Zaza's World

bom jesus

2009-03-03T12:09:00.000-08:00

A night in a convent

2009-02-19T11:04:00.001-08:00

After standing on the very edge of the continent for a quick photo-op, we hit the highway to get up to our first Pousada, this one in Amares. Garmina, as we dubbed our GPS, guided us through serpentine roads through tiny towns, as is her tendency. As a result we arrived after 8 at Santa Maria do Bouro in the tiny town of Amares. The Pousada is in an old convent and is, we discovered, easily mistaken for an active church. After a tour of the back garden and driving up the narrowest unlit rill-lined driveway I've ever navigated, we ventured into the church for directions and found ourselves inside what would be our favorite of all the Pousadas.

The rooms are the old nuns' cells, recently and beautifully updated to hotel standards. The arcade around the central courtyard has been glassed-in to form the hallways, so that the interior rooms are cozy and warm while affording a nice view.

We dined in having noticed that the town of Amares, like most we visited outside of Lisbon and Oporto, rolled up its sidewalks at dusk. The restaurant occupies what was the refectory and kitchen of the old convent. We were one of three tables being served that night, which we would soon learn made this a crowded restaurant. Our waitress, a young twenty-something from Madeira, seemed to enjoy our willingness to try anything that was "authentically Portugese" and encouraged us to drink the local red (not great) from the traditional cups--i.e. something close to a cereal bowl--keeping one finger hooked over the rim of the cup.

Everywhere we went, there were beautiful little details in every-day objects. This is the pocket of a pool table.

Cabo da Roca

2009-02-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

After a liesurely lunch in Sintra we continued west to, literally, the very edge of the continent. Cabo da Roca is the western-most point in Europe. It's also VERY windy. Reminded me of the Oregon coast, but maybe I'd say that about any western coastline.

and now back to Portugal

2009-02-18T09:51:00.000-08:00

Now that I have an abuncance of free time on my hands, thought I'd get back to posting more pics from Portugal.

When we left Lisbon, we headed almost due west to the town of Sintra, a little jewel of a town with a funky castle tucked into the hills about half an hour from the Atlantic coast.

This being our first real trip together, Nathan and I were happy to validate that we're both museum people. We stopped for a hot lunch, and poked around the town a bit. I suspected Nathan was more tired than he let on, this being day one after the marathon.

It was in Sintra that we discovered that people can and do make just about anything out of cork.

baking with hannah

2009-01-25T20:43:00.000-08:00

Just had to share some photos of Hannah's beautiful Christmas cookies. We spent a girl day on the day after Christmas lounging around the house in our pj's until well after noon watching chick flicks and baking cookies. Hannah turns out to be the queen cookie decorator. The boys all like their cookies well enough, but girlfriend took about an hour and a half to decorate 2 trays of cookies! As you can see, they really were works of art.

She made a point of decorating every cookie with someone in mind...pink and red for me, pink and blue for Hannah, yellow and blue for Eddie, pink and green for Mommy. Dan was troubling because he doesn't have a favorite color.

The mountain-of-pink one was clearly the best, because she was so delighted--PINK! SPARKLY!--that she couldn't even speak, she just waved her hands and ghasped.

Museu do azulejo

2008-12-18T06:16:00.000-08:00

Proving that they are good sports and not just sporty, Nathan and Travis gamely trekked out to the Museu do Azulejo, aka The Tile Museum after the marathon. For a ceramics geek like me, this place was a feast for the eyes.

Elevadors and streetcars

2008-12-18T06:03:00.001-08:00

Lisbon is a hilly city so there's a great network of streetcars, and these funky elevadors to assist weary pedestrians.
This elevador was made by a guy who, quite obviously, was an associate of Gustave Eiffel. There were also metro stops (didn't get a picture) that looked exactly like the ones Guimard designed in Paris.
Old train station.
Could have lived on pastries alone for the week. I still haven't stopped fantasizing about the egg custard ones, though Nathan assured me that there were hundreds of other great pastries to try.

Super Bock

2008-12-17T14:16:00.001-08:00

I was impressed that both Nathan and Travis still had energy to walk at all after the race. We started with lunch of Portugese pizza which was, surprisingly, quite good (though Travis' had about a pound of tuna on it).

We were all intrigued by the "Big Green Wine" on the menu, but opted for Super Bocks instead.

Bear Naked, this one's for you

2008-12-17T14:11:00.001-08:00

Lisboa

2008-12-17T13:48:00.001-08:00

OK, lots of things are hard to get used to about the Portugese language. One is that the "oa" at the end of Lisboa is pronunced with a nasal "on."
Nathan and our friend Travis ran in the Lisboa Marathon on December 7th. Despite a wonky start, they both kicked arse.

Seattle in September

2008-12-17T13:41:00.000-08:00

In September, Aunt Linda was so kind as to lay a pair of tickets to the OU vs. Huskies game up at UW on us. We got to have a nice dinner out with her and our friend Jen to celebrate the thorough trouncing OU gave the Huskies. Stopped at the Museum of Glass on our way back down to PDX at the end of the weekend.

crater lake

2008-12-17T13:24:00.001-08:00

In September, Nathan braved his first Israelit Family Vacation. He held up like a trooper despite the fact that none of the rest of us had the sense to bring any snack food or water when we hiked. He tolerates us all very well. We lucked out and had beautiful sunny weather both days. The lodge did get good and chilly at night, but we loved it.

Even baby Lucy took the hike with us.
Sam was in a vacation mood, i.e. it was like travelling with three 9 year- olds instead of just one.
Zack out-cooled us all.

Max and Nathan operate at about the same energy level...
...the rest of us get tired hiking uphill.

Surprise beach trip

2008-02-18T10:13:00.000-08:00

Wonderful Nathan took me to Cannon Beach for the weekend. Stopped in Astoria on the way out and arrived at Haystack rock just in time to see a spectacular sunset. Nice thing about a beach trip is that it's a fairly short drive but we felt like we really got away for a weekend. Didn't have to rush anywhere, poked around the funky shops in Cannon Beach, and meandered down the coast to the Tillamook cheese factory before heading back to town. As an added bonus we got uncharacteristically sunny and warm weather that will make it so much easier to deal with the rain we're supposed to have all this week.

Cute couple

2008-01-15T18:28:00.000-08:00

This is one of the best pictures of sallie and dan together that i've ever seen. Aunt Linda must have taken it.

Perfect ski day

2008-01-15T18:24:00.000-08:00

Good news! Nathan is a good skier. (I realize that's little surprise, but it's still nice to know.)
Spent Sunday at Meadows in spring-like conditions.

Don't worry, she's not dead

2008-01-15T18:13:00.000-08:00

Hannah made snow angels in the Christmas snow.

Christmas '07

2008-01-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

I'll get back to the India pics, bc I still want to show you what Varanasi looked like and the blush-inducing sculptures from Khajuraho, but first here are some pics from Christmas.

Taj Mahal at sunrise

2007-12-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

These shots from the morning show how the light changes over the course of the morning.

there's another nifty optical illusion in the architecture of the Taj--the minarettes--which aren't a typical feature of a muslim mausoleum and would never have been used for calls to prayer, but were lifted from typical (historic) mosque architecture--tilt slightly outward so that they always look parallel with the main building.
Flanking the tomb itself are 2 buildings--a mosque and a mirror image of the mosque that is just for decoration. The mosque has pavers shaped like niches that help the faithful orient themselves toward mecca. While it's no longer used for services, people still do use the mosque for prayers.

By 9 it was almost too bright to look at.

Taj Mahal at sunset, cont'd.

2007-11-23T11:49:00.001-08:00

View back toward the entrance gate

View from portico flanking the entrance to the garden. The complex is laid out in a fairly tradidional islamic style garden.

At the middle of the courtyard, there are 2 summer palaces. They were cooled by fountains that fed these long pools that joined around a platform in the center of the courtyard.

These guys are carving new red sandstone panels to make repairs to the mosque next to the Taj Mahal in preparation for the 2010 games.

Get ready for a slew of Taj pictures

2007-11-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

We spent one whole day in Agra. We were at the main gate of the Taj before sunrise and then went back in the late afternoon for sunset. The marble is lustrous and changes hue with the passing hours, so it really does merit repeat visits.
I'm starting with the evening pictures here.
First up are details from the entrance to the inner courtyard.

A little history: The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan, a Mughal emperor, as a mausoleum for and monument to his love for his favorite wife. When his son later imprisoned him in the Red Fort, Shah Jahan's one request was that he be kept in a place where he could see the Taj Mahal every day. His son complied with this request and his prison apartment (quite posh for a prison really) had postcard views of the monument. According to our guide, as Shah Jahan's eyesight failed he could no longer see distances, so his son (?) gave him a large diamond that he was able to use as a lense to capture/reflect the image of the Taj where he could see it. That stone was later cut up and half of it became the jewel in the crown alluded to in the PBS miniseries--a.k.a. the Star of India which is the centerpiece of the Queen of England's crown.

Art history: Mughal emperors were all muslim, and the style of the architecture and the decoration reflects this. In medieval islamic art and architecture there's never any figural representation as these were deemed profane. Because of this, botanical imagery, abstract pattern, and caligraphic scripts from the Koran constitute the majority of the decoration in Mughal architecture. The architect here used a nifty optical illusion in his design--the caligraphy around this doorway appears to be the same size all the way around because the panel bearing the script actually increases in size slightly as it goes up the building. The caligraphy is all made from inlaid stone, much of it still original to the building.

My favorite picture for the day

2007-11-22T15:47:00.000-08:00

Just found this from our March '07 trip to Hawaii and our visit to the Volcanoes National Park.

Captures the personalities of Boppa, Eddie and Hannah so perfectly.

No tigers in the tiger preserve

2007-11-22T12:27:00.001-08:00

But we did see monkeys!
and peacocks
some deer
no tigers

Flower arranging for dummies

2007-11-20T08:39:00.000-08:00

Steve, these are for you

2007-11-19T08:16:00.001-08:00

Leave it to me to have the one dog in the state of Oregon who doesn't like to get his feet wet. This makes our walks a challenge when it rains for a week. He's so delicate.

A far cry from those girlie silhouette mudflaps we see here

2007-11-17T09:55:00.000-08:00

You know how some sights make you intensely aware that you're not in Kansas anymore? The trucks really did that for me, and it hit me before we were 2km from the airport in Delhi. And when I saw these trucks I kept thinking of that line in Working Girl where Melanie Griffiths is trying on clothes in her boss' closet and holds up the Chanel dress and her pal says, "It needs bows or somethin'."

Dig the landscape painting on the diesel tank...

and love the mud flaps!

OK, I'll take a break from the markets after these 2

2007-11-15T18:45:00.000-08:00

This lady made a point of moving the picture of whichever god that was to make sure that it was in the picture with her. Be sure to admire it.

Again, gotta love someone who specializes in one thing.

reuse, renew, recycle

2007-11-15T11:48:00.000-08:00

This was one of my favorite sights--soda bottles filled w cooking oil. Can't explain it, but I just loved the necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention-ness of that. We need a bottle, what do we have a lot of? Let's use it! And all the brand managers in all of those international soda companies have conniptions over it.

The green slimy looking things in the upper right of this picture are water chestnuts. Even our guide was grossed out by the prospect of eating a water chestnut out of the rivers we saw.

donuts?

2007-11-15T11:15:00.000-08:00

Loved the improvised tools this guy used. But just look at the color of the cloth in his hand! Do you really want to eat anything that passed through that? I guess the hot oil kills any potentially nefarious microbes. maybe.

sugar and spice

2007-11-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

This camel cart was walking down a major city street--it's not like this was a side street or a rural area. And monkeys were bopping along the first-floor rooftops of the buildings in the background.

Good merchandising

2007-11-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

It was a small and simple stand, but I had to admire how beautifully this guy had his few vegetables arranged.

2007-11-13T19:20:00.000-08:00

This kid was another stunner.

More ladies in the central market in Udaipur

Rajastan has the best bananas i've ever eaten!

2007-11-11T21:46:00.000-08:00

another vegetable we couldn't identify

seriously now, bananas aren't all that rave-worthy in general, but i could have eaten my weight in these

assorted pastas. (pasta? that was our guide's word choice.)

Milk man et al

2007-11-11T15:56:00.000-08:00

I saw milk men with as many as 5 of these big cans hanging off their bikes, and was amazed they could actually still ride them.

Money changers, not to change currencies, but to take old worn bills or large bills and convert them to easier to use coinage. For a fee, of course. Vendors are allowed to refuse to accept ratty bills, so these services are necessary for any shoppers who inadvertently accept unusable currency.

Staples of the Indian diet. (except for Jains, of course.)

Mountains of lentils

2007-11-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

Udaipur's market

2007-11-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

I don't know what all these vegetables are. Half the fun of the market was seeing things we didn't recognize.

Loved these leaf bowls, which are quite common. Our guide who had to feed his entire village on his wedding day (as if a wedding were only a one-day event in India!) mentioned how handy they were for parties. Also great for the street vendors--there's far less fast-food litter in India. (But don't get me started on the plastic bags!)

more from the markets

2007-11-09T17:36:00.000-08:00

The oil salesman...I just liked his face.

Herbs and spices. (and everything nice.) The spice vendors were my favorites...

Not sure what was cookin' here. Wasn't entirely tempted to try everything we saw in the market. The spices were the most enticing.
The 4th bowl from the back contains fenugreek, my new obsession. What the heck is it?!

A feast for the eyes

2007-11-09T11:30:00.001-08:00

India's markets are a real feast for the eyes. I could fill a whole blog with nothing but pictures from the markets. Here's a handful from Udaipur, a few from Jaipur. Many more to come.

These guys hammed it up for us once they saw our cameras.

We saw a lot of guys like this. I figure it was just too hot for them to be out hawking. I also like to see people specialize. Peppers R Us.

Our guess is that the round things were eggplants of some sort.

Silver urn

2007-11-08T07:50:00.000-08:00

I'm showing the picture of the guard just for scale. This urn sits in the hall for public audiences in the Jaipur Fort near the Maharaja's palace. The urn was, if i recall, made of solid silver (no silver plate for those Maharajas). The hall in which it sits has these beautiful Belgian crystal chandeliers in which, because it's an open air building, pigeons like to nest.

Jaipur Observatory

2007-11-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

This place was SO cool. Features the world's largest (?) sundial, and we checked one of the other sundials and found that it was accurate within about a half a minute. The smaller sundials are based on each astrological sign, and the sunken bowls were also used for astrology tracking as they showed how where the sun was in relation to each sign at any hour of any given day. People in India take their astrology *very* seriously and do make their life decisions and plans based on what's astrologically advantageous or auspicious.

More pics from the Amber Fort

2007-11-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

The Amber Fort (and many other historical sites) is undergoing renovations in preparation for the Goodwill Games that will take place in Delhi in 2010. It is anticipated that hoardes of tourists will decide to tour the country, and India, understandably, wants to show off its treasures. I couldn't get used to seeing women doing physically demanding work in ankle-length skirts or sarees, much less the fact that they carry so much weight on their heads as if it were nothing. I did learn the trick to keeping things balanced on your head is to not try to balance things on your pointy head. People (men and women both) have these donut like things made from fabric that they put on their heads under whatever they're hauling. We saw women carrying piles of stuff 2-3 feet tall on their heads! My neck hurts just thinking about it. All in all, these women made me feel like a big wimp.

Amber Fort, Jaipur.

2007-11-05T08:02:00.000-08:00

This place was really very cool. The mirrored building was used for public audiences with the emperor. (Akbar, I think) With all the mirrors embedded in the walls, only a few candles would be needed to light it.

The marble panels were made of the same marble used for the Taj Mahal and featured incredible botanical details. Happily, this is one of few parts of the fort that scavengers haven't gotten to. Adding insult to injury, some nimrod got the brilliant idea to whitewash over the elaborate paintings that used to cover the walls of the fort. As a result, all that decoration is irrevocably damaged. There are still small and faded traces of what used to be there in the upper stories of the harem. Lucky for us, the arched doorways between the public and private parts of the fort weren't painted by the aforementioned nimrod and the gold leaf hasn't been burned off by thieves. (We saw evidence of this in the Red Fort in Agra.)

One has to wonder

2007-11-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

One has to wonder whether the elephants mind being painted. I did think they were beautiful. I'd never seen elephants with the mottled pigmentation that were all over Rajastan. (Granted, my elephant exposure has been limited to zoos.) You get a real appreciation for their strength when you realize that it takes about 3 men to move the saddle/seat they don't even seem to notice even when its loaded with tourists.

Little details

2007-11-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Muslim women

2007-11-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

These girls stopped us in the street and asked us to take their picture. We showed them the results and they giggled with delight. Our guides, who all made a special point to tell us how peacefully the Hindus and Muslims lived together in India, were also quick to point out Muslims and mosques to us as we passed them. Felt like a some-of-my-best-friends-are-Muslims sort of scenario. I just felt bad for the women wearing dark clothes. It's not bad enough that they're wearing several meters of fabric in the relatively cool 95 degree weather (someone actually told me, "it's a dry heat."), but to make it black and be sure their heads and (usually) faces are covered...I'm impressed that anyone can bear to walk outside.

Terrycloth is for wusses

2007-11-04T10:28:00.000-08:00

Bathing is a whole different experience in India. People use these terracotta dealies to scrub their skin. Not a sudsy pampering experience.

It was not at all uncommon to see people bathing in water pumps at the side of the road. These clever girls took advantage of a leak in the pipeline that ran from reservoir to Jodhpur. I'm sure the pipelines just spontaneously spring leaks. After their baths people would pile mud onto the pipes to plug the leaks.

Elephants

2007-11-04T09:58:00.000-08:00

In Jaipur we were fortunate that our guide had an in with the guy who owned all the elephants used to give tourists rides up to the Amber Fort. We got a special ride by ourselves at his elephant ranch instead of having to ride on the streets with all the other tourists. No question that this was a bigger thrill for me than it was for Giggie and Boppa, but they were good sports.

Then when we arrived in Ranthambhore, we were greeted by men on elephants at the Oberoi. Littled did we know, we could have enjoyed a ride around the hotel's park-like property. Our one regret of this trip is that we didn't build in an extra day to just hang out at the Vanyavilas.

A ghastly ritual

2007-11-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

This hand print is a sign of a woman having committed sati (sp?) upon the death of her husband. As the ritual was explained to me, upon the death of her husband, the devoted wife would dip her hand in henna and make a hand print on the side of the house and then burn herself atop her husband's burning body. Her friends and family would help her get doped up on opium to help her avoid panic in the process. Happily, this practice has been outlawed, but it seems to have persisted even into the 20th century. There are a lot of things about the Hindu funeral ritual that I really liked, but this bit was a little hard to take. We saw many red handprints.

a few more random shots

2007-11-03T18:03:00.001-07:00

I'm not really sure what these are

2007-11-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

Could be sugar lumps, that was my first guess. But the flakes look like fresh coconut, so maybe I'm mistaken.

This sign made me laugh

2007-11-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Makeup?

2007-11-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

Even without the make-up those eyes were stunning.

Dhurry shopping

2007-11-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

OK, literally shopping from a mud hut with a stick roof. This location was more or less a showroom for the work of a bunch of women weavers in a cooperative near Jodhpur. This guy in the turban is their front man, which is good bc he's totally charming. (A good quality in a front man.) Top pic shows the rug I bought for my bedroom. Could have come hoome with 20 rugs, they were so nice. As it was, we bought a pile o' rugs, and they arrived in Oregon before we did despite the fact that this is a no-tech business. (Credit cards were handled the old fashioned way, with carbons.) Also saw a demo of how the rugs are woven and learned the difference between dhurries and kilims (sort of obvious, but now I know it has to do w how the color changes are handled--kilims have holes and dhurries don't).

Salty lime! Mmmmm...

2007-11-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

These lime-juice carts were all over the place. They sell either salty lime drinks or sweet and salty lime drinks. I think putting salt in a drink is just mean.

The Camel Ride in Jaisalmer

2007-10-29T15:11:00.001-07:00

First off, let's get one thing straight: There are no camels in Rajastan. Camels have 2 humps. Dromedaries have one hump. Rajastan is lousy with dromedaries. We took a sunset camel ride (apparently de rigeur for all visitors to the area) about 75 KM from the border w Pakistan. But we weren't on camels. (Our driver was really persnickety about this distinction)

Second off, this little girl was probably about 7 years old. Maybe 8.
She asked for money in payment for her dancing and I explained that I had left my wallet in the hotel. (Who needs a wallet on a dromedary ride?) She danced and sang and grabbed my hand to get me dancing with her and tried her damndesst to get the rings off my hands. When she finished and had neither my rings nor payment, she gave me a very rude gesture and when I laughed in surprised disbelief she gave me a saccharine smile. Very unsettling to be on the receiving end of sarcasm and aggression from a 7 year old. But it got me thinking. What happens to India if all the people who are more or less begging for a living turn hostile?

Sarees

2007-10-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

*Loved* the Saree shops.
Fabric shopping in India is a whole different experience from buying at the Mill End store. For starters, you walk in and take a seat. Someone brings you a cup of chai, or a cold Pepsi (it's 95 degrees out after all) and the shop owner starts pulling sarees off the shelves, unfurling them for your appraisal, gaging your interest in the color, the border, the brocade, the drape of the fabric, etc. These are the best salesmen I've ever encountered from the standpoint of being able to see what attracts the customer's eye and then pulling out more and more PERFECT options from the shelves. The rejects were just tossed to the side in a heap of fabric and they kept pulling from the shelves. At the end of the shopping experience, there's a mountain of fabric in the corner and the ones you want are neatly packaged in nifty little cloth bags.

Street scenes from Jodhpur

2007-10-28T09:44:00.001-07:00

Random pics from Jodhpur

2007-10-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

Best hotel ever

2007-10-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

The Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur.
I think heaven must be like this palace.
The bathroom alone was about the size of my living room at home.

Bishnoi village

2007-10-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

We stopped at this Bishnoi villager's house--a mud construction with thatched roof--for tea and to see how these people are trying to maintain their traditional way of life. Following local tradition, our host welcomed us with tea made from a substance illegal in the states, filtered through a tea strainer that looked a lot like an old sock. Alas, the tea didn't have any transformative properties that I noticed. Mom was sure I was going to end up with a stomach ailment from drinking it, but dad and I both tried it and we had no such problems.
We also had some yummy chai tea--and I'm not a big chai drinker. (You'll know i've crossed to the dark side if you ever catch me ordering one at Starbucks)
EVERYWHERE we went kids called Boppa, "Ali Baba," as in, "Ali Baba, give me some money." (Synopsis of Ali Baba's Story) I liked to call him Ali Boppa.
Our guide showed Boppa how to tie a turban the way the locals do. We had been told everywhere we went that you could always tell where someone was from and what kind of work they did by how the men tied their turbans and how the women dressed and what jewelry they wore. We saw women working in the fields in full saris with bangles all the way up their arms.

Eddie would have had a conniption fit over the "safety violations" we saw. This baby swing certainly wouldn't have met with his approval. The baby in it seemed quite content.

Maybe they cleaned up for us, but I was impressed that the house/compound was neat as a pin. The outdoor stove was in use preparing lentils for their cows. Utensils were neatly tucked into the roof to keep them away from the animals, and the inside kitchen area (fridge and stove) were spotless.

This guy just exuded calm

2007-10-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

For my artist friends: this potter in a village near Jodhpur makes water bowls for the rural ladies' use to haul water from the wells in their village to their homes. He was so nice, seemed very mellow, had the best laugh, and got a real kick out my knowing about pottery.

His clay is dug from a lake bed when the lake dries up in the summer. He stashes the dry clay in a corner of his yard, and then slakes it down and sieves it for use on the wheel. Result was a nice smooth clay body that he'd fire in a big wood-fired pit fire that looked like a culvert turned on end with a hole in the side to stoke the fire. He did have a rack in the kiln so he wasn't really firing his pieces in the cinders. He wedged about 10 pounds like it was nothing.

Being pit fired, the finished ware is porous, which is beneficial in keeping water cool. The water that's absorbed in the pot takes the heat from the hot winds (it's 95+ in October, to give you an idea of how hot the winds must get) so that the water inside the pot stays cool.

His wheel was a very simple mechanism--big wheel balanced on a pin, he uses a big stick to get it spinning fast enough to throw a pot. It makes a kick wheel look high tech. This guy has obviously grown up making these pots because his ability to throw a lid to fit the pot *PERFECTLY* without measuring was unlike anything I've ever seen.

Not Stella Luna

2007-10-24T10:10:00.001-07:00

We visited one of the oldest havellis (sp?) in Jaisalmer and were surprised by the creepy inhabitants of this historic building. HUNDREDS of them. They're like rats with wings.

INDIA!

2007-10-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

Now home from 3 weeks spent sprinting across northern India. Jetlag is getting the better of me this week. Had an incredible time and generally loved the country and the people we met. We spent most of our time in Rajastan, which was spectacular.

Started in New Delhi and toured the major tourist sites there. Our sweet guide gave us a crash course in the fundamentals of Hinduism and Sikh-ism while touring us through various temples. Our favorite aspect of the Sikh temples was that anyone can get a meal there. In a country with such a huge population, free food for the faithful seems a good idea. People pay for the food through services to the temple complex or donations to the temple depending on what they can manage.

Humayun's Tomb (above) was a highlight among the historic sites. I realized quickly that my love of Mughal art wasn't shared by all the Hindus I met, many of whom refer to the Mughals as conquerors. Lesson #1.

From Delhi we zipped up to Jaisalmer, near the border with Pakistan. Met a man with the best best best collection of vintage sarees there. Being a fabric junkie, this was heaven for me. There was a protest going on the day we were touring the city, so unbeknown to us, our guide was hiding us in the fabric store to avoid a rowdy crowd. The protest consisted of outraged Hindus reacting to a Muslim farmer's killing a bunch of cows by running over them with his tractor. I think he said that something like 26 cows were killed in the incident. Indians take their cows seriously (the term "sacred cow" isn't used ironically or metaphorically), so the protest shut down most of the town. It was good that our guide kept us clueless about the protest, he described it to us as a "strike" instead of a protest so we wouldn't fear for our safety. Not that I think there was any real danger for anyone but that farmer.

In Jaisalmer, we walked around the lake and visited some Jain temples. This is where we started to think that there's a lot to like about the Jain religion. (Lesson #2.)

As we wandered the streets after the protest, we encountered this guy who we paid 25 cents to unfurl his mustache (which he otherwise kept wound around his ears). He's trying to win a spot in the Guinness Book. (If I'm remembering correctly, his father set the existing record)

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

2007-09-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

Back home now. Big thanks to cute Tom Michael, station manager of the very fine Marfa Public Radio (now on air for about 2 weeks and streaming live on the web) for passing my info to Lonn Taylor. And to Lonn himself (on air Mondays at 9:00 Marfa time) for sending the transcript of his essay comparing Santa Fe and Marfa.

Spent Sunday trying my hand at making yeast donuts. First batch didn't rise much, but the second batch was pretty close to perfect. Now seeking a recipe for good fried pies before the good nectarines disappear entirely from the farmer's market.

Meanwhile, out at the ranch...

2007-09-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

Spent Wed. night out at Cibolo Creek Ranch. It's a major change of gears from the rest of our trip, being one of those incredibly swanky retreats where you're treated like a high maintenance guest in a very wealthy friend's vacation retreat rather than a hotel guest.
Dinner was served family style on the screened porch of the main hacienda. Our room was set off of another building's screened porch that was decked out with twin beds and comfy leather couches and armchairs overlooking a pond. While the other guests we met at dinner were lovely, we most enjoyed getting acquainted with the Mexican chef who gave us a tour of the kitchen and made real burritos for us. (When I say "real" I mean a tortilla with a little bit of meat rolled up in a paper towel, not those things we get at home that are as thick as your arm and full of everything but the kitchen sink.) We toured the ranch property and were overwhelmed with the vast expanses of nothingness. It was sort of a thrill to be able to drive so long without seeing a strip mall or a chain store.

Saw another tarantula crossing the road (that's 3!) and there was another out on the patio in front of our room this morning. (4)

It's CHINATI, not chianti

2007-09-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

Spent the day in Donald Judd Fantasy Land, a.k.a. the Chinati Foundation and the Judd Foundation. What I'm taking from the experience, in addition to a new appreciation for Dan Flavin's work and expanding love of Judd's, is a strong sense that this was a man with a challenging personality. (Or maybe a super control freak.) Regardless, it's clear he was a man with a strong vision and the means to realize it. Everything he touched seemed to have turned out beautiful (if spartan) and his eye for materials was pretty much infallible. Alas, I'm unable to post pictures of the art work or I'd have to shoot you, but I can share some pics of the site:

Marfa, Marfa, Marfa!

2007-09-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

I'm in love with the Thunderbird Hotel. It's a throwback to the motels we stayed in in the '70's, those cheap places we could afford to stay as a family of 5, only now it's done up with chic designer furnishings and clean, sparse rooms that have all the amenities you could want but no fussy stuff. It was a nice surprise to find a friendly staff rather than a bunch of disinterested hipsters. I was particularly excited to see the record players available for rent--the kind that look like a suitcase when closed--and a respectable selection of LP's in the lobby available for check-out. I also loved the juxtaposition of designer furnishings with cowhide rugs and cowboy blankets. It was a nice high/low-brow mix. They also had the cutest candy-colored bikes (in the vein of the Bianchi Milano) available for guests to use to cruise around town were it not 90 degrees out. (Call me high maintenance, but that's prohibitively hot for biking as far as I'm concerned.)

driving in texas

2007-09-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

While driving on the highway between El Paso and Big Bend I saw a ginormous tarantula walking across the road. TWICE!

Just before the universal deluge hit us on the road into Big Bend, jackrabbits attacked the car. Seriously, they were like kamikazis racing toward us. That, or just stupidly sitting in the middle of the road playing chicken with the oncoming traffic. OK, "traffic" might be a stretch since the roads we were on all day were empty enough that we could slam on the breaks with no warning, and stop at the side of the road to take pictures without annoying anyone.
We got up earlyish yesterday and packed up the car. I was thinking we'd take a quick little loop trail to see a view before jumping in the car and driving to a different part of the park. I thought we'd be able to make a series of short hikes to see a lot of the park rather than spending the whole day on one hike. So I thought. We started down what was supposed to be a 1/3 mile loop. After the first mile I realized I had made a mistake. We kept on going, looking for the "window" view, and everyone we met on the trail assured us it was a good hike worth taking. We met a friendly German couple, and a group of rowdy Texans who gave us a bottle of water since we hadn't bothered to bring one. (Because we were only walking .3 mile!) Along the trail we saw ample evidence of the flash floods that accompany big storms, many animal tracks and absolute wreckage around the abundant prickly pear cacti that bore perfectly ripe fruit.

2.6 miles all down-hill later, we had forged streams and slid down rocks and barely managed to get our footing to avoid going over the cliff at the end of the trail. The view was, indeed, worth the hike. And the 2.6 miles UP hill to get back to the car.

Drove back to Marfa through ranch land and the Paisano(?) mountains. Staying in the Thunderbird Hotel because I felt a little guilty staying at the Hotel Paisano (home of the crew of Giant during filming) without Sallie, and because it's nice to see some other places in town. We did have dinner there, though, in Jett's Grill and had fantastic steaks and mashed potatoes with reeeeeeeeally good margaritas. I hate to tell you, Sal, but the restaurant where Hannah threw up on the border patrols is gone! space is still vacant. Maybe that's where I'll open my fried pie shop.

Greetings from Big Bend!

2007-09-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

We arrived in El Paso late Sunday, and after a tussle with the lady in our rental car's navigation system arrived at the Camino Real Hotel (see the glass dome over the bar by Tiffany above). Woke early Monday with the intention of zipping down to Big Bend to be sure we arrived before sunset. What's that bit about the road to hell...? As it turned out, we didn't make it out of town until after 1 because we found the Tony Lama outlets along I-10 and had to stop in 2 of them for mom (!) to buy not one but two pairs of boots. (OK, I bought some, too.) And once we saw the signs for the Mission Trail, we had to make a detour to see those, too. Found this fantastic restaurant near the 2nd one and ate the best Mexican Food I've had since I don't know when. You could tell it was a good place because the parking lot was full and most of the other patrons were Mexican.

Once we had eaten all we could, we hopped back in the car and did make it back to the freeway and out toward Big Bend via Marfa. We saw the Prada boutique on the way into town, and we weren't even looking for it! It's the funniest sight I've seen in ages. Naturally, we took a zillion pictures before moving on.

We drove into Big Bend just as sun set. The sky was beautiful with very drammatic storm clouds hovering over the hills providing a light show for us. Of course we had to drive straight toward the storm which really opened up on us as soon as it got good and dark out. It was one of those storms where wipers are irrelevant. It was nothing short of a miracle that we were able to find the Chisos Mountain Lodge where we spent last night.

Now feeling a bit naughty for pulling out a laptop in this place. It's one of those 1950's era lodges, with "cabins" that look more like old motor court motels on the state highways. No TV, no in-room phones even. Very back to nature. I feel like that guy who takes his electric razor and portable TV with him when he wants to get back to nature. But, hey! There's free wi-fi, so someone thinks this is OK.

If Mom gets up and moving, we'll have the big bacon breakfast at the lodge and then spend the day hiking around the park.

Saw this sign at a restaurant near our hotel in El Paso. Classic.

2007-09-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

Milo is preparing to spend a week with Boppa and Jake while Zaza and Giggee travel to Marfa to see the mysterious Ghost Lights and visit the Donald Judd Foundation, Chinati. Boppa is a little bit nervous about keeping a puppy, so Eddie has volunteered to visit frequently and help with feeding and walking both dogs. Ruben is delighted to have the house all to himself for a week.

The horse that lives at the end of the block

2007-09-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

2007-09-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

Here's Milo the Wonder Puppy, poised and ready to protect me and the neighborhood from offending twigs and leaves. Despite the facial expression, he's VERY HAPPY.