Columnist John Pint chats with the prolific writer about how he fell in love with Mexico, Chapala’s 19th-century tourism industry and more.
Stories by John Pint
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Hair-raising drive to San Pedro Analco thrills as much as the destination
With a precipitous drop, landslides and very narrow tunnels, the road to this Jalisco mine town demands four-wheel drive and steady nerves.
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Town’s innovative water treatment plant is so simple, its residents can run it
A scientist helped residents of Atequizayán, Jalisco, find a more viable option than their expensive-to-maintain government-built facility.
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Meat mogul’s low-cost medical testing labs fill gap for Mexico’s uninsured
Millionaire and former Sinaloa senator Jesús Vizcarra was inspired to create the affordable clinics after his son suffered a brain hemorrhage.
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‘Hot fudge’ caves in a tiny Jalisco town feature big surprises
Chocolate-colored stalactites and eye-popping wildlife make this tricky-to-enter cavern system and its unassuming entrance worth finding.
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A former Jalisco hacienda is a veritable garden of Eden
Idyllic Hacienda de San Antonio del Potrero has sat near Tequila, Jalisco. since 1785, but it’s hard to find a tequileño who’s heard of it.
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Museum spotlights Catrina creator’s art as well as life under the Porfiriato
Its collection of 3,000 works by the artist José Guadalupe Posada provides useful context for understanding this period in Mexican history.
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Artisan forges beauty, utility from waste on the forest floor
A crafts class 15 years ago and a leap of faith transformed Marina Bañuelos from a busy workaday mom into Jalisco’s queen of pine needle art.
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Idyllic water park nestled in nature began with 300 pesos and a dream
Don Salvador loved the El Manto waterfall near his Nayarit hometown so much as a boy that as an adult, he turned it into his life’s work.
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Green vistas, big cats, caves make Sierra Lalo’s secrets worth the search
The 240,000 hectares of this remote Jalisco locale features wildlife, stalactite-filled caverns and a scary ghost story to tell back home.
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If Pancho Villa fought the Revolution today, he’d do so as José Arango
What’s in a name? When you’re a foreigner living in Mexico and dealing with Mexican bureaucracy? Quite a lot, it turns out.
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Guadalajara residents stop waiting and clean a toxic river with eggshells
Fed up with government inaction on Jalisco’s contaminated Santiago River, locals are trying a cleanup plan so simple, it just might work.
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Distillery’s tequila methods traditional yet also innovative, sustainable
Agave Azul’s owners proudly say that making tequila the old-fashioned way handed down through generations needn’t harm the environment.
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At Dolphin Beach, it’s just pristine sands, lush jungle, racoons and you
Who hasn’t dreamed of a deserted beach where you can spot dolphins? With easy highway access, this paradise is worth a bit of searching.
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Guadalajara’s ‘dog whisperer’ takes canines from cantankerous to content
Using the body language of mother dogs and their pups, Guillermo Ortiz says he can transform even difficult pets into happy pack members.
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Exhibit sheds light on life and rituals of Jalisco’s ancients
During the Postclassic period, the life-and-death struggle for rain drove Jalisco’s Huicholes to carve entreaties to the sun god into stone.
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The tale of ‘The Third Guadalajara,’ located in the middle of nowhere
A mesa north of the city hosts a curious monument to the Spanish colonials’ third attempt to found a version of Jalisco’s capital today.
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20 years after its discovery, mysterious Naica Crystal Cave still astonishes
Despite 50-degree Celsius conditions, scientists were fascinated by the site’s giant crystals and microbes unlike any others known on Earth.
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Beautiful beaches, curious customs and magical mangroves await in San Blas
This idyllic coastal Nayarit community offers sand, surfing and boat rides through an extraordinary jungle-like estuary with exotic wildlife.
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Artist’s eye-catching murals a dramatic addition to Jalisco’s public spaces
Jorge Monroy, whose pieces hang in government buildings throughout the state, just unveiled new work at the Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce.
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In Guadalajara, civilians step in to create needed wildlife rescue centers
Area advocates are giving injured, trafficked and abandoned wild animals a place to go after federal shelters were closed down.
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An 1800s mechanic who ‘could fix anything’ left his mark on a Jalisco city
He was so renowned in his city that the street where a grateful textile manufacturer once gave him a free home is named after him.
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Let your imagination run wild at Villa Felicidad’s stone fairyland
Ancient volcanic ash flow likely gave Villa Felicidad fascinating fumaroles — rock structures that look like columns, tree stumps, and more.
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An 1800s mansion once for Mexico’s elites now endures time’s ravages
Jalisco’s La Florida, a wealthy family’s 1800s vacation home, once hosted President Porfirio Díaz and was the site of Mexico’s first movies.
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Mexico’s popular homeopathic remedies: are they placebo powered?
After his conventional doctor gave up on a recurring salmonella infection, John Pint, tried chochos pills. The results were surprising.
