Brant Lake, August 2015

Cartageña

Vaca sagrada! (Holy cow!)

Here are two photos of the 17th century Spanish mansion or palacio that we found in Cartegeña Colombia with the guidance of our tour guide Marelvy this Novembre 2015. This town is safe and very walkable. I read three reviews about Marelvy on Trip Advisor and knew that I wanted her to lead our private tour.

Why Colombia? One of the reasons was a book I read by a Brit who rode his two-seater bicycle from Alaska to Chile. His favorite country and people along that over two-year ride was Colombia. Not Columbia. That book was actually a gift to a bicycle nut amigo, but once I started to review it, I could not put it down. Don’t you love it when that happens?

The three-hour tour of Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez's world lasted for six hours, including lunch. Marelvy will give tours of this magic fort-walled colonial former Spanish town (1533) if you are lucky enough to be invited to our Yoga retreat. Gold and emeralds and slaves passed through this ancient port. Marelvy walks with a sombrilla to keep the sun off. 

Marnie, Sandy, Marelvy

We might just leave the castillo walls one night to take in Club Havana. The shows last until early morning. Patrons order botellas and half botellas of rum or tequila for the table. I have NEVER seen that before. 

Think of his 1967 book "One Hundred Years of Solitude” (Gracias, Charles), “Love in the Time of Cholera,” (even our 49ers dealt with bad water cholera), “The General in His Labyrinth,” “Living To Tell The Tale,” and many more. One of my favorites is "Memoria de Mis Putas Tristes."

The gigantic ancient wooden door opens to the beautifully-tiled swimming pool (see above). There are eight rooms for guests, with a staff of six and a cook. One room is large enough to do yoga in. Air conditioned, of course. It is HOT in Cartageña de Indios in Febrero. "Mucho calor," as Maria Lopez used to say! 

Nearby, the former convent of Santa Clara is now a hotel. Gabo's book, “Of Love and Other Demons“ opens here, when the remains of red-haired teenager Maria de Todas los Angeles are unearthed. The beautiful Santa Clara Hotel bar is where we watched a samba show from directly in front of the crypt where the nuns are buried. You can also have a cooling bebida among the towering palm trees in the grande, open-to-the-sky, foyer. We got hooked on coconut milk and lime drinks. YCMTS up.

This place is like a movie set. A Marlon Brando movie, “Burn 1969" was filmed here as well as "The Mission" with Robert DeNiro," and Romancing the Stone." "You are thee Joan Wilder?" Most of “Romancing the Stone” was filmed in Vera Cruz, Mexico. Their second choice was Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.

Our friend who we met on a Portugal river trip last year was raised in Colombia in a hotel at Simon Bolivar Park that her father owned. No he didn’t own the park. He owned the hotel. Most of the colonial houses are now restaurants or hotels. 

Very tall black women with attitudes (whose ancestors were slaves who escaped into the mountains) walk the calles with baskets of fruit on their heads. Two dollars a photo and DO NOT try to sneak one. There are many carriages for inexpensive tours of the town, which is enclosed by the largest stone and coral fort in this hemisphere. There is one calle that only sells homemade sweets, most of which we have never ever seen or tasted before.

We met Susi and Arturo in their home city of Medellin during our tour. I am writing a book about that part of the trip, including Bogota in the Andes. Their life stories are truly amazing and they are the most gracious hosts.

Cartageña is only three and one half hours via Jet Blue from New York City and a five minute, five dollar ride to the mansion.

Febrero 2017 Yoga retreat? MAYBE! Yoga 2016 Isla Mujeres, Mexico is full again.

          

- Marnie y Sandy y Roberto Tocino

Marelvy with sombrilla

The Walking Man

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Moving in silent desperation.   

Keeping an eye on the Holy land.   

A hypothetical destination.   

Say, who is this walking man?

We are on another beautiful island in September. No litter. No car dealerships. No plastic signs sticking in the ground. Beautiful farmland. After stop at Gay Head, I mean Aquinnah (you can’t call it Gay Head anymore, our tour bus driver stops in the middle of her schpiel to point out a man standing on the side of the road on the south side of the island with a white beard. She says that he is none other than the walking man from James Taylor’s fifth album (c. 1974). Titled, you won’t believe this …….  Walking Man.

Backing vocals on the album were by Carly Simon and Linda & Paul McCartney.

Carly’s club "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is for sale.

Those beautiful small houses that the Methodists built in 1866 are still here. The area at Oak Bluffs reminds us of Cape May, New Jersey.  A sign on one of the houses says that General Ulysses S. Grant visited. 

 This year Martha’s Vineyard is worked by about five hundred kids from Bulgaria. I ask our waitress if they have water in Bulgaria and she replies that they do. They also have internet and computers. Shocking! YCMUSL this.

Any other man stops and talks. 

But the walking man walks.  

No Time To Return Your Call

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The following are the reasons I didn’t return your calls this year . . .

Febrero y Marzo were spent in Mexico at la Isla Mujeres and Tulum.  37 sleeps Joga retreat with familia and friends and friends and new friends.

What blizzard? There was a blizzard?   

Overheard on Playa Norte: “I had to fly from Newark to San Francisco to Cancun to get here."

The summer of 2015 was full of Rexhame Beach fire dinners, swimming pool parties including our yearly Fourth of July party, Federal Hill dinner trips to Providence, Paw Sox in Pawtucket, 3rd of July fireworks at McCoy. Yup. Road trips to Adams Massachusetts -- we found Cole Porter’s old house in Williamstown. His wife loved it and wanted to be buried there. He buried her in Indiana. At least it wasn’t Wisconsin. Cajun/Zydeco dancing at Johnny D’s in Somerville and Pawtucket at the German Club, boxing matches, and dinners out, mostly at El Sarape and Hola. Where’s the axe? Paw tucket. Miss Beam, 7th grade geography, Junior High, Commercial Street. Dad went there when it was the high school. He was the captain of the football team. I have a photo of him making a shoestring tackle at Drury at Noel Field in North Adams. We lost.

In July it was a family trip to Connecticut -- Hartford, Mystic, Groton sub base, Ocean Beach, and the Pequot Museum . . . and over to Hope Street in Providence via the state capitol for dinner.  No, it wasn’t all on the same day. Mystic Pizza. Yah, we went. The movie was filmed in 1988. But you are not getting any older. We watched it recently and it really holds up. So does Karate Kid. Top Gun. Did someone say Top Gun?

August we drove to Brant Lake (family) New York via Cooperstown (Fenimore Museum). I take it that James Fenimore Cooper wrote books. There is a baseball thing there also. And we took in the Painted Pony Rodeo at Lake Luzerne. We drove through Amish country on Sunday and there were many families out in their horses and buggies. My Mom & Dad took me to the very first rodeo when I was eight. They have REAL cowboys and cowgirls from Colorado and Texas and Pennsylvania.

 

Labor Day was the Rhythm & Roots Festival in Ninigret Rhode Island (friends, friends, friends and friends) and dance, dance, dancing. 93 sets of musica. Awe some. Los Lobos and Mr. Steve Riley & David Greely, thank you.  Ninigret was a sachem to the Narragansett and Niantic Indians of Connecticut and RI in the 1600s.

This early fall will be Yarmouth (friends) Falmouth (friends). The Stroll Farm in NY (friends & friends). Martha Vineyard (friends), Stow Massachusetts with 49 year old Navy friends. I wish I was 49 again. 1966 actually.

October/Novembre - Cartagena, Bogota and Medellin (friends that we made on the Portugal river trip live in Medellin).

January - Costa Rica for the 4th time (friends). Volcanoes, butterflies, hummingbirds, strawberries, Libetas Tropical Beer, earthquakes, rice and beans, howler monkeys and rain. The HOTTEST place we have EVER been: Quepos. 

Locals would ask, “Where are you traveling to?”  

“Quepos,” we would say.

Every single time they would reply, “It’s HOT in Quepos!”

Febrero/Marza 2016 : Mexico  - Tulum, Isla Mujeres (Joga retreat) -- friends, friends, Mexican friends & familia. Puerto Morelos. Some jogies from Marnie’s Retreat -- lo siento, it is full -- are traveling on to Isla Holbox (hole bush) on the Gulf of Mexico. The Mexican people call Yoga “Joga.” Jessica is “Yes ica.” David is “Da beed.” Roberto is NOT Bob. The village you go to catch the ferry to Holbox is called Chiquila. Glen Campbell played guitar on the famous 1958 hit. Huelyn Duval hollers out,  "CHIQUILA" at the end of the song.

 

Seinfeld  "Flarida, Jerry, Flarida” is next. South Beach in Miami; Key West again. 70 years old and I finally, at Brant Lake, read “The Sun Also Rises.” I loved it. Especially the bullfighting parts, and Paris of course. Sandy didn’t like it.  Marathon (friends), Mrs. Mac’s Diner in Key Largo, Sanibel Island (friends), Marco Island (friends). The people of Key Largo changed the town’s name to Key Largo -- from the movie with Humphrey Bogart -- to draw in tourists. It worked. The African Queen boat is there from that movie with Katherine Hepburn. It wasn’t filmed there. “The loons, Norman, the loons!” Sorry I just slipped into the Golden Pond movie. Many loons on the lake this year. Beautiful sound, aye?

April 2016 - Anguilla (family) friends and friends  Yoga retreat  It is a British Territory in the Caribbean. They fly the Union Jack. There is rum there. Pusser’s Rum. I will enjoy mine with Mexican Coca Cola. One day we will cross the sound to Merigot. It is the French side of Saint Maarten. We were just there. Thirty one years ago.

Grand Canyon

July 2016  (family) - Flagstaff, Grand Canyon, Bright Angel Trail, Four Corners, Canyon De Chelly, Monument Valley, Winslow to stand on the corner, La Posada (hotel), the Hopi Mesas, Painted Desert, Meteor Crater, Oak Creek Canyon, and fly home.

 

Monument Valley

Many trips are not totally booked yet.  Isla 2017 -- that will make it 29 years straight, almost.  Italy again (Verona area this time), Sicily, Peru, Cuba, Thailand (I hope not). Channel 2 PBS the other night showed people enjoying the opera in Verona in a two thousand year old totally filled Roman amphitheater. WOW! Romeo & Juliet … you bet. Also western Spain. We did from Barthalona to Madrid, Salamanca, Toledo,  Zaragosa, Cuenca, to Valencia, and we need to see the rest of it.

Barcelona

 

Zaragoza

Cuenca

77 is the average age people live to in the USA, and even in Cuba. So like the Toyota commercials say, “You'd better hurry!” Wasn’t I just 60?

If you would join us, I wouldn’t have to return your telephone call or -- god forbid -- your  &@#$% texts. If you need to talk to me, call me on October 3rd. It is the only day that I have open. Call between 2 and 4, por favor. I know three people who will. You know you will.

Saludos,   

Señor y Señora  Roberto Francisco Tocino

P.S. Growing up in Adams, Sandy and I never dreamed we would be this lucky to travel this much and to see what we have seen.

I Love Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Blanche Lemanski Garofano

Alexandra Lemanski was pregnant with her first child, Blanche, on her voyage from Gdansk Poland  to the USA.  The year was 1910.

At one time the Berkshire Woolen Mills employed 11,000 people. In the Weavers photo of the Berkshire Mills #2  in 1925 she was only 15. She looks exactly like my mother Nora Lemanski.

She died in 2003 at age 93. She loved raspberries.

It is hard to believe that she has been gone for 12 years already.

Zazil Ha

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Mid Febrero 2015: I am floating off Isla’s North Beach on a raft by myself when a familiar face goes by on a paddleboard.

“Buenos tardes.”

“Buenos tardes.”

Then he comes back. It is Santiago Rivera, the new owner of our hotel, Na Balam. We start a long conversation. The conversation is so long that we keep dunking ourselves under salty blue seawater to cool off. Mostly he talks. Shocking! I realize that this is a very special moment and I listen intensely. He confirms in 2013 he bought the hotel from his mother, Lily Robles. Formerly he was working as an architect for a small company in NYC.

Sandy and I have been coming to the Island of Women since 1988. “Before Gilbert” means before September 15, 1988, when Hurricane Gilbert smashed into Isla Mujeres. First it hit Jamaica with 125 mph winds. Then it slammed into Isla with winds of 185-200 mph. (Also in 2005, Hurricane Wilma stalled over Isla Mujeres for three days, producing 64 inches of nonstop rain.) Nevertheless, the island was voted one of the Top Ten Beach Destinations by Travel & Leisure magazine in 2012.

I ask Santiago how his family’s hotel came into being. It seems his grandfather, Lily’s dad, purchased the land to build a hotel for Santiago’s mom, to secure her and her two sons financially for the rest of their lives. Lily had recently divorced her artist husband.

“Yah, but how did that all come about?” I asked.

It seems that Abuelo -- I mean Grandpa -- flew with a friend to the Puerto Juarez area for some unknown reason, aboard a prop airplane from Mexico City. They had airplane trouble and landed in what is now Cancun.

Grandfather had a friend, Judge Lima, eight miles away on Isla Mujeres, who boarded them and fed them until their plane was fixed. He must have showed them his hotel, Zazil Ha, where over the wooden bridge El Presidente, then Avalon, then Mia Reef, now stands. El Presidente was deemed unfixable after Gilbert. Some time later, short on cash, Senor Lima offered some of his Playa Norte land to Abuelo.

Santiago introduced me to his mom. She is from Cuernavaca, and was surprised that after traveling Mexico for 48 years I did not know the town. "The Magnificent Seven" was filmed there, outside of Mexico City. She said it starred Yul Brenner and Marlon Brando. I didn’t correct her.

Side bar: One of the few streets on Isla is named Abasola. Mexico City has 82 streets named Abasola. Each one is in a different section. Even taxi drivers get lost in Mexico City.

The Robles familia built Na Balam (house of the jaguar). They started with only twelve rooms. 

Jaguar, Na Balam.

 They soon realized that they needed a restaurant to feed their guests. Lily -- being an artist and yoga person -- mostly built her business on yoga retreats. The locals call it joga. Their restaurant is named Zazil Ha, and eventually the street it is on was named Zazil Ha also. (Zazil in Mayan means clear.) That street was only limestone gravel, even in 1988.

Side bar: Isla Mujeres’s first water line from the main land was installed in 1967.

What happened to Lima’s hotel is not clear, although he also built the nearby Maria del Mar (Cabanas), where we have stayed for twenty years at least. Do you remember all those cement squat houses along Av. Carlos Lazo on your right as you walk to Centro? Those were the casas of Jose Lima’s workers.

I overheard a tourist remark that “Ha” in Maya means “water.” I googled Zazil Ha.

Gonzalo Guerrero, a soldier sailor, was aboard a small Spanish galleon called a caravel in 1511 with twenty other people including two women. They were on their way to Santa Domingo, which is now the Dominican Republic, from Panama, when the boat sank. They drifted for two weeks and finally landed on shore near Tulum, at Chactemal, the current town of Chetumal, on the Belize border. They were captured by the Mayan warlord Nachan Can. Eighteen of them were held in cages and then sacrificed. Guerrero was made a slave. At one point he saved his master from an alligator attack and was set free as a result. Should I continue? You can’t make this stuff up. The street on the Cuba side, parallel to the main street Hidalgo, for some reason is called Calle (Kye-A) Guerrero. In Marshfield, the builders name the streets after their kids. Mexico puts some thought into their street names.

It gets even better. Guerrero eventually marries the chief’s daughter. They have three children. They are thought to be the very first Mestizo children in North America. Hernan Cortes hears of Guerrero’s trouble and offers him a ride back to Spain. Gonzallo is from the town of Palos, Spain, near where Christopher Columbus started his voyages. Gonzalo declines – his face is tattooed and his ears are pierced and he wears his headdress backwards. Okay, I made up the part about the headdress. But the Spanish would find him odd, plus he loves his beautiful familia in the future Mexico.

Later in what is now Honduras, the Maya king Cicumba asks for help against the Spanish in the town of Ticamaya. Guerrero, with twenty war canoes, heads for Honduras to battle his own countrymen.

After the 1536 battle that the Spanish win, there is a odd warrior body found shot by an arquebus (an early shoulder-held rifle). He has a beard and his face is tattooed and his ears are pierced.

Oh! I nearly forgot to mention. His wife’s name was Zazil Ha.

Roberto Francisco Tocino with Ixchel, Maya goddess of Isla Mujeres.