The Letter S

S is for Sayulita (pronounced sighulita), a little town on  the beach in Mexico, about 25 miles north of Puerto Vallarta

Before we visited Puerto Vallarta a few years ago, I had begun researching and reading about the surrounding areas. Sayulita came up again and again, almost as if an indication that I needed to go and see this place.  I did, and I fell in love with it. If it weren’t for the torrid tropical heat and humidity of their summers (that lasted into early November the year we were there), I might just pack my bags and run away to live there.  In spite of all this, it’s beautiful.  Small, quaint, and just how a small Mexican village by the ocean should look (in my mind). It’s the quintessential laid back do nothing but try to stay cool kind of place, as you swing in a hammock and drink a cool cocktail in the shade of a palapa.

Click on any photo to start the slides

Sayulita bungalows

Sayulita bungalow

typical street in Sayulita

Main plaza of Sayulita

Sayulita church

local Huichol Indian

surfer pooch

overlooking the ocean in Sayulita

Sayulita’s main beach

beach vendors

Frizztext‘s site will survey all of the S’s sent to be seen this week

Travel Theme: Dance

Dancing by the sea. A man playing a violin standing under the moon, people passing by. I stop, on a whim, and ask him if he’ll play the Anniversary Waltz for us. My husband and I dance there, on the sidewalk by the cement tables where old men play checkers and chess all day long. Right there on the sidewalk by the beach in Waikiki; people passing by. The trade winds blow gently, and carry that song into my heart all the way home.

Visit with Ailsa for more posts on dance

iPhoneography Challenge: Nature

Nature, here in the area of Northern California where I live, changes from season to season. Spring brings us the beautifully bucolic scene like that above. The photo was captured with my iPhone from the car, as we descended from the Altamont Pass into the East Bay of San Francisco’s most eastern side.

Spring greenery quickly changes with the warming sun and winds that blow through here; but, still, nature at its best in just another version

Yesterday, as we drove home from the East Bay, the freeway became a parking lot as firefighters battled a blaze along a hillside next to the road; most probably caused by a careless person tossing a cigarette out the window of their car.  Nature is such a delicate balance

We are grateful for those who try to preserve and protect

All photos taken with iPhone 4s

More iPhoneography responses to this challenge can be found on the blog Lens and Pens by Sally

Super Burrito

I’m sure you were expecting a picture of a tortilla wrapped around a bunch of cut up food. A burrito in Spanish means a little donkey, or burro. Be careful what you ask for in a restaurant in Mexico.

Happy Cinco de Mayo. A day not so much celebrated in Mexico as it is here in the U.S.  The Mexicans defeated the French on this day in 1862, but Mexico’s independence day is on September 16th, and that’s when Mexico really kicks up its heels. Here is a link to the history so that I don’t have to write it out…..I’m recovering from the Cinco de Mayo party we had last night.  And we didn’t serve burritos.

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above

Somewhere along the highway south of Puerto Vallarta. La vida loca.

Watercolor Memories

The Carquinez Bridge spanning the Carquinez Strait in Northern California.

This photo was taken last month from Benicia with my iPhone 4s, using Camera+.  I’ve processed the photo with Aquarella, an app introduced to me from a fellow WordPress blogger who keeps me up to speed with what’s new in the iPhone app department, iPhone Photographer, David Pasillas; I owe David a debt of gratitude for answering my plea for help yesterday, when the app wasn’t working after I downloaded it.  Now that it’s working, I’m having fun with  a new outlet for creativity.

Come and sit a spell; we can chat and watch the poppies bloom

The Letter R

R is for red roses on May Day.

And a memory of crowning the statue of the Virgin Mary in the school’s grotto.

Red roses on her head

schoolgirls singing her praise

ave, ave, ave Maria

Frizztext has led us to the letter tagged R this week; you can visit Frizz here

Planning the Rendezvous

Down on the BART* platform waiting for the train

*Bay Area Rapid Transit

iPhoneography Monday: More Portraits of Mother Earth

Mother Earth creates her beauties in different ways

iPhone 4s Camera+ photos with a polarized filter

Please go over and visit Lens and Pens by Sally for a wonderful post on Mother Nature

Sunday Morning Light

Kaiguang, opening of light.

Do you remember the monk on Market Street I spoke about? That post is found here. The bracelet isn’t the only thing he gave me, he pressed this amulet into my hand as well.

I left the prayer happening with the monk feeling extremely light and full of peace, and attributed those feelings to a day of warm sunshine, and my day of freedom in the City. I slipped the amulet into my purse and didn’t think about it again until I got home that evening.

I did a little research on Wikipedia, and had to laugh when I saw another couple of entries in Google from people who had also been given this amulet by monks they encountered quite unexpectedly, as I had, and being kind of nervous as to what it meant.

Wikipedia tells us that Kaiguang is the Chinese term of consecration of a statue of a deity. The literal meaning of Kaiguang is “opening of light”, and is often performed in the Buddhist and Taoist faiths by senior clerics; it is done by inviting a specific deity, Buddha or bodhisattva to empower an “empty” effigy of themselves and to fill it with a divine essence.

I now have to wonder if my feelings of peace and lightness after leaving the monk had anything to do with this amulet.

For entries on other types of light, visit Ailsa’s weekly travel challenge, this week on light.

I processed this iPhone photo with the app, FilterMania2 for the light effects.