Americas II Americas II AMERICAS-II is a fiber optic submarine communications cable that carries telecommunications between Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Martinique, Curaçao, Trinidad, Venezuela, French Guiana, Suriname and Guyana (both through Cayenne), and Brazil. It has been in service since August 2000 and is operated on a common carrier basis. AMERICAS-II consists of three interconnected rings (North, South, and West Systems), each operating at 2.5 gigabits per second ( Gbit/s), initially in separate collapsed ring configurations, and a dedicated link between Curaçao and Venezuela not operating in a collapsed ring configuration. Each fiber pair in each of the three
Geography of South America Great American Interchange. The Andes, likewise a comparatively young and seismically restless mountain range, runs down the western edge of the continent; the land to the east of the northern Andes is largely tropical rain forest, the vast Amazon River basin. The continent also contains drier regions such as eastern Patagonia and the extremely arid Atacama desert. The South American continent also includes various islands, most of which belong to countries on the continent. The Caribbean territories are grouped with North America. The South American nations that border the Caribbean Sea—including Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana—are also known