Guanatos: Day 2

So I woke up on Javier’s sofa, he’d already made it to work and I had a wander round the Seattle area of Zapopan, it’s all huge mansions and pebbled roads. Gorgeous in the early morning light, then I ambled round the centre of Zapopan, I only had my little camera with me, so you’ll be spared more fisheye photos for now. Saw a chameleon car or two and also snapped a photo of a sign saying something like Beer for the same price as a bus ticket and such and such restaurant, established bloody ages ago… did a bit of email checking and shopping and then met up with Javier again for a torta ahogada near CEPE.

[flickr]photo:2532005644[/flickr]

I also made it back to our old house in calle Garibaldi, now completely refurbished/painted and the home of Juanita and her estetica. Me agave plants weren’t there any more and the garden looks a lot more Zen without the schipperke landing pad… I nipped into Waldo’s mart (everything for a dollar or 12ish pesos) and got some of their surprisingly good Polish dark chocolate for old times sake. Juan de Bonafont was even in the neighbourhood and greeted me with “Y dónde está el Atticus?” (so where´s Atticus?” which was brilliant. I said hello in the corner shop too just for good measure. The old barrio looked good.

[flickr]photo:2531199689[/flickr]

I had a quick siesta, went for a few tacos (chorizo was all they had cos it was early) then ambled to the cafe Fenix in front of the expiatorio where I’d announced I’d be to the Flickr folks. Many were already there when I arrived so I had a really warm greeting and passed out a few pressies and other requests to the crowds. It was great to see everyone again, there were also some peeps I didn’t expect to see from Flickr and elsewhere so though there was no official count of the numbers I had the rockstar treatment. Fantastic it was. Muchas gracias to all of you who made it. It was one of the many highlights of the week for me. And if you promised to visit us in Portland, we hope you’ll make it 😀

118_2123

After the flickreunion I went back to Abuela desde Guanatos’s house with her and Fabian and had wine on the roof looking over the cityscape from the 5th floor, and listened to some esoteric records from the collection. A very nice way to end the day all round.

Here’s the link to Day two’s set on Flickr since putting them all in here ruins Flash‘s day.

Chambeándole

I can only see her spinning clockwise, anyone see her going the other way?

It’s been a busy few days, what with dining out in Providencia, Scrabble, Bar Scratch, Zapopan and a fair amount of webdesignery (San Diego Furniture, a bilingual Belgian shopping centre, that Ultrasound thing I mentioned, and updates to a site I did last year for a waterjet cutting company. Photography of a shampoo box too. And also, possible PHPery for a new Mexican design company on the horizon, something to do with virtual wedding present lists…

Today I think I’m going to be stuck at the computer right through till I pick up young Sita from the airport. Which is fine and mean I can catch up on me facebook scrabbling too. Might nip out for tacos though…

IMGP3133

Bubble

I didn’t realise the detail this bubble contained till I cropped it and zoomed in a bit. I’ve now an idea for some shots in the centre of town. Bubbles abound in Mexico. Zapopan, for the record

Charros!

I promised to take Sita to the charreria before we left the city, but in the end she couldn’t make it and I went on me own with my trusty camera and zoom lense. I’ve nothing more to add really to my last post about it when I went with Anne and Stu. I took 297 photos in 2 hours and then cherry picked the best 50 which are now over at Flickr… Best entertainment 1 pound 30p can buy you, I reckon.

This photo’s from one of the first events, where the charro has to gallop at full speed then do an emergency stop when the instructor taps his notebook on the dashboard within a chalked area. Then they measure the stopping distance. The shortest wins the charro a round of applause.

IMGP2074

I start my photojournalism course today. I’m going to be networking to try and get some kind of press credential too… I might resend that email to the Gazette to another desk there as the sports people are too busy attending skittles and Great Mills League football matches to reply.

Julia y ofelia

Had a nice soirée round Javier’s yesterday too, he lives in one of my favourite areas of Gwod (well, Zapopan technically) called Seattle and met a couple of new peeps. One of whom might want a website for their ecotourism business.

The thing about blogging…

…is that when there’s not much going on then there’s plenty of time to post about what you’ve had for breakfast and the last movie you’ve watched, but when your life is full of excitement, travel, friends, family and fun then it’s hard to squeeze in the time to express what a marvellous time you’re having. This is one of the latter occasions.

100_1080

Tulum and round that way was simply amazing. The cabaas we rented could not have been better located, the weather was perfect (ie. not too hot, breezy, low humidity and sunny) and all them photos you see of Tulum and around, well they’re definitely not photoshopped and have to be seen to be believed. Absolutely gorgeous. Needless to say I took 500+ photos and am whittling them down a bit before sending them all to Flickr and producing the all singing, all dancing DVD spectacular.

100_1057

100_1081

Mum and Dad have changed their return date so they’re here for another 2 wks which means we’ll be off on day trips and adventures near and far. Yesterday was Tlaquepaque, today Zapopan and Seattle, tomorrow the centre, Wednesday, Tequila… all is going v.v. well.

In slower times I might have posted about the oscars last night. The biggest argument for not dubbing events in Spanish you’ll ever see. But no time at all.

<100_5980

We had a bit of bad news about Atticus and Sita’s folks. They were attacked in the street by a pitbull on Friday night. They’re getting over the shock now and Atticus needed stitches and has to wear a cone but otherwise is doing okay. Martin saved the day by all accounts and Sally (and Atticus) handled themselves very well. It sounds like everything will be fine, but that was quite a shock. Speedy recovery to all concerned and thanks for handling it so well M & S.

Bugger II ( Just for PH ;) )

WordPress (the blog engine I use) just ate my longish post! Hate it when that happens. Anyroad, I can just about remember what I wrote. It was something heavily to do with self-pity…

I shouldn’t have skimped on the tequila yesterday because as soon as darkness fell my cold transformed into the fluidy achey horribleness that I could really do without… I spent the night awake with a headache and, worse yet, no one to complain to and look for sympathy from. So apologies for using my interweb soapbox to whinge, mis amigos, but I can’t help meself. Sita said all the right things on skype, mind, and she’s no stranger to the old insomnia… Also I found a stash of American strength cold medicines this morning in the bathroom so I’ll work my way through that and see if anything happens… Anyroad, to paraphrase Steven Colbert, that brings us to this week’s Spanish word: Constipado

In Spanish Spanish “Estoy constipado” means I’ve got a cold, thus causing 50% of the hilarity that occurs in Spanish chemists (pharmacies). Constipado means bunged up, only in the Iberian peninsular it refers to your nose and sinuses rather than other parts that your average anglophone might think. Round this way it’s ‘resfriado’ which is a more literal version of cold.

The other 50% comes from the phrase “Estoy embarazado/a” which you’d think means I’m embarassed, but actually means I’m pregnant. The time must fly by.

zapopan_pcJust so this post has something of worth, eyes right for a picture of the Basilica in Zapopan from the days when I was a little obsessed with filters in Photoshop. Also, today is el Dia de la Raza, which is considerably less polemic here than Columbus day in the States. If I had a proper job, I’d have the day off… Anyroad, Viva la Raza and all that…

Guess who I’m going to see in concert in October…

To use a Californianism, I’m totally psyched! I’ve been a fan for quite a while. Guadalajara’s suddenly getting world class concerts. There was The Strokes the other day, and Franz Ferdinand, Slayer. And soon, Lila Downs, Julieta Venegas and er, Toto, coincidentally enough. Ooh, what to wear?

Here’s some photos from this afternoon’s wanderings round Zapopan with Victor, Jana & Megan. If you’re in the area and fancy seeing some world class photography of the low points of 2005/06 then the exhibition on now at the MAZ is highly recommended… The slideshow below uses a new fangled javascript thing, fingers crossed…

A slide show will appear here shortly.

Lila Downs

100_7014So on Saturday we went to an Indian restaurant called Goa or somesuch with Victor, Jana and Sarah and it lived up to expectations. It’s only been open a few days but I fully expect it to do well. Tell your friends, it’s on Lopez Cotilla and on the Minerva side of Chapultepec … Apparently it’s nigh on impossible to import curry powder into the country so they have to get visiting friends and family to supply the restaurant. The owner also runs an Indian goods shop (clothes with little mirrors and that kind of thing) so there’s fairly frequent visits. Presumably curry powder would put drug sniffing dogs at the airport completely out of action for a few weeks so the dishes were lightly flavoured but very tasty. The wine’s a bargain too. I asked to ramp my dish up to vindaloo which they did using chilis instead of the powder but it was very effective. Afterwards onto La Bodeguita del Medio for Bertha’s birthday. Bertha’s a spanish / French teacher and Sita might be taking classes with her soonish, anyroad she had a nice bunch of friends and we had a grand old time singing along to Chan Chan and other cuban clasicos.

Sunday started off very dubiously. Some translation and then (cos our cable tv came back after 4 days) surfing whatever was on while my headache receded. I watched El Santo in Operación 67 which outbonds bond with a fraction of the budget (3.5 lulus). Little Nicky, if you like talking dogs, you’re in luck (2.5 Lulus) and Misery (5 Lulus), no review required… Towards the end of the afternoon we headed off to Victor and Jana’s where we were plied once again with fine wine and fine food before heading to a free concert in Zapopan where no less than Lila Downs was playing. I can’t say I was overly familiar with her music beforehand, but now I’m a convert. Photos of the event flow like wine over at Flickr. She does updated versions of Mexican classics and is something of a feminist icon round these parts. And france apparently. I’m getting to work on her back catalogue today.

Dynamic javascript re-rendering of CSS or Pimp my site

Thanks to Mark Wilton-Jones‘s handy little guide and coding, I’ve put a new section on the right for you to swap between stylesheets. I’m not sure how it affects the loading time of the page and if there’s an public uproar, I’ll remove it. Also the new title picture:
gwyn's blog
is not perfect, and I’ve realised that IE users (Why, oh why?) can’t deal with the PNG transparency. Another quirk I just noticed with explorer is that if your screen resolution is less than 800 wide, the sidebar disappears south. So I’ll be rejigging all that soon enough. Sita’s not keen on the font for G and W neither, so it simply has to go… enjoy it while it lasts… Them buttons are made for clicking…

Last night Sita made ‘plans’ to go to the cinema with her mates, but the advertised film they wanted to see wasn’t there so they ended up in a bar in Zapopan. Jose, victor and me went straight to La Barba Negra for beers and blues, since we don’t excuses to hit the bars. Jose’s had one hell of a week, he’s another one who should blog. Well, he does have one for his excellent poems but I reckon the world would like to know more about a week that ended with someone cycling away from his block of flats firing gunshots in the air and shouting “Arriba, Sinaloa”. Comment below to petition Jose to set up mividaesunatelenovelamalaybarata.blogspot.com …

Today we’re going to an Indian restaurant. Yep, in Guadalajara. It’s brand new and supposedly has curry… it’s been 9 long, curryless months and expectations are high… Shall reveal all manana…

Whiskers on kittens, brown paper packages, Spanish words…

There’s a site that’s looking to find the most beautiful word in Spanish. I’ve got several for the list, which, while maybe not beautiful, are lyrical and pleasing in other ways. Here are a few of my faves. Spanish is such a great language, especially the Mexican variety.

Huitlacoche — it’s a black fungus that grows in maize that is specially harvested for pricey tacos/ quesadillas

Esperpéntico- An adjective that roughly equates to grotesque in English. It’s all about holding up a deformed mirror to society and describing the distorted view in order to better criticise it I came across it in my undergrad degree course in 20th century Spanish theatre.

Pendejadas- Acts performed by a pendejo (idiot/wanker/fool). Stupidities.

Olvidarse- In Spanish you can absolve yourself completely of guilt when you forget things. ‘Se me olvidaron mis llaves” is a common way of saying ‘I forgot my keys’, and literally translated means ‘My keys forgot themselves at me’. Brilliant!

Antojitos- Mexican (bar) snacks. Antojo is a wish, antojitos, little wishes, or things you just fancy nibbling. I’m fond of pretty much any word with the diminutive ‘ito” ending. Guerita, guapita, casita, abuelita, chiquitito, cosquillita.

To turn a noun into an assault/ explosion/ crash you tend to shove —azo on the end. So you get: bancazo- bank robbery, avionazo- a plane crash, and tequilazo- a night of binge drinking that did you no good at all, or the economic crisis when agave prices went through the floor. Fun for all the family.

Ajijic, Jocotepec, Zapopan, Tlaquepaque, – local places with names more colourful than Taunton, or Downey for example…

In French my favourite’s pamplemousse (grapefruit) and in English, it’s a toss-up between ‘arse’ and serendipitous. If you fancy sharing yours comment away 🙂

‘Pat does Chapala’- her words…

This is my fave pic from today:

El Charrito

with this one a close second: fishClick the cowboys pic for a look at all the new photos from Zapopan, Chapala, Ajijic and Jocotepec. V. nice day it was, i had my favourite fish (and favourite Spanish word) for lunch, huachinango (red snapper), sita looked on in disgust as Pat and I worked our way through whitebait type fried fishy things and we took in the view of the lake. Great weekend all round. La Matera tomorrow evening for a pre-bday bash and Tuesday for continued festivities.

The post-boom weekend

100_4481Ma Come No was the Italian restaurant of choice for Friday evening’s celebrations. Highly recommended, we suggest the Spanish Tempranillo… Saturday had me and pat checking out the patchouli oil and Tim Burton sponsored hippy market, the Tianguis Cultural before hightailing it over to Zapopan to see a disturbing statue of Juan Pablo II with little Juan Diego, huichol history (including unexplained taxidermy), modernish art in MAZ the Museo de Arte de Zapopan, and a filling lonche with all the requisite salsas. Sita took Pat to our little neighbourhood coffee shop, Starbucks for bickies and cafe and then supplies in Gigante. Victor and Jayna came round for lemon chicken and suchlike. After they left we watched Lord of War, Nicholas Cage as the prototypical arms dealer, then bed.

This morning: Skype with mis abuelitas and brekky, now we’re off to Chapala to check out Jocotepec, a little further on from Ajijic, where i went with Monica, Daniel and Ed last week. Pizza and a movie this evening… Little descriptive detail here since we’re in the key finding stage of leaving the house, cheers )

New Job

100_4456Well, here I am on day 3 at me new job. I was first in the office and managed to walk here from the house despite a late night jam session with Aldo’s band (more of which later). It appears my main job is to research the history of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, make notes and find a way of presenting it as a documentary project to possible funders. It’s a lot like being a student again, except this time I’ve got a PC and not the Acorn Archimedes as a partner in crime and I’m reading more during the day than back in Swansea. I’m also working on some postcard ads to advertise my web services to the many specialist shops that are in this mall. It’s a nice easy start and I’m very much in favour of the 10am start time. So I’m getting plenty of creative input. I even suggested Les Rythmes Digitales for a demo yesterday and they went with it. Which was nice. It’s a little too early to try and incorporate scrabble into my schedule though, and maybe hold off the Skype for a week or so.

So last night I went round to Aldo’s mansion in Zapopan where he was practicing with the band to be Guadalajara’s premier covers group. It was v. impressive, musically as well as in range. I played The Cure’s Just Like Heaven, Jarabe de Palo’s La Flaca and a couple of others. They played everything from Judas Priest’s “Breaking the law, breaking the law” to Toto’s Love isn’t always on time, with riotous aplomb. Fair play to ‘em. They’re definitely out of my league musically, but I had fun.

You know you’re Tapatio when…

I keep making highly selective posts, first no vegetarians, and now one for Spanish speakers who’ve been to Guadalajara. Apologies… Click on the “Comments” link below for 55 “You know you’re a Guadalajaran (Tapatio) if…”. Highlights include: You put lime on your tacos al pastor, you know where at least one narcotraficante lives, you went to or plan to go to the University of Guadalajara…

I joined Technorati today and appear to be getting a bit of traffic from it. Thanks for stopping by and if you fancy the full-on stalking experience check out the rest of the site that starts here at www.gwynunlimited.com.

And in other news, our water’s on the blink again.

>>Se sabe que alguien es tapatio cuando:
>>1. Le pone limon a sus tacos al pastor
>>2. Toma chesco en vez de refresco
>>3. Le dice mijo o mija a cualquier wey que nunca a visto
>>4. Dice EY o SIMON en vez de SI
>>5. Dice “me volaron” en vez de “me robaron”
>>6. Nunca visita el centro mas que pa’ comprar en una merceria, uniformes, tela, o algo pa un trabajo de la escuela.
>>7. Se estaciona en el camellon
>>8. Compra sus chelas en en oxxo
>>9. Conoce por lo menos dos sucursales de TELAS PARISINA
>>10. Conoce los tacos del Venado o los tacos Fonseca
>>11. Va al cine los miercoles
>>12. Dice la palabra FRESA o la palabra NACO por lo menos 10 veces al dia
>>13. Tiene algun conocido que conoce a alguna de las esposas/amantes/novias de Alejandro Fernandez
>>14. Ha estado por lo menos una vez en las fiestas de Octubre
>>15. Ha escuchado la cancion “porque te tatuatis”
>>16. Va a comprar tortillas con un trapo en la mano
>>17. Va a la tiendita de la esquina a comprarse pecositas, tix tix, o rockaletas!
>>18. Ha comido jericallas
>>19. Va a por lo menos dos posadas al año
>>20. Come buñuelos
>>21. Le gusta bailar Banda y punchis punchis
>>22. Sale a jugar “fucho” con sus amigos aunque no sepa
>>23. Ha estado en el estadio jalisco por lo menos una vez y piensa que esta PADRISIMO!
>>24. Dice “eda” en vez de “verdad”
>>25. Dice “ira” en vez de “mira”
>>26. Dice NEL en vez de no
>>27. Le encantan los Simpson
>>28. Su idolo es Beto Cardenas
>>29. Le agrega “S” a los verbos…. comistes, tirastes, jugastes
>>30. Lo llevaron como 50 veces al zoologico de chiquito
>>31. Se ha trepado a todos los juegos en Selva Magica
>>32. Piensa que Divertido Guadalajara es un fiasco!
>>33. Ha tomado o vende Omilife
>>34. Ha ido al tianguis del sol, al de zapopan, o a cualquier otro!!!
>>35. Sabe la direccion de Oswaldo Sanchez
>>36. Sabe que el cerro del cuatro se llama asi por el canal jajajajaja
>>37. Le encanta ver MTV y canta canciones en ingles aunque no sabe lo que significan
>>40. Lo han asaltado
>>41. Sabe donde vive por lo menos un narco
>>42. Esta molesto que ahora en vez de decir Chedrauoiuuouiuouoyi o lo que sea!
>>43. Piensa que Plaza Galerias esta perrona!
>>44. Ha ido a pasearse en carritos electricos en la plaza
>>45. Ha ido por lo menos una vez al grito el 15 de Septiembre
>>46. Ha visto un castillo de fuegos artificiales en el templo
>>47. Ha jugado futbolito en la feria de las fiestas patronales del templo!!!!!
>>48. Dice cosas como “chin!”, “ay wey”, “chido”, o “casi casi”
>>49. Sabe que Guanatos significa Guadalajara y no Guanajuato!!!!
>>50. Ha bailado el Son de la Negra, el jarabe tapatio, o Guadalajara, Guadalajaaaaaaa
>>51. Le cae gordo Jorge Arana
>>52. Sabe que Galilea Montijo trabajo en el Cucurrucucu, y que este lugar es un Teibol!
>>53. Fue o planea ir a la Universidad de Guadalajara
>>54. Veia Sixto o Lalo y Lagrimita!!!
>>55. Sabe que Guadalajara es la ciudad mas bella de Mexico aunque no haya ido a ningun otro lugar del pais!!!!!
>>Si te identificaste con un buen de estas cosas que me avente…enorgullesete, eres un buen tapatio!!!!

Stolen from http://spaces.msn.com/members/hectorock88resaka/PersonalSpace.aspx?_c=