Moose Cree Indians

Here are some pictures to show that there actually are some people living in Moosonee and Moose Factory. I am told that 80% of the population there are Cree Indians.

Moose Cree Indian Reserve in Northern Ontario.

Moosonee is a town on the shore of Moose River. It is the Northern terminus of a railway, you can get there quite easily from Toronto. This is about as far as you can get easily. There are no roads there. There is a college and a cathedral there. All notices are written in two languages (at least). Cree language has its own alphabet. Across the river (which is VERY wide) there is a town called

Moose Factory, the earliest factory of the Hudson Bay Company. This is where the Moose Cree Indian Reserve is located.

New York Reflections

No comments needed here, I guess. These are views of New York that anybody who has been there could see. Few people take any notice, though. Perhaps you need a lens of a camera to actually notice it. All these pictures are from Midtown area, somewhere around 42^nd Street, 5^th Avenue. On one of the pictures you can see St Patrick Cathedral, on another Grand Central Station (can you spot it?).

Boca de Mamiraua

The village of Boca de Mamiraua lies in an inner delta between Japura and Solimoes rivers, in the middle of Amazonia. This area is flooded every year so the houses have to be built on stilts. Sometimes there is unusually high water anyway, one can see a watermark on houses and trees. There is an evangelical church in the middle of the village where church music is played with electric guitars. There is no shortage of fish in the area, some are too big to be consumed fresh and are dried like washing on a line. The people there say they are not Indians but caboclos, the river people. 

One thing to note: these days one can roughly estimate the latitude of a place if a satellite dish is in the picture. The satellite is stationary and as such it has to be over the equator. Amazon is almost on the equator so the dishes face directly up.

ST WINIFRED'S WELL

St Winifred was a Welsh damsel who rejected inappropriate advances of a knight and was beheaded as a result. However, her uncle picked up both pieces of her body and with some help of healing water from a nearby spring brought her back to life. In time she became an abbess of a convent that sprang next to the spring. The fame of the healing waters spread and people made pilgrimages there from all over the country. In some more time a Gothic chapel was built over the font, and also a pool where the sick pilgrims could take a dip. King Henry closed the convent but the pilgrimages apparently continued and they do continue to this day. The Gothic chapel is still there, the pool is there, a changing room next to it is there and you can still have a dip if need be. There is also a shop with rosaries, various holy pictures and also plastic bottles with a picture of the chapel, so you can take some of that water with you. There is a special pump next to the pool for this very purpose. The place is in a town called (surprise surprise) Holywell in the north-east corner of Wales, quite near Liverpool.  

Indian pots in New Mexico

In the historical centres of Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos most shops sell elaborate Indian pottery. Nobody needs those pots really, certainly not Indians themselves. They live like all Americans and use metal pots and pressure cookers for cooking. They noticed, however, that American tourists must buy some souvenirs when they are on holiday and they like traditional Indian pots, so Indians make the pots just for the purpose. Earlier the Indian potters copied designs from archaeological museums but not any more. By now the Indian pottery developed into a veritable art genre, individual artists perfecting their own designs. All the pictures here are taken in a single shop in Albuquerque, each set of pots of a different artist.

If you like to read more about Indian pottery you can at my other blog:

http://askaglobetrotter.blogspot.co.uk/

  

Dubai Creek

Dubai is now famous for its modern buildings, sail-like hotels and a kilometre-tall tower, but the old part of the town still has some old charm. Especially the Dubai Creek, where even today one can see old wooden dhows coming in. They don't come under sail any more but they are nevertheless old wooden dhows. Some of the houses around the creek still have the wind-catching towers. Many of the houses around the creek are clearly new but in the old style, so the old charm is preserved.