Las Flores resort

 The lovely Adriana

Raquel y Jackie con playa

Liven enjoying the lobby

On our way to Mazatlan - day 6

 Our first view of the ocean - at a rest stop along the way. From left to right : Jackie (our super composer/musician/performer), Elinor (dancer) with Liven (baby), Casey (director), Jean (technical director and super chill lighting man), Moi-même, George (choreographer/dancer), Alfredo (driver).

 Casey and her good friend Liven - they have a very nice thing going those two!

Good riddance Culiacan y bienvenido Mazatlan

Veyr strange show last night in Culiacan. It was the opening show of a big dance festival the José Limon festival. We had been told before that there would be a few speeches though we never actually met anyone from the festival. About an hour before the show began the entire theatre including the dressing rooms were carefully inspected by a formidable looking police dog. Presumably they were looking for bombs as the governor was going to be there. I have never been faced by a police dog in my dressing room before. So show time comes around we have the stage all clean and ready to go with various props around, the sound board which is on stage all set - everything adjusted to be exactly as it needs to be. About 10 minutes before curtain the technicians invade the stage setting up chairs and microphones. When I tried to ask them to keep of the dancing floor with their dirty shoes they looked at me as if I were some sort of diva/crazy lady and my request has no effect at all. The speeches turned out to be a good half hour long and during that time, as successive speakers talked about the importance of art and culture while they proceeded to walk all over the stage with no apparent regard whatsoever for the art that was about to happen. It was a little surreal. By the time the show started the audience was pretty much asleep. It took about half the show to wake them up again. We had fun though. I think that we all just decided to do the show for ourselves and to let go of what anyone might think of it.

I think that I may have taken on a little more anger than I thought though and my back is not happy today. I am hoping that a night's rest will help.

So I am sorry to say that my impressions of Culiacan was not so great. We were all ready to move on...

We left at 9 am with Alfredo our driver for the 2 hour drive to Mazatlan. And here we are in another world...

Our hotel is right on the beach - the first time we have see the ocean this trip. We took cart rides into the centre of town this afternoon and to a market. The centre is beautiful. We peeked in to the theatre too. It is a shakespearian style theatre built in the 1800 and recently restored. Very lovely. I think that Husk will look great there. We will see tomorrow...

OK - so I guess things were not all bad! There was a nice little park (though rather full of bird poop) and quite a lovely restaurant with an inner court-yard. Definitely my  hight-light of Culiacan.

Elinor, Adriana, and Liven - feasting on the menu.

The eternal tacos. We find that tacos are served at every meal. There is a great deal of variation from one restaurant to the next.

day 4 in Culiacan

What a different world we are in here just and hour plane ride from Hermosillo. Already from the plane we can see that there is some water here - the vegetation is lush green, there are birds and flowers and trees of all shapes - very different from the dessert where we have been. Also we are right in the city here, as soon as we step out of the hotel we are in a hot, dirty and noisy jumble of people.

Things seem a bit chaotic with no-one quite knowing what is going on. The woman who met us from the festival last night when we arrived and who would have been the one to help us out seemed to know even less than we did. Hopefully the show will go smoothly tonight and the set up will be OK. We'll just have to take what comes!!

Hello from Hermosillo

Here I am in another world... Hermosillo, Mexico. I am sitting under an umbrella next to our hotel pool. It must be 35 degrees out in the sun. In the shade there is a nice breeze but the sun is ferocious. We had our first show last night. The first of six that we will do over the next two weeks in six different citys. We are off the Culiacan this afternoon.

This picture is taken out of my hotel room window, it gives a bit of a sense of the very dry hills that surround us here. Hard to get much of a sense of Hermosilllo. We are shuttled back and forth between the theatre and the hotel. What we see out the van windows looks like a cross between an american strip mall and the wild west. No one seems to walk much here.  It is so hot and streets are long. I ventured out for a little walk outside the hotel complex - a very different feeling out there - birds and lizards suddenly appear. The hotel perimeter seems to be plunked down literally on top of an older world. There is an old cobbled street and side walk that sticks out here and there from the clean plaster walls that surround the hotel. The few people around seemed to be wondering what this white woman was doing there, I didn't stay out long.

On our first day we went to a party to celebrated the beginning of the dance festival. It was a big street party with Mariachi band and a lot of people dancing and enjoying the event. Not at all a contemporary dance croud. George (choreographer and dancer) said " we need to learn how to through a party" referring to the dance community in Montreal and it's difficulty in reaching out to the main stream.

Our show went very well last night. There was a nice house (about 400 people in a house of about 480). The audience was very responsive - they really like to laugh and they very much appreciated that Elinor and I did our texts in Spanish. I am very glad to have five more shows in short order - it is the time that we can really sink our teeth into the piece.

I am thinking of all you dear ones at home. I will go and have a swim for you!


Elinor and Liven - lunch at the pool

 Desert garden

 Elinor, Liven and Adrianna (who is Liven's Nanny through the rest of the tour) on the run-way on our way to Culiacan.

A very refreshing dip!

UBC Botanical Garden

Alice and Ellen in and arbutus tree

We are about to launch off on the canopy walk that lets us walk up in the air amongst the trees. Ellen and Alice don't waist a moment for some affection!

Meo and her brood up in the trees.

We were a good ways up but there was still a long way to go before the tops of these giants.

Easter at the Beach !!!

Girls to the power of six. Our usual four plus by Emma in Ing-Marie.

Seaweed 

 Four cousins and old Bess

 Inspecting dead fish

UBC Law department tricycle race

The little ones showing the professor how it is done.

The little ones waiting their turn to pelt the racers with water balloons.

The Vancouver Aquarium

The Dolphin Show at the Aquarium. What good timing these  lovely creatures have and what strength!

Here are the two dolphins walking along on their tails.

 The see lion... not to be out done!

 and of course the Beluga on it's circuit around the pool.

Stanley Park

 Alice on bench

  Wood Duck

 A contented Mallard

 Two turtles and a Canada Goose

 Turtle and reflexion

 Three ladies

 Alice and nurse log

 Feeding the chickadees

Huckleberry in bloom

 Douglas fir, nurse log and Lily

Alice and exposed roots

A contented Mama

At work and at play in the garden

Much of our time in Vancouver was spent, to the delight of all, mucking about in Meo and Doco's garden. What a treat to get to dig some real earth! Alice and Lily were very quickly hard at play with their dear cousins Molly and Ellen.

Tiger Lilys

Alice and Ellen with Soap Berry

Lily, Molly and Alice with currant

 Alice and Ellen in the sand box

Meo in the raspberries 

Lily and Molly at work on Doco's new garden 

Lily in the Hazelnut with violets

Alice and Meo planting... what were you planting Meo?

Ellen, the water nymph

Easter roses

Alice and her new sandals

Lily and Molly the 'ferocious' wolves