text and photo from wikipedia.
The Atlantic Forest (Portuguese: ‘Mata Atlântica’) is a region of tropical and subtropical moist forest, tropical dry forest, tropical savannas, and mangrove forests which extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the north to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south, and inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina.
Diamantina, Minas Gerais
photo and text from wikipedia.
Diamantina (Adamantine) is a Brazilian city in the state of Minas Gerais. Its estimated population in 2006 was 44,746 in a total area of 3,870 km².
Arraial do Tijuco (as Diamantina was first called) was built during the colonial era in the early 18th century. As its name suggests, Diamantina was a center of diamond mining in the 18th and 19th centuries. A well-preserved example of Brazilian Baroque architecture, Diamantina is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Other historical cities in Minas Gerais are Ouro Preto and Mariana.
I would like to be there !! text and photo from wikipedia.
Xochicalco (Nahuatl pronunciation: [ʃotʃiˈkaɬko]) is a pre-Columbian archaeological site in the western part of the Mexican state of Morelos. The name Xochicalco may be translated from Nahuatl as “in the (place of the) house of Flowers”. The site is located 38 km southwest of Cuernavaca, about 76 miles by road from Mexico City. The site is open to visitors all week, from 10am to 5pm, although access to the observatory is only allowed after noon. The apogee of Xochicalco came after the fall of Teotihuacan and it has been speculated that Xochicalco may have played a part in the fall of the Teotihuacan empire.
The architecture and iconography of Xochicalco show affinities with Teotihuacan, the Maya area, and the Matlatzinca culture of the Toluca Valley. Today some residents of the nearby village of Cuentepec speak Nahuatl.
The main ceremonial center is atop an artificially leveled hill, with remains of residential structures, mostly unexcavated, on long terraces covering the slopes. The site was first occupied by 200 BC, but did not develop into an urban center until the Epiclassic period (AD 700 – 900). Nearly all the standing architecture at the site was built at this time. At its peak, the city may have had a population of up to 20,000 people.
photo and text from wikipedia.
Sewell is an uninhabited Chilean mining town located in the commune of Machalí in Cachapoal Province, O’Higgins Region, on the slopes of the Andes, at an altitude between 2,000 and 2,250 metres. The town was founded in 1904 by the Braden Copper Co. to extract the copper in the El Teniente mine, and, in 1915, it was named after the company’s first president, Mr. Barton Sewell. In 1918, it already housed 14,000 people.
Following many years of active life and achieving the construction and exploitation of the largest underground mine in the world, in 1977 the company started moving families to the valley and soon after the camp was being dismantled.
The Chilean Government declared Sewell a National Monument in 1998, while the UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site in 2006.
Sewell is known as the city of stairs as there were no roads, only a train that brought workers and their families to the camp.
Casas Grandes
this looks interesting. I’d like to be there soon !!
text and photo from wikipedia.
Casas Grandes (Spanish for Great Houses; also known as Paquimé) is the contemporary name given to a pre-Columbian archaeological zone and its central site, located in northwestern Mexico in the modern-day Mexican state of Chihuahua. Regarded as one of the most significant archaeological zones in the northwestern region,[1] Casas Grandes is centered in a wide, fertile valley on the Casas Grandes or San Miguel river, some 35 miles (56 km) south of Janos and 150 miles (240 km) northwest of the state capital, the city of Chihuahua. The archaeological zone is contained within the eponymous modern municipio (municipality) of Casas Grandes.[2] The valley and region has long been inhabited by indigenous groups.
Lovely places