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