Columns

In the summer of 2010, Jennifer Day, a University of Washington graduate student, and “Scooby the Conservation Canine,” an energetic black Labrador, were invited to spend four days in Jalisco’s Primavera Forest hunting for the scat of wild animals that roam the woods.

Susan Street is a social scientist at Guadalajara’s Social Anthropology Research Center (CIESAS). She lives in Pinar de la Venta, eight kilometers west of Guadalajara and her house is situated at the very edge of the sprawling Bosque La Primavera, home to 340 species of vertebrates, including coyotes, lynxes, a puma or two, and, of course, rattlesnakes. As you can imagine, none of these woodsy creatures know exactly where the forest ends and Pinar de la Venta begins.

There’s something special about Tapalpa. Meandering through its narrow, picturesque streets is a pleasure all its own and what better way to end a day of wandering than in an armchair in front of a roaring fireplace, sipping a potent Ponche de Granada?

Louise Freeman and Jenny Smith brought us the news from Ajijic: “Andrei Zúniga has found a new Foco Tonal on the premises of La Vastaguera Restaurant." Naturally we were eager to check it out—and, of course, enjoy another tasty meal there—so the following Saturday, accompanied by a few friends, we headed for La Vastaguera, which is located on the northeast shore of Lake Chapala, five kilometers south of Ocotlán and 70 kilometers southeast of Guadalajara.

What happened to my brother-in-law Pepe is usually referred to as “the old mustard scam” in The Guadalajara Reporter. That’s what I called it too, until last week when Pepe fell for it hook, line and sinker.

For two nights at the end of August, Casa-Cem’s modest “conversation salon” was filled beyond capacity by Tapatios anxious to see photos and videos of the dramatic discovery of the oldest human skeleton ever found on the American continent.