Garden Blogging in Latin America, and Chacala

When I first started blogging I had just one blog, My Life in Chacala. A few months later I added a Chacala Vacation Rentals blog, and then finally, after a year or so, I added this blog.

At the time I wasn't aware of very many other bloggers-in-English writing from Mexico or Latin America..There may have been more, but the search vehicles weren't very helpful. Even the Google Blog Search, (original version) wasn't very helpful. But I was curious about other people's experiences in Mexico, and always was on the alert for gringas, or gringos. Especially for gardeners blogging in Latin America.

My impression is that blogging about gardening hasn't really taken off down here, in Mexico, or in Central America. At least not compared to expat "my adventure in xxxxx" type blogs, which have really burst on the scene in the last couple of years.
I remember when La Gringa and I first noticed each other's blogs. It was much fun to find a fellow blogger. A blogger friend. Particularly someone who gardened in an unfamiliar climate. In her case it was in La Cieba Honduras.

And I found Neo-tropical Savanna, http://ntsavanna.wordpress.com/, in Panama, and another blogger gardening friend.

And since then there have been lots and lots of blogs from people moving to Mexico. And a few gardener type bloggers in Latin America. Diane's blog about gardening in Baja was one of the first I found. Her photographs of cacti just knocked me out. Really lovely.
(http://cabopulmo.blogspot.com)And I started finding more English language Mexico blogs, and a few Spanish language blogs and websites. And I especially looked for websites by photographers. Very inspiring. Larpman was one. And there are lots more.

I love having an internet connection at home. Now I have time to do all kinds of esoteric things on the computer. Like storing photos off my computer, and studying photography websites, late into the night. Sorting garden and blossom, tree and shrub and other garden photos into some kind of order.But the most fun has been sorting thru all the Bookmarks/Favorites I have been marking for the last year. Cleaning up the Garden websites and garden blogs. Re-visiting them and deciding whether or not to keep them on listed on my computer.

I deleted many that didn't interest me on second glance. And saved some pretty interesting websites. And blogs. A lot of the gardening blogs in English are for zone 2-7 gardeners, which usually are irrelevant for me. My first choice is reading about plants that do well here, in Zone 11. But I also enjoy the garden issues type blogs like Garden Rant and The Blogging Nurseryman. I know there are other also, but I am too tired right now.I love reading the posts where some one has just had an eye-opening experience, an awakening, about their new life. And my very favorite thing to read is about a gardener's small moment of personal, spiritual awakening. Someone having a new moment of awareness of some wonderful facet of their new life. Or a moment of being almost overwhelmed by the beauty of the natural world around them. The satisfaction of successfully negotiating a new hurdle in their new life.I started out this post thinking I would offer specific examples of various blogs where the author touched my heart. That sounds too much like doing research. But those little moments of connection and heart-felt recognition make my day. Reading someone else's story about how much there is to learn in this world, and how hard things are to learn sometimes, feels sort of reassuring to me. Keeps me going back to some blogs, again and again.And, of course, wonderful photos catch my eye too.