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National Geographic
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- National Geographic
Is this shopping mall the gayest place on Earth?
Opened in 1982, the Yumbo Centrum in Spain's Canary Island bills itself as the world's only LGBTQ+ mall. With four floors and 200 venues across 200,000 square feet, the Yumbo anchors a queer community remaking travel as a double-down embrace of their true selves. Photograph by Thomas Rabsch, laif/Redux At the Yumbo Centrum in Spain's Canary Islands, Pride never ends Dario Villalba, 29, a shirtless actuary from Milan, roars into the night, jumping in a sweaty briar patch of men on a far-flung Spanish island. 'Sempre! Sempre!' he cheers. 'Sempre di più! Yumbo per sempre!' ('Always and always! More and more! Yumbo forever!') As a Bruno Mars remix blares, Villalba revamps the chorus: 'Sleep tomorrow, but tonight go crazy. All you gotta do is just meet me at the—'Yumbooooo.'' Opened in 1982 with the hope of 'if you build it, they will come,' Yumbo Centrum now bills itself as the world's only LGBTQ+ mall: four floors and 200 venues across 200,000 square feet of open-air Brutalist bedlam. Those numbers shape the dimensions of a surprising truth about this obscure locale: it just might be the gayest place on Earth. Yumbo anchors the resort town of Maspalomas, on the southern tip of Gran Canaria, part of Spain's Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. But it also anchors a LGTBQ+ community for whom Yumbo is a place where they can become themselves. 'It feels like family. Even strangers feel familiar,' says Huw Davies, 73, a Welsh retiree who first came to Yumbo in 2005. 'I've never been anxious when I'm here. That's real freedom. That's real love.' Yumbo's official Pride Week celebration is in May, but at Yumbo, Pride never really ends, buoyed by LGTBQ+-focused parties and events almost every month. Year-round, the polyglot crowds gravitate to the world's universal languages: dance, laughter, music, and rizz. Yumberos—that's the locals' name for visitors—come for round-the-clock sex positivity, and all the accompanying pleasures. Everyone at Yumbo is living their best main character life. The open relationships, the ride-or-die friend squads, the dads burping their babies at midnight; they all radiate Yumbo's gestalt glow. A Grace Jones double performs at a disco in Yumbo. The mall is covered with camp surprises, including clubs and bars for every interest, drag shows and European-themed bars. Photographs by Tobias Kruse, Ostkreuz/Redux 'Yumbo breaks all the rules—the patterns—and you find a new kind of gay life here,' says Leo De La Rosa, 39, a model from Madrid, as he strolled the mall. Even Yumbo's workers share the vibe. Take Jean-François 'Jeff' Renard and Thierry Fontaine, elderly husbands from Toulouse who dress up like burlesque twins and gadfly about before working together at a bar where they hold court. Or shy Osman, the locally born-and-raised 22-year-old who mans a tiny grill in the parking lot, selling $5 bratwursts from 9pm to 6am and, as he put it, 'learning that things can also grow in moonlight.' Or Gonzalo Benabu, 37, Yumbo's Argentine magojista ('massage wizard') who fills his downtime with whispered prayers as he holds the dog tag necklace his mother got him inscribed with one word: sagrado ('sacred'). Croatia's oldest coastal town Yumbo can be anything, from campy to earnest, or romantic, sometimes all at once. Simple people in a simple place For all its hype of diversity, queerness often suffers from an aesthetic sameness derided as 'clones'—an ironic homogeneity in fashion, music, physiques, and other aesthetics. Yumbo challenges clones, beginning with its labyrinthine layout of aggressively unstylish concrete and extending to its unexplained dinosaur mascot—a green brontosaurus with red stegosaurus plates—who wears a red bow tie. It's not shabby chic, just plain shabby. It's all decidedly counter-American (not opposed to Americans who are plentiful) rejecting the habit of turning gay havens into luxury real estate. The only freestanding structure in Yumbo's massive central courtyard is a Burger King where workers wear Pride t-shirts instead of corporate uniforms; it somehow has a rooftop 'secret garden' bar sponsored by Absolut. Yumbo also has a pyramidal mosque, an on-site doctor, a Wall of Love for sentimental scribblers, an AIDS memorial cactus garden, casinos and arcades, a park dedicated to a local gay rights hero, and an 18-hole rooftop mini-golf course. It has bars and clubs for every legal passion and proclivity. There are rainbow benches and staircases. A massive central courtyard full of men dancing to a Lady Gaga tribute band or remixed versions of a Journey medley from the television show Glee or the Brokeback Mountain theme. There are competing drag comedy shows, sports bars where the sport is Eurovision (a pan-European song competition known for its over-the-top kitsch), and drink specials so extreme that beer can be cheaper than water. Every inch of Yumbo is lathered in camp surprises: a spa where fish can nibble customers' feet, bars themed around gladiators or pirates, a bar that raised $68,000 to train seeing-eye dogs, restaurant menus with as many as 229 dishes and a dizzying array of chaotic bric-a-brac including an inspirational Beyoncé mug, rainbow mankinis, bobbleheads of Princess Diana, a Palestinian fútbol jersey, fur coats, a $850 crystalline Hulk beside a $570 crystalline Chewbacca, homoerotic sculptures, suggestive chefs' aprons, and rainbow sunglasses that read 'I LOVE MY GAY.' But yumberos can still buy on-trend clothes including good boy shirts, letterman jackets, neckerchiefs, and rompers. Plus, vending machines sell adult unmentionables as casually as bags of potato chips. Its eclecticism reminds yumberos that queerness is free to be whatever queer people want it to be. Cloning curdles gay travel too, homogenizing destinations into the same bougie beach blur. Yumbo, by sharp contrast, sticks out like a sore thumb. And yet its chiefly European crowds are choosing Yumbo over continental queer hubs like Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Madrid, and Mykonos. 'I can't stand gay people who think they're richer than everyone else,' says Mohamed Drifel, 36, a hammam manager from Marseilles. 'I like simple people in a simple place. The people here are simple. We're all the same, and I like that.' Most yumberos arrive by bus; it costs $3.95 from the nearest airport. Last year, 60 percent of the island's tourists made between $28,000 and $85,000. They even win over the locals. 'From the moment I enter Yumbo, I put on my shirt so no one will think I am for anything strange,' laughs Luis Paredes, 45, a local nurse. 'I associate it with something grotesque, a little decadent, and quite tacky.' He pauses. 'But it can be fun.' His pause breaks into a smile, remembering his second-ever boyfriend, who he met in Yumbo. 'In general,' he says, 'yumberos are respectful—even if they are uninhibited. That's a rare combination.' A shared paradise Yumbo's bars are themed with a European candor: Eiffel bar for Francophiles, Bärenhöhle for Germans, Club Mykonos for Greeks, Ola Nordmann for Norwegians. Corey Vuhlo, 37, a supply chain worker from Berlin, recalled working in lederhosen in the German section of Disney's Epcot Center, where he defied tourists' expectations as a Black German. 'Similar people come here, of course,' he says over a Burger King lunch, 'but more chill. Friendlier.' His friend Mucho ('he's a lot') piped up: 'The only thing better than smooth talkers are the rough ones.' Vuhlo laughed and continued: 'It's nice to see gay life as more open-minded. Not so fussy. It's kinda trashy here in a fun way. It's so '80s.' That '80s vibe might be intentional, guesses Alonso Santa Cruz, 32, an anthropologist from Seville, over beers. Any sanctuary Yumbo offered after its 1982 debut was immediately dimmed by the early, merciless years of the AIDS epidemic.'It's a bit of a theme park for older generations that couldn't have possibly had this in the '80s or '90s,' he says. 'It's really harmonious. Not peace exactly, but truce. It's like a shared paradise. Every group has their own heaven but here is a heaven for all.' Of course, Yumbo is not immune to criticism, as a French lesbian couple attested while passing Tom's Bar, a Yumbo hub that bans women and drag queens but welcomes dogs. 'Yumbo is a physical manifestation of the LGBT community,' says Cristina Agüimes, 29, a physical therapist from Lyon. 'Tell me. Where do lesbians go?' she asks. 'We have almost nothing. This is better than nothing. It's not paradise. But it's a start.' For all its camp distractions, Yumbo is a reminder that while the straight world defines travel as a fantasy, pilgrimage or escape, queer people have remade travel as a double-down embrace of their true selves, the adventure within, free from the pervasive anxiety of navigating the infinite obstacle course for otherness. 'As gay people, we're always coming out,' says Alan Thompson, 44, a personal trainer from Glasgow. He moved to the Yumbo area last year with his husband, Derec. They got engaged at Yumbo in 2018, sharing the stage with drag queens Michael Marouli and The Vivienne. 'In Yumbo,' he continues, 'you can stop coming out. It's so freeing. We're so happy to live in the Yumbo bubble as we see gay rights go backwards back home and around the world.'
National Geographic
23-05-2025
- National Geographic
For a slice of Parisian charm without the crowds, consider Quebec City
Craving the romance of Paris without the jet lag or legions of other people? The City of Light welcomed nearly 30 million visitors in 2023, and even more admirers plan to travel there since the 2024 Summer Olympics and reopening of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Canada's Québec City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with French roots, emanates European elegance yet welcomes about a fraction of the visitors as Paris. Flights from the United States clock much shorter times too, providing travelers with Old World charm minus the travel fatigue. French, British, and North American cultures weave together in this walkable, refined city. 'Québec City is French-speaking, but it's North American, and it's unique,' says David Mendel, an author and historian who has lived in Paris and has also resided in Old Québec for almost 50 years. French language, heritage, and architecture Cobblestone pedestrian streets wind past candlelit cafes and shops adorned with yellow awnings and overflowing flower boxes. Seventeenth-century stone buildings topped with steep, mansard roofs huddle around every corner. Cafe seating spills into walkways and French voices lilt on the breeze. You might think you're in Paris because Québec City was founded by Europeans and largely built by Europeans, explains Mendel. Québec City, one of North America's oldest European settlements, is a major draw for visitors who relish its quaint public squares and cobblestone streets, absent of skyscrapers. Photograph by Renaud Philippe, The New York Times/Redux The fortified upper town remains the only completely preserved walled city north of Mexico. Photograph by Enrico Della Pietra, Alamy Stock Photo The Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec was founded in 1647 and is on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. Photograph by George Pachantouris, Getty Images Erected as the capital of New France, the French empire in North America from the 1600 to 1700's, Québec City stands on a promontory. Port of Québec, the oldest in Canada, connects the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean for global trade. Considered to be the world's most photographed hotel, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac beams proudly from the cliff with its copper roof, circular and polygonal towers and turrets, and dormer windows. Canadian Pacific Railway built this beauty in the French 'Châteauesque' style to encourage tourism. Narrow streets and public squares hug the winding topography. The fortified upper town remains the only completely preserved walled city north of Mexico. In fact, this enchanting municipality looks so much like Europe that it stunt-doubled for France in the 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can. What to see in Québec City Travelers can cover a lot of ground in a few days, as most of the major sights in Québec City lie within a few miles walk of the city center. Stroll Old Québec for boutique shopping in Quartier Petit-Champlain and art gallery and antique perusing on Rue Saint-Paul. With a star-shaped citadel above, Plaines d'Abraham urban park commemorates where the French and British fought for the fate of New France. Similar to its European big sister, Québec City also boasts a Notre-Dame. The white stone, Neoclassical structure remains the first Catholic cathedral north of Mexico and contains one of seven holy doors in the world. 'Walk through the courtyard archway and you'll feel like you're suddenly in Europe,' says Mendel. 'While Québec City brims with history, it is very much alive, with some institutions still functioning in the same locations since the 1600s.' People can toboggan down Dufferin Terrace during the city's annual winter carnival. Photograph by Yvette Cardozo, Alamy Stock Photo Strøm Nordic Spa has numerous treatments available, including plunge pools, saunas, and flotation pools. Photograph by Bianca Des Jardins via Strøm Nordic Spa While Québec City may be chillier than Paris in winter, Canadians know how to champion the cold. The Québec Winter Carnival warms hearts with its spirited ice canoe races, frosty snow baths, and spiced Caribou drinks—a mulled wine best enjoyed between mittened hands. Toboggan down Dufferin Terrace or listen to the crunch of ice crashing in the St. Lawrence River as you're enveloped in steam at the Strøm Nordic Spa. Visitors to Old Québec feel like they've been transported inside a snow globe during the holiday season. Michelin-starred cuisine In 2025, the province of Québec became Canada's third destination to receive Michelin ratings. Photograph by Hemis, Alamy Stock Photo The French onion soup at Bistro Le SAM is topped with bubbly Le 1608 de Charlevoix cheese. Photograph by DFMotion via Bistro Le SAM In May 2025, the province of Québec became Canada's third destination to receive Michelin ratings, after Vancouver and Toronto. François-Emmanuel Nicol, the chef at renowned restaurant Tanière3, wrote the letter that encouraged Michelin to deploy its anonymous inspectors. His AAA Five-Diamond, Relais & Château restaurant impresses, foraged Indigenous ingredients married with French cooking techniques, and this May earned him two Michelin stars. 'In France, the culinary scene is huge with classics like wild game,' Nicol says. 'Québec has its own clout. With farmland all around the city and access to wild ingredients, foraging is a huge part of the Québec identity.' Diners rave about the gastronomically transcendent tasting menu, which can be savored in stone cellar vaults. 'We play on the fact that Québec is the perfect middle, basically between North American and European cultures with its French influence,' says Frédéric Cyr, culinary director at Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. Beyond poutine and maple syrup, you'll find Québec is also known for nutty cheeses and sweet strawberries. Don't miss the French onion soup blanketed by bubbly Le 1608 de Charlevoix cheese at Bistro Le SAM. Chefs rely on close relationships with small suppliers on the adjacent isle, Île d'Orléans, where 95 percent of the land is still devoted to agriculture. Epicurean tours While Paris is flanked by islands with historical buildings, farms flourish on Quebec City's Île d'Orléans. Take a tour with Concierge du Terroir to sample sparkling wines and orchard delights like apple nachos. Even those with a petite sweet tooth will want to taste test the black currant vanilla swirl soft serve at Cassis Monna & Filles as well as the indulgent, Belgian chocolate-cloaked ice cream at Chocolaterie de l'Île d'Orléans. Frantz Noël, co-owner of Conciergerie du Terroir, has also lived and worked in Paris. He explains that Québec City buzzes with a similar cafe culture to the French capital, but in a more relaxed fashion with patio chairs facing each other instead of out to the street. Tours to the island often start at Montmorency Falls, where the cascading commences nearly 100 feet higher than Niagara Falls. Where to stay Auberge Saint-Antoine, a boutique, museum hotel educates with artifacts from three centuries of Québec history on display. Just like a fairytale, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac enchants with its stenciled ceilings, crackling fireplaces, and views of the Saint Lawrence River. For a cooler experience, travelers turn to North America's only ice hotel: About 20 miles northeast of Old Québec, Hôtel de Glace is constructed each winter with a new artistic theme. Hold hands in hot tubs under the stars, then snuggle up in sleeping bags on ice beds inside igloos. Cortney Fries (pronounced 'freeze') is an award-winning, Chicago-based freelance writer who specializes in family travel, outdoor adventure and wellness. Over the past decade, Cortney has covered hiking in Alaska, sleeping in an ice hotel, swimming with manatees, whitewater rafting the New River Gorge, ziplining in Costa Rica and kayaking in Tenerife. She's always up for an adventure and believes that you should definitely try anything that makes you slightly nervous.
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Best Freja build in the Overwatch 2 Stadium: Power picks, item combos and more
(Image via Blizzard Entertainment) The Overwatch 2's new bounty hunter, Freja , has entered Stadium mode with high mobility, explosive potential, and precision-based combat. With all her unique powers and the items, the players are scrambling to optimize the high-skill kit of her, to dominate the matches. Here is how you can maximize her potential and dominate the faster-paced arena. Freja optimal power picks to ensure precision and mobility Overwatch 2 Stadium Freja Build Guide! | Best Build, Powers, Items, and Gameplay Tips The character thrives on mobility and burst damage. It makes her some Powers important. Seekerpoint is one of the musts— when the Take Aim bolt lands, Freja automatically fires 3 follow-up arrows, ensuring that constant pressure is applied. When paired with the Redux, it will reduce the cooldowns and also refund ammo when hitting the marked enemies. It will ensure higher uptime on the abilities. For crowd control, you can choose Cyclone. It turns the Updraft to the disruptive wind blast and knocks back the foes. Additionally, Lille Fælde adds the utility, converting the Take Aim airborne shots into the Bola Shots. It slows the enemies. The pick helps to create a balanced mix of sustain, damage, and battlefield control. Best Freja items combo for max impact Freja's playstyle benefits from weapon enhancements and mobility. The Portal Zipline boosts her vertical movement. It allows her to quickly reposition after the Updraft. One another strong choice here is the Slipstream Scarf. It increases the Quick Dash distance while it continues to boost the power of the weapon. For some raw damage, Eye of the Spider can deal 10% of the extra damage to the low-health targets. It is perfect to secure the eliminations. The Closer then enhances the critical hits and reveals the enemies for easier follow-ups. If facing tank-heavy teams, do have Codebreaker, as it lets Freja ignore 50% of the armor reduction. It makes the character a nightmare for the beefy opponents. For survivability, choose Amari's Antidote. It offers healing boosts when aiding the low-health allies and rewards teamwork. Also, the Booster Jets can ramp up the attack speed, ensuring Freja can capitalize on every single opening. Use the Eye of the Spider to balance all and execute the fleeing enemies, right below 30% health. Overwatch 2 Stadium mode tips for Freja build Be mobile and use Quick Dash and Updraft to evade enemies. Focus on the weakened enemies. Freja excels in finishing the low-health targets. Cycle the abilities efficiently. Ensure to combine the Revdraw Crossbow and Take Aim for the maximum burst. Watch for the dive heroes. If you are caught without the Updraft, lean towards Magnetic Maelstrom for slow pursuers. Remember, with the right build, Freja for you will become the relentless hunter in the Stadium, picking off the enemies with complete precision and agility. For the rest, remember to adapt, experiment, and dominate the arena. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
John Green
Credit - Lee Klafczynski—The New York Times/Redux Best-selling author John Green is on a mission to make the world suck less. At least, that was the original impetus behind his aptly-named Foundation to Decrease World Suck (FTDWS), the nonprofit he started in 2007 with his brother and fellow Vlogbrothers YouTube channel creator, Hank. However, he says, if you had told them then that FTDWS would become 'a real charity that would go on to raise real tens of millions of dollars,' they might have called it something different. Still, the name works, as it gets right to the root of what the Greens are striving to do by awarding a total of more than $10 million in grants to dozens of charities since 2012—from perennial recipients Partners in Health and Save the Children to 30-plus other organizations recommended by the participants of the brothers' annual 48-hour telethon-style fundraiser Project for Awesome (P4A). In February, the most recent P4A event raised nearly $3.8 million for an array of nonprofits. 'We used to try to have a measurement of global suck,' Green says. 'I've come to understand you can't really quantify it that way. But you can quantify what makes things better, which is more people having access to health care, education, professional opportunities, etc.' While public health issues have long been a focus of Green's philanthropic efforts, more recently, he has turned his attention to one global health crisis in particular: tuberculosis. In 2019, during an eye-opening visit to a hospital in Sierra Leone, Green saw firsthand the challenges facing patients and doctors fighting what remains the deadliest infectious disease in the world—despite being completely curable, when treated with sufficient resources. According to the World Health Organization's most recent report, an estimated 1.25 million people died from TB in 2023 alone. When he returned home from the trip, Green says he began regularly reading and writing about the topic, an undertaking that eventually resulted in his second nonfiction release, Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection. The book debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list following its March 18 publication, with a first run of 500,000 copies. 'Tuberculosis has had such a profound impact on human history,' he says. 'This is a disease that has probably killed around one in seven people who've ever lived, and infected many more than that.' Last year, Green announced he and his family would donate $1 million annually to help fund the work being done to fight tuberculosis in the Philippines, the country with the fourth-highest burden of TB globally. This commitment is part of a larger project Green is involved with that will see a coalition of government agencies and public health advocates provide over $100 million in funding for comprehensive TB care in Ethiopia and the Philippines over the next four years. In 2023, he also publicly rallied his nearly 3.9 million YouTube subscribers to petition Johnson & Johnson to lower the cost of the tuberculosis treatment bedaquiline, which the company did. Although Green is best known for his massively popular young adult fiction, particularly his 2012 juggernaut The Fault in Our Stars, he says it's his humanitarian work that makes him feel like he's using his platform in a meaningful way. As he puts it, 'What's the point, otherwise?' Write to Megan McCluskey at
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Anand Giridharadas
Credit - Elias Williams—Guardian/eyev/Redux In 2018, journalist and author Anand Giridharadas changed the national conversation about big-donor philanthropy with his best-selling book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. In it, he argued that elites use philanthropy to justify their unjustifiable wealth, casting themselves as part of the solution to the world's problems even as their actions reinforce the status quo. Seven years later, Giridharadas says he has been proved right. 'I want to thank the billionaire class for making a case for what I was trying to argue much better than I ever could,' he says. 'Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, et cetera, have staged a play in public for why this level of wealth is dangerous." The better alternative to billionaire philanthropy, Giridharadas says, is a democratic system where the ultrarich pay their appropriate share of taxes, and governments decide based on a popular mandate where to spend that money. As pessimistic as Giridharadas might sound, he's actually optimistic about the future, seeing a shift in attitudes among younger people. 'Gen Z, they get it,' he says. 'I feel like they're the first generation of Americans in my lifetime to not be brainwashed by the story of the billionaire hero.' Write to Billy Perrigo at
