Friday, March 31, 2017

MARAVILLAS PEQUENAS 9 – Small Wonders, Mexican Style

One too many mescals for Raggedy Andy.

Blue agave leaves. An impression.

Don't piss here, you bastards!

An artisan beads a fine Huichol mask.

He couldn't be...not in the bucket!

The heroic pescador by the fish market

A man whose story I'd like to hear – Petatlán

Padre Jesús de Petatlán

Croton – Codiaeum variegatum

Santuario Nacional del Santo Señor de Petatlán

Roseate spoonbills nesting at Playa Linda

Behind bars – Building the new Kau Kan Kondos

Wood storks at Playa Linda

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

MARAVILLAS PEQUENAS 8 – Small Wonders, Mexican Style

Tinaco, angel and green

Termite trunk highway

Emiliano Zapata?

Iguana hold your hand!

Got crackers?

Saturday, March 25, 2017

MARAVILLAS PEQUENAS 7 – Small Wonders, Mexican Style

A few shots from our visit to El Refugio de Potosí in La Barra de Potosí, Guerrero, Mexico.


Sperm whale skeleton

Papagaio bathing

Porcupine

Frangipani flowers

Hola!

Green iguana


Los Morros from El Refugio de Potosí

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

LAS PUERTAS DEL PUERTO – The Doors of Zihuatanejo

It's one thing to just wander around this picturesque town and see what catches my eye—people, plants, critters, art and architecture... Sometimes it's a whole thing; or it may be just an interesting detail or pattern. Often, I'll just sit and watch...and wait.

It's another thing to have a mission. Last year, I did a montage on the amazing variety of stone walls. This year, it's been doors.

I must say I've been surprised by the variety. Different styles, some dictated by the materials readily available here on the Costa Grande of Guerrero; others sparing no expense to import materials and craftsmanship. Different purposes, some merely utilitarian; others designed to make a statement—come in...stay out...you can't afford a week here. Each a unique artistic statement.



Tuesday, March 21, 2017

MARAVILLAS PEQUENAS 6 – Small Wonders, Mexican Style

Pool at Villas San Sebastian

Anyone know what tree produces this elegant seed pod?

Shell art – Paseo del Pescador

Where Calle Adelita meets the bay.

Gone with the wind

The miracle tree – La Ropa

Cacique (chieftain) bird

Elephant-eye...or tree knot?

Saturday, March 18, 2017

MARAVILLAS PEQUENAS 5 – Small Wonders, Mexican Style

Net savings – Playa Principal
 
Tile roof detail – Paseo del Pescador

Jewelry lady – Paseo del Pescador

Fan-palm pattern – La Noria

La Niña Leticia – La Madera

A dying breed – Plaza de los Artistas

Yellow puffer fish in murky water – El Muelle

Panther's dragon – La Madera

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

MARAVILLAS PEQUENAS 4 -- Small Wonders, Mexican Style

One of the reasons Mexico so resonates with my soul—besides the fact that I was a Mexican fisherman in a previous life—is that I choose to see not just the sanitized, homogenized version of the country offered for consumption by tourists, but a bit of its harder reality.

Yes, this country can put on an exquisitely beautiful face, but it has its problems, as do other countries. There is poverty; there is corruption; there is crime. In most parts scraping out a living is either impossible or brutally hard work.

Visitors who pretend those realities don't exist, expecting things to be just like their own priveleged neighborhoods back home, do both Mexico—and themselves—a great disservice.

       I believe it's as wrong to idealize a country, 
       a culture, a people, as to ignore it.

You can have your sanitized Cancuns and your barricaded all-inclusives; I want to meet those hard-working people, not just my maid or waiter—folks who could never afford to live anywhere near where they wait on tourists—but shopkeepers, construction workers, folks I run into in back-streets miscelaneas.

I want to sample the kind of food and drink they enjoy, meet their incredibly close-knit families, and—with a little bit of forbearance on their part—speak their language.

I guess I believe it's as wrong to idealize a country, a culture, a people, as to ignore it. So I do, indeed, try to notice both those blemishes, those rough edges, and the priceless Aztec gold beneath the patina. I remind myself that they're not so different from the multi-layered reality of my own country of birth. And I keep open a corner of my hobby-photographer's eye—and my heart—for glimpses of both the post-card version and the real Mexico.