I’m quite chuffed indeed with how today’s project went of updating the look of nourishing nutrition, a health and nutrition site for a mate of mine, Jenny, in Santa Cruz, CA. It now features WordPress as a content management system and should be much easier to update. It also looks prettier thanks to basing it on an open source template and adapting it to the corporate branding.
Last night sita and me went to see Children of Men (again). Fantastic film that definitely bears a second viewing thanks to the rich visuals and nuanced acting. And big explosions… Today, hopefully round Anel & Claus’s for some kind of barby. And tomorrow the Flickr meet up. All continues to be well…
according to El Informador which I found via Living Without Borders which in turn I found because they got wind of the fototour and have complimentary things to say about my flickr photostream. Bless em. If you’re surfing in from there for some reason, then yes, in all likelihood it’ll be a Spanish speaking event, but there’s always the universal language of photography and beers. I’d have posted a comment over there but they have comments disabled. Anyroad, all are welcome. It’s nothing too formal and none of us know each other outside of Flickr commentaries and the occasional Flickrmail.
Anyroad, got to go. The home made pizza’s burning. Pizzas No’tardamos aren’t open on Wednesdays…
Blimey, 5+ peeps have signed up for the photo tour on Saturday along with a few maybes. If you’ve happened upon this blog, understand the language and have a camera, come along on Saturday at 1 – 1h30 to La Fuente cantina, Calle Pino Suarez in central Guanatos for a few hours wandering the streets snapping photos and cotorreando. Or post-photography chat in Los Famosos Equipales (Juan Alvarez 710) around 4pm. César, ¿te late?
Yesterday was busyish with translations, webdesignery and the nascent stirrings of an Oklahoma property listings service website that may be in the offing using Open Realty open source software. Also There’s a fancy new element to the site here you may or may not have noticed courtesy of snap.com. If you hover the mouse over links on the page you’ll get a preview popping up that shows you a thumbnail of where the links go. If it says check back later, try again in 15 seconds or so so snap has a chance to screengrab that page. Muy fancy as we say round here…
I’m thinking of organising a Flickr meet up for Tapatian photographers this weekend, it’d be nice to meet some of the folks who share their photos round this way and swap favourite places around Gwod. More news as developments become more solid…
Also, Atticus might well be coming to live in Gwod for a few months, as carry-on luggage in March. Sally and Martin deserve a break from him after 18 months or so…
Spanish phrase of the week: “Ganar la rifa del tigre” to win the tiger raffle. Whereupon it seems like you were very lucky to win the raffle, but the prize is a tiger. Which eats you. So ganar la rifa del tigre means seemingly good luck which turns out to be very bad.
Let’s start by saying there are two roads to Barra de Navidad from Guadalajara. One is “la libre”, 80, which turns off from the toll road to Colima 10 minutes after the Plaza Outlet Mall thing. This is the one we took as the signs said “Barra de Navidad this way” and looked good to me, despite Sita shouting “don’t turn off here!”. Depending on the traffic and the competence of the driver this windy, twisty, convoluted, corkscrew route will take around 6 hours and you’ll see more topes than you should ever have to see in one day (see video in César’s blog). That said, it’s a stunning drive through the mountains. We set off late and arrived after dark, Sita and Monica checked out 5 hotels or so before settling on El Marquez de Santana which was perfect. Clean rooms, close to the beach, cable, secure parking, A/C, friendly staff and a pool for 60 bucks a night… bargain.
We wandered into town and had an outstanding meal at a restaurant whose name I forget, which overlooked the lake. Then continued on to Rocktavios where there was live music and a few tequilas on the beach. Next day was quiet, breakfast on the beach where the (short/long sighted/ blind?) waitress said I looked like Ricardo Arjona of “Pinguinos en la Cama” notoriety. Then shopping for trinkets. Then beers on the beach, pozole, nap, beers, DanceDanceRevolution, meal, wander, bed. Lovely day.
Yesterday we set off in search of Tenacatita to check out the mangrove swamps. It was a lot further along the coast than the bloke at the hotel said, so we had breakfast in Cuastecomate and watched pelicans doing their thing in a gorgeous natural harbour surrounding. We eventaully got to Tenacatita and had more food and then hired ourselves a lancha and lanchista (300 pesos, 16 quid an hour) who showed us round the manglares at high tide. A lovely refreshing ride, with none of the fauna we expected (no crocodiles nor snakes) but a fair few crabs and different coloured garzas (storks, i think)… High tide meant dodging the low hanging mangrove roots but was fun all the way…
After all that, back to Gwod. But not on the 80, we went to Colima on windyish roads, then pretty much 5 star roads from there on taking about 4 hrs all in all.
But not before checking out b3ta’s Friday linksfest. Fave bits: UK cleaning product advert gets the video treatment: Cillit Bang Remix takes me right back to me happy hardcore days. ‘Ard core raver, do ya-self a favour… And the dirt is gone. Class…
Had a nice afternoon/evening yesterday. First round Amour Fou to sort out some computer problems and catch up on Anel and Claus’s teutonic adventures then on to Goa to eat our own weight in curry. A & C gave me a bottle of Shnapps which will doubtless help stave off the non-existant cold round here. Tonight’s festivi-dees include peeps coming round here for pizza and drinks then Bar Calavera at 10:30ish for some Pocilga Beat, choons and ale.
Word of the week: Pocilga. Literally a pigsty. As is this place looks like a pigsty. Unlike my tiny, freshly-painted, new office for example. (give me a few days…)
And I’ve added another room to the mansion here. There used to be a room halfway up the patio stairs that doubled as a storeroom/ cockroach graveyard. I’ve just tidied it, swept it and painted the walls and once I’ve done the ceiling I’ll have a decent little office and should free up some room around the place. What did people do before wireless internet? Just have to get a cordless phone and away we go. Again.
Have another misty photo from yesterday of Tonalá’s latest craze- Follow-you-round-the-room-Jesus . I reckon he’s looking at Daniel to my left, mind. Just as unsettling as one of my favourite YouTube videos.
I cleaned the lens on me camera today before heading off to Tonala, but by the time I got there the lense had steamed up on the inside with the special cleaning fluid. I’ve been googling ways to get rid of it but all the results come up as “DON’T put drops of cleaning fluid directly onto the lens as it can cause condensation inside”, well, I worked that out for myself. How do I get rid of it is the question… I’m hoping that leaving it to bake in the car for a while will sort it out. In the meantime, I’ve got some interesting pix of Tonala with a hazy frame effect… Just hope it won’t be a permanent feature of my photography…
Also, M & D got their wardrobe. Here’s Monica in the back of their car with it:
The Artichoke place was nice enough, but unfortunately a few hours later I suffered a night of what has now become a fortnightly bout of gastric fun… If I’d know about CEPE’s new scatological bent they’d’ve been very interested. At times this house seems a home for sick gringos…
Anyway, all better now, thanks and heading to the place where Guadalajara was founded the second time, “The place where the sun rises”, Tonalá to go wardrobe shopping with M & D. That’s shopping for wardrobes, not things to wear… Sita’s up to her eyeballs in academia again so she’ll not be coming along but might tag along for jeans shopping in Plaza del Sol this avo. We also decided last night that next weekend we’re going to Barra de Navidad for a change. I’ve not been there for 10 years or so, it was the first time I saw the Pacific Ocean. There were waves and I managed to take the skin off my stomach when I got plunged into the beach by a Pacific breaker. I still vaguely harbour ill feelings toward the waiter at the restaurant who recommended I put salt and lime on the wound to help it heal. Strange how searing pain can help your memories… Anyway I’m older and wiser less young now (nearly 32…) so I’ll not be taking waiters’ advice on matters medical this time round.
Our little Agave Tequilana, itself grown from an hijuelo (or Agave Pup, as I’m unreliably informed by teh interwebs) stolen from the fields of Tequila, Jalisco has sprouted two new Hijuelo shoots. So in a week or two they can be replanted and maybe go some way to stopping itinerant cats crapping in the garden with their soon to be spiny pencas.
Talking of agaves, I read Sita’s 2nd chapter in her dissertation today and it’s brilliantly written, fascinating stuff all about pulque, mezcal and tequila’s road to prominence in the United States of Mexico… Also, agave expert Ana’s coming round and we’re off for a meal in famous local restaurant called something like the Artichoke Heart. Should be good.
Hmmm, what did I do yesterday? Well we had a look at another furnished apartment with D & M but it was downright strange and far to pricey. Monica wasn’t overly happy with the lighting and I couldn’t deal with the weird combination of 70s lounge styling and random Catholic iconography in all its gory detail around the place. Never mind, no rush and all that. Sunny D’s still got some kind of throat infection so he’s not been able to go to Spanish classes. Bless. Anyroad, after looking at the house I survived a street hamburger and wandered round with me camera again as evidenced here :
I’m looking into taking some quick courses at the UdeG on various techy topics. PHP and advanced Flash look inviting enough and a snip at 100 quid or so for 20 hours instruction. That’s me next port of call.
Last night Daniel, Monica, Carlos, Jonathon and I went to the Lucha Libre. The usual plan is to meet at the Rincon de la Doa for pre-lucha banter, but it’s being remodelled so we ended up at the nearly empty Nuevo Leon. We drilled Monica on her Spanish verb tenses and got some tequila in to make the upcoming theatrics easier to believe. And once again the luchadores did not disappoint. The stand outs were Hijo del Rayo de Jalisco and some bloke in red gloves with vaguely indigenous features whom the audience chanted “Pocahontas” at… Another solid evening’s entertainment.
And since you’re doubtless wondering what I had for tea yesterday, Tortilla Espaola, and then Tacos de Carne Asada from Tacos Reforma (y Americas). Thanks for asking 🙂
Just a few flights and car rental to sort out and WE’RE GOING TO THE YUCATAN! Staying here and seeing all manner of things. This is going to be SO GOOD! And I’m not one to use exclamation marks lightly…
Alrighty, with that paradise in mind, back to the translation.
Had a nice long walk this morning through markets and quiet Sunday streets and metroed it half the way back, photos flickrwards as per usual.
Yesterday Monica’s turn to cook came round again and we had bbq’d chicken and other stuff, then round Jose’s casita in the evening and drinks at Cafe Colibri. We’re also working our way through another HBO series, Big Love all about a polygamous mormon family and the special flavour of hell that it all entails. Essential viewing. Righty, back to Cancun research.
There’s 150 of the buggers, not 50 as first thought… Here’s me making friends with Earth Cow in Chapultepec:
I was reading in Sita’s book on the History of Salt (more interesting than it sounds) about how modern cattle are domesticated aurochs– vicious wild beasts that used to leave a trail of destruction across swathes of Europe.
