Fandango in Catemaco

We have returned to the state of Veracruz...I love that we are revisiting areas we were in just 2 weeks ago...seeing friends we made.....something about returning so soon solidifies the experience!!! As soon as we arrived in San Andres Tuxtla we were rushed out to the nearby town of Catemaco for another Fandango (Dance) of the Jaraneros. I didn't blog about it when we were here 2 weeks ago because my photos weren't very good as my flash has quit working, but I just have to document this regardless.

Recently the young jaranero musicians started meeting in the park every Saturday night to play, sing and dance as was the custom a long time ago. We noticed that 2 weeks ago it was mostly young people playing the jaranas and dancing but this time the old timers were joining in ....I have a feeling I am here to witness the seed of what will become a very popular event here in Catemaco.A fandango consists of the jaraneros all standing around a wooden platform as they play their little guitars and sing, improvising as they see fit, while usually a couple dances on the platform, with very strong footwork and hardly moving the upper body...it is fascinating to watch.

Road shots

Sunset over the PacificBlue agave for Tequila production.

The highest peak in Mexico (18,490 feet)....Pico Orizaba....a dormant volcano.....last eruption in 1687....everytime I have seen it it is snow covered.

Raising fish in a lagoon somewhere along the Gulf Coast

A sugar can mill in the middle of town.....notice the school in the foreground.....we were told by a local that it always looks like this....poor people....we swore we would quit eating sugar!

Organic Farming

Today I visited the organic farm of Christine Van Dom near Valle de Bravo, in the mountains

about 3 hours west of Mexico City. What a beautiful place!! Her idea is to grow enough food for 50 families. She currently sells to a few local people but mostly takes it to Mexico City as the vegetables are more expensive than the locals are used to paying.

I was impressed by the low technology of her design...the raised beds covered with a mesh netting low to the ground. She employs 8 people. One person all he does is water, as everything is hand watered, the source being a spring about a mile away. Her seeds come from the U.S.

It felt really good to be here and now I am thoroughly inspired to go back to the family ranch and start growing food for people!!!

The Town of Tequila

On our way back we stopped by the town of Tequila, about 30 minutes from Guadalajara. There were fields of the blue agave plant everywhere.

Here there are many different factories that produced tequilas. We tried to visit my favorite "Herradura" but it was Ash Wednesday and it was closed.
The center of the agave plant called "piñas" were everywhere. They were even used as a roadblock on one of the streets. Depending on the size and weight of the piña, each one produces about a gallon of tequila. Basically they are baked for several hours in HUGE ovens and then the juice extracted, fermented, distilled and put into wooden barrels.
The raw piñas had a very red sap and tasted bitter. And then as you can see from this sign not all is well in Tequila land....evidently the growers are not getting a fair price! We did take a tour of the Jose Cuervo factory and learned a lot about the process. No photos allowed but there was a large bronze statue of a cuervo (crow) at the entrance.

The house of Cholula was also there, my favorite bottled hotsauce!!!

Humpback Whales in Puerto Vallarta

We came to Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific Ocean to film the Humpback whales and especially the work of our friend Oscar Frey, whom we met in Holbox last year who helped us photograph the whale sharks with his kite aerial photography.....Oscar owns and operates Ocean Friendly Whale Tour Company. http://www.oceanfriendly.com/index.html He takes people out into the Bay of Banderas to observe the whales who migrate here to have their babies and also to mate. It is amazing to see these giant mammals of 30- 50 tons leap into the air, called breaching.

They get the name humpback from the shape above the surface when they arch their back prior to diving.Average length is about 50 feet! Most all of the females we saw had a baby calf (average 11 feet at birth) along side them. Oscar has been recording the Humpback Whale Songs for several years now and has produced a CD of them. He uses a hydrophone that he lowers into the water about 15 feet deep. Only the males sing and it is unknown exactly why they sing, but the sounds are eerie and beautiful at the same time and so diverse. Supposedly the lowest and highest sounds the human ear can hear.
Here is Flor de Maria in the water with the underwater camera filming the process. We all have to congratulate her on getting into those cold Pacific waters.....I am supposed to be her assistant for this film, but I really dislike cold water!Each whale can be identified by thier tails called flukes. Photographing the underside of the flukes provides the information needed to catalog the individuals, as each one has unique marks and colors, much like a human fingerprint. This locally published catalog has over 900 individuals listed.We had planned to do some nice aerial photography of the whales using a special camera mount that is attached to the kite string once it is flying. We flew the kite but there was not enough wind to launch the camera so we will have to return to get those shots. You can see Oscar's shots on his website.

Tlacotalpan

The town of Tlacotalpan is built on the Papaloapan River, which is the largest river in Mexico I believe or close to it anyways.....its huge....you drive along side of it for about 20 miles before you come to the town,which was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1998 due to its amazing urban architecture, wide streets and colorful decoration of the houses. Also a very clean city. It looks like a movie set and actually there was one house that was being used to film a telenovela (soap opera).

The jarana music is also popular in this town and so we saw a few shops like these that made the little jaranas.

Santiago Tuxtla

Beautiful view driving to Santiago Tuxtla. This is the zócalo (plaza) of Santiago Tuxtla where there is the largest of the colossal Olmec heads (also unique because of the closed eyes). The Olmecs lived here from 1300-300 B.C. and so far about 17 of these basalt stone sculptures have been found. There is a very nice museum here with another head and artifacts of the Olmecs but you are not allowed to photograph.

Filming Sustainability in the villages

When we planned this trip we had several things we wanted to film. We had heard there was an ethno-botonist that was showing people some ways they could be more sustainable.
The first place Octavio Ponce Cadena took us they were farming fish in a small tank. They were also growing several kinds of medicinal plants mostly all for their own use.We also went to a farm where they were growing so many different kinds of medicinal plants that it was impossible to film and document them all. There were mango trees in every stage of growth... here we are walking to the "back 40" as we say in Texas to view a plant that grows along the creek that taste just like celery and is good for the stomach. Here Porfirio is showing Pedro exactly which part is the best to eat.
Octavio is showing the women how to make soap...Here are some black beans drying in the sun.
Locally produced guandarinas, honey, royal jelly, bee pollen, beans were being sold in front of one house.