Since it is sometimes easier to find cheap traveloptions, such as cheapairplane tickets, cheapfares, cheapdeals, discount hotel rooms, discounttravel deals, and cheap vacation packages, thenit is to decide on a destination, you should consider visiting one of UNESCOs8 endangered World Heritage Sites in the Americas before they deterioratefurther.
The following UNESCO sites underscore the importance ofpreservation and invite adventurous travelers to explore them, according to JenSmith:
TheEverglades National Park in Florida is teeming with life, including some plantsand animals that are only found in its steaming, brackish swamps. Visiting the Everglades is all about nature,whether spotting manatees on an airboat tour, watching the stars from amangrove island, or hunting for 39 species of native orchids on a guided kayaktrip.
South Florida is the only place in theworld where crocodiles and alligators co-exist. The Everglades is on the World Heritage in Danger list because theparks low-lying elevation makes the area vulnerable to rising sea levelsresulting from a warming climate.
TheBelize Barrier Reef Reserve stretches almost the entire length of BelizesCaribbean coast. This massive reefsystem is the biggest in the Northern Hemisphere and its chain of coral andsand is visible from the International Space Station. At water level one can see hundreds of cayesthat lie just above the surface, a constellation of mangrove and sand islandswith a coral foundation. Its patchworkof pinnacle reefs, fringing reefs and barrier reefs make this a world renownsnorkeling destination. A lack ofoversight has resulted in unsustainable fishing, deteriorating water quality,and development.
TheChan Chan Archeological Zone in Peru is the largest mud brick city in the world. It was built by the Chimu people who ruledthe northern coast of Peru hundreds of years prior to the arrival of Spanishconquistadors. Visitors can still findremains of irrigation canals and adobe architecture, crumbling temples andcourtyards. Exposure to over fivehundred years of rainwater has begun to melt the city back into mud, withfurther erosion being caused by a changing climate resulting in greaterextremes of weather.
TheRio Platano Biosphere Reserve in Honduras is the largest intact rainforest inCentral America, where 411 species of birds have been identified. Four types of sea turtles swim along thebiospheres marine boundary and the Mexican spider money, also on theendangered list, forages for wild fruits. Many impoverished communities in the biosphere fish and hunt illegallyand clear trees for subsistence farming.
Potosisilver mines in Bolivia honeycomb the mountains that loom above thehigh-altitude city. The streets ofPotosi are home to fine colonial era buildings that blend indigenous designwith stately Baroque architecture. Potosis historic buildings abut modern parts of the city, with nobuffer zone to protect the landmarks. Ongoing mining has destabilized the surrounding mountains.
Humberstoneand Santa Laura Saltpeter Works in Chile is where visitors can see thecountrys most haunting ghost towns, a sprawl of abandoned homes, shops andfactories in northern Chiles bone dry Pampas dessert. Between 1980 until World War II the residentsof company run towns unearthed massive deposits of saltpeter, a chemicalcompound used for making bombs and fertilizer.
Visitors can explore the fascinatingplaces where workers lived, worked, and worshipped, as well as see the mineshafts where they dug the white gold of the 19th century. Neglected for years, an earthquake furtherdamaged buildings in 2014.
Portobelo-SanLorenzo in Panama used to sport high stone walls to protect Spanish gold andplundered treasure. When checking outthe Portobelo ruins visitors watch for sails on the horizon as they walk thefortifications and visit the Black Christ figure in the Iglesia de San Felipebefore slipping into the ocean to snorkel with sea turtles. No defined boundaries around the fortificationshas led to unchecked development which threatens the 400-year-old structures.
Coro,Venezuela is home to fascinating architecture where Moorish influences broughtby Spanish conquistadors have blended with Dutch building styles imported fromAruba and Curacao. Colonial history isabundant in this city which was founded in 1527, only 35 years after the 1492voyage of Christopher Columbus. Heavyrains have damaged some of Coros historic buildings, and a lack of oversightby the government has resulted in development which threatens the sitesintegrity.
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