Posts Tagged ‘Mexico’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhn19Uya6xU

Mexico is planning the world’s largest underwater museum with the first four concrete sculptures of 400 to be submerged in November in the Mexican Caribbean near Cancun. The sculptures will help protect the areas reef as well as attract sea life, eventually turning the sculptures into living sculptures as algae etc starts growing on them. The main idea behind the project is to attract tourists to the artificial reef instead of the coral reefs where they have previously damaged them. The sculptures are to be placed just below clear shallow waters to give easy access to divers, snorkelers and those in glass-bottomed boats. The sculptures are the work of Jason deCaires Taylor who previously did a similar project in Grenada West Indies (see video above). check out his website below for some more fantastic images from the projects. Read the rest of this entry »

Visitors to the Mexican / USA border tourist town of Tijuana might be a bit surprised to see Zebras in the main streets. Well on closer inspection you will see that they aren’t zebras but donkeys that have been painted up to look like the stripy African critters. The idea dates back to the 1940’s when the owners came up with a solution to the problem of donkeys shiny greyish fur being washed out by the sun in black and white photographs.  Today there are Tijuana Zebras on many of the major tourist intersections around Tijuana and for a few Peso and a bit of bargaining you can have your photo taken with them as a memento of your visit to the city.   Tijuana is a easy day trip from southern California. Just jump on one of the red trolleys from San Diego and after a 15 minute walk through the border control you are in Tijuana.  Tijuana is home to some great shopping and dining, with great value, but like everywhere people should take care with their personal belongings and keep their wits about where they are as some parts of this city are deemed unsafe.  But Staying to the tourist areas you are bound to have a great experience.

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Going back to the thirties some bright entrepreneur in Tijuana Mexico decided to paint their donkey with black and white stripes to look like a Zebra, the idea was to make the animal look better on black and white photographs. Most of the donkey’s were white or fairly light and photographed badly in the bright Mexican sun. Like any good idea, others followed and decades later the tradition continues. The zonkeys or painted donkey are there for the tourist, it’s amazing how many people will spend the $10 or so to have themselves photographed wearing silly Mexican hats and ponchos with these dopey striped animals. Read the rest of this entry »