We were snapping wedding photos in the atrium of the church – that’s the big square in front of old Mexican churches where the Indians gathered to hear Mass – when the “next” bride and her wedding party arrived and politely shooed our party away. We couldn’t complain. “Our” bride had shooed off a “previous” […]
Continue ReadingI hadn’t realized how much help an escribano might be. An escribano – sometimes called evangelista – is one of those fellows who works at a typewriter under the downtown arches. And I found out some things about those arches, too. I had a form to fill out for the Mexican government. It was long, with a lot of lines. Worse, […]
Continue ReadingQuestion: Can you hear a peacock’s screech over the roar of city buses? Answer: Yes. Question: What’s a peacock doing in city traffic? Answer: No zoning laws keep him out. He and Mrs. Peacock live in the bottom floor of an old house and also use its front yard. They share their quarters with a Tom Turkey who replies, […]
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It was like following three battleships. The shoppers rolled away like bow waves before the three “cargadores” who churned toward them with two hundred pounds of produce on each of their hand carts. “Aguas, ahi va el golpe!” – watch out, here comes a hard knock! – the warning cry scattered people out of the exit aisle of […]
Continue ReadingFor an exotic place and a surprising destination, I strongly recommend The Instituto Cientifico de Na Bolom, the Scientific Institute of Na Bolom (House of the Tiger). It is located in the State of Chiapas, 8000 feet high in the breathtaking mountains. It was established in the ironically-named San Cristobal de Las Casas, the fastest growing […]
Continue ReadingMexican time is not American time. To Americans, Mexican time is usually thought of as tomorrow, but Mañana does not mean tomorrow, as everyone seems to think, no, it just means not right now. Mañana is not a promise, not a date, not a commitment, it’s just … not right now. And then there are the subtleties that you […]
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From the outside, this bullring resembles nothing so much as a red erector-set construction but inside, it is a concrete-stepped cone funneling down to the sand, on which are painted two white rings, one inside the other. Entering the arena, your bags are searched to make sure there are no bottles to throw at the picadores, or […]
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Cogan’s Reviews This one is a little different from your usual travel adventure in that the people involved set out with the definite intention of “roughing it.” And they seem such an unlikely pair. They are Michael Humfreville and his newly-wed wife, Mary Ann. The two were married in California in 1973. Both were employees […]
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Sometimes in the evenings, after the sun has set behind the monolith that towers over the small village of San Sebastián Bernal, ánimas, or restless souls who sleep in the small graveyard near the old chapel, rise up and move silently through the quiet streets. The ánimas mean no harm. They are just continuing their daily round – what […]
Continue ReadingYou can stop looking for paradise. It’s only 5 hours south of the Texas/Mexico border at McAllen or Brownsville. Most guidebooks dismiss the Gulf Coast uninteresting. They couldn’t be more wrong. El Paraiso Resort at Barra del Tordo, Tamaulipas is an ecological cornucopia. To get there, drive down Hwy 97 or 101 to Hwy 180 […]
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