My favourite animal: The Cougar

It's was very difficult to decide wich was my favourite animal, I really don't have one favourite animal, I think that I have like 10 favourites animals. But then I thought that a lot of my 10 favourites animals are felines, so I decide to choose one of them. I really loooooove felines, all of them, they are so beautiful and agiles, and of course that I have a cat at home. Between all the felines I decide that my favourite feline is the Puma.

The Cougar, also called puma, is a mammal of the family Felidae found in North, Central and South America. It's the second heaviest cat in the American continents after the jaguar. Although large, the cougar is most closely related to smaller felines, because they don't roar but they can purr, therefore they are considered as small cats.

They are slender and agile cats. Their head is round and they have their ears erect. They also have powerfull forequarters wich serve to grasp and hold large prey. They have 5 retractable claws on it forepaws and just 4 on its hindpaws. Cougars are tawny colored with black-tipped ears and tail. They can run as fast as 50 km/h to 72 km/h and jump 6 m from a standing position. Cougar kittens have brownish-blackish spots and rings on their tails.

Their life span is about a decade in the wild and 25 years or more in captivity. Cougars that live closest to the equator are the smallest and increase in size in populations closer to the poles.

They eat a lot of differents animals, even insects. Its most important prey are: mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk and even large mooses, also domestic animals such as domestic horses, cattle and sheeps. Like almost all felines, the puma is a solitary animal. Only mothers and kittens live in groups, with adults meeting only to mate.

The Cougar has the largest range of any wild land animal in the Americas. Its wide distribution stems from its adaptability to every habitat type: it is found in all forest type as well as in lowland and mountainous deserts. Studies shows that they prefer regions with dense underbrush but can live with little vegetation in open areas.

The Puma is considered the largest cat in Chile. In the past, the Puma inhabited the entire national territory excluding the desert in the north, Chiloé Island, the archipelago of Chonos and the antartic territoy. Now, due to the continuous increase of human colonization, its distribution has been reduced by mountain areas and foothillds of both the coast and the Andes, and those areas that are relatively remote from human activity. Their most important prey is the hare and guanaco, also they also attack domestic animals like sheeps, therefore they were hunted a few years ago. The Puma is currently protected by law and its rated in Chile as a vulnerable specie.

I like Pumas because they are beautiful feline and they're very agile, and it's the biggest feline that we have in Chile, and it is one of the species in our country that we have to protect and look after them. And the most important thing is that they can purr!! and I love that from cats, and I find so sweet that they can also do that.

There are many national parks in Chile where we preserve many species of animals and plants, and the Puma it's one of this animals. I would like to help them, and I think that one good way is having this parks. The only and first time that I saw a Puma was in the national park "Alerce Andino". I went there with my family on our "mobile home", and we stayed for a night there (that's forbidden, but we did it anyway ... it was an idea from my father) and in the night we saw a puma very near to our home, he was smelling our things and he stayed for a while. So the idea from my father wasn't bad at all and the man that was looking after this park didn't realize that we stayed there anyway. It was great!

What to do in Santiago

Santiago is the capital of the Republic of Chile, is the cultural, administrative and financial center in the country. It's located in the Maipo Valley and surrounded by the Andes Mountain.

If I someone from another country ask me what he/she can see in Chile, I woul tell him/her that if someone comes to Chile needs to visit San Pedro de Atacama, see the geyser in "el Tatio", go for a walk through the Moon Valley, see all the crafts and tasting the food from that place. Also places like "Las torres del paine" or "la carretera austral", or cities like Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, or Pucón and Frutillar.

Personally I don't like very much Santiago, I don't think that there are many things interesting to see or beautiful places, I mean there are many places to go and things to see, but it's not like a city where you can spend a lot of time staying there, I think that will be boring. When I go to another place, I prefer to see lakes, the nature, and beautiful landscapes, but not so much go shopping or going just to museums. I think If someone comes to Chile must go to Santiago and at least to the north or the south, because if you just go to Santiago you won't see how beautiful Chile really is.

So... my top 5 will be:

1) City Center: There you must see El Palacio de la Moneda (Mint Palace) that it's the presidential house, the Plaza de Armas (Main square) , the cathedral and La Casa Colorada. There are also many museums of several styles and many art galleries. I think that my favourite place it's the cathedral, it's very pretty, I think I will go there soon, because I haven't been there since a long time. The cathedral also has a museum inside and also a library.

2) Bellavista: Is a Bohemian neighborhood where you can find many distinguished restaurants, pubs, art galleries and a lot of little shops with beautiful crafts. There are also discos. It's a place with an intense night life and very touristic. If you go there, and you are not from Chile, you should try chilean food, there are many restaurants that you can choose.

3) Cerro San Cristobal: If you want to see a beautiful panoramic sight of the city you must visit this mount, and also you can visit the Zoo, the japanese garden, there are also restaurants, La casa de la cultura anahuac (is an important enclosure for the development of different cultural expressions) and also the tupahue zone. You can walk around or rent a bike, it's a perfect place for pleople of all ages.

4) Concha y toro neighborhood: it is characterized by its cobblestone streets and old mansions that reflect the elegance and richness of the early twentieth century. You can go there taking the subway to republica station, there you must walk to the alameda street. This place it's between Alameda, Brasil, Cumming and Erasmo Escala street.

5) If you like ski: you can visit the ski centers that are not far away from the city, like the Valle nevado, La Parva, El colorado and Farallones. I haven't been there, but many people have told me that the Valle nevado it's very pretty, and these ski centers are really good, many people from other countries come to Chile because of them.

Of course that everywhere you can find chilean restaurants, even more in the areas close to touristic places, so the tourist should try chilean food, also the wine... the best place for that will be La piojera, where you can try food and drinks from Chile. Everytime that I go there I see that like 50% of the people are tourist. This place it's just on the way out from the Cal y canto metro station. It's also close to the central market, where you can also try the variety of fishes that we have in Chile.

Death penalty: a reasonable measure?

Countries such as USA, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Guatemala, Iran, Korea, Thailand, India and others still practice the death penalty in their countries, they are almost 90 countries.

In Chile, death penalty was abolished in 2001 and was "replaced" by 40 years in prison as maximum. I said that was "replaced" because now 40 years is the most severe punishment that a criminal can receive, this new measure is called: qualified life imprisonment, wich states that the criminal can't have access to any benefit for 40 years. But I wouldn't call it "life imprisonment", because that means that the criminal must remain in prison for the rest of his/her life, and this sentence it's just for 40 years in prison... but it's true that 40 years in prison plus the age that the criminal has, it's almost all his/her life, so the criminal will be very old when the sentece has ended or will die in prison. But this sentence, in Chile, is just for murderers, not just for them, what I'm trying to say is that all the murderers receives this sentence, in other crimes it depends on many other things. So if you kill somebody, you'll be in prison for 40 years.

In countries like Usa, death penalty it's called "capital punishment" and it applies only for aggravated muder and more rarely fenoly murder or contract killing. It is just legalized in some states, but in the most of them. I've read that in some states they don't follow all the legal procedures before condemnig the criminal, that means that maybe the "criminal" can be totatlly innocent. And I've also read that sometimes they are very racist, I mean for example if someone kills a white person, the criminal will be immediately sentenced, but if the victim is a black person, maybe the criminal can be released. That is not what we call justice.

In many countries where death penalty exist evidence shows that capital punishment does not deter people from committing crimes, in fact, a study found that certain types of muders increased after the reintroduction of capital punishment.

So... should death penalty exist? to my mind YES, but ONLY in some cases. People who is against says that criminals have the right to live, things about respect for life, that killing it's a sin and things like that (and I respect that), people who says that are mostly religious people. But there are some people against death penalty that says that this sentence it's like a "gift" for the criminals, they think that maybe the criminals feel guilty (sometimes) and they feel so bad, that there's nothing better than dying, or that they prefer dying than spend almost the rest of his/her life in prison. This kind of people think that criminals should suffer, and to be honest I'm totally agree with them.

What if a man with only 25 years old kills a woman, and then is sentenced to prison for 40 years? After the sentence he will be 65, 40 years are enough time for changing the way of thinking of a sick person? I don't think so, I think he should be forever in prison. But why should the government spend money in prisons? If the criminal will never change, why should we keep them with life? we shouldn't, but they do must suffer. What I just said was only regarding murderers and rapists.

In my opinion, the government should use criminals for making hard works, cleaning the streets, cleaning rivers, I don't know, in many things. But I'm not agree with the fact that they just spend the sentence in prison, doing nothing productive for society. I reckon that many of them can change, but they must be at prison at least, I don't know, 3 years, because nobody can change so fast. So I think there must exist like a "minimum sentence" for all the criminals that are not murderers.

And I'm also in disagree when murderers and rapists in Chile don't stay in prison the 40 years, or they receive a shorter sentence, and just because "they aren't in optimal mental conditions" or "they didn't know what they were doing", of course they aren't in optimal mental conditions if they did what they did, they are sick and they will be always sick people!!. If someone kills someone, this person must stay in prison for 40 year, no less.

I'm in favor of death penalty, but JUST when the person killed or raped someone, and JUST when one of her/his organs can save somebody's life.

Greece

The country that I would like to visit is Greece, I choose this country because of its history and landscapes. Since I was in school that I want to go there, I think that Greece is a very interesting country, there are so many things to see and to know, that I think it's really worth going there. Greece is located on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula.

It was one of the first areas of Europe where one of the most important civilizations took place. This country developed great things such as architecture, philosophy, art and mithology. They started the famous olympic games, also drama including comedy and tragedy, and it was the birthplace of democracy. Because of all that Greece is know as the mecca of western civilization.

Greece is part of the european union and an important percentage of Greece's incomes comes from tourism, actually it's the favourite destination of China and Austria. The most visited place is the capital city, Athens.

If I go there (I MUST go someday!) I would like to visit the acropolis

museum (it's new) that it's very modern and it is one of the most important contemporary work of architecture in Athens, visit the greek national theatre, see all in Athens, also go to visit the ruins from the ancient Sparta, and so many other things. Actually I would like to go for a whole summer and travel around with a motobike, and visit the lakes and the canyons, Greece actually has a big amount of different landscapes... someday I will do all that haha.

But the place that I'd rather go is the santorini island. Santorini is located in the cyclades island. This island is actually what remains of an enormous volcanic explosion (one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the world), and it's so pretty, what I like is the architecture of this island, has low-lying cubical houses, made of local stone and limewashed with various volcanic ashes used as colors. I find it very charming, the first time I saw this island was in a movie a

nd since then I fell in love with this place.