Today’s picture of the day is from the city of Puebla, but it could have been taken in many cities and towns in Mexico.

Shari, Nathanael and I went to Puebla to take Shari to the doctor and take care of some other errands.  The trip went well for the most part, although we were pretty exhausted by the time we got home!

Anyway, the picture is of a roadside juice stand.  Freshly squeezed juice is a joy of Mexico that I don’t take advantage of nearly as much as I should.  But there are some wonderful stands like this, and when you get into a restaurant you can find some fancier mixes – pineapple, orange, papaya, mango, nopal (cactus), banana – and on and on.  What can I say?  Sweeeeeet!

This metal monument has become a somewhat of a symbol of Ixtapaluca.  But what is it?

After asking a few people – who weren’t sure – I finally went to see if there was some kind of plaque explaining what it’s all about.  But alas – the mystery remains.  No plaque.

But I’m hoping that someone will read this and finally explain it to me!

Today this taco stand that you see was set up by the monument.  Apparently their specialties are tacos de cabeza (head tacos (usually cow, sometimes sheep) – muscles of the head or other parts such as the brains (sesos) or lips (trompa) or cheeks (cachete) or tongue (lengua)) and tacos de burria (specially spiced tacos often of goat or mutton).  They also serve mixed tacos (surtida), which, I believe, include various parts of the pig.  Maybe you don’t want to know.

Click on the image to see higher resolution versions.

In today’s picture you can see tigers going down the street, apparently heading to church (see the "IGLESIA" (CHURCH) sign behind them).  I was wondering if they were really stepping up persecution in Ixtapaluca – are these tigers on their way to eat the Christians?

No, they weren’t going to eat Christians or to hear a sermon – they were just going down the road promoting a local circus that has pitched tents no far from where we live.  They were followed by camels and other critters.

Shari just asked what was to prevent someone from sticking their hand in to pet the lovely tigers.  Well… apparently… nothing.  But who would do such a thing?

Today I had to do some grocery shopping.  For some inexplicable reason I ended up at WalMart.  Not usually my first choice, but today it worked all right for my picture of the day.

WalMarts here look a lot like WalMarts in Canada and the USA.  But there are occasional surprises.

One of the biggest differences – no, seriously – one of the biggest differences is the vast selection of … yogourt drinks.

Yes, cross the border into the USA, and the yogourt drink isle just disappears.  But here in Mexico, we have a fabulous selection.  That’s right, most of what you see in the picture on the right side are yogourt drinks (with a few normal yogourts thrown in).  A marvellous selection of flavours (my recent favourite is white tea & cranberry).

Remember, the prices are in pesos.  So at today’s exchange I’m seeing prices between CA$0.35 and CA$55 per drink.  Great prices, great for your gut, and great for your taste buds.  Come to Mexico and try real Mexican food – drinkable yogourt.

This is another photo for my 30-photos-in-30-days…

When we lived in Cuernavaca, we used to have a gas tank on our roof, which was filled every few months.  Here in Ixtapaluca, we buy tanks from the gas truck that periodically passes by.

We own a couple of gas tanks, so that we can switch when we run out even if the gas truck isn’t handy.  Of course, this hasn’t always been enough – for example, that Christmas day when the tank ran out in the middle of cooking the turkey, and the next tank didn’t work right… ah, the memories.

Anyway, the gas truck drives around the neighbourhood, and one of the workers shouts out something like … well … GAAAAAAAAAAAS!  And we go out and tell him what size of tank we want, and he exchanges it for us.  Then we pay him some cash and, of course, a tip.

So here it is, the gas truck that we’re so familiar with.  You can see the yellow gas tanks stacked high on top of the truck.

A migraine attack rather wrecked my plans for the day.  Getting some work done at home, some errands, a Bible study… I had great plans, most of which went out the window.

But I’m not one for sitting around.  If I can’t go out, I’ll do something in the house.  If I can’t stand up, maybe I can sit and work.  If I can’t sit, I can sit up in bed and read.  If I can’t read, I can listen to something.  If I can’t even listen, I can think over something.  If I’m beyond that, I better hope I can sleep!

Today at the "can’t go out but can still stand up" phase, I made some rice pudding with Nathanael.

My Grandmother Cottrill used to make great rice pudding.  Her’s was baked, but this was stove top.  A great recipe, though.

Arroz con Leche (rice pudding) is a classic Mexican dessert.  This is my own version with organic whole grain rice, but still very Mexican with cinnamon and lime.  Delish.  I ate a warm bowl at the "can’t stand up but can sorta sit up" phase.

So in the absence of much excitement today, the arroz con leche makes it as my picture of the day.

Usually on Fridays we try to have some family time.  After our gallivanting all over the place lately, we were ready for an evening at home.

So we made some popcorn and watched God of Wonders (see trailer below).  It was especially appropriate because Nathanael is studying astronomy (and actually the video also talked about water cycles, which Hannah has been studying).

So today for my photo of the day I took a picture of the moon.  I understand that the moon is the same phase wherever you see it around the world (in this case 23% of full), but at a different angle.  As you can see, here (from Hannah’s window at 8:39pm) it looks like a boat or a cradle.  You can even see some of the detail of the surface of the moon on the dark side (click the image for higher resolutions).  Not bad for a point-and-shoot camera in the middle of the city!

Pigeons are cool.

Today we were in Puebla, showing Brittany a few of the sites.  Downtown we saw a lot of birds… different kinds.  But some of them were pigeons.  Eventually we found that there was a lady selling seed to feed them.

No, it wasn’t tuppence a bag.  Actually, it was 5 pesos.  About 40 cents.  Or about 25 pence.  Inflation.

So Nathanael fed them for a bit.  Here’s one picture I took with a couple of the birds in flight.  I like the shadows.

This is obviously a poor area, not far from where we live.  Some houses are missing doors or windows, few are painted, many do not have proper roofs.

But I’ve highlighted what this neighbourhood seems to have lots of – satellite dishes.

I counted at least 21 – they’re red, blue, or grey (I realize you won’t be able to see the grey ones very well).  There may be some I’ve missed – and, of course, those are just the ones in sight of the camera.

This is very typical.  I remember visiting a shack with a dirt floor in Mexico many years ago.  One of the few things in the room was – a big screen TV.  Bigger than I may ever have.

Well, we all have strange priorities, don’t we?

You might want to check out the larger resolution version of the picture below in our Photo Gallery to see how many satellite dishes you can find.

Far be it from me to cheat.  The photo I posted earlier today was actually a picture taken… I believe in December.  So it doesn’t count as one of my 30-photos-in-30-days.

Today Shari, Nathanael and I took Brittany (the photographer from Canada, as you may remember) downtown.  Among other things we visited the National Cathedral.

In the cathedral was a chapel to the "Captive Child" or Niño Cautivo.

The Captive Child is one of many "Child God" images, representing Jesus as a child.  Many people believe that each one has special powers, and so they invoke it for special things.

This particular image was actually captured by pirates in the early 1600s, while it was being carried to the cathedral.  After 7 years in prison, it was finally brought here.

So this image is invoked to receive physical or spiritual freedom.  In particular, people use it to try to get freedom for kidnapping victims, or for children suffering physical violence.

You can see the Captive Child in glass over the altar, among a collection of modern toys.  Just click to see larger images in the photo gallery.