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A little about Playa Zipolite, The Beach of the Dead . . .

Playa Zipolite, Oaxaca, Southern Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean. A little bit about my favorite little get-away on this small world of ours.

Zipolite, a sweaty 30-minute walk west from Puerto Angel, brings you to Playa Zipolite and another world. The feeling here is 1970's - Led Zep, Marley, and scruffy gringos.

A long, long time ago, Zipolite beach was usually visited by the Zapotecans...who made it a magical place. They came to visit Zipolite to meditate, or just to rest.

Recently, this beach has begun to receive day-trippers from Puerto Angel and Puerto Escondido, giving it a more TOURISTY feel than before.

Most people come here for the novelty of the nude beach, yoga, turtles, seafood, surf, meditation, vegetarians, discos, party, to get burnt by the sun, or to see how long they can stretch their skinny budget.

I post WWW Oaxaca, Mexico, Zipolite and areas nearby information. Also general budget, backpacker, surfer, off the beaten path, Mexico and beyond, information.

REMEMBER: Everyone is welcome at Zipolite.

ivan

Sunday, October 28, 2012

¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa' dentro! Personally, I consider this piece of Spanish a "must know". Maybe that's because I spend so much time in bars when I go to Mexico, but that's another story, albeit related.


This blog is a collection of the things I learn from talking with native Spanish speakers on my quest to become bilingual. No grammar, no verb conjugations, no "book" Spanish - just real Spanish I learn from real conversations.


¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa' dentro!

Personally, I consider this piece of Spanish a "must know".  Maybe that's because I spend so much time in bars when I go to Mexico, but that's another story, albeit related.

It's pretty much a worldwide custom to make a toast while you have a few drinks friends or celebrate a special occasion.  In America, we say "cheers", as you well know.  But in Spanish, you say ¡salud!

But personally, I find that particular toast a bit plain, which brings us to the topic of today's post.

¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa' dentro!

There's no real translation that I'm aware of, this is just something you memorize and say it right before you slam down your favorite tequila, or whatever your drink of choice is.

So here's how it works, so pay close attention (fijense bien) because the physical mechanics of this toast are crucial.  OK, maybe crucial is a bit much, but the motions come with the phrase.

At each step, be sure to "clink" or touch glasses.

"Arriba" (glass held high, you touch the rim of your glass)
"Abajo" 
(glass held low, you touch the bottom of your glass)
"Al centro" (glass held out in front, touch the middle of your glass)
"Pa' dentro or Adentro" (drink from glass immediately, bottoms up!)

Simple, right?  Well, I say you head to the closest cantina (bar) and practice this until you get it right.

¡Cuidense amigos!

10 comments:

  1. This is great....much practice may be needed to get both hands well coordinated! I'll practice with friends, first.
    Gigi
    Reply
  2. Salute mi amigo!!!! Esta frase we mui importante aqui in Mexico. I hope that was sort of right! This is one of the first things I learned when I moved here!
    Reply
  3. the translation is quite simple: Above, below, to the middle, to the outside.
    Reply
  4. quite popular in Basque areas too, from my trip in June '10
    Reply
  5. nice note! i enjoy this toast myself!
    Reply
  6. I do this everytime me and my girls are in the mexican nite club
    Reply
  7. Above, below, to the middle (al centro), for the inside (para dentro).
    Reply
  8. The traslation is :
    UP
    DOWN
    CENTER
    and Inside
    And we use it, in every latin country not only mexico
    Reply
  9. I spent two weeks in Costa Rica and we used this phrase all the time!
    Reply
  10. Rod anfinson taught this to me a few years ago. Oh the memories we had were worth remembering. RIP. The beginning of every adventure, during the adventure, and at the end if we're still standing.
    Phx, AZ~San Diego, Calii~ Cabo, Mexico




Zipolite


Roca Blanca Zipolite 100 percent Oaxaca


The Mexykan Supper Club | Puerto Escondido | Oaxaca | Mexico The Mexykan Supper Club. Offerings From the Soul and the Kitchen. Locally Sourced, Expertly Prepared. Real Food For Everyone that Lives To Eat. www.themexykan.com/.../the-mexykan-supper-club-october-2...

The Mexykan Supper Club | Puerto Escondido | Oaxaca | Mexico
The Mexykan Supper Club. Offerings From the Soul and the Kitchen. Locally Sourced, Expertly Prepared. Real Food For Everyone that Lives To Eat.
www.themexykan.com/.../the-mexykan-supper-club-october-2...



¿Habla usted inglés? (Backpacking Mexico and Central America)




SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2012


Puerto Escondido (part 2) - Oct 26

So we are in Puerto Escondido .. the home of Mexican Pipeline (one of the world´s most famous big wave spots), so maybe it shouldnt come as too much of a surprise that it is quite difficult to find a more mellow wave more suitable to my and the Wo´s abilities. It was this fact and the realisation there are no good mellow waves nearby that caused us to be feeling a bit down about the place. 

It is however by far the most touristy place we have yet been, there are lots of gringos all over the beach. (I was starting to think no-one really came to Mexico), at night it does have a bit of a dodgy vibe (the girl staying at our hostel had her iphone taken by a threating knife weilding hombre), but during the day it seems ok. 

The hostel we are staying in is more like a bunch of shacks, spent my first night ever sleeping under a mosquito net .. and had a surprisingly good sleep.  

15 years in a hammock

This entry was published on October 26, 2012 at 7:30 pm. It’s filed under Good times and tagged,. Bookmark thepermalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.


Margarito

15 years


in a

 hammock

I recently met this lovely wise man in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. He suggested that I might want to visit where he lives; in a lagoon 30 minutes out of town… off we went. He took great pleasure in showing me around. Of course the place looked magical. What was most impressive and contributed to an unusual and very soothing atmosphere was the intensity of the silence. There were some exotic birds and apparently crocodiles & snakes live there too. What was most impressive & interesting was him, Margarito! A unique character with a big heart and so much wisdom. He has been living in his hammock for 15 years. He moves it depending on how he feels like, from one side of this huge lagoon, to the other. If it gets too hot, he just parks his canoe in the middle of the lagoon and sleeps there. He doesn’t fish in the lagoon, avoiding contributing to the issue of overfishing. He spends his nights reading philosophy and learning new languages, using his lamp torch. I visited his house, the largest house there is on earth according to him: the whole lagoon.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Mazunte Color


Carnaval de Zipolite MAP


Lubbock's annual 'Dia de Los Muertos procession will take place Friday By William Kerns Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012 12:39am


Morning Coffee
His Pa

Lubbock's annual 'Dia de Los Muertos procession will take place Friday
LubbockOnline.com
They have participated each year since visiting the Mexican state of Oaxaca together during its Day of the Dead celebration in 2006. “They price their work so inexpensively that anyone can buy it,” Bell said. “People who cannot spend more than $250 for ...







Iron Maiden - Wrathchild

Specials - Message to You Rudy

Michael Johnson - Bluer than Blue

Kansas - Point of No Return

3 Doors Down - Here Without You - HD




Published on Oct 27, 2012 by 
"Here Without You" is the title of a song recorded by American rock band 3 Doors Down. It was released in August 2003 as the third single from the album Away from the Sun. It peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending November 8, 2003. Only their songs "Kryptonite" and "When I'm Gone" reached higher positions on the chart. It has since been certified 2x Platinum in the United States and Platinum in Australia.

The song grew in popularity following the start of the Iraq War, and became an anthem for deployed troops and their familes and friends at home.

Brad Arnold states that the main inspiration for this song was his now ex-wife. The song is about being away from someone and missing them, and it's not about how long you've gone, it's about the loneliness that comes with missing someone. It's also about a state of peace that comes with dreaming of the missed loved one.

Fleetwood Mac - Gypsy - HD




Published on Oct 27, 2012 by 
"Gypsy" is a song by the rock group Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks wrote the song originally circa 1979, and the earliest demo recordings were recorded in early 1980 with Tom Moncrieff for possible inclusion on her solo debut Bella Donna. However, when Nicks' friend Robin Anderson died of leukemia, the song took on a new significance and Nicks held it over for Fleetwood Mac. "Gypsy" was the second single release and second biggest hit from the Mirage album following Hold Me. "Gypsy" reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A cover version of the song was featured in the "Silent Knight" episode of the television series Knight Rider.

There are two points of inspiration behind "Gypsy," as stated by Stevie Nicks. The first of which is a point of nostalgia for Nicks; her life before Fleetwood Mac. Before joining the iconic band, Nicks lived with Lindsey Buckingham, who would also join Fleetwood Mac. Nicks and Buckingham were partners in both the musical and romantic sense, however, only their musical partnership has survived. Nicks met Buckingham at a high school party, where he was singing California Dreaming by the Mamas and the Papas. Nicks joined in with perfect harmony, then they introduced themselves. They didn't see each other again until college, where they started a relationship, and started a duo called Buckingham Nicks. They barely got by with Nicks' waitress and cleaning-lady income. They couldn't afford a bed frame, so they slept on a single mattress, directly on the floor. Nicks says the mattress was decorated in lace, with a vase and a flower at its side. When she feels her famous life getting to her, she goes "back to her roots," and takes her mattress off of the frame "back to the floor," that she loved, and decorates it with "some lace, and paper flowers." It takes her back to the days when she had no wealth- back to herself as a poor gypsy. Some speculate the rest of this song is directed at Buckingham, assuming the lyric depict her leaving him. On March 31, 2009, Nicks gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly discussing the inspiration for the song: "Oh boy, I've never really spoken about this, so I get verklempt, and then I've got the story and I start to screw it up. Okay: In the old days, before Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey [Buckingham] and I had no money, so we had a king-size mattress, but we just had it on the floor. I had old vintage coverlets on it, and even though we had no money it was still really pretty... Just that and a lamp on the floor, and that was it—there was a certain calmness about it. To this day, when I'm feeling cluttered, I will take my mattress off of my beautiful bed, wherever that may be, and put it outside my bedroom, with a table and a little lamp."

On March 25, 2009 during a show in Montreal on Fleetwood Mac's Unleashed Tour, Stevie Nicks gave a short history of the inspiration behind Gypsy. She explained it was written sometime in 1978-79, when the band had become "very famous, very fast," and it was a song that brought her back to an earlier time, to an apartment in San Francisco where she had taken the mattress off her bed and put it on the floor. To contextualize, she voiced the lyrics: "So I'm back, to the velvet underground. Back to the floor, that I love. To a room with some lace and paper flowers. Back to the gypsy that I was." Those are the words: 'So I'm back to the velvet underground' — which is a clothing store in downtown San Francisco, where Janis Joplin got her clothes, and Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane, it was this little hole in the wall, amazing, beautiful stuff — 'back to the floor that I love, to a room with some lace and paper flowers, back to the gypsy that I was.'

The second, and most emotional, subject of this song is the message as a tribute to someone's passing. On October 12, 1982, Robin Snyder Anderson, Stevie's best friend, died of leukemia.

Carnaval de Zipolite, San Pedro Pochutla, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2012


Green Acres A Square Is Not Round [One of my favorite episodes! :) ivan ]

Carnaval de Zipolite ... Del 1 al 5 de Noviembre 2012 ... Zipolite,k San Pedro Pochutla, Oaxaca


Friday, October 26, 2012

The Day of the Dead, La Feria del Alfeñique and Strange Mexican Candies OCT 29


The Day of the Dead, La Feria del Alfeñique and Strange Mexican Candies

I have a modest personal mission to eat all things strange in Mexico. So far I’m doing pretty well – aside from strange delicious things like Chiles en Nogada, I’ve had strange nasty things like Tacos de Sesos (brain tacos), Chapulines (fried crickets), and chicken-spine soup. I haven’t yet tried Tacos de Cran (cow dick) and I’m not sure I will
Eating strange things is a little like the old philosophical idea about knowledge: the more you acquire, the less you realize you actually know. So I’ve given up my hope of eating strange things from all around the world, though I’ve done pretty well so far with Balut in the Philippines (a chicken embryo inside a hard-boiled egg), San-Nak-Ji in Korea (still-living, moving octopus tentacles), and raw jellyfish in China.
But my true mission is to eat strange in Mexico, and not strictly disgusting things. So what better way to get closer to my obviously unattainable goal than by visiting the Feria del Alfeñique in central Toluca, a five-minute walk from my apartment.
The Day of the Dead takes place on Nov. 2nd. It’s a celebration where Mexicans remember their dead relatives by placing a shrine in their homes full of fruit, sweets, and sometimes booze. If Grandpa used to like a special tequila or whiskey, then in the shrine it goes – along with Grandma’s favorite snacks and candies.
What’s even cooler is that at night they visit the cemetery, sometimes sleeping there. I haven’t yet made a cemetery visit. Maybe I’ll get a chance but for now I’m enjoying the food associated with the event.
The month before the Day of the Dead about a hundred vendors set up in the Portales and sell all things related to the holiday. This is the Feria del Alfeñique, a great way to sample cool, strange Mexican candies. Even if they look a little weird, they are still covered in sugar and will probably taste good.
It seems like anything can be candied. The green things on the right in the picture below are candied nopales, large cactus leaves:
Here are limones stuffed with coconut. You eat the whole thing:
There’s quite a bit of variety in the stands. You can buy candy by the kilo:
This stuff is good:
And of course don’t forget the sugar skulls:
Notice the chocolate bones on the left:
The stands run through all three sides of the portales. You can spend plenty of time checking out each stand, sampling the odd things and getting a good stomachache.
Aside from candies you can also get a lot of little craft things. My favorites are the calavaritas, little skull figures. They are great gifts, buy the one doing the job or activity of your friend:
Maybe like me you are too busy to visit a cemetery on the Day of the Dead, but if you are near Toluca the month beforehand then you can get a taste, literally, of the tradition right here in the center of town.

About TC

Ted Campbell writes about travel, culture, music, food, and mountain biking. He lives in Mexico and writes a blog called No Hay Bronca. http://nohaybronca.wordpress.com/

Skudge - Melodrama (Original Mix)