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Central American Landscapes
• Belize and the Peten• Crystalline Highlands• Volcanic Highlands• The Mosquitia Coast• Nicaraguan Depression and Pacific
Lowlands• Talamanca and Pacific Peninsulas• Canal Zone and Darien
Red line = our path of slide and Google Earth investigation
Hopkins
A cay in Belize’s barrier reef
Outhouse at Hopkins, a Garifuna village on Belizean coast.
Esposa
Young Garifuna boy
Men’s room
Coconut palm being blown by which wind?
My accommodations in Hopkins, a Garifuna village on Belizean coast
Coconut palms
Gringo graduate student trying to pass as a Garifuna
Coconut palms
Dog
Typical beach scene in Hopkins. The Garifuna call dugout canoes “dories”. Made out of caoba/mahogany.
Mangrove forest.
Mangrove forest at low tide
Red line = our path of Google Earth investigation
Hopkins
• I don’t have any slides of limestone interior or Peten.
• I have lots of slides of the Crystalline Highlands.
• This region of volcanic highlands extends from southern Mexico to southern Nicaragua.
• Carr’s article, “Weeping Woods” describes the forest communities of this physical region.
Cloud forests somewhere in the high relief Crystalline Highlands
Ocotal somewhere in the high relief Crystalline Highlands
Ocotal somewhere in the high relief Crystalline Highlands. Many of the tropical montane forest tree species (pine, oak, sweet gum) migrated from mid-latitude regions during the Pleistocene to the highlands of Central America.
Somewhere in the high relief Crystalline Highlands
Pino or ocote, depending on which country you are in.
Liquidambar, one of the few deciduous trees in the highlands…the Crystalline Highlands
Liquidambar, one of the few deciduous trees in the highlands…the Crystalline Highlands
Somewhere in the high relief Crystalline Highlands
Somewhere in the high relief Crystalline Highlands
Life is lonely in the highlands…the Crystalline Highlands. Young boy herds goats.
Another settlement on the other side of the valley
Indigenous peoples comprise the majority of humans who inhabit the highlands…the Crystalline Highlands.
Did I mention that life is lonely in the highlands… the Crystalline Highlands?
Young boy rakes his family’s coffee beans.
Hella high relief!
In which season would you want to harvest and dry coffee beans?
Lenca village in Honduras’ portion of the Crystalline Highlands. Indigenous settlements tend to be where elevations are high but the relief is relatively low.
Many still must cultivate steep hillsides for subsistence. Village
Milpa
Lenca children in the highlands …the Crystalline Highlands.
Life is lonely for livestock in the highlands…the Crystalline Highlands. Cattle graze naturally occurring grasses in a sparse ocotal. Transhumance?
Life is becoming less lonely highlands … the Crystalline Highlands.
Cell phone technology is connecting isolated settlements with the larger world, outside of the Crystalline Highlands.
Many of these settlements never had telephones.
They are leapfrogging from telegraph lines to cell phones.
Cell tower
Ocotal
• The previous photograph was taken from Honduras’ portion of the Crystalline Highlands, looking southward to the next physical region we’ll look at: the Volcanic Highlands
Volcano in El Salvador
Window in HondurasOcotal
Red line = our path of slide and Google Earth investigation
Road cut between Ciudad Vieja and Antigua, Guatemala (Two colonial capital cities that were destroyed by volcanoes (1541 and 1773 and earthquakes). The undulating layers are volcanic ash deposited by different volcanic events.
Volcan Agua, looking south from Antigua, Guatemala. Season?
Volcan Agua, looking south from Antigua, Guatemala. Season?
Volcan Agua, looking south from Antigua, Guatemala.
And, turn your head ~30 degrees to the right and you’ll see the next slide.
Volcan Fuego
Volcan Acatenango
Antigua was a colonial capital. Volcanoes and earthquakes destroyed many of its buildings. Some have been restored. Others, like this church, are still in ruins.
The ruins and volcanoes are tourist destinations
This one too.
Lake Atitlan, a large caldera that filled with water.
Volcan Agua. The same one that you can see from Antigua.
Lake Atitlan
Volcan Santo Tomas
Tourist
Tourist cop
Locals
Lake Atitlan
The stunning geography of Guatemala’s portion of the Volcanic Highlands attracts tourists to the region.
Almolonga, Guatemala: Fertile soil derived from volcanic ash.
Coffee and volcanoes?
Red line = our path of slide and Google Earth investigation
El Tigre, Honduras: a volcanic island just off of Honduras’ Pacific coast.
Volcan Telica
Jicaral, Nicaragua
Volcan Momotombo
Arroz. Kind of like looking at the Sutter Buttes from south of Durham
Volcan MomotomboOthers
Volcan San Cristobal Volcan Casita
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989569,00.html?promoid=googlep
Click on the link below to learn what happened here in northwestern Nicaragua in October of 1998.
San Cristobal
Landslide scar on Volcan Casita caused by Hurricane Mitch
Memorial to the victims.
Memorial to the victims.
Some settlers have returned to live in the devastated area.
Lake Managua
Volcan Momotombo
Volcan Momotombito
My Miskito friend, Conrad Hooker. I met him while traveling through the Nicaraguan Depression and looking at the volcanoes there.
Conrad is from Sandy Bay, Nicaragua. His village was destroyed by Hurricane Felix fall of 2007. I have loaned him money to rebuild. The next slide is the latest email that I have received from him.
Conrad’s first language is Miskito. His second language is English, which sounds similar to Jamaican English.
dear sbrady
Im verry happy to hort from you all so your family all so from, allof my people from, my villege whe send you greathing
I gate here managua yesterday im in managua for this reason I looking sea food market all so I fine the market Iwat trasport lobster height quality
so they will paid me 12 us dollar per paunds bot now Ihave problems Its Ineed Ice chest to transport. each ice chest take 120 paunds lobster so Ineed 10 Ice chest because this Its the verry long whe journey
So here in managua have this ice chest
so ech ice chest cash 120 us
dear my friends dont worry i wat you are loan me this money to buy this ice chest so with second journey I will paid yuor money
With interes dear my friends with this transport sea Ican build orphanage children house because whe have verry hard ship live for our people because whe dont have harvest. yet so sbrady dont live me along because I stay in gueest house
this is my ID Nomber 627-130 159-0000T
My neme Its Conrad Hooker Evans
I will waith your answer.
today 15 th febrary 2008
Im in managua
Conrad is trying to buy large ice chests so that he can sell lobsters from the eastern coast to markets in western Nicaragua. Although Hurricane Felix destroyed much of the village, this year’s lobster crop is bountiful. To rebuild, however, the people of Sandy Bay need to sell the lobsters in markets in the west. The distance is not long. The time of travel is. La Mosquitia is poorly linked to the large population centers in the west. Only one road is passable, and only during verano, between western Nicaragua and coastal Mosquitia.
Read the link to learn more about Sandy Bay and the hurricane.
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/latin_america_and_caribbean/country/nicaragua/index.cfm?uNewsID=116000
http://www.palmerministry.com/miskitoinfo.htm
Yellow line = route of Google Earth – slide excursion
Mosquitia International Airport
Restrooms
Wet savanna. The savannas of Mosquitia receive enough rainfall to support a tropical rainforest. Nevertheless, a savanna (tropical grassland) grows there. Check Rains article for the explanation.
Rain in coastal Miskito settlement
Miskito taxi at the mouth of the Rio Paulaya
Mahogany pipante
Inland port, Mosquitia
Miskito fishing village
From local Wal-Mart
Not Mosquitia. Just a one of my pics nice that I found. What landscape region? Season?
Lobster shipsCommercial lobster operations can afford this type of ships. Miskito lobstermen rely on much smaller dug out canoes with sails. We’ll read about the competition between commercial and Miskito lobstermen later this semester.
Miskito ferry
Frontier boom-town in Mosquitia