Pearl Farm Island Resort (Philippines)

The Barcelo Pearl Farm Island Resort is a precious gateway where guests can revel in tropical pleasures, relish life's flavors and feast on nature's bounties.The Barcelo Pearl Farm Island Resort  lies in a secluded cove on Samal Island off the coast of Davao City.

 It is located on Samal Island, of Davao City in the southern Philippines. Situated one and half hours from Manila by plane, the resort is surrounded by coconut palms and fringed with white beach. It boasts of 85 guest rooms, all of which are equipped with modern amenities.

 

Located in the southern part of the Philippines is the Samal group of islands, an archipelago consisting of nine islands which stretch out over a land area of 28,000 hectares. Samal is a beautiful, tranquil and exotic island with a coastline adorned with white sand beaches, abundant marine life, rock formations, mangroves, and landscape elements of coconut palms, flowering plants and fruit-bearing trees. The area is blessed with various natural attractions and flourishing flora and fauna.

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Salar de Uyuni (Southwest Bolivia)

  Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 sq mi). It is located in the Potosí and Orurodepartments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, and is elevated 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above the mean sea level. The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves,which is in the process of being extracted. The large area, clear skies and exceptional surface flatness make the Salar an ideal object for calibrating the altimeters of the Earth observation satellites. The Salar serves as the major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano and is a major breeding ground for several species of pink flamingos.

Salar is salt flat in Spanish and Uyuni originates from the Aymara language and means a pen (enclosure). Thus Salar de Uyuni can be loosely translated as a salt flat with enclosures, the latter possibly referring to the "islands" of the Salar. Uyuni is also the name for a town of 10,600 people, which serves as a gateway for tourists visiting the Salar.

Aymara legend tells that the mountains Tunupa, Kusku and Kusina, which surround the Salar, were giant people. Tunupa married Kusku, but Kusku ran away from her with Kusina. Grieving Tunupa started to cry while breast-feeding her son. Her tears mixed with milk and formed the Salar. Many locals consider the Tunupa an important deity and say that the place should be called Salar de Tunupa rather than Salar de Uyuni

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Leaning Tower (Italy)

Leaning Tower of Pisa is a bell tower at Pisa, Italy. It is famous for leaning 4.4 meters out of line when measured from the seventh story. It was built to stand vertically but began leaning soon after construction started in August 1173. It tilts because its foundation was built on unstable soil. The ground beneath the tower first started to sink after the first three stories were built.

The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft) from the ground on the low side and 56.70 m (186.02 ft) on the high side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m (13.42 ft) and at the top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons (16,000 short tons). The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor has two fewer steps on the north-facing staircase. Prior to restoration work performed between 1990 and 2001, the tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees, but the tower now leans at about 3.99 degrees. This means that the top of the tower is displaced horizontally 3.9 metres (12 ft 10 in) from where it would be if the structure were perfectly vertical.

A popular tourist activity is to pose for photographs pretending to "hold up" the leaning tower and preventing it from falling. The illusion is created through the principle of forced perspective.

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Puerto Princesa (Philippines)

Puerto Princesa, Palawan has been the face of the last ecological frontier in the Philippines. Lying along the midsection of the long island of Palawan province, the capital city of Palawan is considered to be a first class city among the cities of the Philippines. One of Puerto Princesa’s main tour attractions and a source of pride for the locals is the Subterranean River National Park. The site features a very spectacular limestone landscape display in its navigable underground river, which flows directly to the sea. The underground river represents a habitat for conservation biodiversity.

Puerto Pricnesa is situated approximately at the center of Palawan, bordered on the south by Aborlan and to the north by Roxas and San Vicnente. Some 300 miles (480 km) away from Manila, its west and east side are flanked by the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea respectively.

Puerto Princesa is also the jump off point for Honda Bay which is rich in pristine white beaches with fine white sand. You can find them anywhere in the island. These water sceneries provide quite a contrast to the island’s green canopies. The clear emerald-green waters are truly a fascinating sight to behold. The islands in Honda Bay gives the beach lovers a much sought-after uncrowded and unspoilt haven that one can never find anywhere else in the Philippines. One of these Puerto Princesa beaches is Nagtabon Beach, which is located in the western coast of Palawan and is a two-hour ride from the city proper.

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Amazon River (South America)

    Known as the second longest river in the world, the Amazon River is found in South America and it passes through different countries such as Brazil, Colombia as well as Peru. The major  tributaries to the river include the Casiquiare canal, the Caqueta river, the Javary, the Morona and the Toncantins rivers. With thousands of tributaries, this body of water is considered as the largest river when it comes to assessing the volume of water. One of the historicalnavigations in the river is when British navigator Ed Stafford started to walk from its source to its mouth in April 2008.

       The length of the river is approximately 6,400 kilometers. When it comes to its basin discharge, the mean discharge is 219,000 cubic meter per second. The basin of the Amazon measures 7,050,000 square kilometer. It is considered as the biggest basin in the world since it covers 40 per cent of the continent where the river is found. One of the remote sources of the river is the inter-Andean plateau, which is near to the Pacific Ocean.

The river’s source is the Apachetta cliff, which is found at Nevado Mismi in Arequipa, Peru. Its mouth is the Atlantic Ocean. During dry season, the total land covered by the river is estimated to be 110,000 square kilometers. On the other hand, during the wet season, the flooded area measures 350,000 square kilometers.

The tributaries of the river do not flood simultaneously. Most of the branches of the Amazon begin to flood in November. The Rio Negro floods in February or March and it recedes in June. On the other hand, the flooding of the Madeirastarts in September.

During peak season, the mean depth of the river is 130 feet while the width measures 25 miles. At least 1/3 of the species in the world is present in the Amazon Rainforest. The river alone has at least 3,000 fish species. Some of the marine species that are present in the river are the boto, the Orinoco, tucuxi and piranha. Aside from these, people can also find bull sharks, arapaimas and arowanas in the watercourse. One of the dangerous animals that live in the Amazon is the anaconda snake. Other species that live in the river are the turtles, algae, crabs, electric eels, catfishes as well as the Giant Otter.

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Eiffel Tower ( Paris )

This is the Eiffel Tower, the most widely recognized national landmark in the world.

The Eiffel Tower is a 320-metre tower built of structural iron, originally constructed by engineer Gustave Eiffel (after whom the tower is named) for an international exposition in Paris in 1889. The tower was the only structure in the exposition intended for permanent display, and it survives to this day intact. It narrowly escaped demolition and conversion to scrap on several occasions in its youth, but today nobody would think of tearing down the Eiffel Tower.

More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 1889,  including 6,719,200 in 2006.The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world. As a global landmark, the Eiffel Tower is featured in media including films, video games, and television shows. In a commitment ceremony in 2007, Erika Eiffel, an American woman famously "married" the Eiffel Tower. Her relationship with the tower has been the subject of extensive global publicity.

The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of theFrench Revolution. Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million rivets, in a structural design by Maurice Koechlin. Eiffel was assisted in the design by engineers Émile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin and architect Stephen Sauvestre. The risk of accident was great as, unlike modern skyscrapers, the tower is an open frame without any intermediate floors except the two platforms. However, because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died. The tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889, and opened on 6 May.

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