Natural Wonders

Yesterday I mentioned various lists of Seven Wonders of the World. Did you happen to take a look at CNN's list of Seven Wonders of the Natural World? Here's their list:

• Grand Canyon, Arizona
• Paricutin volcano, Mexico
• The harbor at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• The Northern Lights
• Mt. Everest, Nepal/China
• Victoria Falls, Zambia/Zimbabwe
• Great Barrier Reef, Australia

As a disclaimer, I should note that the only one of those sights I've seen is the Grand Canyon, but doesn't it seem like one of those seven is considerably less spectacular than the others? Yes, I'm referring to Rio de Janeiro harbor. From the photographs, yes, it does look very pretty, but aren't there beautiful harbors all around the world? They even admit that it's polluted and that one of the world's largest cities happens to have built up next to it. That bay they were paddling around in Vietnam on The Amazing Race last week looked more spectacular. I'll venture that the harbor in Rio de Janeiro isn't even the most wondrous natural sight in Brazil, or is the Amazon River and its rainforest just not all its cracked up to be?

I can't narrow it down to seven, but here's the most wondrous sights of the natural world that I've seen, in no particular order:

• Grand Canyon, Arizona
• Yosemite Valley, California
• Giant sequoia trees, California
• Death Valley, California
• Kilauea and the Pu'u O'o rift area, Hawaii
• Hana Highway, Hawaii
• Snorkeling off the coast of Maui, Hawaii
• Mammoth Cave, Kentucky
• Honey Island swamp, Louisiana
• Extreme tides north of San Felipe, Baja California
• Cavernas de la Rio Camuy, Puerto Rico