Faunia

05.19.11 - Madrid, Spain - We took the kids to Faunia, a nature park/zoo southeast of Madrid, on Thursday and got to see some cool stuff. The highlight was the venomous creatures pavilion (think vipers, black widows and giant tarantulas), but the best part for photos was the butterfly exhibit. Good light and pretty insect tend to be that way. We also saw some penguins, pelicans, manatees (I had never seen one before) and aardvarks (tampoco). It was a lot of fun and the seeing the kids' faces light up made it even better.

-Will

P.S. - Field trips never get old.

You can just make out the monarch butterfly in the top left corner.
Manatee attack!
Looking at insects.
Entering the venomous creature pavilion.

San Isidro

05.15.11 - Madrid, Spain - Eunice and I went into Madrid on Sunday to check out the goings on for the San Isidro Festival. It was the last day of a weeklong celebration of the capital city's patron saint. Among the variety of cultural events, we went down to Lavapíes in the afternoon to see some circus-type street performances, then to the Plaza de España for a free concert and hopped over to the Manzanares River to see a fire display as the sun set.

People were out and about everywhere in traditional outfits (long colorful dresses for women and gray caps and vests for men) and it was a good time.

-Will

Along the Manzanares River.
Eunice.
Fire!
People watching the fire display be lit. It was a collection of floating metal sculptures, with hundreds of attached "citronella" candles that the company lit. Not a huge display, but cool nonetheless.
Two guys and a giant wheel in Lavapíes

Semana Santa Redux

04.15.11 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - We were able to catch one of the first processions of Semana Santa (Holy Week) on Friday night. The ones early in the week are pretty low key, but I did get some shots of cute kids with trumpets.

If this is your first look at photos from Spain's celebration don't be alarmed at the "klansmen." They invented the outfits before the KKK, so to be fair, they don't think anything of it.

-Will

I call this "Attention Span" or perhaps "Attention Spa[i]n".
"This hood wouldn't be so bad, if they just made these darn holes bigger."
Jesus making rounds.
The monastery on a clear night.
Trumpeter.

Madrid

04.11.11 - Madrid, Spain - Eunice's parents came to visit and we spent Saturday and Sunday tooling around Madrid. We went to el Rastro (Madrid's flea market) Sunday morning and had tapas along the way. The weather was perfect and the crowds were out.

-Will

El Retiro in the spring.
Mr. and Mrs. Woods having some padrons (green peppers) and calamares in La Latina.
The view from Plaza Mayor early Saturday morning.
El Rastro.

Shoes for sale.
Eunice in the Retiro.
Tapas during El Rastro.
Photographer meets English teacher. See if you can spot the slight grammatical error.

A bar in La Latina. Snails for sale.

Sevilla

03.28.11 - Sevilla, Spain - Eunice and I went to Sevilla to visit Ella, Ali, Christina and the rest of the TECS crew. Can't beat it in the springtime. What else to say?

-Will

Album cover?
Eunice.
El Burladero plaza which was redone and should be finished now. Got a pretty great market below it and looks like yet another example of interesting architecture in Spain.
Full view. Kind of looks like a honeycomb to me.
Purple haze.
Plaza de la Alameda.
Giralda Tower.
Ella and Christina.

Cool bookstore near El Burladero.

Carnaval (Fat Tuesday)

03.08.11 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We celebrated Carnaval (Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras and Carnival) at school today. The theme was the Middle Ages, so everyone dressed up as knights, kings, queens, etc. I dressed up as the Burger King, fitting, I thought, given it was probably America's only contribution to that time period (hehe), not counting Robin Hood Men in Tights or the Kennedy's "Camelot."

We were forced into the town's sports center because of rainshowers. Alas, one day, the winter will end.

-Will