Morelia - Guadalajara - Oaxaca

wow, it's been absolutely ages since i posted!
the last thing i wrote about was being in rainy morelia. well, from there i headed to guadalajara, where i was met at the bus station by Michael Petch, the son of Maggie Royle, an artist in Bristol i have know for years. knowing i hadn't done any laundry for a while, he arrived with a sign saying 'Mr Stinky' - nice.
a camper van ride later and we were in his incredible dwellings in downtown guadalajara, where he and his brother David were gearing up for a film shoot the following week. straight away i was taken to try 'tortas ahogadas', an amazing drowned and spicy port sandwich, and then a short guided tour around downtown, where i was lucky enough to catch some mariachi action!
we then visited the roof of one of the tallest buildings nearby, to check it as a location for filming. from there i had an amazing view of gdl and saw how vast it is!!
i was there a couple of days before the show at Laboratorio Sensorial so spent the time exploring, recording, hanging out checking more locations (mainly bars!) and also spending time with Yair Lopez, one of the organisers of LS, and now a good friend.
i did manage to get some nice recordings which i used in the piece i played at the concert on the 17th feb, alongside Yair and Israel Martinez, an artist i'd met in london back in 2007. it was a great night, well attended - even the film crew came along, as did my next hosts Marie-Fred Dupree and her hubby Cuauhtemoc.
from that night i stayed with them in the very split Santa Ana Tepetitlan, Zapopan. i say split as where they live, if you walk to the left you are in one of the poorest looking villages i have visited in mexico, but if you walk left there is a myriad of new apartment buildings, manicured lawns and fences and gates with guards everywhere!
on the 18th i did head back downtown for an informal chat about my work at LS, alongside Yair and Israel once again, and then we visited a public square where Yair had managed to commandeer the PA system and was playing field recording based work to the public for the whole day!
the rest of the time was spent just hanging out, relaxing, walking, eating more great food and generally relaxing, although my final day in GDL was a little fraught, waiting for a courier delivery that didn't arrive until i had left for downtown once again (to record some sounds for the film using contact mic's for an added dimension) and then being told that UPS are going to charge me 1500 mexican pesos (around £75) to receive a delivery of my own cd's. to top this off, they then didn't deliver as Marie-Fred didn't have that much cash, and now won't be delivered until monday. i flew to Oaxaca today as i had booked the flight, and have my final show in mexico tomorrow night, at the very wonderful Cafe Central...