I happened across a photo gallery of Guanajuato, Mexico – what a colorful town! Why is it that most places have such a subdued palette for houses? Blue, grey, white, maybe yellow if they’re really daring. I love multi-colored buildings.
Travel
Where the hell is Matt?
Very cool and inspiring videos: Matt Harding dances in dozens of countries in the space of just a few minutes: Where the hell is Matt? His newest video includes a bunch of people dancing with him, which is even cooler.
USABox
OK, I’m going to do a little free publicity for something that I couldn’t live without – my mailbox. When I moved to Costa Rica last year, I realized that I needed a permanent solution to the mail problem. While I pay all of my bills and check my bank accounts online, and I got rid of all the junk mail, there’s still always a bunch of stuff coming. The post office will only forward it to an address in the US, and I didn’t really want to ask a friend to take care of that for me, so instead I researched mailing services. The one I chose was USABox, and I couldn’t be happier. Continue reading
Figure out those flags!
Here’s a very cool site that lets you look up flags by background color; horizontal vs vertical stripes (further divided by color combinations); and “other designs,” including squares, wedges, crosses, animals, plants, and fancy. Very useful if you see a flag and have absolutely no idea what country it might belong to: Easy Flag Identifier
2008 Hyères Flower Festival
On 5 and 6 April 2008, the southern French city of Hyères hosted its annual flower festival with an open day event at SICA (Société d’intérêt collectif agricole) / Marché aux fleurs d’Hyères. 500 growers produce over 180 million flowers a year, making it the largest flower market in France and the fourth largest in Europe. With information booths, wine and flower tasting, and a flower parade, it was a fascinating look at this colorful aspect of the Hyérois community.
Galería Namu
San José, the capital of Costa Rica, is not one of my favorite cities. We tend to avoid it, other than for transit purposes. But on our trip in January, we really wanted to see some Costa Rican art, and research led us to Galería Namu on avenida 7 between calles 5 and 7. It’s a gallery of indigenous art and folk art, and it was wonderful. We bought 5 pieces: a whimsical hand-painted mug, a woven plate, a tiny basket, a decorated mirror, and a cutting board made of colorful strips of wood, for a total of about $125. We could have easily bought another dozen items – paintings, masks, drawings, jewelry… it was a beautiful and varied collection. If you’re in San José, definitely check out this wonderful gallery – or at least look at the website: Galería Namu.