There photos were not taken this year. I’ve wanted to share these images I took last year but by the time I got to edit the RAW files, it was around November, so it would feel weird to post September’s Mexico Independence day photos very close to Christmas celebrations.
This time, since I didn’t go out this year to celebrate (I had an early work meeting at 8:30am the next day), I can now post timely the Independence day pictures that are timeless, since there are no dates showing anywhere. They work as well for any year.
We went to Coyoacan for the celebrations, on my first september in Mexico city. Although I wanted to go to the Zocalo, the main place where the president does the main ceremony that is televised internationally, we opted for a smaller town. Zocalo gets too crowded, with very intimidating security and police and snipers and worse than TSA personal searches.
Instead, Coyoacan feels more like a little old mexican town, no excessive police, friendly walks, a small fair with rides, traditional food and games. I was told you can enjoy this a lot more, and so we did.
The cotton candy man was a true artist. He made several huge figures, but I could only capture two of them. It was very entertaining watching him work.
We’re planning to go to Zocalo next year, but we’re looking for the safest way to do it. Nearby hotels have a view to the Zocalo from the top and offer dinners. We’ll try to make a reservation in one of them.
Browsing in my photo collection from last year, I found these photos I had forgotten to process from RAW files.
Looking at them made me miss my hometown and its beach. It’s never been a highly touristic beach, although it does have its high season during spring break where thousands gather and there is no space to even stand. But it is a nice beach, most of the year is very calm with very few people around.
I have countless great memories here, as I grew up here and most of my teenage days I spent them at the beach, either alone or with friends, but I love being at the sea. It’s been a little more than 6 years that I’ve been living away from the sea and I still miss it every sunny day.
At the beach there’s always people selling all kinds of stuff. These are the most traditional things you’ll find people sell at the beach: sweets, coconuts and corn.
Whenever I see a bright sunny day, I always say “this is a great day to go to the beach”. A phrase commonly and easily said in my hometown. I guess old habits never die.
I had the chance to try out the Fujifilm X-M1 mirrorless camera. All the images in this post were taken with it, no post processsing, and I think the results are of great quality.
Back in the Bay Area once again thanks to my job, I mainly visited Oakland, Fremont, Berkeley, Pleasanton and of course, San Francisco. Since my friend Basilio moved to California a couple months ago, I had the chance to stay during the weekend for some sightseeing and shopping.
I tried ramen for the first time at Japan Town, visited my favorite restaurant in Chinatown and at night we stopped at Treasure Island to take some city skyline shots. I love visiting San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Grant’s tobacco shop, a historic landmark in San Francisco has closed. It was shocking to me to find out this way, walking all the way through market to suddenly have this sad view of the shop. I have good memories of the time I first encountered the shop, made new friends and had a great time. I was looking forward to have more of that nice time there on my visit to San Francisco.
Before having lunch, my friend Gozner the magician performed some amazing card tricks.
Then after a some relaxing time and chat with friends by the hotel pool, we went downtown.
The Dia de Muertos celebrations were still going on during those days so there was a lot of skulls and traditional mexican things related to that in the street markets.
After any good day there must be a nice cold beer. This michelada made my day, very refreshing and with shrimps on it, a great way to end the day.
And in some occasions, enjoying a good cigar with that cold beer is a great combination for total relaxation.
I went to San Francisco last week and after the few things I had the compromise to do, I decided to walk around the city and practice my photography skills.
I stayed at a very cheap hotel, not knowing well the surroundings, let’s just say that 9th and Mission street is not a very touristic neighborhood to be. Luckily the hotel room was nice, clean and functional, so I decided not to cancel my reservation and stayed there.
Walking down Market street I stumbled upon a farmer’s market at Civic Center. It’s nice to see all the natural products by local farmers being sold there. I used to go to something similar in Mexico with my grandmother when I was little, so it kind of brings back some memories.
There was a kind of “food corner” in the market, lots of different options, mixed food scents in the air, it all made me hungry. I was in a very touristic mode, so I wondered if I could get a classic american street hotdog. I know, this is not New York, its California, so I couldn’t find any hotdogs (at least not right there). I found crepes, lots of mexican food (which I refuse to take, since for me it’s…well, just food, but with a crappy taste), and vegetarian options. Then I saw a Greek food stand, and I’ve never before had greek so I tried that. I enjoyed it a lot, very tasteful, loved the lamb and pita. Still, why aren’t there a traditional hotdog cart?
Then I bought some tickets for the musical Hair at the Golden Gate theater. The actors on stage interact with the audience a lot and the music is great (oh and there was this brief moment of full nudity on stage). I’ve only seen the movie before, and expected the play to have the same storyline, but it doesn’t. It’s the same topic and all but very different storyline.
Later that day, I saw the Occupy San Francisco movement by the Federal Reserve Bank building.
The next day I took another long walk (about 28 kms) all day along the bay and returned just in time to do some shopping around Union Square. I intended to take a tour to Alcatraz, but I couldn’t make it. I didn’t had the schedule at hand, so if you’re planning to take the tour, don’t be like me and visit the Alcatraz cruises website to have the information ready beforehand. It was a great sunny (but not hot) day and I hope the photos came out great as well.
Ended the day with some shopping around Union Square, where there was ice skating going on.
Although it is always nice to have some self time and walk around a big city observing and taking pictures of all the interesting things (and some not as interesting) around you. If I didn’t have my camera, I don’t know what I would’ve been doing by myself around the city. Unfortunately, I’m not in any of my pictures, since I had no one to photograph me.
Travelling alone can get boring sometimes. The good part of it is that I got to do exactly what I wanted, go wherever I wanted and walked kilometers with no one else but myself to complain about it. I really enjoy those silent reflexion moments for one self.
Have you gone travelling alone? What activities you like to do on those trips to not get bored or homesick?
