The row of Royal Poincianas lining the walkway of Ajijic’s Malecón are in full bloom this month, adding splashes of brilliant color to the dry season landscape.
The flame trees were originally planted in May 2011 to commemorate the arrival of Colombian professor and mathematician Henry Sanchez Pardo, dubbed the Barefoot Eco-Runner.
The shoeless athlete trotted into the village to help plant the trees in the local leg of his marathon trek from Patagonia at the southern tip of the hemisphere to a final destination in Anchorage, Alaska. It took him five years to complete the 30,000-kilometer pro-environment journey through 11 countries that left nine million trees planted along his trail.