Two glorious weeks spent in Oregon, part of the Pacific Northwest, left this traveler believing in the exquisite beauty of trees, lakes,waterfalls, and the coast on the Pacific Ocean that are breathtaking.
Two weeks of some sunny days, some cloudy days, and incredibly not much rain.
I’ll be spending the next several Sundays showing you some of the beauty I was lucky enough to witness.
Nature in all it’s fantastic glory.
Prayers and offerings sent up to the ancestors for Dia de Los Muertos.
I’ll be gone for a couple of weeks, see you all again soon.
The Sunday Traveler traveled to Oakland, California last Sunday; travel is travel. I hopped on the rapid transit train for a 30 minute trip to attend the Oakland Museum of California’s celebration for Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
Dia de Los Muertos is celebrated in Mexico, and pretty much by many Mexican peoples world wide. A day, November 2nd, to celebrate our ancestors who have departed this plane of life. Altars are set up with photos of those now gone, with foods and items that were loved in this life. Some say the spirits of the dead arrive on October 31st and depart back “home” on November 2nd. And I’ll put in a plug here for the movie Coco that tells the story extremely accurately and well. If you haven’t seen it, please give it a try over this week; I think you’ll like it.
The celebration at the Oakland Museum was beautiful, and I’ll just follow with a few photos from here
The Sunday Traveler was most inspired and made to think about the altar in the first photo at the top of this post, an altar to those who die on the streets with no home, the sign on the altar, Hogar sin Suenos (home without dreams) made me think that maybe in the next life we come to understand that we were only dreaming here.
I’ll be traveling again this coming week, going to celebrate a little bit of this life with family for the next couple of weeks. I’ll see you when I get back with more stories and ongoing postcards from Mexico that remain in line to be posted here from that travel in July. Many more photos can be found on my Instagram page, that can be found at angeline.am on Instagram.
Hasta luego mis amigos. Until later my friends.
In a courtyard in Morelia, Mexico; trees branches overhead lush with color. One blossom falls into this ancient bowl. One blossom sent down for me.
We rode into town like two hungry desperadoes. Down cobblestone streets following the Bienvenido sign to the dock where we knew we’d find lunch. We’d made a short stop to take a peek at the church and courtyard, and moved on pretty quickly given the number of churches we had been through in the last several days.
We bumped down dirt roads with potholes filled with rain water, and parked down a ways from the dock itself, traversing the last couple blocks jumping over puddles and seeing a little local life.
A little cafe was selected from the myriad of places to choose from; my cousin has selected Cocina Economica Dona Mary, and we head in to get out of the wind and rain that has started. We’re met at the door by the woman making tortillas.
Another thing pulling us inside is the beauty right outside the door
Squash blossoms to cook, and chile rellenos on the grill….I’m convinced this is the place for us!
We’re seated and offered a beverage of choice while we wait for our meal.
Meal selected, and I wander over to the counter where all the cooking and food prep is going on.
To start, a local soup with beans and a slice of chile on top (I chased that chile around my empty bowl trying to cut it with my spoon until my cousin provided backup…highlight of the mealtime fun).
And then our main selections arrived; I had the chile relleno, and my cousin had the fish
Another wonderful day and meal in Zirahuen. The hidden wonders of Mexico.
Slowing down long enough to see into the corners. Eyes off the altar, eyes off the organ loft, eyes off the statues. My eyes rest in the corners. On the minimal that eventually shows itself.
The Sunday Traveler spent another wonderful day on a road trip out to the little town of Zirahuen, on the shores of Lake Zirahuen. Staying in the city of Morelia, put all of these intriguing towns within reach for day trips, thanks to my cousin who served as chauffeur and guide. Coming in to Zirahuen was like a warm abrazo (hug) with the feeling of welcome that exuded on the streets.
We wandered down a few streets looking for the dock that hosted little restaurants serving local foods.
Rain clouds came up and rain was imminent, but we found the dock, and while my cousin decided upon which restaurant we’d lunch at, I lagged back taking photos
To have driven through the little town over cobblestone and then dirt streets and then see this was amazing.
The dock was lined with places to eat that all had outside tables at the entry with the foods to be cooked. Rain coming had the owners scurrying to cover the outdoor tables
A lot of fish to be sure
Come back next week for lunch; I’ll pick up the bill.
The window at the top by the ceiling. Is there a story? I don’t have one, but many could be made up. All I can tell you is that it is in a museum in Mexico that was once a convent. May your creative minds make stories.
The Sunday Traveler mentioned in last week’s post that the cathedral in Morelia, Mexico, brought back memories of Notre Dame in Paris when I was there last December. And very incredibly, like that moment in December, walking into this cathedral in Mexico in July, the organ was playing other worldly music.
The organ here is the largest in the Western hemisphere, and was imported from Germany in 1905. The music playing the morning I was there was what seemed like someone practicing beautiful soft scales, ranges of notes, and what made it especially wonderful that I was standing at the back of the huge church by a guide that was giving a tour to a small group of people pointing things out within the church. My eyes flowed over the expanse of church on the waves of music.
The cathedral hosts a yearly International Organ Festival of Morelia, that I believe is in November sometime. I hope to go one year very soon.
Until next week. Travel on.
A Surprise e-mail this morning; has it been this many years? Incredible that it all started on a comment back from a now WordPress and Instagram friend. I have no recollection of how I had even wandered onto the WordPress site, but I began with some very basic writing that I felt a need to start, and then began to cruise around through the site to see what else went on here. I bumped into Gary Denness, a bloke from the UK living in Mexico City. Gary was in the middle of a 365 photography challenge. https://garydenness.co.uk/ I commented on a post of his wishing to be able to do this, and he asked me why I couldn’t. That’s all it took. And there, too, began the birth of my photography. Nine years, and now the camera is not far from my hands. I seem to now be paying this forward with a new friend on FaceBook who wanted support with his photography, and I began a 365 with him there to encourage him along. Funny how things work.
A lot of water under the bridge in these last nine years. Moves to new places, births, deaths, travel, becoming who I am today.
And maybe I’ll do a little more writing now.
Thanks to all of you who have been here with me, sharing your creativity in word and photography. I learn from you all every day.
