Why don’t the potholes ever go away? Chamba’s Law explains this and many other Mexican mysteries
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.”
Have you ever discovered red marks on your skin which itch something awful, much worse than a mosquito bite? I have on many occasions and when I would show them to country folk here in western Mexico, they told me I had güinas or aradores, nearly invisible little creatures that literally get “under your skin.”
Long ago we heard rumors that the petroglyphs of Altavista – located 50 kilometers north of Puerto Vallarta as the Macaw flies – were a sight we had to see. Finally, one day in March, we decided to go visit the place, figuring that this time of year the humidity and the gnat count would be low while the temperature would be pleasant by day and cool at night: perfect ingredients for camping on the beach at the nearby pueblito of Chacala.
Even though more and more American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) are attracted to the western shores of Lake Chapala, the little town of Petatán, Michoacán, at the far eastern end, is still the place to see these beautiful birds in flocks of hundreds and sometimes thousands, as they fly in for their daily dinner, supplied by the folks who fillet fish there for several commercial enterprises.