on the edge

Casa Linda

Casa Linda was one of the first places we stayed in the town of Bucerias which is a hour north of Puerto Vallarta. We eventually bought a lot and built our first house there in 1999. Linda became our friend and we attended many of her wonderful parties there. She was the consummate hostess. She has since passed away and our friend Lori, her daughter is now managing the place. We had the opportunity to revisit Casa Linda in April and it still is the perfect taste of life as it was on the coast of Mexico. 

Tacos

 

Part of Mexican life are the taco stands. There are very few during the day. There are some morning taco stands, like the Carnitas stand on Lazaro Cardenas and Aguacate that we frequent and is very popular with the Mexicans, but it is closed by 1:00 in the afternoon.

 

Another that I have been going to for years opens around 2:00 in the afternoon and is open until the evening. When I need something to eat in the afternoon and I am downtown, they are my go to place. Taco Gonzalez on Aguacate between Caranza and Lazaro Cardinas.

 

Most however don't open until around 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening after dark and there are taco stands on every street. That is my favorite time to go wandering around with a camera.

 

To me the lowly taco is the gourmet food of Mexico. For around 75 cents US, you can get a taco sincillo (plain) or with everything (beans, chopped onion, cilantro) and what distinguishes each taco stand are their salsas. They have to have at least 3, a red salsa, a green salsa, a guacamole salsa. They also serve quesadillas with the same options. 

 

For meat, there is carne asada (grilled beef), adobada (pork marinated in a red dried chili adobo sauce) and al pastor (pork meat marinated and stacked on a vertical spike with a vertical grill). Meat is sliced off on the surface as it cooks with a little slice of pineapple. Also there is cabeza (meat from the head of the cow, not brains, just lips, cheeks, etc.) and Carnitas (which is pork meat cooked in a caldron of pork fat) but these are only served at breakfast. Each taco stand has its own specialties.

 

Another lunch taco is fish tacos. Here the favorite style is Baja style which is fish or shrimp dipped in batter and deep fried. They are served with shredded cabbage and usually mayonnaise or a chipotle mayonnaise plus the other usual salsas. They are usually a lunch thing. Our favorite is called Marisma on Naranjo and Caranza. They make their own corn tortillas heco a mano (made by hand) fresh hot and good.

 

Halloween in Puerto Vallarta

Halloween in Puerto Vallarta is a fun time. Although this is a holiday imported from up North, it seems to be catching on here. Mexico celebrates the Day of the Dead (Dia De Los Muertos) on Novemebr 2nd but even that feast day is imported here from other areas of Mexico and is not celebrated here the way it is in other areas. Halloween got a real kick start from the numbers of foreigners who live here diuring the winter.

So every year along the malecon the kids come out with their parents dressed up for Halloween and getting candy from the Americans and Canadians.  Many of the kids are too poor to be able to buy costumes so they make their own, clearly with a lot of help from their parents. The home made costumes are invariably the best on the malecon.

The Temple of Tepostécatl in Tepotzlan

At the end of April we spent a week in Tepoztlan, a town in the state of Morelos not far from Cuernavaca. Tepoztlan is a very pretty little town nestled in a valley between two mountain ranges. It has largely been maintained in a traditional way. No McDonalds, no Dominoes Pizza or developments here.  It is a big weekend tourist destination for Mexico City, being only a hour away. It has a very alternative feel, you can buy crystals here, there is an Indian store where you can buy things from India and a photo shop where you can get a picture taken of your aura. There are a number of very nice B & B's with attendant spa's.

At the top of one of the mountains to the north of the town is an ancient Aztec temple. It actually predates the Aztecs and it is a serious hike to get there. I was told that it was an hour hike, but it took me an hour and 15 minutes and it was a hike straight up the mountain.  The valley of Tepoztlan lies at a mile of altitude, so it's around another 2,000 feet of altitude or 7,000 feet at the top.  

On the way we were greeted by a number of Coatimundis or Coatis or Tejón as they are known here. They are very tame and comfortable around humans. Like Racoons they can be a pest and raid human habitations for food. They are quite intelligent. There were signs at the top of the mountain saying not to feed the Coatis because they were becoming too dependent on human food. Unfortunately by the time we got there it was too late. The last climb up to the temple was very steep, through a gap in the rocks that had a special stairway built. Formerly it had two logs with cross bars forming a ladder to climb the last part.

The Temple of Tepostécatl was occupied with the Tepostlan valley in the 13th century A.D. by the Xochimilcas, a people who settled this area and who were in constant war with the Aztecs and were eventually conquered by them. The temple then became an Aztec temple around 1438 A.D. The temple was built to the god Tepostécatl the patron god of the people of the Tepotzlan valley. Tepostécatl is one of the deities related to the Maguey plant and Pulque. His calendar name was Ome Tochtli, 2 Rabbit. The Rabbit was a moon being in Meso-American cosmogony, so this made Pulque gods moon beings. This heavenly connection with a heavenly body that dies and is reborn endlessly comes from the fact that Pulque gods embodied nature's on-going cycle of birth and death. This is the  reason they are celebrated at the end of harvest time.

According to legend, Tepostécatl was born to a princes who fell in love with a bird or  the god Ehécatl. The parents wanted to get rid of the child so they left him in a nest. Instead of being devoured, he was fed by ants on drops of honey. He then was left between the leaves of the Maguey plant where he was fed on the Maguey syrup. He was finally sent downstream in a wooden box (sound familiar) where he was found by an elderly couple who raised him and taught him all he knew.

 

 

Scuba Diving in Puerto Vallarta

With summer and fall water temperatures in the Bay of Banderas running above 80 (26 C) our friend Norm who is an owner of the Twin Dolphin (Delfines Gemelos) Dive operation had been telling us of how incredible the diving has been this fall. Visibility 70 to 100 feet and water warm enough that a wet suit was unnecessary.   

We have been diving since the mid 80's when we lived in the New York area and could catch flights down to the Caribbean where the water is warm and the undersea life is prolific. Here, in the winter, the water is warm on the surface but due to Pacific current upwelling,  there are thermoclines below  which require you to wear a heavier wet  suit and being warm water divers, we've avoided it when the water is cold. But as we found out, now the diving is just about perfect.

  So one Sunday afternoon, my wife and I set out with Norm and the Twin Dolphin crew to see what was going on. In our diving here we had never dived Los Arcos and were stoked to do that. Los Arcos is a great snorkeling site, but it is also on the edge of an undersea canyon with a wall that descends to 1,800 feet. The diving was amazing with lots of undersea life. We saw two Spotted Eagle Rays, large schools of Angel Fish and Puffer Fish everywhere. We hit the wall at about 70 feet and were down to 110 feet before we knew it. The visibility was perfect and being able to leave behind our wet suits was a real bonus. 

It was so good that I called our son Ed when we got back and we scheduled a return dive later that week. The two of us have been diving together since 1985. Ed and I got our PADI certification together on Grand Turk Island when he was 11 and I was 40. The underwater shots here are his. Our return dive the following Friday was equally as great. There was a turtle (I didn't see it), an Eagle Ray and the schools of fish were mesmerizing. We were with a group that had some beginner divers so Norm, Ed and I took off on our own down the steep cut in the cliff that leads to the wall. For me there is nothing more exhilarating than having the bottom drop away and to drift leisurely down a vertical wall exploring as we go. until we reach our maximum depth. 

When Ed and I learned on Grand Turk we learned on an undersea wall that dropped away vertically, in the case of Grand Turk for a mile. Grand Turk sits on a mile deep trench and is literally on an undersea cliff edge. The undersea terrain in the Bay of Banderas does not drop away as deeply but it actually is a series of underwater canyons similar to Monterey Bay in California. Because of the depth and upwelling of colder water from the depths laden with nutrients, there is an abundance of sea life which attracts larger creatures particularly the whale population in the winter months. The Carribean has its beauty, but diving here is well worth the effort to see close up the beauty of the sea life. 

 

Underwater photos by Ed Fladung:

http://www.edfladung.com/

Road Journal: Zacatecas

Originally uploaded by waywuwei

On the road north we stopped at the 400 year old colonial silver mining town of Zacatecas for two days. Zacatecas is beautiful, with streets made of cut stone and sidewalks made of black cut volcanic rock. Zacatecas is a UN World Heritage site.

Road Journal: Saltillo-Monterey

Saltillo-Monterey
Originally uploaded by waywuwei

This is the mountain range to the south as you drive from Saltillo to Monterey. They are predominately limestone, the remnants of some sea floor long ago. They are mining here in several places to make cement to build Mexico's rapidly expanding industrial and residential sector. From the looks of things they have enough limestone for the next 1000 years.

Road Journal: Zacatecas-Saltillo: La Fogata

La Fogata
Originally uploaded by waywuwei

"The Bonfire"

On the road from Puerto Vallarta to New York. This desolate stretch is between Zacatecas and Saltillo. It is a high plain dessert. It is green ths time of year (August) because of the seasonal rains, but is otherwise dry. There are no rivers, lakes or other sources of water. When you look at this picture imagine nothing around it for miles. Nothing but scrub brush and yucca trees. I'm not sure that is their proper name, but they are not more than 20 feet tall, most being about 10 feet tall and have beautiful white flowers this time of year.

We stopped here for some lunch and they gave a us a limited choice: all meats. We chose borrego: goat and were brought 2 legs of goat about twice the length of the plates they were served on with a few very greasy french fries on top. We looked at this and had the same thought: "I don't think I can do this". We had a few bites, but had it wrapped up to go as our dog Sugar thought it was great. She finished up the last of it that evening. We stopped in Saltillo at a McDonalds.

In the end, La Fogata is best fo gotten.

Rooftop Singers

  Rooftop Singers 
  Originally uploaded by waywuwei

One of the things I love about Mexico is this phenomenon that occurs on occasions. When we lived in Bucerias about an hour north of here, we had two neighbors, Juan and Maria. Juan was in his 90's and had lived through the revolution and would often talk about it. Every year on Juan's birthday, we would be woken up in the early morning by a Mariachi band. Maria would hire them to wake Juan on the morning of his birthday. It was an incredibly beautiful way to wake up in the morning and a beautiful gift.

This group began playing around 5:15 am this morning. They are still playing now as I write this at 9:45 am. They are not quite as wonderful as a full Mariachi group, just a drummer and an accordion player, but the accordion player is really good and knows enough songs to fill 4+ hours. I'm not sure what the occasion is but I suspect it is someone's birthday who loves music.

A Mennonite Vendor

There are areas in Mexico where there are farms owned by the Mennonites. The younger members of the community show up from time to time selling cookies and cheese at the traffic lights in the Banderas Bay area. They are always young, the men wearing overalls and straw cowboy hats and the women wearing long dresses and little traditional caps. They don't speak a word of English, just Spanish but with blue eyes and blond hair look for all the world like gringoes.

Chacala

The Village of Chacala is about 2 hours north of Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast in the state of Nayarit. Because Chacala is on a small bay the beach is almost always swimmable. Many beaches on the Pacific coast here are not often swimmable. The Pacific rarely is "pacific". In the Puerto Vallarta area, the towns are on the Bay of Banderas which has many swimmable beaches. This is why it is a favorite vacation destination for foreigners as well as Mexicanos.

The restaurants along this beach were started by fishermen and their wives. Many actually live there in the back of the restaurant. The dish of choice is the pescado sarandeado which is a fresh fish, split, maranated and cooked over a wood fire. Often the fisherman will bring a bucket by your table and let you pick out the fish. You often have to wait until 2 o'clock for the meal because the fishermen don't return from the morning fishing until 12 o'clock, but you always know the fish is fresh!

See where Chacala is... [?]

A new year- 2007

This year for Christmas, we were contacted by some folks who wanted to rent our house for the two weeks over Christmas and New Years. They made us an offer we couldn't refuse so we decided to head off on a vacation of our own. Many say, why, you're living in paradise already. The problem is when you live here full time it's home and sometimes it's nice to get away from phones, internet, newspapers and kick back, read a book, do some diving, walk in a rainforest, etc.

So we chose the island of Dominica, one of the windward islands in the Caribbean. There's great scuba diving and most of the island is a mountainous tropical rainforest with literally hundreds of rivers, waterfalls, hot springs and rainbows. you see, it rains a lot in a rainforest, so rainbows were a daily thing. It was quiet with lots of opportunities to sit back and read a book with some real exercise too.

Now, we're back in Bucerias, a different sort of paradise, but it's good to be home...

Sunset in Puerto Vallarta over Gringo Gulch

The houses on the hillside are on the north side of the valley of the River Cuale which comes down out of the mountains and flows to the bay through Puerta Vallarta. It is called Gringo Gulch because during the filming of "The Night of the Iguana" in 1964, a film that put Puerto Vallarta on the map, many of the stars such as Richard Burton, Liz Taylor, and director John Huston bought houses in this area. The church in the distance is this church, the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The town of Puerto Vallarta is built at the base of the Sierra Madre mountains. The mountains in the distance are the Sierra Vallejo mountains in the state of Nayarit where I live.

This picture was taken from an old condominium building in the hills above Playa Muertos named "La Alborada" which means "the dawn".

Oaxaca: Language School & Change of Residence

When I got up in the morning of the first day, after lying in bed for 10 extra minutes because it was very cold in my room, I dashed across the intervening space between my room and the building where the shower was. Standing there shivering, I waited for some warm water to come, but there was none. Reluctantly I got dressed and decided to skip it. Later at breakfast I mentioned to Angela that there was no hot water. She took me into the bathroom and showed me what to do. My conclusion was that I had done something wrong. In the afternoon I took my delayed shower, but the next morning I did the same thing and again there was no hot water. I reached the conclusion that the person who turned the hot water heater on in the morning was probably getting up about the same time I was and it took about half an hour to get hot water. That night I had difficulty getting to sleep because there was someone occupying the room next to mine and there was a doorway between rooms with a very thin plywood door. I could hear people breathing, the wood was so thin. In the evening there were about five people sitting around talking loudly with the TV on and this went on until almost midnight. At around five in the morning the dog next door started barking and continued until I finally get up at 7:00. Again there was no hot water so I reluctantly made the decision to find new quarters. The distance between the language school and my home stay was around 14 blocks and after two days of walking back and forth twice a day it became clear that this along with the other issues I had with the home stay wouldn’t work for two weeks.

Oaxaca: On the Way, Arrival & Home Stay

Taking off in the morning from Puerto Vallarta, we always take off toward the Bay, unless rarely, the winds are coming out of the mountains. We circle 180 degrees and climb out over the coastal mountains. The mountains are always misty and ephemeral before the sun burns off the mist. We head almost directly west to Mexico City. I change planes in Mexico City, just a short, less than an hour layover.

Taking off from Mexico city we circle around and head south-east right past the major volcano in the Mexico city vicinity: Popocatepetl ("the smoking mountain"). It was not smoking today, who knows, maybe it gave up the habit. Somehow I doubt it. In just over an hour we descended into the Oaxaca valley.

Bucerias: The Fiesta Of Our Lady of Peace

A reminder to those who are interested, the festival of Our Lady of Peace, the patron of our local Catholic Church is just gearing up. It will run for about 10 days, culminating on January 28th with the blessing of the boats which happens around 12:00 noon central time. The nearby restaurants are usually jammed so reservations are necessary for a good seat. Adrianos is the the place to be for a view of the boats. There is always plenty of standing room on the beach and on the plaza. The festival culminates in the evening at around 11:00 pm central time with the lighting of the castillo, a three story tower filled with fireworks. An event not to be missed. Unfortunately, I will be in Oaxaca this year...

Here's last year's report...

Road Trip: Oaxaca

Tomorrow I head off for a three week trip to the Mexican city of Oaxaca. I will be attending 2 weeks of Spanish language intensive and for the third week my wife Mary will be joining me for a week of exploration. I have never been to Oaxaca so this will be a new experience and if I can get online to download pictures, I will share with you my experiences there.

The language school is Academia Vinigúlaza which comes very highly recommended by several friends who have studied there. I will be reporting back on how that experience turns out. Through the director of Vinigúlaza I was able to connect up with a Mexican family with whom I will be staying for the two weeks of language school. This will minimize my reliance on English to communicate and force me to get up to speed quickly. I have done several intensives before but never a total immersion experience. We'll see how that works. My goal is to be able to read and communicate on a conversational level.

Oaxaca is known for it's cuisine. I am looking forward to that and to taking a cooking class or two to learn how to make moles, one of my favorite dishes of Mexico.

The valley around Oaxaca contains many towns each of which are known for their arts and crafts. That is also a high priority for exploration.

Another must see is the ancient Zapotec city of Monte Alban. We'll have a report on that too.

Stay tuned....

Chico's Paradise

Chico's Paradise is one of those places that I tend to avoid. During the high season here it is a featured destination for tourists out to experience something a little different. It was September, which is the dead month here and the Mexican vacationers have returned home because school has started and the "snow birds" from up North will not arrive until late October and November. So the locals call September, Septiembre in Spanish, Septi-hambre, hambre meaning hungry. It's very quiet.

A Surfing Contest in Sayulita

In December our neighboring town to the north held one of a series of surfing contests. Sayulita is a beautiful little town that has a reputation for attracting young people and it's probably mostly due to the fact that there is an excellent break that produces some fairly reliable surfing conditions. One of the purposes of the contests is to select the best  surfers for the Mexican National team that will compete worldwide.

The surfing contests draw large crowds of spectators. The beach restaurants all have chairs set up on the beach with umbrellas or palapas so that their patrons can relax, drink, eat and watch the surfing. As long as you buy a few drinks you can take a chair and spend the day.

Getting back to our roots

As promised we revisited the new vegetarian restaurant in our little town of Bucerias and had another outstanding meal. The maestro behind these works of culinary art is Andrew and I don't use the words "culinary arts" lightly. My wife and I lived in the San Francisco/Berkeley area of California for over 12 years and great restaurants were plentiful. Roots in my opinion is right up there with the very best of the SF Bay area.

Last night I had the Black bean cakes. They were phenomenal! I can't wait to go back. My wife had the Sweet Soy Ginger Bowl and said that it was incredible, so much so that she refused to share a bite with anyone. The sandwiches brought raves from the crowd. They were served on home made whole grain buns. I watched the portobello sandwich being inhaled accompanied by moans of delight. My son raved about his roasted vegetable sandwich.

The fresh fruit and vegetable juices are also outstanding. My favorite is the Red Beet mixture. My wife favors the watermelon creation. Both are excellent.

On the next page I have put the menu. Unfortunately it does not contain the juice menu but I'll add it when I get a copy.

In summary I have to say that this is a world class restaurant. When we were eating we were debating whether they should even say that they were a vegetarian restaurant, just because many people would not come because the word vegetarian puts them off. I think as the word gets around, this will change because this is really great food, so great that you'll wonder why you thought meat was so great anyway....