Since I have been posting again to my blog(s) and shooting a little, I have rebuilt the gallery of photographs of my house for sale on the shore of the Laguna Bacalar.
Visit the gallery — Bacalar House For Sale — by clicking on this link or on the blogroll in the left column. 
Weddings have been a two-sided sword in my life. Mine (ours) was considered hippy-like back in ‘69 and hated by the respective families. We eschewed having anything but a very private function in our favorite formal garden at Blithewood on the Bard College campus. It was limited to my in-laws who would have wanted a large, public gathering in suburban New York, a pair of friends from law school and the Reverend David Pierce.
David saved the day by making everyone comfortable as he invented a service that met the needs of marriage-bonding and charmed my wife’s parents with his blue eyes and flowing, blonde hair. He later “lost his calling” as an Episcopal minister, changed religions and went different ways. We became friends when he was, many years later, our editor for photographic essays of an academic bent for the Hudson River Regional Review.
The garden had been our favorite playground during college and was the place we returned each year until illness forced me to move us to Mexico. It was one of the ties that bind, a ritual pilgrimage that always brought us back to the time the bees buzzed by, David intoned all the words of bonding and the sun shone on the July blooms of the 19th c. enclosed garden.
Later, as a photographer, I shot one or two weddings a year for editors and friends. It never became a major part of my work but the intricacies of putting the wedding affair not only together but as an event that forever spells the nature of the relationship was made known to me. It ain’t easy! There are family frictions, tensions and worries, friends (and those who call themselves that) and associates and all the knots that bind those people together to each other and The Couple.
Beyond the emotional ties and bonds and the fears of actually “tying the knot” lay the myriad details of putting together a spectacular event that is to entertain everyone, please families who might not be as comfortable with each other as the wedding couple, and coordinate the food and venue, the band, flowers, honeymoon plans, Aunt Hattie and Grandmother Jill and all their needs and do it seamlessly, seemingly effortlessly and, if it all works, without anyone noticing that it was hard work to orchestrate.
And there is the photographer — picking one, paying one and being happy with the results. My rules for such a choice will be held for another time. I was a fine photographer and made, I thought, emotional and sensitive pictures in a photojournalistic fashion. But I was not a good wedding photographer because the mechanics of putting together albums and bookkeeping the thousand pictures for all those who wanted them was too far from my usual academic and industrial work. In these computer-days of digital photography, web-sites and emails, digital movement of images and services that will take digital files to create albums and send them to those who want them I might have looked for more weddings.
I was in upstate New York. Now that my time is spent in Mexico (where photography is very primitive and little understood) and in Miami which is conducive to both Miami Weddings and photography because of its sub-tropical light, exciting locations (Vizcaya comes to mind along with the Biltmore Hotel), great restaurants and a place far-flung family and friends look forward to visiting. I was directed to a web site that includes a terrific guide to creating a Miami Wedding.
This is the stuff of the modern world. The site offers up a directory of all the services needed to plan your own wedding spectacular or have a professional planner do it for you (like Geraldine Chaplin in the Robert Altman film, The Wedding). Naturally I was most interested in checking out photographers and found that they had ads for 9 photographers (in Miami — the site has scores of locations). Rodrigo Varela presented a great web presentation of photos in a sophisticated flash presentation (evocative, heart-felt pictures, too) as well as more formal photographers. The site, unlike me, also pays attention to all the details of the wedding process — bands, balloons, gowns, flowers, planning professionals, transportation services, ice sculptors, personal chefs, yachts (it is Miami, after all), Jewish wedding specialists, and, I love it!, personalized wedding chocolates.
The site is: 1 Wedding Source (.com): Miami for Miami Weddings.
This is Blithewood Garden in the Hudson Valley where we were married. Picking a spot you will want to remember and return to to celebrate a romantic time is an important wedding decision.
A picture from my garden as a post for today. Appropriate for Sunday.
This is the quick visit to a nursery on the highway from Bacalar to Chetumal. There is a nonchalant elegance to the mash of tropical plants — some for sale and some growing prettily that come with a quizzical look. “Of course they are not for sale. They are growing. Yes. It is the only one we have.” So goes the business acumen of many. It is not a commercial society, not totally comfortable with the concept of capitalism.
A NEW GALLERY OF PICTURES FROM A RECENT TRIP TO A LOCAL NURSERY HAS BEEN POSTED.
This is the newly-painted barda (perimeter wall) with the steel gates (porton) that help to shield the house and property from the street.
It has been so long since I have been posting to this and to my other blogs and sites that it is hard to get over whatever block has kept me from it. One way is these short posts and pictures. The pictures are important to me and have become so much easier since I bought my first digital camera in September.
My velador — gardener/guard/assistant — pushing me to get out of the house more than I have been tempted me with a nursery in the jungle nearby. He wanted to do some planting in the “front” of the house facing the lagoon. The winds and slight salinity of the air may make it hard to grow things there but we chose bougainvillea (bugambilla in Spanish) for its sturdiness and beautiful blooms. We motored over to the newish nursery (vivero) and then creeped home with the Jetta laden with plants.
A gallery of the pictures is being readied or I will post some more here but, as a teaser, is the young son of the Mayan family who tend the plants. It is not mall-world in L.A. This lad was as fascinated by the pictures floating in the screen on the back of my Nikon D40x as he was by the old foreigner who spoke with an accent. Of course, this campesino Mayan family did not exactly speak the king’s Spanish either. Their local accent was thick. I collected some plants and some images.
I didn’t realize how much work would be needed to have other people sell my house. Every day brings workers of one specialty or another to keep up the repairs and sprucing up. The casita’s masonry has been repaired and the plumber who promised to come hasn’t. It is Mexico, after all. The painter had disappeared for a few weeks and was being given up on but returned limping from his fall from another job’s ladder. Fresh paint is beginning to cover the barda, that cement wall surrounding 3 sides of the property.
Recently the first would-be buyer came for the tour and, today, another. That, too, is exhausting. Somehow my life is being laid bare in showing my nest to strangers — American and Mexican so far. Perhaps it will become multi-cultural and some other countries will yet check in.
Here is a recap of the agencies with which the house is listed:
The latest listing is from the agency MexicoCaribbean.
It is featured on the Mexico International site as a B&B
Another Real Estate agency is promoting my house — their site puts it in the “Hotel/B&B” category. It would fit well there with its size, bedrooms with views, upper and lower floor terraces, dock, boat ramp, huge lap pool, gardens, casita, perimeter walls and spectacular views of the Lagoon of the 7 Colors, La Laguna de las Siete Colores.
This agency is Mexico International which is based in Merida with an office in Mahajual, the Caribbean coast near here. The specific listing is HERE.
The pornographic tuliapan charmed me into playing with it a little more and mounting the first of my HPOD galleries — Howard’s Picture of the Day. Which I will never do every day or anything close but it is a nicer presentation. It is not yet on any of the gallery menus or links.
This is one of the “famous” views of Bacalar. It comes from what is one of the highest points around a little south of my house near the Cenote Azul. It shows a small preview of the reason it is called The Lake of the 7 Colors. Here there is indigo to white but add some sunset
and splashes of magenta and red.
In my garden the tuliapan are lush and so filled with blooms most days that it has been ill-advised to trim them into simple topiary. The tuliapan is much like hisbiscus except that the buds are NOT edible and do not make tea. This particular plant produces this sexy, multi-hued flower with its trailing pistil.
Don’t forget that the beauty of the lagoon, the cenotes, and tropical gardens can be yours. See Bacalar House For Sale.
The decision has been made. It was not an easy one because I adore the house, the pool, the view, my garden. It will be hard to leave but financial and medical reasons make it necessary.
Finalmente yo hecho el decision vender mi casa en la orilla de la Laguna Bacalar en el ojo de la Laguna cerca del Hotel Laguna. No es facil salir porque yo adoro mi casa, la alberça, la vista y mi jardin. El link abajo es por un galerie de fotos de la casa.
A new album of the house with interior and exterior views is now available at http://7colorlagoon.com/galleries/houseforsale/index.html
There is also a new set of pages with contact information and a page noting that the house is for sale at Bacalar House.
As promised I am working on a new pdf download with a more complete description easily printed or forwarded.
For now the following agencies are representing the house and property which are properly titled, all taxes up to date:
Denis Couture
MexicoCaribbean
(248) 434-2407 (office)
(248) 980-4014 (cell)
www.mexicocaribbean.net
Denis Couture/ Mexico Caribbean
Office: (248) 434-2407 and Email www.mexicocaribbean.net
Sra. Jenny Martinez Sabido in Chetumal, Mexico
(983) 833-9179 Cell: (983) 836-0176
Email: gmars76@hotmail.com Señora Martinez habla Español mejor. Ella conoce la casa muy buena durante toda la vida de la casa.
Again: contact me at hfd@7colorlagoon.com or hfdratch@yahoo.com
