Holguin Carnival Begins

The carnival Holguín 2017 was officially inaugurated on Wednesday night with a great artistic show in the Cultural Center Bariay of this city. Color, party....sweetness and more, decorated areas, cold beer, meeting friends, dancing and good music in four days of celebration with about 16 areas prepared for public enjoyment. / Photos: Juan Pablo Carreras-ACN

Water...scientists show it can exist as two different liquids

Water is one of the most fundamental molecules on Earth, and yet scientists are only just beginning to wrap their heads around how bizarre the substance really is. Researchers have now discovered that water exists in not one, but two distinct liquid phases, each with big differences in structure and density. Using X-rays to study H2O in unprecedented detail, physicists from Stockholm University in Sweden have provided evidence that the liquid water we know and love isn't just a single phase, it is in fact a fluctuation between two forms - high and low density. 'The new results give very strong support to a picture where water at room temperature can't decide in which of the two forms it should be, high or low density, which results in local fluctuations between the two' said one of the researchers, Lars G.M. Pettersson.'In a nutshell: Water is not a complicated liquid, but two simple liquids with a complicated relationship.' Most of us are taught in high school that water exists in three distinct phases: liquid water, solid ice, and water vapour.But it's not actually that simple, water can also exist as a strange plasma,like state, and even the standard three phases of water we're familiar with are more bizarre than you'd ever imagine. For example, with the exception of Mercury, water has the highest surface tension of all liquids, and unlike almost every other known substance, water expands when it freezes. Also, while the boiling points of other hydrides, such as hydrogen telluride and hydrogen sulphide, decrease as their molecule size decreases, H2O has a surprisingly large boiling point for such a small molecular weight. In fact, scientists have identified 70 properties of liquid water that are entirely unique from all other liquid substances we know of. One oddity that's long been debated is whether there's more than one liquid phase of water. This idea is based off the fact that researchers already know that ice can exist in distinct high- and low-density forms. But ice also exists in another form known as amorphous ice, where the molecules are more disordered. Although it's not something most of us are familiar with, amorphous ice is likely the most common type of solid water found throughout the Universe, and it can flip between distinct high- and low-density versions. Because of this, researchers suspected that perhaps liquid water could do the same thing. But until now no one had been able to study its molecular changes in enough detail to figure out exactly what was going on. The new research used two different types of X-ray imaging to track the movement and distance between H2O molecules as water transitioned from an amorphous, glassy, frozen liquid state, to a viscous liquid, and then another, even more viscous liquid with lower density. What they saw was evidence of two distinct liquid phases. 'The new remarkable property is that we find that water can exist as two different liquids at low temperatures where ice crystallisation is slow,' said one of the researchers, Anders Nilsson.But this isn't the first time scientists have stumbled upon a strange second liquid state of water. The new study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. / Prensa Latina

See...archaeological attractions of Gibara

The cave "Los Panaderos” is one of the main archaeological attractions in the coastal town of Gibara. Discovered in the nineteenth century and fully explored in the second half of the twentieth century, ancient documents consulted recently recognize it as Cueva del Silencio. Is age its estimated about 90 million years, formed in the Lower Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era. The excursion to the cave, which extends until approximately 750 meters, reveals secondary formations of whimsical shapes, including one looking like a ghost. During the tour the visitor can see thick stalactites and stalagmites shaped like a mammoth; another one similar to a group of people has been named "the travelers", to the one popularly known as "the picture", as young girls go there to take pictures of them. The galleries descend 32 meters to sea level and end in underground rivers of crystalline waters, where some marine species adapted to the life in the underground lake live. It also houses several types of bats and an important local endemic fauna such as the pseudoscorpion and cave cricket, a subspecies recently cataloged in Cuba. / With information from ACN / Photojournalist Juan Pablo Carreras

Holguin Welcomes FitCuba and Romerias de Mayo

These days the city of Holguin welcomes two major events: The 37th International Tourism Fair FitCuba 2017 and Romerias de Mayo Festival. The launching of Gibara as tourism product opened the International Tourism Fair taking place from May 2 to 6 at the Playa Pesquero Hotel in Holguin. Gibara's new tourist market will be available in the restored colonial hotels Ordono, Arsenita and Plaza Colon. To these facilities, there are also other extra-hotel places such as the bars La Loja, XX Century and Leisure Club. In addition, the Yacht Club with high-standard seafood gastronomy. The event is dedicated to tourist excursions, one of the modalities promoted on the island, which received four million visitors last year. On the other hand, delegations attending the Fair also have the opportunity to enjoy Las Romerías de Mayo festival, one of the most important cultural events developed each year in the province of Holguin. Performances, street dance, theater, provide the passerby a cultural environment of excellence.

Hotel Caballeriza in Holguin

The Caballeriza hotel is located in the historic center of Holguin city in a building dating from 1810. It is of Spanish vernacular architecture with baroque influence and some Mudejar style, was property of Juan Buch around 1825. Buch was the main doctor of the city and member of the Spanish governorship prevailing in Cuba by the date and rented the property in 1840 to the Government of the City for use of Barracks of Cavalry. Turned into hotel Caballeriza in the middle of 2016, it has two buildings: an old one with patrimonial value and the modern extension. The oldest one is a single level building with wooden roof and covered with creole tile that houses the reception, lobby-bar and Snack-breakfast room in addition to the administrative area and kitchen. It has 16 rooms all located in the new type building. For the decoration was taken into account the architectural features of the property, while the ambience recreates the codes historically applied in the colonial interiors. A distinctive element is the different artistic visions that represent the horse to put emphasis on the name of the hotel. The facility, located in the central streets of Miró and Aricochea is an excellent choice for city tourism. / With information from Aldia.cu

Impressive natural landscapes at Alejandro de Humboldt National Park:

In the 25th session of the World Heritage Committee held December 11-16, 2001, in Helsinki, Finland, the United Nations Organization for Education, Science, and Culture (UNESCO)included on its list of World Heritage Sites Cuba's Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt (PNAH), home to the Caribbean's greatest biodiversity, with the largest number of endemic species, and among the most important in the world with these characteristics. Additionally cited by UNESCO as motivation for the inclusion was the fact that the area is one the region's principal evolutionary centers, a bio-geographical bridge and refuge for Caribbean and American flora and fauna from the Miocene-Pleistocene era (fundamentally the Ice Age), as well as the site of important habitats which support terrestrial and fresh water biodiversity in Cuba, and the development of ecological communities. Alejandro de Humboldt National Park covers 70,680 hectares (706.8 km²) on the eastern end of the island's northern coast, in the Guantánamo municipalities of Baracoa, Yateras, and Manuel Tames, plus two in Holguin: Sagua de Tánamo and Moa. It is composed of four conservation departments or sectors: Baracoa, La Melba, Ojito de Agua, and Cupeyal del Norte, with it's administrative center in Guantánamo. A total of 22 communities are linked to the park, seven of these within its boundaries. The park is Cuba's most important protected area, not only because of its natural wealth and endemic species, but also because found here are the country's remaining, well preserved mountain ecosystems, which form the core of the Cuchillas del Toa Biosphere Reserve. A CUBAN NATURAL LANSCAPE Created in 1996, with the name of the eminent German scientist Alejandro de Humboldt (described by José de la Luz y Caballero as the second discoverer of Cuba) the park is distinguished by its extensive tropical forests and ecosystems, including well preserved, ecologically healthy, marine areas. Experts estimate that it is home to 2% of the planet's plant species, over 900 of which are endemic (a third of all plants found on the entire Cuban archipelago), many of them exclusive to this particular region, and some inhabiting only a few dozen square meters here. Among these endemic botanical jewels are five carnivorous plants; two from the genera Podocarpus and Dracaena, some of the most primitive species in the Plant Kingdom, and one in the Buxus genus, thought to be extinct. Located within the park are 16 of the 28 plant regions present in Cuba, including three types of Cuban rainforest: the low altitude, submontane, and montane; in addition to others like the low altitude cloud forest, the broad and needle leaf evergreen, gallery, spiny scrub, mangrove, and the plant systems existent on the coastline which can be sandy or rocky, and include mogotes. Precisely the combination of mountains with forests, valleys, mesas, clear rushing rivers; along side coral reefs, pocket bays, and keys; as well as springs, lakes, and waterfalls, in the cool, rainy climate typical of the territory, make this national park one of Cuba's most impressive natural landscapes, carefully preserved to protect the delicate ecosystem and the species living there. Its woods serve as a refuge for a great number of endemic species, including both resident and migratory birds, like the endangered cotorra and catey, while its marine ecosystems are home to a significant colony of manatees. Rare species of amphibians, reptiles, and fish are found throughout the area. / Granma

The Diet therapy Improves your Health

The modality on Natural and Traditional medicine (MNT) remains unknown to many people and it is really basic for the asthmatic people and the health filed in general. The local Diotherapy (Diet therapy) is aimed at adjusting the food consumption to keep related healthy habits. It is recommended not to eat animal fat and it is warned its harmful effect to fry several times with it, as well as avoiding the excess of salt. It is also instructed how to prepare salads at the moment of eating so that they do not lose their vitamins and minerals while waiting for them. Moreover, it is also taught that the vegetables have to be cooked with steam given they keep their properties. That discipline warns about the harmful usage of candies and the long fasting which are kept by those ones who want to lose weight. It also explains the benefit about drinking a daily fruit and which are the plants with a therapeutic action to expectorate. They are the local onion, Caña Santa plant and eucalyptus, among other ones. It is surprising to some people the use of the new and little known terms: The Bio architecture is about the influence of the hygienic and decorative conditions of a house on the human psyche given it lighten the mind and fade away the breathlessness sensation that is caused by the overcrowding and the lack of aesthetics, taking into account the fact about avoiding ornamental plants and domestic animals, as well as eliminating the curtains and bookcases from the rooms, besides, it is important to know that it should be swept or shaking woolen cloth (wet ones) in those rooms where there are children and asthmatic people sleeping, and it is especially important to keep an air, clean and vector-free house. Regardless of the humbleness of any house, it may achieve a pleasant and healthy environment for everyone through proper cleaning and taste. / With information from Radio Rebelde-Heydi González Cabrera