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