Nostalgia/Mi Querido Mexico

I spent last year living/studying/traveling in Mexico, and while I love Australia, Mexico also has a good chunk of my heart. I'm not quite sure what it is, but the people, the culture and the music mystified me and I really miss it. Lo extrano tanto.
At the moment I've been listening to some Mexican and Latin American music by Manu Chao and a little band from Mexico called Sonex who I saw perform live in a sweaty little bar in Xalapa - I dare say it was the BEST gig I have ever seen, lightshows and musical genius will never compare to being completely passionate in the music you are performing and passionate about your culture, your stories and your history. I can't help but be transported back to specific times and places in Mexico when I hear certain songs.

Since I'm on this little nostalgia kick, I thought I would post a photo from Mexico, and then looking back over them all, I decided that I cannot narrow it down to less than six (and that is being brutal about my choices).


This was the first photo I remember taking both in Mexico and on my then-new Film SLR camera. I wasn't even sure how to use it properly, i remember barely checking the exposure or the focus and just clicking away, afraid of missing an opportunity. This photo is so typically Mexican, I mean its got a bunch of donkeys in it for crying out loud!


This was the first photo I printed in my first photography class, it was pretty exciting. I'm obsessed with lines and perspective. It's of a hostel we stayed in called La Giraffa Hostel, it had bed bugs.


One of the first photos I took again, this is a Mexican sink. I never quite found out what the stick broom thing is for, but its where we washed our clothes by hand (only the ones you were afraid the laundromat might shrink).


This is one of my favourites, it's the cobblestone road to Xico (Hee-Co), a small town outside of Xalapa where there are some beautiful waterfalls. I remember my legs were eaten alive by bugs and the bites scarred for months, we were driven back to town by an eleven-year-old.


This was taken in another nearby small town called Jalcomulco, where there are people who can turn into animals - they're called Nahuales. We spent the day drinking beer and I kissed a boy while we were sitting on rocks in the middle of a river - which was romantic except for the old man bathing a donkey nearby.


This graffiti was on the side of a little Mexican bar, a Cantina on a little island surrounded by Carribbean waters. Only Mexican men really drank there, and the graffiti says "With my solitude, I will die". I think this photo works better in colour (i have a colour copy, the wall is white with red and yellow lines) but this graffiti really affected me when I first read it, and still does.

So I'm done with the nostalgia, for now.

In other news, I'm starting a new job soon at a certain Government Funded Media Agency doing transcription for radio and television. Just thought you might like to know that your tax payer dollars are going to a good cause i.e. me.