More Photos of the Waterspout Day

I recently got a link to a set of photos on Flickr that were taken on Sept 12, 2007, the day that the waterspout (tromba in Spanish) hit our town of San Juan Cosala. I just browsed through them, and found a lot of fascinating details:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49882128@N00/sets/72157602062311039/

I've posted this next link before, but it seems handy to have it with the other one...here are the photos on Flickr that my husband Kelly took, on Sept.12 and later, regarding this amazing event:

http://flickr.com/photos/kellyhart/sets/72157602013524791/

Meeting Ken Edwards of Tonala

I have long known of Ken Edwards' famous pottery, produced in Tonala, near Guadalajara. On a long trip we took all over Mexico in 1979, we visited his factory and I bought a mug which was my favorite for a long time, even after I dropped it and it lost its handle. Last year, Kelly and I went to the Ken Edwards store in Tonala, about an hour away from our Lake Chapala home, and bought ourselves a lovely set of of dishes, mostly seconds and very reasonably priced. I've enjoyed them tremendously. That link takes you to my blog entry about visiting there last year. At that time, we learned that Ken himself was mostly living and doing pottery in Guatemala, by Lake Atitlan.

Recently I was emailing with a man who had some questions about getting set up with a website. He mentioned that he was Ken's nephew, and that Ken was in Tonala for a few days. This fellow, Peter, thought that we and Ken had a lot in common and would we like to meet him? I said sure, and so Ken and I exchanged a few emails. It was obvious that Ken had a far-ranging mind... He was fascinated by Kelly's earthbag building techniques, for one thing!

So yesterday we found Ken at his apartment next door to the Tonala factory. He sold the business a while back, keeping just a small percentage ownership, but he still comes to Tonala regularly and is involved with it. We settled down to chat a while. I hadn't really known what to expect, but Ken Edwards is a fascinating raconteur, and that far-ranging mind goes everywhere! At 82, Ken has lost none of his marbles... he has more on the ball than most people of any age. That's inspiring to us as we look ahead.

I knew that he had first come to Mexico in 1954, and I asked him to fill in some of his history with my little voice recorder going. You can hear part of that via the link at the bottom of this blog entry.

I notice now, playing the mp3 file back, one spot where my editing of the file last night makes for some confusion. Where he's talking about working with Jorge Wilmot in doing pottery, I cut out some bits and suddenly he's saying "We came down," and I ask if it's Edwards James. James was an eccentric Englishman whom Ken had known in Malibu, famous for later building the surreal Las Pozas in the tropical jungle of Mexico... that link takes you to my photo page from several years ago, when Kelly and I went there and were enchanted by the place. I digress... but that's the way the conversation went! This selection is about 11 minutes long and talks about teaching English as a second language, Bohemians, and more, with a few bits about pottery. Now and then you hear Kelly's voice too.

Ken went on to tell us about the years in Tonala and Tlaquepaque, his life with his wife Jackie who is mentioned in the conversation. (She died 12 years ago, and her ashes are in this pot, which was her favorite.) His pottery became world famous. This seemed to matter less to him than the adventure of whatever is next. I was intrigued by how technical his mind is... besides the artistic side, he was always coming up with new ways to do things in the factory. Ken and Kelly talked about earthbag building and catenary arches. Ken was astonished to learn that I'm the daughter of Cordwainer Smith, as he loves science fiction. The time sped by. I asked him if he had any advice for staying so sharp mentally. He commented that in his case, he always has a new project going.

Eventually, we went next door to see the factory, and I will blog about that shortly.

Now here's the link to the mp3 file of the first 11 and a half minutes of our conversation... It will probably open to play in the same window or tab you are now in.

The Feria Del Arte in Chapala

Every year in November, through a tremendous amount of hard work on the part of both foreigners and Mexicans, a wonderful arts and crafts fair takes place for three days. This year the Feria del Arte was in the lovely Chapala Yacht Club, and you can see a boat on the lake between these two Oaxacan rugs:

We got there early on the first day, and strolled around before getting down to serious shopping. The organizers gave out lovely large shopping bags, as you can see on the arm of the woman on the right:

The artists come from all over Mexico, and pay no fees for their booth nor percentage of sales. They are put up and fed by local Mexican families. The whole thing is a labor of love, to help keep Mexico's incredibly rich treasure of arts from dying out. It's funded by a 50 peso entrance fee and I imagine by donations.

Many of the items were somewhat beyond my budget, but when I chatted with one artist, I learned that the straw painting I admired had taken her about a week and a half. Maybe next year! Kelly took a photo of this lovely Virgin, and I trimmed out the background so you can see her. She was made here in the state of Jalisco. Every table had a small page you could take, telling about the artist, how to reach them, how they did their works, and so on. Unfortunately, I didn't get one for this piece.

Many items are also very reasonably priced. Here, I had just bought this folk art style cross from Felipe Benitez Miranda, who painted it, and he kindly allowed me to take his picture. These crosses were 220 pesos (about $20 US) and have great detail. He is from Guerrera but lives now in San Miguel de Allende, where the address on his card is Artesanias Benitez, Andador Lucas Balderas, 3rd section, Local #15.

Once home, I spread a few of our new treasures out on our bed. Our cat Misty was interested in the stuffed cat! All but the cross are destined to be gifts.

Kudos to Marianne Carlson and the many volunteers who make this such a wonderful event! Here's a very nice blog article (by someone else) about Marianne Carlson with background on how the Feria del Arte came to be, with photos.

Peter and Friends Eat Eyes... in Tacos

Our friend Peter stopped in recently for a couple of days. He's just finished a month in Guadalajara at the International Teacher Training Organization, where he got TEFL-certified, to teach English as a second language. This school helps its graduates find jobs. Peter's classmates are heading to Cancun, Chiapas, Puerto Vallarta, and other points around Mexico, while we were delighted that Peter accepted a position in Zamora, a small city in Michoacan, not very far from here. We look forward to driving over to visit him sometime soon. He was told he'd be teaching a variety of ages -- and will be able to take some Spanish classes himself too.

Just before going to a Chivas soccer game, Peter and a couple of his friends went to a taqueria. Here's the menu:

I don't know what all of those things are but lengua is tongue. They ordered a variety of things:

Peter's friend Jason is having an eye taco here. Peter said they were chopped up enough that the eyes weren't staring at you.

How did the eyes taste? Kinda bland. You had to really scoop guacamole and hot sauce on them.

And Chivas won their soccer game, against the Jaguars. Peter was impressed with how intensely involved the audience was.

Technorati Tags: tacos,eating tacos

Obesity and Diabetes in Mexico

It can be a surprise to first-time visitors to this country to see how heavy most Mexicans are. It seems to be a normal part of the culture. The diet here doesn't tend to include a lot of vegetables. Sugary bottled drinks (you know the brand names) are widespread. According to an article in the Guadalajara Colony Reporter, a 2005 survey found 70 percent of Mexicans to be obese.

So there is also a lot of diabetes here, diagnosed and not. According to that same article, Mexico has the highest rate in the world of Type II diabetes in children in the world and the second highest adult rate in the world. The health care system here is being strained by the needs of these people.

So why am I writing about this? When I saw the article, I was moved by it. Members of my family have had diabetes, and the desire to not develop it is one of the things that motivates me to exercise and to eat moderately, at least part of the time! Including Thanksgiving. We're doing a simple one at home with friends. The frozen turkey from Chihuahua is thawing in the fridge.

Spider, Caterpillar in our Mexican Garden

This spider is quite unusual looking... I think this is called biomimicry. A local friend tells us they are quite common in the mountains above our town. And here is a caterpillar on our avacado tree:

A Walk Above The Raquet Club, San Juan Cosala

The other day, Kelly and our good friend Roberto Villa Lobos took a long hike up into the mountains. They walked from our neighborhood up through the development called the Raquet Club, and continued upward on ejido (community) land. Roberto had many happy childhood memories of helping his grandfather with cattle up there. He told Kelly that for years he went up there practically every day. Now, it gives him a sense of peace to be out in nature, and he admitted that not too many of his family shared that feeling!

They got a good look at a new gash in the mountains, caused by the tromba (waterspout) that hit above our area a couple of months ago. This picture shows how close to the top of the mountains the waterspout had come. We had thought it came lower down.

They passed very close to a calf who appeared to be several days old. It didn't move at all. They began to say what a pity that it had died, but when Roberto leaned over and touched it, it jumped up and bounded away!

There is a dam up there. Here a bull walks along  beside it, with Lake Chapala and the other side of the lake visible in the background.

Why is this my 4th post today?

I didn't mean to make all three of the posts below this one in one day, but I am trying out some new software for creating the blog posts on my computer and then uploading them. I *thought* it had a feature for just saving the posts as drafts online, but if it does, I didn't use it right!

So do scroll down to see all 3 posts! I like how I have more control over the photo sizes and positions... even the little frames are easy.

After the San Juan Cosala Waterspout: A Walk Up the Arroyo

My husband Kelly walked up one of the arroyos that goes above San Juan Cosala, and saw how the rockslide had scoured out the arroyo. We had walked there several times before the waterspout on September 12, and he said that the place was essentially unrecognizable. Here you can see the scouring effect:

And here is one where you can just make out a house just below where the boulders, trees, debris, and water poured down. It had some damage.

Technorati Tags: waterspout,San Juan Cosala

A Mexican Sunday at the Small Town Soccer Field

One Sunday recently, we walked down to the local soccer field, paid 5 pesos each (about 50 cents US), and found ourselves in the middle of a lively scene. Our town, San Juan Cosala, was in the playoffs with nearby Ajijic, a town with maybe 4 times the population. We had come hoping to see a friend of ours play, but we found him watching the action from the sidelines. He's a teenager, where many of the players were in their 20s and 30s. In such an important game, he didn't get a chance.

Ni modo, as they say here -- no matter. We had come in a little after the game started, and we looked over the scene. Several ancient large trees provided shade, and some of their downed branches were being used as seats. There were some bleachers built into the walls of the field but they were in the glaring sun. Like most people, we stood in the shade. Many had brought their own buckets for seats.

The score was still 0 to 0. Before I had figured out that the striped shirts were our team, a great roar went out. A VERY loud roar! San Juan Cosala had just scored. All around us, there was jollity.

Unfortunately, things didn't stay like that. The gloom was palpable when Ajijic scored.

At half time, the players came off the field and gathered in a circle near us. One guy took off his striped shirt and someone who was going to replace him put it on.

Meanwhile, the mostly male crowd was having more beer, Corona.The guy selling it was periodically walking around and picking up the empties. We encountered a good friend of ours and stood with him as the game resumed. He pointed out his brother to us on the field. I listened with amusement as three men sitting on buckets nearby provided a steady stream of advice to the brother. There was a lot of bad language -- one bit of slang that is printable here was burro, and I confirmed with our friend that it is used to mean stupid.

The game ended with Ajijic winning. Despite the gloom this induced, it had been a very Mexican event -- jolly and lively all around.

Technorati Tags: soccer,Mexican soccer,San Juan Cosala

Kelly's Debit Card Meets a Bad End

Like many foreigners here in Mexico, we rely on ATM cards (debit cards) tied to bank accounts back home. They provide us with quick and easy cash.

Usually it works great.

One day recently, Kelly and I were shopping at Soriana, a chain store in Chapala, and he went to get some cash from one of the ATMs in the lobby. He came back and said his card wasn't working.

So I went and tried mine, which has a different number and PIN number. I had no trouble. Kelly went and tried again. No luck. But I had taken out enough money to do our errands, so we did our shopping.

When we got home, Kelly called our bank in Colorado. We had made a point of making the acquaintance of one of the bank officials before we left, so we would have a specific person to contact. This has come in handy several times. It was late on a Friday afternoon when he called and as she wasn't there, he left a message on her machine.

Saturday morning, I happened to be doing some online banking and I noticed that there were two withdrawals from our personal checking account that were dated earlier in the week, on a day that we hadn't left home. They were located in Mexican towns I had never heard of. One was for about $112 and the other for about $450. I'm talking dollars, not pesos.

Well... that was no good. We surmised that this was why Kelly's card hadn't worked at Soriana. But how had this happened? The card was never out of his possession and he is very careful about letting someone else in line see his card or what he is punching. In fact, our favorite ATM here is one in a booth, where you swipe the card so the machine has no chance to gobble it up. (When a card is gobbled in Mexico, you may not be able to get it back from the bank. I don't know if this is also true in the US.)

Anyway, I found the emergency number for calling on weekends, and got put through to the fraud unit. There was, as we suspected, already a temporary hold on Kelly's card, and the man told us that there had been two more charges as well. He put a permanent block on Kelly's card.

Monday morning early, our friend at the bank called and we discussed everything with her. How could this have happened, we asked. "We can only guess," she said, "but my best guess is that someone was running random numbers to find some that worked, and that they physically created a credit card with Kelly's number, not needing his PIN." I had found out in the meantime that those two Mexican towns were near Mexico City, not near us at all.

She faxed Kelly a form to fill out and he sent it back. (We use an inexpensive fax service at send2fax.com, which sends faxes to our emails and lets us send them out through their website, very handy.) A few days later, we were refunded all the money. The bank sent Kelly a new debit card to our Colorado address, and a friend is bringing it down to us soon.

It's good -- make that essential -- to have more than one way to get money. Whew.

The Quinta Quetzalcoatl Bed and Breakfast in Chapala

Not long ago, our friends Beverly and Al came down to Lake Chapala on vacation. We'd met them last year when they made Ajijic one stop on a trip to several places. This time, they decided to focus on one area, and Beverly sure did her homework when it came to accomodations.

They stayed in Chalapa, at the Quinta Quetzalcoatl Bed and Breakfast. It's often called the QQ, and is right in the heart of the downtown area. But what a world you enter within its acre of grounds! D.H. Lawrence wrote while staying there, quite a few decades ago.

Here are more pictures:




You can see more at the website of the Quinta Quetzalcoatl Bed and Breakfast in Chapala. I was astonished at how low the prices are!

After roaming the grounds to our hearts' delight, we had a nice lunch at a lakeside restaurant called the Blue Agave. As you're coming into Chapala on the carretera from Ajijic, it's on the right. Very nice place, very good food.

I wonder what Beverly will come up with next!

The Cemetery is the Happening Place: Days of the Dead in San Juan Cosala

Here in this part of Mexico (San Juan Cosala, Jalisco) the Day of the Dead is chiefly celebrated at the cemetery, where everyone brings flowers, often artificial and often wrapped in plastic. The more durable flowers are left up till the next year. Food is frequent brought too, and consumed there. It's an event shared with the dead family members. On the first day, November 1, mostly people go who have children buried there. I would guess that might be more somber than it was on the 2nd, when pretty much everyone goes. These photos were taken by my husband Kelly just before dusk on the 2nd.

It's easy to find the way to the cemetery from the highway. Just look for people and snack bars:



And here are a couple more pictures from the event. Kelly is very comfortable taking photos at public events, and a Mexican friend had assured him that people wouldn't mind. As he walked back from the cemetery, another Mexican friend saw his camera and asked him if he was going to publish photos. He said yes, and she smiled.

A Mexico News Resource

Ana Maria Salazar, a bilingual American attorney with impressive credentials, has a blog and two radio programs in English that are well worth knowing about.

Her daily blog, www.mexicotoday.blogspot.com, has just found a place on my browser's toolbar, so I can be sure to check it often. Here is the blurb at its top:

Mexico Today is your daily dose of news and analysis on current affairs in Mexico. This blog is moderated by Ana Maria Salazar, host of "Imagen News", the only nation-wide radio news program in English broadcasted from Mexico. Need to know what is going on in Mexico? Mexico Today is the place to go.

She hosts the nearly half-hour "Imagen News" every day at 5:30AM and 11:00PM on 14 FM radio stations around Mexico. I am not normally of a mind to listen to the news at either time, but you can either download the broadcast in mp3 format or just listen to it on your computer, at any time. Here's the link:
http://www.imagen.com.mx/nueva/news/

I'm starting to listen to this as I cook or do housework. She does interesting interviews.

On the weekend she offers "Living in Mexico, " which is a weekly summary of news in Mexico.
www.imagen.com.mx/nueva/livinginmexico/

A good way to be better informed. Both of these programs seem to list about 4 of the most recent broadcasts; scroll down the pages to see them.