Solar, Renata & Karinna Cassis Law

When I get back to Santa Fe I anticipate spending a lot of time with my new granddaughter Karinna. She was born October 9th, at home, a water birth. She is almost 4 months old and when I see her again she will be sitting up but we are starting to visit on skype and that way she will recognize me when we meet again. If you can't be there in person, SKYPE. I do love my son Solar and his lovely wife Renata, her parents, but they know why I really come to visit. Karinna is a love and it is hard being away from her. She talks a lot already and she is also a very good sport.

Family in Cusco, Peru

Here is my little family in Cusco. Sunday Peaches, Kunjabihari, Asraya and Mirabai. This was taken this summer so they are bigger now. They are the loves of my life. I am so excited about seeing them. They have grown two gardens this year which is very wonderful for me and they are enjoying fresh veggies from their own hard work.

Visit in Los Angeles

I made it to LA in hopes of visiting Dennis but the doctors say he is too ill for visitors so I have resigned myself to the possibility I will not see him before I leave for Cusco, Peru on Feb. 9th. That would be sad for me. I do, however, look forward to being with my daughter Sunday and my three grandchildren who I adore. I love Cusco and it's people and art and rock formations. It is a super place to visit if you can get over the altitude sickness that comes with 10,000 ft. I also look forward to helping the flood victims. Check out this site where my daughter Pilar shows you what is up. http://pilarlaw.tumblr.com/

Se me fue mi amor

Montion, on the morning I left, which was just yesterday, sang me a lovely goodbye song. Aren't you in love with her now too?

First salad

This is the first salad we fixed from the new garden. What a thrill to eat from land that has just started to produce again. It was a great day!!

The garden or her dreams

The garden I made for Montion is now producing a salad every other day. We are fighting buggs eating the zuchini and pumpkin plants but it is so great to see green growing where once just dirt and weeds.

Wise beyond her years

I have had such a great time hanging with Montion and doing her garden. She is so wise and so fun to be with, always reciting poetry and singing songs. She is a true living legend.

Goodbyes are hard.

Anarosa Lorenzo, La Dona Antonia Montion and Irma Garcia had been my constant friends for the last 7 weeks and it wasn't easy to say goodbye . These folks are very hospitable and run very nice guest houses. Mom is in the middle and the sisters on both sides.

Pelicanos

The pelicans always know when the fisherman are cleaning their fish. This group of birds were having no compunctions getting as close as they could to the yummy innards.

La Bahia

Just as I was leaving on the 12:00 ponga, the Electra, I turned and shot the La Bahia cafe which has the greatest food 6 days a week and the only internet in the village. Suzanna is a great chef and it is a really cute place.

que feo el mar

I left Yelapa yesterday. The night before I left I went up to Casa Milagros and shot this great view of the bay as bad weather was forcing the waves to breech the sandy beach and the waves were crashing on the rocks. It is a stunning view.

Back in Yelapa after a week's bought with the gripa and loving the beauty of Yelapa. There is no place I know like this for eye candy. Getting ready for a trip to LA to see Dennis and his kids and to get ready to fly to Cusco, Peru for a month to see my lovely daughter Sunday and my three grandkids who are such a delight to me.

Dennis Hopper is a friend of mine. I've known him since the early sixties when he was just starting to act and to take photos and he was everywhere snapping his camera and catching the people who made up the heart and sole of the era. His photographs are his best work I think because I am a photographer but his acting and his directing his art and his interest in life itself makes for one handsome being who lit up this century. I am proud to call him my friend and fellow journey man in this life. He stars in my movie Flashing on The Sixties and is well covered in my book of the same name. He has always been there for me and me for him. I love you Dennis.

I got the news today that our dear friend Dennis Hopper is not feeling well and is doing chemo at his home in Venice. This is a shot of him taken at Asraya's birthday party this summer in Santa Fe. Please pray for Dennis and send him your blessings of love and friendship. He has been a super friend of the family since 1965 and this 'Summer of Love' in Taos was a lot of fun for all of us. Great memories! He is one talented actor, director, artist and photogrpher not to mention the father of 4 great kids.

Water Tornado in Banderas Bay

Today, my last day of recooperation in Vallarta after some weird bacterial disease, going back to Yelapa today, I was watching the bay and saw this funnel mounting and captured it's process. The splash must have been over 50 ft high as it was very far from the shore. Amazing.

La Dona Antonia is my newest find in Yelapa. I met her last year. She is the mother of three girls and 3 boys and has spent the best part of her life in Yelapa having come here from Tepic. She raised her kids in this house and now lives there by herself. She took me in this year and gave me a room and that is why I put in a garden for her. She learned beautiful poetry when she was going to school and working in the hotel Lagunita and will recite it if you ask her. She is a living treasure and I wanted to share her with you.

One of the fun passtimes of Yelapa is riding the current of the river water once the lagoon is opened up to flow into the bay. Here Hiro goes for it. The sports in Yelapa are un ending. There are over 28 restaurants here with some of the best food I have ever had. I got a massage the other day from Kate and it was the most relaxing massage I have ever had and that is saying something. Some of the nicest people I know live here too. That is why I keep coming back year after year.

This is a shot of Dona Antonia Montion's land before I put in the garden.

This is looking the other way.

The entire family, Irma, Abella, Ana Rosa and and La Dona are really enjoying the new yard.

Here is what the garden looked like when I had mules bring in 35 costillas of sand and top soil and we planted bananas and seeds of change seeds, tomatoes and pinapples. In the tropics things grow very fast and the garden is twice as big now.

This year I have been involved with planting gardens and so far planted two. One for Johnny Belcher, Pollo, and the other for Dona Antonia Montion who is 92.

I have been in Yelapa, Mexico since December 2nd and have been enjoying the beach, the sun, the beautiful weather and the many friendships that I have here. This year I am concentrating on knowing everyone's name and so far I am doing a great job. This lovely place has been my second home since 1966 and I have been coming on and off for all these years, have built a two story palapa and helped build 7 condos which you can see in this photo.