Canadian Sylvia Rempel of Sewing Seeds International (SSI) has set up a sewing school in the Volcanes neighborhood of Puerto Vallarta, with classes due to begin this month.

Wildlife management specialist Rodrigo Migoya likes to recall a crisis that occurred in 2000, the year after the group he founded, Niños y Crías (Kids and Critters), began banding flamingoes in coastal wetlands near the city where he lives, Mérida, in Yucatán, an area he calls “the most important breeding site for flamingoes” and crucial to their wellbeing worldwide.

Before dawn on a cold winter’s morning in a field outside of Guadalajara, a row of young people file past a bonfire and throw tobacco into the flames. The women wear long flowing dresses, while the men are shirtless and shiver silently in the dark.

Time is of the essence, given that I was only in Guadalajara for a month. One of the things on my to-do list was to visit some of the city’s much-praised museums. So when the editor of this newspaper informed me that some museums are free to visit on a Tuesday, we decided that I would take on the “Guadalajara museum challenge.”

In Mexico, humorously captioning photos has become something of an art form. Social media in 2014 was buzzing with these internet memes, which are spread virally online via Facebook and Twitter, or through instant messaging service WhatsApp. 

With great pride the Guadalajara Reporter celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2014.  A lot of water has passed under the bridge since, but one thing remains constant: the expatriate community is still undertaking good works to make life more cheerful for those in need in their adopted country.