Son "El Grito" (Yo soy puro Guatemalteco)

Yo soy puro guatemalteco

y me gusta bailar el son,

con las notas de la Marimba

también baila mi corazón.

Cuando bailo con mi María

hasta un grito me sale así...

que rechulas son las inditas

cuando las veo bailar el son,

con sus faldas levantaditas

van taconeando con suave rumor.

Para bailar...

indita mía yo voy palmeando alrededor,

para gritar...

con una mano tomo el sombrero y lo hago así.

Yo ya me voy...

me voy cantando

me voy gritando lejos de aquí,

te canto a ti...

mi Guatemala tierra querida donde nací.

Son: El Grito

Letra: José Ernesto Monzón

Música: Everardo De León


Tortillas blancas en el comal

Maize was first encountered by Europeans in Central America. There are some theories of how the Indians domesticated this cereal but it seems its origin are still involved in mystery. Europeans brought maize back to Europe and since then it has been consumed almost everywhere. In Guatemala, one of the main staple foods are tortillas, a flat bread made of maize. In the countryside, the tortillas are still prepared manually through a process called nixtamalisation. This process includes soaking and cooking the maize grains in limewater, and after, hulling, washing, and grinding the grains into the dough, that will be shaped into flat circles. These become tortillas after being cooked in the "comal". The process of nixtamalisation eliminates the toxins while improving the flavour and nutritional value of the grains. These tortillas were white but they can be different colours depending on the colours of the maize grains they are made of. Tortillas can be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Black and White picture of Amadeo

Last April I was so lucky to be in Paris at the same time the exhibition about the work of the Portuguese painter Amadeo Souza Cardoso was being displayed at the Grand Palais. Amadeo's work is so great, across so many currents and so vivid that it was an immense pleasure to walk the galleries and absorb every detail of his paintings. Had he not died in 1918 at the age of 30 and he would have been remembered as Picasso, Dali or Modigliani (whom he befriended). The paintings have to be appreciated of course but as they can all be found in the internet I rather leave here a photo of him, confident, futuristic, someone who shocked the narrow minded Portuguese society of the time. When I came across this photo and  sentence: "Je ne fais partie d'aucune ecole" meaning "I am not part of any current", I straight away empathised with it and smiled inside.   

Green Ethiopia

When I was a teenager I had this idea that I wanted to live and work in Africa. I have not managed so far but the idea is still in my head. Africa, is of course, a huge, hugely diverse, continent. In Ethiopia  I loved the people, the spicy food, the landscape and the heritage. On the other hand, I have talked to young people that, even though had a smile in their faces, were disillusioned by what the future could bring. When I was little I remember once going to the church in the evening with my grandma to watch a slide show facilitated by missionary nuns about the hunger crisis in Ethiopia. After travelling around and seeing so much farming land I found difficult to believe I was in the same country where this  happened. I noticed signs of prosperity and development but another food crisis is an hovering threat. Frail political stability, increased droughts, population pressure - the stressors are adding up...

Green grass surrounds the ruins of Quinta d'Areia

Last April I met Mr Goncalo and his wife who guided me to Quinta d'Areia, nearby Praia Azul in the municipality of Torres Vedras, Portugal. He is a descendant of the nobles who owned this house and the land around it more than fifty years ago. The legend says that once upon a time, a mermaid and her daughter were hungry and went to pick some green peas in the farms belonging to the owner of Quinta d'Areia. The men who were working in the fields spot them and caught the daughter mermaid killing her even after her mother's plea. Because of this, the older mermaid threw a spell of bad luck to the owner and his estate. Since then, it has been sold several times and the big house is been in ruins until nowadays. When I was a kid, I remember listening my great grandmother telling me she used to listen to the mermaids singing near Quinta d'Areia. And when I was in Orkney last year, I bought a book about the Tales of Orkney and in there I found similar legends to this one. Everything seems to come together at some point of our lives!

Blue sea and the Tragedy of the Commons

If I remember well, the first time I came across the concept of the tragedy of the commons was during my Game Theory classes when undertaking my MSc in Economics. The tragedy of the commons describes the situation where individuals act according to their self interest and deplete the resources through their collective action. In this case, the "common resource" were mussels and the individuals were people who, compelled by the tradition of going "fishing" on Good Friday, came from everywhere to Praia Azul and caught as many kg of mussels as they could only in a few hours. As the weather was reasonably good, this meant hundreds of people on the rocks and hundreds of kg of mussels caught. Although the amount and size allowed per person have been finally regulated in 2014 (3kg per person per day and >5cm), with absolutely no control from the authorities, the tragedy happened. The excessive capture of mussels in a single day damages its population and also the food web, endangering other sea species that are dependent on this resource to survive.

Dark enegies at New College, Oxford

Curiously, New College is one of Oxford's oldest colleges. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1379 for the education of priests. A visit to the chapel and cloister at night was a supernatural experience. According to a colleague, there was some invisible people walking up and down the corridors. Spooky!

White snow at the top of Ben Vrackie

Ben Vrackie is a Corbett located next to Pitlochry in the Cairngorms. The name comes from Gaelic Breac which means speckled (covered or marked with a large number of small spots or patches of colour). The walk started from Moulin and passed by a frozen lake named Loch a' Choire. The clouds did not allow to see much further than this, but according to Adam Watson (The Cairngorms), Ben Vrackie "commands a magnificent view up Tummel and across to Moor of Rannoch". At the top of the mountain there was an old man who asked us to take a photo of him in his new boots which had been a present from someone. This episode is as a good reminder that hill walking is a an activity that keeps fit the young and the old.

Umbada (the colour can be blue as Jorge Fernando's 80's suit)

Sometimes when writing papers I need more than classic music to inspire me. Recently while browsing for Vasco Palmeirim satiric songs to listen to, I found the movement "Umbada Never Forget" which tried to resurrect a pearl of the 80's Portuguese music Umbada. I decided to make my own piano version, and thus also pay my homage to Jorge Fernando, a Portuguese Fado composer and singer I like a lot. Of course, I still need to tune it properly, but here it is my first attempt!

É umbadá, umbadeó-umbadá

É umbadá, umbadeó-umbadá

É umbadá, umbadeó-umbadá

É umbadá, umbadeó-umbadá

É umbadá, umbadeó-umbadá 

Original is here: Umbada 

Newlands valley (Lake distrcit) and its Scottish colours

The Scottish people have to forgive me but the truth is that, I think there is a bit of Scotland in England. From thinking that England was a boring place for mountain walking, I am now almost convinced that it can have also spectacular views and quiet places (without or with few people around) to walk. This is the Newlands valley in the Lake District and if before what I encountered in this region of England was loads of tourists surrounded by beautiful landscapes, this time what I found, in a 7 hour walk, was great mountains, colours and nice people that occasionally stopped me for a little chat. Ok, I am definitely ready to explore more of the natural landscapes England has to offer!

Greenish sea in New Aberlour

In the winter, when the weather is not good for the mountains we have the sea. This is what it means to leave in Scotland. There is always a choice. New Aberlour in the north coast is an example of a great place for a coastal walk with its secluded beaches, rock pools and caves. Sometimes dolphins swim in the horizon and even whales. Yes, I have seen already a whale jumping in the water just in front of me. And that is just an amazing sight. If the whales decide to be shy, beach combing is another possible activity.

Reds

This is Aberdeen FC playing Celtic Glasgow at Pittodrie Stadium in January. And this was a game who got us, a bunch of foreigners, screaming, singing and supporting Aberdeen FC. The energy felt in a football field is just amazing and able of shadowing any worries. Aberdeen FC was never again a team at the international level since Sir Alex Ferguson left to Manchester United in 1986. But this game was special, as Aberdeen FC was second in the Scottish league after Celtic. As the score was 2-0 until minute 91' we all sang: to Celtic's manager "We're going to be sacked in the morning".

Many flags, many colours



This sculpture placed at the James D. Wolfensohn Atrium is a "call for attention" about a disease that affects several people in Africa. It is called river blindness and it is caused by the bites of infected black flies that breed in fast-flowing rivers. According to the World Health Organization, 99% of the infected people live in 31 African countries. The World Bank, in partnership with WHO, African governments and pharmaceutical firms is contributing to protect millions of people from river blindness.

The World Bank is a cooperative founded in 1944 with 188 member countries. The WB claims poverty reduction as the overarching goal of their work.

After the storm the good weather: blue sky and white snow

If the previous big snowstorm in Washington DC was called Snowmaggedon this one received the name of Snowzilla. The consequences of such storms were big, so the economists said: thousands of flights cancelled, closed shops, no traffic circulation, accidents...But the economists forgot to give a value to the amusement that people were having: from snowball fighting, to sledge races, to simply enjoying walking in the middle of the empty roads. And, the value of extra holidays, which for US citizens, should not definitely be  dismissed.  

BUT, it is a pity the storm description took over my post because there was so much to say about DC's history: the civil rights movement and the 14th street and Shaw neighbourhood, the "Revolution should not be televised" and Scott-Heron, the organic food supermarkets, the blueberry pancakes for breakfast, Georgetown and the Waterfront, the interesting books at the WB bookshop and more and more...

Multi colour mosaic picture

This picture was taken in the mosaic kiosk at the Smithsonian Castle. I found nice that visitors could choose the topic of the pictures that were going to be put together to build our photo. Mine was an easy choice: Art and music! And this is how I look like!

The Smithsonian is a complex of several (19) museums in Washington DC. One of its founders was James Smithson, a British Scientist who left his estate to the United States to found the "diffusion of knowledge".  I went for a first recognition on a Wednesday thinking I would have the time to visit on the weekend. Of course this was again evidence that supports the Portuguese saying: "Don't leave for tomorrow what you can do today"!



Purple sunset

This picture was taken in early January in Cambelas. Walking up and down the cliffs in the late afternoon was a great opportunity to capture images like this one. Unfortunately not everything was perfect. The rough sea brought lots of litter to the sand...And this is a problem no official entity wants to be responsible for so far...