Unusual heat wave turns winter upside down in southern hemisphere The parched shoreline and shrinking depths of Lake Titicaca are prompting growing alarm that an ago-old way of life around South America's largest lake is slipping away as a brutal heat wave wreaks havoc on the southern hemisphere's winter. Like many places suffering deadly consequences of climate change, the sprawling freshwater lake nestled in the Andes mountains on Bolivia's border with Peru now features a water level approaching an all-time low. Juan Carlos Carratia watches the shore of Lake Titicaca, in the drought season, in Chua, Bolivia August 3, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Morales Globally, July was the hottest month on record, as prolonged dry spells take an especially heavy toll on humans and animals alike....
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Bolivia's decision to open an alternate route to its historic 'Death Road' - a serpentine dirt path across the towering Andes hills known for its deadly cliffs - has led to a resurgence of wildlife in the area, according to an environmental group. The route was once a key road frequented by heavy trucks connecting Bolivia's capital La Paz to the country's Amazon rainforest. But its deadliness earned it the nickame the 'Death Road.' Between 1999 and 2003 hundreds of Bolivians died trying to navigate it. FILE PHOTO: A competitor runs during the Bolivia Sky Race on the "Death Road" from Yolosa to Chuspipata, near La Paz, Bolivia, July 29, 2018. REUTERS/David Mercado By 2007, Bolivia opened an alternate route, leaving the original road as mostly an attraction for cyclists. That not o...
Read MoreThe urban centres are the first to be discovered in the region, challenging archaeological dogma Mysterious mounds in the southwest corner of the Amazon Basin were once the site of ancient urban settlements, scientists have discovered. Using a remote-sensing technology to map the terrain from the air, they found that, starting about 1,500 years ago, ancient Amazonians built and lived in densely populated centres, featuring 22-metre-tall earthen pyramids, that were encircled by kilometres of elevated roadways. Researchers uncovered ancient urban centres on forested mounds in the Bolivian Amazon Basin.Credit: Roland Seitre/Nature Picture Library The complexity of these settlements is “mind blowing”, says team member Heiko Prümers, an archaeologist at the German Archaeological Insti...
Read MoreBolivian boy turns photographer on iconic salt flats – with help from a dinosaur
On the otherworldly white salt flats of Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, an 11-year-old boy has become a photography success taking quirky and creative pictures of tourists - with a little help from a blue plastic dinosaur toy. Piter Condori makes use of an unusual trick of perspective on the iconic salt flats, where the even white ground stretches to the horizon, allowing skillful snappers to make small objects close to the camera appear to be much larger and further away. Piter Condori, 11, takes pictures of tourists behind toy figures to earn money for his family, at the Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia March 27, 2022. REUTERS/Claudia Morales In his free time on the weekend, he takes photos of the Spinosaurus appearing to chase and attack tourists across the white plains. In others he uses...
Read MoreIn the Andean mountains of Bolivia's high western plains where snow lies powdered over dark rocks that rise into a hard gray sky, scientists and climbers are fighting for the future of a dying glacier that has become a controversial lure for tourists. The Charquini glacier, some 20 kilometers (12.43 miles) from the highland administrative capital La Paz, sits in the Cordillera Real, a mountain range that divides the Amazon lowlands from the high Andean plateau. Government officials and others attend the inauguration of tourist season at the Charquini glacier, as scientists and climbers battle over the future of the controversial lure for tourists, outside of El Alto, Bolivia April 8, 2022. REUTERS/Claudia Morales It has been retreating fast, losing some 1.5 meters in thickness ea...
Read MoreIn the Andean valleys of deepest, darkest Bolivia (not Peru this time), a "Paddington" bear has inspired a shelter for almost a thousand wild animals rescued from poachers. The type of Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus), the only one native to South America, is the inspiration behind beloved fictional bear Paddington, who travels to London, is adopted by a family and eats lashings of marmalade. Vicky Ossio tends to an Andean bear, the species that inspired the creation the Senda Verde ecological reserve which now shelters almost a thousand wild animals, in Los Yungas, Bolivia, January 31, 2022. REUTERS/Claudia Morales It was one such Andean bear in need of help called Aruma that led Vicky Ossio and her husband 15 years ago to turn their property about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from ...
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