The economy bounced 20.6% in April compared to the same month last year, according to preliminary estimates by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
The rebound would be the highest annual growth for any month on record, and would see the economy break the negative streak of 20 consecutive months of dips.
The hit taken by the economy in April last year due to the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and the confinement measures that accompanied it was largely responsible for the extent of the increase.
Inegi predicts 22.4% growth for April as the most optimistic possible outcome and a worst case scenario of 18.6%.
The statistics body also details secondary and tertiary activities, which would also have a significant growth rate. The industrial sector could see 34.5% annual growth for April, while the services sector could show a recovery of 16.4%.
Gabriela Siller, director of financial analysis at Banco Base, said the historic growth rate is mainly a reflection of last year’s poor results. “It should be remembered that, in April 2020, economic indicators contracted 19.7% in annual terms, so the significant annual growth is mainly due to the low comparison base,” he said.
She added that the outlook is positive for continued growth into the second quarter, driven particularly by the recovery of the service sector, which was one of the most affected by the pandemic.
Mexico has consistently ranked high in the survey since it was first done in 2014.
For a second consecutive year, respondents to an expat survey have ranked Mexico as the second-best destination for people living and working abroad.
Conducted by InterNations – which bills itself as the world’s largest expat community – the seventh annual Expat Insider survey only ranks Taiwan as a more attractive destination than Mexico among 59 countries.
In a report on the survey, which polled more than 12,000 expats, InterNations noted that Mexico even rated as the best country for expats on the “Ease of Settling In” index.
The organization said 85% of expats find it easy to settle down in Mexico, 23% higher than the global average, and 78% say it is easy to make local friends, a 34% increase compared to the global average.
The survey report noted that one United States expat said “the culture and friendliness of the local people” was their favorite thing about living in Mexico.
In the different categories that contribute to the “Ease of Settling In,” Mexico ranked No. 1 for feeling at home and finding friends, No. 2 for friendliness and No. 9 for language, or ease of communication.
Out of the 59 countries included in the survey, Mexico ranked second on the “Personal Finance” index, fourth on the “Cost of Living” index, 22nd for “Working Abroad” and 31st on “Quality of Life.”
Four in five expats (80%) in Mexico are satisfied with their financial situation versus a 64% global average, InterNations said, while 90% said their disposable household income is enough or more than enough to cover their living expenses compared to 77% globally.
On the “Working Abroad” index, Mexico was dragged down by its 33rd ranking in the economy and job security category but ranked 10th for career prospects and satisfaction and 20th for work and leisure.
On the “Quality of Life” index, Mexico’s rankings of 51st for safety and security, 42nd for quality of the environment, 37th for travel and transportation and 34th for digital life ensured that it was not among the top countries.
Asked about security, one Irish expat remarked that he didn’t feel safe on the streets here. He was far from the only foreigner in Mexico with security concerns.
One-fifth of expats in Mexico who responded said they were concerned about their personal safety whereas the global average was 8%. Just over a quarter of expats – 27% – said they were unhappy with the water and sanitation infrastructure in Mexico compared to 12% globally.
Mexico did, however, rank first in the personal happiness category on the “Quality of Life” index– 89% of expats in Mexico said they are happy with their life in general – while it ranked second for leisure options.
More than nine in 10 Mexico expats said they liked the weather whereas the global average was significantly lower at 66%.
InterNations also asked survey respondents about the impact of Covid-19 on expat life, and just over half – 53% – said they were satisfied with official communications about the pandemic. However, the global average was 13 points higher at 66%.
Among those unsatisfied, 72% of respondents said the information offered by authorities was unclear, confusing or contradictory.
Mexico has been hit hard by the pandemic with more than 2.3 million confirmed cases and more than 220,000 officially recorded deaths. But that hasn’t put much of a dent, if any, in its attractiveness as a destination for expats, the survey indicates.
Mexico has ranked in the top five best destinations for expats since the first Expat Insider survey was conducted in 2014. It also ranked second last year while it placed fourth in both 2018 and 2019.
Costa Rica ranked as the third-best destination after Taiwan and Mexico, while Malaysia, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, Ecuador, Canada and Vietnam ranked fourth to 10th.
The worst destination for people living and working abroad among the 59 countries in the survey was Kuwait followed by Italy, South Africa, Russia, Egypt, Japan, Cyprus, Turkey, India and Malta.
Lidia Hernández, right, learned the art of making mezcal from her father, Juan.
A stiff wind tugs at the unmoving maguey plants in the Hernández’s front yard. The pit oven is smoldering slightly. When Lidia Hernández steps out the door of her house, she looks even younger than her 28 years. She’s petite and baby-faced, a giant cellphone sticking out of the back pocket of her jeans as she leads us to her family’s distillery at the edge of the highway in front of the house.
Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca, where Lidia lives, sees hundreds of visitors a year in its 150 mezcal distilleries, but it remains a traditional small town. To see a young woman running one of those family distilleries is still a shock for many of her neighbors.
“I ran into one of my neighbors in a cab once on the way to the city, and he said to me, ‘That’s man’s work you’re doing. Only men should be [making mezcal],’” Lidia says while sitting on a bench inside the distillery. “My dad never said anything like that to me.”
When she mentions him, she still can’t decide whether to use “is my father” or “was my father.” She’s still getting used to the sound of the words in her own mouth.
Her dad, Juan Hernández Méndez, age 56, died a few months ago from Covid.
Mezcal maker Lidia Hernández.
“It’s difficult,” she says, her face determined, her eyes soft with the pain. “Mostly because I miss him, you know? I never thought that my dad would die, that someday I would be without him. Sometimes I wonder why things happen. He was such a hardworking person, and I feel like he didn’t deserve it.”
Lidia’s father was a man always on the move, up at dawn to head out to the fields and always fiddling with one thing or another. He was a painter, a mezcalero, a farmer.
Married at 16, he built his distillery from the ground up, using five generations of mezcal-making knowledge that came before him in his family. Lidia describes him as meticulous, strict and an extremely hard worker.
“He only finished sixth grade, but he always had this wider vision. He wasn’t content to just do things the way they had always been done; he didn’t make excuses. He woke up every morning ready to work; that was most important,” she says.
Juan was proud of Lidia a year ago when she decided for the first time that she wanted to make her own mezcal. He had been training her in the family business since she was little. By 12 or 13, she and her two sisters, as well as her brother, all worked making mezcal, but she was the closest to her father and the most passionate about the work.
“I really loved the countryside from the time I was little. I think if I hadn’t liked it, I wouldn’t have been so close to him.”
The stone grinding wheel at Hernández’s distillery.
Now that she is carrying on the family tradition without him, she’s starting to understand her destiny in a different context. She is a woman, a young woman, now in charge of a family distillery in an extremely conservative town.
Her neighbors aren’t saying outright that they won’t work with her, but she can tell from their behavior.
“There are a few women [running distilleries], but that’s because they are widows. A woman that starts from nothing and becomes the owner? No. I tell them that my father died, and they are more understanding.”
It seems illogical that others don’t take her seriously. Even when her father was alive, Lidia was the one who would make the phone calls. She would go with him to purchase maguey. She would go out to fields to look over the plants and help him determine which to choose. Everyone knew who she was yet it made a difference that her father was by her side.
“One time I called a maguey grower a bunch of times to ask if he would bring me maguey,” she says of an incident that happened when she was first producing and her father was still alive. “He said yes, he would, but my dad told me ‘He won’t bring it to you.’ I asked why. He said, ‘Who knows? He just won’t believe you.’”
So when the maguey hearts didn’t arrive, she called again, and the grower said that he had brought them into town but sold the entire load to another mezcalero.
The Hernández family’s mezcal, Desde La Eternidad (From Eternity).
“Why, when I told you I wanted them?” Lidia asked him.
“Well, do you really want them?” he replied.
“Yes!” she said. “Of course I do!”
When he finally showed up the next morning, he asked her again if she was sure she wanted to buy the load.
“Of course,” she said, “Why don’t you believe me?”
“Truthfully,” he answered, “you’re the first woman who has ever bought anything from me. But I believe you now.”
Growing the magueys they’ll use to make mezcal.
She can chuckle about it now, but it’s obvious that in the short few months that she’s been in charge it’s been a struggle.
“In this town, it’s like women are supposed to be at home, cooking, making tortillas and that’s it. You shouldn’t go out and work, you should just stay home. And the men, you know they get together, have these little parties, meet up at a palenque and start drinking, come home late. And the wife isn’t supposed to say anything — the opposite: the men tell her, ‘Get up and make me something to eat.’”
Despite the struggle, Lidia, her younger sister Nayeli and her mother Hortensia are moving forward on their own. They have a small shop connected to the distillery where they sell their mezcal and a handful of other crafts. The space is a hodgepodge of items serving as their bottling room, labeling workshop and tasting room all in one.
Remnants of her father are all around: photos, mezcal bottles he painted, even his final corn harvest — still in the barn beside the house.
When people stop by and ask after her father, Lidia can’t always tell them what happened, preferring at times to say, ‘Sure, I’ll tell him you said hello.’ And her grief is often shoved aside by the awesome responsibility of running the distillery, which requires the constant care her father once provided. Without her mother and sister, she says, she wouldn’t be able to handle the work.
“This was my father’s great work,” says Lidia as we sit next to the massive stone grinder used to mash agave hearts. “I think to not continue would be to just abandon everything that he did, all his effort year after year; he doesn’t deserve that. For his legacy and his name, we have to continue.”
• To visit the Hernández family distillery, send Lidia a message on Instagram at @mezcal_desde_la_eternidad or through Whatapps at 951 364 6507, or you can send her an email at [email protected].
Lydia Carey is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.
Nonessential crossing from Mexico into the US will be disallowed for another month until at least June 21.
The restriction on nonessential land travel into the United States has been extended for another month, meaning that many Mexicans will be unable to cross the border until at least June 21.
United States Customs and Border Protection announced Monday that the ban on nonessential travel will remain in place until at least 11:59 p.m. on June 20.
United States citizens returning home and individuals traveling for medical or educational purposes or to conduct essential work in the U.S. are not affected.
The border has been closed to Mexicans wishing to travel to the U.S. for nonessential purposes such as tourism and shopping since March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. But the reverse is true for U.S. citizens who wish to travel to some northern states.
Mexico last month opened up nonessential land travel from the U.S. via border crossings in states that are low-risk green or medium-risk yellow on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map.
Five of Mexico’s six northern border states are either green or yellow on the current map, the only exception being Chihuahua, which is high-risk orange.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico and the US are “on the way to being able to regularize the situation” at the border.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Tuesday that United States authorities have decided not to reopen the border to nonessential travel until more people are vaccinated against Covid-19 in the U.S.
“They took the decision to extend the restrictions because they haven’t finished vaccination in the whole [border] area,” he told reporters at President López Obrador’s morning press conference.
“… Their judgment is to not open or lift the restrictions until the vaccination [process] ends; they’re already close to achieving it, in any case,” Ebrard said.
“… I would say that we’re on the way to being able to regularize the situation. … The vaccination reach they have, and which we are starting to have, would make it advisable to lift the restrictions soon,” the foreign minister said.
He said the federal government is confident that the United States will reach its goal of vaccinating more than 60% of the population by summer. “I don’t know the exact date, but we would like it to be soon,” Ebrard added.
The United States’ announcement that the ban on nonessential travel would remain in place comes amid growing impatience for the restrictions to be lifted.
The Texas Border Coalition, which represents cities from Brownsville to El Paso, wrote to United States Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas last Friday to urge the U.S. government to reopen land ports of entry to nonessential travelers.
“We believe it is time … to reopen our borders and allow for cross-border travelers to enter our communities. Common-sense measures such as personal protective equipment, a negative Covid-19 test, and proof of vaccination can make cross-border travel safe for our citizens, Customs and Border Protection personnel and travelers alike,” the letter said.
“… The ‘temporary’ limits have now lasted for more than 14 months. These restrictions have heavily paralyzed and devastated the economics of our border businesses and communities.”
Signed by several elected officials as well as business and community leaders, the letter noted that before the pandemic the economy of Texas border communities “relied on the influx of daily travelers from Mexico who acquire goods and services in the United States.”
“However, the current border travel restrictions have dramatically limited these travelers and the critical cross-border exchange of business and commerce, leaving local border economies shattered. The year-long exclusion of these customers is harming our local economies, especially our retail, dining, and hospitality sectors. Severely restricting cross-border travel in this way is not an effective long-term policy and causes disproportionate economic impact to border communities,” the letter added.
Henry Cuellar, a U.S. representative for Texas, also wrote to Secretary Mayorkas, asserting that “we must find a balance between the health of the individual and the health of the local economy.”
Mexico is a leader in the recycling of PET plastics, but falls behind in other measurements of recycling.
Fifty-six percent of all PET packaging sold is recycled, comparable to the European Union and far above figures for the United States, Brazil and Canada, according to the environmental NGO Ecoce.
However, the NGO says only 44% of the population separates its waste, and only one in 10 Mexicans recycle all the plastic they use, according to a study by a packaging producer.
That study, by Hi-Cone, asked respondents how they think recycling could be promoted: 75% believed that more recycling bins in public spaces, such as streets, parks and squares, would boost the practice and 72% recommended more centers to drop off reusable waste.
Sixty-five percent suggested that more facilities and services are needed from home, such as personal bins to separate waste or reusable waste collection.
The vice president of Hi-Cone, Shawn Welch, said Mexicans are disposed to act in favor of the environment, but the necessary infrastructure to support recycling of all types of waste is lacking.
He added that his organization is researching new solutions to increase recycling which would be workable for citizens, businesses and government authorities.
Mexicans generate 0.86 kilograms of solid waste per day, and dispose of more than 44 million tonnes per year as a whole, according to the Environment Ministry. That figure is expected to grow to 65 million tonnes by 2030.
The ministry also estimates that 38,351 tonnes per day of reusable waste, whether through recycling or energy production, was thrown out in 2020.
An orca makes an impressive leap after striking a dolphin.
An orca’s dramatic attack against a bottlenose dolphin on Sunday was captured on camera in the Sea of Cortés.
The video shows an orca launch itself five meters into the air in a vertical charge to collide with a dolphin, which is already unbalanced in mid-flight.
The dolphin, a fraction of the orca’s size, is thrown aside as the attacker continues its trajectory skyward, completing a graceful arc to the delight of onlookers.
Expressions of astonishment and excited shouts of “No way” can be heard immediately after the collision.
The event occurred after several boats had gathered to view an orca pod as it hunted dolphins.
The footage was caught by diver Miguel Cuevas of Cabo Pulmo Divers near Cabo Pulmo National Park, Baja California Sur. The dive center described the leap as an “amazing moment.”
From the same excursion, underwater footage shows a bottlenose dolphin being chased by the much larger orcas.
Cuevas said he estimated the height of the leap to be “four to five meters” and counted “at least 10 orcas,” all females. He added that the hunting lasted several hours and involved one kill.
Researchers have tried to obtain more information about the encounter, and to determine whether any males accompanied the pod.
Eastern tropical pacific orcas, or killer whales, prey largely on marine mammals and mobula rays, which are abundant in the Gulf of California. The orcas are known to express curiosity toward boaters and to occasionally surf in vessels’ wakes.
The name “killer whale” is a misnomer, in that killer whales are actually a type of dolphin.
The predators hunt in packs, and feed on other dolphins, seals, walruses and fish. They have been known to hunt down and kill minke whales, grey whales, sperm whales and even blue whales.
President López Obrador with China's ambassador to Mexico, Zhu Qingqiao, on Monday in Torreón.
President López Obrador offered an apology on Monday for a 1911 massacre in which more than 300 Chinese people were murdered by revolutionary troops and local residents in Torreón, Coahuila.
Speaking at a ceremony in the northern city, López Obrador said the objective of apologizing was to ensure “that this never, ever happens again.”
Accompanied by Chinese Ambassador Zhu Qingqiao, the president noted that the Torreón residents were brutally murdered during a period of anti-Chinese sentiment in Mexico. Their bodies were mutilated or hung from telegraph poles in some cases, he said.
Discrimination against Chinese people was based on “the most vile and offensive” stereotypes. “These stupid ideas were transferred to Mexico, where extermination was added to exclusion and mistreatment.”
Coahuila Governor Miguel Ángel Riquelme said racist ideas were “twisted into genocidal killings” during what he described as a “convulsive” time of history.
Many Chinese immigrants came to Mexico originally as laborers for the railways, then settled in places like Torreón.
The president’s apology came two weeks after he apologized to the Maya people of Mexico for what he described as five centuries of abuse committed by foreign and Mexican authorities and longstanding discrimination that continues to the present day.
As part of a year-long series of events to commemorate and apologize for past injustices, López Obrador said he also intends to make an apology to the indigenous Yaqui people of Sonora, who have long been victims of government abuse and discrimination.
His apology for the Torreón massacre, in which 303 Chinese men, women and children were killed, came just over 110 years after it occurred.
On May 13, 1911, revolutionary troops overran Torreón — then a booming railway town with lines running north to the United States — after outnumbered federal forces abandoned their positions following clashes on the town’s outskirts.
The revolutionary soldiers proceeded to indiscriminately murder Torreón’s Chinese residents during an occupation that sealed the fate of then president Porfirio Díaz: the long-serving dictator resigned shortly after the takeover and went into exile.
Many Chinese people came to Mexico in the 1800s to laborers, many working on projects to expand the country’s railroads. In Torreón, Chinese immigrants set up businesses and farms, opened a bank and built a tram line to the nearby city of Gómez Palacio, Durango.
As the troops entered the city, the revolutionary forces were joined by thousands of local residents who were opposed to the presence of Chinese people, believing that they were taking jobs from Mexicans and keeping wages low. Some Mexicans were also jealous of the Chinese community’s economic success, according to the Associated Press.
An article by the newspaper The Guardian told of a herb seller who was said to have clutched a Mexican flag and yelled, “Let’s kill the Chinese!” shortly after the revolutionary troops arrived in Torreón. A commander of the revolutionary forces, Benjamín Argumedo, is believed to have given the order to kill residents of Chinese ethnicity.
“Over the next 10 hours, the mob sacked Chinese-owned businesses, looted the Chinese bank and dragged their Chinese neighbors by their distinctive braids, trampling them to death with horses,” The Guardian said.
The bodies of the dead were taken out of the city in horse-drawn carts and buried in mass graves. Like most racial killings, the Associated Press reported, the massacre was fueled by suspicion, hatred, fear, envy and lies.
A significant portion of Torreón’s Chinese community was killed, although some were able to hide or were protected by sympathetic Mexicans. A local lumberyard owner provided shelter to some residents, The Guardian said.
The revolutionary government of Francisco Madero, who became president in late 1911, agreed to pay compensation for the massacre — one of the most vicious manifestations of the wave of anti-Chinese racism that swept across North America in the 19th and early 20th century — but Madero was ousted and killed in 1913, and the reparations were never paid.
After the 1911 massacre, bodies of the murdered Chinese residents of Torreón were taken in carts to mass graves.
Nobody was held accountable for the massacre, and today there are no monuments commemorating the tragedy.
“A commemorative plaque was swiftly stolen. A statue erected in a public park in 2007 was vandalized and later removed but will be restored to a public plaza,” The Guardian reported.
Historian Monica Cinco Basurto told the Associated Press that there were many other acts of violence toward Chinese people in Mexico. She said that the looting of Chinese-owned businesses continued into the 1930s in northern Mexico and many Chinese people were expelled from the country even though some had Mexican citizenship, Mexican wives and Mexican-born children.
More than a century after the massacre, Torreón today has a Chinese population of about 1,000 people, and there are also Chinese communities in many other parts of Mexico. Many survivors of the 1911 violence fled Torreón, but some later returned to the city.
The killings and mistreatment of Chinese people in Mexico caused anger in China, but the relations between Beijing and Mexico City are cordial today. The two countries have in fact grown closer as the result of the assistance China has provided Mexico during the coronavirus pandemic.
At yesterday’s event, Ambassador Zhu said the shipments of more than 10 million Covid-19 vaccines and medical equipment China has sent to Mexico “have left a strong imprint on the history of relations between our two countries.”
For his part, López Obrador said that Mexico “will never forget the brotherhood of the Chinese during the bitter and anguishing months of the pandemic.”
Designer Avelino Roque with Miss Universe and her costume.
Artisan tradition played a part in Andrea Meza’s triumph at the 69th Miss Universe pageant on Sunday, who caught the eye of judges with a striking Oaxaca-inspired national costume.
Avelino Roque Osorio, 25, from San Juan Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, created the alebrije outfit, which paid homage to his region and the brightly colored fantastical wooden sculptures produced there.
The 100,000-peso outfit (around US $5,050) took five months to produce, weighs 40 kilograms and features feathers, crystals of different sizes and colored fabrics.
The costume’s crown displays the horned head of a dragon-like mythical creature, and bears wings which were designed in the form of a backpack and tied with a harness for Meza’s comfort.
“After so much time working on a piece that has marked my life, tomorrow is the competition of national costumes at Miss Universe. I’m really excited to finally see it on the international stage worn by Andrea Meza, [winner of] Mexicana Universal … Just being there is already my greatest triumph,” Roque said before the competition.
Miss Universe in her alebrije-inspired costume.
He added that artisanship inspired the design. “Dreams do come true. The alebrije is a celebration, the culture and tradition of Mexico. Craftsmanship completely made by hand by Mexican artisans is what inspired me to give life to the national costume that will represent Mexico at Miss Universe,” he said.
After the coronation Roque went out through the streets of Tuxtepec to wave a Mexican flag. Neighbors shouted and applauded the news amid the sound of horns.
Roque earned the opportunity to design the costume after competing against other designers in the Mexicana Universal contest. The piece was made by a team which included embroiderer Araceli Arriaga.
Balamku’s main area, called the Central Group, is entered via a beautiful arch.
The archaeological zone of Balamku in the state of Campeche holds one of the largest and perhaps the most beautiful surviving stucco friezes from the ancient Maya world.
Situated 245 kilometers from Campeche city, off Highway 186, the site is hidden in the jungles and attracts few visitors. On our trip, we had the site to ourselves.
Balamku is near the famous Bat Volcano — a cave that houses millions of bats — and is also close to other ancient Maya sites, including Calakmul.
Discovered only in 1990 by archaeologist Florentino García Cruz when investigating a looting complaint, Balamku is Yucatec Mayan for jaguar temple — so named for the jaguar featured on its frieze. It is commonly known today as the Temple of the Jaguar.
Balamku is thought to have been occupied from 600 B.C. to A.D. 1000. In its early days, the city was influenced by Maya cities in the Petén — the northern Guatemalan region bordering Mexico and Belize — such as Tikal, El Mirador and Calakmul.
Balamku’s frieze was created during A.D. 550–650.
Post A.D. 600, it displayed similarities to Becán — the Maya capital of the Río Bec region. Ancient architecture enthusiasts can observe different building styles here.
The archaeological zone is relatively small, extending to only one square kilometer, with three main groups of buildings. There is a small museum at the entrance, as well as helpful historic information notices from The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) on the site.
The lush green and tranquil surroundings make exploring the buildings a pleasant experience, especially in the summer heat of Campeche. Climbing structures is generally allowed.
West of the entrance is the South Group with 13 structures built around four plazas. This area is thought to have been occupied from around 300 B.C, but ceramics from 600–300 B.C. have been discovered here. The most significant structures were built during A.D. 300–600 before the site was abandoned around A.D. 1000.
Remains of incense burners from A.D. 1200–1500 were also discovered here, indicating rituals carried out later, and so this section is thought to have been reoccupied briefly around A.D. 1200.
The group’s main pyramid, which has a temple on top, measures around 10 meters in height. Two elite tombs were discovered here. Southeast of the main pyramid is an elite residential building constructed on a platform with a bench inside. The northern section of the group, identified as residential buildings, is also worth seeing.
Entrance to the substructure pyramid.
Balamku’s main area — called the Central Group — has an entrance through a beautiful arch from the south. This area has about 30 buildings, mostly monumental, situated around three plazas. Archaeologists have still only explored around one plaza.
Northwest is the Structure I pyramid, and perhaps Balamku’s most significant building, where the famous polychrome stucco frieze was discovered. It’s a long building of three pyramids joined together, with a possible astronomical purpose, and a temple on top.
The west pyramid is the oldest of the three. The substructure of the west pyramid, considered a palace, holds the frieze. You can enter this building from the west.
You will be mesmerized by this well-preserved frieze that measures 16.6 meters long and around 4.3 meters in combined height. Created during A.D. 550–650, it was initially exposed due to the severe looting of the site. INAH says the frieze depicts four scenes of ascension with three jaguars. Each scene has an animal seated with its head turned back on the front opening of the Earth Monster mask and a king on a throne over the monster’s mouth.
The area of the frieze up to the palace roof is said to represent the underworld, and hence, entering the building is like entering the fabled land of the dead. The section from the roof to the heads of the characters is said to represent the surface of the Earth, and the image of the Maya sun god — Kinich Ahau — in one of the headdresses is linked to the celestial level.
The masks and the jaguars are said to represent the wealth of Earth, with the amphibian depicting the transition between the two worlds. Furthermore, the scenes, with their spectacularly detailed designs, are considered to compare the dynastic cycle with the solar cycle: the king emerging from the Earth Monster’s mouth, and the king’s death by falling into the monster’s mouth are linked to the sunrise and the sunset, respectively.
This section of the frieze depicts scenes involving Maya rulers.
You will have a glimpse of a Maya pyramid interior from here. Inside the building is refreshing, and there are tunnel-like openings below the frieze, which are cordoned off to visitors, unfortunately.
There are other buildings to explore around the excavated plaza of the Central Group, and one of the unexcavated plazas includes a ball court. Archaeologists have mapped the North Group of the site comprising six plazas and several buildings. This section is also yet to be excavated, however.
Thilini Wijesinhe, a financial professional turned writer and entrepreneur, moved to Mexico in 2019 from Australia. She writes from Mérida, Yucatán. Her website can be found at https://momentsing.com/
A desalination plant will be built in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, to solve a drinking water shortage.
Spanish infrastructure conglomerate Acciona will manage the project and invest €134.5 million (around US $165 million) in the public-private scheme, with construction expected to take 24 months.
The plant will benefit 464,000 residents, producing 250 liters of drinking water per second, equivalent to seven million cubic meters per year.
Acciona will be responsible for design, financing and construction as well as operational testing and maintenance for 25 years.
Construction will be carried out by a consortium of Acciona’s water branch and Mexican infrastructure company La Peninsular Compañía Constructora.
Acciona is involved in a number of other public projects. It worked with Grupo México on the Maya Train between Playa del Carmen and Tulum in Quintana Roo and a sewage plant in Atotonilco, Hidalgo, as well as various highway construction projects and a hospital.
In April Acciona began the construction of a similar desalination plant in Dubai.
Its plants use reverse osmosis technology rather than conventional thermal desalination, which emits six times less greenhouse gas, leaving a lighter carbon footprint.
