LA VUELTA HAS COME TO LAS ALPUJARRAS!!!

LA VUELTA HAS COME TO LAS ALPUJARRAS!!!

The Seventh stage in La Vuelta has been very special for me because it went into the Alpujarras, where I have a little house and where I spend almost all my holidays. It wasn’t a very hard stage. Even so, cyclists couldn't cycle too fast as it was very steep up hill. Nevertheless, the stage turned out to be long and hot. They began in Jódar (Jaén) and they finished in Capileira (La Alpujarra) with a distance of 191 km.

The winner was Lindenman, member of the Team Lotto NL-Jumbo, who was in the breakaway and who was on his first real mountain test. Moreover, it was also a bad day for Chris Froome, who lost 30 seconds gap to his main rivals. It was not too much, but that showed that it wasn’t as easy as people thought. For the moment our best Spanish cyclist, Alejandro Valverde, is ranked at less than 40 seconds with regard to the leader, so I wish him all the best for the rest of the race.

I hope that next time they come to this area, I will have the opportunity to watch it, because I’ve never been in one. It was a pity that this time I was in France when La Vuelta began, but I think that next year I will be in Spain.

LA VUELTA 2015

Historical moment for America and Cuba!!!

Historical moment for America and Cuba!!!

Nowadays there are a lot of problems between certain countries, like between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine… However, there are other countries that are starting a new stage, like between Cuba and the USA. The question is when and why they ended up this relation.

As the influence of the Spanish Empire was over, its possessions in the Americas finished in the 1820s, as a result of the Spanish American wars of independence, only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained as part of Spain and in 1898 in the Spanish–American War, Cuba became independent. However, under the Treaty of Paris Cuba became a U.S. protectorate and the problem was that the USA began to dominate the island, until Cuba’s independence in 1902.

There was a Cuban Revolution in 1959 and bilateral relations deteriorated substantially. The USA began chasing people from the Communist regime, they banned corporations owned by Cuba, and it stayed like that for a long time, because on the other hand the Cuban government refused to be a democratic country and that the USA could interfere in Cuba’s economy.

Nonetheless, all this has finished, because Cuba and the USA began a process of normalizing relations in December 2014 and just a few days ago the flag of the USA was raised again in Cuba and the flag of Cuba in the USA. I hope that this relation will continue growing up, and Cuban an American people also begin a new relation.

"Paris sera toujours Paris"

"Paris sera toujours Paris"

Like Zaz's song says, “Paris sera toujours Paris”, I was in Paris two years ago and I found it quite interesting, there are many places to visit: the Eiffel Tower, the river Seine, the Louvre Museum, the Palace of Versailles, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arch of Triumph… I couldn’t visit the entire city, so for the next time I would like to visit especially the Louvre Museum and Montmartre and I also would like to stay longer there.

Talking about the Tour de France 2015, we have to congratulate Chris Froome for his second Tour de France, and also to our Spanish cyclists: Valverde, Purito ( who won two stages of the Tour de France), Ruben Plaza (who won a stage) and also Contador, who hadn’t got his opportunity because of the tiredness of the Giro, but who fought hard with Froome, Quintana, Valverde, Nibali and Purito.

However, Paris has as well its problems one of them is its population, the best time to go is in July or August because the Parisians aren’t there (they could say that they aren’t as friendly as Spanish people). Another problem is their food, because it’s a well known fact that in France there is good food, but if you want to eat in Paris and anyone recommends a good place to eat, you have to pay too much for a common food like in most Europe capitals.

In conclusion, Paris is a fabulous city to visit, but you have to be careful of what you buy or eat and when you go, if you don't want to have a bad experience there. In fact, not many tourists know more than Paris in France and this is really sad, because Paris is not like the other parts of France.