National Parks in Latin America Project

Name: Will

Research page #1 Torres del Paine

The Torres del Paine National Park in Chile is a national park surrounding a mountain range. It is the third most visited national park in Chile. It is one of the eleven protected areas in the Magallanes Region and Chilean Antarctica. The mountain range is over 3050 meters above sea level. The thing that I found most interesting about this park is that hardly any of the native Chileans visit this park. The people who visit are almost all tourists from Europe or other parts of South America.

Fernando de Noronha

The Fernando de Noronha World Heritage Site in Brazil is an archipelago of 21 islands in the Atlantic ocean of the shore of Brazil. The main island is about 7.1 square miles and had a small population of 3,012 people in 2010. The islands are the visible tops of submerged underwater volcanoes, there are also small rocks in the middle of the sea from lower peaks. The base of the mountains are around 750 meters below sea level. One of the most interesting things about this island is that the Flora island was covered in forest until the early 1900’s, the forests were cut down to prevent prisoners from the island from building rafts.

Research page #2 Manu National Park

The Manu National Park in Peru is over 2,500 square kilometers wide. Before the park was protected in 1977 it was preserved by it’s inaccessibility by road. Even now there is barely any roads to the park which makes it hard to get to and preserves the wildlife. There are a small amount of native tribes that are allowed to live there in peace.

Galapagos National ParkThe Galapagos National park is it’s own set of islands off the coast of Ecuador. Ninety-

seven percent of Galapagos is a UNESCO national park. The other three percent is distributed between the inhabitants of Santa Cruz, San Crisóbal, Floreana and Isabela. Galapagos is the farthest set of Islands away from a continent so the evolution there is slightly altered. There are many strange animals there, and that is where Charles Darwin concluded his theory of evolution.

Research page #3

Iguazú National ParkThe Iguazú National Park in Argentina was created in 1934 and it contains one of the

greatest landscapes of Argentina, the Iguazu Falls. Ten-thousand years ago the site was inhabited by the Eldoradense culture who were displaced by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. The Iguazú National Park has many unique animals that live there. Including the rare Yacare Caiman.

Palenque National ParkThe Palenque National Park in Mexico is located less that six miles away from the

ancient Palenque Maya city. The park still has ruins of the over 1500 structures that flourished from 300 to 900 AD. If you visit this park you are able to explore inside of the ancient temples of this culture. The most interesting part of this park is that the Palenque Mayan city was one of the main cities of the Mayan empire.

The Fernando de Noronha National Park in Chile

By Will Hoppin

Why I Chose This ParkI chose this park because it is one that I would like to

visit over any of the other parks. Hawaii is my favorite place to go on vacation and this park seems like Hawaii just smaller and less inhabited. I am hoping to travel to this park sometime in my life, but first I’m going to study it to make sure.

AccesabilityThe Fernando de Noronha National Park is off the coast of brazil. The

main island has a runway along the center that takes up about one third of the island.

The main and only real “town” on the island in called Pousado Ze Maria and it is a Hotel with some houses around it for the residents.

History In 2001 Fernando de Noronha was declared a world heritage sight by UNESCO, the

reason for this was because many species (suck as tuna and dolphin) relied on the islands natural resources for survival. The island was also a prison in the 19th century.

The islands are made up of 21 underwater volcanoes that have sprouted up above the surface.

Flora: the island was covered in forest until the 19th century where it was cut down to prevent prisoners from leaving the island.

Fauna: the island has five species that are exclusive to the island: the Noronha Elaenia, Noronha Vireo and the eared dove, which are all birds. They also have two reptiles exclusive to the island: the Amphisbaena ridleyi and Trachylepis atlanica.

How to Get There There is a landing strip in the center of the main island near Pousado Ze

Maria (a hotel on the island).

To get there you would only have to fly there as of the island is very small. Not many airports travel there so you would first have to fly to Brazil and then take a second flight to Fernando de Noronha.

Vacation Details If you were planning on going to this park the best time of year to go would

probably be late December (because the seasons are reversed in Latin America).

There is only one hotel on the main island, and all the other islands are to small to visit. The hotel is called Pousado Ze Maria and it’s packed most of the year so make your reservations in advance.

The food there is mainly Brazilian food like acarajé (fried balls of shrimp) and Coxinha (like chicken drumsticks).

What Your Vacation Would Look Like Here is a look into a five day adventure in the Fernando de Noronha park

and some photos with a video link.

Click here for video

Day one of Your Vacation Today I arrived at Fernando de Noronha national park on an airplane. It was about an

eight hour flight to Brazil, then a two hour flight to Fernando de Noronha. In all in was about 12 hours with the driving to the airport and baggage.

I arrived at 12 in the afternoon, on December 20th it was a very sunny day outside and the people an Pousado Ze Maria hotel were very nice. I took a hike toward the beach and stayed there from 3:00 to 5:00. I arrived back just in time for dinner and a small concert outside.

Pousado Ze Maria

Beach at Sunset

Day Two of Your Vacation Today I slept in until nine o clock. I woke to parrots outside my open window and the

morning breeze. Breakfast in from eight until eleven here so I had plenty of time to make my way up to the Pousado Ze Maria breakfast area. I signed up for a boatride to one of the smaller islands the next day. At one o’ clock I went swimming in the Infinity Pool ™ for about two hours and picked up a sandwich for a late lunch at the small missionary on the park. At sunset I came back to the hotel, they were in the middle of a gathering around the fire. We all stayed late by the fire laughing until eleven o’ clock.

Day Three of Your Vacation Today I woke up early, at six thirty to be in time for the boat ride I signed up

for. As soon as we left the island we saw a group of dolphins just off shore, and a few sting rays. As we reach the island we have to be careful of sharp rocks. There is a small trail going up the side of a large hill, as we climb up it we can see hundreds of butterflies and birds in the tall palm trees. We sit down and eat our packed lunches on a rock overhanging the beach by ten feet, by the time we’re done it’s time to get back to the boat. We didn’t see any wildlife of the trip back. We got to the island at around four o’ clock. Even though it was early I had dinner at five because I had had a long dayof hiking and boating.

Day Four of Your Vacation Today is the weekend and I got to sleep in. I woke

up at ten fifteen after having a late night the day before. I arrived at breakfast just in time, I ate outside because the day was warm with a nice breeze. One of the staff at the hotel was asking people if they wanted to go on a underwater dive tomorrow, but if they did they would have to take diving classes in the Infinity Pool ™ so I signed up. I arrived at the pool at one thirty. It was really fun being able to breathe underwater, and they class lasted two hours so I got to get really good at diving. I went to dinner and bed early because I knew I had a big day the next day.

Day Five of Your Vacation Today I woke up early to pack my bags, but my flight didn’t

leave until four o’ clock and the island is so small that I could just walk to the runway in fifteen minutes. I wanted to get the most out of my last day so I ate breakfast fast and got down to the docks. There was a speed boat by the shore that we all took to a small cliff on one of the smaller islands. We all dived down after the instructor, and there wasn’t any fish at first but he motioned for us to swim with him over a ledge. Over the ledge there was thousands of small fish, sting rays, leopard sharks, turtles and many other sea creatures. At two o’ clock we started back and I had enough time to get to the airport at three thirty and I got on my plane at four o’ clock. I got back to San Francisco at four o’ clock San Francisco time.

Recommendations I would recommend this park

because it’s the perfect place to get away from technology and modern life. It’s also good because the main island is really small and the community there is great. You can sign up for things like scuba diving and boating out to another one of the 21 small islands.

Slideshow Click this

Annotations Websites I Used For All Parks: Wikipedia.com, lonelyplanet.com,

UNESCO.org

Websites I Used For Indevidual Parks: Torresdelpaine.com, Fernando-de-noronha.org, Galapagospark.org, Palenquepark.com

Websites I used for Fernando de Noronha park: Fernando-de-Noronha.org, lonelyplanet.com, noronha.pe.gov, guardian.co.uk