Zoe's Travels: January 2009

Friday, January 23, 2009

Home of an artist

Today I met an amazing artist who lives downtown. Sigal from Israel. Her website is: www.pookatak.com

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Our children are safe

Accident involving children at Maya's school.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

NYC: Food and my Jewish Italian Heritage

Three of my favorite places...

Joe's Dairy on Sullivan street, makes the best homemade mozzerella in New York City. They smoke the smoked mozzerella themselves. A fellow pulled me by the sleave to show me a guy stirring a big hot pot in the back. Then they told me that all the evenly smoked mozzerella's we see are not smoked at all but coated in a smoky chemical.

Across the street Pino's Meats sold me sweet salami and spicy salami and gave me tastes of both of course. I asked for some bones for my dog and they gave me bones with the marrow inside which they say is good for the dog. The guy said that pet stores take out the good stuff and replace it with things that are not as good.

Russ & Daughters sells many of my favorite foods - chocolate, halvah, bagels, cream cheese (your choice of cream cheese mixed with caviar, lox, scallions, veggies, etc.), white fish, caviar... lots of delicacies.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Alphabet Killer released nationwide on DVD today.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Bio-bay & Kayaking in the Mangroves

The two tours we did were by kayak with the girls in life vest. After dark we went to Bio-Luminescent Bay to see the dynoflaggelates. http://www.whattodoinpr.com/biobay.html

Another tour that I loved was kayaking through the mangroves in the late afternoon we went through corridors between the mangroves. It's so creepy in a magic way... or magical in a creepy way. There are lots of birds and hermit crabs and my least favorite part - mosquitos! A part of which I brought back with me to New York.

Puerto Rico: Christmas in Vieques

For christmas day we went to a potluck barbecue at Red Beach. It was so much fun we stayed for many hours. Santa visited too. The only drawback was the fire ants that were in the grass near the beach. Their bite stings.

Puerto Rico: San Juan: La Perla

Next to Old San Juan, between the Fort's walls and the ocean is a neighborhood called La Perla.

We wandered in and it became clear pretty quickly that it was not a great neighborhood. Clues included: Some of the homes were missing roofs and decaying walls, a guy who didn't speak English warned me to put my camera away, as I was about to take a photo of a bar a fellow inside yelled at me not to, we walked right through a drug deal being conducted by thugs but most of all by the write up in the guide book.

This is what Lonely Planet has to say about La Perla:

Under no circumstances should you walk into La Perla, the picturesque yet poverty-stricken enclave outside the north wall of Old San Juan.

Often called the most picturesque slum in the world, La Perla has been home to centuries of disposessed, desperate people who have survived by their wits, creating their own microculture based on street crimes. The district gained international infamy when Oscar Lewis wrote his novel La Vida (1966), which detailed the tragic cycle of poverty and prostitution lived out by people growing up in La Perla.

For anyone who has seen the favelas of Rio, the ranchos of Caracas, the barrios of Mexico City, La Perla might look innocuous by comparison. But it remains the prized turf of lawless people who will be only too happy to rough you up and rob you given the opportunity. Despite the sometimes incredible beauty of the colors of the houses along this area - turbulent bludes, glinting greens and foamy browns that seem pulled right from the ocean - this is not a place to wander into.

***

Lula announced that she needed a bathroom so I asked a guy on the street "Donde esta el bano para nina?" The guy asked up to wait a moment and then came back with the keys to a church with a bathroom that Lula could use.

There seemed to be preparations for a New Years eve party that Lula and Maya were intrigued by. A woman said something about a fiesta and I asked what time, she said 7pm (in Spanish) and I thought it was an invitation but later I realized it probably was not. In any case, we already had plans.