Columns

Without a doubt, the best-known feature of the Primavera Forest, situated on the fringes of Guadalajara, is its celebrated hot river.  In fact, Río Caliente has become the symbol of the entire Bosque, even though the caldera in which it lies has plenty of other geologically interesting phenomena.

We would like to extend a sincere apology to those residents of Lakeside who last weekend turned up to participate in a hike through the Primavera Forest to be led by the Reporter’s John Pint.

A scream of terror rings out in the deep woods. A hiker races about in circles, leaping into the air and shaking her limbs wildly. “Something’s crawling up my pant leg!” she shrieks to her companions. Modesty cast aside, she rips off her pants to discover inside, not the scorpion, centipede or spider she expected, but a humble, utterly harmless, pine needle.

The Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce is exhibiting the results of a two-week “plein-air” painting trip to Austria taken recently by two of Guadalajara’s best-known artists: Jorge Monroy and Ilse Taylor Hable.

Thanks to a turtle, I stumbled upon yet another part of Jalisco which can only be described as “stunning” for its natural beauty.

Fifteen years ago I camped in the gorgeous Sierra de Tapalpa at a place overlooking the big salt flats of Sayula, located about 20 kilometers west of Lake Chapala. In those remote woods up above, we discovered Alfredo, a man of letters living alone in a cabin, who seemed to have taken seriously the ancient admonition, “Know thyself.” I wrote an article about this “sagacious hermit-philosopher of the tall pines” in the May 24, 1997 edition of this newspaper.