Those damn pigs....

So it has been a tense couple of weeks down here south of the border. Our town is located on Highway 57, smack in between the two hot spots for swine flu (oh sorry, 2009 H1N1 virus) outbreaks, Mexico City and San Luis Potosi. Masked people have been everywhere, not an all together uncommon site, but many more than usual. Needless to say, we have been paying close attention to the news and keeping ourselves safe, washing our hands alot, staying out of crowds, eating at home, etc. Our office was closed for 5 days during all this, but we could not leave our site as we weren't about to go hop on a crowded bus, so we were at home, packing to leave Mexico, listening to tunes, cleaning, drinking and making sacrifices to the swine flu gods.

Jackie prays to the God of Pork while making a delicious bacon sacrafice...

Even little Lola helped to appease the God of Pork with some super cute playtime...

Not sure if sacrifices of bacon really helped us any, but it was delicious!...beats sacrificing virgins any day... all is well!

Secret mission to Juneau, AK...

So a few months back, Jackie and I and our friend Jen up in Juneau, started plotting a secret rip up to Juneau, Alaska for the annual folkfest...we cashed in some airline miles, got tickets and then indured the months of not being able to tell anyone we were coming...oh, but it was worth it for the untter shock and surprise on our friends faces when they saw us...and it was just as rewarding for us to see all our old friends...

So The Alaska Folk Festival is week long celebration of music, dance and fellowship, and lots of partying! Each night there are perofrmanced by musicians, each lasting 15 minutes, in any style imaginable...also on the weekends there are musician workshops and additional performances...it is an amazing event...

Here are our friends Jam and Jelly playing on the main stage...

The hub of FolkFest has to be the Alaskan Hotel...while having a bar and live acts throughout the week, it really gets hopping after closing time, as all the musicians, punks, wannabes, poets, babes and drunks head upstairs for a room and hall filling party, where anyone with an instrument can play and anyone with an ear can listen...The picture above is of our room, we decided to get a room and be right in the mix, not sure if this was a good or bad idea, but it was awesome

Up in good ol' room 330... our friend Brooke on Bass, Andrew on Mandolin, Sean Tracy on harmonica and the guy on guitar, never did catch his name, he rocks though and plays the fiddle...


yeah, room 330 again... now our bro Scott is on guitar, Gary on banjo and Joe Baxter on fiddle, Andrew and Brooke are still in the mix...

pickin' and grinnin' ...and there's that guy again, told you he plays fiddle, what is his name??

Jason Norris, he plays with Bearfoot out of Anchorage! oh and BTW, he plays mandolin too. bloody showoff!

Joe Page and Little Andy on the Mandy...

Scott whipped up some late night folkfest nachos, yeah, that's wheat thins with spray cheese, delicious!

Brookie and Jackie..ahhhhh

Reba with her rum and coke...save a cup, just mix it in your mouth

Jen, Jack and I...

Ethan, pickin some tunes before the mayhem...

Dave and Jeanette...true rock stars!

Jen and Brooke Morgan....singin'!

Myself, Caleb, Nat and Jackie...feelin no pain...

Hey, you assholes left your cans in here...actually, the owner told us the next morning that it looked like FolkFest has exploded in our room, but he's used to it, happens every year...can't wait till next year!

Up in the big smoke...Mexico City

We had a long weekend over Easter, so Jackie and I decided to go to Mexico City and see what we could get into...also, we know from past experience that the beach is the place to avoid during Semana Santa (Holy Week) as they are innudated with folks from the city, so we when the other direction, and it was great...while yes, there were lots of tourists, it was not overwhelming and very pleasent...the weather was great and we never felt unsafe in te city, even at night.Jackie and I at a hotdog joint...Yes, we went to Mexico City and ate bautwurst and drank English beer, and I would do it again, it was delicious!
This is the library building at the UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico). It is a beautiful mosaic which I remember seeing a picture of when I was a kid and really liking, it was great to get there in person. And it is fun to lay on the grass out front and people watch.

Jackie and her ice cream cone at the central park (alameda)...check out those cool cops in the background.

Art is abundant in D.F. This is the Palace of Beautiful Arts or Palacio de Bellas Artes...it is an opera house built by Porfirio Diaz, designed by an Italian, hence all the marble...it is full of murals by Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo and Jose Clemente Orozco...which are all very impressive...included is Riveras 'Man at the Crossroads'..which has a controversal story to it, google it if your curious.

One of many fine marbe statues at the Palcio de Bellas Artes...

In the alameda...


Here's Jack walking through a tree at the viveros, this is where they grow all the plants for the parks throughout Mexico City.

It really was a great trip and we probably walked a thousand miles all over the city, I left with a different, but better impression of Mexico City...

Visit from K8 and Chris...

Well, it has been a while now, but back in March my crazy Ant Katie and Uncle Chris came down for a visit, along with two frineds of theirs, Roni and Vicki...

We had a great time running around central Mexico...laughing at Katie trying to get thrown out of the hammock, grilling and eating on the patio, searching the markets in San Miguel, Queretaro and Guanajuato, sipping tequila and mango margaritas, and getting ours asses kicked at Chicken Foot...It was too much fun!!!

Unfortunately, I did not take near enough photos with our camera...Katie?..she's got some more I know it....

Jackie, Chris and Katie cruising the sreets of Mineral de los Pozos, Guanajuato...

Katie and Jackie in Pozos

It's been a while

So I know it has been a little bit since we have posted, sorry about that. Time has been flying by as we wind down our time here in Mexico. We will be heading back to the US in mid-June and have lots to finish up...
We did have a visit from our Aunt Kate and Uncle Chris and I will put some photos up soon. It was a great visit.
Just wanted to let you know that we are still alive and will be in touch real soon.
Trav and Jackie

The Guitar Town

Well, sometimes we just have to get out of town, so we decided to head southwest to the state of Michoacan. We headed to Patzcuaro and stayed there a couple of days over the weekend, sorry we didn't get any photos,
beautiful place though.

Nearby is the famous town of Paracho, the guitar town...Paracho is known for its guitars, many people think this is where the best guitars in the world are made. This is not exactly the case, while some of the best guitars come out of Paracho, the majority are "chafa"(junk), but a little searching will lead you to some excellent luthiers and guitars, not to mention mandolins, fiddles, stand-up bases, guitarrones (the big mexican bass), bajo sextos (12 string guitar) and many other stringed instruments.


The town itself is small, about 16,000 folks, I think, locoated up in the highlands of Michoacan. The main drag is wall-to-wall guitar shops, most of which are family businesses, and the amount of guitars, mostly classical, is impressive.





We wandered the streets and talked to lots of guitar makers and played lots of guitars. It was awesome to see all the different woods and styles of guitars and to talk to all the makers and hear their stories.



I really wasn't looking to buy a guitar, so I told myself I would have to find something really special if I was gong to buy it. I looked at alot of crappy guitars, some of which appeared to be made of pine and old pressed together newspapers; I looked at some really nice ones, but they just didn't do it for me...then we found Jose Luis Diaz Reyes, and wow!



Jose's place is pictured here, this is the front of his shop, the actual workshop is located through the door in the back, although it is actually smaller than the shop.










He pulled a couple guitars out of his cases and we plunked around
a bit, and WOW...the tones, the feel, the craftsmanship...man I was hooked!









We toured his workshop and he filled us in on how he takes raw wood and transforms it into a true work of art. He has been building guitars here for 57 years, taught by his grandpa, a violin maker. The inlay work to the left was designed and made by Jose and talk about intricate!

He builds every part of the guitar at his place and by hand, all from raw stock. To the left you will see 2
guitar necks in process, the mandolin is actually from Missouri, but had a crack, so he is fixng it for guy. To the right is the material for a bridge, a finished bridge and the knife he uses to carve it, that's right, carved by hand with just that knife, damn!



This is his workbench, but esssentially it is his whole workshop, it all happens here. Notice there are no powertools, just old school handtools here baby!

He gave me a go with one of his planes, and let me tell you he made it look way to easy. He got a laugh at me trying to work this piece wood. He told us how he needed to be in a good frame of mind when he was working or the guitars just wouldn't turn out as well. One bad part makes the whole guitar sound funky. He said you had to treat the guitar like you would a woman, treat her right and you will get good sounds, treat her bad and you get a nasty tone...sounds about right ot me.

In addition to the classical style guitars, he also made mandolins, violins, and steel string guitars, boht 6 and 12 stringed. He pulled this beauty out of the back, not his design he said, but he liked the one he saw and wanted to try to make one...I think he did it! Notice the bridge, or lack there of. (click on the pic for a better view)

Well, after a great afternoon talking and playing, I left with this beauty, and it is a work of art and plays and sounds like a dream. Don Jose, usted es un maestro!

Palenque

We finally got our chance to go see the ruins of Palenque. Even though when we left Chiapas we swore we would never go back but we really wanted to see Palenque so we made the trip down. Actually it took about the same amount oftime to get there from 3 states north as it would have from Acapetahua - tells you something about Chiapas roads, hey?

Howler monkeys and ruins - it was worth it...

some ancient myan carvings

Some pyramids you can enter but they are really narrow.