Plan A for Monica’s birthday was to rent a house from a couple of gringos who are friends of Jana, but at the last minute this fell through because they were going to go to the States for a month but neglected to perform the necessary bureaucratic acrobatics (bureaubatics?) to get a passport for their new baby. I don’t envy them in the slightest, they missed their flights, have to do all the paper and legwork and reorganise their holiday. Meanwhile, we just switched to Plan B which was staying in M & D’s favourite hotel, el Mesón de San Antonio for a couple of bucks extra a night.

Lovely place it is too, a vast patio, fireplaces in each room (already arranged for lighting, matches included), thick walls, cool floors, powerful showers, WI-FI, coffee and breakfast included and all just a hop, skip and a jump from the centre. Highly recommended. However, bring ear plugs just in case a local church is celebrating their saint’s day with regular cannon fire during the night…

We ate in Cha Cha Cha on the first day as the sun set and temperatures returned to a doable level and then I left Sita, Monica and Karina to start the initial stages of a craft buying frenzy and Daniel to his coding. After they came back we chilled in the hotel’s dining area, mellow as you like. Lovely.

Saturday morning we went down to the lake to have some breakfast snacks like Corundas (Michoacán Tamales) and investigate the crafts. From their we delivered Daniel back to his cave to keep on working and went to Tzintzuntzan where we were too early to get in to see the yácatas so just went on a craft frenzy instead. The climax of the spree was when Monica all but signed up to have a 1.5m diameter Aztec calendar table shipped to Tijuana to pick up later. However, somehow reason was restored and the plan came to naught. We still left with a boot full of bargains though.

In the afternoon I went exploring, snapping photos along the way as per usual, then we reconvened in El Boiler, an arty café place and hung out at the hotel all evening with booze and snacks (including Carne Seca, DELICIOUS beef jerky type affair that Karina brought down with her from Chihuahua).

Sunday morning, breakfast next door and a brief sight of the cabrones who’d been letting off celebratory rockets all night along with their colourful retinue. Then a couple more craft shops, because, hey, we’re in Patzcuaro and off home while M, D and K headed for Morelia.

We got a flat tire on the way home, but noticed it 1 block before a tire repair shop. 60 pesos (2 pounds 50p ish) for a repair and we were on our way again through thunderstorms and toll roads to arid, hot Guadalajara. A great way to celebrate Monica’s birthday and no mistake.

She’ll probably weigh in with more detail and photos over at ChiliCatinLA…

Other news… start my PHP course today. And Atticus smells of dog. Barbie Princess Champu time beckons.

Full photo set of the weekend in Patzcuaro and around here.
Blog entry on Michoacán in Feb, here.

I just chanced upon a Flickr app that tells you all kinds of things about your Flickr photos, profile and stuff… I love checking stats on me blog and photos and stuff and thanks to this gizmo I found out some of my photos are being used around the web, all properly attributed and everything, just the way things should be.

The most prestigious is a photo of Tonalá on Wikipedia’s English Tonalá page, and probably the least prestigious would be the “sex shop and mariscos” one over here, it’s also one of me most popular photos. There’re also a few phototour related ones too. There’s a blog using my Victor Jara design to illustrate a post on copyright infringement… Hope Victor’s family aren’t too litiginous…

Anyroad, if you’ve got a Flickr account, check it out.

While roaming around the outer limits of YouTube I came across this pearl. I’ve put the lyrics and a rough and ready translation below (it looks like the live version below messes about a bit with the order of the verses mind). All about Guanatos (the locals’ name for Guadalajara) by a group from Guanatos, singing to people from Guanatos in Guanatos.

piensa todo lo q hay aqui – Think about all the things that are here
100% tapatio es todo lo q tienes q decir – 100% Tapatio is all you have to say,
apasionadamente. – passionately

piensa todo lo q hay aqui – Think about all the things that are here
100% tapatio es todo lo q tienes q decir- 100% Tapatio is all you have to say,
muy orgullosamente. – very proudly

siente lo q tu tienes aqui – Feel all the things you’ve got here
cultura,artesania – culture, craft
q le puedes mostrar a todo el mundo – that you can show to everyone
y el mariachi si senor – and yes, sir, mariachi (too).

Guanatos de corazon – Guanatos in my heart
100% tapatuyo soy! yeah – I’m 100% tapatio! Yeah!
mi cultura en la calle crecio. – My culture grew in the streets.

Las mujeres mas bellas son de aqui – The most beautiful women are from here
el clima perfecto – its perfect climate
y la juventud esta siempre sonriendo – and always-smiling youth
te abrira el corazon- will open up your heart

Guanatos de corazooooooon- Born and bred in Guanatos
100% tapatuyo soy! yeah- I’m 100% tapatio! Yeah!
mi cultura en la calle crecio.- My culture grew in the streets.

Guanatooos mi tierra q me vio nacer – Guanatos- the land where I was born
Guanatooos el tequila q me vio llorar – Guanatos- where tequila made me cry
Guanatooos es mi tierra q me vio nacer- Guanatos- the land where I was born
Guanatooos el tequila q me vio llorar- Guanatos- where tequila made me cry

Piensa todo lo q hay aqui – Think about all the things that are here
100% tapatio es todo lo q tieness q decir – 100% Tapatio is all you have to say.

And your Spanish word of the week is a Mexicanism, Naco meaning naff, tacky, of poor taste/ quality, cheap. I’ve a feeling this song qualifies…

My new favourite beach town for those on a budget…

Chacala, is about 10 minutes beachwards from Las Varas and 3 hrs from Guadalajara and is absolutely gorgeous. We rented a house for the 7 of us with a pool and everything. Brought the BBQ and had 48 hours of no internet (though it was available), sun, sand, seafood and Pueblo Viejo. We arrived late afternoon on Friday, stayed in the pool all evening, cooking up a storm of hamburguesas and suchlike. Then Saturday, arranged to have people come and cook camarones al mojo de ajo and a la diabla around the house in the evening and explored the town on foot and by boat. Monica clandestinely baked sita a delicious chocolate cake and all.

On Sunday we came home and went to the Lucha Libre in the evening followed by the Famosos Equipales cantina and yesterday (Sita’s birthday) went out for breakfast, then Tlaquepaque then (and I’m going to spell their name wrong in protest of them not allowing cameras) a FANTASTIC Mexican/Thai fusion meal at Annnitttta liiii followed by imported Californian wines chez nous. Plenty of Chacala photos on Flickr, and as per usual my favourites below:

Well, at least I’ve never been more prepared for a system breakdown than this time. Files backed up, settings, a handwritten list of programs to install… And (THANK YOU ANA!) a replacement computer lined up to boot. I really shouldn’t complain… I even remembered to backup my firefox saved password files. I’m probably going to invest in a decent amount of RAM for this computer though so it doesn’t get tied up during webdesignery. I’ll also have to find a USB lead to transfer my pix from now on.

Anyroad, now we’re off to the beach, Chacala it’s called. We’ve rented a house with a swimming pool for the weekend for the 7 of us (Set, Amy and Angeles are in tow also). And it’s allegedly only 4 hours away on toll roads. We’ve been wrong before though. Should be good.

Anyroad, thanks for your patience while posting’s been slow.

I’m in the process of wiping my hard drive and starting again from scratch. Not fun. Presently in the planning stages, listing all the CDs and downloads I have to find to reinstall my programs, from essentials, like XP, Office, Firefox, etc to when-i-get-the chance programs like Google Earth and Audacity. Then there’s all the photos, videos, mp3s, drivers, translations, extensions, websites, you name it, to back up to an external hard drive…

The computer’s shutting down with alarming frequency, and though the heat is definitely a factor, this reinstall needs to be done. I took it apart and the fans and vents are all clean, but something’s amiss. If this nuclear option doesn’t sort it out I’ll not be best pleased…

So now that’s 3 successful Fototours. We started off at 10:30am in Tlaquepaque’s town centre and ambled over to the Centro el Refugio. There;s a torture exhibition on at the minute and we all went in but cameras weren’t allowed. An inauspicious start, but the building has plenty to offer photographically. The torture implements were suitably grim and well presented. What stood out most was man’s inhumanity to woman, that the Spanish inquisition employed much worse things that the comfy chair, and that out of a lot of nasty ways to go, being strapped upside down, legs apart and slowly sawn in half has to be about the worst. It takes a while to die from it because the blood runs to your head or something. Anyway given that I hadn’t had breakfast yet it fair took my appetite away for an hour or two.

Next up was the Pila Seca administration building where we took the first group photo and admired the bright orange arches while the temperatures slowly rose and shade became non-existant. Wandered around the boutiquey overpriced craft shops and into the ceramic museum where they had some nice miniature scenes of mexican life. Then on to sample fresh tejuino and ceviche tostadas from El Cables, street seafood purveyor bloke, and finally a few cold beers in the Parian. Lovely. The next tour will be governed by whether it’s bucketing down with rain or not. The rainy season is estimated to be 2 wks away and I, for one, will greet it with open arms…

Here’s my favourites from yesterday. All the photos of Tlaquepaque and Gwod from yesterday are at Flickr… or click the “more” link below for a Flash slideshow.

Read More “Tapatían Fototour #3- Tlaquepaque”

And I did not sleep well… nevermind.

Have another photo of Atticus, since I’m saving my energy for getting to Tlaquepaque and am not up to posting much.

One many new words I learnt today was Palomear.

A paloma is a dove or pigeon as you probably already knew thanks to crimes-against-music like this. And in Mexico, a paloma is a tick (or check mark I think in US parlance) because it looks like a bird in flight, I presume. As drawn by a 6 year old.

So palomear, to tick. At least I think so because the other option “to devote a great deal of time to raising pigeons” really didn’t seem to work in the context of a technical manual…

So thanks to a translation I’m working on I’m up on the latest vocabulary for preventing electrostatic discharge (ESD) and also learnt that crocodile clips are Caimán clips round these parts… It’s the little differences…

in other news:

¡Feliz Cumpleaos! Little Sis

Saturday was a late night what with the short film competition screening at Amour Fou and all the following festivities for Carlos’s birthday. Then yesterday, after watching Atlas get thoroughly thrashed by Americas, we went to La Cava for a drink or two and some of us had botanas which included pig feet and marinated pork scratchings…

Kinky were playing in the Plaza de Liberación for free. They’re a first class band, well known throughout Latin America and, increasingly, Gringolandia. You might know them from such popular tunes as “más y más” and my personal fave, “Canibal“… They rocked. Then everyone came back to Casa Garibaldi for biscuits Mezcal, and M & D were back too from Chihuahua, which is their new favourite place in Mexico.

I’m going to be well busy this week with various projects, so either there’ll be scant posting cos I’m too tied up, or possible lots of it cos I’ll be sat at the computer all day… Tune in later to find out which…

All photos from yesterday’s Kinky antics here.

Just made a compilation CD of some of my favourite movie choons:
Hope this table survives the cut and paste from word…

I missed off tons, but I’ll make another one one of these days…

You weren’t anyone yesterday in Guanatos if you weren’t carrying your own weight in flowers…

Last night we went to the Estadio de Jalisco (another No Camera place) to watch Atlas vs. Americas. 3 – 3 it was, so quite an exciting match in terms of goles, if not stellar gameplay. It’s been 10 years since my last football match, same place, same team (Atlas) and made a grand night out.

Somehow I fell asleep at 8.30pm last night and woke up at the crack of dawn today. I feel vaguely like I’ve stumbled off a transatlantic flight. Anyroad, plans for today: get the Flickr t-shirt into production (a fellow FlickeRo recommended a quality place for around US$15 a shirt), some translation, take M & D to the airport, see Atlas play someone or other in the football stadium with Sita and the Amour Fou crowd and probably a siesta… Not necessarily in that order.

Oh, and Tony Blair’s bowing out? About time too…

The Zummerzet County Gazette, Taunton’s local rag is shoving the occasional video up on its website. Deathly dull each one, but 10 out of 10 for effort. So the this year’s Pullitzer for investigative journalism seems assured for “Are children watching too much TV?”…

In other news, Flickr PhotoTour #3 is in the planning stages. I’m not organising this one, I put up a poll to help Laura who’s in charge. Tlaquepaque’s looking like the favourite right now. It’s a shame, but the more imaginative suggestions were vetoed because they’ll look better after the rainy season (probably October at this rate…). Still Tlaquepaque’s got lots to offer photographically so it’s all good.

I’ve not posted since Saturday so here’s a summary: Saturday morning I walked to the Tianguis Cultural trying to find T-shirt printing shops on the way to no avail, took a few photos along the way:

Then in the afternoon went to see Spiderman III with Sita which is an overlong mess of a film, see the review here. After that, barbecued arrachera and Jose came round, then later Fernando, Ana and their dog, Tuna, whom Atticus tried to have his wicked way with. Makes a change from Jose’s leg…

Sunday, tranquilo, shopping, interwebbery, and checking out a new dvd rental place, Sala B, nearby which has a fine selection of films and no website. Yet… Grabbed An Inconvenient Truth (also reviewed) and Sita went for the truly, truly DIRE Sex and the City Season 4. One of these days I’ll publish a rant against that particular crime against good telly.

Monday, shopping for books, groceries, this that and t’other then making pizza from scratch and heading out to the airport for M and Sunny D’s triumphant return.

Today is still unfolding… websites, translations… stuff…

Out of interest does anyone reading have a Canon Rebel XTi, and if so, what’s the standard 18-55 lense like? I’m researching my next digital SLR camera purchase…

When we went to Tequila on Sunday, Sita noticed a book on display “taken from the new Town History Archive”. This was news to us. So we went back yesterday as it turns out they opened this archive about 6 months ago after months of painstaking cleaning, sorting and databasing of a huge amount of documents that had turned up in various unused rooms of government buildings around the town. Some were in pretty wretched states because of centuries of storage in dank, wormy cellars.

They make for interesting reading once you get your head around the handwriting, antiquated abbreviations and general damage. Added to that, they were big on saving paper and the writing from the other side tends to bleed through to the other. None the less it’s a minor miracle they’re legible at all… The lady in charge of the archive was incredibly helpful and spent a good few hours tellings us about the history of the archive, how to use the database and even read some of the documents to us. I’m currently uploading the video of her reading one of the documents to YouTube, check out my YouTube Channel to see if it’s there yet…

One document from 1705 or so was a letter signed by all the neighbours of a drunk landowner complaining about his behaviour and addiction to the aguardiente (firewater (probably from sugar cane rather than agaves)).

Another team of researchers are looking for evidence that Jose Cuervo isn’t the oldest tequila maker in the world after all, despite their slick promotional video’s claims… I hope they find it, they deserve to be taken down a notch or two…

Anyroad, long story short, there’s a wealth of info that’s going to help young Sita flesh out the remaining chapters of her PhD thesis, and we’ll probably be going back and donning latex gloves many more times. Which is a good thing and no mistake. At least they don’t make you wear hairnets.

After carne en su jugo, a torta ahogada and an on-the-house margarita in our favourite eatery we went round Columpio’s to drop off the photos and a few UK coins. They’d just finished cutting the tips off the agaves in their fields (which I think has to do with concentrating the sugars in the heart of the agave) and were in full swing roasting agave pias. The owner invited us in for drinks but we had to decline as it was getting late (past Atticus’s feeding time) and so we promised we’d be back again in the near future. “Qué Dios les bendiga” he wished us as we drove off through the beautiful agave-studded landscape…

The importance of learning a second language… or even just a few useful words.

Locals in Toledo, Spain heard an American screaming for “Help” in English and thought he was shouting “Pepe” over and over again. It wasn’t until some multilingual German passers-by heard him that the fire brigade was called and he was fished out of the river Tajo after 3 hours of rope action. He was fine by all accounts afterwards and treated for hypothermia.

Help is “Socorro” just for the record. As in succour. A bummer actually, cos I can’t pronounce my double Rs in Spanish… I’ll probably alternate it with ¡Ayúdame! (Help me!) when I’m stuck down a hole.

Daniel’s gone for the weekend, but according to a search “Fördern” might well be Help! in German. Please don’t sue if it isn’t mind…