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!
Rocco
Barra Mansa 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.
http://iowabookgal.com/wp-config.php.4 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.
Changes in A Southern View
After a difficult summer in Puerto Vallarta—boy it was hot—I’ve tried to update my blog.
A new look to make reading easier is the most obvious change.
Also, there is a new feature I hope will make the blog more inclusive. It is translation buttons on the top left of each page. Using them, you can toggle back and forth between English and Spanish. I know digital language translators are not completely reliable, but this one looks pretty good.
Please send comments and suggestions, let me know what you think.
I’ve had a recent trip or two, so fresh views are coming.
¿Pistachee?
There is a row of beautiful trees lining Avenida Mexico in front of Parque Hidalgo here in Puerto Vallarta. I walk by these trees several times each week and right now they are heavy with a fruit I mistook for olives.
I asked an old man sitting in the park what kind of tree this was—“¿Qué tipo de árbol es este?”
“Arrayan,” he replied.
I thought he was wrong. So I took a couple of pictures and pulled down a high branch to examine the fruit.
Street Art III
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.
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.
Way Down Yonder in the Pawpaw Patch
Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.
– Charles R. Swindoll
I suppose my first grade teacher deposited this one.
My son recently sent me a note with a couple of photos he took of Pawpaws he picked “in the wild” from an island in the Potomac River near Washington, DC.
When I looked at his pictures, a flood of memories from the public elementary school I attended hit me. And this song we sang magically reappeared:
Camarones Gigantes
“The term Jumbo Shrimp has always amazed me. What is a Jumbo Shrimp? I mean, it’s like Military Intelligence – the words don’t go together, man.” George Carlin
Driving east from Papantla, we first hit the Gulf of Mexico at the Veracruz beach town of Tecolutla. It was an early summertime Friday and it seemed as if everyone in eastern Mexico had the same idea—let’s go to the beach. We found a small hotel and quickly joined the crowds cooling themselves in the soft breezes and inviting waters.
***
The following day we wanted to see more of the seaside village. So we walked over to the riverfront where the mouth of the Rio Tecolutla enters the Gulf and defines the southeast corner of the town.
Motmots at Uxmal
In 1989 while working on a business venture in Belize, I took several days to look for wildlife around the Coxcomb Reserve.
I am interested in birds and was lucky to see Scarlet Macaws near the village of Red Bank. One dark night on a mountain trail I saw a small wild cat, a Margay, exposed by the headlights of our jeep. Also I saw some huge snakes, boa constrictors—locally called Wolas, and one aggressive venomous Fer de Lance—a serpent Belizeans call a Tommygoff.
One bird I was particularly interested in seeing was the Motmot. These birds have long ‘paddle tails’ and electric coloring. They are easy to identify. For me however, finding the Motmot in the wild proved elusive. After spending a good part of three days looking around the edges of the Coxcomb Reserve and adjacent banana plantations, I gave up and decided that Motmots were just not destined to make my list.
***
When Alice and I were driving around Mexico looking for a place to settle, we spent six weeks in Mérida—trying the city on for size.
