Blogs

A fun outing in the center of San Jose is to go to the Gold Museum, now called the Central Bank Museum, below the Plaza de la Cultura.

It had been years since I had visited the museum, but it remains still one of the highlights of touring Costa Rica’s capitol city. Located conveniently under the Plaza de la Cultura’s east end, just behind the National Theatre and the Grand Hotel, the museum is a cool refuge of culture in a concrete jungle.This year celebrates the 30^th anniversary of the museum. I

We all love to travel; it’s an innate part of being human, getting out there and exploring the world around us. We hold within us the desire to explore our surroundings from a very young age, perhaps even starting from the first time we learn to comprehend what is around us as a baby, wandering into places we shouldn’t purely because we want to see what’s there. It is a desire that never quite leaves us, even when we grow and mature over the years, it’s just always there: that yearning, the wand

Let's face it: there's an audience for anything. What some tourists find unpleasant, others may say it's their cup of tea. That same formula also applies to cultural activities and touristic attractions such as museums, even the more unconventional ones.

The Dog Collar Museum, Leeds (UK): The name says it all and attracts nearly half a million pet lovers every year! Located in Leeds Castle, the museums displays more than 100 items dating back centuries and celebrates the last owner of the estate,

On our way to Central America, we arrived today in Mexico City, specifically the southern neighborhood of Coyoacán, which was once its own town. We’d been hoping to visit this very picturesque area of the city, as it’s the place where artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), known far and wide for her close-set eyebrows and loud, colorful dresses, lived and died.

The Mexican poet, photographer and above all painter was also known for her realistic works. Though many would call her a surrealist, her can

San Diego is best known for beautiful beaches and its world-famous Zoo, but we also enjoy a rich cultural life – including great theatre.

Since mid-November, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR has been wowing audiences at La Jolla Playhouse. I saw the show about a week ago and was positively stunned by the music and the drama.

The show reminded me why I loved all of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s earlier works, but the credit for this production of Superstar goes

When in Hong Kong, learn about something very Chinese. The Hong Kong Tourism Board offers a kaleidoscope of free cultural programs to help tourist learn about local culture, and one of them is a Cantonese opera appreciation class. This is an old and highly respected art form that blends Chinese legend, music and drama into an exciting performance style, rich in symbolic meaning. The class guides people through the Hong Kong Heritage Museum’s Cantonese opera Heritage Hall and its numerous displ

When in the UK, don't forget to venture up to Scotland for the museums!

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Argentina's largest city, Buenos Aires, possesses several magnificent  tourist attractions. The Teatro Colon is the largest opera house, which is one among all the other majestic attractions. Fly to Buenos Aires and admire this beautiful masterpiece.


The ‘Paris of South America’, Buenos Aires is known to the world as a complex, energetic, and seductive port city. The capital city of Argentina possesses a rich cultural identity and embraces European heritage. The city is home to one of the world

Hotel do Sado Business & Nature **** in Setúbal is making several events with a strong relation with Setúbal Region. In the past an event concerning to photography, special occasions (Father´s Day or Mother´s Day) and now is organizing a painting Exposition.

The artist will be Alexandra Silva and the exposition will be called of "Mais me Visto, mais the dispo". During several days will be at the Hotel and the release of this event will have a Moscatel of Setubal Tasty Wine to celebrate the suces

Ian Ritchie (Artistic Director of the Festival) and also Director of the famous City of London Festival wants to perpetuate what will be an amazing event in Setúbal at Portugal Dream Coast, called Setúbal Music Festival. 

The 1st Annual Setúbal Music Festival will be on May 27th, 28th and 29th of May 2011 and during this three days the Festival will cover 750 years of Portuguese Music, from medieval era up to the editions of this year. The Setúbal Music Festival is the result of synergies betwee

by Diana Lambdin Meyer

Jazz in Kansas City is not like jazz in New Orleans or in any other great American music city. It’s a little more bluesy, a little heavier on the keyboards and bass, not so bold with the brass. They call it “cool jazz” here, jazz that’s a little gentler on the spirit.

In case you didn’t know, Kansas City is where jazz grew up. After its birth in the Big Easy, the music migrated to KC and became a smart-aleck teenager, with attitude and a vision for the future. That’s what

Costa Rica is a well known country, for its diversity in flora and fauna, ecotourism and sustainability, everything in the same equation. However, there are a number of characteristics that   might not be signature features in a global level, but are important elements of the real Costa Rica, which open a big amount of options to visitors and locals, that along with the typical definition of the country as ¨natural paradise¨, allow Costa Rica to offer this extra value going beyond its principal

by David Paul Appell

The suburbs of the world have generally not been considered hotbeds of serious culture (sorry, multiplexes screening Gnomeo and Juliet and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never don’t count). But in Israel, the municipality of Holon, some 3 1/2 miles (6 km) outside Tel Aviv, has been racing to transform itself in the past half dozen years into just that. Designed by world-class local architect Ron Arad, the 65-million-shekel (US$17-million) Design Museum Holon, a vision in red and o

When we’re at home reading the headlines, watching the news, we can so easily reduce people of other cultures and countries to their problems.

I was reminded of this when listening to a recent broadcast of Tapestry on CBC Radio (their podcasts are free). I was also reminded of an objection I received to a post I wrote in which I suggested that Cuba has a unique sense of luxury. This is a bit of a response.

We are always more than the sum of our problems.
Tariq Ramadan was the guest being intervie

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Ireland's fourth largest city (pop. 80,000), located roughly midway along the country's Atlantic coast - and a nearly straight shot of a bit over two hours west of Dublin - boasts a history stretching back nearly a thousand years. But today it's best known for its lively, often boho social, cultural, and music scene (turbo-charged by its youthful university population, a good 20 percent of all Galwegians, as locals are known), as well as its many festivals and events - some 1

Maria Victoria Lopez, sjo

 In 1919, in the immediate wake of the devastation wrought by World War I, an architect named Walter Gropius, one of the pioneering maestros of modern architecture, founded an art school that combined fine arts with crafts and eventually architecture, with a minimalist approach to design that combined all of it with contemporary technology under the maxim "form follows function". Starting in eastern Germany - first in Dessau, then in Weimar, and finally a third school

photos: ProColombia


by Miguel Martínez Rabanal

Along with cumbia, the folk music form known as vallenato is a calling card of Colombian culture, and its Vallenata Legend Festival is a particularly momentous one, marking its 52nd edition this year April 26-30 in the city of Valledupar, in Colombia's northeast, about an hour and a half flight from Bogotá and just under four hours' drive from Cartagena.

Truth to tell, Colombian culture wouldn't be the same without this music, which goes back more