And since it's the winter and most places that have either lakes or rivers in them are iced over, I thought I shall present to you guys a couple of nice little "ponds". Enjoy!
1. Mono Lake, California
Mono lake is a pretty closed-off lake, since it doesn't have any outlets to the ocean. This makes it pretty salty, and alkaline. It is also a nice little home to the brine shrimps that live in its waters, and the huge amount of migratory birds that come to eat them.
These shrimps live on the alkali flies that buzz around the place most of the time. You might also want to know that these shrimps are endemic to the place.
The first people who lived around this lake were called the Kutzadika'a - they looked like this:
And another interesting fact about the lake: it has a nice little volcano, which is studied by scientists all the time. There is also a rumor about it, that it is waking up once again, and it's going to erupt soon. Oh, and in case you wanted to see more about the lake, here's a little video:
2. Laguna Colorada, Bolivia
Laguna Colorada, The Colorada Lake, or also known as the Red Lagoon is located in a National Reserve in Bolivia, close to the border of Chile. It is also a salty lake, and the white spots you notice on the pic are borax islands. The red color of the lake is given by the algae that lives there, and the lake is usually full with flamingos.
The flamingo species that lives here is called James's flamingo, and they are extremely rare. In fact for a while they were even declared extinct, but now they thrive here.
The place is usually pretty windy too, which you can check out here:
3. Lake Geneva, Switzerland
While I did say that Lake Geneva is in Switzerland, it actually reaches into France too.
The mountains you see in the pics are the Alps - thus you would probably guess that the lake is glacial. The river Rhone flows into it (you more than likely heard about the Rhone didn't you?).
Here's an interesting story though, from its past. In 563 there was a landslide, which cased a tsunami in the lake. This, in turn killed quite a few people in Geneva - the wave was 8 meters high and it reached the city in 70 minutes.
The nearer past was pretty gloomy for a while too. The lake was once so polluted that it was considered unsafe to swim in it, and most life was wiped out. However people managed to control it when they realized what they were doing, and nowadays it is once again considered safe to swim in it.
This lake was the place where the speed of sound in water was first measured.
4. Lago di Braies
A nice little lake in Italy, Lago di Braies is surrounded by mountains on three sides.
There is a cute little story about the lake, that goes something like this: once upon a time the lake's surroundings gave home to some wild men. They were not bad people, they just had a really unfriendly look to them. They loved the sparkly gold from the mountains, but this made their hearts cold and hard. At some point a couple of shepherds came into the valley, and the wild people gifted them the jewelry and other items they made from the gold. The shepherds, seeing the rare items started stealing them at every opportunity. This made the wild men angry, and they made the lake so it would make a natural barrier between them and the shepherds.
The lake is not too big, you can walk around it in about an hour. In the winter, it usually freezes over enough for people to be able to walk on it instead of the mountain trails, which is pretty good because they are dangerous.
There aren't many buildings surrounding it - apparently just a hotel, from where you can start your nice little walk.
5. Jellyfish Lake, Palau
This lake is a marine one, and it's only available for those people who want to go snorkeling.
The lake is connected to the ocean trough fissures, but it is just isolated enough for it to have a mostly different fauna than the nearby lagoon. Jellyfish lake is about 12000 years old, it is estimated to be about 30 meters deep, and it has two layers of water.
The jellyfish that live in the lake all have stinging cells, but these are not strong enough to actually hurt a human. There are also some saltwater crocodiles around the place, but there was only one death reported because of them so they are not considered a threat.
Scuba diving is not permitted in the area because the air from the tanks would hurt the jellyfish, and if you go down to the second layer of the water the hydrogen sulfide in there would cause serious harm to you also.
So what do you think, would you like to visit any of these places?
