I sent this update out to my friends and family on Thursday, October 7th:
Greetings from Puerto Vallarta. life is good, down here, lots to report:
i went to mexico city with mom, two weeks ago to interview an architect (the one we are hoping we will get to work with, very talented guy). The meeting went well and mom and i spent 2 days touring the city, it being the first time for both of us. Mexico City is the most beautifully ugly city i have ever seen. it is amazing. you can feel that the city is alive, everywhere you go. the architecture is insane and never stops. there are rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods mixed with business centers all sprawled out in this valley between two mountain ranges, and going up into the mountains. the traffic jam never stops, but there is always something to see as you move from neighborhood to neighborhood. people out in all sections of the city. people in yellow racing car jump suits running through the streets trying to sell you cellphone minutes cards. the city is what you would get if you mixed 1 parts rustic european city with 3 parts south american city and 1 part industrial/business zone and 2 parts cutting edge world class architecture (how many parts is that now?). there were several sections of the city where you could see at least 10 skyscrapers being built within a few blocks radius.
the food was so so. we didn’t really get to go to any really top notch restaurants, but we did have the best sushi you can find in mexico. which was pretty damn good. we went to the city’s premier sushi/teppanyaki place and people were being served tortillas with their teppanyaki. pretty funny. i guess mexicans don’t jive with saki, we were the only ones drinking it in the entire jawnt. and there was only one kind. interesting.
the art was incredible. we went to the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, which is a giant arts center, made almost entirely of marble and onyx in the 40s by a group of Italian architects and builders. they have several Diego Rivera murals and several by his contemporaries, they also had a Frido Kahlo exhibit which ended up being more about her life, then her actual art. but it was still pretty bad ass. We also went to their house in Coyoacan, which has been turned into a museum and houses most of Frida’s work and several smaller Diego pieces. that was a cool experience. the best part though was watching an hour long documentary on the symbolism of Frida’s work and her significance in art history. pretty cool.
we also went to a market called “Bazaar del Sabado” which is held in a really beautiful old part of Mexico City called San Angel. where every saturday, all the crafts people gather from the surrounding areas to sell their goods. the art pieces were insane. art of every kind. from all over mexico. top notch quality at pretty good prices. we spent the day oohing and ahhing and vowed to return when searching for stuff to decorate the interiors of the houses when the time comes.
we are going back to Mexico City next week, on tuesday, to meet with the architect again to have a 2 day brainstorming session. i look forward to being back in Mexico City, if nothing else then to marvelous at all the beautiful women that live there. whoa, too much!
Back in Bucerias, there has literally not been a single decent wave for a week and a half. ohhh the horror. we just moved out of the rainy season, and for some reason as the rain stopped, so did the waves. and i am sad. they are supposed to kick up tomorrow and over the weekend and then die back down the beginning of next week. i hate to say it, but this place can get a wee bit boring when work slows and the waves die down. so i’ve been reading a whole lot and trying to stay busy. I just finished Haruki Murakami’s “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”, 600 odd pages of pure rambling genius. but my social life has been rather lacking, so i need to start getting out there and meeting more people. still tons more to explore…
September is the month in between when the mexican tourists leave in late august and the american and canadian tourists start to fill in, in mid-october. In spanish, “September” and “hungry” are “Septiembre” and “hambre”, respectively, the locals call September “Septiehambre” because everything shuts down and everyone goes on vacation. it’s been a long slow month, which i will most definitely miss as all the gringos waddle into town and make me feel like even more of a schmuck that my spanish isn’t as good as it should be. (note to self: start taking spanish lessons already, lazy).
On a positive note, my friends Miguel and Raul design websites for a real estate company down here and take all the pictures and stuff, and they invited me to come with them on 2 nights of shoots last week. The houses were both insane architectural beach front houses basically. exactly the type of thing we are going to do, so it was interesting seeing different houses and how they were constructed and the details and stuff like that. i took a ton of pictures. one house was on the market for 1.5 mil and the second was 4 mil. crazy shit. wonderful houses both. so i guess it was a really good learning experience to see what they did right and how i would do things differently.
lastly, I’m in the process of setting up a nifty little blog that will have my daily musings, stories and such and tons of photos. I’ll pass along the url when i figure it out. And I set up this really cool service called Vonage. so i can make and receive calls in mexico as if i was in the States (through the wonderful power of the internet). At the moment, i have a Brooklyn number and if you call it from a cellphone it shouldn’t cost too much (i’m thinking about adding a second “virtual” Los Angeles number). [digits removed to protect the innocent]
call me?… si!
I guess thats really all for now. it’s hard to complain too much. it’s been awfully hot, especially since the rains left, but again, that’s really all i have to complain about. i miss you all and i will try to make it up most definitely make it up to LA, to cast my vote in this crazy ass election of ours. again, i miss you all, and hope everyone is doing good.
be well,
// Ed
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(for witty little captions remember to click the images)
