Batman, the Joker, and Journey to the Center of the Earth

August 10, 2008

I know everybody is saying it, but boy is Heath Ledger good in the new Batman movie.

Omar and I went a couple of weeks ago, and both agree that Heath as the Joker gives an amazing performance.  He is at once repulsive and beguiling, creepy beyond words and funny as all get-out.  The scene where he is dressed in nurse drag, mumbling and lip-smacking and fiddling with a malfunctioning control to blow up a hospital is both nightmarish and hilarious.  Rarely has surrealism worked so well for a character.

The Crisis in Mexico

July 18, 2008

What effects the United States, effects us here in Mexico.

So of course we are in an economic crisis.

Not with gas.  The government is subsidizing gas prices, which are around $2.50 a gallon.  The cost has gone up a little recently, but only by a couple of pennies.  Gringos are still crossing the border to fill up.  Lots of good that does my folks, who live a couple of hours from the border—with Canada.

The real problem is with food.  Corn is a staple here.  We eat tortillas like we ate potatoes in my New York childhood—they appear on the menu almost every day.  Tortillas provide nutrition, round out the menu, and fill you up.  Combined with beans, they provide all the amino acids we require—a complete protein for a population that eats little meat.  Tortillas have always been the food to fall back on when the money runs out in the middle of the week.  Tortillas and beans.  And when things are really tight, folks eat tortillas and hot chile peppers.  And then just tortillas.

Bruno the Kitten--Vets in Mexico

Bruno the Kitten has needed the visit the vet's several times recently, and we wanted to take this opportunity to talk about veternarians and animal care here in Mexico.

Read Bruno's story and please send us kind thoughts for her speedy recovery--she's a very brave little girl.

Sites to Watch:  Mexico Cooks!

July 17, 2008

Boy do I have a site for you.

365Mexico readers know that food is pretty much central to our lives, and that Mexican food is at the top of our list.  We often post on restaurants we like and dishes we recommend.

A while back we got a note from Cristina at Mexico Cooks!, inviting us to take a gander at her website, which she describes as “Mexico: A Culinary Travelogue, An Adventure for the Palate, Mind and Spirit.”

Well.  We would be green with envy if Cristina wasn’t so friendly and knowledgeable.  Mexico Cooks! has fast become one of our favorite sites.  If you are deeply interested in Mexican food and travel, it is a wonderful resource.

Cristina has lived in Mexico for going on 30 years, so she knows her way around.  Along with cooking she is interested in Mexican history and folklore and festivals, and she gives private tours that go far off the tourist route.

Her stories are interesting and her photos are really wonderful. 

We think Mexico Cooks! is a great companion site to 365Mexico—check it out, and tell them Dan and Omar sent you!

 

Tornados in Mexico?

July 9, 2008

We are in rainy season, and loving it.  After last year’s measly attempt at rain, this year we are really getting our share.  Chapala is full, for the first time in ages.  There are floods, of course, but they put in new drainage along our long road to civilization, and now rarely is it below water, and then only for short stretches.

But there’s always something, isn’t there.

Omar mentioned a while back that he had seen what looked to be a tornado forming in the clouds.  He was driving.  It was far away.  I was, well—skeptical.

We don’t have tornados in Mexico.  This isn’t Kansas.  We don’t have the right conditions, they say.

Well, evidently we do, since global warming kicked in.  About an hour ago Omar said “There’s another one.”  And sure enough, in the valley below our house was a small funnel sticking down from the clouds.  It came and went for a half hour and was gone.  It didn’t touch ground.

I’ve mentioned our dust devils, which were particularly strong this year.  They appear in clear weather on hot days.  This was not a dust devil.

So tell us, experts out there—is this what a really small tornado looks like?

Dan and Omar

How to Learn Spanish

June 30, 2008

So many people write.  They know that their trip to Latin America will be richer and more meaningful if they can speak Spanish with their hosts, but they are finding the learning an uphill battle.

Or they are moving to Mexico, and even though they might be living in Ajijic or San Miguel Allende where most people speak English, they realize they are missing a big part of the experience if you can only talk to other ex-pats and fluent Mexicans.

What do you do?  What is the best (which usually means “easiest”) way to learn Spanish if you’re not a native?

Here it is.

Start early, preferably at two years old, before the language-learning center of your brain has fossilized, and practice, practice, practice.

Swearing in Mexico—One More Time

June 30, 2008

One more item you need to know about swearing in Mexico.  It isn’t swearing, exactly, it’s more a tune or a ditty.

When you knock on your neighbor’s door, do you tap out the old, familiar “Shave and a haircut, two bits?”

Don’t try it here.

Now, this is a family site so I’m not going to reveal what the words to the tune are in Spanish.  Just let me tell you that it suggests what you might do one day with, say, your mother.

Better not go there.

You know, we need a video camera.  Then Omar and I could do a course in Mexican gestures.  It is a rich vocabulary, and some of them can even be used in polite company.

Dan and Omar

Blackout!

June 28, 2008

I am writing from the murky world of pre-Internet.

Sunday night we had a blackout.  We lit candles and talked, and finally blew them out and went to bed.  The ‘fridge started back up sometime in the early morning, and I rolled over and went back to sleep.  All’s well.

By daylight Monday the lights were out again—and the water.  It hardly seems fair to be denied two services at once, but there you are.

I spent the day doing quaint non-electricity things, like cleaning house.  It was educational and primitive and kind of fun.  By evening, both water and electric were back—but no phone or Internet.

What’s the use of electricity if you can’t have Internet?

I waited, and checked, and re-hooked up all the Internet wires.  Maybe I loosened one of them with the broom.  The last time I’ll be sweeping…

Two days later I was frantic enough to walk an hour and a half (ok, that’s round trip, but still) to the Megacable office, where they told me my phone and Internet are off, and what I can do about it is keep checking to see when they come back on.  I thanked them warmly.

It is now Saturday.  Houses a block away have service.  I have Internet envy.  We went to another Megacable office, and they said they would report my complaint on Monday.

Ah, patience.  I’ve learned a lot of it living in Mexico.  But this really hits home.  I have auctions running I can’t check, people writing I can’t answer, and the Times is getting stale.  Omar can’t call home from work, and I’m out of touch with Ma.

As a foreigner living outside my country, I depend on the phone and Internet perhaps more than most to keep me informed and in contact with the world.

It will get fixed.  I will be connected again.  I went to an Internet café and wrote 20 letters explaining we’re down for a bit, and feel a little better now that folks know I’m not ignoring them or something, like dead.

I’ve been trying to get Ma by cell phone the past few days, and no answer.  I know things are fine at home, but when a week goes by and no one can get in touch with me, I’m concerned.

It was Ma’s note I read first at the Cyber—“All’s fine.  Kyle has a hockey game in Rochester.  Will be back maybe Monday.”

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

How did we do it in the distant past?   When I first started traveling, I called home once a month.  Sometimes.  I had to go to a phone office and stand in line to give a woman the number I wanted dialed.  When Mom picked up, maybe ten minutes later, there would be general shouting and motioning and pointing, and I would run into a numbered booth and listen to clicks and whirs until the familiar voice came across the line—“Alright, where are you?  Just the continent is fine…”

And the prices.  For a while we were paying $4 a minute.  That’s $40 for ten minutes, which passes in like 40 seconds.  I could fly round trip for the price of a 90 minute phone call.  We were reduced to talking in telegramese—“Is everyone ok?  I’m ok.  San Jose.  No not California—Costa Rica.  Mail?  Not important.  Not important.  Pay it, please.  It’s hot.  Still snowing?  Love you bye. 

$40.

So today I’m disconnected and frustrated.  Re frustrated (re is the cool way to say ‘very’—pronounced ‘ray’).  But you know what?   In a few days I will have phone and 3 mega Internet again, and can call the states for 20 cents a minute (!).

And I’ll be able to post to 365 again.

Note:  It is now Monday and I am posting from Ceci and Pablo’s.  Megacable promises they will come to the house sometime between Monday and Wednesday and I have to wait at home.  I'm practicing swearing in Spanish...

Dan and Omar

Birria—Glorious Goat Stew

June 19, 2008

It’s hard to believe anything with a goat in it can be glorious, but that’s the only word for birria.  If you haven’t eaten our bearded barnyard buddy, you haven’t lived.

It’s not too surprising that in some parts we don’t eat goat.  When I lived in Upstate New York all I knew was that they like to head butt, they have funny looking pupils, and—if the cartoons are to be believed—they like to dine on clothes lines and tin cans.  Oh—and they live on the sides of cliffs.

My Dad grew up in rural Ohio before electricity and indoor toilets came through, and if he ever went too long without a shower he would make a face and say “I smell like an old goat.”

No wonder I wanted nothing to do with the animal, much less eat it.

Well, times change.

In northern Mexico they make chivo tatemado.  The entire, cleaned goat is splayed on a board and leaned over a bonfire until it is golden brown.  The resulting meat is crusty on the outside and juicy on the inside.  There are no big cuts on an animal the size of a goat, so your order will either feature shredded meat picked from the nooks and crannies of the skeleton, or will be still attached to rib bones and joints.  It is good, greasy, finger-licking food for the adventuresome carnivore.