Big Decisions

Deciding what clothes to take and packing the suitcase is easy compared to figuring out which photography equipment to take on a trip. If you are traveling by air, you are pretty limited but in the car you could take it all....if you want to carry it around. Now with digital photography you must be sure that you have batteries, charger, computer, card reader and an alternative storage device besides the camera stuff. But part of the process of deciding which equipment to take is also thinking about what you will be seeing and how you want to photograph it. So packing up is a good process for getting ready to photograph.

I should know me well enough by now to know that I don't like carrying extra equipment with me during the day and I don't like changing lenses in the field. I say that even though I've realized that, at least for me, there doesn't seem to be a "perfect" lens. I always wish that the lens on the camera was faster or focused closer or had a wider angle of view or was more telephoto. It is some kind of rule that the lens I wish I had is back home or back in the hotel room because I didn't carry it all with me.

You'll see in the assortment above that there are two Holgas as well as film and tape to try to stop light leaks with that camera. If I decide to Holga (pretend Holga is a verb) all of those concerns about lenses are gone. There aren't more possibilities. It is what it is. There is no wishing, no changing lenses. You just work with what you've got. Maybe since some of the background noise about other possibilities is eliminated, I stay focused on what is possible in the here and now.

Or I can add to my confusion and take both digital camera and Holga. Or have a split personality with the Holga lens cap for the digital camera.

Veterinarian Bills

We thought Taylor, our Cocker Spaniel, was just getting deaf. After all, he hasn't been a puppy for a long time and maybe he was just getting older. But then we realized that his ears were swollen and tender. So off to see Dr. Edgardo Vazquez, Taylor's veterinarian.

Dr. Vazquez examined Taylor with care and tenderness since his ears were swollen. He said his ear canals were inflamed and usually this happens due to a change in diet or too much protein in the diet which dogs do not tolerate as well as they get older. The diet hasn't changed but Dr. Vazquez said maybe it was time to switch him to a Senior diet and cut out his Saturday morning egg. The Senior diet isn't going to bother Taylor but losing out on his Saturday morning egg is going to make him sad.

He gave Taylor a shot for inflammation and a shot of antibiotic. He gave us ear drops and antibiotics to give him for seven days. We bought a sack of Senior dog food. And of course, there was the examination.

What would all of this cost in the USA?

Here it was about $65 US dollars.

How Do You Say Sheep?

My visit to the Sheep Ranch this week sent me to the dictionary looking for the Spanish word for sheep. While at the ranch I kept hearing the word borrego but the packaging for the cheese said "queso de oveja." Ned even got involved in trying to solve this riddle and he checked out several on-line dictionaries while I rummaged through our Oxford Spanish Dictionary. We are still confused.

According to the various dictionaries.......
Borrego (a) can mean sheep or lamb OR it can mean a false rumor
Oveja means sheep
Cordera means lamb
Carnero means mutton

Okay, cordera or carnero is pretty clear but when do I use borrego or oveja?

My Rustic Fruit Tart

Reporting back on my efforts to make the rustic fruit tart...... My recipe, How to Make a Rustic Fruit Tart, was from my favorite cooking magazine, Fine Cooking, September 2005, #73. This was one of their series of Cooking Without Recipes which gives you some basics and then suggestions on how to vary the ingredients. I'd like to be able to refer you to the recipe on line but Fine Cooking doesn't have all, not even most of their recipes on line. I always buy the bound version of last year's recipes so that I can keep them but it is still a pain to remember a recipe and not be able to remember the year so I have to go back through several of the books to find the recipe.

I had been thinking about making this recipe for some time. It just seemed to be so cozy. Like something you would walk into your kitchen and whip up after you found the perfect apples or peaches in the market. Nothing pretentious and yet it would say that you are a good cook. I could see serving it in the summer after a meal of grilled chicken and grilled vegetables or in the winter after grilled pork chops with sauteed red cabbage. But then I would remember my track record with a pastry dough.

Yesterday I was brave. I bought the apples to do it. The pastry dough turned out okay but as you can see from the picture above it wasn't beautiful. The picture in the magazine showed it with perfect flutes as it folded back over the apples. First off, I realized that I didn't have my Kitchen Aide mixer....sold in the estate sale. Nor did I have a pastry cutter so it took a while to incorporate the butter and the flour. But the biggest shock came when it was time to roll out the dough. I don't have a pastry roller either. I used a 4" diameter tall candle wrapped in plastic wrap. Not ideal but it got the job done. Rolling out the dough is where I always seem to get into trouble. I get cracks around the edges and no matter how I flour the board, it will stick to the surface. Oh, another thing I don't have is a pastry knife either.

Now my mother just threw flour here and there and she could pick up her pie crusts and flip them over, then fold them in half, lay them in the pie pan and open it again without it sticking to any surface or tearing. How did she do that? I watched her do it so many times but I think she just had some magic flour or something that I couldn't see!

This time I managed to get the dough more or less intact on to the parchment paper in the pan, pile the fruit on top and fold up the edges but I had visions of the juice from the fruit running out of the dough and over and under the parchment paper. A little of the juices escaped but most of it stayed in the tart. And the apple tart was pretty good.

The recipe suggested that you serve it with a dollop of ice cream or whipped cream but when I make the apple tart version again, I think I'd serve it with a dollop of a whipped vanilla mascarpone topping. I think the delicate cheese flavor would be great with the apple tart.

Rancho Santa Marina

Have you ever eaten organic sheep cheese? Well, not only have I eaten some but I've seen the Rancho where it was made. This week the Down to Earth Garden Club toured Rancho Santa Marina which is off of the Queretaro-Mexico City tollway and about an hour from San Miguel.

The Rancho is in beautiful country. When we arrived we were greeted by the dogs who ambled out and through the fence to check us out and to get some head scratching and pats on the back. When we entered the Rancho we all walked through a chemical shoe bath to protect the sheep from any diseases being brought onto the property.

There are about 350 sheep and the Rancho is carefully divided into a variety of alfalfa fields and holding pens to facilitate the movement of the sheep from one pasture to another and from pasture to the milking shed. They are moved from field to field to eat so that the alfalfa and grasses have time to rejuvenate. The only fertilizer is what is left by the sheep. They do not use hormones or other chemicals to promote the production of milk and they have a full time veterinarian on site. The breeding program is carefully controlled. As we heard about the way the Rancho is run I kept thinking of the sustainable farms in the book the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. The cheese is aged for about three months in a "cave." Most Mexican cheeses are soft or semi-soft but this is a harder, drier cheese and has some similarities in taste to a Parmesan cheese. It is delicious. I haven't looked for it yet in San Miguel because I bought some of the cheese at the Rancho but Queso Luna on Ancha de San Antonio is suppose to have Rancho Santa Marina queso de oveja. I think it would be a great pairing with membrillo or quince paste as an appetizer. I also think you could substitute it in pasta dishes for Parmesan cheese.

When You Have the Blahs......

Cook. That is what I do when I'm feeling blah. Cooking always seems to make me feel good....and healthy. So this morning on my way to the San Juan de Dios market I finished up a roll of film in the Holga and then did my shopping. When I left the house I wasn't sure what we were having for dinner except I knew I had some chicken breasts. Somewhere along the way, I decided that I'd make cream of broccoli soup for lunch and a rustic apple tart for dessert for dinner. The rest of the dinner would be the chicken breasts, Brussels sprouts and whatever other vegetable looked good in the market.

Of course I don't have a recipe for the soup but I do have a kind of master recipe for cream soups in my head. I use some rice in the soup to thicken the puree and then I only need to add a tablespoon or two of crema to give it that silken creamy soup taste. It didn't take any time to make and felt very warm and comforting on this Fall day.

Now the rustic tart.....that is another issue. I do have a recipe. I NEED the recipe because I may be the world's worst pie crust maker. My mother could put together a pie crust without even thinking about it and she always made some extra so that she could sprinkle a little sugar and cinnamon on the leftover pieces as a treat for my sister and me. I have tried different recipes for pie crusts and somehow I can't get it in the pie pan in one piece and I certainly can't make it have beautiful fluted edges like my mother's pies. I gave up and just bought frozen pie crusts in Houston. Here I can get the bakery to make a pie crust and put it in my pie pan but they charge an arm and a leg for that. Thanksgiving is coming and I'm going to need some pie crusts. I'm a good cook and I hate to let a little thing like a pie crust defeat me.

At any rate, today I'm feeling lucky. We'll see how my rustic tart crust turns out. So far so good. It is a flattened disk, wrapped in plastic wrap and "resting" in the refrigerator until I'm ready for it.

Hospital Angeles de Queretaro - Part 2

I saw the doctor last week and now it was time for tests at the Hospital Angeles de Queretaro. But rather than writing about "my test" I'd like to write about the hospital and compare it to my hospital experiences in the USA.

We arrived at the appointed time and filled out about one-half page of paperwork and signed two forms. In the States you usually have to pre-register and fill out pages and pages of information and sign many documents.

The initial examination room looked the same with sliding curtains and a gurney although this one didn't have much padding. There was a plastic bag for my clothes...just like in the States. The hospital gown was the usual kind that leaves the backside flapping in the wind. They did not take vital signs like temperature and blood pressure.

The nurse did not introduce herself and say that she would be taking care of me. The nurse did not speak any English and when asked to repeat something she repeated it louder and faster. As a regular reader you know that my Spanish is poor and Ned's is pretty good but his Spanish vocabulary isn't too good on medical terms. She used the word "estudio" for test. I looked up estudio and I can find a reference to estudio de mercado which means market research. So I assume that "estudio" in this instance means medical tests. In many places in the United States there would a translator available.

There was just one sheet to cover up with. In the States the last few times I have had any testing or procedures done, I've been covered with warmed blankets. I had not been given a identification bracelet to wear and they did not repeatedly ask my name and check the bracelet as I went from person to person during the procedure.

In the room where the procedure was to take place, there was a doctor who spoke English but he did not introduce himself either. I asked if he was the anesthesiologist and he said yes. He asked me questions about medications and allergies, weight, etc. This room was ringed with cabinets and equipment and the ceiling was hung with bright "operating room" lights. Another young man came in to set up equipment that would be used during the test and the anesthesiologist told him my name to write on something that I couldn't see. The doctor came in and told me the procedure would be underway soon.

The next thing I knew the anesthesiologist told me the test was over and everything was fine. In a few minutes the nurse came back in, took out the IV, Ned came in and I got dressed. They brought a wheelchair to roll me out to the car and we were on our way.

Oh, another thing that you might want to know is that the cost of the procedure for both hospital and doctor in Houston was $2800. In Angeles, the total cost was about $1000.

This report may sound negative but I didn't have a bad experience yesterday. It is just that things are different in Mexico. And of course, I'm comparing my experiences from Houston's gigantic world class Texas Medical Center where besides many hospitals and medical schools there are numerous clinics that specialize in single procedures like cataract surgery or colonoscopies. We have friends who have had major abdominal surgery or orthopedic surgeries in Hospital de Angeles and they have been very pleased with the care they received from their doctors and the hospital staff.

The bottom-line. The hospital was clean, people seemed to be well trained and efficient but just as in most things in Mexico, you are responsible for yourself. You will need to ask for some services such as having your blood pressure taken. If you are unable to watch what is being done then you need a friend or family member to be your advocate. You need to speak Spanish or have someone with you who can speak Spanish. But it is good to know that in an emergency that Hospital de Angeles is just an hour away.

Charreadas

Last week we went to a party in the countryside where they had a Charreada for us...a kind of Mexican rodeo. Mexico inherited the traditions of the Charros or Spanish horseman from the province of Salamanca in Spain who settled in the State of Jalisco. In some places the Mexican cowboy is called a vaquero.

The Charros or Charras are skilled in horsemanship and wear very elaborate costumes sometimes trimmed in silver. A man's outfit consists of a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat, tight trousers, a white shirt, waistcoat and a long jacket. A woman's outfit is similar but with a long wide skirt.

The horses are well trained and the rider and horse seem to move as one almost without direction from the rider. The Charros are very skilled with lariats and competitions for handling the lariat is always a part of every competition. It was really quite amazing to see them twirling the lariat over their heads, around the horse in a graceful never ending movement. The old westerns that I saw as a little girl had lots of this accomplished lariat twirling in them but you seldom see anything like this in movies now or even in rodeos in the USA.

Our rodeo was to include some bull riding but the bull decided he didn't want to have any part of it and jumped two fences to take off for the wild blue yonder. Now we really had a demonstration of the Charro's cowboy skill and all of them took off after the bull. Before too long they had him back in the trailer.

I have never seen a Charreada before this party but I think the next time we have one in San Miguel, I'll go.

This is another Holga image. Wish I would have had a lower ISO film for the camera because it was bright and sunny but I'm still getting back into the Holga's idiosyncrasies.

First Communion

I love the Saturdays or Sundays when I find a church that is having First Communions. The girls are in beautiful white dresses with organza, frills and appliques. Their hair has been "done." Usually it is pulled back and arranged in curls. The families are standing around so proud and taking pictures with their digital cameras. There are always professional photographers there too, who make very posed pictures of the family with their angel in white holding a candle and Prayer book. Now boys also have First Communion but their dressing up doesn't last long. Unless a mother is holding on to her son, he has his coat off, if he had one, and his shirttail out by the time he gets out the door of the church.

Hospital Angeles de Queretaro

For a long time we have heard about the Angeles Hospital in Queretaro and this week we found it. We had to find it because I needed to see a doctor who is located in the office building joined to the Hospital. Wow, I'm impressed. It all looks well run and maintained. This was the doctor's office.....just like in the USA, a place to check in and uncomfortable seating. But what was different is that we were not asked for insurance cards or asked to fill out four pages of questions about our health, then asked to sign waivers, declarations of confidentiality, or limits of liability. We just checked in at the desk and waited for our time to see the doctor in his office. Can you imagine not being stuck in a tiny cramped exam room while you wait. It was pretty nice. The doctor was personable and he asked the right questions as he typed his notes on his computer.

I like this better than Hospital de la Fe here in San Miguel where there is just one long waiting room for all the doctors. At de la Fe I feel like I'm sitting in a bus station waiting room. Some of my friends have been quite happy with the medical care that they have received at Hospital de la Fe but it just doesn't inspire me with confidence because it doesn't look like what this gringa expects a hospital or doctor's office to be.

I'm scheduled to have some tests in Angeles next week so I'll report back on the Hospital side of the building and see how it stacks up with my expections.

Happy Birthday

This was a "few" years ago but it is Ned and today is his birthday. Happy Birthday!

An Ever Growing Circle

We went to a party last night at Casa Payo. Sandy has been here making art for a few weeks and had to return to the USA so she threw a party.

I met Sandy in a life drawing class at the Instituto the first year we rented the Schofer house. I think that was eight years ago. We started talking and liked each other. We went out for dinner on the first week we met and we became friends. Another year we took a Warren Hardy Spanish class together and I think Warren wanted to separate us because we had too, too much fun but he probably didn't want to inflict either one of us on anyone else either so we stayed partners. She visited us in Houston. While we were buying a house in San Miguel and settling in, Sandy came and went. She wanted a studio space to work in when she came and she found Gerardo Ruiz and his wonderful studio. She would come to San Miguel for a month or a week or two and make art. Sometimes when she came I'd join her for a few days in the studio or maybe for a life drawing class.

She is really a dear friend but Sandy makes friends everywhere so last night I had the opportunity to meet some more people that Sandy has befriended here. Two of them were into food....one a chef and the other a foodie and journalist. Fascinating women. I wish the party would have lasted twice as long because our conversations about sourcing out suppliers and what was happening on the food scene here were just getting started.

People ask, "What do you like about San Miguel?" This is it. Always meeting new and interesting people and some of them become very close and dear friends like Sandy.

Renewing an FM-2

Last year Ned got his FM-2. The FM-2 is good for one year. So now it was time to renew. I have been waiting for this renewal so I could tell you the story. We've been hearing tales of people having to wait for six weeks for renewals of FM-2s and FM-3s. Of having to return multiple times to the Immigration Office. Days wasted on Mexican bureaucracy. About the necessity for getting a Mexican to walk your papers through the process and paying higher fees for them. We've heard and read speculation that this is in retaliation for the immigration policies in the USA. So I figured that I would have a really good story for the blog. So here is Ned's FM-2 renewal story.........

One morning Ned went to the Escritorio across from the Immigration Office where they fill out the necessary papers for you to take to the Immigration office. He brought his current FM-2 and his passport. The clerk asked him if he was in his car and when Ned said that he was, the clerk gave him his Hoja de Ayuda para Impuestos or the form for going to the bank to pay his fees and told him to drive up to the bank by Gigante to pay because he probably would not have to wait in line and by the time he returned, he would have all the paperwork done and copies made.

Ned followed the instructions and sure enough he didn't have to wait in line at the bank. He came back, paid the clerk, and picked up his paperwork. He then walked across the street to the Immigration Office and turned it all in. The Immigration Officer looked over it and said that everything seemed to be there. He gave him a temporary FM-2 and told him to come back in two weeks to pickup his renewed FM-2.

Ned went back exactly two weeks later to the day and picked up his FM-2.

What happened here? Everyone else seems to get a good story out of this process. How could the Mexicans let me down like this? Isn't this a boring blog entry?

Price Check, Please

Atencion, the San Miguel English language weekly newspaper had an interesting article this week by Jim Karger titled "Is it really cheaper to live in San Miguel?". I'd give you the link to the article if I could find a way to link to it but so far I haven't found one. Mr. Karger looks at both eating in and eating out and his conclusion is that food is about 25% less expensive than on the other side of the border. But his comparisons are in large grocery store chains on both sides of the Rio Grande and in Restaurants that cater more to the expats, the wealthy Mexicans who visit on the weekends and the tourist from around the world.

He has done his research and it is an interesting article but I think his premise on the cost of food is missing a couple of points. If you shop at the supermarkets and eat in the "up-scale" restaurants, I'd agree with him and in all fairness he is really addressing the belief of many people who are thinking about becoming expats in Mexico.

But there is another way to live in San Miguel. First, buy in the mercados and at the Tuesday Tiangus. Buy the local fruits and vegetables. I've been trying to remember some exact numbers from our trip to the Tiangus a week or so ago and I don't think I'm far off when I say that I could have bought 2 kilos of small yellow local apples for 20 pesos. Ahh...I just found a picture I made at the Tiangus and added it to the blog even though it isn't the a great example of my photography. The price was even better, 2 kilos for 16 pesos. And that is just one example. The prices there and in the mercados, except the one outside of Espinos, are less than the supermarket.

Secondly, if you are going to eat out look for some of the small neighborhood places that have some ambiance where the prices are more reasonable. Examples are Cha-cha-cha and Rinconcita. In fairness Mr. Karger was trying to look at restaurants that were similar to those you eat at in the USA and there the prices are higher than the neighborhood places. In general the problem with the prices in our San Miguel restaurants is that the food is not as good as we find in Houston. Restaurant food in San Miguel is okay, it is not bad and the tourist seem happy with it and most of the expats seem happy with it. But when compared to some of our similar favorite places in Houston, San Miguel food is mediocre. That I can't figure out since the ingredients for the most part cost less and the labor is cheaper. I don't know....maybe I'm just a restaurant food snob.

What we are really talking about here is "What is the Cost of Food in San Miguel?" I think Mr. Karger's article is not too far off. In my own personal experience I think we eat for about 30 to 35% less than in the USA. Next Mr. Karger is going to compare land and construction costs and I think that some people will be shocked at what those items cost here. But San Miguel, we are told, is one of the more expensive places to live in Mexico.

For those of my readers who live in other places in Mexico, tell me what you pay for a kilo of:
Roma tomatoes
Oranges
Hamburger
Eggs
Bananas

What would be the cost of an entree at your favorite neighborhood place? At your "going out to DINNER" place? I'd like a "price check, please."

Stuff on Blogs

I mentioned in my previous post about how, for me, making an image into a print is important. It closes the circle so to speak. And would you believe that in bloggersphere, several other people are writing about those same thoughts. Mike Johnson had a piece on his blog about technical style and it included this statement:

Also, I haven't broached the subject of printing and how it affects image preparation. In a way, printing provides discipline, because it brings experimentation to an end—to hit the print button, you've got to decide what you're going to do to the image, but you also need to have reached the point where enough is enough and you're done.

Howard Grill on his blog wrote this calling the Print the Gold Standard:

But, for me, the most important end product is still the print…..the tangible, mountable, frameable, and ‘hangable’ hard copy print. There is still something special about being able to experience, examine and even pick up an image that carries with it the unwritten statement that it is the final common expression of an idea; that it is the best output that the artist was able to achieve. Simply put, there can be no question that the print is the way the artist meant for the image to be seen......

It is really funny how ideas or inventions or stuff on blogs sometimes surface from multiple locations at the same time.

The image at the top? Yes I've printed it but I don't think it is the final print. I'll put it up on Flickr or here on the blog because cyberspace seems to ephemeral, so momentary, but I don't think I'm ready to say that it is the "best output" I can achieve and release it as a print.

Slowing Down

I wrote a week ago or so about being in the Fast Lane. Between guests, festivals, a trip and a major shooting frenzy it has been busy for the last 30 days. Thank goodness, I've found an exit.....at least for a few days. Not that I'm being lazy because I'm working at the computer processing images, doing a bit of printing and evaluating what I've been shooting. But it is good not to be on the move all the time.

I really needed some time to print up some of the recent Holga images. I know that many people are pleased just to see their images on the monitor but for me I need for some of my images to be more tangible....a print that I can hold in my hand. For some reason I don't see all the relationships of objects in the image or one image to another until I see it in the print. I guess that tells where I come from.....a darkroom, not a Lightroom.

I don't think I'm the only one who likes to see the image in print. More and more photography books are being self-published. Today in the 5B4 blog, there was a great entry about self-published photography books in general and four recent books in particular. Among a lot of other things I agree with, the editor said:

First off, a book is so intimate. You cradle it in your hands and turn the pages, experiencing the work at your personal pace. You can touch the art so to speak. Because of this tangible aspect, you have a different relationship to the photos. In a gallery, no matter how comfortable you may be in those environments, there is a subtle but very real influence to move through an exhibit faster than you may naturally want to.

I equate the monitor to the gallery. There are always distractions and your finger always seems to be on the "clicker" ready to gobble up another image instead of just savoring the one in front of you.

The Holga image in this entry isn't related except that I shot it about 10 days ago, scanned it on Monday and I printed it today. Maybe it is kind of related because it was a part of the frenzy of the last month. I am always grateful when the Photo God has the one kid in a red vest be the one who looks right at the camera.

One of these days, I just have to pull a project together in a book. One of these days.......

Frank and Ellen's Visit

They weren't here long, but we packed the activities in for our friends, Frank and Ellen. We managed to schedule lots of walking, a San Miguel Procession, walking, a long Comida with entertainment, walking, shopping, walking, a couple of Mexican breakfasts, fish tacos at the Palapa and even a street fight for them. This was their first time in the interior of Mexico but I think they had a good time.

Frank is a photographer and we met on the internet in 1989 or 1990. He has been a mentor and dear friend to me ever since. So we had a great time with our cameras. Take a look at his blog entries from October 6 to the 8th to get his impressions both in word and image.

At any rate I haven't posted much during the last week but these images were made one week ago today with the Holga at the Feria in San Miguel de Allende. I still have a lots of Holga film to scan and work up from Sunday, September 30 and Tuesday October 2. When I'm shooting with the Holga, I do miss the instant gratification from a digital camera and being able to post them on the blog the same day.

Testosterone + Tequila = Trouble

There was trouble in the hood this weekend. When we came home from dinner we knew that there were a lot of young people on the street. Since the houses are small, very small, the street is where the young people usually gather to talk and flirt and even drink. Can't afford the bars like Mama Mia. But we didn't think much about it because it was the weekend.

We went to bed and just as we were settling into a good slumber......we were awakened with shouting and the sounds of things hitting in the streets. We got up and went across the patio, first to the studio to peek out and then on up to the terrace to take it all in.

On the roof next door, where the oldest son has recently returned from the "other side" of the Rio Grande, there were five or six young men swaggering with the courage of tequila and they were shouting and throwing rocks both up the street and down the street. On the other side of our house was the police, motorcycle police, mounted police, and several police cars and pickup trucks. Not only were the young men throwing rocks but the police were returning their fire with rocks. We couldn't see what was up the street on the other side but there were rocks coming from that direction too. A few of the rocks even hit in our patio. When we got up on the terrace we saw that we were not the only neighbors observing this spectacle from a terrace.

During a lull in the rock throwing, the mothers and girlfriends of the boys on the roof top came out in the street shouting at them to stop and calm down but the young men were feeling bullet proof so they continued to yell obscenities in both directions. When we looked over the terrace toward the police they had disappeared but then we heard them from the other end of the street where they were out of rock throwing range.

A light rain started falling and after a while it seemed to cool off the tequila rage and all was quiet again. The rest of the night was quiet and peaceful.

We went back to bed trying to figure out what had happened to start it all. Had the police tried to arrest some of the boys for being drunk on the street? Was it a gang war? Had someone from out of the neighborhood driven by and said something insulting about one of the girlfriends? The next morning Ned talked with some of the neighbors and apparently it started as a fight. Someone called the police and then the young men decided to fight the police.

What would have happened in the USA? The swat team, helicopters, young men taken off to jail and in a worse case scenario one of them even shot. Here the police can not enter a house to arrest someone, there are no search warrants, no probably cause. So why not recognize that the boys are drunk, stay around until the tequila rage wears off and it is time to pass out. The next day everyone gets up and goes about their business.

Hey, this is a different culture and this is they way they deal with it. But what do you tell your house guests who haven't spent time in Mexico? Will they want to leave on the next plane? Do you offer to put them up in a hotel away from this "lively" Mexican neighborhood? Well when you have house guests like Frank and Ellen, you just tell them that the revolution isn't quite over and we all get a good laugh about what happened. Frank just wishes he had come up on the terrace to see it too.

Life in the Fast Lane

I've been living life in the fast lane for the last few weeks and I'm not ready to exit yet. Lots of photography, lots of friends, lots of festivals, and lots of new things happening. This is all good although some days it leaves me wondering about my sanity.

Yesterday was a first......and I know that those of you who live in San Miguel will wonder at this.....but it was the first time we went to the Tuesday Market. Now I'm not sure why I haven't gone before. The Tuesday Market is a huge sprawling market with anything and everything you might want laid out in stall after covered stall. There isn't any "arrangement" of things. The shoes are next to the fresh fish. The hardware is next to undies. The dried beans are next to garden plants. Yes, of course I took some photographs!

Yesterday I got back 10 rolls of developed film from the Holga. All I've had time to do is put them in sleeves and scan this one image from last Saturday.

Yesterday we also went to the Fair (like a county fair in the USA). I shot five rolls with the Holga which I'll take in today to be processed. They love me at the photography lab! I shot some with the digital camera once the light dropped too low for the Holga. I have so many images to work with right now that I'm kind of overwhelmed with it all but making images seems to come in waves for me so I'm sure that I'll have time later on.

Today I'm going to shoot some still life with some pomegranates that I bought yesterday at the Tuesday Market. I've had some ideas that I wanted to try out. The pomegranates are just about over their peak so I have no choice but to do it today.....along with a lot of other things on my list.
Sometimes when people ask me what I do with my time in San Miguel, I don't even know where to start.

You Just Needed to Be There!

I've delayed writing this all day because I don't know how to describe the San Miguel Festival this weekend except to say it was the best ever in spite of the rain. On Thursday night we went to the plaza in front of the Parroquia to hear a violin concert by the Brothers Aguascalientes. But before the concert started, lots and lots of taxis all decorated with balloons and flowers arrived to park in front of the Parroquia to be blessed by the priest. As soon as they cleared out some seats were set up in front of the stage. It was the 30th anniversary for the Brothers Aguascalientes to play for the Festival and the concert was marvelous. We stood for almost two hours while we were thoroughly entertained by their music. You really should have been there!

At 4:00 AM on Saturday morning was the Alborada in front of the Parroquia. Two and a half tons of gun powder was escorted into San Miguel for this epic battle. From the courtyard of the Parroquia "San Miguel Arcangel" fires rockets at the devil on the other side of the Jardin but of course the devil is putting up a good fight and he is firing back at San Miguel. While this is going on for ONE hour, the bells in the Parroquia are ringing, and lots of the young people who have stayed up all night in the bars waiting for this battle are standing under the falling fireworks. Most of those who haven't been drinking all night try to stay out of the fallout zone. It is just one of those things that you just have to be there to understand.

We had semi-planned to go but it was raining and we decided to stay in bed a little longer but not too long because we had asked friends to come for breakfast after the battle was over. After the sun was up, we headed into town. There was something going on constantly around the Jardin. A huge procession of Mexican riders on horseback (2 or 3 gringos were sprinkled in) came into town to be blessed in front of the Parroquia. There were beautifully costumed dancers on every side of the Jardin. The performance of the Voladores who climb a very tall pole and then slowly descend head down while circling the pole with a foot tied to a rope that has been carefully wrapped around the pole. Everywhere you looked there was a feast for the senses. You should have been there.

In the afternoon rain clouds gathered but that didn't stop the huge procession, nor did it stop all the Mexicans from staking out a place to watch. Besides the dancers, the bands, and the Mojigangas, the xuchiles are brought to the church to be put in place. The xuchiles are decorated structures made of at least two telephone poles and they are carried for about a 1/2 mile and put in place in the courtyard of the church. They are beautifully decorated and it is an engineering feat to get them to the Parroquia and tied in upright positions. Later that night they had fireworks and castillos. It is definitely one of those things you need to see. You have to wonder how it could be that the next morning all the people who had been in the procession have the energy to be in a parade....this one much longer and then they dance all day long. But they do and they seem to be having great fun. The fireworks and castillos on Sunday night were just spectacular. You just need to be there!

Now here is the interesting thing. Many of the ex-pats never go to these wonderful Mexican celebrations. I think if they ever participated fully, maybe they wouldn't complain so much about the church bells and fireworks. And the other interesting thing is that there are lots of people who say and write about San Miguel being overly influenced and outnumbered by the gringos................well, you should have been there with us in that congregation of Mexicans with babies on their shoulders, helping grandparents get around, and thoroughly enjoying their traditions.