Mar 15, 2012
....after the Friday concert in Culiacan a young woman interviewed Colin.....the story appeared on March 12th, page 18 of the El Debate Culiacan Newspaper. The article follows below. You have to read the left column thru the 2 photos then back up to the right column for the remainder of the article. What a surprise for us, even I was mentioned!!!
Mar 14, 2012
Everything has been put away, the laundry dropped off, massages for each of us and lots of sleep.
It is so good to be back walking the beach. It feels like I was away for two weeks rather than a few days. The girls are so happy.
Monday evening we had Judy and Avy over for drinks and dinner. They were leaving heading NW for El Golfo today.
Have a safe trip folks. It was great meeting you. See you in the Okanagan!
I forgot to mention we had our last Tres Amigos book club last Thursday, the 8th. We discussed Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, a World War 11 biography about Louis Zamperini who is still alive today at 95. It is a story of his survival due to great inner strength and resilience. A very interesting read. Our group was smaller as two had already left for the great North.
Quick note that if you paid your vehicle deposit coming into Mexico, in USD cash it is instantly refunded back to you in USD cash. No complaints or problems with the refunds being processed to those who used credit cards. So the system works!!
Colin and I had a quick trip into town today but more on that another time. The plan now is to relax, relax and relax!! Oh and of course to enjoy some adult beverages:)
You just never know what you are going to see heading down the beach......
Mar 13, 2012
Sunday morning was packing up, walking the girls and the final meal with Heriberto and family.
We were all so tired but I think Colin most of all...catching a 10 minute nap with his girls. Can you find the two girls?
Sunday morning is a traditional pancake breakfast made by Heriberto. He is squeezing oranges for juice while I try to put a blog together and Christian is studying.
...things are moving along!
...somehow we ended up with "chocolate" pancakes 🙁
We did have a great breakfast and left their home late as usual!!. We then had stops for gas, at an ATM to get much needed pesos and at Sorianna for some groceries. We finally left Culiacan about 2:30PM and got back to Tres Amigos just in time to unload the car and see the sunset. The drive home went quickly as we had so much to talk about. The girls slept all the way back. They are still not 100% but we hope that now that we are all home together they will improve quickly.
Very very tired but happy to be home.
Mar 12, 2012
I now understand why Colin says there is no time to sleep in Culiacan. During the Festival there is only time for music, talking, music, eating and music and more music!!!
We got less than five hours sleep Friday night and with tired eyes and bodies we took the girls for a walk through some of the gardens at the Botanical Park. We were all revived by this beautiful city. Culiacan is the capital of Sinaloa and not a tourist town but a city of government and education with 2 public universities and 6 private universities. Over lunch with a businessman at Los Arcos Restaurant we discussed that because Culiacan has a stable population with full employment, it has a good economy, the restaurants and shops are full of people. This is as opposed to Mazatlan that depends on tourism. Less tourism leads to poverty and eventually violence. Culiacanenses believe that Mazatlan is very dangerous which is opposite of what we Rvers read in the news. In fact the businessman, Octavio Lafarga, owner The Conquista pastry chain, who treated us to a lovely meal has had to close four of his shops in Mazatlan due to lack of business.
Normally the final concert of the Festival International de Guitarra is an artist performing with the symphony, the same one we attended here in Mazatalan in February, the Orquestra Sinfonica Sinaloa de las Artes under the direction of Maestro Gordon Campbell. The symphony however played Thursday evening leaving the final night open for David Russell, likely the top classical guitar artist in the world.
David Russell trained in London, now lives in Spain when not travelling the world. He and his wife Maria travel not just to perform but also to visit the various schools they have founded in India and Africa.
Of note is that Colin’s music instructor in Kelowna is Alan Rinehart, a very good friend of David Russell. In fact Colin’s special guitar is being stored over the winter in Alan’s humidity controlled music studio.
Needless to say the theatre Saturday night was full, everyone wanted to hear David Russell, his first performance in this part of Mexico. I was overwhelmed by the number of young audience members. From personal experience I would say that in Canada most of the audience would be middle aged to elderly, patrons of the arts. Of course there were those in the audience but the young people and their love for the guitar amazed me.
I have no words to describe the beauty of the sounds I heard that night. At one point I closed my eyes and just listened, spectacular. In another piece I would have sworn that I was listening to a harp. David made his instrument go through such ranges of sound, it was like magic. It is obvious he is one with his music and expresses what he is feeling from his soul. We were able to purchase a CD after the concert "Aire Latino' for which he won a Grammy in 2005 for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance.
A perfect ending to a week of music in Culiacan.
Maestro Heriberto Soberanes y David Russell. Heriberto has been involved in the Festival International de Guitarra for many many years. We thank him and his family for hosting us and the girls in their home.
A part of the Guitar Festival is an International Guitar Competition, open to all nationalities without age limit. There were 17 entries and these fellows were some of the finalists but alas not the winners of the competition. However I think they came away from their time in Culiacan much richer than when they had arrived. From the left is Franciel Monteira from Brazil who is going on to play a concert in Puebla this week, on my other side is David Calderon from Costa Rica who learned to speak English this week and on the right Javier Hernandez Tagle from Toluca, Mexico. All new wonderful friends who I plan to visit in the coming years.
After the concert we went to an Italian restaurant to celebrate. So ends our time as part of the festival in Culiacan. It was so wonderful meeting everyone but Maria & David Russell have a special place in our hearts and we know we shall see them somewhere again in the future. Adios amigos!!
Mar 10, 2012
Guess where I am?
CULIACAN!!
Colin left there at 6:30 AM Friday after being up till about 1AM and drove back to Mazatlan pick up his girls. He has wanted me to join him for the final concerts for years and years and so finally we made it work. Yes, the girls are not perfectly healthy but they sure were happy to see their Dad.
Culiacan is much talked about in Mexico as being so very very unsafe and violent because of the drug cartels. The following is something Colin emailed me the other night.
….talked to few people about the dangerous city I am in as per campedores ( RVers ). The take here is that this is a city of growth, of education – 7 universities and the battle against crime is done by educating the people. There is little poverty here. Havent seen any myself in 5 years. There are modern buildings being constructed. People, couples walk along the rivers at night. There are popcorn and other vendors, very safe, very pretty. Now the take on Mazatlan is that it is dangerous, much crime and more crime than in Culiacan based on the population and percentage of crimes per million people. If you equate that to Maz, you will find there is more crime there. Mazatlan has a couple of good areas, Golden Zone and Plazuela Machado area, the rest of the neighborhoods are colonia style and the people living there are in poverty. Many people, no money, theft, killings etc. Federales driving around in baclavas with machine guns. Must be here but have never seen it. The people here do think Mazatlan is dangerous and prefer not to go there. Culiacan is likened to Edmonton or Winnipeg etc. don’t know why campedores have a negative feeling for Culiacan. People here not begging nor doing anything to ask for money.
Posing with Ricardo Gallen, a great guitarist from Spain currently teaching in Germany.
...and with Ana Vidovic from Croatia!
Those photos were taken earlier in the week before I arrived. We arrived in Culiacan about 4PM, just in time to unpack, walk the dogs and rush off to the evenings concert. The girls adapted very well and Christian, the youngest son dog sat. Apparently Carmeh spent the entire evening looking out the window waiting for our return.
Last evening, Ricardo Gallen performed, possibly one of the world's top guitarists at a mere 40 years of age. It was an outstanding performance, amazing to watch with sounds I have never heard come from this instrument.
Our hosts Heriberto y Isela Soberanes. In the plaid shirt is David Russell, tonight's artist.
Ricardo Gallen has been teaching classes for the last three weeks here in Culiacan. After the concert many of this week's performers and Ricardo's students went out to a restaurant. From left to right....Ricardo Gallen, David Russell, a woman from Monterrey who owns a music store there and sells guitars made in Paracho and with her back to us, Ioana, the blind guitarist who performed here Tuesday evening ( apparently she performed in Mazatlan on Thursday evening at the Teatro Angela Peralta ~ wish I had known and been able to go see her......myself and the lady in black on the right is Maria, David Russell's wife.
We spoke of many things. I do envy their lifestyle, they travel close to eight months a year, performing and teaching.
We met this delightful young fellow from the Canary Islands who now resides in New York City, my most favorite city in the world. We had hours of wonderful conversation and soon I will be going to visit Diego in NYC.
Not until later did I come to realize that Diego is actually Diego Barber, the composer who wrote the final piece of the concert. How special to be able to get the background on the composition and origins of this wonderful piece of music. When I mentioned to Ricardo that I/we would be visiting Diego in New York within a year he said he would come join us there!!
As the evening wore on, the students who had been sitting all around us started asking questions about our life, why were we in Mexico and Culiacan. Many had seen Colin at the Festival over the years but all did not realize that he also played the guitar.
It was a wonderful night that I didn't want to end. Everyone is so friendly here.
I felt right at home with all these strangers. Mexico is a magical place. Culiacan is a wonderful and I would feel safe living here. Most interesting is that when we arrived yesterday afternoon my Spanish vocabulary seemed to have eluded me. By the end of the evening I was in full swing and back to normal. Practice, practice, practice, be it a language or music!
Guess what? I get to do this all over again tonight!!