Good morning. Please take out your Latin America Physical Geography notes and two clean sheets of paper.

Geography Narrative

MISSION You will be presented with a series of slides. Your mission is to read each slide and answer the question. Each question will lead you through an outline that you will use to create a personal narrative that includes Latin America geography concepts. You will have two minutes to read each slide and answer the question. Your journey begins now…

REMEMBER - DANGER At the conclusion of this exercise, all of your answers will make sense and must logically flow from one choice to the next.

1. Choose a country Latin America was explored by Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, and English sailors. Choose one of these countries. What country are you from and what is your ship’s name?

2. Your path Your ship sets sail and travels westward toward the “Americas”. Your ship can not carry enough supplies so you stop and refill at the Canary Islands. You then proceed. You are concerned about one place in particular on your path. This area has little wind, and you want to move through it as fast as possible. What is this area called that you are most concerned about? Intertropical Convergence Zones, also known as Doldrums

3. Your destination Latin America is divided into four geographic regions – Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Which region are you sailing toward? (Here’s where your choices start to match up….if you chose that you are from Portugal, then you can not choose Mexico as your point of destination!)

4. Arrival You notice that the climate is quite different that what you are used to in Europe. Latin America has the following climate types – Arid, Tropical Wet, and Tropical Wet and Dry. What type of climate are you experiencing?

5. Vegetation Because of the unique new climate, you encounter new vegetation. Vegetation in Latin America is rainforest, grassland, and desert. What type of vegetation is around you?

6. Landscape Depending on where you are in Latin America, you will experience different types of landscapes and topography. You might be in the Amazon Basin, the Brazilian Highlands, the Isthmus of Panama, the Sierra Madres, or tropical beaches. Describe the landscape around you.

7. Natural Disasters After being in this new land, you and your crew experience a natural disaster. Disasters include earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, mudslides, etc. What natural disaster does your crew experience?

8. Seasons You remain in this new area for 6 weeks. It took you 9 weeks to travel to this new land. You hope to experience a seasonal change as it was winter in Europe when you left. What season have you now transitioned into?

9. You travel by land You and your crew travel by foot across the land from one ocean to the next. Which were you on when you landed, which ocean did you travel to? Describe how the landscape changed as you traveled from one ocean to the next.

Now, go back and review these answers Now, go back and review these answers. You are to write a personal narrative (approximately 1 page long) that describes your journey and includes these answers in your story. You may use your notes to give you more details. Conclude your story with some type of crazy, imaginative ending.