Part 1: May, 1997 – Can Mexico’s Largest Lake be Saved? Part 2: March, 2000 – The State of The Lake. Part 4: May 2002 – Lake Chapala–Fish Farm, Farmland or Bungee Jump? Part 5: April 2003 – A review of “The Lerma-Lake Chapala watershed: evaluation and management” In recent months, an increasing number of […]
Continue ReadingJuan Mata Ortíz is a small village of potters, farmers and cowboys in Northern Chihuahua. About 30 years ago, an unschooled artistic genius, Juan Quezada, taught himself how to make earthenware jars in a method used hundreds of years ago by the prehistoric inhabitants. Now, his works are known worldwide and over 300 men, women […]
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State Map Link The city of Zacatecas in northern Mexico is not only a veritable labyrinth of winding streets but also a fascinating labyrinth of artistic and cultural treasures. Built between hills and on steep slopes, Zacatecas (the name is derived from zacatl = grass and tecatl = people) is one of the few Mexican […]
Continue ReadingAn entire island has been constructed, not by Bob the Builder, but by Richie the Recycler! Amazing but true: off the coast of Quintana Roo, Richie Sowa has painstakingly constructed an entire island, on which he now lives, out of more than 200,000 plastic bottles! A former carpenter from Middlesbrough, England, Richie has spent more […]
Continue ReadingMexico Notes There is the most yellow of yellow butterflies stuck under our windshield wiper. A piece of the sun, moving with us towards the border, flapping in the wind. Journal, June 16 Xilitla exit, on our way home. Niñas dressed in pleated skirts and white blouses emerge from the jungle on their way to school. […]
Continue ReadingMexico Notes It is like a scene from a Fellini movie. Shrieking laughter of women. French music from a boom box. Chop chop chop of a machete. And we, hunkered down in our sleeping bags. Journal, June 13 We exit San Miguel de Allende, travel up and out of town past movie complexes, shopping […]
Continue ReadingMexico Notes The Anglos of San Miguel remind me of the frog that happily swims round and round in a pot of cold water, brought so slowly to a boil, that he doesn’t recognize his demise until it’s too late. They still live in “cool” San Miguel, and fail to register the rising destruction of […]
Continue ReadingMexico Notes– part 6 But to me, a dreamer of dreams, to whom what is and what seems are often one and the same, the bells of San Blas to me have a strange wild melody, and are something more than a name. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Bells of San Blas San Blas squats at […]
Continue ReadingMexico Notes – part 4 This morning the church bell rang at 5:15. One lonely ring. A pause. And all hell broke loose. Clang, clang, clang-edy clang. Clang. Clang-edy. Clang. Pause. One ring. No obvious rhyme or reason in this place at the end of the road. Journal, Mayo 25 I sit and watch. Under the […]
Continue ReadingMexico Notes – part 5 Breathless foam Starfish-laden scaly crest of wave Balloons of stinging jellyfish The crush of birth called beach. Journal, Mayo 27, 2003 We headed southwest, towards the ocean, through gargantuan agri-business fields and tractors to rival my Iowa birthplace. As boring as this was, I was glad to be gone from […]
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