BR: D9 Mexico Cuba Haiti Dominican Republic Puerto Rico (U.S.) Belize Again, do your best to label the map of Latin America! Use a pencil, so that you can correct it if wrong ;) Key: Honduras Guatemala Jamaica Nicaragua French Guiana (Fr.) El Salvador Venezuela Costa Rica Suriname Panama Guyana Colombia Ecuador Peru Brazil Brazil Guyana Guatemala Argentina Suriname Honduras Chile French Guiana (France) Belize Uruguay El Salvador Puerto Rico (US) Paraguay Nicaragua Bolivia Dominican Republic Costa Rica Peru Panama Haiti Ecuador Jamaica Colombia Cuba Venezuela Mexico Bolivia Chile Paraguay Argentina Uruguay

World Geography Next Up: Ch. 7.1, Part II: Waterways & Natural Resources We finish Ch. 7.1 today!

Waterways Latin America has many different waterways, many natural, and some manmade. These waterways are crucial to the economy and livelihood of many of the people who live there. There are many mighty rivers in Latin America. The largest is the Amazon River Basin, as we’ve discussed previously, which flows over 4,000 miles. It has many different large tributaries as well feeding into it. The second largest river system (called La Plata River Basin) in Latin America is formed by the Paraná, the Paraguay, and the Uruguay drain the eastern half of South America. They flow into a large estuary, where their waters and the ocean mix, called Rio de la Plata. It supports many birds, fish, and even freshwater dolphins.

Other Waterways As mentioned last time, the Llanos Region is fed by a waterway, called the Orinoco, where it gets most of its fertile soil. VID There aren’t many large lakes in Latin America, but Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is one. It is best known for its fantastic lightning storms Another is Lake Titicaca, between Bolivia and Peru. This lake is very important to the locals, some of whom live on the lake year-round, and have for generations: VID And last but not least, the Panama Canal, which is a very important international waterway VID , VID,

Other Natural Resources Latin America is also home to many other natural resources, but many political and economic difficulties have made exploiting and using them difficult.

Other Natural Resources As the largest country in Latin America, Brazil has many natural resources. Over half of Brazil is covered in forests, which provide timber, as well as many other products, like rubber, Brazil Nuts, and Cacao, which is used for chocolate. Brazil also has many different minerals, which they have mined, such as gold, bauxite (used to make Aluminum), tin, as well as large amounts of iron, supporting a strong steel industry. Sometimes though, poor infrastructure has led to disaster, like the Bento Rodrigues Dam Disaster in late 2015: VID Brazil does lack oil and gas reserves, so it depends on imports, often from nearby Venezuela, which has large amounts of oil and gas supplies, as does Mexico. Silver can be found in Peru and Mexico, and Copper is mined extensively in Chile. The Caribbean generally has few mineral resources, and depends heavily on tourism.

Classwork: Make sure to finish your Latin America Physical Map Assignment. Keep working in the meantime on your PBL Tourism Brochures!