It's Friday, August 29th and this is my second post this week!
"What in Bob Hope's name is going on?!" You exclaim.
"Well," I reply in a stitch, "I am in love with the Internet. I also have a tendency to share."
Before I even start this post, I'd like to formally apologize for the atrocious spelling and grammatical errors of Tuesday's post. I was abhorred to re-read the post and find many unfinished sentences. I think it scared me for life.
... Done? Yes? Ok? Alright, let's move on!
I've already show this link to you S, but you understand that I have a giant need to over-research all information that comes into my gabby little hands. Mental Floss posted a short story about the recent discovery of indigenous village ruins in the Amazon Rain forest. My reply to this was to sit there and feel bad for all the possible historic sites that the giant corporations are destroying along with millions of acres of trees each year. Yours, however, was more simple:
S says: that's so cool!
S says: the amazon is such a big giant secret really?
S says: no one really goes there?
This got the cogs in my mind on a path they have gone to many times before. I like to call this hazardous path: 'the way to Questionvilleton.' It's a path filled with awesome but completely useless facts which latch on to you as you pass by, so that they won't be forgotten in with the dregs of history; It's a sad, strange little place.
My thought process went as such:
"Yeah, why does no one go into the Amazon?
Is it the snakes? It must be the snakes.
Who knew so many people are afraid of snakes?
Snakes. Snakes. Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford. Calista Flockhart. Ally
McBeal. Fox. Fox is a stupid channel. Who watches Fox anyways? NBC. ABC. Grey's Anatomy. Tumors. My fear of one day having a tumor..."
... then after a long, long time of thoughts like those, I started pondering the remote villages in the Amazon, the ruins and the cultures that used to live there. Here is a summary of what I found, plus some sites to visit:
It turns out that there are all kinds of ruins and villages placed all over the Amazonian Rain Forest and, thankfully, its not just the tree-killing cooperations that are visiting them. There are all kinds of tours and excursions that incooperate seeing the rain forest into their planned activities (see below).
Moreover, the 'lost villages' that Mental_Floss was talking about are a vast series of villages in a secluded region of Brazilian rain forest, known as the the Upper Xingu area, which were probably inhabited by the Kuikuro Indians. The exciting things about these villages are that they are comparable to those of Greek and Roman rural villages, complete will defense walls and roads connecting the villages in a kind of grid. Moreover, the settlements employed agricultural and food gathering tactics similar to those that nationalistic European colonies did. And all of this was found in a forest that everyone thought to be too young to hold any kind of cultural significance!
What happened to these poor villages, and why didn't we find them sooner? They've been over run with miles of green forestry for hundreds of years, of course! According to the BBC article on the subject: "the people who once lived in the settlements are thought to have been wiped out by European colonists and the diseases they brought with them."
Hope you enjoyed the (albeit, short) history lesson, S!
DFTBA this weekend!
Always remember: internet is the shiz.
Especially when you can post from home!
-xo
PS: Here are two lists. The first contains links to articles about the Brazilian village, and the second contains links about vacations to Amazonian areas and fun things to do there.
List one:
* BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7586860.stm
* The economist: http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12001815#top
*Associated Press: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26440219/
* Reuters: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28350657.htm
* The guy who found the villages: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/mheckenb/
* The people who reside there: http://socioambiental.org/pib/epienglish/xingu/exped.shtm
List two:
* http://www.discoverbrazil.com/
* http://www.amazonvacation.com/amazon_cruise_map.cfm
* http://www.how2vacation.com/VacationPackages/location/Amazon.aspx
* http://www.travbuddy.com/Amazon-travel-guide-1320100
PPS: Upon doing a little after-post reading, I discovered that the government is considering what to do with land that rightfully belongs to the indigenous peoples of Brazil. Way back in 2005, the leader of Brazil, Luiz Inácio da Silva, decided to create settlements that would manage and house the native populations of their country, much like reservations do here in Canada and the United States. There has been a lot of uproar over the settlement, especially when the government tried to evict all non-indigenous peoples from the land. Some are blaming outside-forces for the interests in settlements. In the article I read (which you too should read), one man who was being evicted said: "History will show who is selling Brazil and who is defending the nation." The Supreme Court is currently ruling on whether the settlement should be reduced in size or not.
Personally, I just wish they wouldn't seclude the natives into one area. It honestly hasn't helped anyone here, as far as I am concerned, and has only induced a little bit more discrimination and stereotypes to a minority population.
Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. It is also known as Wadadli, which means approximately "our own". Most Antiguans are of African lineage, descendants of slaves brought to the island centuries ago to labor in the sugarcane fields. However, Antigua's history of habitation extends as far back as two and a half millenia before Christ. For many years now, Antigua's economy is reliant upon tourism, and it markets itself as a luxury Caribbean escape. Many hotels and resorts are located around the coastline, and the island's single airport is serviced by several major airlines.
visited it with my parents in 2004. It's a city that wears its American heart proudly on its sleeve. Chicago's diverse population has built a city with an unrivalled tradition of jazz and blues, an astonishing architecture, an appetite for hearty food, award-winning newspapers, universities full of Nobel laureates and some of the most die-hard sports fans you'll ever meet. Its super easy to get around as a tourist, people are very friendly and usually inclined to help you, and the museums are INCREDIBLE. Go down the Magnificent Mile, take a ride on the free trolley to Water Tower place and visit the Navy Pier to see spectacular fireworks in the summer.
