Expat Living

AIDS prevention

Organized by the State Council for the Prevention of AIDS (Coesida), the ninth AIDS Prevention Fair takes place in the Plaza de la Liberacion on Saturday, March 24 from 2-8 p.m. There will be music, games and theater, with the aim of teaching children in a creative manner about protection against sexual abuse and discrimination. According to Coesida, 184 children in Jalisco have contracted HIV since 1983. Up until October 2011, there have been 12,364 cases of HIV or AIDS in Jalisco.

National holiday

On Monday, March 16, Mexico marks the birth of Benito Juarez, one of the nation’s most respected presidents.

Jazz

Former Guadalajara Reporter staffer Hector Mendieta has opened a new cafe/bar with live music, reasonably priced Mexican beer (including Cerveza Minerva) and wine and hearty food. Altazar/Diagonal is Mendieta’s second venture, having run the successful Altazar cafe for more than 10 years in Mazatlan’s downtown cultural zone. Now back in Guadalajara, he offers no-cover jazz featuring the Chen Quintero Quartet playing classic and contemporary jazz standards from 9 p.m. every Friday. On Thursdays there is a film club and live music and Saturdays local bands play classic rock. Stop in to this friendly renovated house just off the beaten path with a multitude of spaces to relax in and enjoy 15-peso cerveza Leon until 6 p.m. and free Mexican snacks with your beer. Comida corrida is only 40 pesos. A 32-inch screen is available to watch movies and two private rooms lend to meetings or poker games, free wifi. Open noon to after midnight, Tuesday to Saturday. Guadalupe Zuno 1961. (1/2 block off Av. Chapultepec, in front of the entrance to LAMAR university). Tel. 3826-0601.

Jalisco Open

Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, ranked 69th in the world, will be the number one seed in the second ATP Jalisco Open tennis tournament that gets underway on Monday, March 12 at the Telcel Tennis Center in Zapopan’s Parque Metropolitano (Economos and Los Naranjos).

Home at last

Chuy, the pet crocodile, rescued from a home in Tlaquepaque February 8, has been absorbed into the Guadalajara Zoo’s reptile house. Zoo officials say he appears to be in good general health, if overweight from his lifestyle confined to a patio. So far, he seems to be adjusting to his new habitat. The zoo has plans to breed Chuy with Luisa, a female of the same species, when he is healthy. As Crocodylus acutus, or American crocodiles, they are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) threat scale.

Gourmet coffee expo

Coffee lovers are in for a treat. The Gourmet Coffee Festival will take place at the Expo Guadalajara for the second year running from Thursday, February 23 to Saturday, February 25.