Bolivia the rugged high plains

Bolivia is sometimes called the Tibet of the Americas, for its arid, high-altitude desert-like plateau, more vivid when called by its Spanish name altiplano. This is one of the toughest inhabited environments on earth from shimmering Lake Titicaca, the only lake to give birth to an empire, to the surreal Salar de Uyuni, the biggest and highest salt lake in the world – 12,000 sq km of blinding white, completely flat nothingness.

Bolivia has also been called the Nepal of the Americas, for its Cordillera Real with almost a thousand peaks soaring over 5,000 meters and matching anything the Himalayas can offer in climbing and trekking, but with much less of the human traffic.

The major attraction tourists have for Bolivia is its wild, unexplored natural beauty. The country, or the greater part of it, lies off the beaten track; a vast wildness waiting to be seen and appreciated. This land-locked country at the heart and peak of South America offers magnificent trekking, especially around Coroico and Sorata in the Cordillera Real. You can go to the Amazonian rainforests in its eastern parts by breath-taking airplane flights or by hair-raising, or rather, heart-stopping bus rides.

Special Treats

Some travel companies offer the adventurous a one-week ice-climbing and biking vacation. After a day of training on the mountain bike, you pedal away on a mountain road ringed on the sides with 800-foot drops. If that’s not enough, another route will pass by a section with a 14,000-foot drop. The route takes you from the peak of the Chacaltaya Mountain and goes down into the impenetrable jungles of the Zongo Valley. A brief rest, and then you undergo one more day of training prior to a two-day climb up Huayna Potosi, one of the highest peaks in the world at 20,000 feet.

What Else to Do

Most parts of the country are remote, and can be reached only by long bus rides. Vacations lasting a few weeks would hardly be enough to see what should be seen. You may have to fly to other destinations. La Paz is the jump-off point for Bolivia’s sites. From the capital La Paz, you could take a trip north to the city of Tiahuanaco, which preceded the great Inca Empire; further north is Lake Titicaca. On the lake is the beautiful Isla del Sol, where legend says the Inca empire was created. You can also go down a terrifying but spectacular road to Coroico, a popular resort town in the sub-tropical Yungas valleys.

With more time, you could explore the remote corners of the Southern Altiplano. Old colonial Potosi is said to be the most interesting of Bolivia’s cities and the site of the Spanish silver mines. Nearby is the official capital, Sucre, with its fascinating colonial architecture. Southwest of Potosi is Uyuni, which sets you off on a 3-4-day tour to the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt lake. Further south, near the Chilean border, are deserts, volcanoes and multi-colored soda lakes carpeted with flamingoes. The south is also home to the vineyards of Tarija and the graveyards of dinosaurs. The Sajima National Park, near the Chilean border, includes the highest peak in Bolivia.

East of La Paz, you escape the cold of the altiplano and go down the Amazon jungle towards Brazil. The Torotoro National Park is full of fossils, dinosaur footprints, caves and waterfalls, the real trip for those who love the unbeaten paths.

Bolivia’s newest attraction is the Chalalan Eco-lodge, in the Madidi National Park, right in the Amazon jungle. This is ecotourism in capital letters, and the place has the greatest biodiversity in the whole planet. There are over 300 types of birds, 1,200 butterfly species, monkeys, jaguar, tapir, caiman, and other wildlife.

Best time to go

Bolivia’s roads are notoriously poor, so you’ll want to avoid the rainy season from November to March, if you want to visit the jungles. The Altiplano does not get much rain, so timing is not so crucial although hiking trails can get muddy. June and July, the winter months, are colder but the nights are clearer, and these are the best months to visit the Salar de Uyuni. June to August are the busiest tourism months and hotels will be full. The best festivals (Carnival and Holy Week) happen during the rainy season.

Planning your trip

Airlines are busiest from early December to mid-January and July to September. The best connections to La Paz are through Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires or Miami. The main cities have their hotels, but away from them, there are suitable hotels for every budget, which offer excellent value – not luxurious but clean and popular with travelers.

Mortgage brokers best service tips

Most of us have been there before, looking to buy a new home. Can you picture the situation now? You see a photo in the estate agents window, and you nip in for a schedule. As soon as the agents know you’re looking to buy a property, they will offer to set up a meeting with their mortgage advisor.

You feel like you are being railroaded into using their services, you now believe that these mortgage advisors are the best in the business. The mortgage deals elsewhere aren’t worth the paper that they have been written on and if you go anywhere else for your mortgage then you will be filing for bankruptcy within 3 months. Does it seem familiar?

While it can be an excellent idea to take on the services of a mortgage advisor, it’s by no means compulsory. Advisors will either charge a fee – in which case they should be offering you totally impartial advice – or they will be on commission. This does mean they are likely to try and steer you towards certain products in the interest of earning a bonus.

A broker is an intermediary who will help you to find the best mortgage deal for your needs and circumstances. Those who subscribe to the Mortgage Code are bound to disclose information about the services they are providing, including:

· Whether they are independent, or tied to a particular organisation

· What commissions, if any, they will receive

· What level of service and advice they can provide

You can request a list of local independent mortgage brokers from The Mortgage Code Register of Intermediaries – check cml. org. uk for details. Independent Financial Advisors can also act as intermediaries – some specialise in mortgages. Make sure to find out whether your broker charges a fee before you agree to use them, and how much it will cost. Normally they should only charge you once you have found a mortgage and had your application accepted.

Using a broker can make the process of finding and choosing a mortgage much easier – you give them information about what you are looking for and your finances, and they can do the hard work. Because brokers have experience of the field and a good awareness of current market trends, they can often give good advice to borrowers. They also will have access to a vast range of products that you may struggle to find yourself – mortgages from the smaller providers, for example, may not be prominently advertised.

Independent brokers earn money by selling you products – they may suggest additional insurance policies for example. You are not required to take up these offers, and be aware that the broker is receiving commissions for selling you policies. However, if you are looking for extra insurance – for example repayment protection to cover your mortgage payments – it may be easiest to let the broker find you a policy at the same time as your mortgage.

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Commercial business burglary

Ninety per cent of burglary prevention is physical security. If your complex is locked up and unauthorized entry is made difficult, time consuming, noisy and visible, chances of a successful burglary are kept to a minimum. The burglar will pass up your business and look for an easier target.

PREVENTION

LOCKS on all outside entrances and inside security doors should be double cylinder deadbolts with moveable collars. The deadbolt should have at least one inch throw containing a hardened steel insert and protected by a latch guard.

PADLOCKS should be of hardened steel, mounted on bolted hasps and always locked to prevent exchange. Serial numbers should be filed off to prevent new keys from being made.

DOORS (all outside or security doors) should be of solid construction, metal lined and secured with heavy metal crossbars. Jams around doors must be solid. All exposed hinges should be pinned to prevent removal.

WINDOWS should have secure locks. Burglar-resistant glass treatments are also recommended. An example would be the installation of polyester security film. However, this must be used in conjunction with the alarm's glass break sensor. Heavy metal grates may be used on windows of high vulnerability (such as rear windows). Check with the Fire Marshall for safety requirements.

LIGHTS must provide optimum visibility, both inside and out, with those outside having vandal-proof covers over the lights and power source. Entire perimeter must be well lit, especially the area around doors and other possible entry points.

ALARM SYSTEM should be supplied by a licensed alarm company with a central monitoring station. Check the alarm system on a daily basis, and advertise its presence to deter break-ins.

CASH REGISTER should be kept in plain view from outside the building so it can be easily monitored and should be left open when empty and not in use.

SAFE should be fire proof, burglar resistant, anchored securely and in plain view. Leave it open when it is empty, and use it to lock up valuables when business is closed. Change the combination whenever someone with access to it leaves your employment.

BUILDING EXTERIOR should be checked including the roof, cellar and walls. Secure all openings.

MAINTAIN GOOD VISIBILITY by not allowing landscaping, boxes, trash bins, vehicles or equipment near building where they might provide concealment or access to the roof.

PERIMETER FENCES need to be adequate enough to keep intruders out, and at the same time allow good visibility of your business by neighbors and police (i. e. vertical iron bar fence or 1/8 inch mesh vinyl coated chain link).

KEY CONTROL should be done in a responsible manner. A master key system where one key opens all locks may be convenient, but it may not be the best for security. Code all keys, keep them locked up when not in use, and do not allow employees to leave them lying around or make duplicates. Change locks whenever you suspect key security has been jeopardized.

ID NUMBERS should be marked on all equipment and stickers (such as Operation ID) should be displayed to make this plainly evident to would-be thieves. The best number to use is your personal Florida driver's license number. Also keeping a record of serial numbers on all equipment may help in recovery.

Make it monumental visit new delhi - travel information

New Delhi, part of what is commonly referred to as just Delhi (yes, there is an Old Delhi), is the most ideal base from which to discover the marvels and wonders of India’s ancient subcontinent. Travel to New Delhi to discover India’s capital city, one of the oldest existing cities in the world, then journey to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and heighten your senses in the Himalayas on your way back. Find airfare to New Delhi in minutes with cFares and experience the colorful mosaic of east and west cultures in the heart of a Delhi marketplace before you know it!

Not So New Delhi

It is believed that Delhi has been destroyed and rebuilt nearly a dozen times since its original establishment sometime close to 5000 years ago; surprisingly, this fact only adds to the incredible historical appeal of the clustered districts, royal edifices and spiritual sanctuaries. The generational layers of history and architecture are apparent in monuments, public art displays, and ancient gardens as New Delhi expanded to the south of the old city, incorporating preexisting communities and infrastructure.

Today, New Delhi is considered the center of the city and also the seat of government. The colossal Rashtrapati Bhavan (Presidential Palace) is a magnificent structure originally titled the Viceroy’s House under British rule. The 350 room palace displays a well studied blend of classical Greek and Indian architecture. If you are lucky enough to travel to New Delhi in February you will find the blooming red rose gardens open to the public. Make your way to the east side of New Delhi and back into time at the Red Fort, one of the most glorious royal compounds still standing today. Notable buildings include the Jewel Palace, Mumtaz Mahal, which once housed the Sultan’s harem and the Diwan-i-Khas, Hall of Private Audience, which was constructed entirely of marble.

Navigating New Delhi

New Delhi is centered about to major circles: Connaught Place and India Gate. Connaught Place is an excellent place to begin your walking and get acquainted with the pace and lifestyle of India’s bustling commercial zones. You will find the largest collection of crafts and trade stores in the comfort of indoor air conditioning as well as excellent bargaining opportunities. To the south, India Gate stands as a monument to Indian soldiers who died in World War I. Nearby you will find the National Museum, a must see for comprehensive Indian culture and heritage, and the Tibet House, founded by the Dalai Lama to promote the preservation and perseverance of Tibetan culture. The long wide avenue from India Gate to the President’s Palace, Rajpath, provides a wonderful escape for a quieter walk and expanses of grass ideal for a midday picnic.

Remember to take the extremes of weather into account when booking your airfare to New Delhi on cFares. The summer months exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit on a regular basis while late spring offers the rainy season and the winter months drop all the way down to zero. The ideal time to explore the vast and monumental sights of New Delhi is during October-November and February-March when temperatures are more mild on average.

The downsides of reciprocal linking to increase search engine rankings

Reciprocal linking is still a highly sought after method for many companies and webmasters hoping to increase their web site’s ranking in the search engines. Back in 2002, when reciprocal linking firmly took its place as a real way to boost your rankings, many webmasters and sites started using it to quickly and frantically get the upper edge on their competition and the search engines. But, like all short lived and unnatural ways to boost web site rankings, reciprocal linking has quickly just become another very loosely based and often worthless method for many sites trying to get their sites ranked by the search engines.

Let’s look at some of the reasons why reciprocal linking is fading fast, and why some sites who still use the examples I’ll describe below are left with hours, weeks, and possibly months worth of wasted marketing for their own sites.

The first thing I like to think about with any linking campaign or any sort is how easy it is to spot reciprocal linking from Google's standpoint. If they can spot unnatural linking building, and they likely will, then the other big search engines aren’t far behind.

Here are my methodologies for reciprocal linking from Google’s standpoint:

1) All of the reciprocal pages and links are very easy to identify. The URLs on sites where the links “live” are often a dead giveaway, many times using "reciprocal-links. html, "reciprocal-links-2.html," etc. for all of the linking pages. Many variations of these types of URLs are used and are easily spotted by Google, even if you call them "resource" pages they are still essentially just reciprocal links pages.

2) On all of the reciprocal links pages, the links are set up and displayed the exact same way. There is no variance in page layout or how the links display. By this, I mean the bulk of reciprocal links pages only have this:

Link & Anchor text - description goes here...

Link & Anchor text - description goes here...

Link & Anchor text - description goes here...

Link & Anchor text - description goes here...

Get the idea here? This is extremely easy to spot and demote by Google or any other search engine.

3) Often reciprocal links are nothing more than completely automated – the emails, the reply emails, the code that inserts the links on pages, everything. Practically the only thing a webmaster has to do nowadays is just click a button and have the new batch of reciprocal links appear on their link pages. And Google and other search engines know this. There's no "real" reciprocal business or mutual working relationship between the two sites reciprocating. They are simply trying to boost each other’s rankings in the search engines - nothing more, nothing less.

4) Unnatural, unnatural, unnatural. Reciprocal links were built on the reputation of boosting one’s page popularity and rankings in the search engines and are being used very erratically. Some webmasters simply abuse this method without one thought to other, more substantial methods of building quality links to their site. A worst situation is that some webmasters use this as their only method for building links to their site.

An example of unnatural and erratic link building would be a pharmacy web site sending out a link exchange email to practically any site, no matter the industry they’re in, even to a poker related site. This is extremely unrelated and, quite often, just links two sites together that have nothing to do with each other, not to mention the example above describes two industries that search engines frown upon anyway.

Reciprocal page “directories” are worse than the recent hay-day of directories that just scraped Dmoz. org results simply regurgitated them on their own site because at least Dmoz. org spent the time to categorize and accept links based on some sort of acceptance guidelines. Reciprocal link directories often have no guidelines except the fact that a link has to be placed on one site before it’s placed on the other. In the end you just end up with page of links not related to anything else on your web site, often proving that there’s zero targeting and zero concern for quality.

If webmasters still continue to use reciprocal linking as a method to boost page rankings, changes will need to take place. If you are going to reciprocate links, do it within context on the site that is specifically written for or by the other site, much like what you see on blogs today where links appear randomly throughout the text in a paragraph.

Use reciprocal linking sparingly and really mix up the way they look on the pages of your site. Do not follow the example I listed above and simply display the anchor text and link along side the description. Even use the old method of site A, linking to site C, and site B links back to site A, if they are all on different IP addresses.

Lastly, and the most important advice is do not rely on reciprocal linking campaigns alone. To get truly natural links to your site you need to syndicate articles with links, submit to directories, and gain links through targeted sites willing to work with you in some way. Google’s “Jagger” update proved itself enough to wipe out many reciprocal linking networks and sites who use them and it’s only a matter of time before further Google updates will penalize or demote what they initially left behind.

Trusting excel fr jackets for your outerwear needs

There are times in your busy work day where you simply need to get hot, and your outerwear better be able to get just as hot as you. Trusting a company to keep you safe means trusting your life to that company. Would you pick a fly by night company, or a company that has little history in this protective apparel industry? Trusting less than the best can cost you your life, and that is why you get more than you expect when you purchase Excel Flame Resistant (FR) jackets when you need outerwear that is the best in the industry.

What can you expect in this exceptional outerwear?

Bulwark. That’s right. Bulwark. Maybe you are pondering what Bulwark actually means. Bulwark is a heavy duty protective material used to develop fire or flame resistant work wear for men and women across the globe. This Bulwark has properties specifically designed by mixing specific ingredients together to come up with a blend that will offer you optimal protection you need. In addition, Bulwark is relatively soft and comfortable. That’s right, you can have comfortable with your purchase of Excel FR jackets.

There are times when outerwear is necessary for either protection or warmth. You can use outerwear to stay dry, or you can use outerwear to stay cool. There are so many qualities you can count on when you choose Excel FR jackets for your outwear needs.

Exceptional Comfort

You do not want bulky and heavy outerwear. You need to move when the going gets hot. Sometimes, you may find your life is saved simply by being able to move. Purchasing Excel FR jackets means you are choosing outerwear that will allow you to move when you need to move. No bulky materials or designs here! Each design is perfect for your lifestyle.

There are many colors and styles you get to choose from to maximize your comfort factor in your hazardous working environment.

Superior Life Span

There is nothing like purchasing outerwear spending a small fortune in the process only to discover that your outerwear lasts for a fraction of the expectancy that you expect. You will be making an investment into your future when you choose Excel FR jackets. There are few companies that can provide the same durability and protection from one laundering to the next.

However, when you trust the power of Bulwark, you are trusting in the ability of your outerwear to provide you with the longest lasting, no fading protection from one wash to the next.

Better Quality

Simply stated – Bulwark does it better! That’s right. When you demand the best, you will find the quality of those Excel FR jackets you purchase is not matchable by any other company anywhere. You are guaranteed of satisfaction. The closures are better, the designs are better, and the life span is better. No longer do you have to worry about being safe when you trust this find material. Each piece is guaranteed to last you a lifetime. The high quality is one of the reasons more people trust those Excel FR jackets purchased when outwear is needed.

How to buy whole life insurance online

Buying whole life insurance online is similar to buying any other kind of insurance online. If you’ve decided whole life insurance is for you, read on.

Begin your search. People love searching and shopping online because it’s quick and easy. To add to the convenience, you can gain instant access to multiple whole life insurance companies and policies online when you visit websites dedicated to doing the searching for you! Simply visit your favorite search engine, type “buy whole life insurance online,” “get whole life insurance quote,” or some other similar phrase, and voila! Choose a website with a large database to ensure you get the most relevant results possible. You’ll probably have the best luck with websites closest to the top of the results.

Research the insurance company. You want a life insurance company that’s financially sound, customer service-oriented, and is legally allowed to do business in your state. Visit the website of any independent research company to find the financial rating of the life insurance company. Then head over to the Better Business Bureau’s website to find complaints filed against the company. Finally, give your state’s department of insurance a call and ask if the company in question is licensed to sell whole life insurance in your state.

Speak with a live agent. While shopping for whole life insurance online is quick and easy, you probably want to stay away from making the final purchase – sealing the deal – online. After all, there will be questions to ask, fine print to read, and paperwork to sign. It’s perfectly fine to shop around for great whole life insurance online – you can compare companies, their policies, and their quotes. You can research the companies further with the help of independent research companies, the BBB, and your state’s insurance department. However, when it’s time to make the actual purchase, you should request contact information for a live insurance agent for the company.