Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Bell



And at last he reached the bell.  The bell with the iron or steel or some metal frame made from an old ship.  The bell with a strong double cord hanging from its clapper.  And when he pulled very lightly on the cord, so as not to ring the bell, but just to see what it felt like, what the weight was like of the cord in his hand, he heard the sound the clapper made when it was just activated ever so slightly, just swinging a bit up there on its own, for once independent of the bell.  And that sound it made it sounded to him like the violins from Bernard Herrmann's score to Psycho turned down very quietly (not just any violins but those and those only).  And he stood here tugging lightly on the strong cord listening to those two sounds, the only two sounds there were---the desert wind with the violins, just about to explode.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Caves


LOOKING OUT AT SIERRA DEL SAN FRANCISCO
FROM EL PALMARITO CAVE



EL PALMARITO CAVE
SIERRA DEL SAN FRANCISCO

Sunday, August 15, 2010

La Sierra


UN VAQUERO
SIERRA DE SAN FRANCISCO MOUNTAIN RANGE

Saturday, August 14, 2010

El Panteón de San Ignacio



TWO FROM THE SAN IGNACIO CEMETERY


Friday, August 13, 2010

In San Ignacio Pueblo


 CLEMENTE ARCE VILLAVICENCIO
ARTIST
SAN IGNACIO PUEBLO



I am now in the desert oasis pueblo of San Ignacio.  It's very different from the Lagoon.  At the Lagoon, everything is open, you can see for miles and miles and miles.  Here in the town of San Ignacio, it's exactly the opposite.  We are in a valley, a river runs through it, and everywhere you look there are trees and roofs and things to cover you.  Even the horizons are covered in every direction by mesas which overlook the town, and hovering above them the ever present vultures.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Before you leave the lagoon



JUAN MARIA AGUILAR

LAGUNA SAN IGNACIO

Before you leave the lagoon, visit the old man at the entrance who they call Shema.  He wears a knife on his belt, has a sign in his front yard that says "Wilkommen," and a dog named Diamond...

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

STINGS

I am sorry I am deliquent in posting my daily pictures.  Internet problems, and I've been stung by a stingray.  First, here are the pictures.


ANA RAQUEL FRANCO   YARENY MONTOYA   ARECELI MONTOYA
EL CARDÓN   LAGUNA SAN IGNACIO


LEONARDO RAMIREZ MORALES    SOFIA HIALI RAMIREZ MORALES
LA ESCUELITA    LAGUNA SAN IGNACIO


GERARDO "JERRY" FREER AND FRIEND
LA FREIDERA   LAGUNA SAN IGNACIO



A FEW EASY STEPS TO TREAT YOUR FOOT AFTER YOU HAVE BEEN STUNG BY A STINGRAY IN MEXICO WITHOUT DOCTORS OR NURSES, IF YOU ARE FORTUNATE TO BE ONLY BLEEDING AND NOT EXPERIENCING CHILLS, VOMITING, SUDDEN FAINTNESS, OR HAVING LOTS OF TROUBLE BREATHING (THEN YOU SHOULD GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM)

1a)   Know that if you have been walking (rather than shuffling, which is what you are supposed to do, Jerry calls it the "Stingray Shuffle") through shallow warm waters you have almost definitely been stung by a stingray, though it may have felt like a shark just bit you very hard and though you may be bleeding profusely.  If you weren't in so much pain and wondering who to go to, if it's major or minor or whether you will ever walk or run again, you would see that the actual cut bleeding place where the barbed stinger went in is very small and could definitely not be a shark bite.

1b) Tell someone or you yourself heat up enough boiling hot water to fill a bucket or tub that will cover your cut and foot.  It is important to do this now, as opposed to later.  I will tell you why in twenty minutes.

2) Run or squeeze or have someone else squeeze as much blood out of the sting as possible, as soon as possible, until it seems like there is no blood left.  Though this may hurt and feel a bit contrary to the task at hand, it is GOOD if you are bleeding, because the blood is getting venom out, and you must capitalize by squeeze squeeze squeezing that blood out because the venom can rocket throughout your whole body and go to your head and elsewhere, and you need to get as much of the stingray's venom out as possible.  The venom won't mess you up if you squeeze that shiznit out!
 
 3a) Heat some limes/ roast some limes close to an open flame, when they are very hot, cut them, and for twenty minutes or so squeeze a bit of lime juice over the cut, and then rub the cut with the piping hot lime until the lime is not so hot anymore.  This disinfects, continues to suck out venom, and actually feels good mostly.

3b) While the lime action is happening, take the water off the heater/boiler, put it in the bucket and let it start to cool.

4)  After you're done with your limes, your foot is probably still going to hurt like hell, you may have cried, you may have not cried, you may have almost cried just because the sight of another young man, a fisherman named Octaviano, heating limes and rubbing them confidently on your foot combined with the sound of another young man, Jerry an ex- bullfighter, saying things like "That's what killed Steve Irwin, man," is just too overwhelmingly everything for words.  Any which way you slice it, it's all good.  You are probably going to be nearly pain free in about an hour or so.  What you need to do now is put your foot into that hot water.  And here is the thing, you need to put your foot in water that is as hot as you can possibly stand, which is why at the beginning I said to start heating it, because hopefully by now it's cooled enough so you can put your foot in it.  Now of course you don't want to give your foot a third degree burn, but the hotter the water is, the better it is going to feel I am telling you.

5) Keep your foot in that water for about 45 minutes or so and witness a sudden change in life pain weather you never thought possible.  Here is why...

"Because stingray venoms are composed of heat-labile proteins, doing this will alter the tertiary structure of the polypetide protein molecule by denaturing and thereby deactivating the poison. "

-from WikiHow, How To Treat A Stingray Sting, Multiple Authors

Damn.  In the States I'd say that is pretty fucking cool.  In Baja, CHINGADERA.  You will most likely be nearly pain free after you take your foot out of that water.  BOOM.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

FRYING PAN


MARIA LUISA CAMACHO SALINAS
LA MAESTRA DE LA FREIDERA

Everyone calls her "Jacqui," because that was her grandmother's name.  No one thus far has been more instrumental in my explorations of Laguna San Ignacio than this woman.  She is the matron presiding over the whale camp where I've been staying for the last week.  This area of the lagoon is called La Freidera, which means "frying pan."  One hundred years ago when they were harvesting whales from the lagoon by the hundreds, this small beach was where they had the big machines they used to fry the whales and extract their blubber.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

The Full Gamut in San Ignacio



 

CEMETERY DE LA LAGUNA


   

FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE LAGOON


If you look back there on the upper left hand side of the picture of the cemetery, there's the edge of a black building.  That's one of the two very small chapels built in the name of one of the lagoon's deceased.  That particular one honors a young 15 year old boy who died of leukemia after a doctor misdiagnosed his throat problem and gave him four unsuccessful doses of anti-biotics.  His "casita" has a wooden door that swings open and closed with the wind.  I opened the door yesterday to find a small diamond- back rattlesnake just inside, stretched against the wall, its tongue flitting away. I returned today to the cemetery at midday, opened the door, and there the snake was, in the exact same place, curled up sleeping.












Friday, August 6, 2010

Nests


OSPREY NEST   LA ISLA GARZA
LAGUNA SAN IGNACIO



MIRIAM, JONI, ISAEL    LA BASE
LAGUNA SAN IGNACIO

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Meeting Las Abuelitas



DONYA SILVIA, HER DAUGHTER ARLENE, AND ARLENE'S SON DIEGO
 EL CARDÓN    LAGUNA SAN IGNACIO

Today I walked around with my wonderful guide Jackie, talking to all different kinds of Grandmothers (and daughters and grandchildren).  We visited two out of three of the little outposts where people live on the lagoon, El Cardón (loosely, "thistle"), and Escuelita ("little school," where they have the elementary school and kindergarten). 

The first grandmother, Donya Maria, was about seventy.  Her boyfriend is 37.  She has 27 grandchildren by nine children and if her tenth child hadn't died it would probably be more.  Another grandmother, Donya Olivia, used to see lots of ghosts about twenty or thirty years ago, but she doesn't see them anymore and she doesn't know why. 

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

On my first day in San Ignacio Lagoon


BEGINNING TO PREPARE THE GUITAR FISH CATCH 
TO SHIP TO THE MARKET



RESTING IN THE MIDDLE

Monday, August 2, 2010

Having traveled upward through Mexico, northwest to San Ignacio


14:36 ON HIGHWAY ONE         SEA OF CORTEZ





GREY WHALE      ENTRANCE TO SAN IGNACIO


I've got to give a pound of respect to my serious black attitude. Yes that's right. My black Dodge Attitude that nobly and unfailingly negotiated 45 kilometers of a dirt, salt, clay, rock, shell, sand riveted road today and successfully landed me in five shifts of an American gear in San Ignacio Lagoon, a place I have been writing about for days and days, and have just now seen for the first time.



Sunday, August 1, 2010