Michoacan is a beautiful state of Mexico pierced by the volcanic range of the Cordillera Volcanica, caracterised by colonial towns like Morelia or Patzcuaro, the center of the 130.000 Purepecha Indians. One of the largest events is Noche de Muertos or Night of the Dead celebrated around 2 November, the Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations with a blending of both pre-Hispanic and Catholic beliefs and traditions. Noche de Muertos is celebrated most strongly in the towns and villages around Lake Patzcuaro which was the center of the Purhepecha Empire. As in other parts of Mexico, altars to the dead erected in homes and on graves and covered with offerings such as bread, fruit and other items. One aspect which is unique to the event here is the lighting and floating of hundreds of small candles and flowers on Lake Patzcuaro on the night between 1 and 2 November. Colonial cities of Michoacàn are like another Spain, but with a Mexican flavour. Morelia, the capital of the state, is one of the country’s most significant colonial cities with an aristocratic feel. An impressive pink stone cathedral dominates the main plaza surrounded by beautiful colonial buildings. The cathedral is said to have taken over 100 years to build and is one of the finest in all of Mexico. Patzcuaro is a charming town with a mixed colonial and indigenous feel of colonial buildings, mansions and courtyards built around the fine and elegant Plaza de Quiroga. Bishop Vasco de Quiroga promoted education and self sufficiency of the indigenous people to develop their natural skills as talented craftsmen.

In the colonial era the Portuguese colonizing the Brazilian interior discovered gold, gems and later diamonds, starting a Brazilian gold rush and attracting new settlers. In 1697, the Portuguese used enslaved Africans to build the Estrada Real, the "royal road" that would connect the ports on the Atlantic to the mineral-rich region of Minas Gerais. More than 400,000 Portuguese and half a million African slaves abandoned the sugar plantations and towns in the northeast coast to go to the gold region to mine and by 1725 half the population of Brazil was living in southeastern Brazil. In the 18th century officially 850 tons of gold were sent to Portugal but other gold remained in the colony to adorn churches. The gold cycle left its mark in several towns such as Mariana, Diamantina, Tiradentes, São João del Rei and mostly Ouro Preto, for centuries capital of Minas Gerais. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980, in the eighteenth century was the largest city in Brazil and one of the most populous in America. The relative isolation from Europe helped the people of Minas Gerais to develop their own style of art which became known as Barroco Mineiro, with richly decorated churches. The most important artist of this time was Antônio Francisco Lisboa, known as Aleijadinho. His sculptural and architectural work is one of the most refined artistic expressions outside Europe at that time, a rich colonial heritage and colonial art. In addition to art and architecture the towns of Minas Gerais were home to an important musical activity helped by printed copies of European music, many foreign musicians travelled here favoring the origin of a local school with considerable sophistication. During the 18th century, mining exploration was controlled by the Portuguese crown which imposed heavy taxes (one fifth of all gold). Several rebellions were attempted by the colonists but the most important was the Inconfidencia, started in 1789 by intellectuals and young officers and inspired by the French and American Enlightenment ideals. The conspiracy failed and the most famous of them, Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, known as Tiradentes, was hanged becoming a national martyr of Brazil. In the economic history of Brazil, Minas Gerais plays a pivotal role in shifting the economic axis from the Brazilian northeast based on sugarcaneto the southeast of the country, which still remains the major economic center.

A surreal ghost town hidden in the heart of the Namibian desert, Kolmanskop, is a dystopian scenario where disturbing images about life on Earth after men's disappearance become a living reality. This remote location in South Namibia is becoming more popular after being featured in the hit post-apocalyptic drama 2024 TV series Fallout, based on a retrofuturistic video game set during the 3rd millennium. But the history of Kolmankshop is much older and more fascinating of a video set because this harsh environment of sand stretched between desert and Ocean hides one of the most intriguing chapters of the diamond rush in Namibia, where diamonds represent one of the most important natural resources, contributing approximately 10% of GDP. The history of these stainless objects of desire in Namibia, then a German Empire colony, began in 1908 when the black worker Zacharias Lewala found a diamond while working at the railroad not far from the port town of Lüderitz. In a few days, many German miners settled in this area, and soon after, the German government started to exploit the diamond fields in the Sperrgebiet, the "Forbidden Area," where access is rigidly prohibited even today. Driven by the enormous wealth, the residents transformed the mining town of Kolmanskop into a German town in the middle of the desert, including a hospital with the first x-ray station in the Southern Hemisphere. The town declined after World War I when the diamond field slowly depleted. From 1954, the desert sand slowly overruled the abandoned buildings of this fascinating ghost town where you think you're in a thriller, taken over by the desert sand that seems to match the pastel tones of the original paint on the walls. The long and phantasmagorical corridor of the old hospital, illuminated by the chiaroscuro of the rooms' windows, seems to have been designed by a director of photography to shoot an apparition. In 1990, Kolmanskop opened as a tourist attraction, with the sand as the only inhabitant and with the certainty that in another 50 or 60 years, this new owner will have buried the "richest city in the world" forever. Not far from this unreal Wilhelmine colonial Germany frozen in time, saved from the desert climate, Lüderitz is a harbour town founded in 1883 on one of the least hospitable coasts of Africa where centuries before landed the Portuguese Vasco da Gama, the first European to reach India by sea. Lüderitz began as a German trading post until 1909 when the discovery of diamond fields enjoyed a sudden surge of prosperity. Today, diamond fields are far from Lüderitz, a remote town surrounded by desert. It has lost its economic importance but still preserves the unique charm of its Art Nouveau colonial buildings at the end of the world.