I was born in a city with no name. Or rather, one of those cities that never keeps one, just limestone hills, the wind, and the dry taste of figs on a silent grandfather’s fingers. Very early, I learned to read stones as others read faces. It wasn’t a choice, it was simply there, obvious. 

I studied geology, thinking observation would be enough. But along the way, it was people who made me stop, with their gestures, their silences, their stories. That’s when I understood that a territory is not something to be seen, but something to be shared. I turned to anthropology, not to explain, but to learn how to listen differently. 

For years, I shared meals with families I had just met, slept under palm roofs, gathered silence with Indigenous communities. Among Papuans, Mapuche, Inuit, Dayak, I saw that rocks are never mute, they carry memory, rituals, wounds, and resistance. 

When the Global Geoparks Network (GGN) invited me to create this book, I didn’t hesitate. It wasn’t a commission, it was a calling, a chance to search for the soul of each territory and offer it to others. A UNESCO Global Geopark is not a backdrop. It is a living fragment of Earth where deep time speaks through folds, fossils, and silence. 

Geoparks: The Traveller's Notebook is not a guide, nor a catalogue. It is an attempt, a way to observe with care, to feel without claiming to decode. I tried to leave sincere traces, to shape a personal memory. I wrote, yes, but I also painted. Each watercolor was created in the quiet light of late afternoons. They are silent extensions of the texts, offering another way to pause, to feel, to listen. Landscapes respond to us, but only if we slow down. 

I am a geologist, but not only. Rocks shaped me, people reshaped me. I no longer believe in neutrality, every landscape is a mirror, and under each layer of stone lies a gesture, a name, a breath. This book was born from a gap, between scientific discourse and tourist language. I wanted to speak of frictions, of unspeakable moments, of the invisible marks that shape belonging. 

For over two years, I travelled across 229 UNESCO Global Geoparks, covering more than 120,000 kilometers through every region of the GGN, seeking a language shared by stone and voice. And now, it’s your turn. This book is an invitation, to look differently, to follow the folds of the Earth, to discover the UNESCO Global Geoparks as living, powerful, and vulnerable places.

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They are waiting for you.

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Gael Montoya, the virtual traveller

13th July 2025