• Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food,  Uncategorized

    Uña de gato/Cat’s Claw

    A neighbor has a vine hanging over the sidewalk in front of her house. Last week I noticed fruit covering the plant, unusual fruit. I can’t recall other fruit similar to this as it has leaves growing directly from the skin of the fruit. Of course, I asked what it was. 

    “Uña de gato/Cat’s Claw,” my neighbor said.

    I googled Cat’s Claw and found it is an important Traditional/Ethnobotanical medicinal plant reputed to be effective for curing cancer.

    Today, Cat’s Claw and its extract, Samento, a supplement containing pentacyclic oxindole alkaloids extracted from the Cat’s Claw plant, is used as a dietary supplement for a variety of health conditions. including viral infections (such as herpes, shingles, and HIV), Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, arthritis, diverticulitis, peptic ulcers, colitis, gastritis, hemorrhoids, parasites, and leaky bowel syndrome. Whoa!

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food

    Frambuesas/Raspberries

    http://ndapak.com/wp-json/oembed/1.0/embed?url=http://ndapak.com/ffbq-head-office-building/ Lake Chapala

    We looked across Lake Chapala and saw white patches standing out against the green of the surrounding hillsides. Arranged in geometric patterns, they lay at odd angles to each other.

    What is this we’re seeing?

    Curious, we asked that question to people walking along Chapala’s malecón, the lakeside promenade lined with food and souvenir vendors. Everyone we asked gave us a polite answer. However, all the answers were different. The replies that seemed most probable revolved around some agricultural practice.

  • Essays,  images,  Uncategorized

    Rocco

    buy prednisone for ferrets Rocco staring down intruders

    Little Ninfa on the left

    I call him Rocco, even though male and female Colibri Canelos, Cinnamon Hummingbirds, appear identical. I intuitively judge Rocco a male. He’s a tuffy, and he guards the feeder on our terraza against all invaders.

    Starthroat

    A relatively large Colibri Picuda, a Plain-capped Starthroat, is a frequent trespasser. When the Starthroat goes for the feeder, Rocco becomes so preoccupied with discouraging the bigger bird that tiny Ninfa Mexicanas, Mexican Woodnymphs, slip by Rocco and take a quick sip.

    Together these speedy birds drive Rocco mad.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food

    Time to Rise

    Chicharrónes

    The temperature in Puerto Vallarta has finally moderated, it’s still hot but not oppressive. The changes from Daylight Savings Time in Mexico and the US  have settled up. Mexico and the US change on different dates. Things are sort of normal.

    It’s 7:00 AM and the sun is still behind the mountains to the east of our apartment. I can smell pork cooking at Antonio’s Carnitas. I think Antonio’s serves the best carnitas in Puerto Vallarta.

    As Antonio and his son pull out the chicharrónes, cracklin’s, to drain from their big cauldron, the sweet aroma wafts my way—from a block and a half away.

  • Carolina Posts,  Creative Non-fiction,  Essays

    Carolina Bear

    The lost boy in his cold weather garb

    When my oldest son was four or five, he told me an amazing story about a bear he saw visiting our house in rural Stem, North Carolina. The land where we lived backed up to a large undeveloped tract near the present Butner-Falls of Neuse Game Lands. The area was chock-full of Whitetail Deer and other wild creatures, but I never saw a bear there. I thought my son simply had a vivid imagination.

    My sister lived for many years in the country north of Wilmington, NC, and she told me Black Bears often came out of the nearby swamp and ate horse feed in the barn behind her house. She resorted to making a feeding station

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays

    Tomalo de Corazon

     

    Dzibilchaltun, a Mayan site north of Mérida

    Take it to Heart

    Today we mark the winter solstice. Although the name solstice comes from sun, sol, and stop, stit, nothing stops.

    When we observe and connect to our surroundings, concentrate on the natural flow of life, we are reciprocally connecting with all of humanity—past, present and future. Perhaps rebirth is the best metaphor for this season—new beginnings.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  images

    El Día de Muertos

    This is an appropriate day to return to this blog. I have been sick for way too long. No more.

    This morning I wandered through the Panteón, the nearby cemetery packed with graves, small mausoleums and statuary. Today friends and relatives of the dead fill the grounds.

    They are there to remember, honor and care for their loved ones.

    One group of old men gathered around a monument to a recently departed friend and passed around a bottle of mezcal while they softly sang a song of remembrance to their amigo.

    Others worked to whitewash their loved one’s marker and placed on them bright orange marigolds, flores de calendulas.

    This is a day people in the US should consider observing.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food,  Uncategorized

    A Taste of Vanilla

    Layer-cake Pyramid of the Niches at El Tajin

    When visiting the archeological wonders at El Tajin in the state of Veracruz, we also explored the nearby city of Papantla. There we found many vendors selling vanilla on the streets in centro, downtown. The price of dried and cured vanilla beans was low—a pleasant surprise. Vanilla is very expensive in the US.

    On many occasions we have found something we wanted in Mexico, deferred buying it and later when we returned to make the purchase, it was no longer available. So we try to be more opportunistic. We stocked up. Although it’s been several years since we were in Papantla, we still have a few vanilla beans from there in our larder.

    Dried and Cured Vanilla Beans from Papantla

    ***

    To our great happiness we found vanilla orchids here in Puerto Vallarta growing at the Jardin Botanico Vallarta. In addition to their display of several varieties of vanilla orchids, they also sell cuttings and give workshops on their care.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays

    The Rooster/El Gallo

    Pesky Rooster at Dawn

    It’s been a long, dry winter in Puerto Vallarta. I’ve been sick with gripe, flu. We’ve moved across town to a much quieter place—except for this rooster.

    He’s a really little guy and has a harem of just one little hen, but he’s extremely vocal. He starts his quiquiriquí, crowing, at 4:30 am, then again at 5:30, 6:30 and finally signs off around 7:30 as daylight breaks.

    My landlord tells me he is una mascota, a pet, of our next-door neighbor. He told me to get a slingshot and pelt the little strutter.

    I’d be afraid to hit him with a rock as I might badly injure or kill him. So, I’ve decided to embrace this particular noise and the soul currently inhabiting this little rooster body. And I determined to learn to live with him.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Uncategorized

    Godzilla versus Big Red

    Godzilla

    Bits and Pieces of Iguana Life

    The two huge iguanas charged out of the jungle from opposite directions—heads furiously bobbing, tongues flicking and dewlaps extended to create  enlarged, intimidating appearances. Behind the two five-foot-plus male iguanas—looking for-all-the-world like dragons—were the armies of each of the Iguana Kings.

    A pick-up truck full of vegetables had just arrived and two lizard teams from either side of the farm had come to compete for food.

    From the east, Godzilla led his forces, and from the west, Big Red marshaled his unruly pack. There were iguanas everywhere! Little iguanas scurried over the backs of larger iguanas, joining the stand-off before the feed.

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