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Guanajuato, Mexico
Yes, those are birds in cages in the windows upstairs. I could hear them from across a wide and busy street. It was only when I looked for where the sound was coming from that I saw the bearded man.
Guanajuato blue hour
El Gallo Pitagorico (Guanajuato restaurant)
I first visited El Gallo Pitagorico about 10 years ago. I don’t remember the food on that evening, only the view and the chairs.
The ownership recently changed, and we had the good fortune to talk to the new owner. She speaks English, is very nice, and she is making El Gallo Pitagorico even better. She told us she had to let some workers go because they weren’t that good at what they do. I saw her training the employees to be perfectionists.
Our food was very good. After dinner, the new owner said we could go upstairs and watch the sunset from their future bar. The bar is far from finished at this point, but El Gallo Pitagorico will only get better.
Easy to find, look for the blue restaurant on the hillside when you are at the Don Quixote statue on the side of the Hotel San Diego.
Streets of Guanajuato, Mexico
Ashland and Guanajuato share a lot of things in common–art community, university town, valley nestled in mountains, large tourism industry, etc. One thing Guanajuato has that Ashland doesn’t (does any place other than Guanajuato have this?) are the underground roads. Guanajuato’s tunnels sometimes have daylight overhead like the portion of the road in today’s photo.
The tunnels were originally put in place to reduce flooding and a river of water (and sewage) ran through it until 50 years ago. A dam was then built and the previous water channel was converted into a road for vehicles and pedestrians.
La Oreja de Van Gogh (Guanajuato, Mexico)
My first night in Guanajuato and I hadn’t eaten much all day. They don’t serve food on airplanes any more, and I even slept through the drink and nuts they sometimes provide. So I wasn’t going to last long walking the streets of Guanajuato on an empty stomach. I saw the Pirates and Marlins on TV, rain began to fall again, and my decision to eat at this place was decided.
I don’t speak Spanish. My waiter didn’t speak English. Guanajuato style enchiladas sounded good. I ordered an Indio to go with it, thinking it may be an IPA. The waiter seemed to ask if I wanted tomatoes in my Indio. With that I changed my order to Sol. A chicken leg came with my enchiladas.
Frescos on the walls were in a Van Gogh style, and the live music hit the spot. The rain came down so hard that the TVs stopped working. I waited until the rain weakened a bit and then headed back to my hotel.
blue bird house (tree swallow)
planting of Japanese maple tree at SOU celebrating the ten-year anniversary with Morinomiya College of Medical Arts and Sciences (森ノ宮医療学園専門学校) and Southern Oregon University
Dozens of Japanese students from Osaka have been coming to Ashland for the past ten years to learn about sports medicine from SOU trainers and others in the Rogue Valley. Today departing President Mary Cullinan commemorated the event on the SOU campus by planting a Japanese maple.
Pines, moon, and bald eagle (Beatty, Oregon)
It has been a year since I took today’s photo. I’m still mad at myself for not having a longer lens with me at the time. Here is a cropped version of the same photo so you can see a bit more bald eagle detail:
Lower Table Rock lizard
Whenever I go for a hike I face the dilemma of whether or not to bring my camera and if I bring it which lens. Sometimes I just attach a prime 24mm lens to minimize weight and size. But if I had gone that route when we did Lower Table Rock a couple weeks ago I would have missed out on this shot. My 24-120mm comes in very handy in such situations.
Focus stacked Mount McLoughlin and wildflowers from Lower Table Rock
I tried another focus stack from a couple of photos I took this past weekend on Lower Table Rock. The results are better than my first attempt on Upper Table Rock earlier this year.