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Showing posts with the label South America

Torres Del Paine

Torres del Paine National Park is part of the National System of Protected Forested Areas of Chile. It is one of the largest and most visited parks in Chile. The park averages around 150,000 visitors a year, who come from all over the world. Visiting the park is recommended between late December and late February, during the southern summer. Not only is the weather more hospitable, but daylight hours are very long given the extreme southern latitude. Outside of this time frame, the weather becomes too extreme for the majority of the public, and daylight dwindles to only a few hours a day.

Los Glaciares National Park

Los Glaciares National Park, created in 1937, is the second largest in Argentina. Its name refers to the giant ice cap in the Andes range that feeds 47 large glaciers, of which only 13 flow towards the Atlantic Ocean. The ice cap is the largest outside of Antarctica and Greenland. In other parts of the world, glaciers start at a height of at least 2,500 meters above mean sea level, but due to the size of the ice cap, these glaciers begin at only 1,500m, sliding down to 200m AMSL, eroding the surface of the mountains that support them. Los Glaciares National Park

Huaorani Indians

The Huaorani Indians are the native Amerindians from the Amazonian Rain Forest Region in Ecuador. There are five groups of people are live in that region, speak the Huaorani language, a linguistic isolate that is not known to be related to any other language and a few speak Spanish language now. The lifestyle of Huaorani is not cultivating any crops and not making any goods either. Hunting and fishing are the way to live in the forest. As many as five communities are in the forest. The Tagaeri community is known for killing the trespassers on their land. The Tagaeri and Taromenane clans who are believed to live together in these days but still live the way they always like stay away far from the land, particularly The Taromenane have rejected all contact with the outside world and continue to move into more remote parts of the jungle. Huaorani Indians

Cano Cristales

Cano Cristales is a Colombian river located in the Serrania de la Macarena, province of Meta. The river is commonly called "The River of Five Colors," "The Liquid Rainbow" or even "The Most Beautiful River in the World" due to the algae produced colors like red, yellow, green and blue at the bottom of the river giving it a unique appearance. For most of the year, Caño Cristales is indistinguishable from any other river: a bed of rocks covered in dull green mosses are visible below a cool, clear current. The River of Five Colors

Vale Da Lua Brazil

Moon Valley is one of the most visited in the Chapada dos Veadeiros in the town of Alto Paraíso de Goiás . It is a set of rock formations carved in the rocks by the rapids of clear waters of the river San Miguel . It is outside the National Park Serra da Boa Vista, in a valley that becomes very dangerous during the rainy season due to sudden downpours. The name comes from the Valley of the Moon that resemble a landscape looks lunar , with small craters dug by the friction of the sand carried by the water with the rocks in the corners where the rapids are stronger, giving rise to small eddies and funnels. It is located 11 km from St. George by highway GO-239, entering by a dirt road opposite the National Park. Pays a small charge at the entrance guides but are not required. Valley of the Moon

Salar Uyuni

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers . It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, and is elevated 11,995 feet above the mean sea level. The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves, which is in the process of being extracted. The large area, clear skies and exceptional surface flatness make the Salar an ideal object for calibrating the altimeters of the Earth observation satellites. The Salar serves as the major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano and is a major breeding ground for several species of pink

Mendoza Argentina

Mendoza is the capital city of Mendoza Province, in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of the Andes. The city is a frequent stopover for climbers on their way to Aconcagua (the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere) and for adventure travelers interested in mountaineering, hiking, horseback riding, rafting, and other sports. In the winter, skiers come to the city for its easy access to the Andes. Two of the main industries of Mendoza area are olive oil production and wine making. The region around Greater Mendoza is the largest wine producing area in Latin America. As such, Mendoza is one of nine cities worldwide in the network of Great Capitals of Wine, and the city is an emerging wine tourism destination and base for exploring the hundreds of wineries in the region. Las Cuevas - Mendoza

Churches of Chiloe

The Churches of Chiloe represent a unique example in Latin America of an outstanding form of ecclesiastical wooden architecture. They represent a tradition initiated by the Jesuit Peripatetic Mission in the 17th and 18th centuries, continued and enriched by the Franciscans during the 19th century and still prevailing today. These churches embody the intangible richness of the Chiloé Archipelago, and bear witness to a successful fusion of indigenous and European culture, the full integration of its architecture in the landscape and environment, as well as to the spiritual values of the communities. Chiloe Wooden Church

Las Lajas Sanctuary

Las Lajas Sanctuary is a basilica church located in the southern Colombian Department of Nariño, municipality of Ipiales and built inside the canyon of the Guáitara River. The church is of Gothic revival architecture and was built from January 1, 1916 to August 20, 1949, with donations from local churchgoers, replacing an old nineteenth-century chapel. The name Laja comes from the name of a type of flat sedimentary rock similar to floor tiles found in the Andes Mountains. There was a claim that an apparition of the Virgin Mary was seen. There is now a miraculous image on a stone there. It is still possible to see this today. Las Lajas Sanctuary

Cartagena Colombia

Cartagena de Indias is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department. The city had a population of 892,545 as of the 2005 census, making it the fifth-largest city in Colombia and giving the Cartagena urban area the status of fifth-largest urban area in Colombia. Cartagena is a centre of economic activity in the Caribbean, as well a popular tourist destination. Cartagena Colombia

Angel Falls

Angel Falls is a waterfall in Venezuela. It is the world's highest waterfall, with a height of 979 m (3,212 ft) and a plunge of 807 m (2,648 ft). The waterfall drops over the edge of the Auyantepui Mountain in the Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Gran Sabana region of Bolívar State. Angel Falls

Hydrothermal Vent

A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart, ocean basins, and hotspots. Hydrothermal vents exist because the earth is both geologically active and has large amounts of water on its surface and within its crust. Hydrothermal Vent

Colonia Del Sacramento

Colonia Del Sacramento is a city in southwestern Uruguay, by the Río de la Plata, facing Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the oldest town in Uruguay and capital of the departamento of Colonia. It has a population of around 22,000. It is renowned for its historic quarter, a World Heritage Site. Modern Colonia Del Sacramento produces textiles and has a free trade zone, in addition to a polytechnic centre and various government buildings. Colonia Del Sacramento

Christ Redeemer

Christ the Redeemer is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; considered the second largest Art Deco statue in the world.It is 39.6 metres (130 ft) tall, including its 9.5 metres (31 ft) pedestal, and 30 metres (98 ft) wide. It weighs 635 tonnes (625 long, 700 short tons). Christ The Redeemer

Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls, Iguassu Falls, or Iguaçu Falls (Portuguese: Cataratas do Iguaçu are waterfalls of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian State of Paraná and the Argentine Province of Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River originates near the city of Curitiba. It flows through Brazil for most of its course. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the boundary between Brazil and Argentina. Iguazu Falls

Galapagos Islands Ecuador

The Galapagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km (525 mi) west of continental Ecuador. Wildlife is its most notable feature here. The Galapagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a biological marine reserve. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of around 23,000. Galapagos Islands Ecuador

Amazon Rain Forest

The Amazon Rainforest, also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), of which five and a half million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations. Amazon Rain Forest

Yungas Road Bolivia

The North Yungas Road , 69-kilometre (43 mi) road leading from La Paz to Coroico, 56 kilometres (35 mi) northeast of La Paz in the Yungas region of Bolivia. It is legendary for its extreme danger and in 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank christened it as the "world's most dangerous road". One estimate is that 200 to 300 travellers are killed yearly along the road. The road includes crosses marking many of the spots where vehicles have fallen. Yungas Road Bolivia

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu "Old Peak", one of the Seven Wonders of the World is located 2,430 Metres (7,970 feet) above sea level in Peru which is in South America. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley, which is 80 Kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamba River flows. Machu Picchu Rediscovered Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire. It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572. On 24 July 1911, Hiram Bingham who was an American historian employed as a lecturer at Yale University discovered Machu Picchu while he was searching for the city of Vilcabamba. Some Quechuas lived in the original structures at Machu Picchu while Bingham approached the place with the help of Quechuas 11 year-old boy Pablito Alvarez. In 1981 Peru declared an area of 325.92 square kilometers surrounding Machu Picchu as a "Historical Sanctuary". In 1983 UNESCO designated Machu Picchu a World Heritage Site, descr