The mysterious and often overlooked state of Michoacán, western Mexico, is rich in earthy textures and stunning colonial architecture. The grandiose university city of Morelia, the weathered colonial town of Patzcuaro and the ethereal Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary feature in this silde show.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The dance signifies the blessing of ancestral forces, the renewal of the earth and the return of fertility. It signifies spring after winter, where the banging of the earth is reminiscent of the sexual act, and the manner in which pre-Columbians planted maize using a stick, one seed at a time.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
“Michoacán is a very rich state.” Says Miguel Angel Nuñez, a Mexican anthropologist specialised in this evocative and often overlooked land in Western Mexico.
“It has an incredible abundance of natural gifts – most importantly, a wide variety of climates and landscapes. Here in Michoacán, you’ll find desert cacti on one side of the road [...]
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Clouds of bright orange butterflies pour through the sky like storms of ash, carpeting the earth and weighing down the trees in dense, flaming clusters. They surround and swallow me like swirling curtains of fire, and as they burst into flight, the sound of rippling wings purrs through the air surreally.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Butterflies fill the sky like clouds of orange ash, pouring over the valley in the thousands. The sun emerges and momentarily illuminates their wings before retreating back into the clouds. The spectacle waxes and wanes, never exhausting itself. Further away, the path curves and descends to the edge of the forest. Beyond it, many millions [...]
Interamericana is an intrepid new travel blog about the people and places surrounding the Carretera Interamericana - a 6000 kilometre stretch of highway that links Mexico and the seven nations of Central America. Created by guidebook writer and journalist Richard Arghiris, Interamericana combines photography, video and the best in alternative travel writing.
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Mr Edgar ‘Rasta’ Coulsen is a native of the Caribbean town of San of Juan del Norte – an end of the world settlement perched at the mouth of the Rio San Juan. In this short video interview, Interamericana talked to him about the changes that have taken place in the region since his childhood.
One day, me and my compadres took a trip up the Río Istiam – a tranquil waterway that meanders inland at the isthmus between Ometepe’s two volcanoes, Concepción and Maderas. The river is home to abundant bird life, caimans, turtles and herds of indolent livestock. Many thanks to Jennifer Kennedy and the three Matts – Barwick, Hicks and Ashford, who appear in this video clip.
Via Via is something of a León institution, attracting Nicas and foreigners alike with its buzzing multi-cultural atmosphere, dirt-cheap bottles of rum and rousing Friday night music sets. Amalgama, featured in this video, are an institution in themselves, playing everything from rock ballads to crowd-pleasing revolutionary classics. In this clip they are accompanied by itinerant musician Richard Crandell and his Zimbabwean imbira.
As a poor chele, or white boy, rhythm was never going to come naturally to me. Nonetheless, my militant salsa instructor, Angel, patiently tried to teach me to dance. And when he could be patient no longer, he simply ordered me to the nearest disco…
Granada’s international poetry festival kicked off yesterday, 14th February 2010, with a belting set from Katia Cardenal. Performing at the Plaza Independencia, Katia sang a mixture of rousing folk songs and revolutionary ballads, including a superb homage to the Miskito people of the Atlantic coast (2nd song featured, actually in the Miskito language). Turn up the volume, pour yourself a rum, kick back and enjoy…
The land is scorched and broken. Piles of dark volcanic rubble litter the scene, yet to be properly eroded by sun, wind and rain. Years from now, these rocks will be transformed into fine, fertile silt. But for today, dead, black lava fields cling to the slopes like some monstrous reptilian hide – coarse, inscrutable, alien…
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Monday, August 24, 2009
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