story by Kayte Deioma
There are many places to shop in Cancun, but Kukulcan Plaza is top of the line. It is an all-purpose enclosed, air-conditioned mall including restaurants, a bowling bar, a casino, and a designer shopping paradise.
Art
The shopping center incorporates some beautiful public art including a 75-foot stained glass atrium by Clemente Cameo Misrahi and Erika Almazán Quintero based on the sacred Mayan book, the Popol Vuh. During the day, the colors are lit by the sun. At night, a narrated light show draws attention to this visual representation of Mayan history. Temporary art and culture exhibits are held regularly on the upper level of the mall.
The Main Mall
In the main mall, look for unique shops like Xbaal (woman in Mayan), which sells beach and casual-wear, hats and tote bags designed and made by a Mexican women’s coop in the outlying areas of Cancun. You might find artist Dante at work sculpting or creating one-of-a-kind jewelry at Dante’s Studio. If you’ve always longed for your own suit of armor, complete with lance or sword, you can stop in at La Ruta de las Indias, where you’ll also find replica canons and all things nautical.
Luxury Avenue
At one end of the mall is Luxury Avenue, where you’ll find familiar names like Cartier, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Coach and Salvatore Ferragamo. But since many of those are the same all over the world, be sure not to miss Mexican-themed silks and leathers from Pineda Covalin, and men and women’s clothing and unique handbags by Spanish designer Purificación García.
Entertainment
If shopping isn’t your thing, you can bowl or play a few games of pool at the bowling bar 2.02. You can do your bowling to live music in the evenings.
A great place for the whole family is Chocolate City. In addition to great chocolate confections, there are video games and dozens of table games to play. Check the schedule to plan your visit during one of the Chocolate Circus Dinners or Sunday Cartoon Kids Shows. Visit anytime to make your own pizza.
If your little ones need to run wild for a while, take
them to Kukulkids, a great children’s center on the 2nd floor of the mall. It includes separate play areas for babies and bigger kids, an inflated maze, a games and crafts area, a kid-size movie theatre, a mini-climbing wall and a sit and scoot race track where kids wheel themselves around the track on low hand carts. For the best of both worlds, let your kids stay and play under the supervision of trained child-care staff, while you hit the shops.
Kukulcan Plaza also offers free wireless internet access if you happen to be toting your laptop or other internet-enabled device. Access codes are available at the Customer Service desk in the central atrium on the ground floor (below the stained glass ceiling).
Kukulcan Plaza
Boulevard Kukulcán Km 13
Hotel Zone, Cancun
Quintana Roo, Mexico
One of Brussels’ most striking landmarks is the Atomium, a giant iron atom that towers over the Heysel Plateu. The 390 foot structure, designed by engineer André Waterkyn, was built for the 1958 International Exposition of Brussels. Like the Eiffel Tower, it was planned as a temporary attraction, but due to popular demand, became a permanent part of the Brussels landscape. A recent renovation, completed in 2006, restored the steel globes to their original splendor.
is the structure itself. From an architectural and engineering standpoint, as well as from a purely aesthetic view, to put it in sophisticated terms, it’s really cool!
There are nine spheres connected by 20 tubes. There’s an elevator straight up the middle which will take you to the snack bar in the middle sphere and the casual restaurant at the top. Each tube is only wide enough for either one escalator or a staircase, so to visit the side globes, you follow the escalators up, and take the stairs back down the other side.
You start your visit by taking the elevator to the top to check out the panoramic view over the neighboring Mini-Europe at the Bruparck to the alternating old and new neighborhoods and stretches of green parks that make up greater Brussels. The observation floor and the restaurant above it are in the only globe with windows giving you the 360 degree panoramic view. Interactive monitors help to orient you to what you are seeing in the distance.
Three of the spheres below have exhibit space. A permanent exhibit features giant photos of some of the key players in the construction and a great 12 minute silent video documenting the construction of the Atomium. The other two areas have changing exhibits.
who can come and spend the night as part of an educational program. The domed upper portion of the sphere is filled with smaller turquoise and red globes suspended from the ceiling. Each one has a slice out of the side and room for several kids to crawl into the cubby hole onto the round mattress piled with pillows. Unfortunately, this room is not open to the public, so you can only look through the window.