Blog catchit.com

@ carf

In what country people are the happiest?

Here is the question asked from the OECD (organization for economic co-operation and development). After a survey, they got an answer.

This analyze is base on the economic power, social data and subjective facts from 140 countries.

According to investigated people, here are 6 different feelings, negative or positive; they had theses last 24h.

Most of the countries on the top of this list have a high income per capita, they are North European countries.

1. Denmark
2. Finland
3. Netherland
4. Sweden
5. Ireland
6. Canada
7. Switzerland
8. New Zealand
9. Norway
10. Belgium

We can suppose that this question didn’t reach to children taking a shower in The Mekong River, neither to the one climbing trees In India, or to those living in a lost temple in Bhutan.

In spite of economical difficulties in these countries, OECD’s members could have a big surprise.

@ Erik De Leon

Cuenca, located in the southern part of the Ecuadorian cordillera, is the third biggest city of Ecuador after Quito and Guayaquil and since 1999 it is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The historical centre is full of colonial elements like the wrought iron and cut wood balconies, paving stones and architecture which points out European but without neglecting autochthones details.

There, you will find many churches, symbol of the Spanish religiosity which was marked in these distant grounds. This architecture is important with invaluable details, made from gold and marble.
Failing this one it has two cathedrals in a small territory: the “la Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción”, or the new cathedral, and “la Iglesia del Sagrario”, or the old cathedral.
In its turn, the two oldest religious temples are the Monastery of Conceptas and the Catch of load which dates from the first decades of the foundation of the city in 1957.

As in the majority of the colonial cities, interesting buildings surround the central place.
There, you will also find, the House of Canónigos, the Court of justice and the old cathedral, from the neo-classical style (XVIII century).

@ Dan..

Do not miss colored markets such as the traditional flower market which is located close to the cathedral or markets where it is possible to eat typical.

You can, thus, visit traditional districts such as « las Herrerías », where the craftsmen of iron work, or that of “el Vado” or the District of All Saints known also as the bakers’ district.

This city deserves to be visited.
For much, it is the prettiest city of Ecuador with an important cultural richness and a privileged environment.

To supplement your visit, only thirty minutes away from Cuenca, the Natural Park of “Cajas” is waiting for you with more than 230 lagoons.

@ Chodaboy

Getxo is a picturesque commune of Bilbao known for its houses, located in the right part of the ria of Nervión.

It is known for its pretty residences with sight into the sea, built at the beginning of century XX by the Basque upper middle classes.

Today, the new port of Getxo is a sporting port full of boats, but the Old port of Algorta (Portu Zaharra) is a pretty tourist attraction.

Algorta is one of Getxo’s four communes, a small typical district where there are narrow and sinuous streets.

Although fishing has almost disappeared from the port, the district remains a place with plenty of life, especially on weekends and in summer.
There are a lot of colored houses of marine style, the restaurants and the taverns where you will, for sure, stop to try “pintxos”, tender meat skewers.

@ garzhia

Since 1987, ERASMUS scolarship allow exchange of European students between universities. The name of the program comes from the traveler Erasmo of Rotterdam.
Nowadays, more than 27.000 students choose each year Spanish universities.

Spain is the country that receives most foreign students but also that sends a lot of students abroad, after France and Germany. Universities that attract the most are Grenada, Valence and Madrid.

Reasons are very diverse; some look for a cultural aspect, others want to learn another language and to experience the famous Spanish evenings and parties.

Until 2000, the population of ERASMUS in Spain was lower than in France and in Germany, but the figures climbed after the movie “L’auberge Espagnole” (The Spanish Inn) which illustrates a perfect image of the ERASMUS phenomenon in Europe.

In any case, it is a very interesting way to get to know another culture.
This idea was developed to give to students a chance to discover other lifestyles and to have a good memory of their experience in a different place than the one they are used to.

@ tiswango

At the time of promoting a product it seems that the imagination does not have any limit. It is so, during the autumn in Buenos Aires with worthy temperatures of summer, the center of Buenos Aires surprises us with an ice block from the Glacier Perito Moreno.
Clearly, it is a publicity campaign to launch the season of winter.

In this way, a complete action had made the ice coming to the capital in order to impress and to surprise people.
For this, the Secretariat of Tourism of Calfate had to count on divers from the Naval Prefecture of Argentina that for two days, extracted 20 tons of ice from the glacier on natural way, besides a truck of 4 meters of high and almost 20 of length that maintained the ice at a temperature of 15 degrees below zero.

In this way the ice undertook a long trip of three day and 3,000 kilometers.
It was so; the blocks became the protagonists of a campaign in order to attract local and international tourists.

But will a piece of ice enough, at time of congealed economies, to make people spending their savings in a trip? Time will tell us, but there are no doubts that the effort was concerted and the idea very original.

@ kalidoskopika

Ever since the alarm jumped on the first cases of transmission of tripartite virus H1N1 (human/to make haste/pig) of the pig to the man, newspapers speak on a daily basis of swine flu. The WHO (World-wide Organization of the Health) is thinking about raising the pandemic alert until level 5 on 6, since the virus extends quickly and its spread is already at world-wide level. Nevertheless, confirmed mortal cases of pig influenza outside Mexico do not exist.

What it is more hopeful is that to confront the pig influenza, we count on past experiences and tools that we have nowadays: Antiviral drugs, systems of attention and monitoring epidemiologist system, the WHO, a greater organization and cooperation between countries, etc.
On the other hand, it is a disease that is transmitted by the air, not by the consumption of pig meat.

Going to the hospital with the first symptoms (high fever, headache, nasal congestion and general fatigue), doctors have 24 to 48h to diagnose the disease and to administer an antiviral drug called Tamiflu (used in the bird influenza). Symptoms appear within 10 days after having been in contact with the virus.
We have to highlight that in spite of the fast expansion of the virus, treatments are successful and people are safe within a few days.

Lamentably, the government of Mexico, place of origin of the epidemic, is not absolutely transparent. It is the only place where mortal cases happened, and it does not know itself why this virus has arisen in this country.

We hope that the virus does not mutate, and that Mexico clarifies some details still unknown. In any case, the pig is not guilty … after all; we passed the influenza to him. Unfortunately, it has been given back to the Human.

@ chaserpaul

Recently inaugurated, the Restaurant Nais Aquarium is located in Guatemala, and it is not a simple thematic restaurant, it is also an ecological center for entertainment and education that has a sophisticated system of life support, including a hospital for marine species, tanks of group of forty, biological laboratory, center of nutritional support and an impressive system of illumination by GPS in order to maintain fishes natural habitat.

You will discover 450 fishes from 38 exotic species, reef and sand sharks, which come from Bali, Indonesia, Fiji, Brazil and the Caribbean Guatemalan, and a complex of 15 aquariums decorating the Restaurant and the Lounge decorate.

This gastronomical establishment has a capacity of 500 people, and in case there is no table available, clients will get a beeper in order to let them know as soon as there is one for them.
Visitors can enjoy their meal while they are submerged in the aquatic world with feeding shows or taking the “Back Stage Tour” to learn more about marine species.

This experience of recreational and environmental tourism, supported by Clearly, Coca-Cola, BAM and Panasonic, will be transferred to Costa Rica and Honduras the next year, then Panama and Salvador, to end in Mexico in 2011.

I had always thought there couldn’t be any place as good as Rio de Janeiro or Bahia all over Brazil. I was wrong.

Near Natal, a colorful village is hidden, plenty of live and quite during daytime, that’s what gives it all its charm.
A lot of foreign decided to live there for a while in order to stay away from big cities and their noise.

To go out, there is a large choice of restaurants to eat and a large amount of bars will welcome you with some music.

Pipa’s beaches are “Praia do Madeiro”, “la Bahia dos Golphinos”, “la Praia Central”, where most of people go.

My favorite one is “la Bahia dos Golphinos” (Dolphins’ bay).
As you should already have guess, it is common to see dolphins playing near swimmers. It will give an amazing feeling.
Moreover, the beach is huge, its sand is soft and the beach end up with wild vegetation.

@ marquiroga

ADVICE

If you are a woman and feel like buying a Brazilian bikini, I would tell you not doing it. Actually, they don’t use Brazilian bikinis but small pieces of fabric joined with string… .

A lot of night parties are going on around « la Prai de Amor », in the middle of palm-trees. These parties are unsurpassed.

CURIOSITY

In « la Praia da Minas », huge turtles get together when it’s time to lay eggs in orders to dig them into sand.

“The Bossa Nova” is a kind of music, which usually goes with a guitar, drums and percussion instruments. Elis Regina and Gilberto Gil are some of the artists that have popularized this beat.

It happens to “loose” his luggage, to get stress from flight delays, etc. Unfortunately, we all (or almost) had to suffer from our plane trips.

But, for sure, we didn’t experience the cavalry, the humiliation and the despair that did travelers from Franz Kafka airport.
Don’t expect they take care of you, to pass the control without any problem, to find your gate, neither to fly… Don’t put a feet in this airport!!!

This warning is not in vain, as this airport is number 1 in the ranking of the worst airports in the world, according to The Onion News Network.

Take a look at this video; travelers and staff speak for themselves!

But no worries, if you need to get Paha ( which is a wonderful city) for business or personal reasons, there are other “real” airports and less Kafkaesque.

@ Larsz

For millions years, these semi transparent organisms stride oceans. Known under the name of Salpidae, they are linked to jellyfishes. They have got the special feature of absorbing carbon dioxide CO2 and of calming down the greenhouse effect caused by Human.

Scientists from the Oceanus magazine concluded that salps, as big as a human inch, can set up huge school of fishes and can absorb 4.000 tones of CO2 per year.

Salps swim, feed and produce wastes continuously. That’s why the only part which is not transparent is its stomach. The Phytoplankton, which uses CO2 to grow up, is its main nutrient. It drains it off almost instantaneously in the ocean.

@ Nick Hobgood

The most surprising is that in 2004 and 2006, two biologists, Madin y Kremer, have studied the existence of new groups of salps in southern oceans, near the Antarctic. They have appeared there because of the increase in temperature these last years, which is a reaction against the global warming.

Oceanologs offer us already a lot of things to discover. Going diving is the best way to get close to these wonders. So, go and explore seabed! “You will feel like a fish in the water”! And if you come across some salps, don’t be afraid, they are harmless.