The Jalisco State Water Commission has asked Guadalajara muralist Jorge Monroy for a painting to grace its new building on the shores of Lake Chapala. The painting, tentatively entitled “Tlaloc Reigns Over Chapala,” will hang in a large stairwell where it will be visible from two floors. Although Monroy turned the completed work over to Commission authorities on May 14, dedication of the new building – a training center – will not take place until sometime in July, after the upcoming Mexican presidential elections. Inaugurations and other ceremonies which could be used as political platforms, are forbidden by law during this pre-election period.  The Reporter’s JOHN PINT stopped by Monroy’s rustic studio in Pinar de la Venta to ask him about his newest creation.

Chiquiliche is one of those very few caves in Jalisco which are easy to reach by ordinary car and unlikely to give visitors a case of histoplasmosis (which is caused by breathing in the spores of a fungus growing on bat guano). Getting into this cave does require a bit of derring-do but the reward is a chance to admire beautiful flowstone, explore winding passages leading off into total darkness and gaze up at the cave’s dramatic skylight entrance, 30 meters above your head.

A 17-minute drive north of Guadalajara brings you to a veritable Forest of Giants: monster rocks covering a steep hillside which rises high above the placid village of Río Blanco. The place was long ago given the name El Diente in honor of one particular tooth-shaped rock especially beloved by the boulder and mountain climbers who have been coming to Cerro El Diente for decades to hone their skills.

For months I watched the woodpeckers hollow out the telephone pole in front of my house to build their new home. The problem was that the hole they were working on was their fourth attempt at nest making and I wondered just how many holes that pole could take before it snapped. I wondered if male woodpeckers face the same problems as male weaver birds (Ploceidae), which have to “try, try again” until their lady loves say, “Yes, this is perfect for my nest.”

Mascota’s eminent archaeologist, Joseph Mountjoy recently informed us that the town’s already outstanding museum has been completely upgraded and expanded. We decided this was a perfect excuse to revisit Mascota, which lies about 150 kilometers west of Guadalajara and Lake Chapala. We also planned to take a peek at the nearby mountain village of San Sebastián, whose charm is legendary.

Every year Bosque la Primavera organizes at least one long trek across the forest. This year it was a sixteen-kilometer hike on March 24, starting at the western edge of the Protected Area, crossing the famed Río Caliente and ending at the little town of La Primavera, which lies 15 kilometers due west of Guadalajara, alongside the highway to Tepic and Nogales.