Juanes in concert

A text from a friend with a brief: "I have a surprise for you!" Next text a picture of a ticket for the Juanes concert at the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando.

We made it to the Hard Rock around 8:30 at night. The place was already full especially since the set-up of the location only permits people to be standing up. It's invetable, everyone wants to be right by the stage!

Juanes a Colombian pop, rock musician started his solo career in 2000. He won three Latin Grammy Awards with his first album "Fijate Bien". With no introduction Juanes came out from back stage and started singing. At the beginning the sound was rough and it was hard to tell what he was singing, but that was fixed fast.

One of his first songs was "Camisa Negra". The audience sang and danced every lyric of the song. The night continued with more hits like "Yerbatero", "La Noche", "Me enamora" and "La Paga". One of my favorite songs is "Fotografía" and he did a duet along with his Puerto Rican back-up singer.

Camisa Negra

Fotografía

Juanes interpreted a song by Bob Marley and another one by Joe Arroyo, a Colombian salsa singer that recently passed away. His song "No le pegue a la negra" it's an international hit. Everyone was excited to hear this song as a small tribute to such great musician.

At the end of the night Juanes said goodbye and everyone started shouting: "otra, otra, otra". The whole band came back out and sang another round of songs. "Mala gente" "Es por tí", A Dios le pido" and "Damela" were the closing hits.

The best moment of the night was seeing Juanes jumping onto the crowd and getting carried by them half-way through the floor. Then afterwards he presented each one of his band members and ended saying goodbye in a very humble way.

Adicta a los "Twitter Parties"

La primera vez que escuché acerca de un "twitter party" estaba un poco insegura de lo que verdaderamente sigfinicaba. Una amiga me invitó a participar en esta fiesta cibernética y yo ni tonta ni perezona tomé la oportunidad para ver lo que implica este tipo de evento.

Un "twitter party o twitter chat" es un evento usualmente de una hora o hora y media. El evento se enfoca en un tema específico, con anfitriones y un "hashtag". El "hashtag" es el tema del evento resumido en pocas palabras. Los invitados lo utilizan para asociar el contenido de sus "twits" con el "twitter party".

No voy a mentir me pareció un poco caótico ver tantos mensajes correr en la página al mismo tiempo. Poco a poco me he ido acostumbrando y ahora le recomiendo a todas mis amistades que se animen a unirse a un "twitter party". Las razones principales son: es un buen lugar para agrandar tu número de contactos y conocer personas que piensan igual que tú. También te ayuda a aumentar tu número de seguidores y en muchas ocasiones se gratifica a los participantes con premios.

Hasta ahora el "Twitter Party" que más me ha llamado la atención fue "#SwishWish13 Twitter Party with Mamiverse and Colgate". El propósito principal fue promover la campaña de Colgate "A Wish for a Swish". Todos los participantes expresaron sus deseos. Fue muy bonito ver la variedad de deseos o aspiraciones de los invitados. Hubo mensajes muy alentadores y se notaba la buena energía a través de los cientos de "twits".

Para más información acerca de este tema pueden visitar el siguiente enlace. Tiene una buena explicación acerca de los "Twitter Parties" y sé que contestará muchas de sus preguntas.

http://www.mamiverse.com/twitter-chat-instructions-42311/

El Galeón in St Augustine

I love St Augustine! It's a city with such rich history and European touch that when I heard there was a ship visiting from Spain I decided to go on a Sunday roadtrip.

We drove from Sanford north on I-95 for almost two hours. Since I've visited this city many times I knew exactly where to find parking and skip the tourist traffic. 

We headed towards the Municipal Marina after seeing a procession heading to the Catholic church. From a distance we could see the gigantic ship. People would go up to the end of the pier that leads to the main entrance of the boat but we decided to pay to get in.

The entrance was $15.00 for adults and $8.00 for children ages six to 12. 

The 175-foot replica of a Spanish galleon docked in St Augustine on May 21 after sailing from Spain to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. 

The first crew member we met was a young man in his late 20's  from Andalucia. He was very friendly and asked us to please wait until some people would get off the ship. Once on the ship it was amazing to see how back in the day everything was built with such detail and it worked perfectly to travel from one continent to  another. 

There are 23 crew members all from Spain but we had the chance to meet their newest member from Titusville. He's name is Wade but the Spaniards changed his name to "MANOLO". He said they were having a hard time pronouncing his name. It was hilarious to see this American respond by this common Spanish name. 

We also had the chance to speak with Manuel, another crew member that helped us understand how the ship works. It took them over 20 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean. An estimated 4,000 miles. 

With Manuel, one of the crew members.

He said  back in the day the whole crew was made up of only men. They had children starting at eight years old work on the ship. Poor parents would sell their kids so they could feed their other children. The youngest children would work at the crow's nest and at night they would tie their legs with rope in case they fell asleep. That way if they fell they would not drown.

El Galeón represents one of several ships that carried 800 colonists and supplies to St. Augustine, establishing the first permanent European settlement in the United States in 1565.

This replica was built in 2009 by Fundación Nao Victoria,  a nonprofit maritime history organization based in Andalucia, Spain. 

It was a great experience to see the ship and recommended to all families that want to take their children on an adventure.

El Bodegón a great culinary experience

I recently purchased a "Groupon" for a Spanish restaurant in the Winter Park area. I paid $10.00 for the coupon redeemable for $20.00. I had been craving Spanish food but had not found a place with a full menu of Spanish cuisine. Living in Spain for nine months made me appreciate their people and especially the food of this amazing country.

Apparently in Central Florida there aren't that many Spaniards so the restaurants are limited. Someone told me I should visit Miami to be able to find a great variety of Spanish foods.

The address was easy to find. We made it to "El Bodegón" way before our reservation time and they sat us at our table right away. I took my mother with me to enjoy this dinner. She is willing to try new things like me. For our appetizer we picked "Tapa de la Casa". Spanish cured ham (jamón serrano), chorizo, manchego cheese, olives and spring mix. The jamón tasted exactly how I remembered. There was a good portion of the ham, chorizo and manchego but I wished they had added more olives to the plate. The spring mix was unnecessary.

For our main course we selected the "Paella Marinera". This Spanish saffron rice had chicken, pork, chorizo, shrimp and mussels. It was well cooked but I felt it was a bit greasy, maybe from all the chorizo. There was a good amount of the meats and seafood.

Sangría was our main drink and to finish our night we had "Crema Catalana" for dessert. This is Spain's version of the Creme Bruleé. 

We were extremely full but very satisfied with all our choices. Service was quick but the server did not check on us too frequently. The prices were how I expected, having in mind most of their products are brought straight from Spain.

"El Bodegón" is located on 400 S Orlando Drive Winter Park, Fl 32789.

Welcome! ¡Bienvenidos!

Welcome to my new blog! ¡Bienvenidos a mi nuevo blog!

This is a new adventure for me. I will be sharing with all of you some of my adventures. I will be visiting restaurants and new places around the state of Florida and hopefully around the world. Stay tuned!

Esta es una aventura nueva para mí. Estaré compartiendo con todos ustedes algunas de mis aventuras. Estaré visitando restaurantes y nuevos lugares alrededor de la Florida y con suerte alrededor del mundo. Manténganse sintonizados para lo que viene.