 | Disappearing PlacesAn archive and collective map of places that no longer exist, at least not as they once did. |
The Cost Of Progress
Posted On Sunday May 6, 2007 By Kathy Dee
In January of 2006 I took my first trip to Puerto Morelos, Mexico. Puerto Morelos is a small, quaint fishing village about 20 miles south of Cancun, Mexico and 30+ miles north of Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. This strip of land is also known now as a part of the Mayan Riviera. You can view Puerto Morelos at Wikitravel @ http://wikitravel.org/en/Puerto_Morelos. Wikitravel is like Wikipedia except it’s for travel.
Puerto Morelos is about 2 miles long and 4 streets wide. There is a marsh to the west of the town that feeds the coral reef that protects Puerto Morelos from pounding surf. The small town has resisted the extensive development around them and has maintained its quaint and small village feel. One general store, a variety of wonderful eating places, and local artisans sell their hand made crafts. Every day in the afternoon you can go down to the town square when the fishing boats come in and buy a fresh caught fish and take it home and have a wonderful dinner. And if you are so inclined you can go snorkeling and see the amazing fish and wild life close very to the town square. The reef was made a national park and is now protected.
The ’06 trip was marvelous and I had such wonderful experiences I went back this year again. There was lots of growth and development. There is an apartment complex that has condos and time shares that had begun in 2006 and was complete this year. Landscaping, big drive ways and lots of living spaces were in place of the rebar wires and construction site. The locals love the development. Although I understand their interest in and pleasure with development I am personally concerned about the costs.
There was one special place I discovered last year. It is a magical beach called Punta Brava. Punta means brave and Brava I believe means spirit. So it is a brave spirit place. The surf pounds hard and it is a dangerous place for swimming. The shells on the beach are superb…In 2006 we were there just after a hurricane that devastated parts of Puerto Morelos and Punta Brava had an abundance of shells and the pounding surf mixed with shells washing up in the beach created this amazing music. I spent a good deal of time listening to the “music.”
On my trips to the beach I saw an alligator and several different kotomundi. Kotomundies look sort of like ant eaters with brown short fur. I was amazed at the wildlife. Last year, the habitat for the wild life was about 3 miles along the road. This year when I went back there was only about an eight of a mile left. There were no alligators or kotomundies. I did see snake tracks this year but I didn’t see any of the animals like I had seen in 2006.
I learned that by 2008 public access to Punta Brava will be gone. So as high cost condos and time shares increase there will be no more access to the animals that run wild along the road, the surf symphony and the pounding surf. And so it goes…..
Tags: alligators, animals, beach, development, kotomundis, mexico, morelos, music, puerto, walks, wild
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IHOP Kenmore Square
Posted On Monday April 23, 2007 By The RatKenmore has experienced a lot of changes over the last 10 years. I was living there just when BU decided to clean up the area. It meant the demise of just about everything that made Kenmore an interesting place. I won’t even get into The Rat, Planet Records, Captain Nemo’s or Deli Haus. I’ll let someone else post about them. The story I have is about the IHOP in Kenmore and the breakfast I had there with Anthrax. Not the disease (fortunately), the band.
So, I was at this IHOP one morning, it must have been the summer of ’96 or ’97, with a friend of mine, and we had just ordered pancakes (what else?), when he said to me, “Hey, isn’t that Anthrax?”. Two tables down the guys from Anthrax were having breakfast. I assume they had played The Rat the night before. We never said anything to them. We figured they would rather just eat in peace.
On the other side of us was this older guy who kept falling asleep in his pancakes. At first I just thought, wow, this guy is TIRED. He would get a fork full of pancakes and before he could actually get it into his mouth he would fall asleep right on his plate. He had syrup all over his face. Then I remembered there were signs for a Methadone clinic above the IHOP. This guy was probably a recovering junkie drowsy after his Methadone treatment.
We finished our food and left. That’s the Kenmore Square I remember, not the generic version that exists now. Sure, it used to be a little gritty, but I didn’t mind living there.
Tags: anthrax, boston, ihop, junkie, kenmore, methadone
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The Junkyard
Posted On Thursday April 19, 2007 By Ed Gentry
I must have passed by this junkyard 5000 times in my life. It had every model of every car you could imagine dating back as far as you could remember. I shot my first roll of film there for my first ever photography class. The picture I used is from that roll. The toothless old man who ran the place caught me, it wasn’t like I was sneaking around, and ran me off with his shotgun. It was like a true life moment out of Deliverance, but without all the anal rape.
Now when I drive by there it’s just an open field. Development on Kanis has been a long time coming. Properties along there are changing over every other day. This is the only one I’ll miss because I have memories from there. I guess the old man either died or sold this land for a mint. Eventually there will probably be a gas station or strip mall here. I wonder what ever happened to all those great old cars?
Tags: cars, deliverance, junkyard, old, photography
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