Good News for Machu Pichu.
Thousands of artefacts taken from the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu are to be returned to Peru next year.
After years of talks, Yale University in the United States has decided to return to Peru "all goods, pieces and parts" that were taken from Machu Picchu by scholar Hiram Bingham III between 1911 and 1915.
More than 4,000 centuries-old Inca objects, including bronze and gold objects, mummies, skulls, pottery and art, will be sent back in early 2011, after an inventory of the pieces is completed. It is thought that Peru's Congress will seek to establish a special budget to create a museum and research centre in Cuzco as a permanent home for the collection.
More good news for Ice Master Captain Patrick Toomey
whom Denise Scarrott and Jo know. Toomey Strait will be named after him which is situated between Wiencke Island and Fridtjof Island in the Gerlache Strait on the Antarctic Peninsula. “The channel has not been properly explored and is probably not navigable for ships of any kind” says Pat in a recent email to Denise.
Salar de Uyuni
Did you know there was a hotel made entirely of Salt? Visitors live in ‘igloo’ shaped salt rondavels.
This is an excerpt from their website.
“In the southwest of Bolivia, at an altitude of over 3600 meters and area of over 12000 sq.km, is the unique Salar de Uyuni.
Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt desert in the world, is in the first place of the new twenty-five wonders and natural historical attractions in the world.
Because of the magnetism, all the outside communication is nonexistent and the guests come across an almost desert landscape with geysers, rocky formations and extinct volcanoes”.
Australia's Kimberley coast!
With the opportunity to see the annual whale migration and an abundance of flora and fauna, September and October is a great time to cruise Western Australia's Kimberley coast!
madagascar 2011
Another tour of 15 days has been designed for September 2011. This is a more rigorous tour than previously designed by Jo Meintjes. It will include one night camping to see the extremely rare and endangered Aye Aye lemur and will also include visits to the Lac Aloatra Reed Lemur and Red Ruffed Lemur. As usual we will operate with 8-10 participants led by Jo Meintjes and her helper Denise Scarrott whose photos of Madagascar and write up are featured on Jo Meintjes Travel website. Please enquire for the full itinerary.
This has had to be postponed several times due to the extra high cost of chartering a plane to reach the best place for sighting the Aye Aye. Madagascar is settling down again and international operators are once again organising tours.
Otherwise Jo is happy to design a tour for two or more people. Best months for travel are April/May and September/October. Read more about Madagascar
MADAGASCAR 2007
The April 2007 tour was a great success. The group of 11 travelled to the very north, northwest, east and south east of this fascinating fourth largest island in the world in the two weeks. (4th largest after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo – see elsewhere for Jo's description of these destinations which she has visited).
They saw the largest of the lemurs, the Indri Indri, and heard its haunting call. Walking day excursions found more lemurs including the very rare Golden Bamboo lemur and the Diademed Sifaka.
Rare tortoises, green geckos, known as the “living jewels of Madagascar”, amazing chameleons ranging in size from the Parson's at nearly half a metre in length to the tiny Brookesia, barely the size of a fingernail. They were shown the little world that lives in the Pandanus palm, finding frogs, spiders and geckos which are a few of the 21 species which rely totally on this plant for their survival.
Insects such as the Giraffe-necked Weevil, Stick Insects and beautiful butterflies made foraging through the foliage a rewarding excperience.
They came across snakes like the Boa and the Hog-nosed snake but as there are no poisonous snakes on the island these encounters were risk-free.
Bird life abounds and much of it is endemic to Madagascar such as the beautiful Pitta-like Ground Roller, the rare Madagascar Fish Eagle, the enchanting little Madagascar Malachite and Pygmy Kingfishers. They had a close encounter with the stunning Madagascar Cuckoo-Roller and spotted many other endemic species such as fodys, jerys, couas and vangas.
Night walks revealed the elusive night lemurs including the Woolly lemur, Mouse lemur and Sportive lemurs as well as the Fossa fossana, one of the only two predators in the Fossa family and an abundance of frogs, moths and sleeping chameleons.
The extraordinary rock formations of red and black Tsingy are unique and fascinating. The guides are knowledgeable and delight in sharing their knowledge of the customs and traditions, taboos and beliefs of the local people.
TOUR TO MALI FOR TIMBUCTU VIA ETHIOPIA
We will soon repeat our successful trips to Mali in December 2004 and 2005 which included 3 days up the River Niger to reach Timbuctu. Jo Meintjes can organize tours for individuals or your own group in the Nov-Feb period. She visited Mali in April 2006.
SNOW MONKEYS AND CRANES IN JAPAN
Jo Meintjes visited Japan in February 2011 to see the above
TOur to the 5'stans
Jo Meintjes designed and escorted a very successful tour for 10 clients in April-May 2008. In other words the group Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan following the Silk Route. Highlights included paddling in the second highest and largest mountain lake of Lake Issyk Kul; climbing the heights of the Tien Shan mountains still covered in snow although this was achieved by means of a chairlift; visiting the walled cities of Khiva and Bokhara; crossing the River Oxus on a pontoon bridge and driving through the Kara Kum desert in a sandstorm. And of course visiting the fabled cities of Samarkand and Tashkent. Please read more here about the 2008 tour Legendary cities such as Tashkent , Samarkand , Khiva and Bukhara will be visited for their fascinating history, mosques, madrassahs and mausoleums to say nothing of their wonderful markets and the chance to climb a few minarets.
We anticipate only 11 people in total. The assistant tour leader will be Jo's ex husband, Chris Meintjes, a lecturer, photographer, opera singer and proficient tour leader himself. Please enquire for further details
We did not have enough takers for 2009 or the 2010 tour. This was despite Jo’s efforts at advertising and promoting the tour a year ahead of departure. There is one last chance to join a tour designed for April/May 2012. We urge clients to book when you see an unsual tour on offer and not give the excuse of “another time”. It just may not be possible.
OPERA TOUR
Chris Meintjes (Jo’s ex husband) has led an opera tour annually to Italy since 2001. He is an opera singer, writer, broadcaster on Classic fm and other radio stations. He is also an unflappable tour leader and has been known to sing to the astounded locals to while away the time when a vehicle breaks down. He has led tours for Jo Meintjes’ agency to Bhutan, China, Zambia & Mali for Timbuctu and the Dogon people combined with Ethiopia, even after they got divorced.
Jo was entrusted with oganising his Opera Tour in April 2010 in which 5 people participated. They saw Luisa Miller in Turin, heard Placido Domingo sing in Simon Boccanegra at the premiere in La Scala and attended Massenet’s Manon Lescaut at Teatro Pavarotti in Modena all with first class tickets. They also enjoyed some tours and gourmet meals during the 13 days spent in Italy. Feedback was all the Operas were 'awesome'.
In 2011 Chris led the group to Eastern Europe to visit Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Prague and Vienna. A full report to follow.
MoscowGlobal warming is opening up ‘great possibilities’ in the Arctic, says Ilya Kramnik. It’s not just that the melting ice will allow access to an estimated 25% of the world’s remaining oil and gas reserves; it will also change the face of global transport. A new Arctic shipping route would slash the distance from Holland to Japan to just 14,000 kms, compared to 20,000 kms via Suez or 24,000 kms via Panama. But rather than relish the opportunities this brings, the West is getting all steamed up about the announcement by the Kremlin of a new military force to patrol the Arctic and plans to build new bases along Russia’s northern coastline. But there’s nothing sinister about this. Russia has a greater presence in the region than any other claimant to the Arctic, the US included. It has more cities and seaports, and its Northern Fleet in the Barents Sea is far superior to its rivals. And as the northern sea route develops, the need for tighter military and border control will increase. Like it or not, Russia has big national interests in the Arctic and means to defend them. The West had better get used to it.
Source: The Week magazine -U.K.
Quark Expeditions has announced
The End of an Era.
Regretfully, we announce that as of March 2012, our flagship, the icebreaker, Kapitan Khlebnikov will be under contract with the Russian government for icebreaking duties. This means there is only one more Antarctic Season for 2011-12 left when she will be available to passengers.
Freezing rain kills penguins
Thousands of baby penguins are dying in the Antarctic as a result of heavy rains lashing the continent, reports the Mail on Sunday. Adélie penguins are born with a soft downy pelt, which
protects them against snow until, aged around 40 days, they develop waterproof feathers. But, as a result of global warming, rain is now more common than snow in Antarctica – leaving the chicks dangerously exposed. Their parents try to protect them in the wet weather, but when the adults have to leave their offspring to go fishing, the newborns get soaked to the skin, and freeze to death. Conservationists say the numbers of Adélie penguins are plummeting, and predict that if the storms continue, the species will become extinct in the wild within ten years.
Source: The Week magazine -U.K. Brittle Star City
Marine biologists investigating an underwater mountain range in the Antarctic, south of New Zealand, have discovered a vast colony of brittle stars (a relative of the starfish) carpeting the 100 square kilometre summit of a 2,500 ft sea mountain. Tens of millions of brittle stars were found living arm to arm on the peak, which is taller than the world’s tallest skyscraper. Normally brittle stars (also known as ophiurids) lurk amid coral or under rocks, emerging only at night to feed. However, they are thought to be thriving on their exposed mountain summit (dubbed Brittle Star City), 90 metres below the waves, because it lies in the middle of the fast-flowing Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which sweeps food into the creatures’ waving arms, while keeping the predators at bay. “It got us excited as soon as we saw it,” said Ashley Rowden of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. “Not only is it amazing to see a vast array of one type of organism, but the implications for our understanding of the relative uniqueness of seamount assemblages are potentially far-reaching.”
Source: The Week magazine -U.K. TACKLING ANTARCTIC TOURISM
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) recently announced that tourism management is to become its top priority. The AAD is pushing for an Antarctic tourism accreditation scheme, under which tour companies would have to assess environmental impacts and employ appropriately skilled guides. The division has also developed a database of Antarctic-tourism activities that will assist with management. According to Dr Sharman Stone, the parliamentary secretary responsible for the Antarctic, current mechanisms for managing tourism in Antarctica are becoming increasingly inadequate as visitor numbers soar.
Source: Geographical, London, November 2004
There is already the voluntary organisation IAATO to which all the companies Jo Meintjes Travel recommends subscribe.
Global warming is rendering Inuit and other Arctic peoples at a loss for words. They simply do not have names in their languages for the temperate species flocking up from the south. They have plenty of ways of describing their own wildlife - some have more than 1000 words for reindeer - but none for, say, the robin, which is only now venturing north of the tree line. The Inuit are reduced to describing it as "the bird with the red breast" in their language, Inuktuit, said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar conference. Nor she said are there words for salmon, hornets and barn owl's, all of which are appearing in the Arctic for the first time.
DEEP-SEA MONSTER RISES TO THE SURFACE
A Colossal squid has been caught in Antarctic waters, the only virtually complete example of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni ever retrieved from the surface of the ocean. The creature was found in the Ross Sea and is being examined at the Te Papa lab near Wellington, New Zealand. "It's a true monster of the deep," said Steve O'Shea, a squid expert at Auckland University of Technology. "Something like this could devour you in seconds."
Only six specimens of the squid have ever been found - five of them in the stomachs of sperm whales. The squid's mantle, or body, measures 2.5 metres, and the specimen is still immature. With its tentacles stretched out, its length is about six metres. Fully grown it would be longer than a London bus. An extremely aggressive creature, with huge eyes, it chases large prey such as the Patagonian toothfish which it can then rip apart with razor-sharp hooks on the inside of its tentacles. "It really has to be one of the most frightening predators out there," said O'Shea. "And its discovery raises questions about what else lives down deep in the ocean. If animals like this are turning up in waters that are 6,000 ft deep, what is going on at 10,000 ft?"
ORANG UTANS HAVE HUMAN TRAITS
Their name means "man of the forest" - and orang utans certainly have some human traits says Science magazine.
Primate scientists studying the creatures in South East Asia have discovered that they use napkins when eating, kiss each other goodnight, and relieve boredom by indulging in thrill-seeking sports. Experts from orang utan Foundation International analysed six groups living in Borneo and Sumatra, and found that in each group the creatures had developed behavioural habits that were not shared by the other groups. For instance, in two of the groups the apes communicate through a squeaking noise made by compressing the lips and drawing in air - like kissing. In this way, family members blow each other goodnight "kisses". Elsewhere, they have learned to use leaves for gloves while handling prickly vegetation, and leafy branches as parasols to protect them from the sun. In one group in Borneo, the apes play a "game" in which they knock over dead trees and ride them as they fall down - jumping off just before impact. The discovery suggests that early primates, including the ancestors of humans may have developed the ability to invent new behaviours, such as tool use, millions of years earlier than previously believed.
ST. KILDA
The remote islands of St. Kilda could join Machu Picchu and Mount Athos on an elite list of heritage jewels. The Hebridean archipelago is already a World Heritage site because of its bird life. Now the Scottish executive is petitioning UNESCO for a second listing in recognition of its cultural landscape. "Few who have been to St. Kilda and stood in the village surrounded by the cries of a million seabirds can fail to have been moved by the places and its story," said Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell. The islands - once home to a thriving community - were evacuated in 1930.
(Jo was fortunate to visit the islands on The Polar Star in 2002. They have sadly ceased operations in May 2011.)
Above extracts from The Week magazine, published in U.K.
Don't delay your visit to Antarctica too long!
. . . now the glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula are in rapid retreat according to a detailed study reported in Science magazine
The study shows that nearly 90% of the ice bodies are losing mass due to higher air temperatures however the situation is due to more than just global warming. Researchers say that the topography, underlying geology, wind and precipitation patterns as well as the amount of sea ice in front of the glaciers all could have a role, but that there is little data on any of them.
The study covers 244 marine glaciers found largely on the western side of the peninsula and the team used more than 2,000 aerial photographs dating from 1940, and over 100 satellite images from the 1960s onwards, to assess the change in position of glacier fronts over time. 87% of the 244 glaciers showed a retreat since the earliest records around 1953 yet fifty years ago these glaciers were shown to be actually growing. Now the majority are rapidly shrinking and the last five years have seen the greatest losses in mass, with an average shrinkage of 50m per year. The Sjogren Glacier, at the northern end of the peninsula has shown the worst retreat, moving back 13km since 1993 - more than any other glacier in the study.
Average air temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula have risen by around 2°C in just 50 years – this may not seem like a lot but it is actually one of the fastest warming rates on Earth! Once further data is accumulated, scientists will then be able to understand and predict what might happen to the planet in the future.
Extract from Discover the World newsletter. |
Papua New Guinea |
Map of Africa - New Zealand |
|
