Papa

On Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, I was invited by my friend Patrick to visit him while he was on his vacation in Melaque, Jalisco. St Patrick’s Day is a special time in Melaque because it is the spot where a group of soldiers from the San Patricio Battalion are remembered for their contribution during the war against the US. There are many stories told about the presence of Irish-American soldiers and Irishmen in general in the area, but regardless, the little town of Melaque has taken the patron saint of Ireland in its hearts. And because my friend Patrick has an Irish heritage, it is a fitting place to go.

Melaque is on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, North of Manzanillo and West of Guadalajara. It is a small town – smaller than Cueramaro – but it has a fine bay and beach. In contrast to the large resort cities along both coasts of Mexico, Melaque is still a Mexican fishing village with a few hotels and a very relaxed style. If you want a fancy, top-flight resort, you should not be putting Melaque on your list. But if you just want to bask on the beach, wander in the water and sip a cerveza, Melaque will do just fine.

I realized when I got back I had a very large number of fotos from Melaque to “process” through Photoshop. There are many reasons, but one of the biggest was I had lost my camera and MP3 player a month or so before in San Miguel and through some miracles and the help of friends and family—this was the first time I had a chance to take fotos again in a while. I could have taken the opportunity to upgrade my gear, but I didn’t. The Pentax camera I use works well for what I need and by the time I needed to replace it—it was available for a comparative pittance on eBay. The same was true for my iRiver MP3 player. It isn’t an iPod, but it does what I need on the busses and in the evenings, so why fight it? Besides the thrill of having a camera in my hands again, Melaque is certainly photogenic, so the fotos flowed as easily as the waves on the beach. It has taken more than a month, but there are now several pages of fotos in the Melaque gallery.

There are many stories I could tell about Melaque of the things that touched me, but I think the fotos in the gallery tell them best. The families making sandcastles, the frozen juice bar vendor, and the fellow we called “the walker” are all little stories I still have in my mind. Seeing Patrick and getting to meet his family after all the years I have known him as a friend was a great thing in itself. The one story I will tell is where the name “Papa Grande” comes from: On Saturday, Patrick decided he needed some new shorts for the beach and we went hunting for them in the local shops. Small shops in small towns in Mexico usually don’t have a lot of stock and Melaque is no exception. We went from shop to shop and we couldn’t find anything that would fit Patrick. Now, granted Patrick is a little larger than an average person, but still—with the number of tourists coming through it seemed like someone would carry some larger sizes. We finally stopped at a shop where they had a fairly good supply so we asked if there were any sizes that might fit my friend. The shorts they brought out were uniformly smaller than needed. Finally, I realized the shop owners were reluctant to drag out the biggest sizes they had. In Mexico, shop owners are always considerate and concerned about saying anything that might be considered offensive to their customers. So, I made a joke. I asked them in Spanish if perhaps they had two potato sacks they could stitch together and sell him for shorts. They melted. The laughter could be heard down the block. They immediately pulled out some larger shorts. They were still too small. I asked for “bolsas para mas papas.” We got some shorts that would fit. So was born Papa Grande—a running joke we laughed about through the trip.

The lesson in this is something I have found more times than I can count. It is always better to release a little tension by making a joke, of yourself preferably, than to get irritated and push people, especially in a small town in Mexico like Melaque. Everyone in Mexico loves a joke and when the joke you are telling is at your own expense, it is even better.

Getting to and from Melaque is not a simple task, unless you fly into Manzanillo. From Morelia, it involved a three-hour bus ride to Guadalajara and then a bouncy four and a half hour ride to Melaque over some very high mountain passes. The mountains have many microclimates and it is a beautiful ride—but because of the time needed to of get from Morelia to Melaque, I didn’t see it until my return trip. The mountain valleys have fields of sugar cane, groves of walnuts and many crops I didn’t recognize. The roads wind and the altitude in the mountain passes is dizzying, but it is an eye opening trip. The first class bus line, Primera Plus runs the route several times a day and I wouldn’t recommend any other line.

I must admit I played around with some creative approaches to some of the fotos from Melaque, something I have not done for a long time. It made me wish for a photo-printer capable of some larger prints to put up in my condo or house, but for now—I will just have to imagine them. Maybe one of these days I load a few up in my memory stick and take them down to one of the digital foto printers here in Morelia and let them give them a try.

So, enjoy the fotos and little stories of Melaque. It seems a long way away now, but I still have my fotos and the memories.

wp:thumb src=”2006-03-11-33.jpg” cap=”Umbrellas closed, the afternoon light casts long shadows as another day on the beach comes to an end. ”—> ->

April 27th, 2006 by Mike
Tagged as fotos | No Comments »

The

This has been a year when I learned many new things, went many new places, and met a world of wonderful people. It has not been as successful as I would have liked in some ways. In other ways it exceeded my expectations by a thousand kilometers. I have come to love this part of Mexico—the Bajio. The central highlands of Mexico are a world apart from the beach resorts or the streets of Mexico City that most people are more familiar with. And for those who think the border towns they visit represent what Mexico is—I can only say, you have to come to the Corazn de Mxico.

Back in November, my friend Delilah from San Miguel came to Morelia to see some of the areas around the city and spend some more time in what she lovingly calls, “the Paris of Mexico.” I agree in many ways. It isn’t because Morelia is a busy world center of commerce. It is busy, but it is because of the French and Spanish influence of Colonia Centro, the heart of the city. It is because of the art, food, music, ambience and the culture of a city that truly has a unique place in the world.

But ultimately, there has to be more and there is. Around Morelia and throughout the Bajio are many different areas, artisans, and wonderful things to see. You can tour it with guides and in buses or you can take the more intimate and chancy path of just striking out on your own. I have been fortunate to travel a lot in my life, and I still enjoy the sprit of discovery when I just head down an unknown road to find something new.

My condo is a nice place, but it is unfurnished and—well at this point it is nothing less than monastic. I have only a bed and a nightstand, which I am using as a desk as I type this. My computer is my stereo, my television, and through Skype, my voice connection to the world. So, wanting to know what it would take to bring a little more comfort to my existence, I decided I should see some of the artisan areas where I might find some reasonable furniture and art to brighten my world. Delilah is an interior designer and a lover of the arts, so she was also interested to see some of the areas that are famous for their crafts around Morelia.

We enlisted the help of my friend, Rigo, a taxi driver who has also worked in the US to take us to the area Southwest of Morelia broadly known as Ptzcuaro. Ptzcuaro is the name of a large lake surrounded with many pueblos and with several islands, some of which also have pueblos of their own. It is also the name of a pueblo near the lake where several routes to major cities in Mexico cross. My initial idea was to go to a couple of towns known for their furniture, Tupataro (This will be confusing to those who know of the Tupataro in Guanajuato, near Cueramaro, where I went to a fiesta recently. This is a different city and is in Michoacan) and Cuanajo. I knew of the larger region, but I thought it was better to keep my sights on a limited goal for this trip.

As it turned out, to get to Cuanajo, you have to go through Tupataro. If you look at this map, you will get an idea of the region. Tupataro and Cuanjo are near the bottom. We saw several interesting places on the roadsides in Tupataro, but we went on up a twisting narrow road to Cuanajo. I’m sure there are many people who would be happy with what we saw in Cuanajo, but honestly, the better quality work was in Tupataro. There are craftsmen and artisans who produce handmade furniture in many styles and who will also make anything you desire. I was overwhelmed. I know I will be returning to buy when I can.

But you can only spend so much time looking at tables, chairs and other pieces of furniture. We decided to head on to Ptzcuaro for some lunch and to see what was there. Across the street from the restaurant where we stopped, we found another roadside artisan display, this time of woodwork. Mouths agape, we wandered through the many workshops and saw more pieces than we could imagine. I won’t spend more time trying to describe what we found, but you can see it in the gallery section I have started titled, of course, “The Road to Quiroga.”

So to complete the trip, we did go up the side of the lake to Quiroga on our way back to Morelia. On the way, we passed a spot with several stone sculptures and carvers working so we decided to stop. The work we saw there was truly amazing. We could see hand cut statuary in every stage of development. We talked to the cutters and asked them where they got their inspiration. It turned out they went to the library and looked at pictures in old books and encyclopedias and then added their own inspiration to what they saw. Delilah gave in and bought some pieces for her patio garden. I am sure no one in San Miguel has ever seen anything quite like them.

This trip convinced me that I have to go back and see more of this region. Quiroga is the center for the crafts of the region and if you can only go one place to see the crafts of Michoacan, it is certainly on the short list. You can get to Quiroga by bus, taxi or car fairly easily and it is a beautiful area to go through. Quiroga itself is small city with a busy central district that is filled with small artisan shops. Some are owned by the artists and many are middlemen who bring the crafts to market.

So, I will close this year with many more fotos still waiting for me to put them in their places. I will get to it, I promise. Because of this fotolog, I have heard from people all over Mexico and the world. I am happy what little time I have to spend on this brings happiness to others.

Feliz Anno Nuevo!

—>

December 30th, 2005 by Mike
Tagged as fotos | 1 Comment »

Weather

I am nearing the end of my last week this trip. Two tropical storms, Emily on the East coast and Eugene on the West coast have been buffeting us. No big problems, just a very strong tropical downpour for an hour or so yesterday afternoon, which gradually softened and disappeared. We did have a little bit of excitement – the storm overwhelmed the drain below our offices, blew the manhole cover completely off and flooded the intersection nearby. Certainly nothing in comparison to what other people are facing in Monterrey and other cities in the North of Mexico as Emily comes ashore.

I always feel a pang of sadness when the time to leave is approaching. I know I will be back in about a month, but it still hits me. I will miss my walks in Morelia, my trips across the Bajio, my friends and the many little pleasures of life in Mexico. According to prognostications, I will be spending even more time here in the future. I am taking a larger role in some projects as our work moves from development to production. I look forward to it, but I know it is going to press some decisions on me. The simple fact is our home in the US is getting too expensive and large for what we need. We will just have to see, but it looks more and more like we will be moving sometime soon. What shape those decisions will take is still unknown, but they have to be made, whether I like it or not.

I am learning and considering a great deal in this work. I spent yesterday thinking about how to manage educational outcomes measurements and today I awoke with new insight into the diagnostic process doctors use to determine treatments. It isn’t new knowledge in the world – it is just new to me. How does one thing tie to another? One of the articles I read in passing discussed ‘Internet hypochondriacs’ and how the increase of information available to patients is impacting healthcare. It discussed how doctors approach a set of symptoms and how that differs from the investigation process patients use on the Internet. At the same time, I am considering how to structure the measurement of case-based neurological education for primary care residents. The article lead me to realize the assumptions used to develop the diagnostic sequence in a series of computer-based cases was basically flawed and the measurement system being used is suspect. Being a consultant at this level is necessarily an upside-down situation. You come into a situation knowing nothing about what is happening, having almost no knowledge about the subject, and having to provide better insight into what can be done. It takes research, consideration, and considerable work to gain the confidence of the people you are consulting to so they will accept your conclusions. It is the essence of my work.

I’m finishing this entry now in George Bush Intercontinental Airport Houston. We had an interesting flight in from Morelia. They told us on the way here there would be a patch of ‘really bad turbulence.’ It never really materialized. They told us that Huston airport was closed, and when it opened up, there would be delays. We landed on time. We saw some very large thunderstorms, so I know the reports were accurate but the worst never materialized. Like when in passed Morelia, we skirted the remnants of tropical storm Emily.

It’s getting close to time to get on the plane. Time to go.

wp:thumb src=”2005-07-17-5a.jpg” cap=”Lesser egrets are a common sight on the lakes and in the fields in this part of Mexico”—> ->

July 25th, 2005 by Mike
Tagged as fotos | No Comments »

Flora

This is the rainy season in Mexico. In the Bajio, where I am, it is a welcome relief. On the East coast, where they get the full force of the tropical storms that bring our rains, it is often a dangerous time of year. But for us, in the states of Guanajuato and Michoacan, it is a time when the hills turn green again and everything grows in abundance.

Depending on where you are, the rains can either be downpours or gentle sweeps. In Guanajuato, the tendency is for rains to come out of nowhere and pour down, disappearing as fast as they come. In Michoacan, they tend to come regularly in the late afternoon or early evening and break the heat of the day. As a result, Michoacan is usually about ten degrees or more cooler than Guanajuato.

Riding this bus to Cueramaro this week was a welcome surprise. The hills and valleys have all turned green and the air is fresh and sweet. In Morelia, we are seeing the grass in the parks grow back and the colors of the flowers are strong and vibrant. At first, it was so different from previous trips; I was concerned I had gotten on the wrong bus.

I have seen many flowers, birds and animals in Mexico that I have never seen before and it is a constant source of amazement. The foto that opens this entry is of a mistletoe that was very surprising for a guy from Northern California. The mistletoe I am familiar with has small white flowers and isn’t very pretty to look at. This species has long, red-orange blossoms and a different leaf structure. If the leaves weren’t different than the tree they infest, I wouldn’t have known they were mistletoe. There is another tree with very similar flowers that is often planted nearby.

The blackbirds in this part of Mexico are quite different than I am used to also. They are a little larger and the males have long, elegant tails, which they obviously take great pride in. Their calls are more raucous, something between a crow and the squawk of a parrot. However, just like in the city parks in Sacramento, they roost in the trees in the jardin at night and that gives employment to a small army of men who use pressure washers to clean up the jardin every morning. Beauty comes with a price.

One thing I have learned that has given me great joy is how to balance my digital fotos in a way that gives a look similar to Ektachrome. The �punchy� color of Ektachrome transparencies has been a favorite of large format photographers for a long time and a staple of magazines that depend on fine photographs like National Geographic. I have learned how to work with shadow and highlight in a way that brings out more detail in the sky and shadow than I thought possible. I didn’t believe the information was actually there. It is, and with only a few seconds of work, I can balance a picture to a point that I would have previously only been able to accomplish in a darkroom. It takes time to make the transition, but it has improved my fotos a great deal.

Do I feel bad about manipulating my fotos to bring them to what I see in my mind’s eye? Not at all. It is what good photographers do every day. It is satisfying to be able to make it happen.

wp:thumb src=”2005-07-06-1.jpg” cap=”A cicada on the balcony outside our office in Morelia”—> ->

July 17th, 2005 by Mike
Tagged as fotos | No Comments »

Dia

Between my two trips to Philadelphia this month, I visited San Miguel de Allende for the Dia de Los Locos and the annual parade that goes with it. The parade is unique to San Miguel and rooted in local traditions. There are several different stories around why the parade was started, but at this point it hardly matters. The opportunity for a parade and the fiestas that follow are loved across Mexico. This year’s Los Locos parade in San Miguel was no exception.

The foto of the bells of the Parrochia that leads this entry was taken the morning of the parade as it kicked off in the San Antonio district of the town. What interested me is how the bells are rung. If you look closely you can see men are in the belfry, hand turning the bells. I freely admit I don’t know much about cathedral bells, but I didn’t realize they were ever mounted for this type of ringing. If nothing else, it must be a noisy job – these are big bells.

For the Los Locos parade, all the participants wear costumes and masks. All sorts of characters are used. The most unique are the hand made paper mache masks that depict everything from pirates to creatures from outer space, but every other kind of mask and costume you can imagine also appear. There are bands, floats, contingents from the local schools and a sprinkling of people from all over the world. The parade wanders through the narrow cobblestone streets of San Miguel for several hours on its way to the Jardin Principal in the center of town.

We watched most of the parade on the street just outside the restaurant, Tio Lucas. At this point, the street is quite narrow and the crowd on the sidewalks was five people deep. The trucks carrying sound equipment for the marchers were barely able to pass. It didn’t matter. Everyone was there to have fun. Take a look at the fotos in the gallery to see what you missed! One thing to notice, because the streets were so crowded, almost all the pictures were taken from the vantage point of an outstretched arm over the crowd. I couldn’t get to a vantage point where I could line up shots, so I adopted a news photographer’s trick of pointing the camera in the direction of the action and taking lots of shots. In the end, I got plenty of good fotos, but the editing took a lot more time with so much to select from.

After the parade, we stopped at Harry’s New Orleans Cafe near the jardine. It normally wouldn’t have been my choice – but, the streets were still crowded from the parade and we wanted something cool and a place to relax for a moment.

The typical image of a “Harry’s Bar” usually has a small combo playing and San Miguel is no exception. You never know quite what to expect, the combo is made up of a variety of locals and in San Miguel that can include people from all over the world. We took a table near the combo and soon met Bob January, a saxophone player from New York who has had a long and illustrious career. Like many people, Bob and his wife are settling down in San Miguel to enjoy the slower pace and the artistic community. Of course, for Bob, relaxing still means playing his music and there are several places here for him to do it. Bob and his wife work on many local causes and have gradually built a rich life here. I won’t try to tell his story, instead I encourage you to read it for yourself on his website.

So, this weekend, I will finally be home again in Cueramaro to relax and wind down. At least that is my plan. Mexico has a way of making its own plans for me, so we will just have to see how that works out.

wp:thumb src=”2005-06-19-59.jpg” cap=”Bob January and the combo at Harry’s is a cool place to wind down on a hot San Miguel afternoon.”—> ->

June 30th, 2005 by Mike
Tagged as fotos | 1 Comment »