Three landscapes

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

Fields near the mountainous woods of Mazamitla

Islets in a semi-deserted beach in Michoacán

The quaint city of Guanajuato

Just exemplifying again the wildly different landscapes that can be found in the region. Sadly the ever increasing reports violence in the zone has steered travellers away from these lands, specially for the first two. Sadder is that it is probably perfectly safe for anyone to go there; all there is is fear.

The Roll of the Ball

Old Game

So, what's with the ball? There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of sports and games that are played with balls (and by balls I mean rolling sphere-like bodies like the one shown in the picture) which evolve from a wide variety of unrelated cultural backgrounds. How many man-hours have been spent globally in watching all kinds and sizes of balls just rolling around? The oldest known ballgame is allegedly de Ulama, a version of the Mesoamerican ballgame (of death) whose roots extended back to at least the 2nd millennium BC. And there must have been quite lot of rolling long before that. That makes me wonder, is it just the simplicity of the most beautifully perfect shape in nature, that adapts to every gaming purpose and environment? Or is there something hard-wired into our genes that makes it impossible to take our minds off the roll of the ball? Just like a kitten to a yarn hank.

Landlord's Gaze

Land tenure has ever been a problem in Mexico. Fewer than 11,000 haciendas controlled 57 percent of the national territory at the beginning of the 20th century, which became one of triggering situations for the 1910 Mexican Revolution. After the civil war, a mayor reform was introduced, and remained in force until 1992. However it has visibly failed to create a proper distribution of land, only succeeded in making it very complicated. Today, with greater demand an less availability for every natural resource you may think of, most of the usable land is employed in inefficient, medieval, extensive farming (if at all employed).

More on the subject:

• Structure and history of land tenure in Mexico;
  http://www.internal-displacement.org/idmc/website/countries.nsf/(httpEnvelopes)/EA3B6CB789BAE118C12573AD00534184?OpenDocument
• Mexico-Land Tenure Agriculture:
  http://www.mongabay.com/history/mexico/mexico-land_tenure_agriculture.html
• Land Tenure and the Ejido Program in Mexico:
  http://www.applet-magic.com/ejido.htm

She's not dead, she's glad

A happy spider

The tree trunks of this garden near de city of Xalapa in Veracruz, were covered with these cheerful kind of spiders. Most of them weren't quite red, though, and this one in particular caught my attention. While trying to get the best portarit of her, I did not realise how close I actually was to the joyful little beasts. Fortunately, all of their legs managed to stay on the trunk's surface and the subject here, gave me a beautiful blushing smile for my photograph.

Properly receiving springtime in Mexico

I believe Mexican hot and sunny beaches enjoy worldwide fame because of their "good" weather. Well, if you wander a couple hundred kilometres inland from this heavenly pacific ocean seashores in the south-west, you might actually be surprised by the landscape.

You could, for example, be surprised my a mild tropical spring frost:

Waking up at 7 in the morning surprised us with frosted grass...

and car.

Or you could find yourself ascending a snowy road to a snowy peak

The snowy peak of El Nevado de Colima

A closer look

You might as well get lost in a tropical coniferous forest.

Some millimetres of snow in the forest

Or you might fancy some tacos fur lunch (too bad I didn't got a photo of this) just before a 3 pm snow shower, and then make a small ridiculous snowman behind a three.

Do I really look that ridiculous?

When cyclists approach the speed limits

Hat and Wheels

To the amusement of the drivers and passengers of an enormous traffic jam, this man decided to ride his his bike in the side of the road. The bicycle or the country man might not be actually much of a peculiarity on their own, but the combination is certainly not a common view.

Photograph of a photographer taking a photograph of a photographer taking a photograph of a photographer.

Flying

This is a picture taken a few years ago, when there where still a couple of this street photographers wondering around downtown expecting to find someone willing pay a few pesos for an instant photograph. That business must've died with the advent of compact-digital-mobile-photographing-gadgettery. A sad view that contrasted the surrounding happenings.

This picture reminded me of this other taken of a photographer in action, totally accidental. Its description might as well take us to infinity.

Irma over the mangrove swamps