Danzón - a chick flick?

I guess so with a female director and leading role but still one of my favorite Mexican movies.

It's about a couple of phone operators in Mexico City that live for the weekends and the Danzón. Julia (Maria Rojo) finds her perfect dance partner, finds a little romance and he suddenly disappears. The rest of the movie is Julia's search adventure for her dance partner in Veracruz. Lots of dancing, good music and low key adventure.



I used to sit for hours watching Danzon on the weekends on the Cuernavaca plaza. No live music, always recorded and often more dressed up than the folks below.

Jocotepec Raspberries

There's something very soothing about Raspberries. Not only when they melt in your mouth but we almost always had them in our yard up north. These fields are just a short walk from my house up a peaceful dirt road.

Driscoll’s and Berrymex both have large farms in this area but I hear these are not organic like other farms on the south shore of Lake Chapala and Zamora. That may have been older information and they are finding a better market for the organic. Both companies employ lots of workers in the area and I hear it's hard not to have a job if you want one. My neighbor who works there brought me a small box the other day.

Yogurt, banana and raspberries make a good breakfast - that is soothing

Jaguarundi in Melaque

Marcos was house sitting a place in Ranchito so I went one day to visit. Nice big fancy place with pool but is surrounded by an old mango orchard and beyond - just country. I assume because not much civilization around is why this little guy came around.

We assumed, having never seen one, he was young and lost his family. I hear they make pets (sort of) but hard to imagine with the growling this guy did - really ferocious. He would come around your feet if he thought there was something he'd missed to eat but was generally very shy. What was he eating around the house - cat food of course

I didn't have my camera with me and found these fotos on Elke's site (same cat). She had spelled it 'jacurandi' or something similar and I spent a 1/2 hour looking for what it was

Wild Cats - Jaguarundi

Jaguarundi in Mexico

Chapala waterfront construction

Ron dropped by for a few days on his way from San Miguel to Melaque and Bill and I had to show him around. We spent a couple of hours in both Ajijic and Chapala.

The first foto is of an island they are building just off the Chapala Malecon. The process is amazing. Trucks dump rocks on the beach and one by one they are loaded onto a small barge that is then pulled out to the island by rope. The rumor is they will place a large statue of Jesus looking one way or the other ... but just a rumor.

The second is of the new skate board park which is quite large an fits in well with the malecon and park. Nicely done

Chapala Malecon, Jalisco Mexico

You won't see one of these in Seattle

Seen a few before but don't think so large or so badly hidden. For some reason the cats weren't interested or thought it was an inanimate object.

He's looking right at me but all I can imagine is those multi-focal eyes insects are famous for. I wonder how that works

Praying Mantis in my yard

Lawnmower Man

I took my computer in about a week and a half ago, the computer that suffered badly from beach humidity and dust. They told me to come in last Wednesday and Wednesday told me to come in Friday ... so went in today and they said they need to take it to Guadalajara to check the mother board (tarjeta madre).

So I walked down to the auto repair to see if parts came in and they said they needed to try another place in Guad next week. So off to do some shopping - it went well.

Got home and decided it was time to mow the lawn and shortly ran out of gas. It must be time for an hour in the hammock.

Rested I looked all over for the gas cans that I must have left in Melaque - just give stuff away. Headed out to the local hardware stores and they were all closed around 3pm Saturday - and may not reopen. I ended up at the Pemex/OXXO, bought a gallon of water, dumped it out ... and finished the lawn. A productive day in Mexico

Guadalajara International Book Fair

The most outstanding meeting of the Spanish-language publishing world awaits you at Guadalajara, from November 28th to December 6th, 2009. Authors, literary agents, librarians, booksellers and more than 1,600 publishing houses from 40 countries visit us every year. With them, over half a million visitors will enjoy the world of books and share the very best of Los Angeles’ culture and arts, our 2009 Guest of Honor.




Guadalajara International Book Fair Web Site

Día de los Inocentes

November 1st is not only called the Día de los Inocentes but also the Día de los Angelitos (All Saints Day) and the Día para Lipiar. November 1st is the day before Día de los Muertos and the streets are filled with flowers (real and plastic), wreaths, toys and food. November 1st is for remembrance of deceased infants and children but also a day to clean grave sites and buy the appropriate gifts for your loved ones that have passed on.

In Melaque all the highschool kids filled the plaza with imitation grave site adornments - almost like a competition Melaque Day or the Dead displays so I thought they might do the same here. The Casa de Cultura in Jocotepec usually does have these displays but not this year ??

So Marilyn and I walked up to the Panteon (cemetery) yesterday to look around and it was mostly people cleaning and placing flowers. Amazed at the amounts of money spent and not spent on the grave sites. There might be a mound of dirt with a cross right next to a marble edificio.

Police and medics were there because they found a large bees nest in one of the grave sites. They would leave it closed till tomorrow when the people are gone.

Day of the Dead flowers

Jocotepec Panteon

Jocotepec Panteon

Jocotepec Panteon