TRAVELERS NOVEMBER 2012/NUMBER 1
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Exotic Places around the world. What’s the first thing you think when you hear the word “exotic”?
The dictionary defines the word “Exotic” as “foreign”; not native; introduced from abroad, but not fully naturalized or acclimatized.” However, I know different meanings for the word "exotic." Because when I think about that word, or when I'm using it, I imagine something else than “foreign”; I think about something unknown but with the power to produce pleasure. That is why when I think of the word “exotic” I think about places. However, it not just places. Places which can take me outside this world. Places that distract me about the problems. Places far away from the city, from the people, when I have the ability of forget about
I think; I want to know as a lot of places as I want. I think everyone should see different places around the world. And now, I want to give you advice about the places I think everybody should visit before to die. And the beauty of this planet is that it offers a lot of places depending on the inclinations: don’t worry. You can choose, and you can find different places. 1. If you are curious, you can go to the Blue Hole in Belice, this place is interesting because you can see the deepest hole in the world, and its depth is 663 feet. This blue is amazing, especially because the surroundinges are a light blue. If you want to visit this place don’t forget to bring a map in this country and the most important, you can’t forget the camera because if you don’t bring the camera, you will lose great moments.
2. If you like hiking and climb the mountains, your best place is the Everest, but this place is just for the professional climbers, for this reason you can choose others places, for example, you can go to Aconcagua in Argentina. These places are popular because the Everest is the tallest mountain in the world with 29.029 feet and is located in Asia, I mean in the Himalaya between in China and Nepal, this mountain is very hard for to climb and just 3000 climbers have been in the top of the Everest. On the other hand, the Aconcagua is the tallest mountain in South America with 22 837 feet and is the highest mountain outside Asia in the world, is located in the Cordillera de “los Andes”, Argentina. 3. If you like only hiking and know the ancestral culture, you can go to Machu Pichu in Peru, this place is a lost city, and is known around the world for its mystery and its lost people.
This place is popular for its story and its mystery. No one knows the cause for disappear from its people and how the aborigines built the houses and temples with stone and its perfection. The experts have different assumptions, they said Machu Pichu was a Shrine, or it was military town but in this moment, the assumptions aren’t true, and that’s the most interesting part of this place. 4. If you like diving, you should go to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, is a bigger reef in the world, and you can practice diving and sew different fishes and animals, this place is amazing, but take care because one Australian celebrity has died at this place. You’d better obtain a guide, or you could die too.
By John Rojas.
CENTRO COLOMBO AMERICANO BOGOTร SKILLS 3 ________________________________ TEACHER Karl Franco EDITORIAL COMMITTEE John Rojas Juanita Colorado Juan David sSoto Keily Johana Maria Fernanda Angulo MARKETING COMMITTEE Mayerli Galeano Karen Jimenez William Vivas GRAPHIC DESIGN COMMITTEE Marisol Pinzรณn Daniel Lรณpez DIAGRAMATION Marisol Pinzรณn
TRAVELERS CONTENTS How to travel like a hitchhiker 4 Mikonos Island
6
Panamรก
8
Palomino Guajira
10
Undersea Fun
12
Lover Turism
14
Nigara Falls
16
Heaven Temple
18
Olimpic games in London
20
HOW TO TRAVEL LIKE A HITCHHIKER
like a
travel
There are many ways to travel ; you can use your car, go in an airplane, take a bus even if you want ride a horse. But today I’m going to give you some tips for hitchhiking. Have you ever wanted to take a backpack and go somewhere you want to know, but you don’t have the money? Hitchhiking is your answer, to keep it simple. You only need to follow some essential things to take on this new experience. First of all you must to take the most used route. If there is no traffic, you won’t find who pick you up. The fastest and easiest routes are usually between two major cities, passing a lot of countryside on the way and letting you to see beautiful landscapes.
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How to
hitchhiker.
By Maria Fernanda Angulo
If you’re planning to go through an area with dense population and reach the other side of the city, then remember that many vehicles will be local traffic, so it’s often a good idea to find a route that avoids these areas or to find a car that pass through. Don’t for get to identify the gas petrol stations. You want to know where you are going. Carry a good map it’s very helpful, but try to get a map you don’t have to open out to one large sheet of paper; book-style maps are best. Remember that petrol stations have maps for sale, then study the map and get information you need. If you inclined by digital side, Google maps now offers the ability to create and save your own routes and to share them.
Be in a good safe spot. Be in a place where the cars can see you from distance and stop safely. Maybe the biggest danger in hitchhiking is the possibility to be run over. Make sure you don’t stand on the way, the driver will usually make their decision to stop or not when they see you from a distance. If you stand too much on the way you will make it complicated for them and they might change their mind. Make conversations with drivers. Drivers pick hitchhikers up for many reasons: some because they are helpful, other because they once hitched themselves, some because they think you might be interesting or fun to talk with. Talking with drivers is the one of the best ways to get longer rides or better drop off places.
Have a list of questions ready: “Where do you come from today? How long have you been driving trucks? What made you decide to buy this car?” If the driver is reserved, only appreciate for picking you up and be quite. Work with weather. If it’s hot, choose a hitchhiking spot, where you can get some shade, in case you have to wait for some hours. If it’s wet, drivers may feel sorry for you, and choose to help you. But no one wants a soggy hitchhiker in their car, so keep
A thumb or hand gesture will work fine for hitchhiking. But in some cases, the use of a sign displaying your destination or general direction will increase your odds. A sign just saying PLEASE (in local language) can help sometimes. When you’re hitchhiking on a road with lots destinations, the driver will be more likely to stop if he knows that you’re going the same direction as him. To make the sign, it’s better to use cardboard or similar with a thick black marker. Write clearly in big, block letters the name of a city or the name of a road, or both. To make it easy to read for the drivers, write a big capital letter and then lower case characters. To make safer hitchhiking, you must wear bright colored clothes or a reflective warning vest while you are waiting. Keep your stuff organized. Make sure you don’t lose any of your own stuff and very important for the image of hitchhiking: make sure not to take anything that’s not yours. Here are some tips to help you get a better experience; I hope you find them helpful. Now you just have to take your rucksack and start the adventure as the best thumber. Good luck!
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By Mayerli Galeano
Mikonos Island
M
ikonos island probably it’s the most famous Greek island, known as the main tourist place of the country. In this beautiful place you can enjoy of the excellent nightlife, also it’s one of the four archeological sites in Greece and undoubtedly the attractive beaches known as holiday paradise. It has over 3.000 hours of sunshine a year, clear water, golden beaches and typical architecture of houses painted white and blue, with classic windmills in the background.Something really amazing is that façade of all houses are equal.Every day a lot of people, most of them young, come to this island to be part of this wonderful experience. Mikonos is also very appreciated by the gay community. If you visit this island would you like to return because you feel a good environment. It’s the best place to engage human relationships because it’s a small island and you can know many people.Mikonos’ capitalit’snoted for the beauty and magic of theirpicturesque houses, attractive streets, and the flowers that adorn their balconies. [ 6 ]TRAVELERS
Among other beautiful places you can find the Church of the Blessed Virgin Paraportiani, according tothe tradition, is the most important of the 400 churches and chapels scattered throughout the small island. You might wonder how much of churches; the reason is that many years ago those who inhabited this area were engaged in piracy and they promised to build a church every time they survived a journey.
You also can visit Venecia Mikonos it is the most picturesque area of town, in the lower part of the island with their houses built at the seaside the sea. These houses have become more curious places for parties on the island. You can see a lot of windmills and Petros pelicans because there are symbols of the island, also you can visit the archaeological, the folk and the naval museums. You can rent a car, a bicycle or a moped, but the most comfortable and enjoyable to navigate are the many small boats that cross the coast. The most important activity in this island is the tourism to the point that has been widely criticized by environmental degradation caused for this activity.
You can visit a lot of nudist beaches where you can live a crazy and uncommon environment, also use the best services like variety of hotels, cafeterias and restaurants. And after to enjoy all these activities you can taste a delicious Mediterranean food typical of this region such as Moussaka which is eggplants casserole, Kleftiko which is a lamb marinated with garlic and lemon juice. You can also find delicious desserts like Baklava cake with honey it’s very wonderful and the best important in this region is the Ouzo because it’s the national alcoholic drink aniseed based. These are some of the most important food provided in this beautiful and unforgettable island. [ 7 ]TRAVELERS
á m a n Pa
á... m a n a P o t avel r t o t t n a If you w
By Juanita Colorado
You need to investigate about this country, but no problem, in this article you will find some information about Panama. First, you need to know about the history because when you go to a different place you need to know the location and the culture of this country. The separation of Panama from Colombia was formalized on 3rd November 1903 with the establishment of the Republic of Panama. It’s location the southernmost country od Central America, its capital is Panama City and the official language is Spanish.
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If you go to Panama, you can’t go without knowing the Panama Canal; it was 83 kilometers long that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The canal divides the Isthmus of Panama and it’s a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built between 1904 and 1914 by U.S., Panama Canal cost the U.S. approximately $ 375 million, including $ 10,000,000 paid to Panama and the $ 40 million paid to the French company; making it the most expensive project undertaken by the country to date. If you want to go to the Panama Canal don’t forget that the entrance cost U.S. $ 35 per person.
Other places are San Blas, Portobelo, Bacas de In this hotel you can relax and enjoy all the benetoro, Pedasiande Tobago these are beautiful bea- fits the you have in it. ches, there you can enjoy the sun and the sea. I recommend you to go to this country because it’s Finally, in my opinion the best hotel is The Royal Deca- fantastic and they were our brothers, it’s important meron Golf Beach Resort & Villas, this hotel have nine to know the Panama Canal which is unusual and dipools, ten restaurants (eight at night you can book a fferent beaches which are beautiful and so exotics. place and eat a delicious and exotic plates), eleven bars and eight hundred and twenty rooms. On the other hand at night you can enjoy with differents activities.
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By Daniel L贸pez
Palomino is a Colombian Caribbean town, is located 70 kilometers from Santa Martha making part of the municipal ofDibulla, in de department of La Guajira. It is located between the river's palomino and San Salvador; living mainlyfrom fishing, tourism and trade. When meeting the population located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, therefore,it is a place for meeting and exchange between the settlers and the Indians. Palomino is one of seven districts of Dibullla township, from the department of La Guajira, Colombia, located on theCaribbean highway, along the palomino river near the Caribbean coast. Palomino is the boundary point between LaGuajira and the department of Magdalena. It lies 26 kms from the region of Dibulla, 90 kms from Santa Martha and 72km from Riohacha. It is a territory has all the ecological floors, from sea level to the snows of the Sierra Nevada deSanta Martha, declared a Biosphere reserve by UNESCO, an isolated mountain, apart from the Andes. The SierraNevada embodies about 17,000 square miles and serves as the source of 36 rivers.
Palomino was founded in 1962; It grew around a main square and then along the Caribbean highway building at it isa western end. Palomino has long suffered the loss of their cultural identity, intolerance, racial discrimination, lack of clear policiesfor the environment, disappearance of fauna and flora, inefficiency and corruption of the government, theabandonment of authorities and institutions, and even worse, the loss of confidence in the resolution of conflicts andpoverty problems instead of justifying the fact that generations don’t interfere in sustainable rural development. Thelack of progress is the lack of access to social services, education and training. In the past, the village was the use as a battleground for rival drug gangs, Las FARC, paramilitary groups and leftist insurgencies. Inrecent years, inspired by the government’s aggressive approach to fighting guerrilla warfare, Palomino community is trying to bring peace to their people, to restoretourism and improve the lifestyle of future generations.
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Undersea
Have you imagined to one day
visit places that are only found in your imagination
? ...
fun By Marisol Pinz贸n
...Enjoy the marine life while having dinner, having a drink or spending time with your partner?. How amazing it would be to observe with tranquility the diversity of marine cratures.
Located 20 meters below the surface of the Persian Gulf, has a dome-shaped bubble that allows guests to see fish and other sea creatures. It has a ground station to receive its guests and has 220 suites and leisure centers.
There exist some espectacular places in the world where you could do it in an extraordinary way. It consist of hotels and bars that are under water where you could enjoy of all its privelaged views of the deep sea.
There is also the Jules Undersea in Florida for those who like the extreme this underwater hotel is located in Key Largo, Florida built nine meters deep, where each guest has his scuba gear to reach their rooms, has two bedrooms and a bathroom retreat that can be rented for a night, not as luxury as Hydropolis, but the facilities also allow us to appreciate the gold fish.Its design gives the feeling of being inside a submarine and even people that have never dived can access with an instructor.
If you want complete comfort the Hydropolis Underwater Hotel, Dubai is the first luxury hotel under the sea. [ 12 ]TRAVELERS
And if you want to have fun underwater Red Sea Star is a bar located on the Red Sea, right infron of the city of Eliat, on the coast of Israel. It has capacity for 105 people and has 60 windows overlooking the deep sea their seats are shaped like octopuses, jellyfish resemble lamps, the floor is covered in fine sand, and the ornaments are huge starfish, It is located five meters below the surface. Another bar-restaurant is the Ithaa submarine,located in a luxury resort , the Hilton Hotel Maldives Resort & Spa in the idyllic Maldives. Visitors enjoy a panoramic view of 270 degree and while dining can see past the huge and diverse marine life that lives in the ocean, the place is nine meters long and consist of three transparent acrylic arcs of five meters each one, wich makes it the widest structure under the sea in the world.
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Lover Tourism By Karen Jimenez.
You enjoy traveling, especially with someone important for you, further: ¿Do you want to conquer to someone?. Merely, Do you want to have a memorable time? or ¿Do you want to give something special?. Here, you will find a list of places according to your needs, as: Your budget and availability. ¿Do you have a lot of time and money?. I ’m going to talk about some different places around of world for you:
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1.PARIS: In this place,love is in the air because this city has places as: The Eiffel Tower,a very romantic place, especially on this 3 floor, where you can see the city. An other example is the PONT MARCE, the lover’s bridge. In this trip you may want to take some comfortable clothes and you should make a reservation in a romantic restaurant, or you could go out on boat for the Sena, on a boat probably you’ll see the entirecity. The cost of this trip is nearly2.500 USD per person.
4 .BALI: Bali is an island and a province in Indonesia, It is also the largest tourist destination in the country and is renowned for theirs developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather and music. You may prefer to see the Orange Sunset with a romantic dinner, you could eat a lobster with some white wine;however, if you’re a meat lover, you shouldn’t visit this island or you you’d better go on a cruise ship with a cheerful serenade on board. The cost for this plan is about 3.500USD for one person.
2.PRAGA: If you decide to visit Praga you probably wish to get into a fairy tale fantasy for this towers called Hundred Spiers because It is heard of the Europe, This place is very romantic andIt has a beautiful historyabout the Republic Checa, It is one of the twenty most visited cities in the world and this month you should take many jackets because the weather is frozen. The cost for this plan is about 4.000 USD for one person. 3.COLOMBIA: It has a lot of romantic and tourist places, but if you don’t have much money and time, you could visit the following placeson Bogota:
3.1.LA CANDELARIA: Located in downtown on Bogota, It has some colonial restaurants and, if you visit La Candelaria you could rent a old car or you can pay for a serenade in a restaurant .Has different kinds of food; you can select among Chinese food, Italian food and so on. These restaurants offer its visitors the opportunity to taste Colombian dishes and different romantic dinners. The cost for this plan is about 270 USD for one person. 3.2.USAQUEN: If you only want a romantic dinner, it is a good neighborhood, due to the different restaurants.For example aspectacular restaurant is Carpaccio R&F, It has a romantic environment. This plan has approximately cost of75USDforoneperson. [ 15 ]TRAVELERS
By William Vivas
Niagara Falls
W
ho has not heard about Niagara Falls? Some people say it’s a beautiful place but really there are no words to describe this majestic natural place, a couple of years ago I knew that place existed, but I couldn’t imagine how great it was, only my Family’s absence motivated me to know something about of the place where they were going to live. Dear readers my family have lived in Toronto Canada since 2008.
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I’ve always been interested in knowing about of great places of this country, however in that moment I began to search information about of the country that was going to receive to my family. I found that Niagara Falls are located between Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of New York. The three waterfalls are the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. There you can spend a day enjoying the view of Niagara Falls. It’s the Canada’s pride.
There are a lot of attractions, hotels, modern casinos, night life, concerts, fine dining, golf and spas, for children there is a real perk with tall building, water parks inside hotels and adventure. My mom told me about fishing, swimming sports, biking trails are activities that you can do. In winter you can skate on frozen lakes,
but according to her, the most interesting is to take a helicopter ride because there are several companies are located in both sides of the falls, they offer helicopter flight, an incredible experience for thrill seekers and nature lovers alike. Helicopter flights take participants up and down the Niagara River and feature the most magical views in the region, including the whirlpool rapids, the rainbow bridge, Queen Victoria Park in Ontario and of course the falls. It’s enough to observe the beauty of these landscapes in some photos for wanting to live this experience; maybe later we will have the opportunity to know this beautiful place.
Heaven Temple
By Juan David Soto
Welcome to the Heaven Temple. Today I’m going to help you with this imaginary tour about this great place to visit. It could be one of the most important buildings th at you could get to know. It’s located as you can see in China and even, in the world. The UNESCO declared this building as the World Heritage in 1998. Come with us, and you’ll stay in an amazing and wonderful location. The Heaven Temple is the greatest temple of its own class in all China. It’s location located is on the Tiantan Gongyuan Park, to the south of Pekin (Beijing), the capital city of this country. The Heaven Temple is a group of buildings surrounded by an interior wall and another exterior, and both are shaped by a rectangular base. There are three temple. The first tar, and open platforms made [ 18 ]TRAVELERS
principal constructions inside the one is the Heaven Shrine, an alstructure, where you find three of marble, with 5 meters high.
It was made in 1530, and it was used to reverence the heaven during Winter Solstice, to say thanks to Heaven and in Summer Solstice, to pray for raining. The structure was constructed in 3 or 9 multiples. The acoustic was designed to help the emperor or the person who speaks something can be heard in all over the place. The Second, it’s the Imperial Vault of Heaven, made of marble too and named as the Celestial Lord’s Home. It’s a circular building and with a conic roof, blue tiling, and the posterior part was made of bricks. Here is the place where the emperors gave a tribute to their ancestors. The vault is surrounded by a circular wall with a diameter of 60 meters. It has 19 meters high and a diameter of 15,.6 meters. The Third and the last one, it’s the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is the most important building of all over the place. This is the building where the emperors made their pray to heaven. It has an altitude of 30 meters and a diameter of 38 meters.
It was made of marble and the roof was carried by 28 wood pillars and brickwork. The Second, it’s the Imperial Vault of Heaven, made of marble too and named as the Celestial Lord’s Home. It’s a circular building and with a conic roof, blue tiling, and the posterior part was made of bricks. Here is the place where the emperors gave a tribute to their ancestors. The vault is surrounded by a circular wall with a diameter of 60 meters. It has 19 meters high and a diameter of 15,.6 meters. The Third and the last one, it’s the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is the most important building of all over the place. This is the building where the emperors made their pray to heaven. It has an altitude of 30 meters and a diameter of 38 meters. It was made of marble and the roof was carried by 28 wood pillars and brickwork. No beams inside it. There are four columns which represent the different seasons, twelve more which represent the months of the year and finally, the last twelve represent the hours of a day. It has a great decoration and ana spiritual meaning inside it.
Olimpic Games in London
By keily Johana The Olympics games are based on sports competitions. All countries of the world go and compete athletes who have given their best training from years ago. This year was celebrated in London, where the country gave the best of its facilities for the development of this event like The Hyde Park, where competencies were develop of cycling and swimming. This year Colombia participated in the Olympics games and the athletes who were to represent to us, they have obtained good results like: Yuri Alvear who won the bronze medal in the category of 70 kilograms of judo in the games, for she was hurt practice this sport because she didn’t have a lot of money, she has trained this sport for 12 years, in this moment her coach is Noriyuki Ayakawa. Rigoberto Uran cyclist won silver medal, he has fought a lot to be an excellent cyclist. Catherine Ibarguen won a silver medal for athletics (triple jump), her coach is Ubaldo Duany who saw the ability that she had to jump, Oscar Figueroa won a silver medal for weightlifting, he has been in the army but he took the decision to prefer play in the Olympic Games.
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Oscar Luis MuĂąoz won bronze medal in taekwondo with only 19 years old, he is very young but since he was a child he loved his sport. Jackeline RenterĂa won bronze medal in fight, also she won other bronze medal in the Olympic Games in Pekin, Carlos Oquendo won bronze medal in BMX, and Mariana Pajon who won gold medal, she is the best in BMX in the entire world, also she is responsible and loved be the best in all she want. There are more athletes that won diplomas for be in the 8 best posts of some sports like Ubaldina Valayes, she competed in weightlifting with 69 kilograms. For this effort and good performance that Colombia athletes are doing, Colombia be in position 38 of 212 countries, it is amazing know that Colombia is not only violence, we can do better things for us and represent the best form our country and the most important we need to be proud for Colombia. In addition if Colombia want to be one of the best country that have good medals, diplomas, and more, the Colombian government should support to athletes for example the government can sponsor since they are young, Colombians athletes are excellent but for many reasons they can’t show their develop so we need to support a lot in all this years.
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