Guatemala, a country with beauty and poverty

Guatemala is a country located in Central America with extraordinary landscapes but a great number of inhabitants with a bad quality of life. 
Throughout the year thousands of tourists go to this country to visit the Atitland Lake, Antigua (the first capital of Guatemala), the flea market of Chichicastenalgo, the Mayan´s ruins of Tikal, Rio Dulce… The lists of places you can visit and enjoy in this country are never ending. 

However, what I want, is to talk about the poverty of the inhabitants of this place.
Most tourists that visit Guatemala don´t want to see, or know how the Gatemalns live. What they eat or how their houses are. The reason is very simple, we don´t want to open our eyes and realize that there are people living worse than us, and even dying because they don´t have anything to eat.
When my parents went to Guatemala, they realized about the poverty of the country, and they decided to see it through the eyes of the inhabitants. They slept in houses without floors, they took “guaguas”, the buses that Gatelmans use to travel from one place to another. Although they enjoyed themselves a lot, they were very scared when some members of the army, carrying big submachine guns stop them at night when they were traveling from Flores to Rio Dulce in a “guagua”.
This experience helped them realize the fear that poor people suffer. Fear is a very subjective word, most people have fears. In my point of view we can´t compared the fear of these inhabitants with our fears. They are afraid of being killed, they are afraid to die of hunger…, these fears are caused by poverty, and that’s the worst point. We are all humans; however, some poor people believe that they are worse than us only because they had be born in poor areas.

Although they are afraid every day for their lives, they try to search for a reason to be happy, to smile. Poverty is the main cause of their fears, cold nights and hungry.  However it won´t be the cause of their sadness, because they value every single drop of water.

More than fashion

Plenty of people think that fashion is shallow, that fashion only exits for thin, wealthy and pretty people. However, it is not that, it is a way to express yourself, a way to show your personality, your feelings, your thoughts… Considering this, a few weeks ago some of the most important events in fashion took place, the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week of Madrid and the Fashion Week of Milan.

With its new name, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week of Madrid, and its 56 editions, the veterans and new designers had a big challenge to overcome; they had to convince people with their new collections for this autumn-winter. This year, 41 designers paraded and 20 exposed their collections in the Showroom of Ego. With these parades we observed the new forms, colors and styles proposed by the top designers and the new ones, although they did not change too much compared to the last collections. Nevertheless, the most important fact in this edition was that it was the first time that models had been between the 18 and 19 percent of body mass index; it was a very important step for the “Cibeles parade”. 

In the 55 previous editions, there was almost always one model with anorexia or bulimia parading. This was a huge problem because fashion had influenced many children, especially girls that wanted to be as thin as the models without knowing the consequences. Thus plenty of people blamed fashion for anorexia. Therefore, they had a great challenge to overcome, they needed to stop that, no more anorexic people on parades!

In the Fashion Week of Milan we glimpsed the best things of Italian fashion. We observed parades from Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace… but one of the most surprising ones, was a parade were models were not especially thin and they were not ashamed of their body. Those women wore swimsuits and apparels, they were proud of their size and plenty of women must follow their example. This was a significant step for fashion; why do all models have to be thin?

It does not matter about your physical appearance, your wealth, your ideas… because fashion is on a higher level where you express your feelings, ideas, your personality, at the end of the day, it is an international language spoken by everyone.

Fofuchas

Hi to everybody! In this new post I’m going to talk about curious handmade dolls. They are called “Fofuchas” and they are made in a very easy way.

We all agree that when we are bored at home and we don’t know what to do, we usually take out the phone, use social networks or play videogames. Well, this is not the only opinion. Making handicrafts is another option, a very well one; and here I give you a choice.

The “Fofuchas” are made with EVA of different colours (which is a rubber material), plastic foam balls, sticks, bars of silicone and a gun to deliver it. As you can see, all these materials are not expensive and you can find all of them in a corner shop. There are silhouettes you can find on the Internet to make the shape of the clothes, you use the plastic foam balls to make the head, the body and the feet, and the sticks are needed to make the legs. Everything is stuck together with the silicone. Later, you draw the face. Here I leave you some videos in which the process is very well explained:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb5ZEJQzfqc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A6OB0Vv5bg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDxQSuei0jg

There are plenty of blogs in which these foam dolls are shown. The people want to exhibit their creations, some of them just for fun, however, others sell them. Some are expensive because of the work involved. The best thing is to make them yourselves, don’t you think?

http://todofofuchas.blogspot.com.es/p/fofuchas.html
http://fofuchasdemama.blogspot.com.es/
http://davinia-mispequenascosas.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/moldes-para-hacer-fofuchas-encontrados.html

The most amazing part, is personalizing them, so that they seem like the person it is for. You can characterize them in jobs or with additional accessories. You can make them the size you want, the colours you like… Just let your imagination flow through your hands.

These are some personal creations:

I encourage you to make one, what are you waiting for?

South Africa

Hey bloggers! I'll start my post showing you a fantastic country located in the southern hemisphere. I think you will know it from the football World Cup won by Spain in 2010! The country is really amazing. You can see big advanced cities such as Johannesburg or Cape Town, and then have a rest and enjoy the nature and wild animals that are impossible to see in our country. You can go on very exciting safaris for around twelve hours in the sabanah and see the Big Five (lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and hippo) in their natural habitat, as a result, you can see their way of life.

 Firstly, I'll speak about the origin of the country, its development. The Portuguese were to discover it when they were travelling to America, they found the Cape of Good Hope, located at the southern most part of Africa. The Dutch went there to plant lettuce and tomato, they were white people invading a place inhabited by negroes. They had more authority than them and for that reason, more money as well.

In South Africa there is a great difference between rich people and poor people. Rich people are very rich and poor people are very poor. On the one hand, you can see the big houses of the rich and on the other hand, the suburbs were poor live, of which mainly all of them are negroes. At the beginning there was a lot of discrimination from white to black people, nevertheless, Nelson Mandela has contributed to the disappearence of it and nowadays the fight against racial discrimination is being supported.

The big cities, Cape town and Johannesburg for instance are amazing, they have very beautiful sights, high buildings and have great financial influence and importance. People there in their free time go at night to pubs where most of them have concerts or a small group of people singing while others have dinner or just go there to have a good time.

Safaris are perfect to forget about big cities, noise and to escape from our normal life. They normally take place over a few days from dawn until dusk. You can enjoy them and you will like seeing animals that you have loved since you were young in their own habitat, with their family or individuals of their species.

To sum up, South Africa is a marvellous place where you can find everything that you want, big cities with great influence and importance, and relaxation in a different area surronded by nature, by amazing animals that you have always dreamed to see. It is fantastic, isn't it?

Peruvian cuisine

We know about many important gastronomies like the Italian, Spanish, French or the typical U.S. food but one of the best and unrated gastronomies in the world is Peruvian food and gastronomy. Their food is very ancient and you can find the typical food in each house of Peru, everybody prepares and cooks it and the recipes are transferred from generation to generation, old people teach the youngest to prepare the food.

 

Peruvian food is quite popular because of its colourful appearance and the way they use the spicy products that they add to their food. Peruvian people use a wide variety of ingredients, but the most important ones are the "papa", a type of tuber mainly used all over South America and in particular in Peru; also the "aji", a spicy plant used in Peru and some fruits like the"chirimoya" (custard) and the "locuma".

 

Like in Spain with the excellent 'Spanish omelette' and in France with the not as good 'French omellette' or in Italy with their pasta, in Peru they have some typical and famous dishes like 'cebiche'. In this plate Peruvian people include fish, lemon juice, red onion, salt and aji and they also add shellfish or vegetables to it. Another special dish is roast chicken, you will never eat such a good roast chicken as in this country

A little bit of polemic: Green with envy!

“There is something I don't understand…I think that because I am rich, handsome and a great player people are envious of me… I don't have any other explanation".

These are the words that Cristiano Ronaldo said after playing against Dinamo Zagreb. Real Madrid won 1-0 in the first football match of the Champions League in 2011. Throughout the match CR was booed and whistled at. What is more, he received several kicks, one of which caused him to have three stitches on his right ankle.

Did CR act in the proper way? Is it good to always tell the truth? 

From my point of view he did the right thing. However, he might have used other, more polite words. It is undeniable that he is rich, handsome and a great player. Nevertheless, declaring ithimself is not elegant. Actually, there are others who could have said it (such as his coach José Mourinho). CR said he was also angry due to his lack of protection from referees:"I hope we never have this referee again. People talk of fair-play, of protecting good players, but I never get any of that.I'm sad because I hear referees saying they will protect skillful players, but while some are untouchable it seems I can be mauled”. Ronaldo complained about the referee SveinOddvar Moen who sent Marcelo offdue to some irrelevant acts. However, he allowed hard tackles and didn’t punish them. 

Since football was invented, it has always been a reason for debate. Moreover, in the last few years not only have matches been commented on but also football players, coaches, chairmen… Actually, the ones that are criticized the most are those who keep everything aboveboard. In contrast, those who talk in a general way, without referring to themselves (Messi, Guardiola…) are liked by most people. I prefer the ones that say what they feel, those who don’t care about what other people will say about them.

Here I leave you two links to the videos where Cristiano Ronaldo talks with TV presenters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lb77UkvxbE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=kvuM7b9GAD0&NR=1

DON’T THINK, JUST SHOOT!

“Lomography is an analog camera movement and community, and is also a commercial trademark of Lomographische AG.”
Summarizing, lomography consists of taking photos with a special camera which creates special effects, such as producing a gamma error, a saturating of the colors or the appearance of frames.

It appeared in the 80’s in Russia, when a general decided to copy a Japanese camera for the Soviets. But it was in the 90’s when two students bought two of these cameras in Prague and started shooting without looking through the viewfinder. When they developed the photographies, they discovered that the photos were out of focus, brilliant, saturated and fresh, which transmitted vitality. After this, they decided to create a business.

Some years later, lomographic exhibitions and associations of lomography fans were created. At the end of the century, a website and international conferences were created. By this time, lomography had become important in the photography world.

In the year 2005 the manufacturer decided to stop producing these cameras because it was very expensive: the LC-A cameras became LC-A+ produced by China. These new cameras have a different lens, and there are 7 different models.

 

 The Lomo cameras are different because of their lens: it’s characterized because it intensifies the colours, especially at the centre of the photo, so it creates a tunnel effect. The excessive exposition created in the photos can be in automatic mode or manual. You can even create movement effects! Thanks to its rudimentary focus, the photos are out of focus but, at the same time, very artistic.

So, if you ever buy this kind of camera, remember its philosophy: Don’t think, just shoot!