Spanish Village That Voted To Remain Blue

For hundreds of years, the houses of the tiny pueblo of Júzcar, near Malaga in the Spanish province of Andalucía, were whitewashed. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the village of 220 and it attracted just a few hundred tourists each year.

Then, in the spring of 2011, executives from Sony Pictures turned up. They wanted to paint one of the White Towns of Andalucía blue. At first, the villagers were incredulous. Sony execs assured them that the publicity stunt, created to mark the opening of The Smurfs movie (Los Pitufos in Spanish) would make the village stand out.

The villagers had little to lose and a wad of Sony's cash to gain, so they held a meeting and voted unanimously to agree to the company's colorful request. After all, it was only for a short time, and Sony promised to paint all the houses back to their original color. 1,100 gallons of vivid blue paint later, Júzcar became Smurftown. 

Six months later, the village council received a phone call from the people at Sony. The town had remained blue for the length of time needed to promote the film. The company wondered they would like to have their houses whitewashed, and the pueblo reverted to its original state? Another town meeting was called, and a vote was held—the city decided to stay blue.

Village Without Doors

Believe it or not, there's a village in India where none of the 300-odd buildings—homes, educational institutions, or even banks—have doors. Cash is stored in unlocked containers, as are valuable pieces of gold jewelry.

Most of the public toilets in Shani Shingnapur's village square have no doors. “For reasons of privacy and following requests by women, we recently agreed to put a thin curtain near the entrance, but not doors because that would go against our belief,” said village shopkeeper Parmeshwar Mane.

Some resident do put up loose door panels against their door frames, but this is done only at night, to keep animals out. The only problem with the lack of doors is that there's nothing to knock on to announce your arrival. But the villagers have a solution for this, too. “Just shout out and somebody will come to the door,'' one of the villagers, Rani, explained.

The residents of Shani Shingnapur village in the state of Maharashtra do not feel the need for security measures because of their undying faith in the deity Shani, the God of Saturn. 

World's Wettest Village

There's a rain gauge in Mawsynram, Meghalaya, India that collects 467 inches (38.9 feet) of rainfall a year. In contrast, New York City averages about 50 inches of precipitation annually. 

Summer air currents sweep over the steaming floodplains of Bangladesh and gather moisture as they move north. When the resulting clouds hit the steep hills of Meghalaya, they are "squeezed" through the narrowed gap in the atmosphere. Once compressed, they can no longer hold their moisture and cause the near constant rain the village is famous for. 

Mawsynram is the wettest place on Earth, and the people who live there have had to adapt accordingly. Laborers who work outdoors often wear full-body umbrellas made from bamboo and banana leaf. One of the most fascinating and beautiful features in the region are the "living bridges" spanning rain-soaked valleys. For centuries, locals have been training the roots of rubber trees to grow into natural bridges, which far outlast the man-made wooden structures that rot in just a few years. The bridges are self-strengthening and become more substantial as their root systems grow.

Chinese Village Where Everyone Knows Kung Fu

Ganxi Dong, a small village hidden deep in the mountains of Tianzhu in central China, is gaining worldwide attention for its unusually skilled residents. Apparently, everyone who lives in the self-sustaining village is a martial arts expert!

The Dong people, one of the 56 recognised ethnic minorities in China, pride themselves on having shunned the outside world in favor of local tradition. Every villager is well-versed in the art of kung fu, and each person is pursuing a different style of ancient Chinese martial arts. They use a range of weapons, including sticks, pitchforks, and fists.

Locals have two theories about their unusual situation—some claim that the area suffered regular heavy attacks from wild animals that would kill livestock and injure the villagers. To combat the problem, certain families had to pick a strong youth to create, develop and learn martial arts. They modeled their actions on the moves of dragons, snakes, tigers and leopards. As each family trained in a different type of movement, different strains of kung fu were invented.

Others say early residents were frequently pillaged by their neighbors. To protect themselves, they invited martial arts experts to their village to teach them the art of combat.

The Venezuelan church that resurfaced after 33 years underwater

Between 1985 and 2008, fishermen and daytrippers traveling by boat along the lake formed by the Uribante Reservoir in Táchira, Venezuela were presented with an eerie sight—a mildewed cross rising crookedly out of the water. It was clearly attached to something anchoring it—something big and deep beneath the surface.

In 2008, the cross started to rise higher and higher out of the water, revealing more of the gothic structure below. It was literally just the tip of something much more massive.

In reality, the structure was not rising out of the water, but rather the water of the reservoir was receding, revealing what the lake had concealed for more than two decades. By 2010, the water had receded almost entirely, revealing a large stretch of flat land and a towering, gothic church that was once nearly submerged.

The church belonged to the city of Potosi, which in 1985 was purposefully flooded by the damming of a nearby river to create hydroelectric power. All of Potosi's citizens had to be relocated. For 20 years, all that remained of their former life was the cross at the top of the church's steeple, once reaching high into the sky, and then brought down to earth and nearly—but not completely—drowned.

The amazing underwater sanctuary that transforms into a county park

The Grüner See (also known as “Green Lake") is located in Styria, Austria. It is known for its scenic views and emerald-green water that trickles down from the surrounding snow-capped mountains. During the winter, before the ice melts, the lake is only 1-2 meters deep, and the surrounding area is used as a county park. However, by spring, the basin of land below the mountain fills with water, transforming the lake into an underwater sanctuary nearly 12 meters deep.

The Grüner See is pollution-free and is an immensely popular tourist destination for hikers, campers, and adventurers looking to enjoy nature.

The Argentinian town that resurfaced after being underwater for 30 years

Back in the 1920s, a tourist village named Villa Epecuen was established along the shores of Lago Epecuen, a salt lake some 600 kilometers southwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lago Epecuen is like most other mountain lakes, except for one important difference—it has salt levels second only to the Dead Sea, and ten times higher than any ocean. 

The town's population peaked in the 1970s with more than 5,000 people. Nearly 300 businesses thrived there, including hotels, hostels, spas, shops, and museums. During that time, a long-term weather event was delivering far more rain than usual to the surrounding hills, and Lago Epecuen began to swell. On November 10, 1985, an enormous volume of water broke through the dam and inundated much of the town. By 1993, the slow-moving flood consumed the town until it was covered in 10 meters of water.

Nearly 25 years later, in 2009, the wet weather reversed and the waters began to recede. Villa Epecuen started coming back to the surface. No one returned to the town, except 81-year-old Pablo Novak, who is now Villa Epecuen's sole resident.