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.

400 years old Church

In 2015, the remains of a Colonial-era church emerged from the receding waters of a river in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The Grijalva River watershed was hit by a drought this year, which caused the water level in the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir to decrease by 82 feet. 

The church was built in the mid-16th century by a group of monks (led by Friar Bartolome de la Casas) in the Quechula region, which was formerly inhabited by the Zoque people. It was originally lost to the waters of the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir in 1966 when it flooded.

Railway carriages into Holiday Homes

It's a first class idea that is also an original alternative to other accommodations out there. The Old Station in Allerston, North Yorkshire used to be a working railway station, but it has been converted into a family home and guest houses. The idea has proved to be a hit with visitors, and the houses evoke romantic images of the great age of steam trains as seen in Brief Encounter and The Orient Express. The homes are owned by Carol and Mark Benson. Mark, 55, who still has a day job as a surveyor for Network Rail, made the railway station their home.

Decorating cues from "The Simpsons"

A fridge full of Duff beer would make Joel Hamilton and Marcia Andreychuk's kitchen even more “excellent.” But for now, the Calgary couple are fine with transforming it into a replica of the one from the Simpsons, complete with orange and purple cupboards, lime green appliances, and carrot adorned curtains.

Hamilton, 35, is a lifelong fan of the show that's spanned 26 seasons and is part of the pop culture lexicon. A framed picture of the cartoon kitchen hangs on the wall as their inspiration, and the couple figures their real-life tribute is about 80% complete. The cost so far? About $2,300 estimates Andreychuk, 43, who noted the checkered floor made up the bulk of the price tag.

Andreychuk sewed the carrot curtains herself. The countertops, appliances, and cupboards have been touched up with colorful contact paper. Andreychuk said they weren't planning to extend the tribute to the living room and bedrooms.

Home into an Airplane

Lovebirds Steve and Vicky Everson took their marriage to new heights after spending £40,000 ($60,000) to turn their modest home into a plane. The pair transformed the two-up two-down terraced house in Bacup, Lancs into a replica of a Boeing 737.

The aviation project started in 2009 after they created a flight simulator in the spare room of their previous home in Milton Keynes. After moving north, they put it back together again. It was so big it stretched from one side of the house to the other.

The couple, who even tied the knot in a Concorde four years earlier, regularly take up to 12 passengers in their "airplane," on simulated “flights” to New York and Hong Kong. Broadcast engineer Steve, 42, said: “Everyone thinks we're a bit eccentric, but you have to do what makes you happy.”

Massive Indoor Aquarium

We all love fish, right? Well, maybe not as much as Martin Lakin, who almost destroyed his house to install a 5,000-liter aquarium right in the middle of it.

An architect warned him the bizarre renovation would make his whole house collapse. He went ahead with it anyway and tore the house in Rochester, Kent, apart, as his bemused wife Kay and son James looked on. Apparently the tank was so huge they could even swim in it before the fish arrived.

The tank cost around £50,000 ($75,000), but with the half ton of live coral, complex machinery (including an automated sunroof), pumps and computers that run the aquarium 24 hours a day, Martin reckons the total cost is around £150,000 ($230,000). Now that it is complete, it's home to more than 120 fish.