Just outside the fishing village of Qalansiyah, the western coastline of Socotra suddenly opens up. The road drifts toward the sea and then — almost casually — the landscape spreads out into Detwah Lagoon. A wide, shallow basin of turquoise…

Qalansiyah is the kind of place that doesn’t announce itself. No dramatic arrival moment, no sign saying you’ve reached something important. The road from Hadibu just keeps going — long, pale stretches of dry coastal ground, bits of stone, wind…

Hadibu is almost never the reason people come to Socotra — and yet nearly every trip across the island passes through it. After hours of driving across dry plateaus, coastal plains or rough mountain roads, the town appears along the…