01/17/2009, La Paz, Baja Sur
Several of the students from Se Habla La Paz Spanish language school got together attended a live lucha libre match in La Paz. Tickets in the bleachers were around $8 US each and the outing turned out to be a lot of fun well worth the 8 bucks and the time.
Lucha Libre has been around since early in the last century but really started taking off in the 50s when TV helped increase awareness. Over the years the nature of the fantasy characters the luchadores assume has changed . Now they frequently resemble characters from TV shows like "Mighty morphing power rangers"and other transformer type characters that are popular on kids cartoon shows.
The luchadores (wrestlers) are divided into two types. The "Rudos" are the bad guys and the "Technicos" are the good guys. At first it is difficult for a gringo to tell them apart. There are a few that are sterotype bad guys but sometimes the costumes of the bad guys and the good guys look like they came off the same rack. Typically a Mexican fan will cheer for one side or the other. It was pretty obvious that some of the luchadores played several different characters during the course of the evening and the tradition of wearing masks helps with that deception. The referee for the main event was one of the wrestlers from an earlier event, for example but we were expected to overlook that detail.
The early events were pretty amateur and seemed to function as a training opportunity for the newbie luchadores but the main event was impressive because of the athletic performance the luchadors displayed. Even the chubby ones could do hand stands and backflips.
The main event of the evening featured El Elegido (the chosen one) and Abismo Negro versus Pirata Morgan and Black Abyss. El Elegido is a former Chippendale dancer which is obvious in the video clip I have uploaded to a picassa web page. You can go to the web page using the accompanying link found on the right side of this blog. Pirata Morgan was a stereotype villain and so obviously a rudo that even the gringos in the crowd knew it immediately. He was great in his role.
The luchadores in the later events ended up throwing each other into the ringside seats and chased each other up into the bleachers, to the total delight of their young fans. Up until that point I had wished we had sprung for the extra 5 bucks and bought ringside seats but in retrospect the idea of having one of those massive characters come flying out of the ring at me seems like its not worth the photo opportunity afforded by ringside seats..
I tried to attach a video clip to this post but apparently need to learn more about how to that since my first attempt failed.
So, I added a side link to a picassa web album containing some video clips. Look on the right side of the blog for the link.
Lucha LIbre is very obviously a kid focused event and there were children from babes in arms on up to their mid 50s in the audience. There were quite a few adults who really got into the cheering and booing. While we were standing in line there were kids with toy lucha libre rings complete with various action figures of the more popular luchedors.
The fact that Shawn was yelling, in his best spanish, at some of the luchadors is proof positive that anything that remotely resembles a sporting event will get his enthusiastic participation.
Shawn and I agreed that this event was a lot of fun and we are really glad we went. The fans were as much fun to watch as the luchadors.
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01/09/2009, La Paz
We decided that our travels in Mexico and central America would be much easier if we learned to speak Spanish.
We did not even discuss doing this any place other than La Paz. This is a wonderful city and the idea of spending a month here was very attractive, even if we were not going to go to school.
The school we selected "Se Habla La Paz" was a considerable distance from the Marina. It is a walkable distance but the thought of spending 45 minutes each way every day for a month seemed like it would become boring.
The distance problem was quickly solved with a little help from Juli, who runs the school. She hooked us up with Benjamin Duarte who rents bicycles. Benjamin is a very charming man who is extremely introspective. He was full of comments about the height and weight of mexican people (Benjamin is way less than one standard deviation away from the mean in both departments) and is a very service oriented businessman. Benjamin replaced the first bike he brought for Shawn in less than an hour when Shawn told him that he needed a taller bike because of his back problems. Benjamin provided the bikes, helmets, cables with locks, and a backpack with a pump, spare tube and lots of tools. He also gave us his cell phone number so we could call him if our bikes needed service. He also gave us lessons in the operation of the shifting mechanisms on the bikes.
So, we ride our rented bikes to school every morning.
It takes less than 15 minutes to ride to school and the route is along the malecon de La Paz.
El malecon is the ocean front street. In La Paz El Maelcon includes a wide, flat sidewalk right along the beach. It is very common for Latin American countries to set aside the city's waterfront as public space (usually called El Maelcon). El Malecon de La Paz is studded with bronze sculptures and small park like areas that encourage people to linger. The space has been carefully adapted to the life style of the citizens of this city.
There is a lot of, potentially expensive, real estate dedicated to this well used public space and it makes our daily commute to school a very pleasant experience. En route we get to see a lot of folks going about their day-to-day lives and also get to observe the daily tidal changes. When you pass by the same waterfront locations at the same time every day for several weeks you become very aware of the natural cycles that are obscured by urban life.
The boats anchored in the harbor do what is called the La Paz waltz with every change of the tide. The tidal currents are fairly strong and all of the boats turn to face the tidal flow like dancers in unison.
El malecon is the focal point of this seaside town, for good reason. The personality of La Paz has a lot to do with its seaside location.
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12/31/2008, Off Isla San Jose, Sea of Cortes
We were chugging along comfortably when all of a sudden there was a vibration that we hadn't heard before. Being an optimist John first assumed that we had caught a very big fish but, unfortunately that was not the case.
We were not able to see anything on the prop by leaning over the side so John took everything out of the lazarette (no small task) to make sure the transmission and drive shaft was OK.
With a little experimenting we found that the vibration went away a lower rpm so we limped into the San Evaristo anchorage for New Year's Eve.
The following morning Shawn volunteered to brave the 64 degree water and swim down and have a look at the problem (Happy New Year). When he came up for his first breath he said that there was no difficulty diagnosing the problem. The picture above this blog entry shows the junk he pulled off the prop and drive shaft.
For the next 30 minutes he used a steak knife to carve several feet of polypro line and a plastic gunny sack off the shaft and prop. We have added some pictures of the debris to an album in the gallery section of the blog.
Some of the polypro rope had melted and was very difficult to get free. Shawn got enough of it off that vibration problem went away and we made it into La Paz without any more problem.
A diver is scheduled to come finish the job later in the week. The bottom needs cleaning anyway.
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