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Nancy & Paul

I have decided that it is high time for THE LATIN AMERICAN BLOGGER AWARDS! The winners below are only the first set of awards...no telling when the second Latin American Blogger Awards will be announced.

So, without further ado, here we go - in no particular order:

MOST BEAUTIFUL - I have read Heather in Paradise's post on beauty at least a dozen times, and every time I read it I want to thank her for it. Absolutely beautiful.

MOST AWFUL AND HEARTWARMING - Jennifer and Chuck in Mazatlán were robbed a while back, and her first post about what happened is wonderful. But the saga continued, and I marveled at their ability to stay sane throughout and how the whole thing ended up. There are five follow up posts that I recommend you read in this order - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I think you'll agree about the awful and heartwarming award once you read them.

MOST FRIENDLY - Wayne in Isla Mujeres comments frequently and is a good friend to so many bloggers! He knocked himself out putting together the Blogger Meetup last April. I count him as a friend even though we haven't met - yet.

BEST DISCONTINUED BLOG - The Road to Merida is a wonderful blog (written by mom Andrea) of two months with her family living in Merida. She is funny, irreverent, and shares so much in a very intimate and disarming way.

MOST PERSONAL & VARIED - Jonna at Blah Blah Blah Ginger! writes about a multitude of interesting topics. From dogs & cats, to remodeling a house in Merida, to their condo on the beach in Akumal, to traveling, and RVs, painful dentistry, and much more. I couldn't figure out how to link to individual posts on her blog so you'll just have to go there and browse around!

MOST HILARIOUS - You need to read Elliott in Ajijic's post on her old life vs. her new life, especially if you used to work in an office. She is always hilarious!

MOST GUTSY - Cynthia and Mike moved from the Pacific Northwest to Mexico City to teach English. Along the way they had a multitude of challenges and setbacks - medical issues when they visited Mexico City, to disillusionment with the teaching arrangements once they got there. Not people to cave in when the going got tough, they regrouped, and with help of blogger Brenda and others, ended up in Guyamas, in a great living situation and with a teaching gig. You guys are gutsy and strong!

MOST INTERESTING - John lives in San Miguel de Allende. He gets around, though. Wherever he travels he posts wonderful in-depth accounting of the most interesting bits. His travels in Europe, Argentina, and around México are always - and I mean always - wonderful. I tried to pick out one post as a favorite, but I couldn't as they are always interesting, and accompanied by exquisite pictures as well.

MOST INTELLECTUAL, HIP & EDGY - Malcolm and Jillian of Dropped In have dropped out from blogging a little bit lately, but I am hoping they'll be back soon. They live at the beach in the Yucatan and look at the world from a fresh perspective. Unafraid and witty, they always make me think. And laugh. And wish I was in my 30's again. Read this post for sure, and check out the rest.

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY - Award goes to Billie in San Miguel de Allende. Her photographs are thought provoking and challenging without being sentimental or trite. I've loved being introduced to the Holga and have learned quite a lot about photography from her. Oh, as well as about Mexico, cooking, friendship, growing older, and much much more.

MOST RELIABLE - The Working Gringos at Yucatan Living have been one of my favorites for a long time. They have basically created a portal for information on Merida and the Yucatan - which sounds dry and businesslike - but oh, no, it isn't. From interviews with people living and working in the area, to excursions into the countryside, to restaurant reviews, and the details of building a house or getting your car licensed - there is something for everyone. Even if you don't live in the Yucatan.

So there you have it! The winners of the FIRST LATIN AMERICAN BLOGGERS AWARDS!

I've been on a roll lately (hmmm...a blogroll) finding people blogging about their lives in Mexico. Check them out:

Family moves to Merida - their ¡Vamanos! blog is about their life in Mérida. The whole family moved for Dad's work, and they expect to stay in Mexico until 2010.

Larry & Indra in Progreso write Yucatan Rebirth. They are almost done building their house, and their most recent post gives a nice tour of Progreso.

David Lida in Mexico City - Very interesting writer (of several books) His posts are always relevant and I have added one of his books to my Amazon wish list.

Mexico Bob lives and works in Irapuato. He seems like a very nice, genuine, intelligent person - and his posts are well written and interesting.

Our final link is to a page on Mexico Guru with a quiz that will help you decide where to retire in Mexico. Fun and harmless.

I am always on the lookout for interesting people blogging from Mexico. Here are a few I am adding to my blogroll:

Joy in Mexico City - Joy and her dog Charlie live in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City. I love her energy and writing style.

Paul in Merida - Paul writes Hammock Musings from Merida. He writes about everything from poetry to finances.

Allan and Matt in Playa del Carmen - These guys and their two dogs are enroute to Playa right now, moving from Boston. They are having fun so far - it should be interesting to follow along!

Toni in Walamo - Toni is a young Michigan woman who came to Walamo, a very small town outside Mazatlán, to teach English for the summer. She lived with a family and I really enjoyed her stories of small town life. She has headed home now so I won't add her to the blog roll but thought you might enjoy reading her blog.

Internet groups, forums, and bulletin boards have been around for ages, and they have a special importance for people considering moving to another country or who want to communicate with like-minded people about their new home. But there can be a down side to them - which will come as no surprise, I'm sure.

I've read about various expat forums in Mexico (not to be named) that are really terrible for gossip and flaming. If you don't know what flaming is it is when some poor chump posts a comment and gets burned to smithereens, sometimes without even knowing what hit him.

For several years anyway, Mazatlan has had two forums. One is a Yahoo group and the other is a kind of portal for Mazatlan information that also has a forum. Over the last nine months or so I have seen both of these groups pretty much lose their collective minds and degenerate into name calling and unpleasantness. I am amazed at the kind of petty stuff people will write in public.

I think one of the problems with these forums is that if you want to, you can be anonymous. Make up a silly online name, use a yahoo, hotmail, or gmail account and no one will know where that venomous post came from! Isn't this fun?

John over at Viva Veracruz forum had a bit of a challenge with one user when his forum was new but by managing the negative attitude properly he managed to keep his forum from going sour.

One of the things I like about Viva Veracruz is that the forum itself is organized by interest. Food, Around the House, Mexico resources, Speaking Spanish, etc. So if you are interested in a couple of things but not the rest, just go where you like. It also isn't an email format - you go to the web address when you want to see what's up and you post from that interface. It is nice because there aren't a bunch of redundant posts - you can see right away if someone has answered the question.

But there is an option in Mazatlán, and that's where you'll find me. Our friend Jennifer has a forum at MeXscape, and it is a good one. The forum is similar to Viva Veracruz (described above) and it is a friendly, helpful place. In the event someone were to write an inflammatory or mean spirited post, I'm sure she would deal with the perpetrator right away. No need to worry about flaming.

I'd love to see people at the two other older forums clean up their acts and play nice. They do manage to do that for a week here and there, but then back it goes to negativity and crankiness. So instead of subjecting myself to reading that kind of thing on a daily basis, I am going to participate in MeXscape and Viva Veracruz, where people are nice to each other!

If you hadn't noticed, I've redone my Latin American Bloggers list using Blogger's new page element blog list tool. I really liked the option to organize by date published when I'd noticed it on a few other blogs, and it didn't take me very long change mine over.

Some of the owners of blogs on my list may notice a decrease in their blog stats, though, since I no longer just "go check" to see if there is new content. Sorry!

There's a new blog included in the list, too. Moving Kids to Mexico is a family who are moving to Mexico with their two school age children for a year. They are currently in the process of driving down, and the blog hasn't divulged yet where they're headed. I think it should be a fun one to watch.

I'm probably not the only blogger who keeps a pad on my desk where I jot down blog ideas. Sometimes the idea is complete in my mind and I just need to take a few pictures and sometimes I need to chew on it for a bit to decide how I want to present my ideas.

One idea that I've been chewing on for quite a while has to do with taking pictures.

Whenever I see a picture of a beautiful person in traditional costume or engaged in a religious rite or the riding a donkey like the boy in the picture above I often think about how they feel about having their picture taken. To all the "real" photographers out there - do you ask? If you do, does it spoil the moment? What about if you aren't fluent in Spanish?

The picture below is the original picture (with permission from Lee in Mazatlan) and I love seeing that her late husband was talking to the young boy on the donkey. Makes me feel a lot different than the first photo did.


Back at Christmas-time there was a small procession from one of the smaller churches to the cathedral. A priest, a couple of altar boys with banners and about a dozen parishoners were walking along a side street and we happened to see them while we were out walking the dogs. I actually felt like I shouldn't even look since it was a private thing for them.....and then I saw a tourist clicking his camera - and for some reason it made me mad.

When I was composing my post about our car wash friend Cuauhtémoc - I really wanted a picture of him not posing for a picture but I just couldn't bring myself to go into stealth mode. And of course once I asked him if I could take his picture he had to put down his rags and wave at me.

And then came my post on the visible underwear. I honestly saw so many women with horrible underwear that would have been fun to go along with that post, but I just couldn't grab the camera and click.

Today I read Jillian's post at Dropped In about the Handsome Senora - and at the end she says she is still too shy to ask to take her picture. I can totally understand. But Jillian painted a picture for me so I truly can see her in my mind.

I would love to hear how you feel about taking pictures, especially of people wearing traditional dress or participating in religious ceremonies.

I've added a few new blogs to our blog roll recently and I thought I'd bring them to your attention.

Chantel is moving to Manzanillo - she lives in Western Canada and just sold her house. Follow along as she and her beagle make the move to her favorite vacation destination of ten years.

Erika in Mexico City - Erika moved to Mexico City from Toronto in 2006. She has had several jobs and tells about her life in Mexico City in a voice that I find interesting and appealing.

Gary in Mexico City - Gary moved to Mexico City from Britain in 2005 and teaches Business English. His photos are great and his insights into life here are fun to read.

Linda and Bill in Alamos - Linda and Bill are currently on their way to Alamos from the Pacific Northwest. They've bought a house and are eager to get to work on it!

I hope you'll check their blogs out when you have a minute.

There's been a lot of flap lately among the Latin American blogger community about comments. I don't want to rehash what's been said - but the more I thought about it the more I knew I needed to get something out.

The crux of the matter for me is that it's MY BLOG and I can set the rules. My blog is a fun place for me to talk about our experiences here in Mexico. I really enjoy it. I think other people appreciate the effort I put into it. I love it when people comment, too.

BUT....I want it to stay fun. I don't want to put a bunch of rules on how I blog. Regular readers will note that sometimes I write three or four posts a week and sometimes more than a week will go by. It just depends on what I am thinking about, how busy I am, etc.

I don't want it to be like WORK. I want it to be FUN. Sometimes it's all I can do to write a post, and I have no more time to give to it. That means comments may go unanswered sometimes. I have a "email us" link at the right so you can email me if you need a response. And actually, questions that really require a response should be sent in an email anyway. In my book comments are just that - comments.

So, please help me keep on having fun.

PS - The lizard above - I found him in our office yesterday and think he had been there a while because he was really lethargic. We released him in the backyard, sprinkled him with the hose, and an hour later he was gone. He was about 8 inches long.

While a lot of bloggers were lucky to attend the Blogger Meetup last week on Isla Mujeres put together by Wayne, we had another Meetup going here in Mazatán.

Bliss and the Captain sailed into Mazatlán and we had several enjoyable visits. They were moored in an area just South of Centro - less than five minutes by car from our house.

We ran over to the marina and picked Bliss up. We came back to our place and after a while she and I had a great romp through the mercado getting them re-provisioned. That night we went out to the Plazuela Machado and had a drink and got to visit with the Captain, too.

They are such wonderful people. Funny. Inventive. Walkers. Dog-lovers. Readers. México lovers. Mazatlán lovers. It was just great to hang out with them. Bliss is a walking fool - one day she walked all over Centro on her own "walking tour." (I'm sure she'll blog about that when she gets back to San Carlos)

Paul and I know very little about sailing, so it was interesting to hear what life is like when you spend months at a time living on the water. So much thought has to be put into everything - in advance. No running out to the store when you have an urge! The Captain is very inventive and capable with all the mechanical things - you can tell that he just loves figuring out a better way! A couple of his ideas sound like they might be very popular and even patent-worthy.

We got to meet Sofia and Chica, too. What sweet little dogs, even when being somewhat intimidated by a roaming pitbull mix that was twice their size.

Today we had a great breakfast together, traded some books, and had one last visit before they get ready to head out on Monday. We had a wonderful time and I am just so happy that we were really able to get to know each other.

Jonna of Blah Blah Blah Ginger (in Merida and Akumel) just tagged me with a bloggers game....here are the rules:

When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list eight random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to eight other people.

So, here goes:

• I am a bit over-obsessed with vacuuming up dog fur.
  
  
• The only coffee worth drinking is espresso, and good espresso is heavenly!
  
  
• I am really enjoying our transition to a tv-less life. Thanks, MegaCable!
  
  
• Last year I read 77 books and this year so far 44. I keep track here.
  
  
• My best friend and I have been best friends for 40 years!
  
  
• I can't imagine a life without a couple of dogs.
  
  
• I am going to write a book.
  
  
• I have a hard time sitting still.

I've been a bad blogger.

Blogging protocol is that when people comment on a post the blogger comments afterwards....thanking people for their comments, and creating a conversational sort of comment thread.

I have been remiss in going back in with my own thanks and comments lately - but I want all of you to know how much your comments, advice, and feedback means to us.

The challenges we are negotiating right now have been faced by many of you in the past. Your insights and advice have helped us through a number of obstacles, and also helped us relax knowing that other folks have successfully managed the same kind of challenges.

So, without beating myself up too much, I wanted to thank all of you for your comments and I promise to do a little better in the future!

I just read a post on Billie's Blog and just had to laugh! I had been thinking of talking about the same thing! And since Blogger wasn't cooperating with allowing me to make a comment I thought I'd just go ahead and put my thoughts to um...er...plastic and wires.

To start with, I met one of my favorite people ever through the internet - my husband Paul. It was crazy that we'd never met before since we both lived in Seattle in the same general area, our kids participated in Boys and Girls club sports and we frequented the same restaurants among other similarities. We exchanged emails for weeks before meeting in person, and the depth of our understanding of each other made us already friends.

You get a certain kind of intimacy going when you write about things that are meaningful to you. With the circle of blogs that I read daily the intimacy is reciprocal since they read our thoughts, too. With non-blogging readers, it is one-sided, unless they choose to comment. (Which is always nice)

Here's the setup: Nancy and Paul at the dinner table

Nancy: Did you see that post Jillian did about the critters? I laughed so hard!

Paul: Yes, it was funny. Brenda finally got her easel, too.

Nancy: Won't it be fun to have coffee with Billie and Ned?

Paul: It will. I envy them being married for fifty years!

Ok, I made the last sentence up, but I do believe he would have said it!

So, this community of bloggers have become a part of our daily life, and we do feel like we know you. I'm really looking forward to meeting Billie and Ned and hopefully more readers or bloggers in the future.