Category Amazing Places

          The Canadian Rockies are a magnificent segment of the Rocky Mountains that extend some 1600 kilometres from the northern British Columbia in Canada. They form a border between the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

          There are a number of peaks and ranges on the Canadian Rockies. This includes Mount Robson that stands the highest, Mount Joffre. Mount Assiniboine and Mount Columbia.

          Out of the high peaks, only Mount Temple has an established scrambling route. But even this is dangerous for climbers without adequate experience. Besides, the upper slopes of the mountain are covered with snow, making it all the more difficult to move upward.

          A good portion of the mountain range is protected by five national and three provincial parks. The Banff, Jasper, and Waterton Lakes National Parks among these on the eastern slopes in Alberta are also famous for the spectacular alpine scenery they offer.

          There are numerous river systems that have their source in the Canadian Rockies. 

            Churchill is a town in northern Manitoba in Canada, most famous for polar bears. It is the northernmost seaport of the country, and is located on the west shore of the Hudson Bay.

            As said before, Churchill is home to a large number of polar bears and has earned the title ‘the Polar Bear Capital of the World’.

            In autumn, the town witnesses the movement of animals from inland towards the shores. The tourism industry in the region is developed by focusing on the migration habits of the bears. There are modified buses called ‘tundra buggies’ that carry tourists safely to view polar bears.

            In addition to this, there are thousands of beluga whales in the waters of Churchill that make the place even more interesting. The movement of the whales into the warmer waters of the Churchill River estuary in the months of July and August is said to be a major attraction.

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               Machu Picchu that stands in the mountains of south-central Peru is a deserted city of the Inca people.

               It is one of the very few American Indian sites that still remain mostly undamaged. Historical sources indicate that the dwellings at the site were built and occupied probably during the mid-1400s and 1500s. In Quechua, the language of the Incas, Machu Picchu means the ‘old peak’.

               The ancient city lies between two sharp peaks in the eastern Andes Mountains at a height of 2350 metres. There were two sections in Machu Picchu, one for farming and the other one, urban. Step-like fields called terraces constituted the farming section. In the urban section, there were houses, temples and a cemetery.

               It is believed that Machu Picchu remained hidden from the Spanish when they conquered the Incas in the 1500s. The city was covered by plants and remained known only to a few people living there, for hundreds of years.

               In 1911, when a local farmer led US archaeologist Hiram Bingham to the ruins of this ancient city, it started getting global attention. 

            The Iguazu Falls are a series of scenic waterfalls located on the stretch of the Iguazu River. Extending for 2.7 kilometres, they form the border between Brazil and Argentina. They are almost three times wider than the famous Niagara Falls in North America.

            The name Iguazu has come from the Guarani Indian word meaning ‘great water’. The falls are known as Iguacu, or Iguassu in Brazil.

            The Iguazu Falls are situated where the Iguazu River tumbles over the edge of the Parana Plateau. There are numerous rocky and wooded islands that lie along the edge.

            Depending on the water level, the numbers of the falls too change from 150 to 275. It has been found that almost half of the river water falls into what is called the Devil’s Throat, a U-shaped narrow chasm close to it. Breathtaking views of this section can be obtained from the Brazilian as well as Argentine sides.

          The Galapagos Islands are a famous cluster of volcanic islands spread on the either side of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean.

          It consists of 13 major islands, six smaller islands and a group of islets, lying about a 1000 kilometres west of the mainland Ecuador. The archipelago covers a total land area of 8,010 square kilometres which scatters over 59570 square kilometres of ocean. The Galapagos National Park forms a part of the islands.

          Isabella Island is the largest of the islands in Galapagos. It is around 132 kilometres long and constitutes more than half of the archipelago. Mount Azul, which is the highest point of Galapagos, is situated in Isabella.

          History says that the scenic island cluster was discovered by the bishop of Panama, Tomas de Berlanga in 1535. It gained international attention after the visit of the English naturalist Charles Darwin in 1835. It was the unique fauna of the islands that contributed to the groundbreaking theories on natural selection presented in Darwin’s work ‘On the Origin of Species’ in1859. 

          The Amazon rainforest is a large tropical rainforest that covers most of Amazon basin in South America. Spread over an area of 6,000,000 square kilometres, the rainforest comprises about 40 per cent of the total area of Brazil. The region includes territories belonging to other eight more nations- Peru, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. In short, Amazon comprises the largest and the most diverse biodiverse tract of tropical rainforests in the world.

          The rainforest is guarded by the Guiana Highlands in the north, the Andes Mountains in the west, the Brazilian central plateau to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.

          The lush vegetation includes a large variety of trees including species of myrtle, laurel, palm, and acacia, rosewood, Brazil nut, and rubber tree. Considering the wildlife, the Amazon is very rich with jaguars, manatees, tapirs, red deer, capybara and many other types of rodents, and several types of monkeys.