A new photographic exhibit in Guadalajara showcases the struggle of activists, biologists, botanists, anthropologists – and especially ordinary people in the community – to defend and conserve the remains of a great forest which once stretched from Tesistan to the Huentitan Canyon.

I used to avoid balnearios (public swimming pools) with a passion, but recently I was invited to join a team of University of Guadalajara geographers investigating all of the hot springs around the old Primavera Caldera. To my surprise, I discovered that some balnearios have more to offer than noisy boomboxes and screaming kids.

Members of six Guadalajara families gathered together on June 14 to hike along the 2.2-kilometer “Nature Trail” laid out by rangers in the Primavera Forest. All members of the group were carrying bombs, but not the sort that cause destruction.

The Bosque la Primavera, the extensive flora and fauna reserve lying directly west of the Guadalajara metropolitan area, could be transformed into a geopark and become a candidate for membership in Unesco’s highly esteemed Global Geoparks Network (GGN). 

El Bosque de Quila is a federal protected area located 75 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara and covering 15,000 square kilometers. Quila abounds in ordinary pines, Lumholtz’s pines, oaks, and madroños (strawberry trees), which are sometimes packed together so densely that nothing grows beneath the tree cover. This forest has numerous rivers, 11 delightful waterfalls and is also famous for its massive monoliths over 100 meters tall.

Our mission last Sunday was nothing less than to locate and measure the biggest natural fossil fumarole pipe in the Primavera Forest – and (for all I know) in the entire world. Mr. Guinness, be advised: we found it!