Paris for the recurring traveler – Day 1

I’ve been to la Ville de l’Amour a few times, visited different areas, seen the main attractions as well as not so well known neighborhoods, but maybe not enough time to just live the city and make it my own.

Taking advantage of my sister’s hospitality I went back in the beginnings of November for 5 days. And it made such a difference! Maybe it was the sun that accompanied me during most of my journey, maybe it was a more open and carefree mindset or maybe it just was that – and please forgive my cheesiness-  Paris is probably the most beautiful city in the world. Period.

So, if like me, you’ve visited the capital of France more than once, let me share with you some of the routes I took wandering around the city. We’ll start with the fancy 5ème arrondissement, on the left side of the Seine.

Day 1- 5ème: Jardin des plantes, Mosquée de Paris, Rue Mouffetard, Saint-Étienne-du-Mont

So this time I decided to visit the Jardin des Plantes by Gare d’Austerlitz metro station encouraged by a friend.

Images of Mexico

Soundtrack

Better late than never.

I may have taken my time to update this blog, but I wasn’t going to give up so easily! Lazyness has been my companion for too long, but today I decided it was time to shake things up.

So basically I went to Mexico after New Year’s to visit my sister and had lots of fun. I visited Riviera Maya for a week of rain and cold and then went back to Mexico City where surprisingly the weather was much better. I took some pictures, which I thought were great but ended up being just  O.K., and then decided that I wanted to show them to the world and say a few things about this amazing country that has many beautiful places to go and too much bad publicity.

Riviera Maya has lots to offer

In spite of the bad weather, the views and landscape in Riviera Maya were like paradise. When in Yucatán, relax in your hotel, visit the ruins of Cobá, Tulúm or Chichén Itzá, swim admist fish in a cenote, take a boat to Isla Mujeres and if you have extra time and money, go to a park like Xcaret.

Swimming pool in front of the Caribbean see in Riviera Maya

Barcelona’s Science Museum through a kid’s eyes

I remember when I was little going to the Science Museum with my school class. I loved it, especially the Amazonian Forest and all these things you could touch and play with. Remember the electric ball that made you feel you had all the power in your hands?

The Barcelona’s Science Museum, or CosmoCaixa, is located in the uptown, surrounded by splendid villas. It’s quite an excursion to get there, but it’s definitely worth the view.

The museum is arranged around a 6 floor high staircase that goes in circles around a huge “tree”. It’s a sculpture by Catalan artist Enric Pladevall who spent over a year building this 23 meter-long “Tree of Life“.

As a grown-up I’d been back a couple of times, but I’ve always been kind of disappointed. Everything seemed smaller and less exciting. Not too long ago I had the chance to go back with a 2-year-old kid, and it was fantastic to see how excited he was. It made me see the museum as if I was a kid again, getting all amazed by the different devices like in a funfair.

Here you can see him playing as a DJ. Just by flipping over color cubes on a special surface, you were able to make different music sounds and feel like David Guetta.

Another activity that especially caught his attention was a facility where you could appreciate the decomposition of white light. Pushing 3 different buttons you could choose how many primary colors you wanted to see. You don’t need to understand the functioning of it to enjoy the scene: