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Showing posts from October 27, 2019

Friday, October 31, 2019, Amazon River

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                           Thirty hours (400 miles) prior to our arrival at the mouth of the Amazon River, suddenly the ocean water turned muddy brown in color.  The facts about the Amazon are amazing and staggering.  For greater details please read the URL below. The largest river in the world by volume, the Amazon feeds the world’s largest and densest rainforest, known as “the lungs of the world” for the oxygen it produces.  More than 1,000 bird species and 45,000 types of plants line the river’s shores, more than any other biosphere.  The river itself harbors a staggering diversity of life, from freshwater dolphin to piranha fish. Near the mouth, the Amazon has been called the “river sea” for its vast width, the accumulated waters of more than 1,000 tributaries.  In this breathtaking river, one of nature’s most fascinating natural phenomena unfolds:  The Meeting of the...

Tuesday, October 29, 2019, Iles du Salut, French Guiana

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FRENCH GUIANA (ÎLES DU SALUT), FRANCE The  Salvation's Islands  (French:  Îles du Salut , so called because the mis-sionaries went there to escape plague on the mainland; sometimes mis-takenly  called  Safety Islands ) are a group of three small islands  of vo lcanic origin about 11 6.8 miles off the coast of  French Guiana , 8.7 miles north of  Kourou , in the  Atlantic Ocean . Devil's Island , the most famous due to the political imprisonment there of Captain  Alfred Dreyfus , is better known to French speakers as "Île du Diable."  The total area is 0.24 square miles.  Devil's Island and Île Royale are separated by  Passe des Grenadines , Île Royale, and Saint-Joseph Island by  Passe de Désirade . The islands were part of  a notorious penal colony  from 1852 for only the worst criminals of France.  The main part of the penal colony...