by Chris Schmid
Iguazu Falls, Iguazu_Falls, Iguassu Falls, or Iguaçu Falls (Portuguese: Cataratas do Iguaçu [kataˈɾatɐz du iɡwaˈsu]; Spanish: Cataratas del Iguazú [kataˈɾatas ðel iɣwaˈsu]; Guarani: Chororo Yguasu [ɕoɾoɾo ɨɣʷasu]) are waterfalls of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian State of Paraná and the Argentine Province of Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River originates near the city of Curitiba. It flows through Brazil for most of its course. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the boundary between Brazil and Argentina.
The Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses) is located in Maranhão state, in northeastern Brazil, just east of the Baía de São José, between 02º19’—02º45’ S and 42º44’—43º29’ W. It is an area of low, flat, occasionally flooded land, overlaid with large, discrete sand dunes. It encompasses roughly 1000 square kilometers, and despite abundant rain, supports almost no vegetation. The park was created on June 2, 1981.
via kuriositas.com
"Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor), the statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, constructed between 1922 and 1931, is considered the second largest Art Deco statue in the world. Visible from a distance of 20 miles, the statue is 39.6 meters (130 ft) tall and 30 meters (98 ft) wide, weighing 635 tons. It is atop the peak of the 700-metre (2,300 ft) Corcovado Mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park, overlooking Rio de Janeiro.
On 7 July 2007, Christ the Redeemer was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a list compiled by the Swiss-based The New Open World Corporation (second in their list). The other New Seven Wonders of the World are Chichen Itza (#1), a large pre-Columbian archaeological site in Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), The Colosseum (#3) or the Coliseum, the Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome (Italy), The Great Wall of China (#4) in northern China, consisting of several walls built since the 5th century BC, Machu Picchu or Machu Pikchu (#5), a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site, on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, Petra (#6), a historical and archaeological city established around the 6th century BC on the slope of Mount Hor (Jordan), and The Taj Mahal (#7), a mausoleum in Agra, India."
Inaldo Cavalcante de Albuquerque, better known as Spok, is a Brazilian musician who is one of the main frevo composers in the state of Pernambuco. His big band, composed of 18 musicians is considered one of the most important frevo groups in the city of Recife. It has performed in many countries of the world, spreading the frevo style of rhythm.
Frevo is a wide range of musical styles originating from Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, all of which are traditionally associated with Brazilian Carnival. The word frevo is said to come from frever, a misspeaking of the Portuguese word ferver (to boil). It is said that the sound of the frevo will make listeners and dancers to feel as they are boiling on the ground. The word frevo is normally used interchangeably either to mean the frevo music or the frevo dance.
Sent by Bob...Thanks !
"They are narrow strips of sand, often spits or sandbars that grew into full-blown, vegetated islands. They stretch from a few hundred meters to several kilometers wide. They run parallel to the coast, facing the sea and bearing the brunt of waves and wind, while protecting the lagoons and bays and coastal wetlands behind them. And they move almost constantly, shaped and re-shaped by currents, tides, winds, and man.
Barrier islands are found along the edge of every continent except Antarctica, and in 2011 scientists and naturalists are still finding new ones. In fact, a new survey by Matthew Stutz of Meredith College and Orrin Pilkey of Duke University identified 657 more barrier islands than were previously thought to exist.
The Thematic Mapper on the Landsat 5 satellite captured this 2006 image of previously unrecognized barrier islands along the northeast coast of Brazil, midway between the mouth of the Amazon River and the coastal city of São Luís. According to the research team, Brazil has the world’s longest continuous chain of barrier islands—54 in total, extending more than 571 kilometers (355 miles) along the Atlantic coast."
by Ray Boren
The multiple cascades of Iguazu Falls, one of the most spectacular and intricate waterfalls in the world, slip off a basalt escarpment on the Iguazu River, along a border shared by Argentina and Brazil. In part because of the international boundary, the natural wonder is spelled and pronounced in varied ways: To the area’s native Guarani Indians this is Yguasu, which has been translated to mean, appropriately enough, “big water.” In the Spanish of Argentina (and nearby Paraguay, to which this territory once belonged), these are the Cataratas del Iguazú. In Brazilian Portugese, they are the Cataratas do Iguaçu. It's also spelled "Iguassu."
Iguazu’s cascades stretch along a subtropical ridge for about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers), most thunderously at a cleft called the Devil’s Throat. The falls in places are 260 feet (80 m) high and are broken into an estimated 275 streams. This splintering gives them a fantasy-film appearance that contrasts with the long curtains of water surging off Africa’s Victoria Falls and North America’s Niagara Falls, to which Iguazu is often compared.
Elbaite - Araçuaí, Jequitinhonha valley, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil
"Beautiful pink double terminated gemmy glassy lustrous elbaite crystal measuring 6.4 x 1.9 x 1.7 cm in size. The bottom termination is natural but more crude than the top main termination. Complete all around and damage-free. Minor mica in association."
