People in Latin countries are usually out visiting in the evenings, having fun and listening to street musicians and eating at any of the well-lit taco stands on the corners. Tijuana: part II: A good meal to round out my day… and a place to lay my head at night Dining Out I like a […]
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Tijuana: A Taste of Mexico Part III: Recently we have heard and read much of “outsourcing” in economic terms. And it’s true that by the large-scale outsourcing of services and manufacturing, we are incrementally destroying our own economy. But the key is the term “large-scale,” since only the larger losses truly affect a local economy. […]
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Sometime during my first month in Guanajuato, the idea floated into my head of writing an article about the sonic landscape of the city. This of course includes a great deal of music, since it resounds in every corner. But surrounding the music is a larger sonic landscape, comprising a range of sounds, some magical, […]
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Guanajuato is, and has been for a long time, a centre of culture and education. In one way or another, it has always been prosperous, either through the richness of its farmland or its mines. There was the money to support cultural activities and the desire on the part of the rich mining families and hacendados, I […]
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The diversity of the Mexican population never ceases to amaze me. Whether being in Mexico City, Mazatlan, Oaxaca or Palenque I always admire the beautiful Mexican faces ranging from light to mocha to coffee brown. Enjoying an ensalada de frutas in a comedor in Merida during my second visit to Mexico I noticed a lady. Her extremely pale face; […]
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The city of Guanajuato is nestled in a sort of steep basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains and spreads up around the center of the basin. Imagine a huge, terraced rice paddy such as we’ve seen in photos of Indochina. Then, imagine a city built on those terraces, a city in which there are practically […]
Continue ReadingNovember is a festive month here in Ajijic, beginning with the celebrations of All Saints Day and Day of the Dead, and ending with the feast of the village’s patron, San Andrés. Invariably the most lively celebrations in any Mexican village, the fiestas patronales here seem possessed of a unique spirit of mirth unmatched in other nearby […]
Continue ReadingAs a home-based working mother I recently found myself faced with an annual quandary: how to keep my two restless pre-teens entertained over their summer holiday and simultaneously squeeze some quality time into an already busy agenda. Inspiration came from a handsome coffee table book entitled Espacios del Lago de Chapala * (see note below) featuring dozens of […]
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Motorists traveling recently along the Guadalajara-Chapala highway may have been puzzled by what looks like the structural foundations of a mighty cathedral rising up near the roadway between the airport and the Cajititlan turn-off. The towering tangle of iron girders is in fact the framework for what will soon turn into a temple for Mexico’s […]
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2004 turned out to be another fortuitous year for Lake Chapala. According to data issued by the National Water Commission (CNA), accumulated rainfall registered nationwide in 2004 ran nine per cent above the previous year’s figures and 16 per cent above the historic average. On November 1, the first day of the 2004-2005 hydrological cycle, […]
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