At the crossroads between Asia and Europe, Istanbul is a mix of old and modern, traditional and contemporary. The continuous flow of its 14 million inhabitants make the magic of its streets (caddesi) a place for observation and delightment.

From protecting from tanning, as a wealth symbol, to sheltering from downpours, like the legend says it was created around 3500 years ago, umbrellas in China are colourful and used in all kind of daily life situations, as a contrast to ancient times when they meant status. A cheerful set of pictures about umbrellas in China.

“An island”, is how the Queimada dos Britos locals call the tiny oasis they live in. Surrounded by a sea of sand and lagoons in the winter season that composes the Lençois do Maranhão National Park, this area stretches 155 thousand hectares on the State of Maranhão, Brazil. The closest village is four hours walking on the sand. No one really knows when the community was founded but the legend says that the founder Manuel Brito, due to a drought that was scorching his homeland in the Ceará State, ran away and ended up settling down in the only non-sandy portion of the Lençois. Generations later everybody is a relative, cousins intermarrying frequently as a normal course. Around 60 people live in Queimada dos Britos, but the locals are not sure, since there is always someone going away or coming back. They live of fishing in the sea, which is two hours away. In the winter they breed fish in the lagoons, and cattle and goats, which run free on the dunes. They have small gardens for farming but nothing major since they are afraid of the accelerating advance of the dunes that have already covered several houses. Nowadays tourism is reaching the quiet life of Queimada dos Britos bringing some income, which is well received when the visitors walk in. The downturn is that more and more agencies from nearby cities are bringing tourists into the park on motor vehicles, which the locals claim is affecting the environment and their peaceful way of life. But not only their life is threaten by the tourists and the sand, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources (IBAMA) is planning to remove them since they live in a National Park. The residents refuse to move since many of them were born there and lived all their lives in the Queimada. They claim that more than a threat; they are a protection to the Lençois do Maranhão.

The Cíes Islands are an archipelago off the coast of Pontevedra in Galicia (Spain). They were declared a Nature Reserve in 1980 and are included in the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park created in 2002. In February 2007 the British newspaper The Guardian chose the beach of Rodas, Spain on the island of Monteagudo, as "the best beach in the world."

823 exp arrow South, the train of migrants The train 823 exp arrow South was been a symbol of the history of Southern Italy. Established in the 50s to the front of the boom in domestic migration, is the longest train journey in Italy. It ran the 1600 km separating Milan from Agrigento in about 24 hours. For over half a century was used by emigrants of South Italy uprooted from their wives, children and their homeland in search of a piece of bread less bitter than some factory of the north. Lately Trenitalia (Italian company train management) has definitively suppressed this train for to boost the high-speed lane. Ends up a piece of Italian history. "Arrow South Exp 823. The train of migrants " wants to be a tribute for this memorable train, for his people, for the presence of baggage full of hope and dreams of those left from the southern lands. In our country, the emigration is for the governing class a normal process in the social life of Italy. In the country's total indifference, Italy owes much to these citizens.

Sacred Suburbs, devotion that seems a thousand times closer to to Cuban "Santeria" than the Catholic worship: in Naples Padre Pio is mixed with Maradona, the rite with superstition. Each chapel tells a story, devotion born from the necessity that sometimes becomes a nightmare. Walk between "ultra popular" neighborhoods, neighborhoods that have fewer years than me, including buildings designed to make sure that there was no aggregation. There is a chapel, there is life. That chapel holds secrets and dramas, most of the time impassable, tears and pain that will remain hidden in statues of marble and plaster decorations. I am still walking and I know Vincent who has an angel tattooed on his shoulder that will pit. I do not know if it is his devotion but the fact the he needs to be represented with wings in his story, has something to do with it. I continue my journey and I know Jesus, an illegal parking. Jesus speaks of God, a kind of God who is there but not seen. He needs of the sacred, he needs also answers that are struggling to come out of this world. Jesus, for the cocaine habit, what God tells me that "sometimes pulls with him." Jesus madonnas and saints, saints who no longer fly, on the walls of a house / room in the basement. I am still walking, small four rooms on the ground floor of apartment buildings popular, that's where the mothers of the neighborhood meet to pray, pray and hope that their childreen can do it, they can save themselves from their surroundings.

Colombia’s armed conflict, which started in the 1960’s, might be close to an end. After almost four years of negotiations between the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly known as FARC, a ceasefire was signed on June 23rd 2016 and a final agreement reached on August 24th 2016. During the conflict more than 220,000 people have been killed and close to seven million have been displaced, generating the world’s second largest population of internal displaced. According to a Handicap International survey, 80% of the survivors of the armed struggle in Colombia have a disability. Maritza, Fábio, Moises, Edwin, Jonathan, German, Joe and Oscar, are only eight of the victims of the conflict that suffer a form of disability, each one with their individual story, each with their own struggle from a traumatic experience that changed the rest of their lives. Through rehabilitation they have been able to focus in sports to overcome whatever limitation they have, and become successful athletes in their own right. Five of them will be competing in the 2016 Paralympics games in Rio representing Colombia. Jonathan, Oscar and Joe will not be able to join the games in Rio this time for different circumstances. But they are not less heroes for that; they all represent and are an inspiration for the many other victims of the conflict.