Chavela Vargas

In honor of ranchera crooner Chavela Vargas' 90th birthday on Friday, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard will honor the singer as "Distinguished Citizen" during a ceremony on April 21.

Vargas, who emigrated to Mexico from her native Costa Rica when she was 14, has been called the "Voz Aspera de la Ternura" ("The Raspy Voice of Tenderness"), for her gruff singing style and demeanor. As one of the few women in a genre dominated by men and macho themes, she smoked cigars, drank heavily, carried a gun and sometimes dressed like a man.

San Miguel on the horizon?

Sad to announce there is a thief in the family that got away with a significant amount of money that was here to pay for materials and labor on the house. In the family because they used keys, disrupted nothing else ... only going for the money.

Going to take some time to reevaluate the relationship and generally get past the emotions of this. We will finish up the septic tank which was just a hole and would collapse in the rain .... and then pack it in for awhile.

So after emailing Ron in San Miguel, who knows the family, he suggested a getaway. They have an unused room and I've never been to that part of Mexico. Sounds like a great idea and may have fotos and notes from there in a few weeks. Life goes on !!

Cihuatlan Municipal garbage men value their job

Well at least I think so. This they really couldn't drive away from.

Due to cars parked on the street (Semana Santa) they knocked down two huge branches of a tree in front of the house. Couldn't miss the noise and I found the whole street blocked with greenery. One guy asked for a machete and after deciding he really wanted it I got my small one. After a few minutes a neighbor came out with a larger sharper one and within minutes they had it in pieces we could throw in the truck. Took about a 1/2 hour but they left nothing but a street full of leaves.

Another neighbor raked up what was left and I bagged it up. What a crew !! Another day in Melaque

Made in Mexico movie fan

I'm a fan of Made in Mexico movies and there are many great ones. I have DVD's of many from various sources. Recently I watched two because they were made in the Costalegre area. "Cabo Blanco" was filmed in Barra de Navidad and "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" was partially filmed in the old Hotel Tecuan up the coast.

Cabo Blanco was definately the better of the two with Charles Bronson but both were filmed at least half at night making anything other than the interior of hotels impossible. The 'other one' was god-awful with unknown actors and almost totally shot at night - as horror movies will do.

My advise is to avoid them unless you just have to say you've seen them. BTW, one of the original Hollywood Robinson Crusoe movies (Bunuel)(color) was shot in Cuyutlan in Colima in the '50's

Cabo Blanco

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

Semana Santa is here

My neighbors always advise me to park my car in the garage but I park it on the street half up the curb. Not these two weeks with all the crazy out-of-towners. 4 wheel ATV's running around at top speed, nobody pays attention to one-way streets, buses find themselves on streets too small to maneuver, people park on both sides of the street giving almost no room. And then there are drunks. Last year someone ran his car up the telephone pole support cable on one side of my house - that still lies there. And the holidays attract theives as people have their guards down.

I'm more or less in hibernation mode and the Sunday trips to the beach with the kids is on hold as well. Prices go up, can't get service and no way can you find a table after 10am. I know Melaque needs the business .... so I'll just wait it out and not complain

Semana Santa in Melaque, Mexico

Small town Mexico

Small town or even back street of larger towns - I wonder who has seen this kind of scene. The costumes may be different with baseball cap or a more modern cowboy hat and menos the serape. I run into scenes like this quite often

Old Mexico foto