Though Danny’s been in school a week already, tomorrow is the “official” first day of school. He took off with a bunch of friends to Isla de la Piedra, so Greg and I figured we should head out for a day trip as well. Where to go? We’ve been wanting to get back to Cosalá, but since it was already late by the time we were ready to leave that seemed too far to go.
We hadn’t been to Caimanero in a while. How about some zarandeado? Yeah! Even in the heat of summer, the beach has a nice breeze, so as long as we’d be under a palapa at one of our favorite restaurants, fresh fish, a gorgeous drive and an incredible view sounded great!!!!The drive to Caimanero is super easy and very scenic. You basically only make one turn, through Walamo, to get to Caimanero from Mazatlán. The drive is very relaxing, with lots of rural vistas and small town scenes. Estuaries with waterfowl (cranes, storks…), beaches and palm trees, mountains, and aguaculture farms (both shrimp and fish).
We left at 11:30, we were home by 6:00, we stopped a dozen or more times, and we ate a very leisurely and delicious lunch that only cost us 250 pesos with tip for two people with beer. Get your day trip gear on and take a trip, people! Enjoy! Be sure to watch the slideshow below to see just how incredibly lucky we are to live in Mazatlán, with so much to offer in the city and nearby.
A sixth open-air venue, this one where we could watch visual artists create
Perfect weather, including a gorgeous moon
Mazatlán’s beautiful architecture and the ocean waves as a backdrop
The fun-loving, joyous, quick to laugh and dance-till-they-drop Mazatlecos
Enough of a crowd to feel the pulsating energy, yet uncrowded enough that you can find a good seat, a terrific view, and enjoy a good drink, cena or botanas…
I have not danced, sweated and laughed so much in a while. Thank you, Mazatlán! Below is my two-minute highlight of the evening. After you click “play” you can toggle to view in HD.
Twenty musical groups performed last evening between 7 pm and about 1 am. Those performing on Escenario Paseo Olas Altas (Banda y Tropical):
Ensamble de percusiones
Banda la Mazatleca
Grupo Fussion (my personal favorite of the evening)
Performing on the Escenario Machado:
Coro Guillermo Sarabia
Camerata Mazatlán
Pumcayo
The Sconek-T
Klezmerson
Performing on Calle Niños Heroes and Mariano Escobedo, the EscenarioRock y Tendencias:
Venus Rex Machina
Claussen
Carlitos Ojos Rojos
Los Insensatos
Dapuntobeat
Performing on Calle Venustiano Carranza, in front of the Art Museum (Música del Recuerdo):
Suncai Gitano (they were very good also)
Grupo Fussion (they performed on two stages)
La Negra, La Blanca y La Redonda
Zarzuela al Piano
On Calle Venus, entre Constitución y Sixto Osuna (Escenario Fusión), were:
It has been a lifelong dream of mine to travel to Turkey. The home of so many civilizations all in one place, the intersection of European and Asian cultures, the architecture, food, people, handicrafts. Highest on my list were visiting Aya Sofia in Istanbul, and hiking amongst the fairy chimneys of Capadoccia, which I’d first seen in National Geographic as a child.
As luck would have it, two of our Cultural Detective authors decided to conduct a facilitator certification workshop in Istanbul, sponsored by our professional association, SIETAR Europa. And I had the blessed privilege to facilitate the course. It was held in an absolutely beautiful venue called Cezayir, the former Italian trade union building, off Itsiklal Cadessi in Istanbul. We lunched each day in the garden restaurant, and had a view of the Marmara Sea and the Bosphorous that was incredible. The participant group was very talented, experienced, and diverse. We had a terrific time and I believe everyone learned a lot and improved their skills. Click the slideshow below if you’d like to see the Cultural Detective workshop participants and the venue, or keep reading below for more on the sights and sounds of Turkey.
And, fortunately for me, I had two free days in Istanbul before the training, a partial one after, and two full days to tour Capadoccia before returning home. In a place so rich with experiences to savor and places to visit, these five and a half days were only a meze/appetizer, but they were surely an awesomely good one!
I have so very many photos that I felt the best way to show them to you would be in the form of a few slide shows. I have set the slide shows to some traditional Turkish folk music. Please pour yourself a cup of chay/tea or Turkish coffee, or Capadoccian wine, and enjoy!
The slideshow below, includes photos of Istanbul:
Galata Tower
New Mosque
Spice Market/Egyptian Market
Train Station/Oriental Express
Rüstempasa Mosque
Süleyimanye Mosque
The Grand Bazaar
Basilica Cistern
Aya/Haggia Sofia
The Blue/Sultan Ahmet Mosque
Tünel
Itsiklal Street
Topkapi Palace and Harem
Turkish Handicraft Center
Istanbul Handicraft Center
Bosphorous Boat Cruise
Military Officer College
Maiden’s Tower
My trip to Capadoccia included a hot air balloon ride over the region, extensive hiking, and a private tour by automobile that included an underground city and a gorgeous thermal hot spring. The Capadoccia/Kapadokya slide show is below:
Hot Air Balloon Tour
Göreme Open Air Museum, including Dark Church
Anatolia Cave Pension
Rose Valley
Red Valley
Love Valley
Pigeon Valley
Fairy Chimneys
Çevusin
Avanos
Kaymakli Underground City
Uchisar
Turasan Winery
National Rug Weaving Cooperative
Bayramhaci Hot Spring
Göreme Village
We of course live in the land of hand painted tile work, Mexico. With that existing love, it was quite easy for me to absolutely fall in love with the tile work in Turkey. OMG I saw UNBELIEVABLE tiles! Below is a slideshow of some of the tilework.
As you saw above in the Capadoccia slide show, I took a hot air balloon ride. It was an incredible experience. I will post a few videos here if you’d like to take a look. The first one is taking off in the balloon.
The second clip shows the pilot of our balloon as well as a shot of the fire shooting up into the balloon to take us higher. It was awfully warm when that torch was blowing!
The third one is a short clip of the people in our balloon. There were loads of large tour groups, and it seemed that anyone traveling alone or in pairs was kept aside and made into a “group” for the ride. Interestingly, we all ended up being women, and we were from all over: Japan, Singapore, UK and Mexico. We called ourselves the “beautiful girls’ club.” Take a look.
The fourth video clip is of our high-tech landing. The crew, these guys landing us, were all terrific fun. And it was just hysterical to watch them pulling and running, over hill and dale, getting pulled through trees, in their quest to land our balloon.
My final video clip is of me opening a petori kebap for dinner in Göreme with my tour guide and the waiter.
Please let me know what you think! It’s always nice to know someone’s is reading/looking.
Last year, our first New Year’s as almost-residents, we spent a wonderful New Year’s Eve in the multicultural home of our dear friends María and Bill. Bill is a Scotsman, María a Mazatleca, and they met, married and began raising their children in the Arab Gulf. Anyway, it is with María and Bill that we first learned the Mexican custom of eating grapes on New Year’s Eve. 12 grapes, sometimes in two different colors, one for each month of the new year. 12 wishes for the new year. You eat each grape as you make your wish–save room!
The other interesting New Year’s custom I learned about was that those who wish to travel in the New Year take their empty suitcases out into the street on New Year’s Day. It brings good fortune of the travel-related variety:)
This morning in the newspaper I’ve learned yet a third interesting New Year’s-related custom: women buy new lingerie (bras and panties) just prior to the New Year. On New Year’s Eve/Day, to greet the new year, they buy and wear either Red (they want love in the New Year) or Yellow (they want money in the New Year). The lingerie shops around town report to the newspaper that traditionally red intimate wear has far outsold the yellow. However, this year, yellow was the top seller. Yet another example of the multitude of ways that economic hardship touches lives.
We picked Danny up from Boy Scout camp on Saturday, June 14, 2008, my friend Basma’s wedding anniversary, to begin our big adventure. Before leaving Leawood we had to stop one last time to say goodbye to our dog, Nacho, who now lives with good friends on their acreage.
The day before we departed had been the 35th anniversary of my first airplane ride. This time we were driving: a Honda Civic hybrid, loaded to the gills with three people, four computers, and loads of other have-to-have-right-away goodies. Needless to say, we wwaaayyyyyy exceeded the weight limit of the vehicle and the car barely cleared the ground.
We drove diagonally through Kansas—truly a beautiful state. We knew we’d miss the prairie, the Flint Hills. We were psyched to be able to drive through Greensburg, the town so devastated by the tornado and now rebuilding itself as a world-leading green city. What an encouraging way to leave the US. We spent our first night in Liberal, Kansas, two blocks from Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz; quite fitting, we felt.
The journey went really quickly and smoothly. Good highways the whole way, we met all terrific people, and it was fun counting the states. We crossed the border in Nogales, where we had our foreign resident cards stamped, and 50km or so later registered our car. Hooray!!! ¡Bienvenidos!
Crossing over the thousands of topes (speed bumps) on the journey through Mexico was not easy given our heavy load, and we had to stop at a mechanic’s once to have something underneath the car tied back up. The only really hairy episode was at one point on the highway in Sonora. Greg was driving, and heading towards us on two wheels, out of control and loaded to three times the height of the cab, comes a pickup truck. Greg froze: heading to the right would take us off the road and into a deep ditch, no doubt flipping us; heading left would take us into the path of the pickup if he was able to right the truck and course-correct; staying where we were seemed to be suicide. Fortunately, the driver was able to get back on all four wheels and onto his own side of the road, and all was well.
We spent our third night, the only night on the road in Mexico, in a “Romance Hotel.” Pulling in it looked great: advertising air conditioning, cable television, room service. It looked clean and new and very private; like a Japanese “love hotel,” you drive straight into a garage with your car, close the door, and no one sees who you are; great for secret trysts. Once we were in the room, we realized the AC didn’t work and the window didn’t open; we were stuck in a steam bath! We ordered dinner delivered, but when they brought it, they couldn’t get the garage door (only door to the outside) to open; the switch had come loose and fallen inside the cement block wall. No worries. We survived, spent one of the most steamy, sweaty nights of our lives, but the next day we made it to our new home and all was well. Seeing that ocean in front of us made everything good!
¡VidaMaz! 