The Guadalajara Reporter
Guadalajara's Largest English Newspaper
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.
In 2003, more than 9,200 non-government workers missed a day or more of work because of typing or keyboarding related injuries, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. In 2008, the situation got a whole lot worse as sales of laptop computers overtook those of desktops for the first time. Today, according to British-born Paul King, co-founder of Guadalajara’s Practicayoga, things will get much worse, as laptops begin to take their place as the principal workhorses of the office.
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.
The small towns around Lake Cajititlán are known for their arts and crafts, but locating the artisans is sometimes quite difficult, as they tend to work unobtrusively inside their homes or under a shade tree in the backyard. In San Juan Evangelista, however, you will actually find a Plaza de los Artesanos, surrounded by workshops where lumps of clay are turned into works of art.
Representatives of Bosque la Primavera joined together with activists from several animal-rescue organizations to liberate deer, raccoons, a lynx and other wild creatures on Monday, March 5, the day before the 32nd anniversary of a federal decree designating the Primavera Forest a Protected Area. The following day, a photo exhibit on the beauty of the forest and its creatures was launched at the Guadalajara Palacio Municipal and the Bosque’s birthday was crowned by a panel discussion on “The Past, Present and Future of the Primavera Forest” at the Guadalajara City Museum.
Jon Lovett is an internationally recognized expert on Natural Resource Management and professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Twente in Holland. Invited to Jalisco by his Ph.D. student, Arturo Balderes Torres, Lovett has spent the last few weeks studying the Primavera Forest and culminated his visit with a talk at the headquarters of the Mexican Association of Forest Professionals in Guadalajara.
