Journey through the ends of the planet

There is not much landscape attractive in the cable needlesin southern South Africa -about 150 km southeast of Cape Buena Esperanza, in Cabo Cabo -but many people visit it. Is that, beyond its rocky coast, it is about southernmost point of Africa, and the site where Atlantic and Indian Oceans come together. There, a monument -gran map of Africa included- invites the inevitable photo.

It is that Cape Agulhas is much more than its landscape; It has this particular seduction that they only treasure The extreme placesof those who make the traveler feel to a mythical place, who managed to reach the end of the road, find the limit. And that beyond you cannot continue.

One of those places where the world seems to end, such as the legendary Cape Fisterra, in Galicia, which in antiquity was considered “the end of the world.”

In Agulhas, the Bravo Sea caused several shipwrecks and led to a lighthouse being built in 1848, which is worth climbing. Next, the small town of Agulhas does not offer many charms, but few km northeastern, in Struisbaai, The beaches become spectacular and the water, turquoise: It is the irresistible charm of the Indian.

Another similar landscape of coast with sea view, but in the north and in Europe, also attracts thousands of visitors every year. Cabo Nortein Norwayit is a scenario of large rocky cliffs, punished by ice cream and snow winds, which appear to the Arctic Ocean.

However, Thousands of people venture to this extreme Every year and photos are taken in a small monument that reproduces the globe, as if to say “here I was.”

Because cable north, the Northern CapeIt is the Northernmost point in Europe; The end of the continent. Beyond, the icy waters and the ice that announce the proximity of the North Pole: it is 2,100 km.

The other end of Europe, on the other hand, is sun and heat land. To the Cabo Tarifain the community of Cádiz, in southern Spain, thousands of people also arrive, to a large extent to see that point where the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea are located, but also for its sandy beaches, such as the famous Valdevaqueros.

About 460 km northwest in a straight line is the point where Europe sinks into the Atlantic. It is the Cabo da Rocain Portugal, to which the poet Luís de Camões described as “where the earth ends and the sea begins.” It is about 40 km from Lisbon, the Romans called him Promontorium Magnum and today is part of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, which is usually filled with visitors on weekends.

On cliffs 100 meters high, the Faro da Roca Vigila the coast since 1772.

And as between Europe and Asia there is continental continuity (that is, it can be reached by land between extremes), to reach the other extreme point of that earth’s mass would have to reach the Cabo Dezhnevain the northeast of Russia, where this country is tAn near the United States (Alaska): 82 km.

There are those who like living in extreme cities, and even more are the curious travelers who visit them. The best example is Hammerfestwhich is about 200 km to the southwest of Cape Norte and, with almost 10,000 inhabitants, is the city ​​located further north throughout the planet.

Although if there was the award of “more northern”, they would correspond to those who live in Alerta small coastal town of the island of Ellesmere, in Nunavut, Canada.

Alert is the Human settlement permanently inhabited more northern of the earth, although it does not go from being a military base with a weather station. Its 6 km road and its airport are also the most northern road and airport.

Longyearbyenin the archipelago of the islas Svalbard (Norway), could claim another title, to be the populated with more than 1,000 more northern inhabitants of the world (has 1,600 settlers). He still lacks a city and be able to dethrone Hammerfest.

The antipodes of this Norwegian city are much more by hand for the Argentines, since the southernmost city on the planet was Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego.

But in 2019 that title went to the small town of Puerto Williams, in Chilethat despite having less than 2,000 inhabitants, it was declared a city by Chile for being the capital of the group of communes of Cabo de Hornos y Antarctica and the province of the Chilean Antarctica.

Not so far is the most southern continental point in America: Cabo Frowardabout 85 km south of Punta Arenas, Chile.

With a small redness of letters, the ends of the world can well be measured not only by latitudes, but also by altitudes. Thus, to visit the highest permanent population in the world, we will have to travel to The Rinconadain the department of Puno, in Peruwhich is 5,100 meters above sea level.

But without illusions, that this city of miners is not friendly with tourists: In it almost 30 thousand people They live in a very precarious wayin a cold and contaminated environment, especially by mercury and antimony used in gold extraction. In addition, the temperature remains low of the year, and reaches -25 ° C on winter nights.

Better is the situation of La Paz, Boliviawhich has the record of being the highest capital in the world, with its center at 3,640 meters and neighborhoods that climb more than 4,000, such as the high.

From the corner to the other end there are 5,340 meters apart: the biblical Jerichoin Bank -Palestinian territorio-, 240 meters below sea level, it is the lowest population in the world, and also the oldest, with findings of inhabitants of about 9,000 years ago.

The largest depression in the world is also there, in an area ofThe Jordan Valley which comes to 423 meters below sea level. Or 9,271 meters below the top of the world, Mount Everest.

If he reached Ushuaia and Puerto Williams to know the southernmost cities, he can ride a cruise to Antarctica to learn about the coldest place on the planet: in August 2010, the air on the mountain range that goes from Dome Fuji to Dome Argus came to 93 ° C below zeroa temperature that would freeze the eyes, nose and lungs of a person in a few minutes, because there is almost 13 degrees under the point where carbon dioxide is transformed from gas to dry ice (–78.5 ° C), so better to think twice.

In the area operates a Japanese scientific station, the one with the highest altitude of those deployed by the Antarctic continent: 3,786 meters above sea level.

What may be more interesting is to know how you live day by day in a city-Freezer. That place is Yakutska city of about 270 thousand inhabitants in the Russian Siberia, which has the record of being the coldest in the world, although the most extreme temperature in an inhabited place (–71.2 ° C) was recorded in Oymyakona small Siberian town that does not exceed 800 inhabitants.

So, if we talk about cities, the record is from Yakutsk, capital of the Russian Republic of Sajá, where the average annual temperature is around 10º C below zero, but in winter it drops to -40 ° C, with a Registered Report of -64 ° C.

If you are afraid to freeze, you can go to Yakustk anyway in summer, since, due to the huge thermal amplitude, in July maximums of up to 38ºC have been given … over zero!

And if you get tired of so much glove, hat and jacket, write this data: according to the World Meteorological Organization, the highest temperature on Earth was measured on July 10, 1913 in the Valley of the Death of California (United States), 330 km from Los Angeles: nothing less than 56,7°C.

Even so, about one million people venture to travel every year the Death Valley National Park, especially through the hot route 190, where the tires seem to melt, the lines of the road are curved, as in a mirage, and the posters warn: “Caution. Extreme heat danger” There are also others who warn that it is not recommended to walk there after 10 in the morning.

If you like to combine heat and city, the list is more disputed, although if we look for the most extreme measurements, there are 55 ° C that registered the oasis of Dislike (Tunisia) in 1931; The 54 ° C of the Kibbutz Tirat zvi (Israel), in 1942, or the 52 ° C of San Luis Río Colorado (Mexico) in 1966.

In Argentina, the record is Cordoba: Villa María Marked, on February 1, 1920, 49.1 ° C. The highest annual average temperature, however, is in Formoseña Los Lomitas: 24 ° C.

And precisely with the average temperatures criteria throughout the year, in the list of the hot Jazan Cityon the coast of the Red Sea of ​​Saudi Arabia, and Bangkok, capital of Thailand, where the 40 ° C are usually exceeded, with very high humidity.

For those who do not support rain and humidity, the solution has a name: Atacama desert, in northern Chile, the driest place in the world. Over there, the city of Aricatiene a curious record: from October 1903 to January 1918, not a single precipitation millimeter was recorded. Those 15 years mark, of course, the longest drought in the world.

Its opposite, on the other hand, is disputed: the records that the rainiest place on the planet is Mawsynrama town in the state of Meghalaya, in the Indiawith annual average of 11,871 millimeters of rain.

However, similar figures are registered in the department of Chocóin Colombia: There, two municipalities, as he cried – a name that seems on purpose – and Quibdó receive a similar figure, which touches 12,000 mm per year, multiplying by ten the average of “rainy” areas, such as the Argentine wet pampa.

Although with an important difference: rainfall in this area of ​​Colombia is regular throughout the year, on the other hand In India they are concentrated at the Monzónica station.

So if you want to feel in your own flesh something similar to the universal flood, you can travel to Mawsynram or the nearby Cherrapunji between June and September. Of course, with umbrellas and pilot.