El Medano is one of the largest natural beaches around Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Famous for the soundness of its coastline, El Medano is spectacular.

A couple of kilometers of coastal terrain ideal for the enjoyment of anyone who appreciates the value of a real sea, seasoned with numerous coves and hidden beaches, small and precious, that invites the visitor to have intimate moments.

The winds in El Medano are known all around the word and perhaps for this reason, most athletes do not hesitate to come with windsurfers to enjoy its waves.

Sporting competitions in El Medano are very common. Besides the good weather, typical to the entire Canary Islands archipelago, we must not forget this value added for water sports, with some of the most valuable sporting events of international quality in modalities such as kitesurfing and windsurfing.

Tenerife people are aware of the treasure that means for them this wonderful beach and care for it with all their strength. In fact, year after year, this piece of coastline gets a deserved European Union Blue Flag which guarantees the quality of its water and its sand.

Walking around we recommend a visit to some of the largest volcanic craters in the area, both protected zones: Red Mountain and Bare Mountain.

Creative Commons Image: aqueronte

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From our headquarters in Hotel Be Live Talavera de la Reina, today we propose a very special trip to Toledo and, a vist to the Greco Museum must be ensured.

To take a look at this area of one of the best preserved cities of Spain is a luxury, but if we also do it through the eyes of one of the most important mannerist painters of art history, the experience can be unique.

Looking through Greco’s eyes does not mean that we have to see everything elongated, like the famous shade of the cypress. You know that Domenico Theotokopulos, best known as “Greco”, had a sight condition that was the cause of those elongated profiles in his figures providing them of a spiritual aura.

It had nothing to do with the grace of the Holy Spirit, although Greco was quite religious and precisely this kind of painting occupied a primordial place in his production.

We propose to wander across the rooms of Greco Museum, located on the foundations of a Toledo VI century house. In the facilities of this gallery, under Ministry of Culture of Spain jurisprudence, we shall initiate us into the mysteries of one of the most authentic and original painters of Spanish art.

Some works have been donated, to be guarded in these facilities, by Prado Museum. Others have had to stay in the famous art gallery in Madrid, where they can keep them in top condition. Anyway, the visit to the Greco Museum will not disappoint you.

Imagen: Flickr/Fiore S. Barbato

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Spending a season in Cuba Matanzas province required us to schedule a ride on a little boat over the calm waters of Canímar River, a rushing stream that runs through the Cuban jungle landscape and brings us into direct contact with a nature less known from the Caribbean island.

This natural area is easy to visit due to organized tours such as the ones of Halconviajes.com and Air Europa, especially because it leads us through some of the places and the history of Cuba less widespread and yet equally interesting.

Canímar River allows navigations about 12 kilometers of the 19 of course to its mouth. The course of the ride is very comforting, because it has nothing to do with the seafaring image of the Caribbean. On the contrary, we are in a purely jungle scenery and enjoying the peace of navigation, we can spot some of the nearly 100 species of birds that live on both sides of Canímar River.

They are not the only animals who sleep in this area, known for its wildlife, from endemic species to reptiles, manatees and numerous land mammals. But we’ll have time to hear the story, because the walk ends at Canímar River Resort, where specialists will explain all that curiosity could ask.

In fact, during the tour we will have to go along with significant archaeology sites witnessing life from the Mesolithic and the burial place of the first primitive communities that inhabited the island.

Truth is that in this area is located the oldest cemetery of Central America, where former Cuban natives were buried.

Creative Commons Image: Flickr/Manu_H

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The month of May brings a lot of requirements to make the visit to Santa Cruz de Tenerife a unique experience. It’s time to celebrate one of their most important festivals, to which we have to add May Traditional Crosses and different celebrations due to the Founding of the City the 3 of May of 1494.

If Santa Cruz de Tenerife is always amazing and colorful, this month’s agenda is tightened to house countless festivities, folk, cultural, for children’s, typical cuisine… It’s Santa Cruz May.

Among so much to do, perhaps the three most characteristic celebrations of Tenerife are those that correspond to the Pilgrims Walk, the Magicians Dance and May Crosses, very peculiar in this area of ​​the Canary Islands.

Magicians dance usually takes place on the eve of the anniversary of the founding of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where ‘chicharreras’ and ‘chicharreros’ come wearing the typical regional costumes… called magicians costumes.

It’s typical for those who go to the dance to bring dishes of Tenerife cuisine, prepared by themselves. Men and women, families and friends share food in one of the largest outdoor dining of the world that, in fact, was recognized by the Guinness Book as well, thanks to the 8,000 guests who attended it in 1999.

A week after the Magicians Dance will take place the Pilgrims Walk, with the pilgrims riding in carts decorated for the occasion.

The other time to enjoy the peculiar tints celebrations of Canary Islands is the tour of the May Crosses, exposed in different parts of the city made with food from the land, exotic fruits and breads. Quite spectacle of color and imagination!

Creative Commons or Public Domain Image: Flickr/Mataparda 

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Let’s go to the largest of the Balearic island to approach one of the Psicobloc holiest spots, one of the most modern techniques of climbing that invites athletes to deep-water soloing, climbing steep and vertical walls that rise over the sea .

In Mallorca, specifically between Cala Santanyi and Cala Llombars there is one of these landforms. One of the more prestigious spots where international climbers who come to the island for the sole purpose of living a unique experience can practice this radical sport.

We talk about Es Pontàs, a huge rock bridge shaped set to sea. The rocky mass, of spectacular beauty, is surrounded by seawater. The bridge shaping is a geological quirk that owes its plasticity to the fury of the waves and centuries of erosion.

For years it has been the focus of numerous marinas, painted and photographed by all kinds of artists. However, the XXI century has provided a new source of notoriety to the area.

Es Pontàs is one of the objectives more pursued by climbers of all nationalities. Its success is because it is considered as one of the most difficult routes of deep-water soloing in the world.

The practitioners of this form of climbing often spend several days trying to climb the stone bridge before crowning it. In many cases they end up falling into the sea, where the water should cushion the fall.

Deep-water soloing is practiced in Mallorca since the late 70s of last century and, in recent years, is attracting more and more athletes as accidents and cliffs of the island are of extreme difficulty.

Creative Commons Image: Flickr/Jaume Meneses

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They are a symbol of Dominican Republic craftsmanship. Faceless dolls are the essence of ‘handmade’ of Creole culture. Many foreigners return from their vacation in Dominican lands with a good number of these beautiful faceless dolls; today we are going to discover the reason for the absence of features.

Dominican faceless dolls are originate from the north of the Dominican Republic, although they can be found anywhere on the island right now and, of course, has spread across borders as quoted folk craft object.

All represent sinuous women of sensual shapes. Their delicate garments exacerbate the beautiful color of their skin, in this case, achieved thanks to the material with which the farmers modeled the beautiful figures: mud.

Braid brown and heads covered with exquisite wide-brimmed sun hats. In their hands a basket of fruit or a delicate bouquet. Faces … do not exist. It is an allegory of the Dominican reality, a mix of imposed cultures they have known how to take advance of it becoming in a real example of miscegenation.

However, racial syncretism is behind this absence of features that could be the Taino, Spanish, Creole and African … even a mixture of them all.

The production of the Dominican faceless dolls began at Moca more than four decades ago and now many of them are produced industrially. However, it is easy to find genuine masterpieces made ​​by hand of local artisans.

Of course, in our journey with Air Europa, we will see many of these dolls in any of the tours arranged with Halconviajes.com.

Creative Commons Image: Flickr/creATive809 (José Elias DLC)

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We must go to the province of Matanzas, in the vicinity of our Cuban hotels, Be Live Las Morlas and Be Live Turquesa. There we can go into one of the oldest tourist spots of Cuba, Bellamar system cave.

As tourist center it’s a century and a half old, which makes it one of the first places that attracted the attention of visitors to Cuba. However, we must emphasize that the origin of Bellamar cave is back over 30 million years.

It is spectacular. The work done by nature in this environment is simply magical and often has been declared as one of the most beautiful cave systems in the world.

The erosive work of marine waters, combined with coal from the rock, has been carving a perfect dreamscape, in which stands the so-called Columbus Mantle, a stalactite over 12 meters in length, the queen of stalactite world resisting inside a cave: 3200 years!

And this spectacular area is in its early youth, considering the total longevity of Bellamar cave. We must not forget visiting The Garden of the Carrots and Doña Mamerta, which are not far behind in spectacular and rarity.

Matanzas system cave consists of over 25 kilometers of underground networks, although the public area is traversed by three quarters of an hour’s visit through a journey of 1500 meters of breathtaking beauty.

Creative Commons Image: Flickr/paul bica

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In the eastern part of the capital of Dominica Republic stands a monumental building whose purpose was to serve as a tribute to the memory of Christopher Columbus. The impressive architecture was designed many decades ago to be finally inaugurated during the celebrations of the five centuries of America’s discovery.

Columbus Lighthouse is located right in the place where the city was founded is based on the drawings of Scottish architect JL Glave in the early 30s. Subsidized by all the countries of Latin America, the lighthouse cost more than $ 70 million.

It is a huge concrete building of heavy mass cross shaped, with over 300 meters long that when struck by sunlight can get light to flash so broad that it can be spotted from neighboring Puerto Rico.

Inside Columbus Lighthouse rested the assumptions remains of Christopher Columbus under a constantly custody of a military couple… although DNA analysis of the remains resting in the Cathedral of Seville confirmed that the corpse of the marine rests in the Andalusian city.

The building has alienated not a few Dominicans, for various reasons. There are the reviews from those who consider it an unnecessary investment and the ones of those who criticize his intention to honor the Catholic Church.

The lighthouse is built on cruciform and, at night, powerful beams of light projected the shape of a cross against the sky of Santo Domingo.

Creative Commons Image: Flickr/Jose Bovet Space’s

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On the shores of this stunning piece of land, declared Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, one might believe that can touch Africa. Just an inlet of 100 kilometers separates us from the black continent and Fuerteventura suggests the African proximity with a semi-desert striking landscape.

We are at the second largest island in the Canary Islands Archipelago and only Tenerife takes out territory of the coastal profile with miles and miles of an extraordinary coastline of dream beaches and white sands.

The turquoise waters, a color reserved for tropical paradises, imposes its fascinating counterpoint to the ‘majorero’ horizon and invites lovers of seamanship to have fun with all kinds of nautical sports.

The climate is mild and temperate most of the year, moving in an arc that goes from 15 º C in winter to 25 º C of average in summer, with guaranteed sunshine and more than a Saharan touch that gets, between whitewashed houses, that stones achieve more than 65 ° C.

In Fuerteventura there is time for everything. Visit a museum, like Miguel de Unamuno one, in the house where he was exiled for a time; have family fun at one of the natural or theme parks; have a few drinks on bars that ensures vibrant nightlife times; make some culinary tourism and try their wonderful local cheese names ‘majorero’; have some horseback riding through the magnificent geography islands; take a boat for whale watching…

The offer in Fuerteventura is varied and enjoyable, but once we reached the island thanks to Air Europa, it is best to leave everything in hands of Halconviajes.com and their guided tours.

Creative Commons Image: Flickr/alexhealing

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The city of Cartagena, Region of Murcia, is in itself an authentic treatise on history and on the stones of an ancient Iberian and Tartessian community, Hasdrubal dared to lay the foundation of the city around the year 227 b.C.

If Carthaginian culture served to establish the roots of Cartagena, the strength of the Roman Empire let the town of Murcia become one of the most beautiful cities of the Mediterranean.

This struggle between the desire for extension of primal Qart Hadasht, son in law of Hamilcar Barca and Carthago Nova of Emperor Diocletian has transcended in time and today continues present in the city even through their festivities.

In fact, Carthaginians and Romans is one of the most fun celebrations of Cartagena that every year, and before the summer comes to an end, stage pre- Byzantine struggles of their ancestors.

It’s time to go back to the Second Punic Wars and recreate the historical events that occurred in that ancient city. The images we can observe are quite spectacular.

Cartagena’s streets are taken by the Legions of Rome and Carthago Troops. Travelers will not stop taking pictures of Amazons, legionaries, gods, tribunes, mercenaries, hordes…

The Carthaginians and Romans celebrations are declared of National Tourist Interest and are attended by thousands of tourists every year that combine this way a break from sun and beach, with one of the most unique activities of the Spanish geography.

Creative Commons Image: Flickr/kevago

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