James' World 2

Click the link below the picture

.

Queenstown is a resort town in Otago in the southwest of New Zealand’s South Island. It has an urban population of 16,000 (June 2020).

The town is built around an inlet called Queenstown Bay on Lake Wakatipu, a long, thin, Z-shaped lake formed by glacial processes, and has views of nearby mountains such as The Remarkables, Cecil Peak, Walter Peak, and just above the town, Ben Lomond and Queenstown Hill.

The Queenstown-Lakes District has a land area of 8,704.97 square kilometers (3,361.01 sq mi) not counting its inland lakes Hāwea, Wakatipu, and Wānaka. The region has an estimated resident population of 47,400 (June 2020). Neighboring towns include Arrowtown, Glenorchy, Kingston, Wanaka, Alexandra, and Cromwell. The nearest cities are Dunedin and Invercargill. Queenstown is known for its commerce-oriented tourism, especially adventure- and ski- tourism. Wikipedia

.

An image from Queenstown, New Zealand

.

.

Click the link below for images:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Gold Butte National Monument is a United States national monument located in Clark County, Nevada, northeast of Las Vegas and south of Mesquite and Bunkerville. The monument protects nearly 300,000 acres of desert landscapes featuring a wide array of natural and cultural resources, including rock art, sandstone towers, and important wildlife habitat for species including the Mojave Desert tortoise (a threatened species), bighorn sheep, and mountain lion. The area also protects historic ranching and mining sites such as the ghost town of Gold Butte, although little but mine openings, cement foundations, and a few pieces of rusting equipment remain. The monument is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

The monument consists of 296,937 acres (120,166 ha). The Gold Butte National Monument fills a gap between Lake Mead National Recreation Area and Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, creating a continuous swath of conserved land and establishing a wildlife corridor. Significant wildlife within the borders of the park includes Mojave Desert tortoise (a threatened species), bighorn sheep, and mountain lion, as well as Gambel’s quail and chukar partridge. Important cultural and natural resources within the monument include rock art and sandstone formations. Within the park, “weather-chiseled red sandstone is incised with ancient rock art, and the remains of rock shelters and hearths, agave roasting pits and projectile points” may be found. Wikipedia

.

An image from Gold Butte National Monument

.

.

Click the link below for images:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Quebec City is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2016, the city had a population of 531,902, and the metropolitan area had a population of 800,296. It is the eleventh-largest city and the seventh-largest metropolitan area in Canada. It is also the second-largest city in the province after Montreal.

The Algonquian people had originally named the area Kébec, an Algonquin word meaning “where the river narrows”, because the Saint Lawrence River narrows proximate to the promontory of Quebec and its Cape Diamant. Explorer Samuel de Champlain founded a French settlement here in 1608 and adopted the Algonquin name. Quebec City is one of the oldest European cities in North America. The ramparts surrounding Old Quebec (Vieux-Québec) are the only fortified city walls remaining in the Americas north of Mexico. This area was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 as the “Historic District of Old Québec”. Wikipedia

.

An image from Quebec, QC Canada

.

.

Click the link below for images:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil and in the northeast of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest by area. Bahia’s capital is the city of Salvador (formerly known as “Cidade do São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos”, literally “City of the Saint Savior of the Bay of All the Saints”), on a spit of land separating the Bay of All Saints from the Atlantic. Once a monarchial stronghold dominated by agricultural, slaving, and ranching interests, Bahia is now still predominantly a working-class industrial and agricultural state. The state is home to 7% of the Brazilian population and produces 4.2% of the country’s GDP. Wikipedia

.

An image from Bahia Brazil

.

.

Click the link below for images:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Quito is the capital of Ecuador and at an elevation of 2,850 m (9,350 ft) above sea level, it is the second-highest official capital city in the world and the closest to the equator. It is located in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains.

In 2008, the city was designated as the headquarters of the Union of South American Nations.

The historic center of Quito is one of the largest, least-altered, and best-preserved in the Americas. Quito and Kraków, Poland, were the first World Cultural Heritage Sites declared by UNESCO, in 1978. The central square of Quito is located about 25 kilometers (16 mi) south of the equator; the city itself extends to within about 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) of zero latitude. A monument and museum marking the general location of the equator is known locally as la mitad del mundo (the middle of the world), to avoid confusion, as the word Ecuador is Spanish for equator.

.

An image from Quito, Ecuador

.

.

Click the link below for images:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Praia do Castelo is a beach close to the village resort of Sesmarias which is within the Municipality of Albufeira, in the Algarve, Portugal. This beach is located 4.0 miles (6.4 km) by road to the west of Albufeira old town center and is 31.9 miles (51.3 km) west of the regions capital of Faro. This beach is one of the blue flag beaches (2012) in the Algarve.

Praia do Castelo or Castle Beach is in fact made up of one main beach and several small satellite beaches and coves. The main beach is small and made up of gold sand and is 200.00 meters (656.17 ft) long and is sheltered by 30 feet (9.1 m) high jagged cliffs. Spreading in each direction from the main beach are several small coves, interspersed by rocky outcrops. The beach gets its name from the Watchtower which once stood here. The watchtower was built in the mid-16th century to monitor this stretch of the coast for attacks by Barbary pirates coming from North Africa. The remains of this watchtower can be found close to the access point to the beach. Wikipedia

.

An image from Praia do Castelejo, Portugal

.

.

Click the link below for images:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Querétaro, formally Querétaro de Arteaga, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro de Arteaga, is one of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities. Its capital city is Santiago de Querétaro. It is located in North-Central Mexico, in a region known as Bajío. It is bordered by the states of San Luis Potosí to the north, Guanajuato to the west, Hidalgo to the east, México to the southeast, and Michoacán to the southwest.

The state is one of the smallest in Mexico, but it is also one of the most heterogeneous geographically, with ecosystems varying from deserts to tropical rainforests, especially in the Sierra Gorda, which is filled with microecosystems. The area of the state was located on the northern edge of Mesoamerica, with both the Purépecha Empire and Aztec Empire having influence in the extreme south, but neither really dominating it. The area, especially the Sierra Gorda, had a number of small city-states, but by the time the Spanish arrived, these had all been abandoned, with only small agricultural villages and seminomadic peoples inhabiting the area. Spanish conquest was focused on the establishment of the Santiago de Querétaro, which still dominates the state culturally, economically, and educationally. Wikipedia

.

An image from Queretaro, Qro., Mexico

.

.

Click the link below for images:

.

__________________________________________