Here comes the second part of my tournament review. After defeating Arely, I was in good mood for the next round. I knew that with 2.5/4 I was probably going to be paired with a stronger player then I prepared my mind for a tough struggle.
Round five was a kind of disaster right from the opening. I played against Juan Manuel García, from Jalisco. I hesitated for an instance to play 1.d4 and practice some of the stuff I had been training and play for the minimal advantages. At the end I played 1. e4 and we played an Accelerated Dragon.
I fell into a trap of that move order and finished in an inferior position quickly. I was feeling bad during the game because all those tricks I had trained them a lot of years before with my former trainer Benjamin Ferrera (RIP), a Cuban immigrant well known for his book on the Dragon. I knew those traps, I just couldn't take out the dust of my mind.
I was 2.5/5 before last round. I needed to win. I had gone to the tournament with the clear objective to finish at least with +1. And it was my last chance to not to lose so many rating points (Arely hadn't international rating so my rated games score was 1/3).
I was taking a break with Juan Carlos, Luis and Saul in the hotel lobby bar when Luis said he wanted to check the next round pairing. When he came back I was shocked. I had to play against Luis. The first question all launched us was if we did wanted to play or just make a quick draw. I said I had gone to the tournament to play and so did Luis, therefore we needed to make this interesting for training purposes given the fact he's my friend.
To spice the things up, I beat him last April in the National Open Chess Champ in Monterrey with a sicilian. I knew for sure he wanted to taste my blood so I didn't expect an easy battle.
We agreed to pre-arrange the opening setup. I play 1.e4 and he usually plays Sicilian game. After some discussion about when it was fair to pre-arrange the moves, he said he plays the Dragon and asked me if I would like to play it. I said yes, of course, one of the openings I best score is the white side of the dragon. So we agreed the first 8 moves and played them at blitz speed:
Pre-Nacional Absoluto 2010
Héctor Juárez Velázquez (IPN)
Luis López Raygoza (AGS)
1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 cd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 g6
6. Be3 Bg7
7. f3 Nc6
8. Bc4 0-0
Here finished our agreenment and from now, we started to play. With Bc4 white intends to stop forever the d5 central breakthrough and enter into a sharp game with opposite castling. Now the race begin, the first to approach his enemy's king will be victorious.
9. Qd2 Bd7
10. 0-0-0 Rb8!?
I don't know very much theory of this variation (I promise, I will re-read the labyrinth), but I would prefer to set the rook to c8 for the following reasons:
- In b8 it is obstructed by its b pawn.
- In c8 white must care about Rxc3 exchange sacrifice
- I will never take the b5 pawn, then, even if he is able to open the b-file I've enought time and ways to obstruct his attack.
But he'd study it and perhaps it fits better his style than Rc8. I don't know, I hope later Mr. Polugayevzky can give me further ideas, by now I'm writing only in my current state of preparation and memory!!
11. h4
This is my favourite plan. Launch immediatly the h pawn to black's king and try to weave the mating net. He has many options to slow down my attack and counterattack in the queenside to finally win the race.
11. ... b5
12. Bb3
I think I must keep me from taking the pawn. If I do so, his rook move will be justified.
12. ...Nxd4
He pointed me out after the game that perhaps this is an strategic mistake, because he lose some pressure in the center and exchange a good knight spending a tempo. I'm not completely sure about that because now I must take the knight with my bishop and I no longer have the threat Bh6. It's a matter of taste.
13. Bxd4 a5
Now the red light started to blink. His pawn storm can break into my king castle with tempo because he will push them against my minor pieces. Now I have many options. I can push my pawn to h5 and continue the crossroad (as defined by Tartakover), but I realized I have no room for my bishop. He's threatening a4 and the only square free for my bishop is d5, and after e6 it's trapped. The attack doesn't justify the piece sac.
If I try to make room for my bishop with a3 he move a4 and b4 and my king is in trouble. I needed to make room for my bishop with tempo in order to stop his threats and start my own's. I realized it was maneouvre in which I could accomplish this. I spend 22 minutes to figure it out.
14. e5! de5
The option is the retreat of the knight to e8 but in that case I can continue my attack without hesitation, then I'd have room for the bishop and time to exhange the dark squared bishops and push the h pawn to h5.
15. Bxe5
Now I'm attacking the b8 rook, taking advantage of what I think is not its best placement. And I'm threatening to take the d7 bishop so it must be protected. His response is unique.
15. ...Rb7
Now I have the rook where I wanted it. In the case he attacks my bishop with a4 I can move it to d5 attacking the rook. It gives me the time to save the bishop and at the same time my attack can run faster with no worries. Now he stopped and thought for about 20 minutes.
16. h5 b4
17. hg6!
The starting point of a combination that gave me the upper hand in the attack. I weakened his king at the cost of a piece, and now he needed to give back some material in order to protect his king. He accepted the sacrifice almost immediatly.
17. ...bc3
18. gf7+ Rxf7
Forced. If Kh8 he's mated after Qg5! when I threat Nxh7+ and if Kxh7 Rh1 and mate, or if Nxh7 Qxg7 mate.
19. Bxf7+ Kxf7
20. Bxc3 Qd6
Now the things had settled. I had a rook and two pawns for a knight and a bishop. He'd the bishop pair, so the material is somehow balanced. Although he'd the bishop pair, the were not coordinated and my two rooks and bishop were very active. He'd an exposed king whereas mine is completely safe. So I had a dynamic advantage, that I had to exploit if I didn't want to face a pretty difficult endgame. Again, I spend about 15 minutes to figure out how to continue.
21. g4 Be6?
This was a mistake that put his king under fire. It was necessary 22....h6.
22. g5 Ne4?
One error follows another. This was the point of black's play, perhaps he didn't saw my reply:
23. Rxh7
Now his g7 bishop is pinned and if Nxc3, Qxc3 and there's no way black can protect the g7 bishop. After about 15 minutes, he replied:
23. ... Nf6
He gave a full piece. Nevertheless, his position was lost at this point.
24. gf6 ef6
25. Bd4!
The last subtlety. In some variations it gave me the possibility to play Rg1.
25. ... Qb5
26. Qh6 Kg8
27. Rg1 Bg4
A kind of trap. However there's no danger.
28. Rxg4 Qf1+
29. Kd2
And with no further checks, he resigned.
Finally I succeeded to finish the tournament with +1. I could savour the moment just a few minutes, it was Sunday night and next day I had to work...
18 July, 2010
26 June, 2010
Pre-Nacional Absoluto
These were my two best games in the pre-nacional absoluto tournament that was held in the Fiesta Americana Reforma Hotel from June 4th to June 6th.
I will remember this tournament for the weird performance I did, because I won three Sicilians and lost both non-Sicilian games. It's seems I feel comfortable in Sicilian positions with both sides, and I got the chance to experiment some of the stuff I had been studying with José Luis, my friend and trainer.
I not only got the chance to play an specific variation in the Sveshnikov Sicilian José Luis and I analyzed from the NIC 94, but got the chance to practice my endings technique in the very first round against a 1700 player. I won this first game, in which I wanted to play the Sveshnikov, but my opponent deviated the main line and went for 3. b3 followed by d4 and Nxd4, which seems to be dubious. We got into some fireworks and after things calmed down, I had an extra pawn in a pretty difficult endgame. I pressed with my extra pawn and avoided successfully the minor pieces threats.
The second game I lost badly with Ruben Canales in a Tarrash French with 3... Nf6. I played poorly in the opening and when the game was close to balanced I lost the thread and finished in a lost endgame that he exploited with good technique.
The third game is the first I want to annotate. It was played against Arely de Loera, a very young girl from Morelos. She surprised me a bit, because she knew and played a line José Luis and I were checking last week. I was preparing the line with white (I'm a strong believer that white is better in the Sveshnikov), but the best way to understand and improve an opening is playing it by both sides.
1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 Nc6
I want to enter directly to the Sveshnikov. I left for another moment my beloved Hedgehog.
3. d4 cd4
4. Nxd4 e5?!
I played automatically this move. After I made it I knew I played the opening mechanically and gave her the chance to have a good game. Now, after 5. Nb5 d6, it's not mandatory to play the Knight to c3, so white could play c4 for a Maroczy or just play Bd3 and after a6 she can bring his b5 Knight to d5 via c3 (and not to a3).
5. Nb5 d6
6. N1c3?!
She also played mechanically and returned the favour!
6... Nf6
of course, going back to the main line. Next moves are just theory.
7. Bg5 a6
8. Na3 b5
9. Nd5 Be7
10. Bxf6 Bxf6
11. c4!?
here we go! this is the line we were preparing. This move tries to weaken black's queenside and if black advances his pawn to b4, white obtains a very good game, activating the a3 knight with tempo and strengthen the d5 knight. Therefore, this move creates a sharp game right from the opening with chances for both sides. Black's main attempt is to take the initiative at the cost of a pawn. We now have the eternal struggle between a bishop pair against a very strong Knight and square at d5.
11... 0-0
I don't refuse complications.
12. cb5 Nd4
The idea. I also get a good knight whereas maintain my bishop pair and better development. White gets a pawn and a rock-solid structure, her main problem is tempo and the poorly positioned Knight at a3.
13. b6!
In NIC Yearbook 94 this move is just mentioned as a sideline, but for me this is the best answer for white and I intended to play this move with white if I could get into this position. I was a little afraid of entering into her preparation so I spend almost half an hour to remember first the ideas and next the move orders of this variation, and trying to complicate the struggle, I was playing for a win.
14. ... Bb7
The main idea in this variation is to exchange the light squared bishop for the Knight on d5 and take on b6, after that black gets a reasonable play. With the white's next move, my preparation finished.
15. Nc7
The staring point of a wrong plan. Trying to maintain the extra pawn only plays in black's favour. Now the black's light squared bishop broaden its influence automatically and I get more development advantage, which will be decisive. Now white protects her central pawn and tries to complete her development by castling.
15. ... Rc8
16. Bd3 Bg5
17. 0-0 Bf4!
I'm proud of this bishop manoeuvre. It threatens some tactical blows although it is a positional move indeed. Now I get some pressure in the h1-a8 diagonal and she must concern about mating threats. Is she plays g3 now, the positional motif reveals for itself, because my light squared bishop is a killer and now I can make the standard retreat to h6 and then launch the attack via f5.
18. Nc4?!
She's not paying attention to my threats and follow her plan blindly. Now the threat is Na5 in order to catch the b7 bishop. She won't get the time to do so.
18. ... f5!
This move needs to pass the silicon test!, but in my analysis I win by force if she tries to trap my bishop: 19. Na5 fe4! 20. Nxb7?? Bxh2! and white at least lose her queen whereas black has still mating threats. She also cannot take on f5 because of 19. ef5 Bxh2! 20. Kxh2 Qh4+ 21. Kg1 Nf3! and white should resign.
19. Qe1??
This was the last chance to play g3, although white weakens her kingside badly. Now white falls in a mating net. This can be shown as a tactical problem to beginners:
20. ... Bxh2!
21. Kxh2
White's king is not safe with Bh1 because of Qh4 and the knight in d4 and the dark squared bishop weaves the mating net.
21. ... Qh4+
22. Kg1 Nf3!
23. gf3 Qg5
There are other ways to win. I chose the more direct one. Rf6 also wins by force, and if white plays Qd2 mate comes after Rg6+, and if white plays ef5 mate comes after Rh6.
White resigns.
I will analyse and commentate my last game against Luis Lopez Raygoza, which was an interesting and sharp game. Now time's over. See you next time!
I will remember this tournament for the weird performance I did, because I won three Sicilians and lost both non-Sicilian games. It's seems I feel comfortable in Sicilian positions with both sides, and I got the chance to experiment some of the stuff I had been studying with José Luis, my friend and trainer.
I not only got the chance to play an specific variation in the Sveshnikov Sicilian José Luis and I analyzed from the NIC 94, but got the chance to practice my endings technique in the very first round against a 1700 player. I won this first game, in which I wanted to play the Sveshnikov, but my opponent deviated the main line and went for 3. b3 followed by d4 and Nxd4, which seems to be dubious. We got into some fireworks and after things calmed down, I had an extra pawn in a pretty difficult endgame. I pressed with my extra pawn and avoided successfully the minor pieces threats.
The second game I lost badly with Ruben Canales in a Tarrash French with 3... Nf6. I played poorly in the opening and when the game was close to balanced I lost the thread and finished in a lost endgame that he exploited with good technique.
The third game is the first I want to annotate. It was played against Arely de Loera, a very young girl from Morelos. She surprised me a bit, because she knew and played a line José Luis and I were checking last week. I was preparing the line with white (I'm a strong believer that white is better in the Sveshnikov), but the best way to understand and improve an opening is playing it by both sides.
1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 Nc6
I want to enter directly to the Sveshnikov. I left for another moment my beloved Hedgehog.
3. d4 cd4
4. Nxd4 e5?!
I played automatically this move. After I made it I knew I played the opening mechanically and gave her the chance to have a good game. Now, after 5. Nb5 d6, it's not mandatory to play the Knight to c3, so white could play c4 for a Maroczy or just play Bd3 and after a6 she can bring his b5 Knight to d5 via c3 (and not to a3).
5. Nb5 d6
6. N1c3?!
She also played mechanically and returned the favour!
6... Nf6
of course, going back to the main line. Next moves are just theory.
7. Bg5 a6
8. Na3 b5
9. Nd5 Be7
10. Bxf6 Bxf6
11. c4!?
here we go! this is the line we were preparing. This move tries to weaken black's queenside and if black advances his pawn to b4, white obtains a very good game, activating the a3 knight with tempo and strengthen the d5 knight. Therefore, this move creates a sharp game right from the opening with chances for both sides. Black's main attempt is to take the initiative at the cost of a pawn. We now have the eternal struggle between a bishop pair against a very strong Knight and square at d5.
11... 0-0
I don't refuse complications.
12. cb5 Nd4
The idea. I also get a good knight whereas maintain my bishop pair and better development. White gets a pawn and a rock-solid structure, her main problem is tempo and the poorly positioned Knight at a3.
13. b6!
In NIC Yearbook 94 this move is just mentioned as a sideline, but for me this is the best answer for white and I intended to play this move with white if I could get into this position. I was a little afraid of entering into her preparation so I spend almost half an hour to remember first the ideas and next the move orders of this variation, and trying to complicate the struggle, I was playing for a win.
14. ... Bb7
The main idea in this variation is to exchange the light squared bishop for the Knight on d5 and take on b6, after that black gets a reasonable play. With the white's next move, my preparation finished.
15. Nc7
The staring point of a wrong plan. Trying to maintain the extra pawn only plays in black's favour. Now the black's light squared bishop broaden its influence automatically and I get more development advantage, which will be decisive. Now white protects her central pawn and tries to complete her development by castling.
15. ... Rc8
16. Bd3 Bg5
17. 0-0 Bf4!
I'm proud of this bishop manoeuvre. It threatens some tactical blows although it is a positional move indeed. Now I get some pressure in the h1-a8 diagonal and she must concern about mating threats. Is she plays g3 now, the positional motif reveals for itself, because my light squared bishop is a killer and now I can make the standard retreat to h6 and then launch the attack via f5.
18. Nc4?!
She's not paying attention to my threats and follow her plan blindly. Now the threat is Na5 in order to catch the b7 bishop. She won't get the time to do so.
18. ... f5!
This move needs to pass the silicon test!, but in my analysis I win by force if she tries to trap my bishop: 19. Na5 fe4! 20. Nxb7?? Bxh2! and white at least lose her queen whereas black has still mating threats. She also cannot take on f5 because of 19. ef5 Bxh2! 20. Kxh2 Qh4+ 21. Kg1 Nf3! and white should resign.
19. Qe1??
This was the last chance to play g3, although white weakens her kingside badly. Now white falls in a mating net. This can be shown as a tactical problem to beginners:
20. ... Bxh2!
21. Kxh2
White's king is not safe with Bh1 because of Qh4 and the knight in d4 and the dark squared bishop weaves the mating net.
21. ... Qh4+
22. Kg1 Nf3!
23. gf3 Qg5
There are other ways to win. I chose the more direct one. Rf6 also wins by force, and if white plays Qd2 mate comes after Rg6+, and if white plays ef5 mate comes after Rh6.
White resigns.
I will analyse and commentate my last game against Luis Lopez Raygoza, which was an interesting and sharp game. Now time's over. See you next time!
05 May, 2010
Linux Java Hotspot/Gcj error
I got a really nasty Java error while trying to start a formerly working instance of glassfish v2.1.
I tried:
$ bin/asadmin create-domain
bin/asadmin: line 7: /home/h/run/gf21/lib/admin-cli.jar: Permission denied
Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from
bin/..//lib/admin-cli.jar
for some reason it didn't allow me to run such jar when previously was working like a charm! I just added execution permission to the jar file:
chmod +x lib/admin-cli.jar
this was all the problem with glassfish, but when solved the issue, this lend me to the next step...
$ bin/asadmin
invalid file (bad magic number): Exec format error
Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from
bin/..//lib/admin-cli.jar
OMG!! WTF??? this was just crazy. I googled it a bit and found out that the problem was my java version. I have uninstalled lots of times java-gcj and java-gcj-compat packages from my linux box (FC12), but everytime I update software it installs them again, therefore sometimes I just ignore I have it again in my system. This level passed! time to go to the next level!
Now that I uninstalled java-gcj again (with nodeps option otherwise I would uninstall openoffice), I tried again, now with glassfish installer. At the moment I was a bit demoralized by asadmin problem and wanted to isolate the real issue.
Then I ran:
$ /usr/java/latest/bin/java -Xmx256m -jar glassfish-installer-v2.1.1-b31g-linux.jar
Exception in thread "main" java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "java": java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:459)
at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Runtime.java:593)
at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Runtime.java:466)
at glassfish.main(glassfish.java:97)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory
at java.lang.UNIXProcess.(UNIXProcess.java:148)
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(ProcessImpl.java:65)
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:452)
... 3 more
...that got me mad immediatly. What's this error?? I checked some forums and many of them said something about the path where you're executing the main class and so... This was not exactly my case because I got correctly the main class. In this forum they had a similar problem http://forums.java.net/jive/message.jspa?messageID=244886 so I just checked everything again.
The problem was solved with the simple command:
$ export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
previously I had correctly defined JAVA_HOME.
Conclusion
When java-gcj is installed, it adds a soft link in /usr/bin/java pointing to gcj java binaries. Therefore any program tries to execute java from there, but it doesn't corresponds to JAVA_HOME. When I removed gcj all my environment was still configured (not by me) to execute java from /usr/bin so it just didn't find JDK binaries. That's why just adding the proper java binary to the path, it worked again.
I have to complain to FC12 packagers because we all know that gcj it's not in a stable and fully compatible state, therefore it's very frustrating that you need to remove gcj and download/install Sun JDK. What's most frustrating it's that openoffice depends strongly on gcj and don't let you choose what JVM you wanna work with.
Supposedly Linux it's all about choice, and when sun jdk it's still not opensource, it's completely free tough, so it should be a way to FC12 packagers to let the users choose between JDK's.
Hope this helps anyone.
I tried:
$ bin/asadmin create-domain
bin/asadmin: line 7: /home/h/run/gf21/lib/admin-cli.jar: Permission denied
Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from
bin/..//lib/admin-cli.jar
for some reason it didn't allow me to run such jar when previously was working like a charm! I just added execution permission to the jar file:
chmod +x lib/admin-cli.jar
this was all the problem with glassfish, but when solved the issue, this lend me to the next step...
$ bin/asadmin
invalid file (bad magic number): Exec format error
Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from
bin/..//lib/admin-cli.jar
OMG!! WTF??? this was just crazy. I googled it a bit and found out that the problem was my java version. I have uninstalled lots of times java-gcj and java-gcj-compat packages from my linux box (FC12), but everytime I update software it installs them again, therefore sometimes I just ignore I have it again in my system. This level passed! time to go to the next level!
Now that I uninstalled java-gcj again (with nodeps option otherwise I would uninstall openoffice), I tried again, now with glassfish installer. At the moment I was a bit demoralized by asadmin problem and wanted to isolate the real issue.
Then I ran:
$ /usr/java/latest/bin/java -Xmx256m -jar glassfish-installer-v2.1.1-b31g-linux.jar
Exception in thread "main" java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "java": java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:459)
at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Runtime.java:593)
at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Runtime.java:466)
at glassfish.main(glassfish.java:97)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory
at java.lang.UNIXProcess.
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(ProcessImpl.java:65)
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:452)
... 3 more
...that got me mad immediatly. What's this error?? I checked some forums and many of them said something about the path where you're executing the main class and so... This was not exactly my case because I got correctly the main class. In this forum they had a similar problem http://forums.java.net/jive/message.jspa?messageID=244886 so I just checked everything again.
The problem was solved with the simple command:
$ export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
previously I had correctly defined JAVA_HOME.
Conclusion
When java-gcj is installed, it adds a soft link in /usr/bin/java pointing to gcj java binaries. Therefore any program tries to execute java from there, but it doesn't corresponds to JAVA_HOME. When I removed gcj all my environment was still configured (not by me) to execute java from /usr/bin so it just didn't find JDK binaries. That's why just adding the proper java binary to the path, it worked again.
I have to complain to FC12 packagers because we all know that gcj it's not in a stable and fully compatible state, therefore it's very frustrating that you need to remove gcj and download/install Sun JDK. What's most frustrating it's that openoffice depends strongly on gcj and don't let you choose what JVM you wanna work with.
Supposedly Linux it's all about choice, and when sun jdk it's still not opensource, it's completely free tough, so it should be a way to FC12 packagers to let the users choose between JDK's.
Hope this helps anyone.
13 March, 2010
Opensolaris on XEN
A good article by Pat Patterson, former principal engineer in identity management products at Sun.
Trust SSL Certificate in Java
This is an small article about how to trust a SSL certificate using Java. Very interesting and useful.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/WebObjects/Web_Services/How_to_Trust_Any_SSL_Certificate
04 February, 2010
Chinese New Year Mexico 2010
Mexico City's Chinatown is preparing to celebrate the Chinese New Year (Tiger's year).
The biggest part of the celebration is the traditional parade with people dressed up as dragons on Reforma avenue, that is one of the most beautiful avenues in Mexico City.
I hope to be part of this colourful celebration, in which the Chinese language school where I study will have a main role in the organization.
Hope to see you guys there!
The biggest part of the celebration is the traditional parade with people dressed up as dragons on Reforma avenue, that is one of the most beautiful avenues in Mexico City.
I hope to be part of this colourful celebration, in which the Chinese language school where I study will have a main role in the organization.
Hope to see you guys there!
04 May, 2009
El sotano de la influenza
Last long weekend I went to San Luis Potosi to see the "Cellar of Swallows" (Sótano de las Golondrinas) with my friend Pancho. It was supposed we were going to see the birds coming at dusk and leaving the place in the morning, but it was a failed mission.
All started Friday May 1st at 6 am when I left home with my dog Camus. I was headed to the Pet Shop so that they could take care of him. I registered my dog at the Pet Shop a few minutes before 8 am, although he was a little bit afraid of being in a strange place. Joyfully, I didn't have problems leaving him there because he liked the veterinary at first sight!
I met Pancho at the Condesa zone at 8:30 am, then I followed his car up to his parent's home. I left my car there and we had breakfast with his family. We had some fruit, beans and a banana milkshake. We leave his parent's home at 10 am, we were finally headed toward the Sotano.
We supposedly traced a route to Sotano, we got some maps in the internet but the fucking Pancho didn't printed them, so the only directions we had were the highway numbers we had to take in the right order... but those were directions departing from the Condesa Zone, not from his parent's home. The intersection point between both ways supposedly was the Jorobas toll booth, from there we should have turned right the next intersection after 5 kms., but there was none!! We took to side ways to ask local people if we were in the right direction but they only recommended us to go toward Queretaro, so we had to follow their directions...
We took the long, loooong way to Queretaro and then we took the San Luis Potosi highway. Again, we asked in a toll booth which way we should take. It was loooooong and sloooow. We took a two lanes highway for more than 3 hours! following garies and trucks at no more than 30 kms/hr. It was a mess...
It was 4 pm when I saw the deviation to Tanchanchin. A small town I saw in a map that was close to the biggest waterfall of the area, no less than 100 mt :D. We took it and asked local people how to go to the falls. We had to take a gravel road to go to Tanchanchin, we arrived in less than 15 minutes tough. At the entrance of the town we asked and old man to give us some directions, he told us that the waterfalls were closed but there was a possibility that a boatman could take us there.
We followed the gravel road until we saw the boatman ('Nayo' Leonardo Briceño, like a Colombian friend of mine :D) ... he was sleeping... seeing how the life goes on... doing nothing. It was a trend in all our way... It was interesting, a place with no main activity, a hundred percent rural people, calm and quiet. The radio was tuned in a Nahuatl station, which in fact was a combination of Spanish and Nahuatl.
We had to wake him up! He was friendly and told us that he was not permitted to take people to the Timul waterfalls. It was a pity, he told us that the way to go is driving to the parking lot, going by boat for an hour up to a non-accesible-by-boat place and then walk to the waterfalls. In that place is possible to camp and see the lights and colors in the morning. What a mess, he was inflexible, almost foolish. Even tough he told us he was not advised about not taking people to the waterfalls, he didn't want to take us. People were wrongly informed about swine flu pandemic, therefore they think they will fall dead just because of being in contact with a sick. We tried to convince him but he didn't change his mind so we decided to continue our way to the Sotano.
Around 6 pm we had left the mountains when we saw a retention point. A police man asked me where we came from and, immediately after I told him we came from Mexico City, he asked us to stop beside the sidewalk. I was afraid they could check our health status because of the swine flu's pandemic. Fortunately nothing happened, a woman approach us, gave us a paper with information about swine flu and told us some information about the illness. Pancho took advantage of the stop and asked about where to go. He had been driving for about 8 hours and our destiny seemed to be still far. They told him about a waterfall that was open to public only to sightseeing, not to camp or swim, we followed their directions tough.
Fifteen minutes after, we arrived in the place. It was the Mico's waterfall, named after the spider monkeys (micos) who used to live there. Pancho asked if we could go down, whereas I was enjoying the water fall over the road :D. We walked down... gorgeous!!! it was an amazingly awesome landscape. It was a twin waterfall, with a small lake in the middle, light green water, backed by some rocks and the forest. Beautiful. It was only four people more who were swimming. They occupied the only space where it was possible to camp! I wish we could stay there more time, but the gloaming was close. We should continue.
It was 8 pm when we were back on track. I reserved in a small hotel in the town Aquismón, where some people take you to the Sotano. Pancho drove a couple of hours more. We haven't eaten!! So the first thing we did after checking in at the hotel was looking for a place to have dinner. It was 10:30 pm, almost everything was closed and there was a smell to skunk because someone hit one at the edge of the town. We had dinner at a street food place. We had "Tacos Rojos" which are very small tacos with a Potosi typical red sauce, lettuce, chicken and cheese ranch. It was good enough, maybe because I was starved!!
To finalize the day... the receptionist told us the Sotano was closed because of the swine flu!!! Damn!!!
End of an exahusting DAY-1.
Next day we were thinking in a way to go to the Sotano. We thought some possibilities, from going by bike to bribe authorities to permit us to go and camp there, but they are incorruptibles!!!
We looked for a place to have breakfast. In the meantime, we asked to every person who appeared to have a truck if they could take us to the Sotano. EVERYBODY told us it was impossible because it was closed, and health authorities gave them an advise not to take anyone there. We had to use our time properly, so even though we were denied to go to Sotano we should visit nice places.
We had breakfast in the main square of Aquismon, again at a street food place. We both had Enchiladas Potosinas. I had oats atole and home made sweet bread. Again, it was good enough, nothing gorgeous.
After that, we went to Tambaque, again Pancho drove trough a gravel road. It was a nice place. At the entrance there was a creek. I joyfully went down to refresh myself and be in contact with nature. All the area was hot like the hell so finding a place with fresh water and shade from trees is great :D. We stayed there for a while, but we saw at the entrance a waterfall picture so we wanted to move there.
There was no waterfall but the birth of a river. It was also great! there is a kind of sidewalk beside the creek until the birth. There, you can see clear water and some stacked rocks. The trees shade all over the place so it is a beautiful, calm and peaceful place to be in.
Whereas we were fooling around, a man approach Pancho and told him he could find a friend that could take us to Sotano. He also told us that all the rocks that were stacked are covered by water in the rain season... wonderful!
After that, we waited for a while to see him again after he had talked his friend. We had to meet him at a bridge. We saw him and told his friend about us. We talked with his friend and again told us that it was forbidden to take people to Sotano. We told him that we wanted only to go up and see the birds, nothing else, although we would try to bribe the guards to enter... we were gone too far to not to go to Sotano, but if that was impossible there was no problem for us.
He accepted so we drove toward the parking lot to park Pancho's car. But destiny was playing with us... when we were entering the parking lot a Health Department truck was leaving. While we were parking the car the parking lot owner approach us and told us a Health officer gave him a letter forcing him to close the place. Pancho and I discussed for some minutes to decide to go or not to go to the Sotano. We decided not to spend our money going there... the forest is deep and you cannot see the birds from the entrance... so we had the risk to pay the man to take us there and see nothing. We told the man what we decided, greet him and gave him a tip just for wait us. We were highly disappointed, but it was simply a wrong day to visit San Luis Potosi, which is the second State with more swine flu cases in Mexico.
We started the way back to Mexico City at 5 pm, we took the Mexico-Nuevo Laredo highway. Although it is considered a highway, in fact is a two lanes road through the hills in which you cannot drive more than 60 kms/hr. It was a long way through the hills.
We stopped to have lunch at 6 pm. I wanted to have some chicken, but a
the girl who served us told me they were forbidden to serve chicken because of the swine flu!!!! what???!!! I couldn't believe my ears! It seems that the information in so-far-away towns is not as accurate as it could be. I somehow managed to stay calm and asked for fish and a quesadilla's order.
After lunch (almost diner) we retook the way to Mexico. Although it was a pretty boring road, we stopped twice to see the awesome landscape of the hills with rivers, forest, etc. We even saw some vultures in a sharp bend. We stopped to take pictures, I thought the birds were going to fly when they saw us but they stayed there. After I got my picture, we speed up the car but I had the chance to be closer to the animals, it smelled to burned plastic, and I saw some smoke. I hope what I imagined is wrong... I hope those birds were not waiting to have dinner...
After that, there is no more to add, Pancho drove all the way to his parent's home. We arrived there at 2 am. Then we sleep.
End of an exhausting DAY-2.
The last day in this long weekend I stayed at Pancho's parent's home. That was the "Dia de la Cruz" (day of the cross). I don't know the meaning of the celebration, I only know that construction workers celebrate that day. Pancho's family offered a meal to some close friends and relatives. It was great food and friendly environment.
After lunch I had to go to pick my dog up from the pet shop. I went and I went back home with my dog.
I didn't visit Sotano, I didn't camp but I still think I didn't waste my time. Those places I visited with Pancho were great, we stayed in touch with nature and with the real Mexico, country side Mexico. I hope I can soon return and meet all those places I couldn't go because of the swine flu... and I hope the fucking swine flu go away.
All started Friday May 1st at 6 am when I left home with my dog Camus. I was headed to the Pet Shop so that they could take care of him. I registered my dog at the Pet Shop a few minutes before 8 am, although he was a little bit afraid of being in a strange place. Joyfully, I didn't have problems leaving him there because he liked the veterinary at first sight!
I met Pancho at the Condesa zone at 8:30 am, then I followed his car up to his parent's home. I left my car there and we had breakfast with his family. We had some fruit, beans and a banana milkshake. We leave his parent's home at 10 am, we were finally headed toward the Sotano.
We supposedly traced a route to Sotano, we got some maps in the internet but the fucking Pancho didn't printed them, so the only directions we had were the highway numbers we had to take in the right order... but those were directions departing from the Condesa Zone, not from his parent's home. The intersection point between both ways supposedly was the Jorobas toll booth, from there we should have turned right the next intersection after 5 kms., but there was none!! We took to side ways to ask local people if we were in the right direction but they only recommended us to go toward Queretaro, so we had to follow their directions...
We took the long, loooong way to Queretaro and then we took the San Luis Potosi highway. Again, we asked in a toll booth which way we should take. It was loooooong and sloooow. We took a two lanes highway for more than 3 hours! following garies and trucks at no more than 30 kms/hr. It was a mess...
It was 4 pm when I saw the deviation to Tanchanchin. A small town I saw in a map that was close to the biggest waterfall of the area, no less than 100 mt :D. We took it and asked local people how to go to the falls. We had to take a gravel road to go to Tanchanchin, we arrived in less than 15 minutes tough. At the entrance of the town we asked and old man to give us some directions, he told us that the waterfalls were closed but there was a possibility that a boatman could take us there.
We followed the gravel road until we saw the boatman ('Nayo' Leonardo Briceño, like a Colombian friend of mine :D) ... he was sleeping... seeing how the life goes on... doing nothing. It was a trend in all our way... It was interesting, a place with no main activity, a hundred percent rural people, calm and quiet. The radio was tuned in a Nahuatl station, which in fact was a combination of Spanish and Nahuatl.
We had to wake him up! He was friendly and told us that he was not permitted to take people to the Timul waterfalls. It was a pity, he told us that the way to go is driving to the parking lot, going by boat for an hour up to a non-accesible-by-boat place and then walk to the waterfalls. In that place is possible to camp and see the lights and colors in the morning. What a mess, he was inflexible, almost foolish. Even tough he told us he was not advised about not taking people to the waterfalls, he didn't want to take us. People were wrongly informed about swine flu pandemic, therefore they think they will fall dead just because of being in contact with a sick. We tried to convince him but he didn't change his mind so we decided to continue our way to the Sotano.
Around 6 pm we had left the mountains when we saw a retention point. A police man asked me where we came from and, immediately after I told him we came from Mexico City, he asked us to stop beside the sidewalk. I was afraid they could check our health status because of the swine flu's pandemic. Fortunately nothing happened, a woman approach us, gave us a paper with information about swine flu and told us some information about the illness. Pancho took advantage of the stop and asked about where to go. He had been driving for about 8 hours and our destiny seemed to be still far. They told him about a waterfall that was open to public only to sightseeing, not to camp or swim, we followed their directions tough.
Fifteen minutes after, we arrived in the place. It was the Mico's waterfall, named after the spider monkeys (micos) who used to live there. Pancho asked if we could go down, whereas I was enjoying the water fall over the road :D. We walked down... gorgeous!!! it was an amazingly awesome landscape. It was a twin waterfall, with a small lake in the middle, light green water, backed by some rocks and the forest. Beautiful. It was only four people more who were swimming. They occupied the only space where it was possible to camp! I wish we could stay there more time, but the gloaming was close. We should continue.
It was 8 pm when we were back on track. I reserved in a small hotel in the town Aquismón, where some people take you to the Sotano. Pancho drove a couple of hours more. We haven't eaten!! So the first thing we did after checking in at the hotel was looking for a place to have dinner. It was 10:30 pm, almost everything was closed and there was a smell to skunk because someone hit one at the edge of the town. We had dinner at a street food place. We had "Tacos Rojos" which are very small tacos with a Potosi typical red sauce, lettuce, chicken and cheese ranch. It was good enough, maybe because I was starved!!
To finalize the day... the receptionist told us the Sotano was closed because of the swine flu!!! Damn!!!
End of an exahusting DAY-1.
Next day we were thinking in a way to go to the Sotano. We thought some possibilities, from going by bike to bribe authorities to permit us to go and camp there, but they are incorruptibles!!!
We looked for a place to have breakfast. In the meantime, we asked to every person who appeared to have a truck if they could take us to the Sotano. EVERYBODY told us it was impossible because it was closed, and health authorities gave them an advise not to take anyone there. We had to use our time properly, so even though we were denied to go to Sotano we should visit nice places.
We had breakfast in the main square of Aquismon, again at a street food place. We both had Enchiladas Potosinas. I had oats atole and home made sweet bread. Again, it was good enough, nothing gorgeous.
After that, we went to Tambaque, again Pancho drove trough a gravel road. It was a nice place. At the entrance there was a creek. I joyfully went down to refresh myself and be in contact with nature. All the area was hot like the hell so finding a place with fresh water and shade from trees is great :D. We stayed there for a while, but we saw at the entrance a waterfall picture so we wanted to move there.
There was no waterfall but the birth of a river. It was also great! there is a kind of sidewalk beside the creek until the birth. There, you can see clear water and some stacked rocks. The trees shade all over the place so it is a beautiful, calm and peaceful place to be in.
Whereas we were fooling around, a man approach Pancho and told him he could find a friend that could take us to Sotano. He also told us that all the rocks that were stacked are covered by water in the rain season... wonderful!
After that, we waited for a while to see him again after he had talked his friend. We had to meet him at a bridge. We saw him and told his friend about us. We talked with his friend and again told us that it was forbidden to take people to Sotano. We told him that we wanted only to go up and see the birds, nothing else, although we would try to bribe the guards to enter... we were gone too far to not to go to Sotano, but if that was impossible there was no problem for us.
He accepted so we drove toward the parking lot to park Pancho's car. But destiny was playing with us... when we were entering the parking lot a Health Department truck was leaving. While we were parking the car the parking lot owner approach us and told us a Health officer gave him a letter forcing him to close the place. Pancho and I discussed for some minutes to decide to go or not to go to the Sotano. We decided not to spend our money going there... the forest is deep and you cannot see the birds from the entrance... so we had the risk to pay the man to take us there and see nothing. We told the man what we decided, greet him and gave him a tip just for wait us. We were highly disappointed, but it was simply a wrong day to visit San Luis Potosi, which is the second State with more swine flu cases in Mexico.
We started the way back to Mexico City at 5 pm, we took the Mexico-Nuevo Laredo highway. Although it is considered a highway, in fact is a two lanes road through the hills in which you cannot drive more than 60 kms/hr. It was a long way through the hills.
We stopped to have lunch at 6 pm. I wanted to have some chicken, but a
the girl who served us told me they were forbidden to serve chicken because of the swine flu!!!! what???!!! I couldn't believe my ears! It seems that the information in so-far-away towns is not as accurate as it could be. I somehow managed to stay calm and asked for fish and a quesadilla's order.
After lunch (almost diner) we retook the way to Mexico. Although it was a pretty boring road, we stopped twice to see the awesome landscape of the hills with rivers, forest, etc. We even saw some vultures in a sharp bend. We stopped to take pictures, I thought the birds were going to fly when they saw us but they stayed there. After I got my picture, we speed up the car but I had the chance to be closer to the animals, it smelled to burned plastic, and I saw some smoke. I hope what I imagined is wrong... I hope those birds were not waiting to have dinner...
After that, there is no more to add, Pancho drove all the way to his parent's home. We arrived there at 2 am. Then we sleep.
End of an exhausting DAY-2.
The last day in this long weekend I stayed at Pancho's parent's home. That was the "Dia de la Cruz" (day of the cross). I don't know the meaning of the celebration, I only know that construction workers celebrate that day. Pancho's family offered a meal to some close friends and relatives. It was great food and friendly environment.
After lunch I had to go to pick my dog up from the pet shop. I went and I went back home with my dog.
I didn't visit Sotano, I didn't camp but I still think I didn't waste my time. Those places I visited with Pancho were great, we stayed in touch with nature and with the real Mexico, country side Mexico. I hope I can soon return and meet all those places I couldn't go because of the swine flu... and I hope the fucking swine flu go away.
04 January, 2009
firefox 3 alsa bug
I was upgrading my laptop from FC8 to FC10. All appeared to be flawless at first sight, but when I customized firefox 3 to enable fire.fm plugin I got crazy 'cause firefox just crashed and nothing else happened.
I started firefox from a gnome terminal, and got the error:
ALSA lib pcm_pulse.c:629 (pulse_prepare) PulseAudio: Unable to create stream: Invalid argument
and many messages saying it couldn't allocate memory.
What a mess!! I googled it without success, tough I realized it wasn't really a problem with the plugin, or even with firefox, but with alsa and pulseaudio alsa plugin. Furthermore, I had the same issue trying to watch youtube videos, the video starts to load and I could see images, but when the sound starts to play, firefox crashes. I upgrade them all and nothing improved.
What I did to solve the issue -plus the upgraded packages- is to disable the firefox out-of-the-box shockwave flash plugin and to download the latest one from adobe site (yum is supported wow!!), installed it, restarted firefox and voilá, all working!!
Hope it should help someone else.
H
I started firefox from a gnome terminal, and got the error:
ALSA lib pcm_pulse.c:629 (pulse_prepare) PulseAudio: Unable to create stream: Invalid argument
and many messages saying it couldn't allocate memory.
What a mess!! I googled it without success, tough I realized it wasn't really a problem with the plugin, or even with firefox, but with alsa and pulseaudio alsa plugin. Furthermore, I had the same issue trying to watch youtube videos, the video starts to load and I could see images, but when the sound starts to play, firefox crashes. I upgrade them all and nothing improved.
What I did to solve the issue -plus the upgraded packages- is to disable the firefox out-of-the-box shockwave flash plugin and to download the latest one from adobe site (yum is supported wow!!), installed it, restarted firefox and voilá, all working!!
Hope it should help someone else.
H
30 December, 2008
Tajin
El fin de semana pasado tuve la oportunidad de visitar las ruinas de Tajin junto con mi buen amigo Pancho. Tenía ya un par de años desde que habíamos pensado ir, pero por cuestiones de trabajo no se había podido. Ahora estando algo desahogados de trabajo en fin de año, no desaprovechamos la oportunidad.
Vale bien la pena soportar las horas de camión, las incomodidades y el sol. Tajin no le pide mucho a lugares como Teotihuacan y Chichén Itzá, y al igual que este último, guarda la magia de estar ubicado en medio de la nada.
Definitivamente lo que hay que ir a ver es la pirámide de los nichos, que ya vista de cerca impresiona, tanto por el tamaño como por la perfección de su estructura. También es interesante ir a ver los N juegos de pelota que tiene, de diferentes tipos. Muy recomendable ir con un guía o alguien que sepa con profundidad lo que pasó ahí cuando estaba habitado y la interpretación de los bajorelieves que aún se conservan.
Afuera de la zona arqueológica, no tengo idea por qué (pronto lo investigaré) venden artesanías, cafe y todo con vainilla. Supongo que es algo que se da solito en la región :-s.
Fuera del Tajín, en sus alrededores no hay nada digno de ir a turistear. Visitamos Poza Rica y Tuxpan y ninguna de las dos merece mi respeto. Simplemente no hay nada que ver. Así que le recomiendo a los que vayan que después de Tajin se vayan a Tecolutla o de plano a la zona del puerto.
Ya que estaba en Veracruz me quedé con las ganas de ir a la isla de los monos y comer carne de chango. Realmente no sabía en que parte de Veracruz estaba, y como los de Poza Rica solo conocen su rancho, no nos supieron decir. Ya estando de regreso en la cuidad busqué dicha isla y ví que estaba en el centro de uno de los lugares que también quería visitar: la laguna de Catemaco. Será un próximo viaje que espero no tarde tanto como el de Tajín.
H.
Vale bien la pena soportar las horas de camión, las incomodidades y el sol. Tajin no le pide mucho a lugares como Teotihuacan y Chichén Itzá, y al igual que este último, guarda la magia de estar ubicado en medio de la nada.
Definitivamente lo que hay que ir a ver es la pirámide de los nichos, que ya vista de cerca impresiona, tanto por el tamaño como por la perfección de su estructura. También es interesante ir a ver los N juegos de pelota que tiene, de diferentes tipos. Muy recomendable ir con un guía o alguien que sepa con profundidad lo que pasó ahí cuando estaba habitado y la interpretación de los bajorelieves que aún se conservan.
Afuera de la zona arqueológica, no tengo idea por qué (pronto lo investigaré) venden artesanías, cafe y todo con vainilla. Supongo que es algo que se da solito en la región :-s.
Fuera del Tajín, en sus alrededores no hay nada digno de ir a turistear. Visitamos Poza Rica y Tuxpan y ninguna de las dos merece mi respeto. Simplemente no hay nada que ver. Así que le recomiendo a los que vayan que después de Tajin se vayan a Tecolutla o de plano a la zona del puerto.
Ya que estaba en Veracruz me quedé con las ganas de ir a la isla de los monos y comer carne de chango. Realmente no sabía en que parte de Veracruz estaba, y como los de Poza Rica solo conocen su rancho, no nos supieron decir. Ya estando de regreso en la cuidad busqué dicha isla y ví que estaba en el centro de uno de los lugares que también quería visitar: la laguna de Catemaco. Será un próximo viaje que espero no tarde tanto como el de Tajín.
H.
28 November, 2008
Cyberchondria
Me encuentro un articulo interesante que habla de la forma en que los seres humanos abusamos de la información disponible en internet. En este caso, la famosa maña (al menos en México) de auto-recetarse, simplemente por tener dos síntomas similares a lo que le ocurrió a alguien cercano.
Inmediatamente vamos a google a buscar los síntomas, dx y finalmente encontramos hasta el tratamiento que según es adecuado a nuestro padecer, creyendo que con este volúmen de información sustituímos la labor que con años de estudio hace un médico calificado.
ftp://ftp.research.microsoft.com/pub/tr/TR-2008-178.pdf
Inmediatamente vamos a google a buscar los síntomas, dx y finalmente encontramos hasta el tratamiento que según es adecuado a nuestro padecer, creyendo que con este volúmen de información sustituímos la labor que con años de estudio hace un médico calificado.
ftp://ftp.research.microsoft.com/pub/tr/TR-2008-178.pdf
26 November, 2008
Año nuevo chino
Este próximo 25 de enero del 2009 se llevará a cabo un desfile con motivo de la celebración del año nuevo chino, en la avenida paseo de la Reforma.
El instituto de idioma y cultura china, en el que actualmente estudio el idioma participará con un carro alegórico, por lo que espero estar presente ese día.
Espero puedan ir, es un espectáculo digno de verse.
http://pymeselfinanciero.blogspot.com/2008/12/la-ciudad-de-mxico-se-prepara-para.html
H
El instituto de idioma y cultura china, en el que actualmente estudio el idioma participará con un carro alegórico, por lo que espero estar presente ese día.
Espero puedan ir, es un espectáculo digno de verse.
http://pymeselfinanciero.blogspot.com/2008/12/la-ciudad-de-mxico-se-prepara-para.html
H
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