Nature

The Kamchatka Peninsula, part of The Russian Federation, extends from the northeastern end of Siberia, thrusting down to divide the Sea of Okhotsk from the Bering Sea. It is one of the few truly unexplored wilderness areas left in the world. Sharing a latitude with Alaska, it is remote and difficult to get to. Conditions are so harsh there for most of the year that the human population is sparse and primarily concentrated in Petropavlovsk, its capital. A few small fishing villages exist on its shores, but the interior of Kamchatka remains largely unexplored.

by Patricia Arrigoni, Fairfax, CA

From a treetop deep in the jungles of Peru, a tiny brown monkey stares down at me with curiosity. I aim my binoculars and stare back into his intense, dark eyes. We check each other out for a couple of minutes, then he is gone, swinging with ease to the next tree.