Everyone is Enjoying Ecobici....

The next stage of Mexico City's Mayor Ebrard's ten year Green Plan has hit the streets of the Big Taco with a resounding success. Almost overnight, 84 ecobici stations have sprouted in the Colonias of Condesa, Roma, Juarez and Cuauhtemoc, and they are proving mighty popular. The idea is to use the bikes for short commuter journeys - simply pick them up at one bike rack and drop them off at another. Once you have your annual card (300 pesos) the first half hour is free, and then it is 10 pesos per hour up to two hours maximum....

Why is it fun to be cycling around the streets of Mexico City right now?? Well the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the jacarandas are in full bloom everywhere. Now we just need the next stage - bike lanes and more courteous consideration from car drivers...fingers crossed!! For more windows on the world this week check out My World Tuesday by clicking here.

Shadow Shot Sunday 52 - Texcoco

Not hard to work out where I have been visiting!! The answer, my friend, is not blowing in the wind, but clearly written on the ground. Don't you just love shadow writing??

Do you have any good examples of shadow writing to post?? I would love to see them. In the meantime check out the fun at Shadow Shot Sunday by clicking here.....

Mexican Masks at the Mayer....

Mexican culture has a passion for masks and being masked and so it is hardly surprising that another major exhibition of Mexican masks has opened last week at the Franz Mayer Museum.

¨Mil y un Rostros de Mexico" displays 520 masks from the collection which belonged to Ruth Deutsch LeChuga who originally arrived with her family in Mexico in 1939 fleeing from Nazi persecution in her native Vienna...

After her arrival in Mexico, she became extremely interested in the culture of indigenous peoples, and it became her life's work to build up collections of masks, textiles and artesan crafts..

The masks on display constitute a wide variety from different states and different celebrations and fiestas - all remarkable for their fierce intensity...

Her travels around the country in the fifties, sixties and seventies have resulted in a pretty comprehensive documentation of all these masks in use in the different fiestas and celebrations, often in remote parts of Mexico. This series of black and white photos are such an important contribution to retaining this history....

The exhibition continues at the Franz Mayer Museum in the Centro Historico until May 2nd. In the meantime check out what is happening in other parts of the world this week by clicking here for My World Tuesday postings.

Shadow Shot Sunday 51 - Monteverde CR

Here is a shadow shot quiz for you this week to see if you can work out the object that is throwing the shadows in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Here is a little more of the top....

Have you managed to figure it out yet?? Well here are the delightful little creatures who alight and visit, sporting such gorgeous names as Violet Sabrewing and Crowned Brilliant.....

It is one of the humming bird feeders at the garden near the Santa Elena Reserve, Monteverde, Costa Rica....

Costa Rica is the perfect travel destination for "twitchers" of any persuasion, and the tropical cloud forests of Monteverde are home to an astonishing array of species including the extremely shy and elusive Quetzal Resplendent. This bird is both a powerful symbol of freedom as it always dies in captivity and thus can only be observed in its natural habitat, plus a powerful symbol of Aztec and Mayan culture as ceremonial head dresses were made from the bird's incredibly long tail feathers (which can be regrown.) Here is a very plump, puffed up male Quetzal gorging himself on wild avocado fruits....

To join in the fun of weekly shadowhunting check out Shadow Shot Sunday by clicking here. You may become an addict!!

Raise the Red Lantern........

Every city has its Chinatown and Mexico City is no exception with Calle Dolores in the heart of the Centro Historico. Red chinese lanterns look quite beautiful against the rich ochres, russets, and dusky pinks of the colonial architecture in this part of town.....

All the streets in the Centro Historico specialise in selling one thing be it musical instruments, bicycles, gold jewellery, stationery or in the case of Calle Dolores every type of lighting and Chinese food....

Maybe that is why there are so many lanterns strung across this street, and as you can see I couldn't stop taking photographs of them, undecided about whether I liked them better in black and white or colour...

The pedestrianised street is lined wall to wall with Chinese restaurants all of which are pretty good and very reasonably priced along with a few Mexican cantinas....

So as the Year of the Tiger really gets underway, why not give Chinatown a whirl?? For more windows on the world this week check out My World Tuesday by clicking here...You won't be disappointed!

Shadow Shot Sunday 50 - Naucalpan

Last week it was our International Fair at school which celebrates our cultural diversity through music, dance, and food. I usually eat my way around the world from Argentina to Zambia always stopping off at the culinary highlights of India, Japan, Lebanon, and Thailand on the way, taking lots of enticing photos en route. This year, however, I was so busy being "British" serving up afternoon tea and scones, strawberries and cream, and a veritable mountain of Victoria sponges that I just didn't have the time.....

Near to the end of the Fair, exhausted by trying to explain what a scone was in Spanish, and to the strains of the final encores of the snappy Brazilian dance band, I snuck into the school pool for an illicit swim..... and was rewarded by these rather beautiful scenes of the sunset being reflected through the roof onto the surface of the pool. At first geometric angles and sunlight dominated, but later there was a surreal softening of hazy shapes....

So for my 50th Shadow Shot Sunday I'm paying homage to British artist Hockney to celebrate a half century of shadow shots - What do you think?? Want to join in the fun?? Then check out Shadow Shot Sunday by clicking here. Be warned it could prove most addictive!!

Trip to Twin Peaks...Ometepe, Nicaragua

With the beautiful snow-capped cones surrounding Mexico City right now, I have volcanoes on my mind, so I thought I would take you on a trip this week to the beautiful island of Ometepe in Nicaragua which is made up of twin volcanoes Concepcion and Maderas....

The island, in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, is home to 30,000 people who live in 25 villages which are all thriving communities with a church, school and fertile fields to farm. According to the villagers, it is a tranquil, trouble-free life far from harsher places like Managua where life can be so much tougher...

In the lush, fertile fields beneath the twin peaks, bananas, maize, wheat, rice, coconuts, pineapples, coffee and tobacco are grown for export to the USA and Central America. For the tourist it is a remote, quiet haven perfect for a few days of chilling out. Be sure to get over to the East of the Island where there are tiny beach resorts like Playa Domingo right on the lake shore fringed by black volcanic sand beaches inhabited by white egrets...

Stay at Villa Paraiso in comfortable cabins with terraces and hammocks surrounded by tropical forest (73USD per cabin), and eat at the restaurant which serves up fresh lobster salad for lunch and tasty lake fish for dinner......

After a few days here, you will be truly sad to pack up, bid farewell, and leave....

To get to Ometepe, take a taxi, bus or shared minivan from either Granada (90 minutes, 18USD) or Managua (45minutes) to San Jorge and board the car ferry for Ometepe which takes about an hour to reach the Island. Villa Paraiso will arrange pick-ups from the port to get you swiftly to Santa Domingo (45 minutes, 20USD)....

For more travelling around the world take a trip to My World Tuesday by clicking here. Enjoy!!

Shadow Shot Sunday 49 - Costa Rica

Back in the beautiful rainforests of Costa Rica this week with these leaf shadows.....

All the subtle greens of the canopy are so stunningly rich and vivid, but I also like this little, more delicate shadow pattern I found nearer the forest floor...

For more shadowplay check out Shadow Shot Sunday by clicking here. Enjoy!