Monday, September 17, 2012

Frida Kahlo Heaven....

We woke on our first day excited and ready for adventure. We headed down to a wonderful breakfast in the hotel restaurant. It was great to discover that the Mexico City Marathon was in progress, immediately out the front of our hotel.



We wandered up the main drag, enjoying the atmosphere of the big race. We were headed for the metro   and train ride to Coyoacan. On our walk we passed some interesting paintings on buildings and great graffiti.



We had a quick detour to look in the Cathedral just across from the Metro. Mass was on and the church was surrounded by markets selling all kinds of religious artifacts you could imagine. It certainly was Catholic heaven.






It was really nice to travel without the kids for a change. I appreciated having the freedom to change plans at a moments notice and enjoy the offerings of the city without any ramifications. After the church detour we found the Metro and purchased a 40c ticket for our travel. The station reminded me a little of town hall, until the train arrived. It was more like rush hour in Tokyo trying to board the train, but as we passed some stops the train emptied out and we were actually able to sit.





We arrived at Coyoacan station and headed for Frida's House. We enjoyed a beautiful Sunday morning walk through the streets and arrived at the Blue House. We were about to enter Frida Kahlo heaven - "Long Live Life!"




Saturday, September 15, 2012

Mexico City Here We Come....


Susan, Mum and I headed for Denver International airport full of excitement and ready for a huge ladies adventure in Mexico City.

We walked into the airport at roughly 9.50am with plenty of time to explore the shops before our 11.30am flight to Dallas, Texas. Denver airport has many beautiful artworks on display including an American Indian exhibition which features the following painting. Mum and I were transfixed by the image.



After a smooth flight we arrived in Dallas with a couple of hours up our sleeve before our much anticipated flight to Mexico City. After exchanging some cash we met a lovely man who was very proud of his cowboy boots - he had them custom made in Florence and was very happy to have them photographed.



We sat down to a lovely lunch of beer, white wine, a blue margarita, tacos and burritos.





Back on the plane we were treated to an amazing view of clouds and a distant storm before we landed at around 7.30pm local time.




I really enjoyed the beautiful, brightly colored murals while we endured the very long line though immigration.




Later in the evening, around 8.00pm we finally arrived at our Hotel in Mexico City - look out the ladies have arrived!


B.B. King and the Tedeschi Trucks Band at Red Rocks...

I first heard of a place called Red Rocks when I was about twelve years old. I had recently discovered a band called U2 and was a fan of the album - U2 Live at Red Rocks. A few years later I actually saw the video of this concert - the scene was really beautiful - an amphitheater created by these very large rocks. I can still remember thinking that one day I would go to this special place - wherever it was!

Once I knew we were coming to Denver, going to a concert at Red Rocks was high on my bucket list  this year.

Last night Garry and I were lucky enough to finally go to Red Rocks where we watched an 86 year old  B.B. King perform. Before any concert at Red Rocks it is tradition to have some pre-concert drinks in the car park. Who are we to break with tradition?





We had the most fantastic seats - right in front of centre stage only four rows from the front! I really enjoyed B.B King's  'grand entrance' and the way he played the first song - straight through, without stopping for even a second!



I had seen B.B. King about 24 years ago in Sydney with U2, (which was awesome), however this show was incredible. He showed his humor as well as his boundless talent for both sharing his life experiences and making that guitar sing! Not bad for a man about to turn 87 years of age.








Our night of Blues continued when the Tedeschi Trucks Band began to play. We had never heard of this band, who was the headline act. I have since discovered that they won a Grammy for Best Blues Album for their debut album earlier this year.






The highlight was definitely going back stage and quickly meeting the man - B.B. himself. The Australian accent continues to be an amassing asset! I was walking passed the stage entrance, when the guard on the door to the backstage area overheard me talking and started up a conversation with me, one thing led to another and before I really knew what was happening I was whisked back stage.


I can't remember when I last saw Garry have such a great time, this was a fantastic evening that we won't forget in a hurry.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Crazy Horse - A Monument to a Sioux Warrior...



With construction begun in 1948, the Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota has only a face to show for the decades of blasting and work done so far.


CRAZY HORSE, S.D. — It was to be the largest sculpture in the world: a granite portrait of a Sioux leader on horseback whittled out of a mountain in the Black Hills here. In scale and complexity, the carving would dwarf the imposing collection of presidential profiles on nearby Mount Rushmore.


As he started the Crazy Horse monument in 1947, short on money, manpower and the credulity of just about anyone who heard his plans, Korczak Ziolkowski, a sculptor from Connecticut, promised the tribal leaders who had recruited him and the local residents who scorned him that he was dedicating his life to the effort.

But he underestimated the scale of the undertaking. His promise, it turned out, was a multigenerational commitment.


The sprawling country clan Mr. Ziolkowski reared at the base of the mountain has spent the 30 years since his death honoring his final plea to continue the effort, to which he supposedly added, “But go slowly, so you do it right.”



Now led by his 85-year-old widow, Ruth, with the help of their 10 children and, more recently, their grandchildren, this eccentric family effort has plodded forward through doubts and controversy at a deliberately slow pace.

As the mountain carving effort begins its 65th year as one of the top tourist attractions in the state, few family members are deterred by their doubt that any of them will live to see it to completion.

“It’s their dream, and they’re going to get it done,” said T. Denny Sanford, a businessman and philanthropist who recently donated $10 million to the project. “I don’t care if it takes another 100 years.”




Now grooming her children to take over, Ms. Ziolkowski, who still lives in the ascetic confines of the log cabin she helped build when she arrived here at age 20, remains the driving force behind the project that many assumed would founder when her husband died.

Instead, her focus on demonstrating progress on the mountain by completing the warrior’s face put to rest much of the persistent skepticism. Admission revenues ($3.8 million in 2010, thanks to a $10 entry fee paid by most adults) and donations ($19 million in the last five years) have reached record levels, according to the foundation.

The grandmotherly demeanor that Ms. Ziolkowski uses with strangers masks a fierce, almost obsessive dedication, family and employees said. She personally answers every phone call to the foundation, writes a thank you letter for each donation, and almost never strays out of sight of the mountain.




And while she eagerly shares her time-smoothed stories, some of which seem closer to myth than fact, she has learned from the mistake of her husband — who boldly predicted that the project would take 30 years — to remain vague when asked for a timetable for completion.



“Yes, it was bigger and harder than he thought it was going to be,” she said. “But we’ll keep working at it.”

The Crazy Horse Memorial, perhaps inevitably, is usually measured against Mount Rushmore, just 17 miles away. Despite past tensions, it has served as inspiration, training ground and occasional partner.

As the presidential busts were being completed in the 1930s, local tribal leaders pushed to include some tribute to Indian heroes as well, given the location: a disputed area that was granted to local tribes by treaty, then taken back after gold was discovered. But the request to add the face of Crazy Horse alongside Washington or Lincoln was declined.



Instead they enlisted Mr. Ziolkowski, who had been fired after working briefly on Mount Rushmore. His ambitious design, measuring 563 feet tall by 641 feet long, was of a warrior with flowing hair and an outstretched arm, sitting on horseback. (Because no authenticated photograph of Crazy Horse is known to exist, there have been complaints about historical accuracy.)

Although the idea originated with Indian leaders — “this is to be entirely an Indian project under my direction,” Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota chief, wrote in a 1939 letter to the sculptor — Mr. Ziolkowski discovered after his arrival that the local tribes had little to give, either in money or labor, Ms. Ziolkowski said.

Instead, the effort was family driven, supported by donations, tourists and a small livestock operation on land they bought themselves.

We all enjoyed our visit to the memorial and one day I hope to return to see the progress.





Monday, September 10, 2012

South Dakota here we come...

The next stop on our huge adventure was South Dakota. The main aim of our journey here was to see Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore.

Little did we know that we were about to stumble upon the biggest Motorcycle Rally in the USA - Sturgis! Since 1938, Sturgis has welcomed motorcycle enthusiasts from across the United States and around the world to the annual Motorcycle Rally. Based out of this small community in the northern Black Hills, the Rally officially runs for seven days every August.

Motorcycle traffic to and around South Dakota typically increases as early as two weeks before the official start date of the event and continues for as late as two weeks after the conclusion.

What started as a weekend celebration with less than two dozen racers participating in a handful of events including half-mile races, ramp jumps, and board-wall crashes, the Rally has grown significantly. First organized solely by the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club, the Rally now takes the efforts of most of the population of Sturgis (approximately 6,400) as well as hundreds of outside vendors. It is estimated that over 100,000 people attended this years event, and we were in the thick of things.



Garry still located a great camping site, be it amongst a large group of bikes!






While travelling to South Dakota I discovered the current National Geographic magazine's feature article investigated the Pine Ridge Reservation and the Shadow of Wounded Knee.




The article discusses that after 150 years of broken promises, the Oglala Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota are nurturing their tribal customs, language, and beliefs. The article is a portrait that explains their resilience in the face of hardship.

Oglala youths hold an upside-down flag—an international symbol of distress and an act of defiance toward the U.S. government—at a rally to commemorate a 1975 shoot-out between American Indian Movement (AIM) activists and FBI agents. Two agents and one AIM member died; AIM’s Leonard Peltier was jailed for life. Photo by Aron Huey
The article explains that Alex White Plume, a 60-year-old Oglala Lakota activist, lives with his family and extended family on a 2,000-acre ranch near Wounded Knee Creek.  According to author  Alexandra Fuller, White Plume’s land is lovely beyond any singing, rolling out from sage-covered knolls to creeks bruised with late summer lushness. From certain aspects, you can see the Badlands, all sun-bleached spires and scoured pinnacles. And looking another way, you can see the horizon-crowning darkness of the Black Hills of South Dakota.


 White Plume asked us all to consider the seemingly calculated insult of Mount Rushmore. “The leaders of the people who have broken every treaty with my people have their faces carved into our most holy place. What is the equivalent? Do you have an equivalent?”

After reading this moving article I couldn't face a visit to Mount Rushmore. Instead we headed for the sculpture in progress, called Crazy Horse.