Traveling in Mexico to Guadalajara, kissing cheeks, swimming, and birds in the morning

Here are photos of traveling in Mexico to get to Guadalajara, and some here in town.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/sets/72157616310268586/show/

Traveling across the border there was no monitoring at all. I have no idea what they are talking about the border, all the stuff about what is required to enter Mexico, as far as my car and so forth, I did not find to be true. Nobody even looked at us entering Mexico - insurance? good luck getting anyone to stop after they hit you!

This is no-mans wild mans land - anything goes - we could have come in with anything - there is no security at the border... just a couple of guys sitting on chairs watching the melee.

I did go both ways, but I am Caucasian -- entering Mexico there was no filtering, and coming into the US, most people just walked in -- I rode my bike across because my Bank had zero'ed out my credit card - even though I called and told them I was going to Mexico. After dealing with the bank in Calexico I stopped and asked a Mexican guard if he needed anything - "A kiss!" said he, and we kissed cheeks - how nice!

Tijuana is a nightmare and I feel sorry that there is a border for the people there bare the brunt of all the illegal desires that Americans want to fulfill cheaply. Even the traffic lights did not work - clearly it is a minor hell on Earth.
Former head of the US government Bush had build a giant rediculous steel wall in the desert that runs for a huge number of miles. It is an ecological disaster preventing land animals from migrating. From the human standpoint you can just walk around it, especially where there are breaks in the flat Sonora Desert.

Other than that wall, traveling in the Sonora Desert which runs all the length of Northern Mexico, is quite beautiful and I saw fields of cactus - I didn't stop much there because I wanted to get to Guadalajara, but I wanted to stop and admire the beauty and photograph it. I stopped at a few of the larger shrines along the way and made offerings of candles for the benefit of all sentient beings. At one of the larger sets of shrines a turkey vulture starred me in the eye for a long time circling not far overhead. I took it to be a good sign.

I stopped at the way stations that have been abandoned since Bush's wall went up. I did take the time to spit on on the wall. At one of the way stations I fed sets of large ants in the ground what remained of the cookies.

Later stopped at the many, regular security checkpoints I learned the power of transparent organization. All of my paperwork was in a medium sized transparent folder where all the materials were labled and could be clearly seen, my VISA, Passport, drivers license, registration for the car, insurance, etc, everything.

Not only that, all my clothes, and everything I packed to take with me was similarly packed in clear transparent plastic containers of various sizes and shapes. I also carried cookies, and food with me while traveling to give away. So each time I was stopped and asked to undergo inspection or for my papers and so forth, as soon as the police saw the transparent notebook with clear pages and the clear plastic containers, mostly like boxes, they knew there was no point, I really did not fit the description of someone with anything to hide. So I offered them cookies and this was accepted with gusto! They waved me on immediately.

I learned not to take anyone I do not know with me as a traveling companion. What a painful and drawn out lesson! One of the police women at a regular security stop noticed that the person riding shotgun didn't raise a hand to show her the items in the car or trunk, which meant removing my bicycle from the back of the car, and she was clearly astonished, and leapt to help me instead. Finally she just waved me through with a look of disgust at my passenger. He remained oblivious to the reactions of others throughout the remainder of his time on my dime.

I stayed at several hotels along the way, all about the same, kind of old, like on the order of 100 years or more, and run down, but everything tended to work, even if a bit dusty I could afford them. It was not like India where you consistantly put your life in your hands to travel and eat, or stay someplace.

One of the most interesting hotels was built more than 100 years ago and named after a Catholic Monk by the name of Kino. The Kino Hotel is located in the capital city of Hermosilla. It had a lot of charm and many kinds of handmade tiles. There I also met a very interesting lawyer and I enjoyed chatting with him about when he was a tenor singing in a band in the 1960's (which I guessed because of his voice.)

The vacation towns along Mexicos beaches range from sweet and really for the locals to invaded by American students at spring break, during which time the Mexican population sort of holds their noses until it is over. They are a very religious people and for the most part I encountered the ethical folks. But here and there my white skin means I must pay much more for things than the locals do. They have no way of knowing how little money I have or that jobs in the US are such a rarity.

Finally I arrived in Guadalajara and with my memory of 5 years ago and my friend Ariel's instructions, combined with strong intuition I was nearly able to drive right up to Ariel and Rossy's house, in a huge city of 12 million people! I was so tired from packing my house, storing my things and traveling for more than a week, I went to sleep immediately.

I was bitten by mosquitos so badly that my left eye would not open. So in the following days I tried several techiques to prevent mosquito bites, but finally had a seamstress sew up a tent made from bridal veil material I designed that fits over a twin bed rather nicely. It took a lot more time to assemble the materials, and I got skin allergies that look like burns from all the stuff I used to prevent the somewhat painful bites. My lungs suffered from the Raid citronella rounds burning at night sometimes 6 at a time with incense.

We also had built a large closet arrangement in my room to hang and store my stuff. I plan to go get hangers this weekend I hope. What is holding me up there is that thieves stole my side mirrors on my red Toyota Corolla, and so it is more difficult to drive. Driving here is risky even if you are expert. They have several Wall Marts here, and although I don't love Wall Mart, in a pinch it works. Also I have car insurance but so far have not heard back from the insurance company if they cover the mirrors - it is a standard crime - stealing the mirrors and everyone except the police have antithief plastic devices to prevent their theft.

For fun we went to a river with Ariel and Rossy's mom's and members of their families. I enjoyed it a lot! The river was small, and flows not too fast with warm water over small boulders and rocks. It is situated in a small town about 30 or 40 minutes north of Guadalajara. Rrun as a small resort, we paid about 4 - 6 dollars for the day (with a tip!).

Here in Guadalajara I live on the top floor of a 100 year old house made of Adobe, Brick, concrete and iron rods with some steel or iron beams embedded in the Adobe. There is large white tile covering the entire ground floor, and it's warm and smooth to the feet. We have a professional maid come twice a week to help us clean because Guadalajara is a dusty town. We live in the Zona Centro, in the center, next to a lovely old Catholic Church and a great large square that has our favorite resturant, El Fenix.

My room has very high ceilings perhaps 16 feet tall, and the rest of the house has even taller ceilings. Rossy had a special paper bag brown wash over several of the interior walls which are otherwise in cream.

My room has one wall painted red with a large antique metal Mexican mirror of the sun hung on it - looks smashing. The opposite wall is where we had the closet placed, right now I am working on staining the wood of the closet which has a desk. I am staining it marroon red to go with the wall - so I will leave them something they like when I leave.

From the side of my room and Ariel's band practice room is a huge rooftop porch with no roof where we keep a few plants. Ariel and Rossy have very little furniture, they are saveing to purchase some traditional Mexican furniture from a town nearby that is famed for making furniture.Rossy and Ariel have a daugher, La China, and the family also has a dog, Breda, and two cats, one white and one black, and a turtle. Many students and people from international locations live around here.

In the mornings birds come visit the interior of the house, as the hallways are open to the sky, and sing sweetly, the most complex songs I have ever heard birds sing. Certainly in the 80 and 90 degree weather this is the tropics.

On Monday I begin Spanish lessons with a teacher in a school nearby, my classes are $10 per lesson.

I look for work every day over the internet in Seattle, and try to continue to learn something on the computer. I am looking forward to going back to school in the fall. Of course this means borrowing more money but I don't have a choice.

As possible I will publish more photos on my site at;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/

Historic House, The Doctor's Place, Anchorage, Alaska

As a child under the age of 5 I was stung by hornets or bees nesting in the ground behind this now historic house above the slope near Elderberry Park. Another child tricked us into walking on the path, and the bees stung all of us.

Hearing our screams adults ran to us from all directions. They laid us down on the grass out front to treat us there were maybe 6-10 or so kids bitten. At first I wasn't sure but it finally did hurt. I have been increasingly alergic to bee or hornet stings ever since.

That was probably in 1959 or 1960.

The doctor drove a "Woody" a green truck with wood panels. I always thought he was the oldest person in the world as there were so few elders in Anchorage.

This historic house is near the house my grandparents built on the corner of 3rd and L Street in the old downtown section of Anchorage, near the statue of Captain Cook, which is just across the street from the empty lot were our house once stood.

Formerly Haunted * 4001 Whitman Ave NE Seattle WA 98103

Still footage from video camera. This is the Whitman house in 2001 as it appeared before, yes, unbelievably we renovated it for free (5-6 months overall) and the owner then sold it. Why? Right before the dotcom bust it was the only place I could find to live in Seattle. At all. No matter what the condition was.

There had just been a wind storm which knocked down the flowering trees from the front yard. The white sofa Julie is laying on was the prior renter's and they just left it on the walk out front of the house. She's on the left on the front sidewalk.



It took a crew of up to 6 people, 3 working nearly full time 3 months to make it livable. Then I worked on it with help for another three months until it was finished about the same time I found work at Premera Blue Cross building their first Web application.

I spoke to the owner's wife and suggested he sell it because it would never look better, I guess that wasn't so wise. He still had the audacity to complain.

Nicole surveys the plastic floor covering - to make sure it's complete -



It was a lovely place in bad condition with dog food, poo, and fur crammed into the heating and old carpets. So it smelled funny. First we cleaned it , including the forced air heating, and removed the wall to wall carpets, and hauled them away. Worse yet there was evidence of animal cruelty with the appearance of a dog kept locked up in a second bedroom - urine stains that came from the same source. The animal tried to claw its way out of the room.

The upstairs neighbor said his asthma stopped - he really never had that - he was allergic to all the fur and poo in the heating system!

We nailed back in all the nailheads of the wood floors and put an oil rub and very very light varnish on each floor's rooms. On the most damaged wood we filled the wood. This place was really big inside. Huge.

We reworked the bathroom - here's a photo of my artist friend Mark helping me with some remodeling.



Then we painted it, including 3 colors in some rooms (cream and white trim with a very light orange creme). We completely made over the bathroom adding a new sink, faucet and mirror. A new faucet for the kitchen and the water flowed freely at last.

Due to the age of most things we found around it appeared that no one had cared for the place since the 1970's. There was alot of garbage, and decrepid stuff like the rotten wood picnic table in the small back yard covered in spiders, you know broken desks, and big cans, and old mirrors. We cleaned it. We found this friendly ball - Wilson, of course with a nod to Tom Hanks.



Same with the kitchen. We added lighting throughout, and new curtains, and blinds tailored to fit.

Jim Chase - as the DR. FIXALL gets ready in the kitchen -


Also removed tons of junk from the basement and backyard and planted flowers and grass. Spent days trimming the trees in front and bushes. Planted two types of flowering bushes, lilacs. We also put up the brass house numbers out front.

Until we filled all the holes in the house I had bad dreams and nightmares no matter where I placed my bed. Once we completely filled in everything, all the cracks, then things were better. Once completely painted and refurbished, these bad dreams vanished. One exception was the ghost cat Julie said would brush up against her leg.

Julie starts spackling the walls - as she painted I drove roundtrip Seattle to Folsom -


I had a little video camera that I captured these images from - hauling my homestead
from the trees and sun of Folsom - and back to Seattle - on 5 in the pouring rain -


My favorite ghost was the one that would jump over my bed at night mounted on a horse. I was unimpressed and just rolled over and went back to sleep.

Generally I charge to do this kind of work but I was so desperate to have a place to live - the landlord made a profit of course, and I had to move out. Right then the market fell.

My friend Nicole enjoying a ciggy on the west side of The Whitman House.



Myself I was just grateful to my friends that I could spend so much time with them and that they helped me so much for such a little reward as just friendship. When we were done the place looked fantasic!

Here is an after shot -



Unfortunately I did not record the process which was almost all done inside the house.

Besides the scary stalking ghost, there was a cat ghost, a mounted on horseback ghost, and even a prostitute ghost. There was a strong owner ghost concerned about her garden. After asking the dearly departed residents to find new homes I believe that helped rid the place of ghosts but not completely.

Before and After House Renovation in Shoreline, Washington

Before


After


This home improvement renovation just cheered up and modernized this house! We hadn’t had a chance to hang the art properly yet when the 'After' photos were taken, but I think you see the difference in how the lighting warmed, cheered and brightened up the place. Also we re-positioned the sofa and chairs, giving an improved flow into and around the living room. The vintage blue Queen Anne inspired library chairs the homeowner already had purchased and now put to use!

They hung the larger more colorful art in new locations, which is now the first thing you see coming in the front door (on the right out of this photo). It is so welcoming everyone wants to be in this room now, instead of instantly wandering into the media TV room.

The dedicated husband and wife team striped the popcorn ceiling with a pancake spatula and a water sprayer, covering the floor with the plastic you see in the "Before" photo at the top. They wore masks, and carefully mopped up anything which was not caught by the plastic. Once finished the new pot lights and ocular lights were hung by our electrician.

I had the couple purchase matching custom-made, simple oak book shelves for storage (see the "After" picture to the left and right of the fireplace). We kept them short, not going to the ceiling so they would not appear looming over you while seated. We faux painted the white fireplace to look like a pale and aged red brick in under 1 hour.

We also painted the interior of the house a light coral color - changing the color, warming it up made a huge difference. The homeowner was truly afraid of making a mistake color and nearly all surfaces were white, white and more white - painted or otherwise. Calling the color 'coral' instead of 'pink' helped a lot to sell the idea of something other than white.

The torchiere relocated to the media room leaving more space here in the main room where it was needed; the yellow sofa, and large TV set we moved to the completed media room.

The lady of the house told me that no one ever wanted to sit in that cold living room. Now people sit and talk comfortably and you can see everything.

In other major changes we added a dining room, the hot water heater was once in the center of the house, we dropped it into the basement, replacing it with an automatic heat on demand style water heater. This expanded their useful space quite a bit. Since they had no basement the space for the heater had to be dug out and a small concrete floor and utility stairs poured. Diging out the hard packed soil was more difficult than first imagined – but with friends and family, it went fast.

They engaged in a large number of improvements, including adding a new roof. The lights need to be focused in that quick shot I took. We are looking for a suitable living room table, and continually try to pare things down. It’s clean and more than livable now, it is a pleasure.