I drove hard and fast the first day and night. I spent the first night in the Eurovan at a highway rest stop in Northern California. There are some very nice people who frequent these places. I saw a woman there who very much resembled an overloaded donair spit with an oddly shaped head. Another man was trying to dry a festering wound on his leg. Actually the donair girl was doing the drying. She waved a soggy t shirt at the weeping wound as the injured party moaned his gratitude.
Back at the repair shop. It is December 19th and there are xmas carols being played on a television that has been adjusted to maximum colour saturation. Green people singing green and red songs on a deep grey day. Merry xmas. The car shop guys tell me I need a VW dealer. They don't charge me and let me use the phone. An hour later I am on the LA freeway...parked at a callbox as speeding trucks shake the VW with their wake. Of course it is pouring rain.
It ain't all bikinis and Coronas.
Meeting lots of new friends in LA. Many of them drive tow trucks or work in auto repair shops. I believe I may have accidentally become the best xmas present a mechanic could ask for. They sure seem to enjoy my company and do whatever they can to keep me hanging around.
I wake in my edge of town motel to a bit of a commotion. I step from my room into the parking lot and count 8 police cars, all parked at weird angles. Why do cops always park like this. It looks like the worlds worst assistant director set the background for the worlds most boring crime. I return to the relative peace of my basic motel room.
Another day another repair shop. They assure me I will be back on the road I can no longer afford, by late afternoon. My plan, if it can be called that, is to press on.
Indeed they get me on the road just in time for LA rush hour,which of course is any hour at all but in this instance it is just getting dark. I crawl out of town with the automotive horde and drive through another rain filled night to the edge of Tucson. Happy to be out of LA.
Mexico. I am in Celestino for xmas eve. There are 4 RV parks here and three are completely empty and the cheap one has 6 rigs. I guess most people are heeding the warnings about Mexico. They tell me 2 years ago if you didn't have a reservation you were out of luck. Today I have my choice of waterfront spots for $8.00. I feel sorry for the Mexicans who set these places up. I suspect it will be a while before the tourist economy recovers. I spent the 80s in Colombia working on a dive boat. After the cartel blew up the Hilton it took more than ten years to recover. The drug business did not stop. It was not won in a "drug war". They simply became a proper business and the cowboys were cut out. I'll spend some more time on this topic later but for now...
Mazatlan xmas. I took a bus into the old city today and was reminded why I love Mexico. It was xmas day and the bus was filled with people dressed as elegantly as their social position allowed. Men in nice suits and women with 2 hours makeup and all as happy as people ever get. Of course this scene was interrupted by a one armed drunk behind me who decided to remove an offending hair from my neck. Even he seemed happy. It was just a pleasant way to see xmas.
San Blas. I found a spot on the beach for the Eurovan for $4.00 a night. I need a break after LA. Swimming, boogie boarding, a jog on the beach that closely resembles a pregnant duck waddle.
I read a bit of telling Mexican history today. A Mexican President General named Santa Anna was overthrown in 1844. Before this he had a leg hacked off in battle. He sent men to retrieve the lifeless appendage from the battlefield. Later he held a full state funeral for the leg. He then built a mausaleum to house the leftover limb. When he was overthrown the people dug up the leg and used it for sport. Soccer I presume. Whether it was used as striker or ball was not clear.
Malaque Mexico Dec.30/2010
This place is interesting. There a lot of Canadians here. It seems a good place for the 50 plus canuck to get through the winter. I am as always in the Eurovan. There are 3 places to stay in the caravan here. Two are somewhat expensive and a little too civilized for my liking. The third is a weird hobo village
on "ejido" land. The ejido system is basically communally held land to be used as the community sees fit. Often it is distributed amongst families and farmed. The concept of private land was a hard sell to native Mexicans. It still is. Many Gringoes buy land here that they will never own. They can go years without understanding this but if the day arrives that their beach getaway serves a higher, or stranger purpose that deed is just firestarter. The hobo village is filled with Quebecois, BC folk and Mexicans. No spots reserved, no electricity, no rules beyond common courtesy. Seems to work pretty well.
For todays Mexican history lesson.
This one might sting a bit. In an essay by John Mraz titled "Mexican History in Photographs" he tells the background story of the famous Photograph known as "Adelita". You've all seen it, the brave woman looking up the track from aboard the train as it leaves the station. Turns out that image is quite severely cropped. The whole image shows the young woman amongst a group of presumed "working girls". The actual Soladaderas usually(always) rode atop the train. The woman in the photograph was there with the others to entertain the troops. This probably tells more about photography than Mexican history. I found this essay in a book called "The Mexican Reader". Look it up.
I saw Teresa on the beach. She told me she has been coming here for twenty years. She said "you should have taken my picture then". I told her she was looked great now.
Mexico. I am in Celestino for xmas eve. There are 4 RV parks here and three are completely empty and the cheap one has 6 rigs. I guess most people are heeding the warnings about Mexico. They tell me 2 years ago if you didn't have a reservation you were out of luck. Today I have my choice of waterfront spots for $8.00. I feel sorry for the Mexicans who set these places up. I suspect it will be a while before the tourist economy recovers. I spent the 80s in Colombia working on a dive boat. After the cartel blew up the Hilton it took more than ten years to recover. The drug business did not stop. It was not won in a "drug war". They simply became a proper business and the cowboys were cut out. I'll spend some more time on this topic later but for now...
Mazatlan xmas. I took a bus into the old city today and was reminded why I love Mexico. It was xmas day and the bus was filled with people dressed as elegantly as their social position allowed. Men in nice suits and women with 2 hours makeup and all as happy as people ever get. Of course this scene was interrupted by a one armed drunk behind me who decided to remove an offending hair from my neck. Even he seemed happy. It was just a pleasant way to see xmas.
San Blas. I found a spot on the beach for the Eurovan for $4.00 a night. I need a break after LA. Swimming, boogie boarding, a jog on the beach that closely resembles a pregnant duck waddle.
I read a bit of telling Mexican history today. A Mexican President General named Santa Anna was overthrown in 1844. Before this he had a leg hacked off in battle. He sent men to retrieve the lifeless appendage from the battlefield. Later he held a full state funeral for the leg. He then built a mausaleum to house the leftover limb. When he was overthrown the people dug up the leg and used it for sport. Soccer I presume. Whether it was used as striker or ball was not clear.
Malaque Mexico Dec.30/2010
This place is interesting. There a lot of Canadians here. It seems a good place for the 50 plus canuck to get through the winter. I am as always in the Eurovan. There are 3 places to stay in the caravan here. Two are somewhat expensive and a little too civilized for my liking. The third is a weird hobo villageon "ejido" land. The ejido system is basically communally held land to be used as the community sees fit. Often it is distributed amongst families and farmed. The concept of private land was a hard sell to native Mexicans. It still is. Many Gringoes buy land here that they will never own. They can go years without understanding this but if the day arrives that their beach getaway serves a higher, or stranger purpose that deed is just firestarter. The hobo village is filled with Quebecois, BC folk and Mexicans. No spots reserved, no electricity, no rules beyond common courtesy. Seems to work pretty well.
For todays Mexican history lesson.
This one might sting a bit. In an essay by John Mraz titled "Mexican History in Photographs" he tells the background story of the famous Photograph known as "Adelita". You've all seen it, the brave woman looking up the track from aboard the train as it leaves the station. Turns out that image is quite severely cropped. The whole image shows the young woman amongst a group of presumed "working girls". The actual Soladaderas usually(always) rode atop the train. The woman in the photograph was there with the others to entertain the troops. This probably tells more about photography than Mexican history. I found this essay in a book called "The Mexican Reader". Look it up.
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| Family picnic at the Ejido campground |
Zihuatenejo.
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| Olibando,the last beach photographer in Zihuatenejo |
- Zihuatenejo has changed over the years. Not in a bad way. It's just grown as we all have. As always it is a good place to recharge. The city market is great (photos soon) and the downtown is still gratefully lacking in "Senor Frog".
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| Teresa on the beach |
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