Holiday post cards from Y7 Lions

Wow! You should see this fantastic 19 th Century Riverboat that is taking us down the Amazon! It has great rooms and food! We have seen the Giant Victoria Regia Water Lilies – and I do mean giant!!! They are huge and kids can actually sit on them! Another exciting activity was to see and feed the lovely gentle pink river Dolphins. The sights and sounds on the Amazon are colourful and vibrant! Tomorrow we are going to visit the local shaman and see how he helps his tribe. From Brendan

Dear lindy We are having a great time here in the Amazon. Here is the hotel we are staying in. Tomorrow we are going to go see where the people who live here houses. And see them catch food all this is possible here. We have seen monkey’s parrots strange bugs and even a tarantula. Wish you were here. Best wishes JAMIE

Dear Lindy I am here in Costa Rica at the ecotourism rain Forest it is a new development local people with economic assistance by offering them employment opportunities as wildlife guides and rangers for parks, and as workers in the service force of hotels and lodges Ecotourism also provides the opportunity for intellectual advancement for locals educated as wildlife guides. With an education, their children will have a better chance of breaking out of their subsistence lifestyle and improving their livelihood. Finally, local communities can earn supplementary income from the fabrication of handicrafts. From Jordan.

Pench National Park Pench National Park, nesting in the lower Southern reaches of the Satpude hills is named after Pench River, meandering through the park form north to south. The area has always been rich in wildlife This is Joseph, I am in Pench National Park in the Western India. This place is beautiful and many animals live here. You can tour on a Elephant and see the Tigers, Leopards, Monkeys, Jackals, Deer. We saw a Tiger with her four cubs. They look very cute. And you can watch Tigers on BBC I-player. From Joseph

Dear Lindy, We are staying in an area around Puerto Maldonado in Peru. The guide told us it has more species of plants and animals than anywhere else on the planet! We are staying in a jungle lodge, it’s really cool. Everything is made out of local materials and all the food is grown here too. Yesterday we explored the rainforest by walking through the jungle trails. Today we are going on a boat on the river and have been told we will see lots more of the wildlife here. We are really getting an idea what it’s like to live in a jungle. From Lowan

Greetings From Manaus Hi, Just arrived at the Ecotourism lodge after a 3 hour trip from Manaus. The lodge is beautiful, right in the middle of the river. We are going on a river tour today and will hopefully do some alligator spotting! Tomorrow we are going Piranha fishing, hope I don't get eaten! It is very hot here (27 degrees) but it rains a lot, our tour guide says its because of the jungle cycling water. See you when I get back, From Lucas.

 Dear Lindy, I wish you were here to see this! I am writing from a place called Dawn on the Amazon. It’s really fantastic here! There's plenty of wildlife and the forest is beautiful! I recently went on some cruises down rivers, it was the most beautiful thing I ever experienced! I‘ll tell you what’s good here. You can do many interesting things, and personally I would recommend the following: Take a day trip boat ride in Dawncita, or Dawn on the Amazon. Cruise down the Amazon to Monkey Island, then up the Yana Yacu River in Dawn on the Amazon. If you have days, cruise up the Amazon River, and then up the small and charming Tahuayo River to Tamshiyacu Tahuayo Reserve in either Dawn on the Amazon or the Selva Viva cabin boat. Go on a joyful walk on the forest canopy using the Canopy Walk. If you are lucky you might see a few wild birds and monkeys, and maybe some aquatic reptiles, like crocodiles and snakes. See you soon! Maksym Bedynski y7 Lions To: Lindy, Geography teacher From: Maksym Bedynski, y7 Lions

Hello from Amazonia expeditions, Peru

To lindy Interhigh, Brecon Wales Hi Lindy, I'm really enjoying my amazing ecotourism trip of the Amazon. So far i have swam with the pink dolphins, my favourite, went high up into the canopy and zoomed through the trees on zip lines and canoed on the Amazon itself, I saw lots of the wildlife. The colours and sounds are amazing. Tomorrow I am going to visit the native village and volunteer to help with the prime mate studies. Having a brilliant time, wish you were here Sioned

I saw some amazing animals and got a bird’s eye view of the Amazon River, we climbed trees and saw some monkey while we were up there, when we were coming down we saw some exotic birds. Then at night we went to look for bugs and stick insets, nearly stepped on a tarantula! From Sufyan

Summary The main point to draw from this is that it is quite possible to go to the Amazon and see amazing things. But not many of you commented on the people working to make this happen – the indigenous people that have sustainable work to do – and only a few mentioned the special measures taken to reduce the environmental impact – you talked about going out by canoe or on walks but did not see that this happened deliberately to reduce greenhouse gases and save on resources that are running out. Many of these eco-tourist sites do put a great deal of effort into reducing their impact, e.g. compost toilets, recycling waste, using solar power, local food etc, using local materials for building, rather than importing high-tech stuff from outside that uses lots of energy, like power showers. They don’t use speed boats as this would disturb the environment.

Now we will spend more time on this later, but here is a summary of what you need to know for the exam Fragile environments: The Amazon: – where is it and what are the countries that form part of it? – what is the climate and vegetation like? – what are the reasons that people are cutting it down? – what do we mean by sustainable development? – know the 4 main ways the Amazon can managed sustainably – + one example well of how sustainable development works.

Homework this week Be ready to answer question 1 on the exam - the maps question! You need to know The continents and oceans The countries of Europe There are lots of games to play on line - the links on are the homework sheet Once you are sure you know the various bits, go to zondle, click on topics my teacher has set and you will see…. Once you have tried all 4 at least once, upload a WORD document to HWK saying - I have done all 4 Zondle exercises