My Trip Around The World

Today I am flying from Easter Island to Brazil to explore the Amazon Rainforest. The Amazon Rainforest is considered a tropical rainforest. Up to 75% of all earth species on Earth live in rainforests. There are still millions of species of animals, insects, and plants undiscovered here. The normal annual rainfall for the Amazon is between 68 and 78 inches per year. The Amazon covers 1.7 billion acres of land representing over half of the planets remaining rainforests. The Forest spreads across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. The Amazon is also known as one of the seven wonders of the world.

Flying into South America was beautiful. The edge of the continent was all brown from the sand, as soon as I passed the shore line all I could see was green trees. Plus I couldn't see one patch of the ground because the trees were so tall and there was so many of them I was amazed. When I finally hit the ground all I wanted to do was go exploring. It took a few hours to find my guide and get a hold of a car for the adventure but my guide, a few other people I didn't know and I all took off for the forest. Every single part of the forest was beautiful, I didn't realize how wet the ground was though and before long my feet were soaked with nasty muddy water. Not to mention all the huge bugs I saw, that was so awesome. Some of them were so pretty and others were as big as my hand and really ugly. I definitely saw a million things I have never seen before and had no Idea what they were. Im staying here for a few more days before I head back home because everything is so great here, I want to keep on exploring the Jungle!

I landed here in Easter yesterday. I needed another day of rest after all my fun in the sun In Australia. Easter Island is part of Chile and is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Easter Island is best known for its numerous statues called Moai which were created by the Rapanui people. It is known as a world heritage site making most of the island protected inside the Rapa Nui National Park. From 1930 - 1960 environmental explorers devastated the populations and native flora by introducing disease and non native animals such as sheep and rats. The Islands entire geology is made out of one extinct volcano. Ester Island covers 63 square miles with a population of only 4,781. The currency used here is the Peso.

When first landed on the island I was amazed, the water was a deep dark blue color. The land was so evenly spread out, every where else I have been the population was condensed around the major cities. There are no houses a foot away from their neighbors house like there is back in Colorado. Everyone has enough spacious land with more to go around. There are a few paved roads here but most of them are dirt. I think the lack of paved roads is due t the fact that most people here don't drive cars. Seeing the statues was amazing, I couldn't believe they were still standing after such a long time. It was awesome thinking about the people who built them and what they were thinking about while they were making them.

After scuba diving down to see the anchor of the Batavia I decided to make my next stop the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. Scuba diving just to see an anchor was awesome so I figured scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef would be even better. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef system in the world. It is made up of 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands covering 133,000 square miles. The Great Barrier Reef is so large it can be seen from outer space. the reef supports a wide variety of organisms and is known as one of the seven wonders of the world. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of the reef to limit over fishing and the impacts tourism has on it. One billion AU$ worth of fishing already takes place there every year.

I was so excited to go scuba diving I felt like I was six years old again running for the ocean for the first time in my life. I have always had a passion for the sea and all the animals that live in it. I was so excited I couldn't even listen to the scuba instructor, all I could do was stare at the ocean in awe. Luckily my dad was a diver for years and he taught me everything I needed to know about diving. As son as I jumped in I couldn't believe how warm the water was, it was just like jumping in a huge bathtub. I was so use to the freezing waters of the Pacific Ocean I was in shock for a little while. Once I got over my shock I started swimming around and saw aquatic animals I had only seen in zoos and on T.V.. As of yet this is definitely my favorite part of this trip so far.

Yesterday I arrived here in Australia. It took 12 hours to fly from India to Western Australia. I have been so busy I think I was starting to get run down, even with the 12 hour flight, so I took the whole day off and just relaxed by the beach. I feel asleep for a while and got a nasty sunburn tho. Australia covers 2,941,299 square miles and has a population of 22,130,450. 60% of the population is concentrated in and around the capitals of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Australia is composed of a mulitcultural society so there is no main religion or language spoken there.

The next day I left early for the Batavia Shipwreck. The Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company that was shipwrecked in 1619 on its maiden voyage. It became famous from the massacre that took place between the survivors. The captain of the ship had gone to the port of Batavia to find help. The mad left in charge of the camp, Jeronimus Cornelisz, had plans of taking over any ship that came to their aid so he could start a new kingdom on the island with all the silver and gold hey had on their ship. To complete his plan he needed to get rid of all of the other people on the ship sand by his command he sent the others to another island to look for water, that he knew wasn't there, leaving them there to die. He eventually limited all the survivors to 45 so that their supplies would last. Jeronimus never killed any one himself, but instead had his soldiers do it for him like a true coward. I think being here is kinda strange. People just comeing here to see the spot were people were murdered. But in reality its no different than going to Gettysburg, Is it? My favorite part about this stop was that I got to scuba dive down in the water and see the original anchor from the Batavia.

Today I landed in India. India is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan and the Arabian Sea to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; the Laccadive sea to the south; and Bangladesh, Myanmar and the Arabian Sea to the east. It covers 1,269,210 square miles with 4,700 miles of coastline. India has a population of 1,176,258,000. Four major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, were invented here. India is known for being the most populous democracy country in the world. Here in India I notice some similarities between the structures of the buildings here and the structure of the buildings in China. A lot of the buildings here have the same type of building design as a lot of the buildings in China. They have the same type of square roofs with square flat edges that has over the top just like they do in China. It is noticeable that there is a lot of buildings that look similar to the Taj Mahal with round pointy tops which isn't seen at all in China or any where else in the world. I also noticed that all the buildings are made out of the same material, either red or white stone.

The reason I came here to India was to see the Taj Mahal. I wanted to go see it as soon as I arrived here but it was too hot so I waited until later in the day when the sun was going down to go look see it. While I was there I learned a lot from the guides leading the tour. I learned that the Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal. The building was designed to combine the styles from Persian, Indian and Islamic architecture. I also learned that the building is made out of marble and it took 21 years to complete. They started building it in 1632 and didn't finnish until 1653.