Giving Thanks...

Even big cities rife with daily sounds of car theft alarms and overbearing traffic noise can provide an occasional surprise. Just before first light, early morn, cold fingers of cloud gripped this high altitude Andean city. Not quite yet awake, strains of Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma (None Shall Sleep) filtered above the rooftops, faint and beguiling it wafted as a godsend. I lifted my head and cocked an ear, then rose from the featherbed to draw the curtains and open windows to better hear. In damp morning haze, a neighbour had bestowed a sonorous gift. I smiled at this Latin city and mouthed the words, "Mil Gracias" (a thousand thanks) to a person I shall never meet. For truly this offering, a musical generosity so freely given has changed my day...

Copyright © Mick Huerta 2013. All Rights Reserved.
mickhuerta@gmail.com
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Żubrówka Bison Vodka

In Poland's Bialowieza National Park where the buffalo do roam, I discovered "Żubrówka Bison Vodka" flavored with buffalo grass. Each bottle sports a signature blade of grass which speaks to authenticity (think agave worm in Mezcal bottles). Because of its yellowish color locals joke that it's bison piss vodka. Being six times distilled, I thought notes of herb, vanilla, and almond where more apparent...  

Of course best when shared, frozen and sipped from a small glass. Yet others prefer Żubrówka chilled and mixed with apple juice, a drink originating in Poland and known as Tatanka. Meanwhile in the UK, it's called a Frisky Bison. Na zdrowie!

Copyright © Mick Huerta 2013. All Rights Reserved.
mickhuerta@gmail.com
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"Arbeit macht frei" "Work Will Set You Free" - Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz, Poland - September 2012. Gathered by a sense of human failing, curiousity or simple morbidity. We were from 'round the world. Some American, Canadian, some Chinese, Swiss, Saudi and still others from any country you can imagine. We were maybe seventeen or eighteen tourists all told. All of us lumped into an English language tour.

Solemn. We followed a guide. We walked the corridors, climbed the same echoing stairs and listened to the heinous, the improbable, the impossible; the truth. I did not use the camera. It used me. The lens was drawn to open spaces out of windows. The grounds. The spaces that forlorn eyes might have looked out upon. Inside there were statistics. Maps, numbers, a list of ethnic groups. 

Then it all changed when we came to an exhibt of human hair piled high behind a large glass pane and the next, a display bolts and bolts of cloth woven from locks shorn from the heads of those soon to be victims. 

That is what stopped me.  

I did not last the tour. 

It finished me.

Copyright © Mick Huerta 2013. All Rights Reserved.
mickhuerta@gmail.com
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Devil's in the Details! - "Coca Sour!"

 

Devil's in the details, but then again so's perfection! And when you get it right the results can be heavenly. In the Andes, the Coca Sour Cocktail is one of those perfect aperitifs that precurse a perfect meal. Drop in, I'll fix you one.

Copyright © Mick Huerta 2013. All Rights Reserved.
mickhuerta@gmail.com
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"El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" - "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail"

Rainy morning Titicaca; bleary lake Peru. Breakfast guests from around the world (Japan, Canada, Germany, Argentina) absent mindedly push quinoa cereal around their bowls while looking out on incessant drizzle... the little stereo came alive and music filled the morning chill. "Oh, isn't that the Paul Simon song?" Just because we´d already been chatting a little, I felt I could mention that the title is "El Condor Pasa" (The Condor Passes), an old Andean folk instrumental. "By the way, it never had lyrics." "Really?" "Really." The petite japanese lady said, "Guess, that´s how he got a hit. He gave it words."  "Where can I hear the Andean one?" asked the impossibly blonde woman from Dusseldorf. "Youtube," I reply softly. We went back to the condor passing, black coffee and our dreams of floating islands built by the Urus just outside muzzy fogged windows... as the summer rain continued to fall.

Alasitas: Festival of Abundance - La Paz, Bolivia 2013

Beseeching the Aymara God "Ekeko" to bestow blessings and abundance, Aymara Shamans attend the petitions of participants at the Festival of Alasitas in Plaza San Francisco. 

January 24th begins the multiple week celebration and first day the city was out in full force to enjoy perfect sunshine amidst the rainy season. One woman commented, "This year, the sun is the first blessing we've received from Ekeko!" All smiles, she and her family felt it was a sign of many good things to come.

Just beyond, a young girl was having stacks of money blessed by a Yatiri (shaman). I snapped a few frames and asked, "Why do you need so much money, chica?" She smiled, "I want to buy gifts for my mother... and for my family!" Her smile grew even larger!

All the personal petitions, wishes and desires of the crowd filled the plaza and overflowed into the surrounding streets. And in the clamor, I thought this ready proof that the Festival of Alasitas is very much alive for it resides in the hearts of the young and the old. Part deep Andean belief, part fiesta and altogether a swirl of color, light and movement; Alasitas is sure to be with us for untold generations as an expression of Andean hope and aspiration.

Copyright © Mick Huerta 2013. All Rights Reserved.
mickhuerta@gmail.com
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Alasitas 2013 - Jan. 24th

January 24th kicks off the Feria de Alasitas. This is a celebration of abundance that comes at Jallu
Pacha (time of the rains) when the altiplano pops with vibrant green! It's a time of hope and promise when priests, shamans and deeply felt Aymara culture come together to define the wishes/desires of an individual or family. Miniatures are bought of groceries, houses and most anything else and through the incantations of spiritual leaders the Aymara God "Ekeko" is asked to make the objects real. The festival goes on for about a month right in the center of the city of La Paz!

Copyright © Mick Huerta 2013. All Rights Reserved.
mickhuerta@gmail.com
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