• Creative Non-fiction

    Edward James’ Fantasy Life

    June 6th I made a guest post on  fabiolaofmexico ‘s blog, My heart of Mexico. Thank you Fabiola I love your blog.

    One interesting comment to Fabiola’s blog about my post was from another blogger, La Potosina, pointing out a video from her blog of the Fantasy Gardens. Check it out.

    Her blog, Aculturame is very interesting with several posts catching my attention. One in particular was about Cahokia.

    I recently read Native Roots, How Indians Enriched America by Jack Waterford. In the second chapter,  Pyramids on the Mississippi, Waterford discusses Cahokia. I suppose I have driven by it on the Interstate and never knew it was there. So, also check out that post.

    ***

    Here’s a repost of my post on Fabiola’s blog:

    buy clomid or serophene for infertility The Fantasy Gardens of Xilitla

    where can i buy Ivermectin Edward William Frank James in his fine red bathrobe

    This goofy looking guy created one of Mexico’s more unusual tourist attractions.

    Mexico has a long history of accepting immigrants, refugees and travelers from all across our world.

  • 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 Angels of Ek’ Balam

    Mayan Angels

    Angels in a Mayan pyramid? Surely not Christian angels as we think of angels in a church or pictured in an illustrated Bible with pseudo-Renaissance prints…

    No. Although they do look a lot like the kind of angels we think of seeing in a Christian context, I prefer to understand these angels as naturalistic people dressed up like birds.

    ***

    The Mayan archaeological site of Ek’Balam, Black Jaguar, in north central Yucatán is not only home to angels, but also to a monster.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Uncategorized

    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.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Uncategorized

    Sunrise at the Piramide del Sol

    A Morning Hike up the Pyramid of the Sun

    pyramid-of-the-sun-teotihuacan-fs-2

    The idea of watching a sunrise from the top of one of the world’s largest pyramids had grabbed me, and I wasn’t going to let it go.

    I planned to climb the Piramide del Sol, Pyramid of the Sun, in the ancient city of Teotihuacán north of Mexico City. This site was established a hundred years before the birth of Jesus.

    I had read the placement of the Pyramid of the Sun was over a lava tube thought to be sort of an umbilical cord connected to the gods of the underworld—perhaps the place of human origin.

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