Fernando de Noronha Island

Fernando Noronha Island

          Brazil is internationally recognized for being a country with beautiful beaches and beautiful natural landscapes. What is the most beautiful place in Brazil? This is very difficult to answer, so I'll give my personal opinion. I know some interesting and beautiful places, and in my opinion the island of Fernando Noronha is the most beautiful place in all of Brazil.
 
        Fernando Noronha is located in the state of Pernambuco, on the northeastern coast of Brazil. Actually the island is the closest to Rio Grande do Norte state, but belongs to Pernambuco for political reasons. Fernando Noronha is an archipelago of 21 islands, the largest being 53km long.
 
        My trip to Fernando Noronha was with the Department of Geology of University of Minas Gerais. As part of the discipline of Igneous Petrographic we went there to study a bit more about how the island was formed. This is an island of volcanic origin. For10 days we were on the island, this was enough time to visit all parts of the island and be charmed by the beauty of the island. According to a reputable Travel Guide of Brazil, this island is among the top ten most beautiful beaches in Brazil. The first, second and third most beautiful beaches are in Fernando Noronha (1: Sancho`s Beach, 2: Bay of Pigs, 3: Lion Beach.

Bay of Pigs

 

http://www.travelchannel.com/interests/beaches/articles/fernando-de-noronha-brazil 

Caves in Maquoketa Caves State Park

Caves!!!!!!

Friends in Maquoketa Caves State Park

In the last weekend I took a trip with the staff of Campus Rec, we visited the park Maquoketa Caves State Park, in the state of Iowa. We met at the Campus Rec on ​​Friday 09/26/2014 the day and 17 hours, we lead by Patt, headed toward the caves. We arrived at our campsite around 8pm, we set the bar and began to prepare dinner for tonight would be macaroni marinara sauce. After having dinner we talked a bit around the fire and went to sleep because the next day would be busy.
We woke up the other day 8am, take a breakfast and went to visit the caves. We arrived at the park at 10am. We visited three caves (Wide Mouth Cave, Cave Dug Out, Twin Arch Cave), all of them very interesting and not very large. Then we went to lunch and then more caves. In the afternoon we visited 5 more caves (Ice Cave, Rainy Day Cave, Wye Cave, Cave and Window Barbell Cave), one of them very interesting, and very tight, low and very beautiful passages. The name of this cave is Wye Cave and was the one I liked most of all visited caves. The park Maquoketa Caves State Park is very nice and much visited, I saw many families with their children having fun in the caves.
After this exhausting day, we returned to camp, made ​​dinner, burger and hot dog and then went to sleep since we were all very tired. On Sunday we woke early, packed up our things and headed back to Macomb, arriving around 2pm for lunch. It was an amazing trip !!!

If someone have more interest to now about  Maquoketa Caves State Park, access the web page http://www.iowadnr.gov/Destinations/StateParksRecAreas/IowasStateParks/ParkDetails.aspx?ParkID=610127

In this link is possible find important information about this nice park.

Other important information is about the Outdoor Activities in the REC Center, if someone wants to know more about that can go to the secretary of  REC Center or to the web page http://www.wiu.edu/student_services/campus_recreation/outdoor_pursuits/index.php