Mar 10, 2012
ROAD TRIP!!!
Guess where I am?
CULIACAN!!
Colin left there at 6:30 AM Friday after being up till about 1AM and drove back to Mazatlan pick up his girls. He has wanted me to join him for the final concerts for years and years and so finally we made it work. Yes, the girls are not perfectly healthy but they sure were happy to see their Dad.
Culiacan is much talked about in Mexico as being so very very unsafe and violent because of the drug cartels. The following is something Colin emailed me the other night.
….talked to few people about the dangerous city I am in as per campedores ( RVers ). The take here is that this is a city of growth, of education – 7 universities and the battle against crime is done by educating the people. There is little poverty here. Havent seen any myself in 5 years. There are modern buildings being constructed. People, couples walk along the rivers at night. There are popcorn and other vendors, very safe, very pretty. Now the take on Mazatlan is that it is dangerous, much crime and more crime than in Culiacan based on the population and percentage of crimes per million people. If you equate that to Maz, you will find there is more crime there. Mazatlan has a couple of good areas, Golden Zone and Plazuela Machado area, the rest of the neighborhoods are colonia style and the people living there are in poverty. Many people, no money, theft, killings etc. Federales driving around in baclavas with machine guns. Must be here but have never seen it. The people here do think Mazatlan is dangerous and prefer not to go there. Culiacan is likened to Edmonton or Winnipeg etc. don’t know why campedores have a negative feeling for Culiacan. People here not begging nor doing anything to ask for money.
Posing with Ricardo Gallen, a great guitarist from Spain currently teaching in Germany.
...and with Ana Vidovic from Croatia!
Those photos were taken earlier in the week before I arrived. We arrived in Culiacan about 4PM, just in time to unpack, walk the dogs and rush off to the evenings concert. The girls adapted very well and Christian, the youngest son dog sat. Apparently Carmeh spent the entire evening looking out the window waiting for our return.
Last evening, Ricardo Gallen performed, possibly one of the world's top guitarists at a mere 40 years of age. It was an outstanding performance, amazing to watch with sounds I have never heard come from this instrument.
Our hosts Heriberto y Isela Soberanes. In the plaid shirt is David Russell, tonight's artist.
Ricardo Gallen has been teaching classes for the last three weeks here in Culiacan. After the concert many of this week's performers and Ricardo's students went out to a restaurant. From left to right....Ricardo Gallen, David Russell, a woman from Monterrey who owns a music store there and sells guitars made in Paracho and with her back to us, Ioana, the blind guitarist who performed here Tuesday evening ( apparently she performed in Mazatlan on Thursday evening at the Teatro Angela Peralta ~ wish I had known and been able to go see her......myself and the lady in black on the right is Maria, David Russell's wife.
We spoke of many things. I do envy their lifestyle, they travel close to eight months a year, performing and teaching.
We met this delightful young fellow from the Canary Islands who now resides in New York City, my most favorite city in the world. We had hours of wonderful conversation and soon I will be going to visit Diego in NYC.
Not until later did I come to realize that Diego is actually Diego Barber, the composer who wrote the final piece of the concert. How special to be able to get the background on the composition and origins of this wonderful piece of music. When I mentioned to Ricardo that I/we would be visiting Diego in New York within a year he said he would come join us there!!
As the evening wore on, the students who had been sitting all around us started asking questions about our life, why were we in Mexico and Culiacan. Many had seen Colin at the Festival over the years but all did not realize that he also played the guitar.
It was a wonderful night that I didn't want to end. Everyone is so friendly here.
I felt right at home with all these strangers. Mexico is a magical place. Culiacan is a wonderful and I would feel safe living here. Most interesting is that when we arrived yesterday afternoon my Spanish vocabulary seemed to have eluded me. By the end of the evening I was in full swing and back to normal. Practice, practice, practice, be it a language or music!
Guess what? I get to do this all over again tonight!!
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You sure are a party animal! Glad you were able to join Colin there, enjoy!
So glad you got to go!
So glad that you were able to attend the event this year. Sure looks like you had a great time. If we listened to everything the media tells us, we wouldn’t want to step foot out of our houses and chances are that isn’t safe either!
So nice to see you were able to attend. There’s something about meeting the musicians, who then perform later.
Hopefully your four legged companions made out OK.
How nice – enjoyed reading your blog tonight – sounds like a wonderful time meeting and enjoying everyone – so happy for you!
Sounds like you are having a wonderful time but I think you do that wherever you go and whatever you do. It’s just you. Glad the girls are feeling a bit better.
Great Story Contessa. and well told.
Hola Amiga,
Glad you got to attend this event & yes Culiacan is a beatiful city, full of happy and nice, warm people you will find lots of musicians at the centro just trying to make money with their wonderful music instruments, drum sounds and singing voices and Culuchis will just make parties out of everything just like all my gente sinaloense no wonder they call us Gente Alegre. You Enjoy your time in Culiacan and have lots of fun. Take care & God Bless.