Lora Loka's Restaurant in La Manzanilla

“Alejandro! Mi amor.” is the greeting I get from Lora Loka (Crazy Lara) when I arrive at her restaurant in La Manzanilla near Bara de Navidad in Jalisco, Mexico. I walk into the delicious smells of chilli rellenos and seafood enchiladas that permeate her tiny kitchen.

Lora Loka working in her kitchen

“You are coming tonight to my Pre-Valentine party?” I hesitate because we do have a previous reservation to see the Blonde Gypsies at Martine’s but then I notice that there is, besides her delicious food, Tango on the menu. I look at Lyn and she says “If you want to stay it’s OK.” So I settle in and watch the hustle and bustle of her many workers as they set tables and prepare the smorgasbord for the evening. Strands of lightrope wrapped around palm trees and circling the basketry of the palapa add a warm glow as the sun sets over Tenacatita Bay and humid, salty breeze blows in from the ocean.

The musicians show up and start to set up their equipment. Ken from Courtney, (La Manzanilla is Vancouver Island south) has his guitar and computer set up and soon is noodling away. Playing his own compositions and some well known tunes. He is very good and soon a few guests start to arrive and find their seats. Besides Tango and Ken there is another musician named Daniel playing guitar and singing, Lora is going to sing and dance with Annette a fabulous dancer from the Nederlands.

While Ken is playing his first set, the food begins to appear from the kitchen. A huge brown earthenware casserole decorated with hand painted flowers and filled with Chilli Rellenos in tomato sauce is set on the table. Another one with a fresh green salad, one with rice with bits of red chilli pepper, tomato and onion, and the last with seafood enchiladas in white sauce. The smells make my mouth water. The best part about smorgasbord style is that I know I can come back for seconds. There goes my diet. There is a big rush for the food and everyone is soon savouring the amazing flavours. When the everyone has had their fill, I did to my pleasure and regret go back for seconds, Ken finishes his set and its time for the dancing to begin.

The lights are turned down, the music begins and Annette and Lora stride out of the kitchen with candles perched precariously on their heads, black blouses and gigantic flowered skirts complete their costumes. Heads held high they whirl and twirl about the small dance floor to the lively recording of a mariachi band. The next dance is one that we are all familiar with “La Bamba” this dance sans candles is more energetic and the audience claps along. They perform two more dances which rather than describe I’ll let you watch the videos that follow.

When the dancing is over, Daniel gets up and plays a set of songs accompanied by his guitar. He plays a lot of old favourites from the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s. Then it’s time to Tango. I get to dance with Annette because she has no dance partner and few other tango dancers are here because there has been a series of workshops through out the month of January and there are still a few dancers who have been seduced by the charms of La Manzanilla. We dance a few tandas and then Daniel comes back for another set this time accompanied by his laptop playing some great dance music while he sings along Karaoke style. Everyone gets up and dances and I have some fun dances with Beatrix the tango teacher who has been here for a month. Later I put some more tango music on and have a couple more dances with Annette. Lyn shows up when the event at Martines is over and we help Lara take down the decorations and then she shows us to her little apartment which she has offered us for the night because the hotels are full and our rental isn’t ready until tomorrow.

Huaraches (singular huarache) are a type of Mexican sandal.

Making a huarache sandal at a workshop at the Museo de Arte Popular, Mexico City.

Huaraches are pre-Columbian in origin, and are made from woven leather. The leather is traditionally hand-woven.^[1] The name “Huarache” is derived from theP’urhépecha language term kwarachi. Huarache directly translates into English as sandal.^[2] 

A thick corn tortilla fried on the grill then covered with a spicy red salsa. sprinkled with shredded cheese, cilantro, and french fries. While your choice of fish, shrimp, chicken, beef or pork is cooked beside it. Once everything is ready add huge dollop of guacamole, the meat of your choice and voila a Huarache.

As we neared the end of the road we encountered some local police in a pickup truck, who asked us (as police do) to explain ourselves. Gabino said something in Spanish that I didn’t understand, possibly “I’m taking this big, crazy gringo into the mountains to feed to the tigers.” The police seemed to be satisfied by his answer. One less gringo in this town that is constantly inundated with drunken louts from northern North America is probably an appealing idea.

We walked on a well travelled path for a way and then started up the Rio. Yes, the very river where if the name was any indication there were tigers. We encountered a few other walkers and greetings were exchanged. At least they hadn’t been eaten. Then we spent the next two hours clambering over large river rocks climbing waterfalls, thankfully mostly dry at this time of year. We stopped at one of the pools that were the only indication that there was water in this river, and Gabino showed me the shrimp and fish that live there. He told me that even though the water disappears completely later in the spring, when the water comes back in the rainy season so do the shrimp and fish. We both agreed that it was a miracle.

The jungle on either side was alive with exotic sounds of different birds, animals and the occasional loud crash. Gabino told me that the crashes were from dinosaurs that lived in the jungle. This was easy to believe because the plants were definitely straight out of the illustrations from those books about dinosaurs that I had loved when I was little. We stopped twice on the way up to look out over Puerto Vallarta from the tops of the two waterfalls. The view was amazing and well worth the bumps and scrapes.

At the top of the second and highest of the waterfalls we headed north into the jungle itself. Walking under huge 30 foot high palms it was easy to imagine a Brontosaurus raising its head above the tree line or tigers lurking in the shadows. We were deep into the Sombrero Palmas Jungle. It was dark and cool after the heat of the riverbed. It was very difficult walking here because the ground was treacherously covered with small coconuts and palm fronds. It was like trying to walk on ball bearings, covered with slippery pieces of paper, interspersed with sharp edged sticks. I fell and slid a couple of times. A few more scrapes and bruises to add to my story.

The centre and newest frond of the Coconut Oil Palm is what Sombreros de Palmas are made from. Gabino stared intently up into the upper branches of every tree that we passed until he spotted one that had just the right amount of growth at the top. He began ripping off dead palm fronds from the bottom of the tree, making loud crashing noises much like the dinosaurs. Hmmm. After few minutes of this dusty activity and as it turned out dangerous activity (dislodged wood ticks), he was down to the strong inner layers. He reached into his pack and took out his machete and began to clamber up into the upper branches while I crouched a good distance away from the wood ticks (I’d rather have dinosaurs), and took video of his exploits. Once he achieved the top of the palm he began to spread the fronds separating the desired central frond from the others. He then leaned back against one of the outer fronds and with a few deft cuts of his machete removed the desired palm frond and dropped it to the ground. Gabino then leaned out along the frond he was on and grabbed the trunk of nearby tree and shinnied to the ground.

Getting some tough string from his pack and cutting it into 12″ lengths, he began to process the palm frond. First he removed the razor sharp inner edge of the frond and began to separate the individual leaves from the stalk. Using his hand as a measuring tool he cut the frond into lengths of 3 hand spans. Then he took the machete and split the leaves from the main stock, deftly trimming the edges and inner surface. Next he wrapped the piece around his head looking momentarily like a Mayan sun god, then he tied it into a loop with one of the pieces of string, wrapped the leaves around the inner stalk and tied them to the inner loop. He did this 5 times and then he quickly wove a sombrero from the last one. A beautiful gold and green one, that looked like a flower.

Then he turned to me and asked “Are you crazy?”

“Why do you say that?” I replied.

“Because you have come up here into the hills with someone you met yesterday,” he said.

“Maybe I am crazy. But I’m happy to be here and to have seen the beautiful views and experienced the Sombrero Jungle” I said “I have had an experience that few tourists have and I have made a friend.”

All the scene settings are refinements of the AUTO setting on your camera. The AUTO setting does its best work on a nice sunny day or indoors using the flash. The reason for this is that these situations are predictable and White Balance, Shutter speed, Aperture and ISO can be set accordingly. The problem arises when you want to do something a little different. Such as take pictures of a friend, a soccer game, fireworks or the snowman your kids just built.

While I was out walking today I took a couple of pictures in the fresh snow that had just fallen. I shot 2 sets of photos taking 1 in AUTO mode and the other using Snow scene mode.

the one above was taken in AUTO mode notice how dull and kind of grey the snow looks.

This photo was taken using Snow scene mode as you can see the snow is brighter and looks white instead of grey.

Here is the other set. Can you tell which is taken in Snow scene mode and which is AUTO mode.

(Hover the mouse over the photo to find out the answer)

If you have any comments or questions don’t be afraid to ask them in the comments below.

• Tripod

• Remote control

• Camera

• Flash

• Turn off image stabilization. Which can

cause blurring from motion that is not

present

• lock up the mirror to reduce shake.

Remember the effects of the Exposure

Triangle.

Aperture affects

• depth of Field

• Exposure time

• Shutter speed

Shutter Speed affects

• motion freeze

• blur

• Aperture sizes

ISO affects

• image noise

• how fast or slow a shutter speed you can

use

• the amount of depth of field through

aperture settings

Timed Exposures

• F-stops set for depth of field

• B or Bulb setting for long exposures

• Start at 2 seconds and Bracket

• Self timer set to 2 seconds

• Point and shoot cameras use Night mode,

Fireworks mode or Night portrait mode

With a Digital Camera you can see the results

right away and know whether you got a good

exposure.

Metering the Exposure

• Start with an aperture of F-5.8 and a shutter

speed of 2 seconds. Then bracket by

doubleing the exposure time.

• Meter off of reflected light rather than light

sources. Even when both are present in

image.

• Or use the spot meter for proper exposure

of the area of interest. Lock the exposure

then recompose.

• Use the Histogram to determine exposure.

• Use an external light meter for light sources

in the photo.

Focusing at night

Auto-focus doesn’t work well at night.

Focus on a light source.

Use a high F stop so more of the scene is in

focus.

If you have a small flashlight you can put it on

top of what you are about to shoot Focus then

romove it when you take the shot.

Use manual focus and set the distance.

Looking through the view finder at night can it

can be hard to see to compose your image.

Allow your eyes to adjust after using a

flashlight.

Use live view if you have it to check

composition. The LCD will show all the

settings you have made and you should see

what the exposure will look like.

Exposure Bracketing

• Best to take about 4 or 5 Exposures for

each shot.

• Use Spot metering on the area of interest.

• Bracket using Shutter speed.

Light Sources

• Night scenes can have many different

temperature light sources.

• Best times for sky colour is Dusk or Dawn.

• White Balance may be impossible and will

loose some of the desired lighting effects.

Movement

• Moving objects will blur or not register at

all in a time exposure.

• Lights of moving objects will register as

streaks.

• Use a high f-Stop to prevent over-exposure

of stationary lights.

Don’t Fire a Flash at a moving vehicle.

It could cause an accident.

Using a Flash

• A flash is not as effective outdoors because

there are fewer reflective surfaces.

• A flash will light anything that is within a

short distance from the camera but anything

beyond that distance will not be affected.

• Fire a flash multiple times in one shot to

light different areas.

Special Effects at Night

• Use a flashlight to provide an unusual

effect on objects.

• Use the Bulb setting and cover the lens

with the lens cap between exposures.

• Use colored gels or filters over the flash or

flashlight to provide lighting effects.

• Move the subject so they blur a bit during

the exposure.

Shooting the Moon

• Use a telephoto lens.

• If the moon isn’t in the right place, shoot it

seperately and layer it in in Photoshop.

• The moon is very bright and should be shot

with daylight settings. ie 1/125 seconds and

F 8

• Using too slow a shutter speed will cause

the moon to distort due to the rotation of

the earth

• The moon moves its own diameter every 2

minutes.

Fireworks

• Use a tripod

• Set lens to infinity

• Set shutter to Bulb or B

• Use a remote or 2 second timer

• Exposure can be 5 to 10 seconds.

• Can cover lens between exposures for

multiple exposures.

• Use Aperture F 8 to F 16

Neon Lights

• Use Matrix Metering

• At ISO 400 to 800 you can handhold the

camera.

• Use a small aperture to keep everything in

focus.

• Bracket shots for the best results.

• Halation may occur due to wrong shutter or

aperture settings so braket both.

Zooming at Night

• During a long exposure do a slow Zoom in

or out for an interesting effect.

• Fire the flash at the end of the Zoom to

light a forground subject with a wild halo.

Paint in with light

• Use a flashlight or sparkler to create

drawings.

• Bright flashlight, flash and candles

• Complete darkness

• Set F stop to F 8 ISO to 100

• Face light source away from the camera so

it doesn’t appear in the image.

• Change focus while doing the painting for

objects that are in and out of focus.

One of my favourite groups is Pacifica 5 beautiful women with a lot of talent. The numbers that you can see in the following videos are part of their upcoming show at the Port Theatre in Nanaimo on October 1st 2011.

Belly for the Beast is a fund raiser for the Nanaimo SPCA and includes some of the best dancers from Vancouver Island.

The whole group doing a cane dance.

Kirsten dancing a drum solo.

Reziah performing a Raqs Sharqi solo.