Travels with Bram

Not too long before we left for Oaxaca in October, we lost our dear friend Bram to a stroke. Bram loved life. He especially loved to travel and to eat. Like us, he often took pictures of his food. Bram's friends decided that one way to celebrate his life would be to deposit his ashes at various spots throughout the world. While we were in Oaxaca, our mutual friends Dick and Victoria delivered a baggie of Bram's ashes to us. They also placed Bram's picture and some ashes on the Day of the Dead altar at their bed and breakfast, the Casa Ollin in Oaxaca.

We took our assignment seriously. Flo carried the bag of ashes through the rest of our trip as we looked for places that would would represent Bram's love of travel, people, art, knowledge and food.

In the courtyard of the Casa Arnel we placed some of the ashes in a pot shaped like a frog, symbolizing Bram's life partner, Kermit.

Next we added ashes to a planter in one of the best restaurants in Oaxaca. La Biznaga is at Calle García Vigil 512. The seating is in a fairly plain court yard with a bar to one side, the kitchen in the back and two huge chalkboards for menus. Bram's ashes are in the planter to the right of the picture below.

La Biznaga serves traditional Oaxacan food with nontraditional touches. The presentation is artful. My beef filet (pictured below) was cooked to tender perfection and covered with a lively tamarind sauce.

 The flan was dense, ornamented with coconut and perfectly placed on a pool of luscious caramel sauce. Bram would have loved the taste and the look.

After two weeks in Oaxaca we took a bus to Mexico City. Of course we took some of the ashes with us. We immediately started searching for more good Bram spots.

We felt that Bram would feel especially at home in the Zona Rosa. The sophisticated shops of all types would have piqued his interest.

One of our early stops was the Catedral Metropolitana, the largest and oldest cathedral in the Americas. It is a huge building filled with fascinating architecture and painting. We left some of Bram there, in a very secure area near this famous statue of the black Christ. While we were placing the ashes a choir was practicing heavenly music nearby.

On another day we visited the Latin American Tower, an important Mexico City landmark. At  45 stories, the tower looks down on all of Mexico City and most of the surrounding valley and mountains. We left some of Bram's ashes at the top. Below you can see the view from that spot.

Our hotel in Mexico City was in Colonia Roma. One of the sights in the neighborhood is Rio de Janeiro Plaza. This lovely park is surrounded by interesting old buildings and art galleries. In the middle is a bronze copy of Michaelangelo's David. Some of Bram's ashes are resting there. 

And finally, as we flew home, Flo placed some ashes in the magazine pocket, in the exit row.

We will continue our part of traveling with Bram. We hope to hear from others taking part in this loving task.

Out go the lights

It doesn't snow much where we live but a little cold white stuff falls every winter. This season started with a long spell of apparent global warming with sunny days well into mid December. But last Sunday there were a couple of inches of fluffy new snow on the deck when we went to bed. The next morning there was almost 9 inches. After crawling out of bed I hurried to get warm clothes on, turned up the heater, pushed on the coffee brewer and stepped over to the window to watch our cars being slowly buried in drifting snow.

Our hummingbird feeder was covered by Monday morning.

As I watched the snow falling the house suddenly became silent. The refrigerator and everything else electric stopped. After some groggy curse words I went to the mud room and dug out the propane camp stove and reached under the sink for the camp coffee setup. Then I moved the water and ground beans from the coffee maker which was now just as useless as:

• our broadband access,
• telephones,
• lighting,
• satellite television,
• refrigerator,
• water well and
• central heating.

I went through my usual “first outage” ritual, berating myself for not buying a propane powered generator.

Short outages are fun. The snow is beautiful. We listen to our community radio station, read by candle light and snuggle up happily around our propane stove. I have less pleasant memories of long outages:

• Days without a shower or shave;
• Hiking through the snow to meet my sister who has driven to the edge of the plowed road to bring us food and water;
• Almost falling into the ditch behind our house while trying to snag a bucket of water for toilet flushing;
• Losing several pounds of fresh frozen wild Alaskan salmon as the refrigerator slowly lost its cool;
• Paying a local heavy equipment operator $75 to scrape the snow and much of the gravel from our driveway.

A couple of hours into the last outage we got the happy news that our neighbors were driving up from the Bay Area and were going to visit Costco on the way. By 3:00 that afternoon they had arrived with water, salami and wine. We walked to their house through the snow and gathered around the wood fire in the late afternoon. We made a toast to the Pacific Gas and Electric workers when the power came back on at 4:16 PM.

As I write this a week later, the snow is mostly gone and rain is predicted all through next week.

Arriving in Oaxaca

Both Flo and I were excited about returning to Oaxaca. We first traveled there over 20 years ago. This was our fourth trip, and the first in 9 years. 

We arrived at Oaxaca's pleasantly small airport around 9 pm. Having gotten some sleep on the flight, we had the energy to make it through customs, hit the ATM for some pesos and negotiate tickets for a collectivo to the Casa Arnel. We have stayed there twice before and are eager to see the Cruz family after all these years. Their hotel is staffed with family members and is a warm, friendly place. 

One of my favorite features at the Arnel is the breakfast area. There are two communal tables and you soon find yourself conversing with other travelers over coffee and fresh fruit. On our last trip, Flo met a woman who became her favorite Spanish teacher. I have met archeologists, novelists and travelers from all over. 

On this trip we were fortunate to share the Arnel with Michael Cantwell, author of Chasing Mayan Dreams  along with a hearty group of Belgians, some adventurous missionaries and a variety of Canadians.

The breakfasts at the Arnel are simple and healthy. Flo's favorite was the fruit salad completa which included a variety of fruit, amaranth granola and yogurt. I was partial to the eggs scrambled with bacon. This is one of Flo's ensaladas de fruta completa.

After arriving from the airport, we were assigned our rooms then ran into Brian and Heidi. After a short, happy reunion, hunger called. Cary, Flo and I took off to find some food. After walking east for a few blocks we saw tacos al pastor being prepared through an open door at the corner. This turned out to be the Taquería Pal'antojo, site of many good, casual, reasonable meals, throughout our trip.

After stuffing ourselves with tacos al pastor and tacos costilla we used our last bit of energy to walk back to the Casa Arnel and sleep soundly with dreams of Arnel's fruit salad dancing in our heads

On to Oaxaca, Yet Another Blogging Attempt

A couple of years ago I started a blog called Adventures with Flo and Larry. I wanted to write about our travels and to show some of our photos. Because I tried to both communicate with family and friends and make some money, the effort became difficult and boring. After not posting for several weeks I put the poor thing out of its misery. Then there was my "food pictures from flickr" blog which lasted about two weeks. I just didn't seem to have the interest or drive to keep a blog going.

During our trip to San Miguel de Allende last March, our traveling companion Karen, wrote and sent out emails about each major event of the trip and included photographs from all three of us. She recently let me know that she expects the same for our recent trip to Oaxaca and Mexico City. So, in response to Karen, this is the birth of Travels with Flo and Larry, a blog open to all, but aimed specifically at our family and friends (especially Karen). Here is Karen walking the San Miguel cobblestones with Flo.

In November 2007, we began planning to travel to Oaxaca in October of this year for Day of the Dead. Our main purpose was to commemorate the passing of our daughter-in-law Lori, who was fascinated by the Day of the Dead. Heidi, Brian and Cary traveled to Oaxaca on the same day. Our friends Dick and Victoria came down a few days later.

Because our flight to Houston was leaving Sacramento at 6:00 AM we decided to get to the airport at 3:00 AM. Accordingly we stopped at Cary's a half hour earlier.

 Cary recorded what it felt like to wake up so early.

The flight to Houston was only about 4 hours. Long enough to get a little sleep before arriving. Houston has become one of my favorite airports. It's big but there are moving sidewalks, buses, trains and carts to help you move around. The signage is helpful, the food is reasonably priced, and there are at least three bbq restaurants.

This delicious sliced brisket came from Carita's Barbecue in Terminal C. After my first bite I was completely sold on brisket for breakfast. And, because we had a 6 hour layover I had a sliced brisket from Harlon's too. It was tasty but not as photogenic.

Our flight to Oaxaca was less than three hours, uncrowded and quiet. We were happily able to catch up on our sleep. Cary caught us zonked out with his iPhone.

I am going to leave you here, dear reader, slumbering along with us. Next stop, Oaxaca City.