Claireabelle

The musings of a girl named after a pig. All love letters to claireabellexx[at]gmail.com

¡feliz navidad!

Guess where I am…..

yup - Mexico! i hope everyone had a great Christmas. i thought mine might be kind of lonely and lame this year, but its been ace. i was invited to breakfast by 3 lovely retired gay men from Seattle, and after swapping stories and punching down my enfrijoladas, i headed out on a trip to a mezcal distillery (mezcal is like tequila´s sleazy uncle). the highlight of the day was something ive been looking forward to all week - visiting el arbol del tule, one of the biggest and oldest trees in the world. pics of that soon.

hasta luego,

its hard to believe its been a whole year since my sister and i went tampon-diving with Britney Spears. Click here then here if you missed that installment!

December 26

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el ojo de mason

candles in churches make me wonder about all the prayers of the people who lit them. if you look real close you can see ‘the eye of god’ in the background.

catedral metropolitana, mexico city.

December 29

mexico el ojo de mason candles photography cathedral metropolitana cathedral

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adios 2011

as i watched the sun set on 2011, swinging in a hammock overlooking the beach and sipping a pina colada, i could scarcely believe how different the world looked at the start of the year. so much has changed in such a short space of time. reflecting on several fortuitous moments and people, i realised how easily things might not have worked out as well as they did. bearing that in mind, i will be doing my best to keep an open heart and mind again this year.

im down in puerto escondido now, and have somewhat lost myself in the blissful embrace of solitude. a few well-meaning retirees at the hotel here have invited me to dinner, and i have caught looks of gentle pity from others as i wander around alone. little do these people know how precious this time is to me (and how in turn i sometimes pity their banal and repetitive conversations). there is a cacophony of life waiting for me back at home - colourful friends, engaging colleagues and an insatiable family. but for now, there is just me. not speaking for hours or even having a telephone affords me luxurious hours upon hours to do things i rarely have time for back home, chiefly reading and navel-gazing.

feliz año nuevo,

January 4

travel mexico puerto escondido solitude new year

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diego rivera

epic mural tracing the history of mexican society by one of it’s most famous artists, at the palacio nacional. the last photo includes his wonderful monobrowed lover frida kahlo as a socialist. looking forward to visiting her old house in a few days.

January 6

mexico art diego rivera mural palacio nacional frida kahlo photography travel

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pairs of old ladies

they really do it for me.

January 7

photography elderly aging senior old ladies cute mexico church

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next stop…

have you ever seen two radishes fashioned into copulating scorpions? neither had i until i hit oaxaca (“wa-HA-ca”), a city about an hour or so south of mex city by air. once i sort through the zillions of pics i took from the radish fesival, your eyes shall have them too.

meawhile everyone here is talking about that canadian couple who got butchered in nearby town huatulco. rumours are flying about why they were targeted and there are lots of gory details being debated, but mostly i just think its sad for them, and sad for this beautiful place to get a bad rep and be in the grip of fear mongering. rest assured i am fine, being sensible etc. for my 2 cents there have been numerous occasions so far where mexicans have gone out of their way to help me, not to mention being super patient with my shitty spanish.

January 9

mexico travel oaxaca Carmen Ximena Osegueda Magana

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the weirdest church ive ever been to in my life was in Santa María del Tule, Mexico. there was a black jesus in a fetching purple and gold wrap skirt…

a fake dead body in a glass coffin…

and another jesus being enveloped by some giant man-labia…

…i’d probably still be christian if church had been this much fun when i was a kid.

January 18

mexico travel jesus Santa María del Tule

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noche de rábanos

as promised - pics from the ‘night of the radishes’ festival. every december those crazy oaxacans grow enormous radishes for the specific purpose of carving the bejesus out of them and then putting them on display in the zocalo (main square). it was quite unlike any other vegetable-related experience ive ever had.

behold.

this last one is frida kahlo painting diego rivera. i like the second one a lot too - i still dont quite understand the Mexican attitude towards death, but it seems to be a lot healthier - and dare i say it, more fun - than what im used to. people make such a big fuss celebrating when people are born. why does death have to be so drab? i much prefer graveyards carved out of radishes and brightly coloured sugar skulls.

¡viva muerte!

January 26

mexico noche de rábanos travel radishes radish festival oaxaca

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wild grapefruit, Oaxaca.

January 29

mexico oaxaca grapefruit photography nature

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el árbol del tule

first up, sorry for the silence - life has been rudely intruding on my internet time. i promise it won’t happen again.

so visiting the tule tree, one of the biggest trees in the world, was pretty cool. its a montezuma cypress in santa maría del tule, and is around 1500 years old. its also on record as having the stoutest trunk of any tree in the world. ‘stout’ is a pretty cool word. as well as meaning chunky, its also a type of beer.

i knew this tree would be big, but even as i beheld the behemoth, my mind couldnt quite grasp its scale. my eyes were overwhelmed. Jorge (“HOR-hay”), the sweet old man who ran the hotel where i stayed, told me it was dying, and asked me to help save it. other people seemed to think it was fine, and yet others said it was dying a natural death. i wasnt sure who to believe, all i knew was that it was. and it was wonderful.

February 10

mexico nature photography el árbol del tule tree oaxaca

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