Columns

Large wild animals need space to roam, to find food and mates. Highways limit this space and can result in the slow “strangulation” of certain species, without mentioning the thousands of animals of all sizes that are killed simply trying to cross the road.

Some years ago I wrote a manuscript for a book to be called “Teach Your Way Around the World,” based on my experiences as an itinerant English teacher, moving from country to country offering conversation classes and deriving great satisfaction from the experience.

Forty internationally recognized experts on trade in endangered flora and fauna gathered in Guadalajara last week for a four-day Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) workshop directed toward the plight of Mexican tarantulas.

Guadalajara artist Jorge Monroy has completed another outstanding mural. Like his two previous works, this one is also located on the campus of the University of Guadalajara Medical School.

Head north out of Guadalajara too rapidly and you might find yourself flying through the air and falling 500 meters into La Barranca de Huentitán!

Last May I related in this column my numerous and colorful encounters with scorpions (such as discovering them on my bath towel or inside my pajamas), adding, happily, that after 32 years of living, hiking and camping in Mexico I had never been stung by a scorpion.