Did you know that the vanilla bean is from an aromatic orchid that originally came from Mexico? The Academy of Sciences and Gastronomic Arts in Paris were so taken with the fruit of this orchid, that in 1921 they paid homage to the anonymous Mexican Indians who discovered it and put it to various uses. […]
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At 3 p.m. one Wednesday during the first week of July someone pulled the string on the brass bell outside Isabel’s gate. I punched the ‘save’ key on my keyboard, walked across the terrace and followed the footpath to the gate. “Quien es?” I called out. A voice from across the wall answered, “Memo”, the nickname for […]
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In June I saw the first indications of rain. Clouds from the northeast began building in the late afternoons before dissolving halfway across the lake. I spent most days in my office, in front of the fan, working on projects and dodging Chuya. “¡Mira!” she grunted one afternoon, summoning me to the front part of the […]
Continue ReadingMexico’s Lake Chapala and Ajijic: The Insiders Guide to the Northshore for International Travelers by Teresa A. Kendrick is a comprehensive 170-plus page guide to one of the most sought-after destinations in Mexico. Designed for the traveler, the book includes detailed information about the geography and ecology of the area by Tony Burton, wise cultural […]
Continue ReadingTraveling to Mexico is like having a fling, a stunning romance, a love affair so intense that everything becomes a romantic vision. Senses are heightened, feelings revive, and travelers find themselves newly innocent and unfettered by the constraints of their own societies. Depending upon our temperament, we are at once profoundly carried away so that we […]
Continue ReadingWhen a certain 17-year-old Bronco gave up the ghost in Dallas last September, every mechanic in the garage it was towed to wiped their tools, shook their heads, and talked about one thing. Bass fishing. Bass fishing? While I was grieving in the ashtray-strewn waiting room where several old naugahyde recliners had gathered to die, […]
Continue ReadingDid you know that the word “cigar” originates from the Mayan word xigar? The word was used to describe the action of aspirating or sucking which later came to signify the act of smoking tobacco. The Spaniards adopted the word from the Mayans and morphed it into cigarro to mean rolled smoking tobacco, and now the word is […]
Continue ReadingMidlife Mavericks: Women reinventing their lives in Mexico Written by Karen Blue In her first non-fiction book, Midlife Mavericks, author Karen Blue presents the stories of nineteen American and Canadian women who left their countries, families, and cultural roles to begin new lives in Mexico. In elegantly framed vignettes, unmarried women in the second halves of their […]
Continue ReadingArtists from the Ajijic-Chapala-Riberas area of Jalisco joined together June 6, 2003 to meet one another, renew collaborations and celebrate the upcoming rainy season at the new Kimball Gallery in Chapala. Organizer Jacqueline Stewart called the event the ” Fiesta de las Chicharras” to honor the locusts that herald the rainy season in this part of […]
Continue ReadingDid you know that peanuts, vanilla, guavas, tomatoes, some forty different chiles, avocados, and papayas originally came from Mexico? Pineapple also grew wild in Mexico, as well as Peru and along the Orinoco River in South America, but it was through Mexico that the pineapple became cultivated throughout the world. Explorers found the fruit in […]
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