Here are some of the more colorful people in mine…
More from Friday’s walk up to Barrio Xochimilco. Couldn’t help thinking of the Sesame Street song, Who Are the People In Your Neighborhood?
Archive for the ‘Travel & Tourism’ Category
Who are the people in your neighborhood?
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged Barrio Xochimilco, Colectivo Alucin Ates, graffiti, Lelo Art, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street art, urban art, wall art on July 6, 2014| 6 Comments »
Just passing through…
Posted in Churches, Creativity, Culture, Neighborhoods, Travel & Tourism, tagged Barrio Xochimilco, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, SCOM, stairs, street art, Templo de Santo Tomas Xochimilco, urban art, wall art on July 4, 2014| 6 Comments »
I felt like I was being watched, as I walked through Barrio Xochimilco this morning…
Stumbled upon, what could be, the stairway to heaven…
Just passing through…
Aren’t we all?
Azucenas in Oaxaca
Posted in Environment, Gardens, Science & Nature, Travel & Tourism, tagged Azucenas, flowers, garden, lilies, Mexico, night blooming, Oaxaca, photographs, photos on July 2, 2014| 4 Comments »
The azucena is a variety of tuberose and its name is familiar in Oaxaca. A popular boutique hotel near Casita Colibrí and a well-known restaurant at the entrance to San Martín Tilcajete are both namesakes. This must be a special flower. It is! A few evenings ago, I went out onto the terrace to soak in the view, as lights came on in the city, and discovered azucenas blooming in an old planter box on the terrace wall. Another night bloomer joins my pitahaya and night-blooming cereus.
As Judy Sedbrook at Colorado State University, Cooperative Extension, explains, flowering plants on The Night Shift take over as the sun sets. They are often white or light-colored, to better reflect the moonlight, and exhibit a heady scent, both in an effort to attract their night flying moth and bat pollinators.
I love these sweet-smelling nighttime surprises!
The bells are ringing
Posted in Buildings, Churches, Religion, Travel & Tourism, tagged church bells, Iglesia de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora, Mexico, Oaxaca, Parroquia de San Juan de Dios, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, Templo de San Cosme y San Damian, Templo del Carmen Bajo, Tlacolula de Matamoros on June 28, 2014| 2 Comments »
Awaking to the sounds of church bells chiming. I must be back in Oaxaca.
Templo del Carmen Bajo, Oaxaca de Juárez
Iglesia de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora, Tlacolula de Matamoros
Parroquia de San Juan de Dios, Oaxaca de Juárez
Church somewhere between San Baltazar Chichicapam and Oaxaca de Juárez
Anyone know the name and location of this church? I think maybe I should turn on my camera’s GPS!
And, just one more…
Templo de San Cosme y San Damian, Oaxaca de Juárez
Transitioning from here to there
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Signs, Travel & Tourism, tagged California, Mexico, Mill Valley, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, sculptures, street art, street signs, urban art, wall art, Zio Ziegler on June 25, 2014| 9 Comments »
It’s been a great visit to Mill Valley, California, the town where I grew up and lived most of my life. But, I’m ready to return to Oaxaca. However, besides differences in latitude and attitude, there is much they have in common.
There are sculptures in public places (click on each to enlarge image)…
Shoreline Highway, Mill Valley
On the Alcalá in Oaxaca.
There are murals…
Tunnel leading to the Guelaguetza Auditorium, Oaxaca
Side of a building on Shoreline Hwy, Mill Valley by Zio Ziegler.
There are depictions of aquatic animals…
Side of building on Shoreline Hwy, Mill Valley by Zio Ziegler.
Tunnel leading to Guelaguetza Auditorium, Oaxaca.
AND, there are signs reminding drivers to wait and take turns. Remember my What’s easy??? post from last week? Look what just went up in Mill Valley. Discourteous drivers know no boundaries!
Street sign in Oaxaca.
Street sign in Mill Valley.
Rather than dwelling on the differences — which I did when I first began living this dual-country life — I now choose to appreciate the similarities. Of course it doesn’t hurt that both places are situated in beautiful settings, fresh fruits and vegetables abound, have relatively mild climates, and an appreciation for the arts.
And so… I bid a fond “adiós” to Mill Valley and “hola” to Oaxaca.
Just between you and me…
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged Baile de Los Viejitos, Between, Carnaval, Carnival, Dance of the Old Men, Holy Week, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, Semana Santa, Teotitlán del Valle on June 21, 2014| 4 Comments »
Tête-à-tête between Viejitos (I know, I’m mixing languages), seen between the shoulders of two municipal leaders, on the Municipal Plaza in Teotitlán del Valle during this year’s previously mentioned Carnaval.
What’s easy???
Posted in Culture, Signs, Travel & Tourism, tagged Calle Berriozábal, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street signs, uno x uno on June 19, 2014| 9 Comments »
One by one…
These signs cropped up last month on a number of streets in Oaxaca. I saw this one on Calle Berriozábal near the Alcalá. But, I’m confused… What’s easy??? Certainly not dealing with the health insurance industry in the US. I am SO ready to return to Oaxaca!
Fathers of Oaxaca, 2014
Posted in Celebrations, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged Día del Padre, Father's Day, fathers and children, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations on June 15, 2014| 6 Comments »
Not your traditional Carnival
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged Baile de Los Viejitos, Carnaval, Carnival, Dance of the Old Men, Holy Week, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Semana Santa, Teotitlán del Valle on June 12, 2014| 3 Comments »
True confession: I’m not in Oaxaca! I arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area a week ago for a 3-week visit. While I love seeing family, friends, “my” mountain (Mt. Tamalpais), and the Pacific Ocean, it also means bone-chilling summer fog, driving instead of walking most everywhere, and the absence of my regular blog fodder — no calendas, ferias, festivals, saints days, bandas, and urban art. (Though, I will probably head to San Francisco for the latter!)
However, this break-in-the-action gives me time to look back through thousands of photos and create posts that had been put on the back-burner when something bigger, better, or more timely cropped up.
So, here we go, back to Friday, April 24, 2014 — the last of five days of Carnaval in Teotitlán del Valle.
While there are masks, costumes, men dressed as women, and merriment, this is not your Christian pre-Lenten Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras Carnival.
This is a pre-Hispanic celebration that happens the Monday through Friday after Easter, not before Lent.
Via El Baile de Los Viejitos (the Dance of the Old Men), it brings the community and elected leadership together to remind each of their social contract — in an extremely humorous way.
A procession, gathering participants along the way, leads to the Municipal Plaza, where it seems as if the entire village assembles.
And, of course, the dance and ritual continue late into the night…
This is a good spot
Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Signs, Travel & Tourism, tagged abandoned buildings, artists, buildings, dangerous, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, SCOM, street art, urban art graffiti, wall art on June 8, 2014| 6 Comments »
The “buildings in a bad state” in Oaxaca continue to multiply.
Where some see unsightly decay, others see opportunity…
including urban artist, SCOM.
Ready for her close-up
Posted in Agriculture, Casita Colibrí, Gardens, Science & Nature, Travel & Tourism, tagged cactus, Dragon fruit, flowers, garden, Hylocereus undatus, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Pitahaya, succulents on June 4, 2014| 16 Comments »
Several mornings ago, after a day and night of rain, I went out on the terrace to check on the garden and found…
Yikes, one of my Pitahaya (Hylocereus undatus – aka, Dragon fruit) had bloomed overnight! Must be a relative of my other Night Blooming Cereus.
Two years ago, the original cuttings had been laying in the campo of a friend in San Martín Tilcajete. When Chris (Oaxaca-The Year After) asked if we could have some, the answer was, “¡Por supuesto!” Loving the wall of Pitahaya at Centro Académico y Cultural San Pablo, six months later, with the original five cuttings becoming fifteen, I could use them to begin to screen the chain link fence at the new Casita Colibrí. I kept pruning and sticking them in the planter boxes.
June 2, 2014, 8:40 AM
And now, they have begun blooming. Having missed the “night-blooming” of my first flower, I was determined not to miss the unfolding of the second blossom, seen above near the top of the pole, providing the weather cooperated. It did!
June 2, 2014, 7:20 PM
June 2, 2014, 8:40 PM
June 2, 2014, 11:00 PM
By the next day, it had closed, never to reopen again.
June 2, 2014, 2:54 PM
However, there will be fruit…
They’re back!!!
Posted in Culture, Food, Travel & Tourism, Weather, tagged chicatanas, culinary traditions, food, insects, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, salsa, tzicatana, video on June 1, 2014| 12 Comments »
The rainy season has definitely arrived in the city, bringing several hours of lluvia every night for the past five nights. The first rains of the season also bring (drum roll, please) chicatanas! Early this morning, I went out onto the terrace with my coffee to be greeted with these not-so-little insects. Flying (into my hair, eeek!) and crawling all over the place!
Female chicatana on a very wet table.
What, you may ask are chicatanas? They are giant flying ants that emerge with the first rains of the season — and by giant, I mean about 4 cm from the head to the tip of the wings for the females. (As in much of the insect world, males are smaller and wingless.)
Male chicatana on the deck.
This occurs early one morning each year and lasts only a few hours. My first experience with them was a couple of years ago, when I arrived at Oaxaca’s airport for my 8:30 AM flight one May morning, to find, yikes(!) an infestation of insects. I had no idea what they were, but nobody seemed to mind, and kids were running around collecting them. The answer came after I boarded the plane and began talking with a Oaxaqueña across the aisle. She explained that the arrival of the chicatanas was a much-anticipated event because they are a delicacy. As the video below documents, they are soaked, cleaned, toasted on a comal, ground, seasoned, and made into a salsa.
According to this post in a Chicago based culinary chat site, it has been almost “500 years since Bernardino de Sahagun reported to Europe on the tzicatana [chicatana in Nahuatl] in his Nueva Historia, from its divine associations to its swarm ethology (mirroring the movements of the Aztecan armies) to its apparent deliciousness to the Nahuan-speaking people in the region.” And, long before that, tzicatanas were mentioned in the Florentine Codex.
Female chicatana doing the back stroke on the table.
By 9:30 this morning, they were gone. However, should you find yourself in Oaxaca during a brief visit by the chicatanas, here is a recipe for Chicatana Salsa.
My split second story
Posted in Celebrations, cell phones, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged el Divino Señor del Calvario, festival, Mexico, Mixteca, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca on May 30, 2014| 11 Comments »
“I dunno… not much… festival going on downtown… Yeah, food looks good… couple of bands… castillo tonight… So, ya wanna go?”
Last Sunday on a quiet side street away from the chaos and cacophony of the festival honoring el Divino Señor del Calvario, in San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca. Of course, it’s probably not at all what was being said, not to mention the fact the conversation was most likely in Spanish or Mixtec. But it’s my split second story.
Not your Chicago Bulls
Posted in Animals, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged basketball, bulls, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca on May 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Bulls, real…
and imagined…
… yesterday on the streets of San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca.
We were there for day four of the annual fiesta in honor of el Divino Señor del Calvario and to see the Templo y ExConvento de San Juan Bautista — another of the grand Dominican churches currently undergoing restoration. More about both later. No bull!
Monos on the move
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged Expat Blog, Expat interview, Mexico, monos, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations on May 24, 2014| 6 Comments »
Yesterday, I was walking along calle de Flores Magón, and what to my wondering eyes did appear?
Husband and wife? Novia y novio?? “Just” friends???
I’ve got to say, they looked rather stiff and not very comfortable. Hope their trip was a short one!
By the way, if you want to read a little about my journey to Oaxaca and expat life, Expat Blog recently published an interview with me, American Expat Living in Mexico – Interview with Shannon. There is even a photo of a couple of monos supervising a banda. Perhaps friends of the above???
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