1000

[Enlarge] Walking down paths of bougainvilleas

I noticed today, as I downloaded fotos from my camera for the umpteenth time, I have taken over 1000 shots on my little digital. That is pretty amazing all in all. I have certainly had the opportunity to take more, but I try to limit myself to times when I have a few moments to consider what I am going to photograph. There are still those odd moments when I just feel something I want to remember, like a few fotos from my lunchtime walks in Morelia that decorate this entry.

Morelia has some broad avenues with a strip of park down the middle that people can walk through, rather than the hot narrow sidewalks next to the street. They are kept up but not heavily landscaped so they have the feeling casual abandon that makes walking in the shade of the trees as I head to a restaurant or shop a nice moment. The other day I ran across a man riding a very fine horse down the paths in what would otherwise be an impossible place to ride because of the traffic. Right now, the paths are dry because we haven’t yet gotten into our pattern of afternoon rains. It is something that worries all of us, but I am gradually seeing more clouds and thunderheads building up in the afternoons so hopefully they will come soon.

[Enlarge] Like an orange popsicle, these are just a few of the many colors of bougainvilleas

Bougainvilleas are everywhere in Mexico and Morelia certainly has it’s share. They come in every shade from orange, through crimson, and into deep purples. In the parks, they grow up into the trees and make them appear to be in bloom. Gardeners in Mexico have many unusual flowers they can grow in their yards and there are bright spots of color everywhere. Color is part of life in Mexico, much more than in the US. Houses and business buildings have bright, contrasting shades of color both inside and out quite frequently. I can’t imagine what life would be like here without it.

I’ll close with the latest picture of Daisy and her puppies. They have their eyes open and are at the stage where they are stumbling around and trying to play with each other. Daisy still keeps them in their nest but it won’t be long before that is more than she can do. Five little ones is enough to frazzle any mother.

wp:thumb src=”2005-05-28-3.jpg” cap=”Daisy and her family – eyes wide open and starting to crawl around much to her dismay…”—> ->

Life

[Enlarge] Me - enjoying a lunch of scampi and a Negra Modelo. Life is tough.

There have been a lot of changes in my life over the past year. I have been working with a company in Mexico for a client in the US in healthcare. I have been in Mexico at our home in Cueramaro and our offices in Morelia enough that it is second nature. I feel at home and I am confident enough to begin looking toward the future for the first time in a long time.

There are also a lot of little things that have made life easier and more interesting. I have a new computer and a new view of personal computing for the first time in five years. After so many years of advising clients what they need to capture value out of computers, it is nice to have a part of it myself. I have an MP3 player and I regularly listen to podcasts of events and music from around the world while I am traveling. I have never been so independent of media connections and so able to pick what is interesting to me. In a funny way, I am more connected and in touch with what is happening in the world than I ever have been without relying on the talking heads of broadcast TV or cable news.

[Enlarge] Our Whirlpool washer works wonders.

Our washing machine in Cueramaro is finally installed and working properly. That might seem small in other places but it is a very modern version for Mexico and getting it shipped from Irapuato and properly installed has been a challenge. Now we have all stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, a new washer and dryer – it is gradually becoming the home we always dreamed of.

I am now working in Mexico officially, meaning I pay taxes and participate in everything just like everybody else. It is just one more step in a new direction and it doesn’t bother me. It looks like next week I will travel to San Miguel de Allende to meet my neighbor’s sister, who moved there from New York, and to go to the consulate to get my FM3 status so I can get a bank account here. There are still many things that need to be worked out for the future, but I continue to remind myself it was less than a year ago that this all began. The adventure continues… —>

Dance,

[Enlarge] A night of dancing on the jardin in Cuermaro…

This past weekend, I stayed in Cueramaro on Sunday night because I had returned from Philadelphia on Saturday. It is my habit to stay at least two nights when I go home to Cueramaro because of the time needed for the trip and the simple fact that one night is just not enough. So, I took the opportunity to relax and take a walk around the jardin in the afternoon.

At one end of the jardin there is an open area to one side of the bandstand that is used for stage events. I could see the stage and chairs were being put out for an event. After a little looking around, I understood the flurry of activity – a dance group from Chiapas was coming on the request of the mayor of Cueramaro to give a show. I was probably the only one in town that didn’t know because the seats were already filling and several members of the family told me they were planning to go when I mentioned it.

The dance group itself is very well coordinated. They put on a great show, with an array of beautiful costumes and a number of very intricate dances. I have seen the Ballet Folklorico when it appeared on stage in Sacramento, but this group on the portable stage in Cueramaro was every bit as professional and in many ways more committed and passionate. There are no dressing rooms, special lighting systems or theater seating arrangements in Cueramaro. We have just folding chairs, a portable stage and a few large lights on the stage and in the trees. The group used recordings of their music instead of a live band – but despite all the limitations it was an exciting experience.

I did the best I could under the circumstances to capture some of the passion and excitement of the event. The city had two video cameramen recording for the local cable channel and because the audience is not in a theater there wasn’t a lot of ways to get near the front of the stage. My camera doesn’t really have the type of flash it needs for outdoor or long range photography under low light so I had to shoot a lot of pictures in the hopes I would get some that convey what I saw. I did get a respectable number of good shots and a few that have the excitement this group generated. You will find them in the gallery – Enjoy them as much as you can without actually being here! —>

Returning

[Enlarge] The Philadelpia City Hall at night

My trip to Philadelphia is completed and I am writing this from our house in Cueramaro on Sunday. Ramon Vargas is singing his lungs out on his Mexico Lindo CD and I am just cleaning up some stuff on a Sunday at home.

The trip to Philly went well, we accomplished our goals and exceeded our expectations. It is a wonderful thing. We stayed in the center of the city, right across from the City Hall in the Marriott Courtyard Hotel. I took many pictures of the area we were in and tried my hand at some studies for the first time in a long while. The area around the hotel is a mixture of modern and historic buildings. The older buildings reminded me of my trips to Amsterdam and because of the Dutch heritage in the city, it is not surprising. I enjoyed searching for interesting textures as I walked around. Look for them in the Philadelphia entry in the gallery.

[Enlarge] Ludwig’s Garden - A beer lover’s paradise

I found a restaurant near the hotel named, Ludwig’s Garden, which for a beer aficionado is a wonderful place. They specialize in excellent, solid German food and lager beers. Their list includes 25 beers on tap and a number I couldn’t begin to count in bottles. Each one is fully described in the beer list so it isn’t hard to find something you have never tried but think you would enjoy. I think I have tasted much of the list at sometime in my life, but there were many surprises just the same. Luis, who accompanied me on this trip, is also a beer nut so we managed to try a little more by splitting glasses and the house has tasting glasses so you can try a little of their tap beers before buying a glass. They had the excellent Bamberg Rauchbier which surprised me. I haven’t had one in 15 years and it was every bit as rich, smoky and good as I remembered. We will be going back to Philly soon, so we will just have to try to expand my education a little more next trip.

Although I flew to Philly from Morelia, I returned to Leon. Like many of the airports in Mexico, the Leon airport is not really in Leon. It serves the region so it is actually closer to Silao. To get home to Cueramaro, I took a taxi to Silao, a bus to Irapuato and another bus to Cueramaro. Of course, this followed getting up at 3am in Philly to make my 6am flight to Huston and my connecting flight to Leon. The trip was not bad, but I was tired by the time I reached home. I still found myself at a fiesta in Cueramaro, but I didn’t stay too long. I slept about 12 hours last night!

I got to meet Rey’s sister Nina and her daughter Tanya from Matamoros this trip – that was nice. I have met so many nice people here and continue to find it welcoming whenever I get a chance to take in where I have the pleasure of living. I’m smiling now, as this entry brings back many moments.

wp:thumb src=”05-05-15-8.jpg” cap=”Rey’s brother Loli, his sister Nina with her daughter Tanya – May 2005”—> ->

Taking

[Enlarge] Daisy and her puppies in Cueramaro

As I write this it’s Sunday and for the moment I am winding down after what seems like several days of continuous traveling. It is not at an end – today I return by bus to Irapuato and Morelia. Wednesday I will be going to Philadelphia for business and returning to Leon to jump on the bus again back to Cueramaro for another weekend. I don’t really mind, but it is nice to have a morning where I can catch my breath.

The weather is warm in central Mexico now. The nights are in the upper 60’s with gentle breezes that begin as the sun goes down and the days reach the upper 90’s. It is not oppressive, but sometimes at night when the breezes die down, you need a fan to be really comfortable if the building has accumulated heat during the day. Air conditioning is really only used in large commercial buildings. The rainy season, when the afternoon thunderstorms bring downpours, has not started yet, but it will.

Our house in Cuermaro is looking good. I have sprinkled more fotos of the progress through its gallery folder. It is interesting to look back and see how things have changed over the past year or so. I have a cell phone in Mexico now and I feel more connected, which may or may not be a good thing (jej). In Mexico, most people have prepaid cell phones. You only pay for the calls you make, calls to you are not charged to your minutes and you buy a card that is good for a number of minutes, which you enable on your phone. For me, it is a simple and good system and it seems to work well.

The young mother at the beginning of this entry is Daisy. She is from Chiquita, our Chihuahua in Sacramento. She and her brother moved back to Mexico a little more than a year ago with Rey’s brother Rafael. This past week she had five (!) beautiful puppies here in Cueramaro without a problem. She is very much the doting mother and is very protective of her little ones. I’m putting some more fotos of her and her puppies in the gallery. It is nice to have fotos of her when she was the same age – and that will end this entry.

wp:thumb src=”IM000411.jpg” cap=”Daisy – when she was just a day old – a year and a half ago now.”—> ->