Blog catchit.com

@ 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.

@ 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.

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.

@ kevinzim

We see snakes as frightening and underhanded. However, Chinese people cook it and eat it with enchantment.

You can find snakes, as dogs, in any restaurants. In winter, you will find it in the form of stew as they say it keeps you warm (like dogs) and has aphrodisiac virtues.

You will have to choose the one you will eat while it is still alive. And before starting eating your meal you will need to do the two glasses ceremonial, which can be fast (or not) and disgusting: a red glass and a green one, one full of bile and the other full of snake’s blood. You won’t be able to start eating before drinking all of that!!

Everything is eatable in snake!!!

You can eat any part in any kind of way: You can make chips from its skin; you can fry it or make a soup of it… mmmmmm…
You can also find it in pharmacies: It relieves you of rheumatisms and, more surprisingly, of malaria crisis.
For older people, snake is used also used as protector against the Devil spirit and as Viagra.

@ jorge.correa

Sometimes we don’t need to go far away to enjoy some wonderful things worth listed in the Guinness book.

In the Rabassa, in Andorra, there is the TOBOTRONC, known from its technical name, Alpine Coaster and which is the biggest toboggan of the world with a 3,2 miles track.

Its 2,2 miles to come down (with control) and its 1,2 miles to get up by means of a ski lift make, without doubt, one of the most attractive activity of the Pyrenees, as much for kids as for adults.

@ jqmj

This new attraction enables to enjoy striding inside the forest, sitting on a sledge.
You will get down in 8 minutes; so if you want to visit a little bit you had better to know how to manage this two people vehicle. The one on the back is in charge to control the engine in bends with two sticks.
This attraction has got 100 wagons (or sledges), each one can hold 2 people; Kids under 12 years old have to go with adults.

A suggestion to have fun safe and with respect of the nature, which give another perspective of the forest.

In this crisis situation, the word “free” is a big attraction for travelers. The Travel European Commission has offered a top 10 of the best free activities in Europe that we can enjoy for the next months.

Germany

@ dalbera

The famous museum in Berlin, in the middle of the river Spree , offers free entry to the 5 museums every Thursdays from 2pm.

France

The ring of Kerry sums up all virtues and attractions of this Gaelic country: Gold and hiking in the green hills, fishing in the rivers and fine sand beaches. That’s not all; the area is an authentic museum in the open air with prehistoric buildings, castles and monasteries.

Estonia

The city of Navarra, located at the Russian border, is the most oriental point of the European Union. The Teutonic Knights castle is from the century XIII and it is split up by a river. Over there all kind of concerts and other open air events are going on.

Hungary

Already famous for its Red Bull, the Air Race takes place in Budapest from August 19th and 20th, with dozen of pilots doing acrobatics and jumping from bridges in a minimum of time.

Switzerland

The street Parade in Zurich goes on in August. It’s a colorful party with electronic music, it’s actually a huge “RAVE PARTY” which succeed with dignity to the “love Parade” in Berlin.

@ Javi Vte Rejas

England

London is famous to be expensive. Taking a look at these countless treasures and works of arts from the Britannic museum and the national Gallery is priceless. That’s why it’s free…

Belgium

The sentence “free beer” has a special meaning in this country that produces some of the best beer worldwide. The Haacht beer offers a free tour with 2 degustation of their beer included.

Norway

“The Scream”, famous Edvard Munch’s paint, can be contemplated in the national gallery in Oslo, with Cézanne’s, Gauguin’s, Picasso’s works of art.

Austria

In the city of Innsbruck, the “hiking bus” is free from end of May till October for all costumers of the city and for the ones being around this city, it will be free if you acquire the Club Innsbruck Card. Of course, there is a vast hiking program.

Since January we can see, with Google Earth, some of the most famous and important museums where of the Prado Museum in Madrid.
And even if it could seem contradictory, you will see pieces with a better quality and details at home from your computer than within the museum.

Google never stops surprising us, and this time it has realized a project with the Prado Museum in order to allow anybody to contemplate, from the other side of the world, 14 paint artworks with a high resolution.

This project is called “Prado’s works of art on Google Earth” and enables to look at several pieces with a high resolution.
Images have 14 billions of pixels, a level of details 1400 times better than what we could get with a camera of 10 mega pixel.

This system is so specific that we can see micro details that painters incorporated in their works, details impossible to see naked-eyes; we can also appreciate works’ scratches and imperfections and, of course, any deep and shade of licks of pain that made these pieces becoming classics.

14 works of art can be seen, here are some of them:

• La Crucifixión, Flades, Juan de
• El caballero de la mano en el pecho, El Greco
• La familia de Felipe IV o Las Meninas, Velázquez
• El sueño de Jacob, Ribera
• 3 de mayo, Goya
• La Anunciación, Fra Angelico
• El Cardenal, Rafael
• El emperador Carlos V a caballo, en Mühlberg, Tiziano

@ brainsluice

I love Thai temples and orientalism, with nature and spirituality around it. We can breathe it in each step of the construction, trying to join socialite and mysticism.

What really curious about them?
They are not as ancient as we could think and the White Temple is an example of it.

Moreover, its official name is Wat Rong Khun and it has been created by Chaloemchai Khositphiphat, the most famous artist in Thailand.

It is a modern construction that they plan to end up in 90 years. However, we are already surprised by what there is already, such as its entrance, special and eerie, but I keep it for the end as it the thing that struck me the most.

@ Dust Mason

Inside, its walls contrast, even if it is more for their strange details than for their beauty: As soon as we get there we can see a plane against a twin tower, a fetus within a uterus, various weapons and some devils.
It is the symbolism of spirituality confrontation and oriental peace with the chaos and oriental overconsumption.

Outside, the chapel is decorated with crumbled mirrors, the pinion with a Naga and an elephant; inside, it has a wall painting illustrating Buda’s life, also made by Khositphiphat.

As I told you before, I have left you the temple entrance part for the end. Here we go …

@ karma-police

To get to the first floor we need to cross a bridge. The bridge itself is not so surprising, but sculptures around it, those hands that seem going out from the water and from the ground, imitating sinners trying to get out from the Hell.

@ Daffydus

An image that will cool you off…