South America



[Map from the Perry Castenada Library,
Courtesy The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin]

South America is probably best known for its Amazon rain forest than for anything else. But the entire continent is home to many exotic creatures that our heavenly Father has made. South America is home to the world's largest snake, the Anaconda; the world's largest rodent, the Capybara; plus piranhas, jaguars, crocodiles, electric eels, guanacos, alpacas, rheas, and many more. However, we're only interested in one in particular for this study because South America is shaped like...

[Image courtesy NASA's Earthobservatory]

...the head of a vulture!

The vulture's eye is Lake Titicaca, South America's largest lake, plus it is the highest major body of water in the world at more than 12,500 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains. These mountains are also the namesake of the world's largest flying bird, the Andean Condor, a vulture with a wingspan of 10 feet.

This is quite a contrasting symbol to North America. After you do that study, and the one on Central America, you'll find that North America is grasping Central America, while South America is being attacked by Central America. It causes one to compare blessings, and consider why.

Because of the vulture's connection with the dead, I think we should also focus on the spiritually dead in general; that is, people whom Satan will deceive, or has deceived. Satan is coming soon to this Earth, and will claim to be the messiah (2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4; Revelation 12:7). If you worship him, you are worshipping Death, and are thus spiritually dead though your flesh body is very much alive.

Now I would like to point out that there are 7 species of vultures in the western hemisphere. They are the Turkey Vulture, Lesser and Greater Yellow-headed Vultures, the Black Vulture, King Vulture, and two species of condors - Andean and California. The latter is almost extinct. The King Vulture is widespread in South America, and it's the most colourful of all the vultures:

These vultures have a characteristic knobby growth on their beaks called a caruncle or a wattle.

The Andean Condor pictured earlier also has this growth on his head which is even more crown-like than on the King Vultures. I also found a lofty image with such a crown on its nose in the clouds of Brazil:

[Image STS41B-41-2347 courtesy Earth Sciences and Image Analysis,
NASA-Johnson Space Center Astronaut Photography of Earth]

Talk about a second witness!

Along the same theme, I noticed that the entire South American continent, when viewed as a vulture, has a crown all along the top of its head and beak created by the Andes Mountains. It's very evident in the following topographical map:

[Image courtesy the USGS EROS Data Center]

I don't know what the purpose is of these crowns or wattles, beyond decorative, but I couldn't help but point them out. I hope you enjoyed them.