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!
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.
Fotokader
Voor alle gelukkigen met een fotokader. Hier is de visuele uitleg!
Heeft u er nog geen bemachtigd? Ze verspreiden zachtjes aan… Ongeduldig? Stuur mij dan een mailtje info@evyraes.com!
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…
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!
Boat that will take Pablo to Belgium!
Last image of Pablo de Kever in Mexico
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!
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
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!
Pablo getting ready for the paint job
Today I went to visit Pablo de Kever to check out his paint job. He’s totally disarmed: no lights, no mirrors,… Scrubbed to get ready for his new colours light gray and ecological green!
I did some inspection and they do a good job. They will cover all the details and remove paint from the previous owner sticked on the windows!
It takes over 5 days to paint the outside of the car and it takes 5 500 pesos (350 EUR) of my budget. I will keep his original colour inside, just for the memory. And because I don’t have the time or money to paint the inside. At least another week and 10 000 pesos (600 EUR), I have neither of them! If this seems a lot of money… In Belgium you pay 4 000 EUR to get a vocho painted on the inside and outside!
Tomorrow they paint the light gray on the top, on Wednesday they will finish the green. I’ll have a peek again on this stage to take some pictures of Pablo being surrounded by green clouds!
Oh, for the VW freaks. Here a view of the engine! I also bought some original pieces to remplace: bougies, cables,…
Pablo!
Very good news! After seeing many horrible VW Beetles, we managed to find Pablo! Look! Mira!
Model – 2003 – Classic
Weight – 820 kilos
Kms – 87 000
Color - Green Jade Perla
He’s in good condition: engine, exterior and interior. He needs to be fixed just a little bit. Replacements of bougies, tires, franes,… thanks to the sponsoring of orginal VW parts by Antonio Trejo (partsvw@hotmail.com – contact him if you need any VW Beetle parts anywhere in the world)!
And of course, Pablo needs to get his right colours! That will happen this weekend. Of course I will follow this process with my camera and will share his transformation on the blog!
At this moment I have only 5 pesos left, well Antonio lent me some. Although I had loads of money in my MasterCard, the daily withdrawal was cut. It was a challenge to get the last bit of the money this morning. He’s twice the budget I had in mind 34 500 pesos (2 100 EUR), but he’s worth every peso!
It’s the first car I ever bought in my life… A black VW Beetle was the first car I drove. And I used the Vocho Verde (taxi) every day to get to my internship in Mexico City 6 years ago. I never imagined at that time to have my own, but today I have! Where’s the champaign?! Oh, right Mexico. I’ll get some the tequila this weekend 
Hasta luego, with new adventures!
Puebla
My schedule of the last days was soooo busy…
I visited some AIESEC friends I hadn’t see in for 5-6 years. It was great to catch up again, after I survived the heavy rain with all my luggage!
The meeting with Volkswagen México was fine, but it didn’t help me a lot in my search for a vocho. The one that an employee sold was in a bad condition. His “new” motor was a homemade modified fuel injection motor – which could explode any minute. And the “oil” of his engine was grease, in stead of motor oil. We wouldn’t survive 6 000 km with that one! No Pablo yet! But I have now some friends looking in Puebla to for vocho’s. We’ll find Pablo soon!
The rest of the weekend I have been shooting a reportage for the Belgian childrens’ news Karrewiet. It was a lot of fun and very interesting to see how a Belgian family lives in Mexico – with the necessary amount of Belgian chocolate! It will take a long while to show the result ’cause I’ll edit the video when I get back in Belgium, January 2011.
And of course, heading back to Mexico City is always an adventure! You plan your return on Sunday evening, but you end up leaving the next morning. I got stucked in an enormous traffic jam with the bus. So there was only one (Mexican) solution. Ask the busdriver to let me out and open the trunk in the middle of the road to get out my luggage. Than cross asap to avoid the fast cars on the other lane. And jump in a vocho taxi to get home, finally! Sorry, no pictures of that because I avoid to take out my iPhone or camera in these crowds when I am alone.
VW México
Today I met Volkswagen México to see if they could help me with finding a vocho… Bad news, all the vocho’s they had are sold! They only have very important models left
But they were very kind to help me and look for a solution. Tomorrow I’ll check one of the employers who sells his car. *fingers crossed* Maybe I can hug “Pablo” tomorrow!
Oh, social media is not in their vocabulary… Too bad. Pablo de Kever is a good opportunity to communicate about their brand. Let’s hope they grab the chance before the project is finished!
Getting ready for the interview…
I am installed, with computer, table and a fresh cappuccino! Totally ready for the technical test, and for the interview in 3 hours! So I keep on enjoying the great internet connection (much better than at my house) and the great atmosphere in the garden of Casa Azul! I hope to have a look at the museum again later on
Stamps of Pablo the Beetle
Last night I spend hours on making prints of Pablo the Beetle. My sister was so nice to make me a stamp. And now I use it to make small gifts to hand out to the Mexican children who helped me with the video. I have about 100 now, but I don’t think it will be enough for the whole trip…
Hit the piñata!
To say goodbye from the Belgian children, there was a workshop about Mexico. Including hitting a piñata! For sure, the kids had loads of fun with the dozens of candies and toys. The Belgian television asked them which kind of questions they have about Mexico. You can discover the answers soon on http://www.PablodeKever.be!
You can check out on this post how to make your own piñata!
Pablo on Belgian television!
Only one night left… And I’ll be back in Mexico! But today I felt a bit like being there… sitting in the beetle taxi in Belgium. During an interview to the Belgian press about the blog of “Pablo de Kever” (Pablo the Beetle).
Enjoy the video, more pictures of behind the scenes will follow!
Stopmotion Pablo de Kever
The video of Pablo de Kever (Pablo the Beetle) is finally ready! After loads of hours photographing, editing and help from friends and family! Enjoy and share!
I have only 3 days left to head back to Mexico… First I’ll give another workshop about Mexico for children AND we’ll hit the piñata Pablo! Pictures will follow
