In Torres del Paine, Chile, hiking through the famous reserve in Patagonia is a harsh adventure. Summer temperatures average 11°C, with wind speeds of up to 130 km/h.
In 2011, a fire blamed on a backpacker burned 176 km2 (the size of about 24 football fields) of the national park. Camp fires and open flames are strictly prohibited.
La Paz, Bolivia.
Torres del Paine, Chile.
Torres del Paine, Chile.
At 3650 metres above sea level, La Paz, Bolivia, is the worlds highest administrative capital (technically, the capital of Bolivia is Sucre).
To deal with the altitude, locals and tourists chew or make tea from coca leaves. The same plant used to manufacture cocaine. In most countries outside of South America, possession of coca leaves are illegal.
However, the plant is prominent in traditional Andean cultures. Coca leaves do not give the high people experience with cocaine, and it used for medicinal and nutritional purposes. Bolivian President Evo Morales is an outspoken advocate for the global legalisation of the plant.
Fun-fact: the original recipe of Coca Cola contains coca leaves.
This term has an elevation of 2780 metres in Iruya, Argentina. The town has a small population of 1070.
Ushuia, Argentina.
Torres del Paine, Chile.
Pucara, Peru
Outside a cinema in Havana, Cuba.
In October 2013, the Cuban government banned privately run cinemas. The state closed many 2D and 3D salons in homes and restaurants. Although the communist nation has relaxed restrictions against the private sector in the past decade, the government announced in the state run newspaper Granma it needed to bring "order" to the management of independent businesses. According to the BBC, government run cinemas shy away from showing Hollywood and other mainstream films.
More recently, the NY Times reported that Miguel Coyula, a Cuban filmmaker, had his crow-funding campaign suspended on Indiegogo. After he raised US$5200, the website determined that transferring funds to Cuba or a Cuban resident would violate the United States’ economic embargo. The lift of the U.S. sanctions against Cuba will change the face of independent Cuban cinema. Film-makers will be able to receive financial investment directly from the U.S. and travel freely between the two nations.
A sheep farm at the top of the 280 metre descent to the crater of Quilotoa, Ecuador.
A pharmacy in Havana, Cuba.
A traveller hikes toward Grey Glacier in Torres del Paine, Chile.
With a total surface area of 270 square kilometres, it is an important attraction in Patagonia.
New York City, USA.
The famous mirror effect after a night of rain in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia.
On the Amazon River, Perú. Roughly 2848 square kilometres of Perú's forests are cut down every year, around 80% of them illegally. That's about one football field per day and about five trees in the time it took to read this status.
On the Amazon River, Peru.