapted British military uniforms to make them more comfortable in the island heat.
Pictured in the background is a Bermuda moongate. Influenced by Chinese architectural design, Bermuda moongates symbolize love. It is a tradition for newlyweds to stand beneath them. Gombey dancers, wearing vibrant costumes, prepare to perform in the streets of Bermuda. This tradition dates back to the early 1800s and blends African, British, Native American, and Caribbean influences, reflecting the island's diverse heritage. Historically, enslaved individuals were permitted to dance only once a year, using masks to protest injustices without fear of retribution. Today, Gombey performances are a symbol of Bermudian identity, featured during holidays like Boxing Day, New Year's Day, and Bermuda Day, as well as at festivals and public celebrations. The traditional Gombey costume features a peacock feather headdress, painted mask, bells, and tassels, but each dancer adds their own twist to the ensemble. The word "Gombey" is thought to come from an African term meaning "rhythm," highlighting the role of drumming and percussive beats in their performances. Two locals offering a taste of Bermudian culture are Doreen Williams-James (left) and Julie Barnes (right). Williams-James, founder of Wild Herbs N Plants of Bermuda, leads foraging tours across the island, teaching guests how to identify wild herbs and plants like nasturtium and sea purslane for culinary and medicinal use.
Barnes, recently voted the best bartender in Bermuda, has spent the past 28 years at the Swizzle Inn, where she serves up Bermuda's national drink: the Rum Swizzle. While every bar puts its own spin on the cocktail, a Rum Swizzle typically includes rum, fruit juices (such as orange, pineapple, and lemon), falernum or grenadine, and Angostura bitters. For a bird's-eye view of Bermuda's reefs, landmarks, and distinctive fishhook shape, visitors can take to the skies with Heather Nicholds, owner of Blue Sky Flights. Nicholds offers 25-minute discovery flights and 45-minute full sightseeing tours around the island in her small plane. The view underground is equally stunning. In Bermuda's East End, the Crystal and Fantasy Caves invite visitors to explore the island's subterranean wonders. For those who like to venture off the beaten path, Bermuda is full of hidden gems—including Blue Hole Park. This striking blue swimming hole is tucked within the lush jungle of Walsingham Nature Reserve, a place that, in the words of the late Bermudian singer Hubert Smith, makes Bermuda feel like 'another world.'
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This national landmark had to move because of a landslide. Inside what's next for Wayfarers chapel
A year ago, one of the Los Angeles region's most beloved buildings was busy being dismantled, stone by stone, beam by beam. The Wayfarers Chapel, also informally known as the 'tree chapel' or 'glass church,' had since 1951 stood serenely on a lightly forested bluff in Rancho Palos Verdes, overlooking the waters of Abalone Cove. Designed for the nature-loving Swedenborgian Church by Lloyd Wright, the talented son of Frank Lloyd Wright, the building seemed to disappear into the redwood grove that surrounded it, thanks to its glass walls and ceiling, craggy Palos Verdes stone walls and laminated timber frame, which formed circles and squares symbolizing, among other things, the primal elements, the oneness of God and the unity of all life. No wonder it was the chosen site for 800 weddings a year. But the eerily shifting lands of the Portuguese Bend landslide — which also prompted the 2024 evacuation and loss of dozens of homes in the area — presented an existential threat to the chapel, and last May the church made the painful decision to take down what had just months before been named a national historic landmark, put its parts in storage and try to find a new home. 'We had no idea if we'd be rebuilding in one year or five,' said Katie Horak, a principal at the Los Angeles office of Architectural Resources Group, or ARG, which, with Gardena-based K.C. Restoration, led the dismantling. 'We just knew we had to save what we could.' Now a new site has been identified, although not yet secured. Over the weekend, Wayfarers Chapel's website began showcasing renderings, produced by ARG and landscape architects Agency Artifact. They showed the chapel, perched on an ocean-hugging hilltop a little more than a mile from its original location. The 4.9-acre parcel, which also houses a World War II-era bunker, is a former military installation called Battery Barnes, owned by the U.S. Coast Guard. It's a few hundred feet southwest of Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall. Rancho Palos Verdes City Manager Ara Mihranian confirmed that the city, which owns most of the land encircling the potential chapel site, was strongly supportive of Wayfarers moving to the proposed location. 'Wayfarers is one of our iconic symbols. It's been here longer than the city was incorporated. It's part of our landscape, our cultural DNA,' he said. Mihranian confirmed that the Coast Guard had begun the process of divesting the land to the city, which would then lease or sell it to the church. (Mihranian said the city would prefer to lease the land, but the church has said it would prefer to buy it, or swap it for its previous site.) The divestiture process could take a year or two, maybe more, said Mihranian, who noted that the chapel and the city recently submitted a letter to U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu, whose 36th District includes the site, to help expedite the process. 'It's not a done deal yet,' added Robert Carr, Wayfarers Chapel's administrative director. 'But we're closer than we've ever been. There's goodwill all around. We just have to make it happen.' Carr added that the site, abutting the Alta Vicente nature preserve, would be an ideal fit for the church. Geological surveys show no shifting land underneath, and in many ways it's similar to the original location. 'It's a high hilltop with a steep slope that has views a quarter mile away of the cliffs and the points and the bays,' Carr said. Horak added that it also works well from a preservation standpoint: 'It's close to the original location, shares the same coastal breeze, orientation and microclimate. That's critical for the sensitive materials we salvaged. The light, the view, even the way the wind moves across the hill — it's as if it was meant to be.' Carr said rebuilding would likely take place in stages, starting with the chapel, followed by a new bell tower, meeting hall (lost to a landslide in the 1980s), stone colonnade and facilities like a café and museum, which could be installed inside the site's former bunker, Carr said. The city and chapel have discussed a community hall that could be used for city events during the week and wedding receptions on the weekend. Fundraising, Carr said, has just started, but the chapel hopes to raise around $10 million by summer 2026 for the chapel. The group eventually wants to raise about $30 million for the entire project. Both figures, he said, could change as a design emerges. ARG and Agency Artifact created schematic designs for the chapel in its new location; the project's final design team has not been chosen. Putting the chapel back together in a way that preserves its integrity, Horak said, will be no easy task, no matter who works on it. Her team was able to save many of the building's component parts, like the wood building frame, steel window frames, stone walls and many of the roof tiles. It was also able to take a digital scan of the original building. But the glass will have to be new, as will the bell tower, which couldn't be saved (although its bells were). The chapel will need new seismic strengthening, and trees and landscaping will need to be planted along its periphery. But compared to what Horak described as the 'adrenaline-fueled' disassembly, which couldn't employ cranes or scaffolding due to the shifting earth, the process will be less stressful. 'At least we can use heavy equipment,' she said with a laugh. A museum at the new site could showcase, among many other things, Lloyd Wright's work on the chapel, Carr said. That would be a triumph for the architect, who designed important buildings in Los Angeles but never gained the recognition many think he deserved. One case in point: His astounding, X-shaped Moore House in nearby Palos Verdes Estates was unceremoniously demolished by its owners in 2012. 'Very few people can actually point to his work,' said Adrian Scott Fine, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Conservancy. As for the chapel's design, he said: 'There's nothing else like it. This is a place that people would go to almost like a pilgrimage.' Rev. James Lawrence, president of the Swedenborgian Church of North America, added that the crystalline Wayfarers had become the church's most prominent symbol. Several cities around the country, he said, had offered to house the reconstruction. 'We had a national cathedral in Washington, but Wayfarers became the national cathedral psychologically. There's something aesthetic and symbolic and powerful about the chapel that has made it such a well-known place around the planet.'
