Visiting great places -- before they're gone

Many times the fact that people feel the need to "visit places before they're gone" is the very reason they'll be gone or at least diminished to such an extent that they are vestiges of what made them great to begin with.  This is particularly true of such naturally wonderful sites as you mention in your post above.  

Mt. Everest is a particularly glaring example of a wilderness reduced to a freeway of tourists with their ever-increasing demands on the environment forming lines to have their shot at the mountain.  I haven't been there myself but a close friend bought a tour to Everest Basecamp and was appalled by the trash and crowds along the way and was forced to contribute to the decline himself, to his horror, when bad food made frequent trips off the path necessary, there being no alternative, in full view of the passing hoards.  Turning his back to passersby was the only semblance of privacy available.

One cannot stop the ravages of time but limiting the numbers of visitors, as some more enlightened governments have started to do, may be the best way to prolong the lives of vulnerable places.  I think Bhutan has the right idea.

When I first visited Cuba back in the 90's it was a different Country to the one today.

No TV's - Radio - Phones and many had no electric ! The Cuban Government asked visitors not to show the locals photos of our 3 cars - 2 houses and 14 acres of land by the beach. And how we had a Colour TV in every room. It upsets them. Not surprising really - and quite cruel !

Now its Air Con and fast catching up with the World !

The people are now free to leave and travel.

They watch American Satellite TV intended for Florida. They have Computers, Watches. Cell phones. Cameras. Motorcycles and Bus's.

Still a long way to go - but in 20 years they've come a long way.

If its Chinese - they've got it !

I'd like to get to Amazon some day -- way up one of those remote rivers and see the jungle and tribesmen.  Probably wouldn't like the bugs  -- especially spiders -- but the picture of it all appeals to me. 

From what I know that's all disappearing.  The trees cut down.  The tribespeople going to the city.  I'd like to see that sometime before its gone.

Anybody ever been to the Amazon?

TB,  I have been up the Amazon River as far as Manaus.   There were bugs but they were extra rad Brazilian bugs so I did not care.   Should we strive to get to places before they are gone ?  It is an oxymoron.  In the getting there, we make the place disappear.   The very fact that a new element - the visitor - is there changes the place.  Margaret Mead And David Livingstone each noted that phenomenon.

Anthropology  is the science which tells us that people are the same the whole world over -  except when they are different.
Nancy Banks Smith

A followup to this thread, Conde Naste has a nicely illustrated list of some of the more endangered of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.  Here's that link.