My day in Fotos

I saw a bit of this looking out my kitchen window about 7:30 in the morning so I went outside to look down the street. Somewhere a few blocks away someone was burning so the effect was sunrise and smoke. Never know what you'll get shooting into the sun.

A little later I went out to shovel gravel into potholes in the entrance road but before I could get started along came the cattle herd. Don't remember if the owner was with them but they do get around by themselves from time to time. They never hurry and even the big water truck behind has to wait it's turn.

Not the best foto but come to think of it there may never be a better one. This is a Higuera Fig that has strangled another tree of some kind and is the only tree I know of that drops all it's leaves like it's fall. Looks like the sunny side is loosing them first.  The strangest thing about it is after it is totally bare it will be fully green again in about 2 weeks. It's a once a year thing.

Fig or Ficus on a post

Someone on the La Manzanilla message board posted the first foto which is a bit unusual but this type of support post for ramadas in front of stores or houses is not. They are actually very common around here even though quite expensive. I assume a special name for them but neighbors and Internet are not helping.

I have two examples on neighboring lots but they are way, way past the usable or attractive stage. This Ficus or Fig is very much like the Mexican Mistletoe in a previous post. They both start high in a tree with the droppings of birds and eventually strangle the host and become a tree in the same place. Roots either hang or "climb" down the trunk which is what the foto is.

Neighbor did say the attractive and usable ones are found in the mountains and there's a guy in Jaluco that gets them as a business. The cost comes from getting them out of the woods, stripping all the bark and garbage and preserving them with diesel and later varnish. You can't drive around with a truck full of freshly cut trees in Mexico without a permit but these may be exempt since they are really a parasite and a dead tree. Would be interesting to know a little more.

Just figured out that "higuera" is the generic Spanish name for fig but there are many, many varieties.

Ramada support post

Strangling fig has totally taken over on lot next door

Around the corner even larger with roots hanging