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Showing posts from September, 2011

Forest Burnings: Chronicle of a Death Foretold

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 Perhaps some have read this novel written by García Márquez, which describes a murder and details of this killing. The same is happening with our beloved Amazonian forests and the worst problem is that this death may extend not only to animals and plants but all of us. "Ipias" Hills burning - September 2011 The Amazon, before becoming a victim of human settlements, had no time of the year with burnings like now. Since man came up with the "bright idea" to transform forest lands for grazing and agriculture by burnings, this has not stopped. What is not known is that this action diminishes the rainfall and what was once a rainforest, becomes an arid and dry plain. As an example we can mention all the Chaco's Zone (south east of Bolivia, part of Paraguay and northern Argentina) that was previously rain forest and is now a semi-dessert with scarce vegetation and water problems due to old burnings, long time ago. The Spanish name "chaco" is transl

Uyuni, a place on earth that seems from another world

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Many people want to explore the space and know other planets. They become exited when they see several pictures and movies that were obtained in the exploration of Mars, but most of them do not know that there is a very weird place in South America that have impressive sights that can be compared to what we can found in other planets. The puna in the Andes This place is the Andes in South America. This mountain range extends from North to South and several countries share the privilege of having part of it in their territory. Between the several amazing places that may be found there, we can mention two spots that are the most remarkable ones, which are the Patagonia (between Chile and Argentina, we will talk about it in the future) and the Uyuni salt flat and its neighborhoods including the Eduardo Avaroa National Park in Bolivia. The last spot is located in the far southwestern part of this country.  Although, by far, it is the most visited touristic place in Bolivia, its beaut