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Archive for the ‘Buildings’ Category

Numbers in my neighborhood

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , on January 23, 2026| 1 Comment »

In my Jalatlaco neighborhood, from contemporary to whimsical to traditional…

They are the numbers that you meet when you’re walking down the street each day. (Yes, as I wrote, I was humming the Sesame Street song, The People In Your Neighborhood.)

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Oaxaca is a walking meditation

Posted in Buildings, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , on October 8, 2023| 8 Comments »

Oaxaca is a walking city and, even when running mundane errands, there is always something to see, something to make me smile, and something to make me think.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu

“If you are in a bad mood go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood go for another walk.” — Hippocrates

“Walking is the rhythm of life.” — Gary Snyder

“An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” — Henry David Thoreau

“Walking takes longer…than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed.” — Edward Abbey

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Strolling along Xicoténcatl

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 25, 2023| 18 Comments »

One of the joys of living in Oaxaca de Juárez is being able to walk most everywhere I need to go. On this particular day, I headed 2 km. south to Veana Oaxaca Mayoreo in search of more plastic chairs for my terrace. Though the route, which took me down Calle de Xicoténcatl, wasn’t one I normally followed, nor along the most scenic and/or quaint of streets, it still had scenes to surprise and delight.

Given that my mission was successful, the young male sales clerk hoisted the six chairs I’d purchased and carried them half a block, where he set them down on the sidewalk at the next intersection, telling me this was the best location to hail a taxi. An empty taxi appeared within three minutes. More reasons why I love Oaxaca!

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Doors aren’t just doors

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Neighborhoods, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , on May 24, 2022| 6 Comments »

Like doors everywhere, the doors of Barrio de Jalatlaco are doorways leading to comings and goings, the known and unknown, and the life stories we create from outside and in.

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.” -― William Blake

“Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life. — Daisaku Ikeda

“Every doorway, every intersection has a story.” — Katherine Dunn

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Jalatlaco house hunters

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Neighborhoods, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 29, 2022| 8 Comments »

Breaking news up here in el norte, relayed to me via email from friends in San Francisco and in a phone conversation with my BFF in Alaska: The most recent episode of House Hunters International took place in Oaxaca AND one of the houses featured was in my neighborhood, Barrio de Jalatlaco. My SF friends described the very distinctive building facade and I knew exactly where it was — and had taken several photographs of it.

According to the episode’s description, “A young couple decides to leave their home in Memphis and move sight unseen to Oaxaca, Mexico. They’re both fitness junkies who want a taste of the mountains and nature, and he wants a place on the outskirts, but she prefers to be near the city center.”

Sight unseen? In any case (spoiler alert), my friends informed me the young fitness junkies turned it down as it was too small and dark.

I haven’t seen the episode, but I have seen the show and it never ceases to amaze and dismay me that most of the time, the buyers and renters come to developing countries with highly developed expectations AND wanting it all for a fraction of the cost in their home countries.

The rent was $1100 (US) per month — low in most US cities but extremely high for most Oaxaqueños. Such is rental inflation wrought by, among other things, digital nomads willing to pay whatever their bank balances will bear, never mind the impact on the local economy, and the proliferation of apartments being turned into Airbnb rentals.

Something to think about from, The End of Tourism Podcast interview with Daniel Pinchbeck:

And many of the people that I know have become, you know, quote unquote “digital nomads.” So if they’re doing like lifestyle coaching or marketing or tech or whatever, they can basically do that from anywhere in the planet. And obviously because they’re wealthy and come with money to restaurants and buy goods, there’s desirability for them to make a second home someplace or whatever.

… I think that often we see in the world over the last decades kind of like homogenization, cultural homogenization.

… And so the tourism which ends up taking Western first world values and spreading them everywhere acts as kind of a larger imperialist, colonialist kind of project that can lead to the deterioration of the integrity of local cultures and very few countries and cultures have had the capacity to kind of build the defense structure, recognizing the danger of this.

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Light and shadows

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , on January 13, 2022| 10 Comments »

It feels so good to feel good again and be able to go out and about!

Yesterday, with every step I took…

I gathered energy from the light and shadows and the sound of papel picado fluttering above.

“Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.” —Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Last Sunday of summer walk

Posted in Buildings, Flora, Parks & Plazas, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , on September 22, 2020| 12 Comments »

The weather was picture perfect for the last Sunday of summer morning walk.

Looking across Jardín Conzatti.

Corner of Reforma and Jacobo Dalevuelta.

Mexican flag still flying above Teatro Macedonio Alcalá in honor of el mes de la patria.

And now, we welcome autumn.

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What next?

Posted in Buildings, Churches, Food, Health, Science & Nature, Tragedy, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 24, 2020| 8 Comments »

This morning’s headline in NVI Noticias: Oaxaca revive pesadilla de los sismos en lo más álgido de la epidemia por COVID-19 (Oaxaca relives the nightmare of earthquakes in the height of the epidemic by COVID-19). I wasn’t in Oaxaca for the 8.1 earthquake September 7, 2017, so I don’t know what it felt like. However, I still have vivid memories of experiencing the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area. As scary as that one was, yesterday’s 7.5 temblor was definitely more violent and lasted longer.

The good news is I, my neighbors, and all my friends in Oaxaca are okay and the city sustained mostly minor damage. However, there is much devastation to roads, homes, and other structures closer to the epicenter near Huatulco. And, saddest of all, the death toll is now up to seven. For a more complete report, with dozens of photos, click on the article, Suman siete muertos por el terremoto.

Two months ago work stopped on the roof and bell tower of Templo de San José — due to virus restrictions on construction sites. This morning, workers returned to check out earthquake damage.

This, and the state of Oaxaca’s coronavirus statistics, like most of Mexico, continue to rise precipitously. And, unfortunately, many of the hospitals near the quake’s epicenter sustained damage. (Click on image to enlarge.)

Side by side statistics: June 19 and June 23. Grey=cases notified; green=negatives; orange=suspected; red=confirmed; turquoise=recovered; black=deaths

Oh, and did I mention, we have had massive rain storms the last two nights? We are all wondering what is next, locusts?

Yikes, look what I found on my screen door this morning! At least in Oaxaca, we know what to do with chapulines (grasshoppers) — toast them on a comal with lime and salt. They are a great source of protein. Yummm…

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Panorama of Panorámica

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Neighborhoods, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 5, 2020| 2 Comments »

More from Sunday’s stroll along Panorámica del Fortín…

Oaxaca, even in these days of Covid-19, is always alive.

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Walls of many colors

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , on April 19, 2020| 10 Comments »

Pick a color, any color…

May the colors of Oaxaca brighten your day!

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Still alive, still lifes

Posted in Buildings, Culture, Flora, Neighborhoods, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , on April 13, 2020| 2 Comments »

More from Sunday morning social distance strolling in this time of Covid-19…

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Calle Manuel Garcia Vigil, Oaxaca de Juárez

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Barrio de Jalatlaco, Oaxaca de Juárez

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Barrio de Jalatlaco, Oaxaca de Juárez

There is life and there is beauty.

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Just say no!

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Signs, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2020| 35 Comments »

Remember the Not for sale! building at the corner of Matamoros and Crespo? It’s been one of the buildings in a “mal estado” (bad state) since long before my first visit to Oaxaca in 2007. A portion of the Crespo facing wall finally collapsed at the end of an extremely wet 2012 rainy season. And, following the September 2017 earthquakes, what remained of the wall gave way, necessitating a barricade along the sidewalk.

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As last Sunday’s stroll in the time of… showed, the barricade was in the process of getting its own facelift. It’s finished and it looks terrific.

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However, as the owner, with the help of the artist, continues to make clear, the answer is NO. The building is not for sale!

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By the way, while trying to locate the oldest photo I have of this wall, I discovered that I had missed the tenth anniversary of View From Casita Colibrí. It was March 25, 2010, with the post, Awake at 4:30 AM, that I began this blog. Its last line reads, “Whatever the reasons… here’s hoping I become a little braver in revealing myself, don’t let my perfectionist streak get in the way of posting and I stick with it!” I’ve definitely stuck with it, have overcome my fear of the writing and photos not being perfect (though I try to maintain my librarian commitment to accuracy), and have hopefully allowed a bit of “who I am” to be expressed in these ten years of blog posts. Here’s to another ten!

 

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Not for sale!

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Signs, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 7, 2020| 14 Comments »

I am, at long last, back in home sweet home Oaxaca. The weather is warm, the garden looks great, and the building at the end of the block that has looked to be on the verge of collapse since I first laid eyes on it thirteen years ago, has had a new paint job — announcing in a very creative way that, despite its dilapidated condition, it is not for sale.

And, don’t just take my word for its neglected and decrepit condition. There is a precaution notice from the city of Oaxaca warning passersby that the building is in a bad state.

All one has to do is peek through one of the broken windows to see there isn’t much there, there.

Located at the corner of Crespo and Matamoros, it is one of the more than five and a half thousand historic structures in the state of Oaxaca listed by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History).

There is currently a building boom going on in the city, especially of upscale hotels, to meet the snowballing tourist demand. I suspect that restrictions and costs related to remodeling these cataloged buildings is why the much-needed renovation to this one hasn’t happened.

However, the owner of this building, whoever she or he may be, has let it be known, in a variety of designs, fonts, colors, and in no uncertain terms, that it is NOT FOR SALE!

The artwork covering the building is quite an improvement. However, I can’t help thinking of one of my grandmother’s sayings, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

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Window on a tinaco

Posted in Buildings, Casita Colibrí, Environment, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , on January 19, 2020| 2 Comments »

Flying into any airport in Mexico, you see them dotting the landscape below — Mexico’s ubiquitous rooftop tinacos.

View through a Casita Colibrí window of the tinaco across the street.

For those of you who are dying to know how the water system here at Casita Colibrí works: An underground pipe regularly (or, not so regularly, as the case may be) delivers municipal water into an aljibe (cistern) — a storage tank under our courtyard and driveway.  A bomba (pump) is run daily for an hour (más o menos) to bring water from the aljibe up into the tinacos sitting on the various rooftops of the apartment complex.  When we turn on our tap, water flows (or dribbles) from our faucets courtesy of gravity.

By the way, this is non potable water.  Drinking water is a different story involving garrafones (5-gallon water jugs).

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Blessed construction!

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, tagged , , , , , , , on August 28, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Construction is going on all over the city. A blessing or a curse?

The cross was probably put up on May 3, Día de la Santa Cruz (Day of the Holy Cross) — which also happens to be Día del Abañil (Day of the mason/stonemason/bricklayer). It is tradition for workers to erect crosses festooned with flowers at the highest point on construction sites.

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