When you travel with the Globus family of brands, we bring the famous places of each country to life by giving you the inside story of each destination. Here are some fun and interesting facts right from our Tour Directors who are locals of the region.

• The name Iguazu simply means "Great Waters" in the local Indian language.
   
• Lake Titicaca, the cradle of Inca Civilization and the origin of the Inca Empire is the largest lake on the South American continent and the highest navigable lake in the world.
   
• In Rio De Janeiro, The Bay Of Guanabara is considered one of The Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
   
• Many Of The Spanish Conquests were funded by Austrian and Germany bankers and the Fuggers and The Weltzers. The coin they issued was called the "Thaler." A Spanish coin could be cut into 8 pieces. Two bits equaled a quarter of the coin. "Coining" the phrase:  2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits, a thaler.
   
• The conquests by Cortez (Mexico) and Pizzarro  (Peru) octupled (8x’s) the amount of available gold in Europe. It centupled (100 x’s) the amount of silver.
   
• Cocoa trees originated in the Amazon basin. Chocolate has been found to be a very healthy food, as well as delicious.  Dark chocolate contains more  healthy "flavonoids" than any other food - including blueberries. For optimal health benefits, eat dark chocolate which contains 70% cocoa solids.
   
• Many travelers decide not to come to Machu Picchu because they fear the elevation which is enhanced in pictures and brochures that deceptively make it appear to be among soaring peaks. The fact is that Machu Picchu is at only 8,000 feet. The same altitude we encounter at the rim of the Grand Canyon where high altitude is never an issue. The new tours have been designed in such a way now that our travelers spend one night in Cusco at 11,000 feet  - by then most are acclimatized to the altitude.
   
• I still have yet to encounter somebody who knows the meaning of the word "Andes."
   
• When Pizarro arrived in Peru, he discovered that the Inca civilization had the mountains full of terraces. These terraces are still in use today for agriculture purposes and to stop erosion. Terraces in Spanish are called andenes a word that comes from the Latin andina. He named the mountain range after the terraces.
   
• The Amazon River is ranked as the largest in the world in terms of watershed area, number of tributaries, and volume of water discharged. Measuring 4,000 miles from source to mouth, it is second in length only to the Nile. River Plate or Rio de la Plata is the widest in the world. It is 120 miles wide at its mouth.
   
• Mount Aconcagua is the highest peak in the western hemisphere, located in the Andes Mountains of western Argentina, near the border with Chile. An extinct volcano, it is 22,834 ft high. Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America is 20.230 ft.
   
• The first conquers bypassed the world's biggest silver mountain in Bolivia declaring it "nothing worth mentioning" in Upper Peru as it was called.  It then produced silver for 300 years.
   
• Many African Americans go to Brazil to find their roots, as many traditions and beliefs were carried on in Brazil but forgotten in North America.
   
• The West Coast of South America is level with the East Coast of the USA.  This means that South America Tours are low on jet lag. 
   
• South America was part of Africa before the drifting of continents.  This means that llamas and alpacas are related to camels. They are just as nasty, but taste a lot better!
   
• On our South American tour, we board a coach and drive 4 hours to Ica, where we board Cessna Caravans to fly over the Nazca Lines. These lines are said to have been drawn by the Nazca Peoples (BI...before Inca!) two hundred years ago BC.  This is the theory of Maria Reisch, a German lady who spent most of her life studying these lines and has written a book on this phenomenon. These are geometric lines drawn in the heavy sands of Southern Peru of birds, animals, human hands and other fascinating sculptures.