Global Common 2 (America)

It is impossible to visit and to see everything in a day with regularly long queues of visitors outside the pavilions (and it's quite frustrating). There is a need to do more in order to improve on queue and crowd management. The United States of America and Canada pavilions proved a major attraction and the hottest among expo-visitors to the Global Common 2 Zone.

We decided to see the Andean Amazonian Pavilion - Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

On sale are art and craft objects such as various hand-woven goods (bottom picture), musical instruments, original photos and books related to the Andean Community.

As part of the cultural activities, visitors can also enjoy the rythmn of the mystic sound from the Andes (quite happening as the live music got us dancing). The Andean music is based on wind instruments like Kena, Rondador and other bamboo flutes, accompanied by guitar and other instruments.

More souvenirs and accessories of the Andean taste.

Postcards and paintings from Bolivia.

Inside the Mexico Pavilion, there is a showcase of traditional Mexican costumes. Huipil - a loose brocaded blouse worn by the Maya women in Mexico and Central America.

Amber - a fossil resin found in some abundance in the southern of Mexico, was created over 40 million years, having collected as tree sap and been washed by rain and streams into the ocean where it was compressed and left embedded in layers of rock when the seas subsided. In the process, leaves, grasses, mosquitoes, scorpions and occasionally small vertebrates were trapped in the resin. These insects add considerable value to the price of amber. Their position in the gem and the clarity of the resin is also key (e.g. if you have a centipede or a tarantula in the middle of clear resin it will be much more expensive than if you have a fly in the corner that can hardly be seen).

In Mexico, corn occupies half of the total land used for growing crop. Archaeologists believe that corn was eaten by ancient Mexicans for as long as since 5,000 B.C. Corn is ground into flour, mixed with water and made into tortillas. Not sure why these corn kernels are colored ?!?

Other participating countries in the Global Common 2 Zone include Argentina, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua) and four international organizations (United Nations, Red Cross and etc).