• Alondra’s Agave Specs

    Taken on the Tequila Diploma day trip last year, near Tequila, Mexico, natch.

  • Strange Request

    I rang the coliseo (Lucha Libre place) today just to check they wouldn’t let cameras in even with advance notice. Turns out you need an official press credential. I said, not from here I don’t… So I thought to myself, how could I get in touch with a quality paper who might be able to furnish such a thing…

    To: The Sports Desk, Somerset County Gazette
    BCC: Readers of this here blog

    Hi,

    My name’s Gwyn Fisher, I grew up in Kingston St. Mary and think I probably appeared on the cover in my primary school nativity play… My folks and sister have a subscription to the actual paper but you don’t appear to post to Mexico so I make do with the Gazette website’s RSS feed. Anyroad, i’ve been living in Mexico for a few years now but still come back to Taunton to visit my family and friends very often.

    Here’s my question… I’m an amateur photographer and really want to take photos of the Lucha Libre wrestlers in the local ring. However they won’t let you in with a camera unless you have press credentials. Is there any possibility at all that you could email or fax some kind of one-off freelance press pass. There’s a fair chance they won’t even accept it, but I’d like to give it a try because there’s a very real chance of some spectacular photos. I’d be more than happy to relinquish all rights to the photos to the Gazette if you think there’s any chance the Somerset public would be interested in the slightest.

    The Lucha takes place every Tuesday and Sunday but I’m actually leaving the country in a couple of months so it would be great to see if this is a possibility soon.

    I have a blog (agaveweb.com/blog ) and photoblog (agaveweb.com/photos) and also a few poor quality photos from when I smuggled a small camera in last time (www.gwynunlimited.com/luchalibre.htm) if you have the time or the inclination.

    I really appreciate you taking the time to read this and look forward to hearing whether you can help,

    Keep up the great work,

    Gwyn

    Fingers Crossed! I’ll post any news here.
    I’m also signing up for a photojournalism course which starts in a week or so. Mexico rocks!

  • Mini Sandals made of Chewing Gum

    These guaraches de chicle were a present from Ana V. to us. They’re look better than they taste though. I think they’re traditionally made in Mascota, Jalisco.

  • Shoeing a horse in Tapalpa

    On a recent trip to the South of Jalisco we saw this bloke putting a horseshoe onto his horse just outside the pulqueria.

  • Un mes mas!

    So yesterday we decided to stay another month, till the 2nd of December or thereabouts. I am very happy about this turn of events, it means we can fit in a trip to Mexico City, see the Day of the Dead properly, Sita can finish her interviewing relatively stress free and any other number of happy outcomes. ‘Cus is still slated to leave on Thursday though, and I can’t believe I’m writing this, but I’m going to miss him…

    Anyway by way of a despedida for Atticus and celebration of one more month we had some good friends round and did the usual grilled arrachera and tequila thang. It was a fine afternoon. All the “‘Cus has a posse” photos are at Flickr. Here’s Sita, Ana and Jorge holding up the cake with “Felicidades, 1 mes más” on it.

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    Also of note is the photo of Beethoven, the enormous St. Bernard that sends Atticus into a frenzy when he’s taken on his walk by our house at around 9pm every night.

    Beethoven, El nemesis de Atticus
  • Copal

    According to our guide at the Guachimontones, these berries/nuts/things are used to make copal, a traditional incense used in Mexican rituals like the Day of the Dead por ejemplo. Although something may have been lost in the translation… Pretty though aren’t they.

  • Mexicanos, ¡Viva México!

    Last night we went out to a sushi restaurant thinking a change from red meat would do us the power of good. The place we chose however specialised in some kind of deep fried battered sushi / tempura affair which was pretty heavy on the stomach, still we walked home from there and watched a few episodes of the American Office and today´s been quiet so far. Today I´ve been rebuilding my lightbox and retaking the photos since they changed the labels on the tequila bottles and need new pix. Which is pretty therapeutic work to be honest. Later I´m off doing Amour Fou´s tech support and then we´ll have a meal and head of to Chapalita where there´s some kind of mini celebration of the Grito. Last year´s was fairly hectic in the centre so we´re toning it down a tad.

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  • Under Mexican skies

    Kids waiting patiently for Jesus to appear at San Martin de las Flores’ Judea 2007.

  • Fermenting agave juice in a 32,000 litre vat

    After the agave piñas have been cooked for a day or so, they’re mashed up and the juice heads to huge fermentation tanks that bubble and produce a sweet, sticky heat. When they’re done fermenting they’re distilled and after that bottled or barrelled. This photo of the surface of the tank was taken in the new tequila factory of El Tesoro de mi Tierra in Tototlan (The place of the birds) in Los Altos (the highlands) of Jalisco.

  • Tequila Tesoro de mi Tierra…

    …tastes very nice indeed and the management over in Los Altos treated us to tacos and a good few sips before a tour of their new factory. The set of some of the pix are over here. In other news I’m photographing some tequila bottles for a new range of Tulum themed premium tequila. Tomorrow I’m heading off to Home Despot to construct my very own homemade lightbox.

    Agave Tequilana juice fermentingAgave Tequilana juice fermenting away

    Web design’s coming along nicely too. It’s been a good week all in all. Atticus has been up and down mind, in all senses. We took him to the vet’s yesterday for his immigration papers, he didn’t take to kindly to the “probe” but I think that’s fair enough, who would? Sita’s flying back with him to LA to drop him off in Downey Doggy Heaven next Thursday… I behaved myself very well at the dentist’s today too. Without a shadow of a doubt the worst thing a dentist can do is the teeth cleaning thing. I’d rather any other procedure. Lower jaw removal, wiring for fairy lights, tongue electrocution, you name it. Oddly enough, my second ever entry in my blog over 3 years ago was about the same thing. Anyway, I’ll be back again tomorrow and again next week for more dental fun. It’s only 8 doors away from our house so I don’t have to travel far for intense discomfort.

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    Because of the rubber cheque thing and the number of projects we’ve got going between us we’ll not make it to San Miguel this weekend for the Grito and the national Flickr gathering but that’s fine. We keep busy. Sita’s about to embark on a series of interviews of tequila consumers. You might be next. And we’ve got to nip back to Tequila too…

  • Guardian of the Pitayero

    On the way to Tapalpa, Jalisco, Mexico there are more than a few of these goat (?) skulls perched on gates. Didn’t scare us off though. We’re used to seeing them floating in the middle of soups in San Juan de Dios market food court…

  • Bloggin’ from Starbucks, Providencia, Guanatos

    TelMex saw fit to block the internet tubes to our house yesterday, hence today´s early morning location. It’s always when you’ve got lots of work on that the interwebs stop. Hey ho, it means that yesterday I got to finish a novel for the first time in ages, Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down, which was alright as a novel but a tad grating due to his (characters’) overuse of similes. It’s like when you’re watching a daytime Antiques program on BBC 1. And all they do is use puns. But in the long run, it’s like you appreciate it. But sometimes, puns are like a comfortable cushion. Etc. that kind of thing. On the plus side it means I can finally start The Hummingbird’s Daughter, which after 10 pages looks like just my kind of thing. Atticus * also got more quality time than usual. And I spent a while strumming away at the gee-tar. So every cloud etc… And I love Starbucks’ burnt coffee too. So swings and roundabouts are the order of the day.

    Ever wondered how to count to 1023 on your fingers? Cesar’s put his vast intellect into creating a demo. My fingers aren’t quite that flexible… The real challenge would be combining counting to 1023 while performing this Daft Punk track (it gets good at about 1 minute in).

    Alrighty, back to my research y chamba.

    * ‘Cus looked starving at 5.30 yesterday and Sita wasn’t back from the gym yet so I made him a gourmet meal with leftovers from Sita’s steak on Sat night. A couple of hours later and i remarked to Sita that the dog looked chubbier than usual, then I asked her if she’d fed him and she said “Of course, with the leftovers from Saturday mixed in”. So he’d had two huge meals. Anyway, several miles of running up and down the garden later and he puked like a good’un in the living room. There’s a lesson in there somewhere… We need some kind of “Dog has been fed” system in the kitchen. He’s full of beans today though. Not literally.

  • Making Equipales in Zacoalco

    Zacoalco, Jalisco, Mexico, is home to many artesanal hand-made traditional chair “factories” (with two or three people bending, sewing and tying). It involves lots of different types of wood, string and leather.

  • Still around…

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    Recovering still from yesterday’s trip to the equipal making centre of the world and PocilgaFest 2007. Back soon.

    Photos here and here.

  • Agaves and Cacti near Tapalpa

    I don’t think it’s an Agave Tequilana, but I’ve been wrong before.
    *edit* It’s “Agave americana var. expansa” thanks, Dra. Ana Valenzuela! */edit*

  • El Panteon de Belen

    The Panteon de Belen (Bethlehem Cemetary) in the centre of Guadalajara is not as old as it looks, built in 1848 or thereabouts. It still has many ghost stories though… This shot was taken on or around the Day of the Dead last year.

  • Sponsored by the Tortilla Marketing Board

    Apparently: Tortillas aren’t fattening (50 Calories per tortilla), are rich in calcium and fibre, and contain vitamins and minerals. You heard it here first. Picture from Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico