Today is International Volunteer Day, a celebration established by the United Nations to commemorate the contributions and dedication of volunteers worldwide.
We would like to say a big thank you to all the world’s volunteers for the incredible work they do.
Brazil have been given a difficult draw for the 2010 World Cup and will face Portugal, North Korea and Ivory Coast, regarded by many as Africa’s best team.
Hosts South Africa will launch the first World Cup on African soil with a match against Mexico in Johannesburg.
England will meet the United States, Cameroon face the Netherlands, and Germany will play Australia and Ghana.
European champions Spain were given a relatively kind draw and will take on Switzerland, Honduras and Chile.
The draw for the 32-nation tournament was made at a ceremony in Cape Town and broadcast to more than 250 million people worldwide.
There were gasps in the audience when three of the strongest nations – Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast – were put together in Group G.
Two-time champions Argentina are pooled with 2004 European champions Greece, Nigeria and South Korea.
2010 World Cup draw
Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Ghana, Serbia
Group E: Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon, Denmark
Group F: Italy, New Zealand, Paraguay, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Cost, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Honduras, Chile, Switzerland
The end of the decade is nearly upon us and we are entering the season of the list. Music magazines and newspapers have been nominating their artists and albums of the decade. A consensus seems to be forming around some well known artists (i.e. Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, Beyoncé, George Strait, Jay Z, Radiohead, The Strokes, The Streets, etc), yet there is one name missing from all these lists. His name is Nitin Sawhney.
Nitin Sawhney (born 1964) is an Indian-British musician, producer and composer. His critically-acclaimed work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of jazz, flamenco, electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics and spirituality. Sawhney is also active in the promotion of arts and cultural matters, and is a patron of numerous film festivals, venues, and educational institutions.
Read more at Wikipedia
Situated on the edge of the Manuel Antonio National Park, the Costa Verde Resort features an incredible hotel suite set inside a 1965 Boeing 727 airplane. In its former life the airplane transported globetrotters on South Africa Air and Avianca Airlines, and it now serves as a two bedroom suite perched on the edge of the rainforest overlooking the beach and ocean.
The airplane was transported piece by piece from San Jose airport to its current resting place on a pedestal 50 feet above the beach. It looks a bit like a model airplane on a stand, and we can only imagine the spectacular views from the balcony and the airplane windows. Five big trucks were needed to get the plane out to the resort, and while the transportation certainly had a negative ecological impact, the finished project is a stunning example of adaptive reuse.
The two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite also includes a kitchenette, flat-screen TV, a dining room, and a terrace with an ocean view. We can’t really agree with their choice of furnishings, which are made from teak and shipped across the Pacific from Indonesia, but at least they were hand carved. The tip-to-tail panelling on the inside is also teak, but it was harvested locally in Costa Rica. Like the Jumbo Jet Hostel in Stockholm, this hotel suite is sure to offer jet-setting travellers a lovely location for an extended layover.
A married couple from Leeds will be spending this Christmas – and much of the New Year – riding a tandem the length of South America. And in undertaking the 10,000-mile journey, they hope to raise £10,000 for charity.
Tim and Naomi Steere, from Bramley, want to raise funds for the Foundation for the Study of Infant Death, a cause close to their hearts due to Mrs Steere having lost a brother to cot death.
On their page on the charity website justgiving.co.uk, the couple say that their trip will take them “10,000 miles from the world’s most southerly town across the driest desert, climbing to the highest capital city, before descending through the Amazon basin to complete the challenge on the Caribbean coast within six months.”
Local newspaper Armley Today says that the pair, who fly out to Argentina this week, will have to carry all their supplies for the journey in four panniers, which is the most the tandem bike can carry.
It added that the pair, who have been saving for the trip for several years and have given up their jobs – Mr Steere worked as a data analyst, his wife as a nurse – to undertake the expedition, will rent their home out while they are away.
According to 26-year-old Mr Steere, the couple chose to ride tandem instead of using separate bicycles “For the novelty of it. Also, it would be really frustrating if we were on separate bikes, one of us would always be chasing the other.”
They aim to complete 75 miles each day, and will take a fortnight’s break from the saddle once they reach halfway.
Donations can be made via the couple’s Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/10000milesforFSID
A Convenient Truth is an informative, inspirational documentary aimed at sharing ideas to provoke environment-friendly and cost-effective changes in cities worldwide. The documentary focuses on innovations in transportation, recycling, social benefits including affordable housing, seasonal parks, and the processes that transformed Curitiba into one of the most liveable cities in the world.
This documentary includes exclusive interviews from Curitiba’s world renowned mayors Jaime Lerner and Cassio Tanigushi, as well as other brilliant minds who made Curitiba a world class model.
A must see documentary for anyone interested in urban planning, sustainable development, and life itself.
Now that we’re coming up to the end of the first decade in the new millenium, we thought it would be fun to choose our favourite films of the decade. This wasn’t an easy task and we had to exclude many worthy candidates (Caché, Crossing the Bridge, Milk, My Winnipeg, Persepolis, Red Road, Religulous, Taking Liberties, The Orphanage, Tidelands, Waltz with Bashir, etc).
Our top ten movies of the decade in alphabetical order:
Our top three Latin American movies of the decade:
Most savvy international travellers are familiar with Carnival, the monster samba party Rio de Janeiro hosts before Lent every year, however, few are aware of the second blow-out the Brazilian city stages annually. The feast of Iemanja, the Goddess of the Sea, coincides with New Year celebrations and this synchronicity results in a unique extravaganza that combines Afro-Brazilian religious rituals with dancing, fireworks, and general merrymaking. Copacabana Beach is ground zero for this huge and amazing spectacle.
One of the best New Year’s Eve parties you’ll find anywhere.
Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest (4,085 square miles) and highest salt desert (3,656 meters above the mean sea level).
It is believed that about some 30,000 – 42,000 years ago, the area was part of a giant prehistoric lake, Lake Minchin. When it dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Salar de Uyuni.
Today, Salar de Uyuni is a popular tourist attraction where you can even find a hotel made of salt. Driving across the perfectly flat white expanse of the Salar, with the unbroken chains of snow-capped mountains lining the far horizon, it’s easy to believe you’re on another planet. When dry, the dazzling salt surface shines with such intense whiteness that you’ll find yourself reaching down to check that it’s not ice or snow, whilst by night the entire landscape is illuminated by the eerie white glow of moonlight reflected in the salt. When it’s covered in water after rain, the Salar is turned into an enormous mirror that reflects the surrounding mountain peaks and the sky so perfectly that at times the horizon disappears and the mountains appear like islands floating in the sky.
No less strange are the tenacious ecosystems that survive around the arid and salty margins of the Salar, including colonies of cacti and other hardy plants, the rabbit-like viscachas that live on the islands in the centre of the lake (in particular Isla de Pescadores), and the flamingos that feed and nest here during the rainy season. Equally hardy are the isolated communities of Aymara and Quechua campesinos who eke out a marginal existence on the shores of the Salar, cultivating quinua in the brackish soils and scraping up salt for sale or exchange.
Blindingly white and dizzyingly high, this vast salt flat near the crest of the Andes is one of Bolivia’s most extraordinary attractions, and one of the most fascinating experiences in South America.
Get yourself there soon as the multinationals have got their eyes on the huge lithium reserves beneath the salt. There are plans to build a large-scale lithium plant at the famed tourist attraction.
The Salt Hotel of Salar de Uyuni is sort of similar to the ice hotels in Norway and Sweden, only it’s never in any danger of melting. The hotel is built completely of blocks of salt cut out of the lake; similar to how Eskimo’s cut snow to make their igloos. The sun heats the massive blocks of salt so that while the surrounding temperatures drop massively during the night, the interior remains warm and cosy.
The hotel has 15 bedrooms, a dining room, a living room and a bar. Almost everything is made up of salt; you sit on the salt chairs, eat on salt tables, sleep on salt beds and enjoy your drinks in the salt bar. In the dining room of the hotel the salt is always on the table or rather it would apt to say the salt is the table. The toilets, lighting and pool table are the only things made of contemporary materials.
There is only one rule guests must adhere to when staying at the hotel: no licking the walls!