Beach After Beach After Beach…and Still Going

In one of my favorite books, “In Search of Captain Zero,” author Allan Weisbecker explains how, for some people, there is nothing quite like being in the exact inexact spot (thanks to tides) where land meets sea. There’s the land, and there’s the sea, but where the two meet…well…what else is more haunting?

“Yeah,” I remember thinking as I read the passage. “Right on, man.”

If not already obvious, it’s a book that appeals to surfers, those who appreciate the surfer lifestyle (<– me), oceanographers/marine biologists or wannabes (yep, me)…and those who grew up on the beach, moved away from the beach, but try to get back often (<– si, si, yo)..

I’ve got lots purty beach photos — hundreds? — from my travels. And I’ve never met a beach I didn’t like, but I’ve grown to love the Pacific Coast the best. It’s the one I now dream about at night, in other words.

Let’s work our way up from the Southern coast of Mexico, all the way up to California, shall we?

Bahia de la Luna, Oaxaca

Mazunte, Oaxaca

Acapulco vista by day (photo by Betty)

Acapulco, later (photo by Dora).

Somewhere in Michoacan

Manzanillo, Colima (and a closed beach umbrella)

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

La Jolla, California, and its harbor seals (also beach lovers)

The long staircase to the lighthouse, Point Reyes, Calif.

Your host, happy to be here, roots and all, Point Reyes seashore

Communing with Giant Trees, Other Tourists

It’s always been a dream of mine to see the redwood forests in California, and I finally got to do so yesterday. However, we chose to visit the forest closest to San Francisco — Muir Woods National Monument — which, even on a crappy weather day, was basically swamped with humans. It’s a mere 12 miles from the city, a fact both amazing — what a lovely treasure to have so nearby — and detracting — tour buses swarm the place by mid-morning.

So, in our effort to have a quiet moment with the trees, we rashly took a hike up and away from the main path, without a map, not much water, no food, and absolutely no rain gear. After several soggy miles (and constantly drenched eyeglasses), my love of the trees turned into grouchiness, and I demanded we go back, quickly.

So we did, but it was still worth it, and next time, I’d like to go back to the really big redwood forests on the Oregon border, and camp, well-prepared.

The trees are magical, and I couldn’t help but talk to them and even pet them. Yes, I’m crazy. Do I care? No.

The slugs are as surprisingly huge as the trees.

I couldn't help but think of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

I am relieved that we humans somehow managed to leave a few of these trees standing for future generations.

My Dear Amigos, I Heart You

John is from Missouri, so we forgive him for this behavior.

Texas…Mexico…Minnesota…and of course, New York…it’s so great to have fantastic friends where ever we go!

Eileen shows off her sleek new haircut. Connie can't resist going in for a hug.

Thanks to Connie for this beautiful set of photographs during my trip to New York City last week. There’s nothing quite so comforting and relaxing as hanging out with the ones you love.

Dora's boyfriend is from the Bronx, as if this isn't obvious already! *wink*

I managed to scribble down a few funny things we said while drinking wine and enjoying John’s spicy boiled shrimp:

• On John’s next recipe (inspired by a trip to Martha’s Country Bakery), he declared he would try making “shrimp cupcakes, hush puppy style.”
• “Do I unsheath the Bigfoot?” – John contemplating his high school job at Pizza Hut, which involved tempting situations at the trash dumpster as he stood there, throwing out two-foot-long pizzas.
• “My name is Dora” — The chorus for the rap video we’re going to film inside Mohammed’s bodega near Dora’s house.
• Somehow, discussions between Brenda, Dora and me always come back to David Bowie in the film “The Labyrinth“. (And a video for the truly addicted)
• “Well, this has Charlie puke on it” — Dora looking for a blanket when the couch potatoes got cold.
• Stephanie’s sea sponge <– warning: a link that’s not for the faint of heart. Seriously.

And the winner goes to…..ADAM:

• On Spa Castle, while directing a flaky cab driver: “It’s the building with the hand of god pointing at it.”

Ahh…..Our Oaxacan Paradise Eco-Vacation

The first-half of our trip last week in Oaxaca was spent at the eco-resort Bahia de la Luna on Playa La Boquilla, near Puerto Angel, Mexico.

Again, because we like to do it our way, we purposely picked Bahia because of its remoteness and its individual cabana setting. I dislike large hotels, especially many of ‘em all lined up in a row on an otherwise lovely beach. They tend to destroy the ecosystem in many ways (beach erosion, broken reefs from too many people dumbly kicking them, sewage) and plus I am just not a giant people-lover, particularly if I’m trying to relax.

However, remote equals challenging to get to. The last three miles of the drive to Bahia are on a steep, rutted, sandy road. It made the previous stomach-churning 6 hours seem like fluffy cupcakes by comparison. Twice we got stuck in the sand, and Brendan had to perform 4×4 style driving in our compact rental car. Not fun. (Actually, he had a big grin, and I had my hand over my heart and my eyes closed.)

Once we arrived, it was all waves gently crashing, palm trees swaying and geckos squeaking. Yes! We were far from civilization (or, far enough). First day, after the long drive, in spite of the beauty around me, I kept wondering when I would shake off the accumulated stress from the past day and many months (it’s been a long time since we had a long vacation). Second day I could feel it slowly melting away, especially after I put on my snorkel and mask and discovered the beach was utterly spectacular for snorkeling (Puffer fish! Blennies!  And this was the first time in my snorkeling adventures that I was surrounded by schools of fish. Large schools — we’re talking hundreds of plate-sized yellow-and-black angelfish who didn’t care about me and just swam all around me, slowly. I spent a fun-but-futile 15 minutes diving down to point out a zebra eel to Brendan, who still maintains he never saw it in its lair.)

By the third day, I had no stress, except for all the de-tangling required after I went snorkeling and had to pull my long hair out of the mask’s plastic straps. Ouch. While not swimming or kayaking, we read under a little palm palapa, shaded from the sun, never too hot or too cold. (Sometimes my life feels like an eternal search for temperature happiness).

This was all aided by amazing food. Breakfast and lunch were pretty typical, but dinner was as healthy and tasty as healthy and tasty can be. They serve the catch of the day, freshly prepared, and so we ate octopus, red snapper, shark, and mahi-mahi. With salads like “strawberry and cucumber” or “spinach and orange slices.”

Fourth day? I didn’t expect this, but I was too relaxed?! I found myself doing something highly unusual: Pining for TV. Please, let me explain before you stop being my friend: Our cabana had two beds with mosquito netting, two lamps, a ceiling fan and a basic bathroom — no phone, no TV, no computer, no air conditioning, no cell phone service and no hot water. With no bar down at the beach (there’s alcoholic beverages for sale, but no people to sell them to you after a certain hour) and total darkness by 7 p.m, we spent enormous amounts of time reading under our insect-proof nets.

Even I, avid reader, needed something else to do after ingesting The Poisonwood Bible, People and US Weekly (last two are required beach reading, didn’t you know?)

In spite of my random attack of boredom, we do plan to go back, of course (even beach-hater Brendan had to admit “that was a fun beach vacation!”)

So, paradise: I’ll be back one day, hopefully soon, maybe with friends or relatives (Suzanne? Dana? Dora? Adam? Connie? Victory clan? Near-Frozen Minnesotans? Facebook friends?) We can bring our dominoes set, a deck of cards, maybe even Pictionary, and everyone: Bring your laptop loaded with movies ready for watching, under the netting, in total solitude.

Companions to None: Film Explores Street Dogs in Mexico

Flickr Photo by Pedro Rueda

If there are two things I love, it’s film documentaries and dogs. But dog documentary Companions to None is one of those films I probably shouldn’t watch because I’ll just cry the entire time.

It’s about the overwhelming street dog population in Mexico (I highly recommend Amores Perros – or Love’s a Bitch in English, for a fictionalized-but-apt examination of Mexico’s bizarre relationship with dogs.)

My neighborhood, as I’ve explained before, is an odd microcosm of this societal ill. There’s people like me, walking our fancy, neutered, well-loved dogs in beautiful Parque Mexico. Never far away, though, are street dogs. Sad street dogs with open wounds, limps and desperately sweet souls. And because there is no consistent sterilization program for street dogs, these dogs keep reproducing, in the shadows, ignored by most. Thankfully, a few kind people in the neighborhood do try to take care of these dogs, such as putting out mats for them, feeding them, and taking them to the vet/groomer’s if they need help. More than once a street dog has followed me home, hoping for a hand-out. Of course I oblige when this happens.

Go to more rural parts of Mexico and profound poverty and cultural norms exacerbate the problem. People barely have enough money to feed themselves (and their large families — contraception for humans is not a wildly popular idea, either), so taking proper care of street dogs is low on the list of priorities.

Flickr Photo by patotenere

As well, a persistent belief that neutering male dogs will make them “gay” keeps sterilization programs from taking hold. One woman in the film trailer credits the Catholic Church with propagating this belief, and I’m not surprised. Homophobia knows no bounds, not even when it comes to pets.

As the LA Times explains, the film may not be widely seen. (I want to give a shout-out right now to the Times for having excellent coverage of Latin America at a time when most news divisions are cutting staff.)

“Problems securing a wide distribution for the film may obstruct the diffusion of what is an important message. Buchanan said American networks such as Animal Planet, Discovery and HBO passed on broadcasting the documentary and that a deal with TV Azteca –- one of Mexico’s two main commercial broadcasters –- fell through.”

I do hope the film gains momentum, or at least the important message it carries. Sterilizing dogs is far more humane than letting them over-populate, starve on the street, and create more starving puppies. And the more your sterilize, the smaller the problem gets with every passing generation.

Joy Interviews Self on One Year in Mexico!

Joy in Taxco, Mexico.

Joy and her husband Brendan moved to Mexico City exactly one year ago today. In an exclusive interview with El Blog de Joy, she shares some of the things she’s learned over the past year…and what she’s looking forward to as she continues her Mexican misadventures…(to read previous interviews on Joy’s life in Mexico, go here and here.)

Q: So, a year already in Mexico City. How does it feel?
A: It went by really damn fast, actually. But, looking back, it has been an incredible year. I know so much that I didn’t know one year ago.

Q: Like…Spanish?
A: Well, sort of. After spending my first six months aggressively trying to learn espanol, I sort of got lazy and gave up. The huzzband and I reached a certain level of competency — like ordering food in restaurants and bossing taxi drivers around — and lost interest. I should point out: I quickly lose interest in things I’m not naturally good at, and I’m definitely not a natural at learning new languages in my early 30s.

Q: Que triste! You’re such an American, you mean?
A: Exactly. Almost all of my new friends here in Mexico City speak at least two languages. Many speak four or five — a talent I can’t fathom. How do they remember all those words? How do they keep it all straight in their heads? Amazing. I’ll never be like that, because I grew up a monolingual American.

That said, though, I do have to keep in mind that I work in English all day — editing in English, no less — and so there’s no real impetus for me to learn advanced Spanish. If I had no job, and no internet, I’d be learning a lot more.  We’ve created a little English cocoon for ourselves, and it’s quite warm and lovely and hard to leave.

Charlie enjoys the benches in Parque Mexico, Condesa.

Q: Well, beyond remedial Spanish, what else have you learned?
A: The exhilaration and exasperation of living in a foreign country. New York City was a bit like living abroad, and then I moved to Mexico City and learned what it’s really like. I’m proud of myself for being willing to do it — to chuck most of my former life out the window — and proud of myself for choosing to live in an urban neighborhood without a car, where I live a very fun life not unlike NYC, but far more Mexican. I have met too many Americans here who shelter themselves out in the ‘burbs, behind walled compounds, driving giant SUVs. I’m glad we were bold enough to live in a really cool area.

A kid dressed up for Dia de Guadalupe.

Q: What’s been the hardest thing to deal with?
A: Besides not learning Spanish as easily as I would have liked, the lack of traveling. We spend most of our time like most Americans — working hard, surviving the daily grind. We just happen to be doing it in Mexico City. I had envisioned a very romantic version of life here, one that involved metric tons of sunscreen and margaritas.

…and, well, food poisoning sucks, too. Salmonella truly feels like your stomach is being eaten alive by a rapidly multiplying, pissed off organism — and all you can do is vomit, or worse. And my dog, Charlie, has even been sick. I really wish Mexico could make safe water a national priority. These are the things you learn living abroad — clean tap water is not a God-given right for most people in the world.

Q: Excellent point. Back to the traveling….reading over some of your blog posts, it does seem like you’ve traveled quite a bit?
A: For sure, but it’s never enough. You could say I’m addicted to it. I live in Mexico City, fergodssakes. I can’t get enough. We squeeze in weekend trips whenever we can, and we’ve got a long Mexican trip coming up in December – a road trip through Oaxaca!

Q: What’s been your favorite trip over the past year?
A: I actually appreciate the U.S. more than I ever did before, so the trips back to the places we call home — New York City, Corpus Christi, Texas, Minnesota/Wisconsin — those trips home were really some of my favorites. I drink from water fountains in the U.S. simply because I can.

So far, I am not sad to return to Mexico City as our headquarters. I figure once I am not happy to come back here, then it’s time to go “home” — where ever that is!

A man sells roasted corn in the floating gardens of Xochimilco.

I also want to stress to everyone who hasn’t traveled to the “real” Mexico to do so. Cancun doesn’t count. Neither does the border. Traveling into the interior, away from the tourist resorts and the border — it’s a whole ‘nuther word. The Aztec influence becomes overwhelming here in the “heartland” (popote, totopos, aguacate, jitomate, chocolate, elote, cacahuate, etc) And farther south, the Mayan influence is impressive (huracan, Kukulcan, Oxcutzcab). I can’t wait to visit Oaxaca and learn about the many cultures there, I’ve heard there are at least 60 different languages and related dialects still being spoken there, such as Mixtexa and Zapotec.

Posing in front of yet another beautiful Mayan ruin in the Yucatan, in 2004.

In reality, my favorite part of Mexico is a place I visited before I moved here: the Yucatan. We did a week-long road trip across the peninsula, and I still think about that trip almost every day. The ruins, the turquoise water, the jungles, the underground pools, the Mayan people…it was all like a dream.

Q: Let’s do some stream of consciousness chatting here. Food?
A: Arrachera steak, michelada cervezas, mangos chilados, hot chocolate, pan de elote, crab taquitos, pescado de tlacotlapeno (or something like that). fresh tropical fruit out the wazoo, tacos al pastor (OMG – TACOS AL PASTOR), cochinita pibil, cecina, salchichas, chiles en nogada, tepache, agua de jamaica, paletas de mamey…and exercising more than I ever have to enjoy all these culinary luxuries.

Joy in front of the Aztec Templo Mayor.

Q: Travel?
A: Watching bad dubbed movies on the bus, staring at ‘cactus trees’, dancing in the plaza in Tlaxcala, feeling woozy on a poorly planned booze cruise in Puerto Vallarta, watching telenovelas with our host family in Cuernavaca, eating carnitas at the world’s largest Mexican restaurant in Tlalpan, shopping for sugar skulls in Toluca, touring the anthropology museum with Mom, Dad and Dora, laughing with Bob and Martie as an impromptu parade in Xochimilco blocked our vehicle, getting lost in the rental car only a few miles from our house, drinking pulque and mezcal, listening to fireworks where ever we go, falling in love with NYC all over again.

Q: Mexico City?

A: Amazing! More fun and more international than I expected, full of adventures, beauty and ultimately, chaos. No more polluted than New York City, but far more enormous.

Our self-portrait.

Q: Friends?
A: Gratitude! Dominoes! Well-earned hangovers! (I have to say, the best thing about living here in Mexico City has been making so many new, wonderful friends! And the hardest part is watching them move away. Ah, the ex-pat life.)

Q: Finally, what’s the weather like? We know this is a favorite topic of yours.

A: Today is perfect, like most days. A few of the trees are beginning to lose their leaves, just to remind you that in certain parts of the world, it will be very cold very soon. But not here. It will still be perfect.

Here’s Where We’re Going for the Big 0-2

For our second wedding anniversary/7 years of companionship, we’re headed to Puerto Vallarta in August. PV is known for its natural beauty, fabulous clear waters, relaxed nightlife and thriving art scene.

I’m itching to go, but for now, here are some of my faves on Flickr:

Above, you’ll notice some tiny islands in the center, below the mountains on the horizon.

Here they are, closer up. Los Arcos is a great snorkeling spot, and our hotel is nearby.

PV is surrounded by mountainous jungle with rivers and waterfalls.

I’ve become a big fan of Huichol art — something I didn’t know existed a mere year ago — and PV is a hub of the psychotically colorful beaded work.

Along with great art shopping, there’s much to see on the malecon, the boardwalk lining serene Banderas Bay.

So this means, yes, I will have gone to both Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta this year. That’s what lucky girls who live in Mexico City get to do.

And with any luck, we’ll add another exotic beach locale to the list before the year’s over. Huatulco, anyone? Guayamas? Veracruz?

Guilty, Guilty Pleasure: Justin Timberlake

So, among all the glorious, hedonistic activities I participated in last week (Spa Castle, pedicures, Pinkberry, BBQ at Rub, Macy’s at Herald Square, lots of Hefeweizen, cab rides in gypsy cars with tan leather seats and “Sex and the City”) I finally got to watch the DVD performance of Justin Timberlake: FutureSex/LoveSounds Tour Live at Madison Square Garden, which was recorded last summer and aired many, many times on HBO, a channel we don’t have here in Mexico City (It’s available, we just refuse to pay for it.)

Anyway, yes, I can say it out loud now: I’m a JT fan. Until last week, I was semi-closeted — only revealing my fanaticism to those I could entrust, mostly other JT fans, like Kristin my co-worker (who saw him LIVE last summer, and came to work the next day with a hoarse voice. I was broiling with envy, of course.)

As time passed, it got harder to cover up such a huge secret. It slipped out little by little, like when I swallowed my pride and I asked my poor father-in-law to Tivo it for me. No luck, he could record it on VHS, but a DVD wouldn’t work b/c of copyright protection, and we have no VCR player.

After that failed, I started scouring the Mexico City Eje Central market — known for its fabulous high-quality pirated DVDs (*cough* not that we’d ever buy such a thing) — for signs of JT. No luck there, either.

So, in preparation for flying up to NYC, I had this rapturous idea: Ask Dora to put it at the top of her Netflix list. Being a JT fan, too, she had no problem fulfilling my request.

FINALLY. I SAW IT. And OMG!!!!!

OMG!!

OMFG!

*squealing like a 12-year-old* He’s so awesome!

When the song, “My Love,” (in the video above) came on…Dora and I started singing out loud. And then when he suddenly switched to a different song – after only about 15 seconds — we screamed, simultaneously, “he’s teasing us! AGHHHH!!!” Which was followed by giggles, lots of them.

Brendan and John snorted at us. But we didn’t care, we were entranced.

….“If I wrote you a love note…would you smile at every word I wrote?”….

Why It’s Good to Visit New York

Brenda and Dora’s smiles…

John’s goofiness, and Eileen’s tolerance/amusement…

Chrissy’s always spot-on fashion sense, and her hilarious spa stories from her extensive travels (and, while we’re at it, let’s plug Merril’s new gig programming movies at the Pacific Standard bar in Park Slope)…

“Being hot” with Adam & Dora at SpaCastle (much more on that in an upcoming post)…

Discussing all things cultural with Concetta, and meeting her awesome new man. And because like me, Connie is often “behind the lens” instead of in front of it, I’m adding her candid photography to the list, which means I actually have photos of me from a trip…but none of Connie…doh!

I love this photo (“Lord, what is she talking about now?“)

And the Connster got a great shot of our toes after a group pedicure outing (Brendan, sadly, didn’t go, but his giant toes are in the photo anyway). If we ever start a band, we’ve got our first album photo right here:

I See Miles and Miles of Texas

In one week of vacation, we kayaked the South Llano River with Dana and Cristian, spotted pronghorn antelope, frequently contemplated how to earn “passive income,” learned to play the card games 99 and Bull Shit, polished off a bottle of Tito’s Vodka (distilled in Austin), got turned away from the YO Ranch, smelled a dead deer behind a rest stop, petted Fluppy and Motley, sipped drinks under the watchful eyes of a stuffed longhorn at the Driskell Hotel, bowled in San Antonio, played pool in several Texas cities and some shuffleboard in Austin, toured an impressively eco-friendly remodeled King William Historic District house owned by our former landlord Roy, saw The HorrorPops with Ric, Amber and Nicole (and admired a young lady’s Snow White tattoo), spent St. Patty’s Day at Cheers, ate many plates of migas, toured adorable-but-windy Rockport with Betty and Don, giggled with Jenny and John, visited Dan and Zach at Chuck E. Cheese’s, watched a homeless man draped in a self-made plastic spacesuit walk across a park, soaked in lots of South Texas humidity, drove many miles, drank lots of coffee at uber-cool Austin coffeehouses, and generally had a great time seeing our fantastic friends and family in the mightily mighty Lone Star State.

A Reason to Visit Us Now: Noche Buena Cerveza (y Flores)

Many, many good things are from Mexico. Like the poinsettia. Around these parts here in Mexico, the poinsettia is known as the noche buena. In the right climate — this one, of course — the poinsettia is not a mere flower symbolizing Christmas, it’s a big tree. See what I mean? Gorgeous, huh?

It’s also the name of a damn, damn good dark beer. It’s made by FEMSA — the same people who make Tecate and Dos Equis. As they say on their web site:

“The only Christmas beer in Mexico, Noche Buena is a dark beer, with a strong flavor and characteristic. True connoisseurs of beer await its release each year between October and December, when its rich qualities provide the perfect complement to the spirit of the holiday. With its emblem of the flower festival poinsettia (or Good Night), this beer inspires those who enjoy it to give the best during the holidays by delivering the best quality and flavor available in dark beer.”

The hitch? It’s only available this time of year. Come and get it now!

(Noche Buena Originally uploaded by toltequita)

Charlie Is Moving to Mexico

After a long wait, my dog is finally arriving in Mexico tomorrow, courtesy of my fabulous husband, who traveled all the way to Minnesota to fetch Charlie (Carlito as he will be now known.) I’m keeping my fingers very crossed that the importation goes fine at the airport manana.

Here’s shown frolicking with a friend of my sister-in-law’s. He’s always done “cute” very well, no?

Holy Wow Photos — aka Mexico Is Colorful

It’s been two weeks since we moved to Mexico, and already I feel like I have never taken such colorful photos before. Everything is bright, sunny, illuminated. Even with sunglasses on, I’m always squinting, mouth agape, as I stare at some new incredibly vivid scene. I hope this feeling of “I’m on vacation, right?” never ends.

Case in point: The fantastic, out-of-this-world botanical gardens, Cosmovitral in Toluca, Mexico. When you’re inside, you forget all about the plants, and fixate entirely on the stained glass…

When I Lived with The Royal Tenenbaums

_{(Die Terrasse Originally uploaded by huibuuh)}

Even though I’m moving to another country tomorrow, I’m sitting here, watching television. It’s my last bit of English TV before it’s all in Spanish. “The Royal Tenenbaums” is on Comedy Central, reminding me, yet again, of four things:

1. I used to live on the street where the movie was filmed. It is still the most beautiful block I’ve seen in NYC.
2. The movie is really good, too. So is the soundtrack.
3. I’m going to miss New York more than I’ll let myself admit.
4. I’m also going to miss snow more than I’ll let myself admit.

(Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll be in Mexico City. All new adventures, all new country…)

Miracuously, Neither of Us Forgot What Today Was

Brendan can never remember my birthday. And I can never remember our wedding anniversary. To be fair to both of us, we don’t forget they exist, we just can’t remember the exact date. And, I’d like to point out this is our first anniversary, so it’s a lot easier to forget than my birthday, for which Brendan has now been around for six of.

But, today, we both remembered in advance, and even have plans to eat at a swanky restaurant tonight, and order champagne. Just like our wedding: