Now that the temperature is rising and the weather report predicts zero percent precipitation, why not dust off your tent and spend a night communing with the crickets and counting the stars?

El Sauz de Cajigal is a pueblito – population 120 – located 100 kilometers east of Guadalajara. Never heard of it? I can’t blame you, because I couldn’t find mention of it on any map I consulted.

Waiting for Telmex to come fix your non-functioning landline telephone offers all kinds of hidden benefits: no more wrong numbers asking to speak to Rosita; no more pesky calls from Sky trying to sell you (for the 100th time) a more expensive package you’re not interested in; no calls at all, in fact.

The Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce recently put on a display of a selection of paintings representing the most outstanding of Mexico’s 121 pueblos mágicos or magical towns, which have been recognized by the Secretariat of Tourism for the efforts of the local people to preserve their history, traditions and customs.

I write this not as a reporter but as a teacher, long interested in improving what passes for education in too many schools all over the world.

Anyone searching for a fine, natural, hot-water spa on this continent at the beginning of this millennium would have heard about and perhaps ended up staying at Río Caliente Spa, located inside the Primavera Forest only 12 kilometers due west of Guadalajara.