May Art in Vancouver

Posted on May 20, 2013 by LisaM

If it’s May, it must be Grad Show at Emily Carr time. We always enjoy seeing what the new crop of artists are up to; the photos below were taken in the school’s library. This structure, not unlike an outhouse in design, invites people to interact with it.

Ty obliged by adding some geometric patterns to the interior walls.

We really enjoyed seeing the variety of sketchbooks on display, especially those with lots of colour and pop-up shapes. They reminded me of my teen paper bag creations; I used to carry around my books in a paper grocery bag that I’d decorated with organic and geometrical patterns and figures in a variety of coloured pens. These, though, are more sophisticated than my student efforts.

I was also pleased to note the resurgence of interest in material print media (as opposed to digital images); this example is a screen print/woodblock combination illustrating what I assume is the artist’s own story.

Usually, I respond less to the design sections of the show, but this year the installation was better, more coherent somehow, and there were several pieces that I examined closely. It’s interesting that most of the student designers are working on very socially conscious projects – here’s one example.

In the Fine Arts section, there were quite a few examples of what we used to call “tight” drawing – highly detailed and illustrative. This may be a function of the renewed interest in illustration at Emily Carr.

As usual, there were lots of examples of photography, some of it in the Vancouver School vein and others more like Nan Goldin-like.

Most of the print works were abstract, several with cutout elements. I’m assuming that the latter are influenced by artists such as Swoon, with her large scale print installations of woodcuts.

We were a bit surprised to note that not much “traditional” sculpture was on display, although there were lots of three dimensional pieces and small installations.

I liked this piece quite a bit, bronze objects placed atop charred plinths.

The piece above was one of the more striking works, cut out plywood panels, I think, with dramatic lighting that cycled on and off.

I also took a look at the Roundhouse Exhibition in honour of the Twentieth Anniversary of the Langley Fine Arts School.

This show included quite a bit of illustration and also some nice mixed media wall pieces.

Another very interesting exhibition is Bioanimology at the ArtStarts Gallery on Richards, a space featuring the art produced by public school children working with artists in residence.

The projects are thematic and participants produce works that are both beautiful and socially-conscious. Grade three and five students from Enderby worked with two professional artists, Cathy Stubington and Julie Ross, to learn about local birds through puppetry, movement, song, and dramatic play.

The bird puppets are really quite delightful.

Kitsilano high school students worked with Phyllis Schwartz to produce photograms, lumen prints featuring organic materials – really beautiful.

Zev Tiefenbach worked with Salmon Art school children to produce photographic images of the weather in their world. Each child was given a digital camera for a week to record the natural environment and the feeling of being alive in that particular place.

For five weeks first nations artist Anastasia Hendry guided Langley students through a coastal first-nations-inspired series of drawings of animals on deer hide. These are beautifully mounted on circular halos of wood, together casting evocative shadows on the wall behind.

The rat man and I checked out the latest wall art in the alley behind the Dominion Building, an ever-changing cornucopia of colour.

As you can tell, Brubin is also an art lover.

On our tour through the downtown eastside I enjoyed seeing Elizabeth Zvonar’s work at the Audain Gallery in the Woodward’s Building.

While I was inside perusing the art, Ty and Brubin got caught in a rogue downpour outside …

A great discovery at 33 W Hastings was the new Lost + Found cafe, a cavernous food-art-travel emporium of global handcrafts and local art and food.

221A Centre at 221A East Pender has an exhibition of photo works by some of this year’s Emily Carr graduates.

By this time the boys were getting a little weary, so we turned our faces homeward.

Closer to home artist Yuri Padal is working on and displaying his oil paintings in the small plaza next to the Yaletown skytrain station.

See more photos here.

Vancouver Spring this and that II

Posted on April 24, 2013 by LisaM

Springtime in Vancouver – incredible beautiful flowers and cloudless skies (at least this day). I love this garden bed at George Wainborn Park – it’s always colourful and always full of a variety of blooms.

Yesterday, while walking Brubin along the seawall, we saw this big heron fishing. It is really great to see these birds back in the area, a testament to the cleanliness of these waters now.

Over the winter I have been ice-skating at Kits with the “older adults” … and Maureen organised a birthday party for those in the group turning 75 and older this year, an event attended by about 40 people at the arena. Here are some photos of those fit folks.

Most of these people are in their 80s and had never skated as children; the woman in the red helmet took up speed skating at 74. The fellow second from the right took up skating 7 years ago. However, some, like Rusty (second from left), have skated their entire lives.

I have also been visiting the Beaty Museum to take photographs of their Tetrapod Collection, of which this sealion skeleton is a part. Here it looks as though its about to bite Lori Latremouille’s surrealist pastel work.

One of this Spring’s brilliant brainwaves was to get electric assist bikes and a trailer for Brubin. We’ve tested the trailer out a couple of times on the seawall; he much prefers it to the previous wire basket he was required to ride in.

I have also been volunteering with the West End Seniors Network at Barclay Manor, where I am the art studio facilitator one day a week. This group of active people come together to paint once or twice a week; several of them also show their work in various venues.

Of course, skating and cycling are wonderful on a day like this!

I saw a nice show of artists’ posters at the Burnaby Art Gallery, including these by Jack Shadbolt from the 70s.

And these by one of my old printmaking instructors, Ron Eckert.

A few images from Elizabeth MacKenzie’s exhibition were still in evidence on the walls.

The photo below shows Brubin and Aran at rest.

See more pictures here.

Vancouver Spring This and That

Posted on April 22, 2013 by LisaM

You can just see Ty in the shadows of these amazing flowering cherry trees in our neighbourhood – two blocks of incredible pink profusion.

Since my sister Tracey moved to Saskatoon, there has not been as much reason for us to visit the North Shore but this day, the North Shore Art Crawl called to us; we took the Seabus over to visit the Lower Lonsdale studios.

The fifteen minute crossing gave us a close up view of some of the many huge freighters in the harbour, their red shapes contrasting with the surrounding blue of the mountains and ocean.

Here you can see one of the floating drydocks of Seaspan Shipyards.

The Lonsdale Quay is nice but has never really taken off as a place to be; it’s a bit of a pale shadow of the more popular Granville Island. Too bad because on a good weather day, it’s beautiful.

A row of restaurants still line the bottom of Lonsdale and we sampled the breakfast goodies at one, Raglan’s; unfortunately, for my dining pleasure, so did a group of loud and hungover patrons, whose uninteresting conversation impinged too greatly on my consciousness …

Across the way are the newly-refurbished buildings of the old Burrard Dry Dock. These, formerly the home of a bustling ship-building enterprise, are now empty and waiting for municipal government money to be brought back to life. Beginning back in the 50s and 60s my uncle and several of my parents’ friends worked their whole lives in these shipyards.

Some of those folks may be included in this enlargement of an old photo of the workers.

Below are some pictures of the shipyards that I took several years ago, after they had been closed down and before the resurrection.

The pier is beautiful; strangely, though, there is no life saving equipment in evidence here.

New condos have been erected here, yet, on this beautiful day, hardly anyone was in evidence. Are these places vacant, we wondered, like the ghost towers of Coal Harbour?

The rear end of a Victory class ship is still standing here, all wrapped up in a white plastic bag … who knows why.

We visited the 106 West First Street building where several artists’ studios are located. On the hallway wall are a couple of frescoes; this one shows the Lynn Valley trolley car, part of ancient history around here.

The Holland/Croft studio was the largest and most impressive. These folks have a teaching classroom set up in their space, complete with some interesting props.

Further up Lonsdale Avenue, we stopped in at CityScape’s Nude Figure show.

Strangely, for all the talk of Lower Lonsdale being revived by new housing developments, the place seemed quieter than it was ten years ago when Tracey lived here. Opus has moved, the Petrov Gallery has moved and several storefronts were vacant … not sure what’s going on over there.

See more photos here.

Heartfelt 2013 at the Vancouver Print Room

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Lisa

Torrie Groening, a Vancouver artist who’d been living in San Francisco for quite a while, has relocated back to Vancouver and set up a new studio and gallery in Strathcona, the Vancouver Print Room, in an old converted church at 832 Jackson Street. It’s a fabulous space and a great venue for her first curated exhibition Heartfelt 2013, a reprise and extension of a 1997 exhibition of print works on the theme of love.

Opening night saw lots of Vancouver’s artists and friends gathered to view the salon-style exhibition. Since it was a coolish evening, I thought the blue biking gloves were a necessary touch, even though they made my hands look like gigantic cartoon-character mitts.

As you can see from the photo below, the studio area is large, with lots of room for Torrie’s props and equipment.

For more information on the Heartfelt show, click here. To read an essay by Doris Shadbolt on the original 1997 printmaking project, click here. See more pictures here.

Autumn in Vancouver

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Lisa

Now that Winter is here I can only dream about the glorious Fall we had in Vancouver this year. Here’s the local wildlife enjoying a nibble at Beaver Lake in Stanley Park.

The pool at Second Beach has been left to the birds.

Drift on Main seems to be losing energy but I did enjoy seeing Julie McIntyre’s studio space where she’s working on some small-format mixed media prints.

I have been documenting the towers rising in our neighbourhood; this crane is building the condos where the old Cecil Hotel at the end of Granville Bridge used to be.

This gigantic tower is rising on Pacific Street across from George Wainborn Park, leaving us only a tiny sliver of False Creek water view.

November means the Eastside Culture Crawl, the vast annual cultural extravaganza in which hundreds of artists’ studios are open to the public for a three day art blitz. Torrie Groening’s new space at 832 Jackson is fabulous, an old church converted into studio, exhibition, and living spaces. I was surprised to see glasses exactly like mine in one of her large format images.

Torrie and Steven have done an amazing job of fixing up this building; it contains Torrie’s archive of prints, her equipment, and lots of room to work.

The huge rabbit warren that is 1000 Parker is always an art feast; here are a few samples of the smorgasbord on display: Christian Dahlberg’s neon photos,

Bluegrass music in the studio,

contemporary surrealist painting,

sculpture by David Robinson,

and green art, living plants displayed in frames and shadow boxes.

We watched a glass blowing demo at the Mergatroid Building, reminding me of my early ventures at this art in a garage studio in Dunbar, the products of which I still have on hand. Amazingly I managed not to set myself alight while working with the molten glass.

A hopeful sign adorns a locker in the Purple Thistle Art Cooperative studio.

Ty was beginning to lose steam at this point.

Apparently there is still a market for handprinted silkscreen T-shirts.

I was happy to catch up with my old friend Maggie Manning at the William and Clark studios.

Monika Blichar’s goth/comic art made me smile.

This fellow creates art from ordinary industrial wire, bending and working it to create sculptures and gigantic armatures for paper lanterns.

Wendy’s large-scale lotus paintings are serene and lovely.

Esther and Richard at 800 Hawks had some lively double-exposed photographs, woodcuts, and mixed media on mylar works on display in their great Strathcona studio.

Years and years ago I was involved in a life drawing class run by Richard out of the Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings.

At the Razstone Studio on Powell street I enjoyed seeing Ken Clarke’s concrete sculptures of grotesques.

The Crawl is always a mixed bag of stuff but what a stimulating treat; I really love seeing what everyone is doing and the vibe generated by the thousands of artists and art buffs who support the annual event.

See more pictures here.

Still Summer …

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Lisa

Here are a few pictures I took recently of rides around town and along the seawall.

A convoy of big red trucks was parked near Science World one night for an unknown reason.

I had noticed the colourful blue stripes on the base of the Cambie Bridge pilons before; what I did not realise is that they are a public art project designed to demonstrate how high the waters are projected to rise in False Creek as a result of global climate change.

As you can see, the water rise will be significant … and might happen sooner than we think, if the arctic continues to melt quickly – frightening.

Now that we no longer have a car, it’s bicycle commuting for me. And rather than the huge vessels of BC Ferries, my water transport is the Cyquabus across the Creek to Emily Carr.

Below are a few pics that I took from the Painting on the Edge juried show at the Federation of Canadian Artists Gallery on Granville Island.

From our place, we can still see a little slice of water and a tiny bit of Granville Island in between the towers that continue to proliferate downtown.

When the tide is low, it’s really fascinating to see the well-demarcated ecological niches of the creatures populating False Creek.

This bike tune-up guy is conveniently located on the seawall right near Science World.

This flower bed in George Wainborn Park is just amazing; I have no idea what these purple flowers are called but they have grown enormously in the last month of good weather.

AARRRRR – the Pirate Pub is a favourite pit stop along the seawall.

Two salty sea dogs on the sea wall ~

We saw this guy just floating around in the fountain at George Wainborn Park one beautiful late afternoon.

And these Fringe Festival folks waiting for the aquabus.

Malaspina Gallery has a really interesting show of print works by Kathy Slade and Lisa Robertson up – we stopped in to the opening.

BIMPE VII, the Biennial International Miniature Print Exhibition’s seventh incarnation, opened on Thursday night at the Federation Gallery, offering 400 small print works from all over the world. Check it out if you have the chance – lot’s of great stuff.

I am really enjoying riding my bike around town; last week, with a group of cyclists, I rode out to Dundarave across the Lion’s Gate Bridge – joy!

See more pics here.

Summer in the City II

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Lisa

Cycling through downtown Vancouver is one of my favourite things to do, and I love Chinatown, Strathcona, and the area around the docks. When wandering through the back alleys there I am always fascinated to see how the street art has changed and developed.

This small labyrinth is tucked away near Union Street.

Many murals grace the walls of buildings and bridges down here; this first nations sun is part of a large image beneath an overpass near the old Sugar Factory.

On Alexander Street, in Gastown right near Chill Winston’s restaurant, is the gallery and studio of Choboter, an artist whose name was previously unknown to me. His works are vaguely reminiscent of Pollock’s drips, although more kitschy, with women’s faces and bodies embellished upon the paint drips and drops.

One of the blocks along Hastings is constantly metamorphosing. Every time I ride by, another piece of old time Vancouver has disappeared to be replaced by yet more restaurants, coffee shops, and palaces of consumption.

SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts faces off against the not-so-Regal Hotel across the street, its windows usually full of interesting art.

I have been photographing the alleyways between Cambie and Richards for a few years now; each time I return, the images have changed. Having been away from the area for a year, it was interesting to see what has happened with the street art and graffiti.

The alley behind the Dominion Building yielded some cool stencil art.

These large-scale wall stencils represent the contemporary evolution of printmaking art. Rather than the small, rather intimate aesthetic of traditional printmaking, these works are big, bold, and often have a socially conscious point to make.

However, there’s also lots of the usual guys with huge guns, death’s heads, and rampaging monsters thing …

A few weeks ago we checked out Tomoyo’s small installation Yearning at Solder and Sons books and cafe, 241 Main Street. Originally from Japan, Tomoyo has lived in Vancouver many years. She also spends part of the year in Ladakh, India where she is involved with the Tibetan community. Her drawings speak to issues of community, spirituality, and the injustices perpetrated on the people of Tibet.

Solder and Sons is right near the Main Street viaduct, from the top of which is a great view out over the docks, the harbour, and the North Shore mountains.

Riding along the Carrall Street bikeway from False Creek to Gastown, we pass the Sun Yat Sen Park and Gardens, recently voted the World’s Top Urban garden. It is an oasis of calm and green beauty in a sea of concrete.

From the gardens we can see the revolving “W” of the former Woodwards Department Store, now the epicentre of downtown eastside Vancouver gentrification.

While vestiges of the gritty downtown eastside remain, such as the West Hotel, the areas untouched by real estate hipsters are shrinking in the face of an influx of expensive doughnut shops and trendy restaurants.

At the yearly Powell Street Festival, the remains of Vancouver’s original Japanese community gather in Oppenheimer Park (between Powell Street and the waterfront).

See more pics here and here.

Summer in the City

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Lisa

Summer in the city means sun (we hope), cycling, and art.

Art Day in Cedar, south of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, involved painting, collage, and recycled materials, with each of us given the same images and objects with which to being our creations.

(For extra points, can you spot the common element(s) in these works?) It is always interesting to see how different the final products are when people begin at the same starting point.

The trip over and back on BC Ferries (now that I don’t have to commute on them any more – yippee!) was beautiful on a brilliant sunny day.

The opening of Collaborative Drawings by Kitty Blandy, Geoff Carter, and Michael Bjornson was great. I love the concept and the work – here are a few glimpses.

During an interlude of clouds, Barb and I rode out to UBC along the seawall and through Kits Point, where we stopped to read the scribbles of locals protesting the Harper Government’s short-sighted decision to close the Kits Coast Guard Station.

Most writers were not very complimentary about Harper, his government, or the conservatives in general.

Cycling around Vancouver is always a joy, but even more so when the weather is great.

Yesterday I was surprised to see that Soul Food, the downtown eastside community food garden, has expanded to the formerly empty parking lot near BC Place.

A huge garden of produce to feed local residents, grown and managed by locals and sold at farmers markets around town, has sprung up over the last six months – great idea!

Science World has a show on until the end of August focusing on the “genius of Leonardo”, mostly containing modern recreations of the machines and ideas recorded in his notebooks. There’s also a big section devoted to Leonardo’s most famous work, the Mona Lisa; however, none of the items on display are actually by Leonardo. All are photographic reproductions. Since I had already seen most of these before, more interesting to me was a small display of jewel-like insect art by a Singaporean man whose name escapes me.

See more here.

On our ride around Strathcona looking at murals and street art Barb and I also stopped at the original Soul Food Garden on Hastings next to the Astoria Hotel to see how it was growing.

After riding through the downtown eastside, we took the Main Street Viaduct down to Crab Park

and then under Canada Place, up to the convention centre,

along Coal Harbour and through the Park, over the Burrard Bridge to Go Fish on the waterfront at Granville Island.

Gotta love this city when the sun’s out. See more pics here.

Trip Recap: Best of, Worst of …

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Lisa

Well, we’ve been back about three weeks now and the Round the World trip is fading into memory … What a fabulous journey. I feel so fortunate to have been able to do this trip – it was amazing. Even the (few) parts that weren’t so great were great (if you know what I mean). Time to recap the highlights and lowlights:

Best (non-urban) Beach

Hong Island, Krabi, West Coast of Thailand

Hong Island, the largest of the group of islands in Than Bok Thoranee Marine National Park, is beautiful: powder white sand, glorious green vegetation, turquoise-green water, and towering orange-tinged limestone cliffs. Two small bays are separated by smaller limestone clifflets, through a gap in which we could see boats come and go. See my original post here.

Best Beach (urban)

This is a toss-up between three very different beaches: Jomtien, Pattaya, Thailand, Cancun, Mexico, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Jomtien, because the beach is decent, with great restaurants, a lively vibe, great people-watching, and very cheap transportation around the area.

Cancun, because the beach is long and wide, twenty six kilometers of sand. Playa Gaviota Azul, in Cancun’s Hotel Zone, was a favourite spot for us. The large, wide beach was often full of local families, with kids large and small enjoying the day. Because this area of the beach has a sand bar not too far offshore, a shallow pool of ocean water untouched by the big surf is created so it’s perfect for small children. Read more here.

Los Muertos beach in Puerto Vallarta, because it’s sandy, has big waves and great beach restaurants, and the weather was amazing. Read more here and here.

Best Accomodation (apartment/condo)

Our fully-equipped, nicely decorated 4th floor apartment 1/2 block off Los Muertos Beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, an incredible deal at Easter for $45 a night.

See my post here for more on Puerto Vallarta’s South Side.

Best Accommodation (hotel, B&B, hostel)

This is a tricky one – in the running, are: Merthayasa Bungalows in Ubud, Bali; Blue Star Bungalows in Amed, Bali; Sabai Mansion in Ao Nang, Thailand; and Hotelito Swiss Oasis in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Each of these was great in its own way. We loved the pool at the Merthayasa and the price was right at 180,000 IDR ($19) a night.

The Blue Star, right on the beach at Jemeluk Bay, had wonderful staff, great snorkelling and swimming, and a pleasant enough room for 200,000 IDR a night ($21.50 – a special price because we didn’t use the air con).

Sabai Mansion was well-located 500 meters from the beach, with a great pool, a restaurant, and nice staff for 855 bht a night ($27.50).

And we also loved the Hotelito Swiss Oasis, 1/2 block from Playa Zicatela in Puerto Escondido, with a pool and small communal kitchen, for 450 pesos night ($34.50).

The Pool and Palm villa in Siem Reap had the best pool, large, beautiful, and clean, very refreshing in the heat of central Cambodia.

Best Recreational Activity (Land-based)

Bali Eco Cycling, a cycle trip beginning at a volcano, then riding downhill through a coffee plantation, village homes and temples, and rice fields, finishing with a Balinese food feast. Read all about it here.

Runner up: Cycling the North Head, in Manly, Australia: wildlife, artillery, ecological projects, golden chariot, cemeteries. Read more here.

Best Recreational Activity (Water-based)

Our private longtail boat trip to the Hong Islands, Krabi, Thailand, a great day out on the water visiting several different beaches, lagoons, and islands in the Andaman Sea. Read my post here.

Best Temple(s) Ancient

This one is no contest – Angkor Wat/Thom in Siem Reap, Cambodia is an epic, once-in-a-lifetime Must See for all you temple and archeological site lovers. Incredibly beautiful architecture and sculpture in a huge and beautiful park setting. See my posts here, here, and here.

Runner up: Uxmal and the Puuc route south of Merida in the Yucatan.

Wanting to see some of the less well-known Mayan ruins in the Yucatan while in Merida, but not wanting to drive ourselves, Ty and I decided to do a day trip with a driver from Yucatan Connect to the Lol Tun Caves and the sites along the Puuc Route, south and south east of Merida. Highly recommended – read more here.

Best Temple (Modern)

Bang Rieng, Krabi, Thailand, a mountain-top temple about an hour and a half’s driving north of Ao Nang along the road to Phuket. It sits atop Khao Lan or One Million Mountain, overlooking the Thaput countryside. The temple and grounds are spectacular, as is the view from the top; green hills and tended fields spread out in a vast panorama below the temple precincts, looking very much like central Italy. Read more here.

Best visual art scene

This category is a tie between Ubud, Bali and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Ubud has lots of great contemporary art galleries, as well as a couple of excellent art museums focusing on modern Balinese and Indonesian art. Read more here and here.

Puerto Vallarta also has a great contemporary art scene, with lots of commercial galleries, artists studios and residencies, and two weekly art walks in the old town and centro areas. Read more here and here.

Most Intriguing Cultural Performance

The Balinese Classical Legong and Barong Dance at the Ubud Palace was fascinating and beautiful. See a video of part of the performance here. Read more about Ubud’s cultural scene here.

Best Local Experience

While staying at the Blue Star Bungalows in Amed, Bali, the owner Iluh, a lovely woman, invited me to join her at a village temple ceremony. She showed me how the offerings are made, gave me her temple clothes to wear, and drove me there and back on her motorcycle – an incredible experience.

Read about it here.

Runner up: Nox’ tours in Levuka, Ovalau, Fiji

We did two tours around Levuka with local guide Nox, one exploring all aspects of the town and the other up into the surrounding hills to visit local plantations. Really fascinating! Read more here and here.

Best Food

This category is also no contest – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has an amazing food scene and, remarkably, without even knowing it, we stayed in absolutely the best place for restaurants in KL, Bukit Bintang. Read my post here.

Best Nightlife

While Ty and I are not exactly nightlife junkies (and sometimes I can barely make it to 11 pm), we did enjoy the lively night scene in Ubud, Bali, particularly the great Spanish band at the Smiling Buddha and the jazz at Cafe Luna. Other nightlife options include Balinese dance, the Jazz Cafe, a gazillion great restaurants and bars …

Best transportation experience

The Pattaya/Jomtien baht bus, the song thaew pickups plying the roads in the area. Go anywhere for only 10 baht (30 cents).

And the tuk-tuks in Siem Reap, Cambodia: padded seats, beautiful fabrics, comfortable rides. Go anywhere around the town for $2.

Worst accommodation

None of the places we stayed were really terrible; some were just less good than the rest and a few were too expensive for what they offered. Sometimes the weather affected our view of a place – Fiji in the rain, for example. Janes Fales in Manase, Savaii, Samoa had a wonderful location right on a beautiful sandy beach, but the food was bad and we had a bad experience at their beach bar there that caused us to leave much sooner than we had planned. More info here.

Worst Food

Mostly, the food everywhere was good, if often not spicy enough for our liking. I guess the worst food I had was this terrible lunch at the Hornbill Restaurant in the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park – blecchhh. Read more about this day here.

Worst Beach

Surprisingly, particularly since the last time we were there it was lovely, the beach at Playa del Carmen was the worst we saw. Almost everywhere in the world erosion is a problem, as is high water and storm surges, all playing havoc with the beaches. One of the last days we were in Playa, after a rain storm, we could smell the sewage that had obviously overflowed the storm sewers and was just gushing out from pipes into the ocean, turning the turquoise water a dull dark brown in places.

Worst local experience

Nadi, Fiji. While in Nadi, we walked along the few rather decrepit blocks of the downtown area, asked for a restaurant recommendation, and were directed to a curry and seafood restaurant which, unfortunately, had bad food. The downtown area was pretty much deserted on a Friday night, which I found somewhat surprising, but the whole place seemed dreary, desperate, and depressing – we didn’t miss it when we left. Read more here and here.

Worst transportation experience

Wow – this is a tough category. Once again, it’s a tie, between the crazed maniacal minibus driver in Fiji, whose insane driving drove us out onto the road and into a school bus; the tweaking idiot in Bangkok whose meth-fuelled speed racer drive from Bangkok to Ayutthaya terrified me; and the overloaded and top heavy ferry boat back from Koh Laan to Pattaya, almost capsizing a couple of times along the way.

Most surprising place

Siem Reap, Cambodia, a lovely city with vibrant nightlife and proximity to the great Angkor temples and Samoa, a beautiful small country.

And Guanajuato, Mexico, a fabulous colourful hill-top town in the central highlands with loads of museums, haciendas, good restaurants, and a vibrant local scene.

For us one of the most surprising things was Semana Santa in Guanajuato – who knew that Easter would be so fabulous there?

Perhaps surprisingly, given how much we liked Bali, especially Amed, East Bali, our choice for retirement living in the sun when we’re old is, at the moment, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Why? Well, let me count the reasons:

1) It has a beautiful beach and a long malecon with sculpture and art.

2) It has a vibrant contemporary art scene, dancing, theatre, community centres with classes in language, art, yoga, tai chi, and the like. Lots of artists around the place.

3) It has great coffee shops and restaurants, especially in the Old Town.

4) Although there are lots of gringos, it’s still a Mexican town, especially a few blocks off the beach.

5) Great day trips to small towns and villages are easy by inexpensive local transport. For an example, see my report on Yelapa here.

6) Inexpensive accommodation can be had a few blocks off the beach

7) Rentals are pet-friendly. We can easily bring Brubin and the cat with us when we visit.

8) Easily and cheaply accessible by direct flight in only a few hours.

9) I speak Spanish, albeit not yet fluently.

Puerto Walkin’: Camino al Mirador and Playa Manzanillo

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Lisa

I had a vision of colourful flowers in the small pool here at the Swiss Oasis so, a couple of nights ago, when all the other guests were out, Ty and I set up the camera and I had some fun playing Ophelia floating amongst the flowers.

See more pics of this project here.

Puerto is still very much a fishing town, and lately the fishing seems pretty good, at least judging from the catch brought up on the Playa Principal, the main beach.

You just never know when you’ll run into a juggling clown …

or a piggie at the market.

On the weekend the beaches here at Puerto Escondido are packed out with local families, all laughing, having fun, and playing in the surf.

The kids here get introduced to the water very young; many of the families with tiny babies were in the waves with these little cuties, enjoying jumping in the big surf.

One couple had their very small child quite far out in the water on a tiny inflatable device.

At Playa Manzanillo the waves have been high for the last few days – olas altas took a number of people off guard, including one granny sitting on a walk who was completely engulfed, and the oyster lady, who suffered a gigantic wave up her shorts and jumped up laughing.

The Babylon Cafe near us has a fabulous collection of painted wooden masks – I am coveting all of them … (click on the link below to see more of them).

And we discovered a sushi restaurant on the beach … not as good as the one we go to in Vancouver, but not bad (don’t order a tequila drink, though – just juice, no juice).

Just a couple of days ago we discovered the Camino al Mirador, a walkway along the sea travelling from the Playa Principal to near the Playa Manzanillo.

It reminds me quite a bit of the Lovers Walk section of Italy’s Cinque Terre hike, with the same concrete and stone walkways along a steep rocky shore.The cacti here are absolutely enormous – like trees, and some have very soft brown fluffy attachments, flowers, I suppose.

In spots, this walkway has broken down and bits of it can be seen in the ocean; in other areas, the concrete is starting to crack and deteriorate – Ty figures that it will only last another few years before it drops into the ocean.

Along its length anonymous artists have tagged the shoreline and street philosophers have inscribed their thoughts into and onto the rock.

On today’s walk I floated some flowers on a small seaside pond,

while the female dog who joined us sat panting in the shade,

and installed 20 strands of coloured ribbon on a promontory viewpoint to watch them dance in the stiff breeze. These we left behind for passersby to enjoy.