Love Bugs Parade
Voorbije zondag had de 5e Love Bugs Parade plaats in Brussel. Honderden broertjes en zusjes waren aanwezig. En de pers was ook nieuwsgierig naar de kever met een naam… Mijn liefde voor Pablo de Kever kun je hier nog eens bekijken:
RTL
http://www.rtl.be/videos/video/432592.aspx
VTM
http://nieuws.vtm.be/binnenland/2013021037351-220-kevers-trekken-door-brussel
TV Brussel
http://www.tvbrussel.be/nl/video/4/kevers-nemen-de-hoofdstad
De Love Bugs Parade stond dit jaar in het teken van de Mexicaanse kever, naar aanleiding van de “Vochol” die geëxposeerd wordt in Bozar. Deze vocho gemaakt in huichol kunst werd gemaakt door miljoenen parels en wordt binnenkort geveild.
Een spetterend 2013!
2012 was een mooi jaar. Ik heb helemaal mijn draai gevonden in fotografieworkshops voor kinderen. Leerkrachten en leerlingen zijn laaiend enthousiast telkens Pablo de Kever en ik langskomen in de klas. Dus meer van dat in 2013!
Beeld in de Klas
De voorbije weken ging ik al regelmatig op stap met Pablo de Kever. Samen bezoeken we scholen om daar een workshop fotografie te geven. Anders leren kijken én leren communiceren met beelden. Overal waar we komen zijn leerkrachten en leerlingen dolenthousiast. En de extra begeleiders vinden het stiekem ook leuk om mee op stap te gaan met een fototoestel!
De school VLEK Grembergen plaatste een aantal sfeerbeelden op hun website. Daar kun je stiekem gaan kijken wat we daar allemaal uitsteken tijdens zo’n workshops Beeld in de Klas.
Nu we het thema ‘Mobiliteit’ onder de knie hebben sleutel ik binnenkort aan een ander vak. En dan gaan we in het twee semester weer een hele hoop scholen (on)veilig maken!
Oproep kinderhanden
Er wordt hier ten huize van Pablo de Kever nog hard gewerkt. Niet alleen voor de educatieve workshops voor de Koning Boudewijnstichting. Maar ook een paar dingetjes achter de schermen…
Veel kan ik daar nog niet over zeggen. Maar als je kinderen hebt van 8-12 jaar en ik mag hun kinderhanden gebruiken, dan kan ik het geheimpje alvast vertellen (;
Mijn leeftijdsgenoten hebben allemaal jonge kinderen, dus ik moet (nog meer eens) online op zoek naar hulp. Dus als je zin hebt in een privé-leerkracht fotografie voor je kinderen in ruil voor enkele foto’s, stuur dan snel een mailtje naar info@evyraes.com!
Zomerworkshop ‘Kijk. Klik-Klik.’
De voorbije maanden waren druk met ideeën in mijn hoofd en een hoop experimenten. Vorige week was het tijd voor hét hoogtepunt van mijn project Pablo de Kever.
Een hele week kinderen onderdompelen in de wondere wereld van fotografie. En hoe we daar ook inspiratie kunnen opdoen door onze vijf zintuigen te gebruiken. Soms nogal uitdagende opdrachten die misschien bij volwassenen nog moeilijker zijn!
Iedereen was laaiend enthousiast. De kinderen, ouders en ikzelf. Afgaan op mijn gevoel, werken met kinderen en dat mixen met fotografie. Een geweldige combinatie! En dan moeten we nog beginnen aan een heel jaar experimenteren met fotografie op scholen dankzij de Koning Boudewijnstichting.
Er hangt van alles in de lucht…
De voorbije weken zijn voorbij gevlogen. Net zoals de wolken deze avond in de lucht. Het was druk! Toen ik deze lucht zag, moest ik even stoppen en al mijn aandacht geven aan dit lichtspel!
Je ziet het misschien niet, maar er hangt van alles in de lucht. Ik had het geluk om de voorbije weken een stagiair onder mijn dak te hebben die de expo voor de Vlaamse Interieurs in 2013 voorbereid. Nu woensdag trek ik er nog eens op uit met technische camera en mijn Pentax 67. Alle technologie achterwegen laten en back to basics gaan. Ons hoofd eens op een andere manier gebruiken.
En dankzij de beurs van Koning Boudewijnstichting kan ik vele klasjes blij maken met een gratis workshop Beeld in de Klas met Pablo de Kever. Ook al is dit niet genoeg voor het aanbod. Een hoop plannen om overal in de klas fotografie te gebruiken wordt hier uitgebroed!
Er zitten nog veel ideeën in dit hoofd. Die zwart-wit vlakfilms in mijn ijskast zoeken binnenkort ook nog naar natuurlijke levendige vrouwen, die zich een héél klein beetje bloot willen geven!
Update
De voorbije weken was het hier nogal stil op de blog. Maar mijn hoofd en leven waren overladen!
Achter de schermen werk ik hard aan de laatste voorbereidingen van de expo Vlaamse Interieurs in september. Maar met mijn gedachten zit ik al in een grotere expo. In het echte leven heb ik afspraken met partners, aanvragen voor subsidies, etc. Alles krijgt vorm, beetje bij beetje.
Ook Pablo de Kever domineert mijn leven. We zitten nog altijd in de homologatiefase. Misschien is er deze week een kans dat we verder geraken… Mijn handen heb ik vol met het voorbereiden van de workshops. En voorbije weekend stond er een lang artikel in De Morgen! Nu nog achter de schermen verder werken aan dat nieuwe project…
The adventures of Pablo
Pablo the Beetle has been in Belgium for only 3 months. Giving me a lot of joy when I see his smiling face. Or when I see kids turning their heads to follow this bright green car driving down the street!
But these Belgian rules have been keeping my head busy to get Pablo registered! Everyone wants some money, nobody knows what to do exactly. Sounds pretty Mexican to me! We should be on the right track now. I only need to save to get some modifications done and start the procedure of homoligation.
In the mean time, I’m allowed to drive around with his Mexican licence plate in Belgium. I love the Angel and 682-SEE!
As for the project, I’m preparing some workshops for summer. Pablo the Beetle will introduce children into the colourful Mexican world and photography! Next Friday I’ll hold a Mexican party for 44 kids, including enough homemade piñata’s, jamaica drinks and corncake. But the aspect that triggers me the most is the children’s questions. They’ll challenge me as a photographer to capture the answers. I do not need to finish up the workflow for that!
For sure I’ll keep you posted about Pablo and his adventures!
Getting ready for Pablo!
I dedicate the upcoming week totally to Pablo de Kever (Pablo the Beetle).
On Monday I’ll speak about the whole project on an ICT-Day for teachers in Belgium. On Tuesday I’ll pick Pablo up at the harbour in Zeebrugge. Giving an interview to the radio and spend the next days to get everything done with the customs and other administration. On Friday I will present him to the press and everybody who wants to meet him!
In between I’m getting ready to visit different places with Pablo. You can check out his planned visits on this map!
Pablo de Kever in Belgium
Very good news, Pablo de Kever is almost in Belgium!
You can meet him for the first time in Belgium on Friday the 11th of February at 11am at ‘t Steen in Antwerp. Afterwards I’ll be using him as my personal transportation. So you can bump into him while driving on the Belgian roads!
The childrens’ blog will continue. Kids can ask questions about any subject. They will challenge me to answer with images! It gives them the opportunity to discover the interaction of blogs (social media) and educate them with visual inputs.
Pablo de Kever to Belgium!
The last two weeks have been busy and stressfull! I felt a bit sad of the unfortunate news that none of the companies I contacted want to sponsor in getting Pablo to Belgium. Without knowing anything about international transportation, I asked friends, Facebook and Twitter for companies.
Only 3 of the 10 companies I found answered my requests, most with pretty high costs for such a small car! By Wednesday little time was left… So I headed to the office of Wallenius Wilhelmsen here in Mexico City. In 90 minutes Pablo’s ticket was fixed! For a darn cheap price! The good news was that the boat leaves already on Monday (10th of January). Which meant that he had to be in Veracruz fast to get Pablo registered on time!
So Thursday I woke up before sunset and headed for Veracruz, 409 km. The customs agent was really nice. I paid all the costs for him and the port. He would take care of putting him on the boat. So I had to leave Pablo behind, feeling sad and happy at the same time. The only thing I can do now is wait…
I have one week left in Mexico City to take my flight. Yes, after months of trying, calling and e-mail I fixed the flight with KLM (for the ones who didn’t know it yet!). And yes, I fly in Business Class because they had no other space left, bummer for them!
I still got loads of adventures and pictures left to share. Which I will do in the next weeks. Once Pablo gets in Belgium, a new adventure starts. To begin with getting him registered to drive on the smooth Belgian roads!
Mexico City
The roadtrip is finished. I am back in Mexico City to finish up the project “Pablo de Kever”. And Mexican friends ask me which place I like the most… Well, for me it’s Mexico City!
There’s just no other place like this city. You can find anything here: food an every corner, all kinds of typical dishes, cheap labour, fancy bars, big markets,… Once you step out DF, you leave a magic place behind. Of course, there are many problems this city faces, from heavy smog to extreme poverty. But the mixture of having everything together makes you fall in love with this place for the rest of your life…
After visiting Mexico City 11 times, I got so used to the overload of colours and food. It was a disappointment to discover that many places have much less to offer. If you spend time to get to know this city, you can bump on anything else you can find across the country! And it makes sense. Mexico City hosts everybody and everything this country has, and even more.
One of the things I adore the most is the kindness of people! It’s common strangers say “Buen provecho” when you’re having lunch at a restaurant. Can you imagine that in the biggest city of the world that hosts more than 20 million people kept that country-stile mentality? Forget about finding that in touristical places such as San Cristobal or Cancun!
It would have been easier to find loads of answers for the project “Pablo de Kever” in this buzzy capital. I often had to wait days or weeks to bump into something usefull for the childrens’ blog on the road. Of course I don’t regret the trip I made. ‘Cause I did see amazing nature and beautiful traditions. But the next two weeks I’ll enjoy absorbing the hundreds of impressions you get when wandering around in Mexico City!
Happy New Ears!
I just got back in Mexico City. To be honest, getting back save with all my photo equipment and an (almost) unharmed Pablo de Kever is a big achievement! All the adventures and images are like the cherry on top of a cake.
For sure, I got some more stories and tips to share with you (later) about Mexico. But first I need to spend time to find out how I can transport Pablo to Belgium. Doesn’t he look cute with his moose-ears? I just can’t leave him behind! Any tips about export Mexico-Belgium are welcome. Happy holidays to everybody!
Posada
I love today! A great season started in Mexico: los posadas! This means every night children dressed up as Maria and Jozef go on the streets. One of the houses provides a party, including drinks, food and piñata’s! The church was providing bags full of candy in this one!
I am curious to see the big party that Christmas will bring!
Dia de Muertos in Oaxaca
One of the reasons I have the childrens’ blog of Pablo the Beetle, is to digg deeper into the Mexican culture. I am happy I succeeded to find a child and her family to follow them during several days at the important event Day of the Dead.
Following people so close is such a different experience. It includes a lot of waiting and let go of control. OMG, the last thing wasn’t easy for me! But I enjoyed the warmth and kindness of the Mexicans, which attracted me so many years ago. Especially after so many Mexicans taking advantages of this ‘Gringa’! Calling me this does make me angry. They consider me an American just of my white skin. I’m always fast in shouting ‘Soy Europeana’!
It’s hard to share these 4 days briefly. Loads of impressions and feelings stroke me. One of the things that hit me the most was their real believe of the death family members visiting them.
Every 1st of November there’s a strong wind around 3pm. Their sign of the souls moving back to their houses. I was inside so I didn’t notice the wind. But all the family members were excited that they felt the wind and their loved-ones where back with them. I sat their next to them and the impressive altar. Watching them drinking tequila and beers, cheering on the death family. They never considered me as a foreigner. And they had no idea how honoured I felt being able to share this moment. My camera was quiet for a while, out of respect.
Puebla
After the verification was fixed, it was time to head to the South. First stop: Puebla.
I left very early in Mexico City to be on time for the meeting with Volkswagen de México. A trip of 2 hours took me 3,5 hours, without too much traffic! So I was too late for the meeting. Luckely I could postpone this important meeting to Tuesday.
With the weekend ahead, there was loads of time to discover Puebla. Cholula is an amazing town nearby, with loads of churches. The most important one stands on top of a pyramid. The Spanish conquistador Cortès covered the pyramid to show the native Mexicans that the Catholic relegion is the only true one. Besides this church, you can find more than 270 other ones!
Another interesting attraction is the Africam Safari. Of course it mainly has African animals, like the name suggests. I just spotted a few ones to answer a question “Are there wild animals in Mexico?”. A pitty I couldn’t get a good shot of the crocodiles! It’s a great place where you can drive with your own car through the zoo and see the animals in wide spaces. It’s a must see for (foreign) travellers with kids! For the adults, some signs are hilarious. In Belgium they would make a big fuzz to have signs like these!
Puebla itself is a nice city with a nice zocalo and colourfull tiles. A mixture of the tiles in Portugal. The cty is too big to meet children in a relaxed way or to find answers on the questions. So we left asap more to the South.
Quick stop in Mexico City
I had to go back to Mexico City last week to get the car verified. I wasn’t expecting anyp problems because almost everthing was replaced just one month ago. Including the catalysator.
Having a Mexican friend joining us, we head downtown. Pablo did it well, the first step. When they handed over a paper, they gave us back some money. Pablo didn’t pass because the catalysator wasn’t new?! We should fix it with a recognized dealer nearby.
After waiting for hours and paying 2300 pesos (135 EUR), I picked up the car. And saw the other catalysator. The previous mechanic replaced just a part and not the catalysator itself! Full of confidence, I headed back without the friend. After 30 min they gave back another paper. He still didn’t pass?! “The gasoline and CO is too high, because it’s new.” For me, this was a sign to bribe. But it didn’t work. They send me back to the mechanic to finalize the engine.
Totally desperate due to a lack of time, I went back home. The mother of my friends new some other friends that could help me out. Next day, a Mexican took him alone to another verification centre. Pablo passed without a problem!!! TIP: pay a Mexican mechanic to get this job done!
In the mean time there was another problem. I checked before our trip with the insurance GNP if everything was active. They assured me there wasn’t a problem, the police was temporary but I would receive another one soon in my mailbox.
I never received this. The mother proposed to check with another friend the status of the polis. Result: we travelled one month withouth insurance! I couldn’t believe it. Why can’t they just give you the right information?! Luckely they could fix the issue. I am safe with the good papers on my hand!
I had loads of things to do in Mexico City, but again I waisted the time in waiting and fixing things that should have been ok. I hope later to find an opportunity to shoot kids at Lucha Libre!
Acapulco – Mexico City
There are a lot of rules in Mexico, most of the people don’t apply them. But because I am a foreigner here, I can’t take any risks. So we have to get back to DF to get the verification of Pablo. Otherwhise we’ll get a big fine.
A bit improvised, we decided to spend more time to discover the area between Acapulco and Mexico City. Our first stop in Chilpancingo was fast. Too big city, too hot, too crowded and little to see. We drove some more kilometers to get to Iguala. Just a quick stop to move on again the next day.
In Iguala we hoped to see something interesting. It’s the birtplace of the flag. We saw a few statues in the city centre. But no tourists at all. Well, that’s because there’s nothing much too see!
The next stop was exhausting to find our way in the city, Taxco. With steep hills and curved streets, it’s hard to figure out where the centre is. The loads of beetles and nice atmposhere around the main square during the night, make this city worth to see!
Nearby, there’s a town Ixcateopan where you can see the dead body of Cuathemoc. It’s a though and dangerous trip, luckely I didn’t used Pablo the Beetle to get there. If you’re curious to see how an important Mexican (the last Aztec emperor) is honoured in a disabandoned, humid improvised museum. It’s a must see. But probably you don’t have the time so you can better leave behind this dissapointed attraction!
I heard that Cuautla is the place to find out about Zapata. Because there are several questions about sombreros, I hoped to find some information and some hats to take to Belgium. It was another big dissapointement. OK, there is a museum with the steam train that Zapata used. The lady of the tourist information looked suprised when I told her the city is the place of Zapata. She told me his house stands in a little village about 10 km away, in Anenecuilco. But the museum there was closed! It does has a nice big rural painting about the live of Zapata.
Next day we left to Tepoztlan, the place where Cuetzalcoatl (the feathered snake) was born. There are a lot of ‘spiritual’ people stranded in this place, believing that there is a special energy coming from the earth… But it’s NOT the birthplace. It’s another town Amatlan 6 km away. I was curious to check out this ‘energetic’ place. But there’s only a statue, hidden under a tree, refers to this other special item of the Mexican history…
I also stopped in Cuernavaca. Yes, another big city with little sightseeing. There’s no shopping centre, the nice stores are spread all over the city. The only reason to go there is the good weather, if you can afford a hotel with pool or has Mexican friends with their own!
I am looking forward to visit the South of Mexico. Let’s hope the colours, food, traditions and people can charm me more…
Oh, tourists in Belgium shouldn’t be dissapointed anymore when they see Manneken Pis. Believe me, it’s more worth a visit than the things I saw the last week! #Zapata #Cuathemoc #Cuetzalcoatl
Ajijic, Jalisco
The last week was full of waiting, making back ups, discovering Guadalajara and getting ready to get enough camping stuff to camp on the way!
Tequila was great to make latest movie, as answer on a kids question. I shot at Jose Cuervo, one of the worlds’ most famous brands. They were really nice, giving us free access and arranged to have an El Jimador giving us the last missing shots of harvasting the agave plant!
Guadalajara is a nice city, but too big to find enough stuff for the project of Pablo the Beetle. I like the most Tlaquepaque, a suburb right outside Guadalajara. They have loads of beautiful streets with shops where they sell art, crafts, tequila. Of course they are plenty of nice restaurants, although a bit more expensive. I did enjoy the lunch/dinner (the time I get to eat is something in the middle!) at the restaurant Casa Fuerte!
In this place we managed to have mariachi’s singing for Pablo de Kever. I couldn’t believe we didn’t had to bribe the police to park Pablo in the middle of the pedestrian area! The mariachi’s were not that nice. They would support the project to play 2 songs for the price of one… 130 pesos (9 EUR) for one song isn’t that cheap!
On Sunday we headed to Chapala. A city next to a big lake which should be a great place to have breakfast with a view over lake. Unfortunalety, that doesn’t exist. They serve only fish and strong meals overthere! We did find Plaza de Torres nearby. And spend 5 hours in the burning sun to make a video about the charros (rodeos) catching the bulls. The children who ask me these questions have no idea how much effort I do to give them a response
For the rest, there is not much to see in Chapala. Only expensive hotels… So we headed to Ajijic. And I just love the place! Ok, you need to deal with the elderly American community (compare it to Benidorm in Spain!). But the streets are so full of atmosphere, with lovely painted houses! When we had amazing pizza in our Hotel (Hotel Atilo, with an Italian owner), and afterwards we found a nice European coffee place (La Prensa Francesa). We decided to look for schools here to work on the project, which welcomed us with open arms! Great, this allows us to stay a bit longer!
Oh, also the view on the lake Lago Chapala is amazing. It feels a bit like the seaside, but the mountains surrounding the water give a surrealistic feeling! Which gets reinforced by the fact we stay in an Italian hotel in a American community inside Mexico!
On the road: Mexico City – Guadalajara
We had lunch, dinner and breakfast and I can’t recommand them. I dunno what’s going wrong with restaurants here in Mexico, but they can’t please meandupset my stomach! Yesterday’s dinner I took spaghetti to have a light meal. But the spaghetti was hard. For the first time in my life I send my plate back to the kitchen. After a few minutes I got it back, after they put it in the steamer. I can’t believe such an exclusive hotel has such little standards…
We also just figured out that the breakfast wasn’t included in the room, what should be for 4 stars. They charged us 155 pesos (9 EUR) per person. I don’t like to bargain, but before checking out, I will! Mexican service is pissing me off that it makes it easier to negotiate!

It’s weekend, so I won’t find easily kids to make drawings or interview. I really look forward to kick of more shooting in Guadalajara! And I look forward to stay at a friends place. ‘Cause for the moment I had enough of Mexican bad service!
Pablo, almost ready to hit the road!
The last days have been extremely busy:
- fixing newly discovered failures (catalysator, steering box,…)
- find a painter to put the name “Pablo” on the beetle (I felt soooo excited, like he finally got real!)
- obtaining a declaration at the police station of my boyfriends robbed wallet (after visiting 5-6 different stations, only a bribe worked
35 EUR is expensive!)
- photographing the 200 years of Independance (at a school to show later on Pablo’s blog!)
- …
After some adventures (see below) we managed to get Pablo the Beetle ready for the roadtrip tomorrow! I am so excited and nervous! But I love the way he looks! I hope to post a small video of his whole transformation soon. I need to go and pack first for the trip!
The stereotypes of Mexican did kill our schedule last week… A friend of a friend didn’t show up after being late for 4 hours. So I wanted to check Lucha Libre for kids and we took the metro with too many documents (which I normally never do). Due to that we lost a lot of time. Not only trying to find another person to take Pablo into the crazy centre of Mexico City to replace the tires. But also to find a decent police officer to make a declaration of the robbery.
Until now I never got in touch with the Mexican police. Yes, I am very proud I never had problems in visiting Mexico for 10 times! But this trip is different… The moment of the robbery, the police didn’t do anything (only complaining we were too loud!). We asked several police officers and police stations to make a declaration. They always invented a new excuse to put us through: it happened in another district, the other side of the street is not our responsibility, your boyfriend needs a translator,… I exploded after 4 days trying to just make a simple declaration! The emergency number of the Belgian Embassy didn’t work, so we felt very alone facing the police officers trying to get rid of us.
A Mexican lawyer, who was helping a friend, approached me and told me the Belgian Embassy should join us and force the police to make the statement. If not it would take us a long time, being transfered to other places. And it would cost us money.
An officer, a friend of him, showed up and said he would call to his boss to see if they could help. And than you know… only a mordida (bribe) can make things work. He fixed the papers, we payed him all the money I had left in my wallet (600 pesos =35 EUR) and that was it! That’s how things still go in Mexico (City), even after 200 year of Independance! #sad
But I don’t feel bad about the bad “service” in Mexico. Corruption and bad workers are all over the world… Also KLM still didn’t fix my problem of my return flight (still 5 weeks to wait for a standard answer! #fail #customerservice).
Conclusion. If you bump into the Mexican police, try first to avoid them! If you need to, pay them a mordida so you fix your problem fast. So you might better have the help of a Mexican. Call your Embassy for help (I dunno how much they want/can help). Or you can also try one of the Police Stations for Tourists. (I couldn’t try them myself because we live 1,5 hour away from them.)
Historical Centre
Calle Victoria, 76 Colonia Centro, Delegacion Cuauhtemoc
Phone: 53 46 87 20 Ext 20 (24/24)
Zona Rosa
Calle Amberes, 54 Delegacion Cuauhtemoc
Phone: 53 45 53 82 (9am-5pm)
Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma, 42 Delegacion Cuauhtemoc
Phone: 53 46 87 40 (9am-5pm)
Waiting
“Waiting” is a keyword in Mexico. It takes a while to get to another place in Mexico City due to a lot of traffic. People are late so you wait for them and loose half of your day. And it takes some time to get Pablo ready for the trip!
People who know me can confirm that waiting isn’t my strongest point… But I have to be strong right now and try to be good at it, in waiting!
Only 10 days left to start the roadtrip. Mentally, I am totally ready to kick off. The last days I will use to show some parts of Mexico City to my boyfriend: Casa Azul of Frida Kahlo, Xochimilco, Lucha Libre…
We are also finishing Pabo itself. And he needs more attention than expected: 2 new front freigns (18 EUR/each), one rear freign (25 EUR), bougies (12 EUR for 4),… Luckely all his parts are cheap! But all these little bits are killing my budget.
So I was very happy to eat Comida Corida for 40 pesos (2,5 EUR) at the market. It’s a “homemade” meal including soup, maindish, drinks and sometimes desert. My daily budget is set on 15 EUR per day, which is possible. But at the moment I spend much more. Thousands of pesos dissapear every day… I’ll be happy to have this expensive part behind me and enjoy cheap food on the markets!
Green!
Today I visited Pablo again. The top completely wrapped in plastic, covering the nice light gray colour. He was ready for the next step, turning grass-in-spring green on the lower part!
(Click on the picture for a serie on flickr)
I felt really excited to see him becoming real, until now he was just a drawing on the blog.
He needs a few more days to dry and polish. On Saturday I should have him on my side. He will only need some small replacements to get totally ready for the trip. For sure I’ll post some more pictures soon!
But excuse me, I have to pick up my boyfriend at the airport and get some quality time
I want him to show the Angel de la Independencia by night on Reforma, the Zocalo, Templo Mayor and Museum of Antropology. Busy schedule for 1 day!
















































