Sunday, November 22, 2009

Wonderful shots from the Moore Blooms perceptive eyes
















Just discovered shots from the Moore Bloom camera!

Susanna, the reptile tamer
















The great Usumacinta on the Mexico-Guate border
















A beautiful friendship was born. They now pass back and forth, from coast to coast an amazing book of drawings that they've done together called "Girls", amazing works of art and culture.
















The Human Reptile - Guiness book of world records holder





































Bamboo path towards primary forest and a fantastic waterfall - see below
















Almost 50 yrs old but not quite yet
















Pedro Martinez sold me a fine used mountain bike. After dusty rides in the high altitude Oaxacan hills that got me puffing, bathing in Oaxaca's scarce water was very welcome. My skin got tough from the thorny brush. After I tumbled off a narrow path down a rocky ravine ass over teacup, my balance or was it my confidence, was never quite the same. I could only whimper in a whisper but Brian found me and pulled me up out of the gully.















Moore Blooms at tent city at the Tlacotalpan fandango. Like so many Mexican towns, I butchered the name Tlacotalpan for months but now it flows off the tongue like butter.















Moore Blooms at Tlacotalpan. It was a sea of Mexican hippees, all night drumming. It was sort of a hell of a lot of fun but a hell of a hard place to keep the young lad happy. He liked the Mexican equivalent of the running of the bulls.















Spooky Tlacotalpan sunset
















Tlaco street

















Brian in jarana bliss




















Ruby in amphibian bliss


















Fine dining at Las Nubes















Guacamaya twilight























































































Getting a mud bath from a Lacandon





































Bats living at Yaxchilan
















Arachnoid friend






















Riparian bliss




















On the way to Yaxchilan. Mexico on one side of the Usumacinta and Guate on the other. I had the pleasure of swimming to Guatemala across a wicked current.






























Holy Week families bathing on the Usumacinta - parts of the river are scheduled to be dammed as part of the modernization globalization project called the Plan Puebla Panama.




















Bonampak reptile resident loving stella























































Friends that jump together stay together
















Fast friends















Diego, a new friend we made in Palenque with the pure heart of a kid, makes his living as a clown in Mexico City subways. He has a long, jagged scar from where he was stabbed in the back. He's perhaps the most gentle, playful person I'd ever met - he spent hours romping in the pool with Arlo and Talia. That night, he endeared himself to a teen gringa and they held hands and maybe more under the full moon while the monkeys howled. We gave him some rice and a cook pot to boil up some chow with his bohemian guitar playing friend. They'd hitch-hiked from Mexico City to Palenque for Easter Week and they were broke.


















































San Cristobal hail storm































Mazunte sunset
















Early morning on the Mazunte high seas



























Friday, November 20, 2009

Back in the bosom of JP















Well, we can no longer claim to be in transition. We've been back now for nearly 3 months. Here we are at Sam Ginsberg's bar mitzvah bash. I have to admit, it's been a fairly smooth move back to the U.S. Compared to my near catatonic state post El Salvador, it's beeen a breeze. Family, friends, community and Obama have made it easy. When the kids pined away for life here from Mexico, I wondered if they might not be disappointed upon our return. Not a chance! They are out on the block, soaking in the remarkable Hampstead Road community life. Both have started new schools and quickly made good friends. Sabina has already been to a ski practice. Tyler is about to start a new, almost full-time job as a bilingual therapist at the Southern Jamaica Health Center and I often don't get out of my slippers as I work on a number of consultant gigs from home. Stella, on the other hand, is a little bit mopey; she had a great outdoor life in Oaxaca with a pack of neighborhood dogs.

There's a lot we miss; even the kids will fess up to recognizing the richness of our lives there. We're hoping to go back for a couple of weeks this summer.

Well, thanks for reading this blog over the year; it's been fun to document our lives and hope we haven't bored you with too much detail. The world does look different after spending a year across the border; we feel blessed to have had the chance to venture into new lands into loving arms. We couldn't have done it without you to come home to!