Pilgrims gather at the new image of the virgin in México state.
Faithful Catholics have been flocking to a repaired pothole in Nezahualcóyotl, México state, which residents say bears a miraculous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
According to neighbors, the image appeared on December 9 soon after the pothole was filled for the second time in a row.
The date is holy for Mexican Catholics for it is the day the virgin is said to have first appeared in Mexico, in 1531, to an indigenous man known as Juan Diego.
Benito Juárez residents told the newspaper El Universal that the pothole had been left unrepaired for two years, but then workers showed up to repair it last week. When traffic caused the hole to reopen, a worker came by a second time to fix the hole. That evening, neighbors say, the image of the virgin appeared on the fresh concrete.
Local resident Beatriz Noriega Ramírez was one of a group of neighbors who taped off the site and surrounded it with candles and flowers in tribute.
Residents say they feel blessed that the image appeared in their neighborhood.
“News is already circulating about the appearance of [the virgin] and people have begun to arrive to say prayers,” she said. “Even sick people have been asking from their cars to be healed.”
Catholics just marked the Virgin of Guadalupe’s feast day on Saturday. Her basilica, in a zone of the city known as Villa Guadalupe, usually attracts 8–10 million visitors in the days leading up to December 12. However, this year police-manned barricades kept all but locals from accessing the streets near the basilica on Friday and Saturday. All church activities on both days at the basilica were canceled to discourage large crowds.
Neighbors of the new virgin told reporters that they felt blessed to have Mexico’s most beloved holy figure make an appearance in their neighborhood.
“In these such difficult pandemic times, it’s a message that the virgin is with us,” said a visibly emotional resident.
A special office will be set up within that of the president to protect Mexican migrants who travel home to visit.
President López Obrador announced the opening of the office during Monday’s press conference, explaining that visiting Mexicans — whom he hailed as “citizen heroes” — will be protected from criminal activity and abuse.
“A support program has been initiated for the protection of our countrymen, but it is going to be reinforced” with an office in the National Palace, he said.
“They are going to be reporting to me daily because in this office they are going to coordinate all support and protection for our countrymen so they are not abused, so they are not victims of assault, that they are not victims of extortion. I will give instructions to the National Guard so that, from the moment that arrive and clear customs, they will be given protection and support …”
López Obrador called on all public servants “to act with rectitude and honesty” because no abuse against migrants will be allowed.
Immigration chief Francisco Garduño said the migrants who return to their homes during the December holidays will be given “privileged attention.”
The president has expressed praise for migrants in the past for their remittances, money that represents Mexico’s largest source of foreign income.
In the first 10 months of the year they sent home US $33.56 billion, up 10% from the same period last year. BBVA research, a division of the Spanish-based financial services firm, estimates that this year’s total will reach $39.4 billion, an 8% year-over-year increase.
Anti-narcotics co-operation between the U.S. and Mexico could be set back three decades if Mexico’s lower house of Congress approves a bill limiting the activities of “foreign agents,” including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
William Barr, the U.S. attorney-general, has warned that the bill — which passed the Senate on December 9 and was expected to be approved by the lower house before it breaks for Christmas on Tuesday — “can only benefit the violent transnational criminal organizations and other criminals that we are jointly fighting.”
President López Obrador has defended the bill, saying that it affirms Mexican sovereignty. No clear legal framework regulating co-operation with agents of other governments exists, and it is time to “put things in order,” he said.
Some see the legislation as retaliation for the arrest in October of Salvador Cienfuegos, a retired general and former defence minister in Mexico, on drug trafficking charges at the DEA’s request.
Mexico was not tipped off, sparking outrage in the army, which is a key ally of the populist president. Mexico last month secured the general’s release after intense diplomatic pressure in which it reportedly threatened to expel the DEA.
The new rules would require the agency to hand all intelligence gathered in Mexico to the Mexican authorities. Experts said that would devastate joint anti-narcotics efforts.
“If we pass sensitive information, because of endemic corruption it’s going to get leaked to criminal organizations — it’s happened time and time again,” said Mike Vigil, a former head of international operations at the DEA. “This [information sharing] is not going to happen.”
In addition, the DEA’s counterparts in Mexico would have to report the content of every contact, and agents could be stripped of diplomatic immunity if charged with a crime.
“Who’s going to take your call if they have to write a report every time they talk to you?” Vigil said.
“A lot of the information we provide to the Mexican government or Mexican security forces is tactical — for example, a truck coming from Veracruz with a load of cocaine going to Tijuana,” he added. “[Now] they’re not going to take your call — the vast majority of tactical information is going to go into the toilet.”
Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on security at the Brookings Institution, called it a “game-stopper” if passed and a headache that could lead to strained relations with the incoming U.S. administration under Joe Biden, the president-elect.
Felbab-Brown: ‘The U.S. will interpret this as hostile.’
“I think it will produce real difficulties with the Biden administration,” she added. “The U.S. will interpret this as a hostile relationship which seeks to undermine U.S.-Mexican co-operation on crime.”
The DEA had no immediate comment.
Barr said the U.S. was “troubled” by the bill, and believed it would hinder co-operation. “This would make the citizens of Mexico and the United States less safe,” he said.
Since 2008, Mexico and the U.S. have stepped up security co-operation under the so-called Mérida Initiative, under which Washington has supplied military hardware and helped strengthen law enforcement and prosecution.
López Obrador has taken a largely non-confrontational approach to drug cartels under a “hugs not bullets” strategy, even though Mexico is set to see a record number of murders this year.
His credibility came under fire after he went out of his way to greet the mother of jailed Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán this year.
That happened a few months after López Obrador ordered the release of Ovidio Guzmán, one of Guzmán’s sons, whose bungled arrest for extradition to the U.S. triggered a fierce firefight.
López Obrador has said he wants to “reorient the Mérida Initiative completely, because it hasn’t worked.” He said he would prefer to spend the money on development instead.
This bill could be the nail in the coffin. “If it goes through, it will really end U.S.-Mexican [security] collaboration as it exists and return it to the freezer of the early 1990s after the fallout from the Kiki Camarena affair,” said Felbab-Brown, referring to the kidnap, torture and murder in 1985 of DEA agent Enrique Camarena by a cartel in Mexico.
Damián Zepeda, a senior figure in the opposition National Action Party, called the bill a “tantrum” over Gen. Cienfuegos’s arrest. Many security analysts believe Mexico’s promise to investigate the general after his return from the U.S. is hollow.
Although both countries have a stake in the fight against powerful cartels, Vigil said Mexico had the most to lose from the bill since high-profile captures relied heavily on U.S. intelligence, and “we would try to provide on-the-job training in surveillance and techniques they weren’t well versed in.”
“This is nothing more than Mexico shooting itself in the foot,” he said.
It’s only about 20 miles from Tijuana to San Diego, yet the distance between the two cities has sometimes seemed impassable over the centuries.
One reason for this is the perception that San Diego has historically looked down upon Tijuana as a “Sin City” where Americans, including San Diegans, could drink illegal hooch during Prohibition or where Hollywood stars could get a quickie divorce.
Yet increasingly, voices in both cities are looking to foster mutual respect and understanding — including in the border region between the metro areas.
This is the premise of El Tercer País. San Diego and Tijuana: Two Countries, Two Cities, One Community, a new book by Silicon Valley-based journalist and author Michael Malone. Examining the Tijuana-San Diego relationship over time, Malone finds that it is shifting in surprising ways, resulting in a complex, nuanced portrait as the cities learn to work together across the border. The space between the cities, and the human interactions within this space, is what gives rise to the book’s title — The Third Country in English.
In the tercer país of the Tijuana-San Diego border, a half-million people cross legally each day, Malone said. Americans might come for a procedure at a skyscraper hospital that is part of Tijuana’s world-leading medical tourism industry. Mexicans might come to shop at the Mall of the Americas on the San Diego side.
These interactions result in stereotype-shattering statistics: more Mexicans shop on the American side than vice versa, and Tijuana — once a ranch village — now has more residents than its northern neighbor.
Malone notes that Tijuana and San Diego are “so close, they’re starting to bump into one another,” adding that this might literally be true at the Mall of the Americas: “I think one of the high-end retail stores … its wall almost touches the border wall … It’s how close the city of San Diego and its suburbs are pushing [to Tijuana]. They’re becoming a contiguous place.”
A tercer país is “the ultimate theme of the book,” Malone said, predicting “conversations between cities around the world on opposite sides of a border about the level of interaction … A common cause develops. They’ll be sharing best practices, teaching best practices, [becoming] interdependent … You’re going to see more of the model of a third country for two big metro areas.”
Malone’s previous nonfiction books include explorations of business, such as The HP Way and The Intel Trinity. In El Tercer País, business is among the factors helping to unite the borderlands. San Diegans, finding their home airport (San Diego International) too cramped, are increasingly turning to Tijuana International Airport as a more user-friendly option. Malone also praises outreach-oriented civic leaders such as Jose Galicot of Tijuana and Malin Burnham of San Diego.
A conversation with Galicot resulted in the book. Galicot asked Malone to write a book about the Tijuana-San Diego relationship as a feature of the 2020 Tijuana Innovadora event. Malone accepted but encountered challenges, including a time frame of six months and a relative lack of source material.
“There have been books about the history of Tijuana and books about the history of San Diego, but none [about] them in relation to each other,” he said.
He sought the perspective of individuals who helped shape this relationship, crediting his editor Cheryl Dumesnil with doing many of the interviews. Those who shared insights included former Mexican foreign minister Jose Antonio Meade and former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, who teamed up to write the foreword.
For the beginnings of the cities’ relationship, Malone had to turn much further back in time — first to Spanish beginnings in the New World, then to Mexican independence and the Mexican-American War, ended by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The U.S. originally wished to take not only San Diego as part of the Mexican cession, but also Tijuana. Although Mexico kept Tijuana, the final treaty was nevertheless a bitter loss of territory.
In the 20th century, more promising interactions developed between Tijuana and San Diego. An early example paradoxically took place during another conflict — the Mexican Revolution, when government and revolutionary forces clashed in the Battle of Tijuana in May 1911. Civilians fled Tijuana for San Diego, where they joined Americans watching as Mexican insurrectionists — aided by some volunteers from the U.S. — defeated the federal forces.
The 1920s inaugurated what Malone called the dark years when San Diegans and other Americans traveled to Tijuana to indulge in pursuits that were forbidden up north.
“Prohibition kind of introduced the idea of Tijuana becoming Sin City,” Malone said. “San Diego was happy to export all of its societal ills to Tijuana.”
As bars opened for thirsty tourists, Tijuana also became notorious for brothels, bullrings and organized crime, Malone said. However, the city had its breaking point. During World War II, San Diego became an Allied maritime hub, and sailors and soldiers stationed there headed south for wild nights in Tijuana before shipping out to the Pacific. The Marines once reportedly got so rowdy that they were expelled for a time.
Author Michael Malone: the two cities are creating a model for other border cities.
In peacetime, the inter-city relationship became more promising, with Americans venturing south not for bars and booze but for family vacations on the new highway system. Later in the 20th century, prominent San Diegans and Tijuanenses started major attempts at outreach — including a now-legendary dinner about three decades ago.
Malone cited this gathering, along with complementary, decades-long work by the University of California, San Diego, as an attempt to “begin to try to create a regional conversation.”
As the conversation increased, including in the San Diego Dialogue, so did the challenges. Malone details the international free trade talks between Mexico and the U.S. that resulted in NAFTA, the rise of the maquiladora system, the challenges of undocumented immigration and the rise of the drug cartels, as well as the environmental impacts of smog and water usage.
These challenges, he says, continue to be addressed by civic leaders who have helped raise awareness and cooperation among their respective national governments.
Yet the statistics remain grim in Tijuana: it leads the world in the per-capita murder rate and it has the highest number of femicides in Mexico.
“The cartels keep trying to take over Tijuana; the opportunities there kind of ebb and flow,” Malone said. “I’m pretty optimistic Tijuana will win.” He noted, “I know there’s an enormous amount of cooperation with the U.S. police, the San Diego police, the Chula Vista police, the Border Patrol.”
This year has witnessed the additional, unprecedented challenge of Covid-19. The pandemic initially resulted in Mexico shutting down its border with the U.S. to prevent infected Americans from entering; now, with the pandemic worsening in Mexico, it is the U.S. that has closed off its border, Malone said.
Turning to another major issue of this year, the U.S. presidential election and its aftermath, Malone predicts that the Biden administration will find it hard to stop momentum toward a border wall and that a push for open borders might encounter resistance from both Americans and Mexicans.
Amid the changes of 2020, Malone envisions that Tijuana and San Diego will continue their progress toward a precedent-setting model.
“I’m optimistic about the future,” he said. “The two cities represent the way the world is going to go.”
The Ministry of Agriculture is warning people diagnosed with Covid-19 to take measures to prevent exposing their pets to the coronavirus after documenting five cases of dogs testing positive in Mexico City and México state.
The latest was on Thursday, involving a Dachshund in the Mexico City borough of Iztacalco.
Four of the dogs diagnosed, two of which live in the same home, had been around people who were diagnosed with the disease, the ministry said.
“The pets did not present serious symptoms of the illness, although they had direct contact with infected humans,” ministry officials said Thursday.
The ministry learned of the first case of an infected canine on April 27, involving two dogs in Mexico City. Another case on August 13 involved a 5-year-old dog in the Mexico City borough of Cuauhtémoc. The other case, a Siberian Husky, was reported in the municipality of Cuautitlán, México state.
To date, the ministry has also attended to calls from the public in 12 states about 25 suspected cases involving dogs, cats and even a tiger.
Ministry officials emphasized that the World Health Organization has determined that pets can come down with the coronavirus after exposure to infected humans, and that the world health body has recommended isolation measures for pets when there is a case of Covid infection in the household.
The ministry is suggesting a series of recommendations directed at Mexico’s pet owners and veterinarians to prevent more cases. The suggestions include that dog owners avoid dog parks and other public places where canines and humans interact, always use a leash with dogs when outdoors and maintain a safe distance with other people and dogs. Cat owners should keep their cats indoors.
The ministry also suggests isolating infected persons from pets and wearing masks and washing one’s hands before approaching animals in the household. Vets were advised to make note of Covid-19 diagnoses in the clinical history of any animals they treat and to notify public health authorities about any animals they treat with a suspected case of the coronavirus.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says the risk of animals spreading Covid-19 to people is considered to be low, although information is limited.
Guadalajara's Chicas Biker is Mexico's most important all-female motorcycle event. courtesy of Chicas Biker
Over the past decade, bikers mexicanas have been creating groups and events to get women beyond just looking at motorcycles and actually riding them.
Their goal is a daunting one: as of 2019, only 20% of Mexico’s motorcyclists were women, compared to 35% in the rest of the world. As late as in the 1980s, it was not acceptable for a woman to ride her own bike. Even 20 years ago it was difficult for a women rider to join a club or a group ride. Women riders today are still considered a novelty, says Yoly Chopper, a lawyer from Guadalajara.
But things are getting better.
Today, there are still some clubs that forbid women, but now they are rare. And while women who announce to nonriding families that they want a motorcycle still face some resistance, this often passes with time. Chopper got her first bike in her 40s, and her family was worried for her safety. Ten years later, not only do they accept her passion but now “Mamá es cool.” More men support women bikers, even performing security and logistics for women’s events.
Women riders in Mexico include professional riders, politicians, businesswomen, career professionals, housewives and manual laborers. They are daughters, mothers and even grandmothers. Some have gained a reputation nationally. Astrid Madrigal is the queen of motocross in Mexico despite her youth. At 70+ years of age, Barbie Biker of Torreón is a legend for roadsters.
One of Chicas Biker’s best accomplishments, says founder Anayancin “Yancy” Fierros Viveros, is that the annual event attracts more women to the pastime.
It has not always been this way, however.
Culturally, it can be difficult for women riders because of longstanding assumptions that motorcycling is only for men, with women relegated to the back seat as the mochila (backpack) or nalgitas (rear end or buns). Of course, this problem is not limited to Mexico. Objections here are much the same as in other parts of the world — that it is too dangerous, that women cannot handle the physical demands of riding or even that the novelty of seeing a women rider might cause road accidents.
Interestingly, it is often mothers who try to block the way. Sally Mayer of Querétaro recalls that when she bought her first bike, her mother said, “Better to buy a pistol than a bike because it is faster [to get killed].” Some women said they waited until they were older, and others found ways to have a motorcycle without their mothers knowing.
At traditional biker events, which overwhelmingly cater to men, it’s easy for women bikers to feel excluded. Most of the women there are hangers-on with no knowledge of riding or maintenance. The T-shirts and other paraphernalia sold at these events are not offered in either designs or sizes adequate for women.
But the growth of women’s clubs and events is giving female riders their own friendlier space. One of the first was the Orquídeas Motorcycle Club in Mexico City. It began with eight women in 2005. Two of the founders, Liliana and Lucero Urbina, still coordinate the club. There are also national-level clubs with chapters in various parts of the country, such as the Amazonas and Mujeres Bikers International. There is also the Pochianchis, a local club in the small community of San Francisco del Rincón, Guanajuato, named after a trio of infamous sisters who ran bars and brothels there.
The most important all-female biker event is Chicas Biker, held each year in October. The event consists of meeting in Guadalajara, then riding to a rural location for a weekend of camping and camaraderie. In 2019, the event welcomed over 250 women from all over Mexico and even the U.S., Europe and Latin America. (The 2020 event was limited to only 80 due to Covid-19.) According to founder Anayancin Y. “Yancy” Fierros Viveros, one of the event’s main successes is that nonriding women who tag along come back the following year with their own bike.
Chicas Biker participants arrive in Atequiza, Jalisco.
This technical and emotional support is crucial for most female novices to take the plunge. Women like Arlen García of Mexico City tell stories of liking motorcycles for a long time but not acting on it until becoming friends with a rider who offered to mentor.
Women find their way to motorcycles much the way men do. Mayer says her introduction was through watching Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando movies as a kid. Many others get hooked seeing family members or friends ride.
Even those who buy their first bike for cheap urban transportation, like Mexico City residents Irma Torres and Ariana Alfaro, find themselves seduced by both the machines and the camaraderie of other motorcyclists.
Although they take on the usual trappings of motorcycling — helmets, leather jackets, boots and insignia, it does not mean that women riders want to be just like the men. They often add feminine touches to both bikes and to themselves. False pigtails on helmets are put specifically to announce that the rider is a woman. Some name their bikes and consider them like children.
Most are likely to participate in events where families, including nonriders, are welcome to tag along in cars. Andrea Velásquez of the Orquídeas thinks that women tend to be more responsible riders because many are mothers, so they don’t take the risks that men might.
Women riders still face questions about their ability to ride despite all the progress, but the support network that exists for today’s chicas biker arguably sets a more confident tone for women riders, “that we do not always want to be a man’s sidekick [that], rather, we can ride our own motorcycles,” says Fierros. “There is no limitation. It is necessary to break paradigms related to this.”
Ilsse Romero of Mujeres Bikers International concurs.
“I feel powerful [on my motorcycle] because it is no longer something just for men; it is for us as well. It is a beautiful sorority that we have among ourselves.”
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 17 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture. She publishes a blog called Creative Hands of Mexicoand her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta, was published last year. Her culture blog appears weekly on Mexico News Daily.
Congress agrees to punish dads who skip out on their obligations.
By unanimous agreement, Nuevo León lawmakers voted this week to hold accountable fathers who abandon their pregnant partners with fines and up to six years in prison.
The reforms to the state’s penal code will mean punishment for fathers who skip out on obligations to a woman pregnant with their child, as well as persons who ignore their legal responsibilities to someone dependent on them such as an elderly or handicapped person.
Jorge De León Fernández, the local deputy who proposed the reforms in November of last year, said the law is meant to counter the practice of men impregnating women, abandoning them and then ignoring their financial responsibilities.
Discussions among lawmakers eventually expanded de Leon’s proposal to include the elderly and incapacitated.
Violators of the new law could also be fined 15,000–31,000 pesos (US $750–$1,540) and be subject to the loss of paternity, guardianship, inheritance, and custody rights over the child in question. In addition, they could be liable for damage payments as compensation for the time the child was deprived of support.
Fathers who refuse to acknowledge their unborn child could also be charged the cost of a paternity test if it comes out positive.
López-Gatell checks his phone as a video message by the mayor of Mexico City is played for reporters Friday.
Health authorities have chosen not to designate Mexico City at the highest risk level on the coronavirus stoplight system, even though hospital occupancy is now approaching the peak numbers recorded in May.
Instead, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum issued an emergency call on Friday, making an impassioned plea that residents follow measures to combat the spread of the virus.
She said in a video message there were 4,454 hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients, which is just 119 shy of the 4,573 beds occupied on May 20, the highest number recorded during the pandemic.
The figure represents a 74% occupancy rate, well above the 65% threshold at which the city would be declared red on the coronavirus stoplight map.
Sheinbaum dismissed the importance of the stoplight, insisting that what was important was to alert the public that without “collaboration and co-responsibility” it would be difficult to slow the virus’s spread.
Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio
She said an acceleration in hospitalizations and new cases was principally due to an increase in the number of fiestas and family gatherings at which safe distance measures are ignored and face masks are taken off.
The mayor repeated the five measures which the government has called on citizens to observe:
Stay at home. If you don’t have to go out, don’t.
If you must go out, use a face mask and maintain a safe distance from others.
Don’t go to fiestas, posadas or gatherings of friends and family.
As much as possible, shopping should be carried by only one person.
And if tested positive for Covid-19 isolate for 15 days and seek medical attention.
Speaking at Friday night’s coronavirus press briefing, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell reiterated Sheinbaum’s message, saying it was “extremely urgent” that citizens follow the recommended measures to slow the rate of contagion.
He too dismissed the importance of the city’s color on the stoplight map. At a certain point, he said, “it’s not significant. [There’s an] alert for Covid-19, an emergency for Covid-19. Is there any doubt?”
He also implored media outlets to help get the message across.
“Let’s work together. Please, let’s work together.”
The federal government’s coronavirus point man began the press briefing by announcing that Cofepris, the federal health regulator, had given emergency approval for the vaccine developed by the U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
Mexico has already agreed to purchase the vaccine, the first shipments of which are expected this month and will be administered by following a multi-stage national vaccination plan.
Also on Friday, López-Gatell said there were 12,253 new coronavirus cases registered, the highest number yet in a single day. It brings the total of reported cases to 1,229,379.
There were 693 deaths, bringing that total to 113,019 since the pandemic began.
For 30 years, Rancho Río Caliente attracted clients who wanted to unplug.
A few days ago, a quiet but feisty Englishwoman named Caroline Durston passed away in the little town of Ajijic, located on the north shore of Lake Chapala, and with her ended the story of Rancho Rio Caliente, for many years one of Mexico’s most famous spas, a favorite of cognoscenti from New York to Paris.
Every soul in Guadalajara knows about the marvelous hot river hidden deep inside the nearby Primavera Forest and many of them faithfully visit it (in droves) during Semana Santa every year, but few local people know about the private spa situated just beside the source of Río Caliente.
The spa is built upon a spot once considered sacred by indigenous people as a place of healing, long before the Spaniards arrived. Here you have only to dig a hole anywhere you like and at a depth of about a meter you will find steaming hot mineral water.
“It’s highly alkaline,” Durston told me years ago,” with pH of 8.3 and traces of almost every known mineral salt on the planet, including natural, organic lithium.”
My wife and I spent our first night at the spa in 1985, at the end of a hectic week of house hunting.
Hot vapors rising at the source of Río Caliente.
It was our first introduction to the Primavera Forest, and just reaching the place was an adventure. The dirt road we were following brought us through tall pine and oak trees.
The dirt eventually changed to what looked at first like black gravel but turned out to be nothing less than shards of black volcanic glass: a road naturally paved with obsidian! And then, deep inside the forest, we came to a locked iron gate. When it opened for us, we found that we now had to drive across a river that, of course, was steaming. It was so hot that you could not have crossed it in bare feet.
The spa turned out to be a gorgeous oasis of green meadows, flowers of all colors and tall, funky palm trees. Here there was no electricity, no telephones, no TV and no internet, which meant there was also no roar of traffic, no blaring radios. Instead, there was a magnificent silence that actually allowed you to hear and appreciate the buzzing of bees, the rustle of leaves in the wind and the trill of songbirds.
Serenaded by nature, you wander from your picturesque cabin to soak in the hot, warm or cool pool of your choice or perhaps spend half an hour in the naturally heated steam bath or maybe opt for a soothing massage.
Then, with mind and muscles totally relaxed, you return to your cabin to fall asleep in front of a crackling fireplace.
The next morning, you discover the unforgettable sensation of sitting on a hot-water toilet seat, and then off you go for breakfast — one that you know is vegetarian but is so incredibly delicious that you can’t quite believe it.
A peek inside one of the cabins at the Río Caliente spa.
Just one night at Rancho Rio Caliente convinced us that we had to live in that magnificent pine and oak forest. Only minutes after leaving the spa, perhaps guided by ancient spirits, we happened to see the entrance to a community called Pinar de La Venta, and there we found a home for ourselves in our own corner of the enchanted Primavera Forest.
For some 30 years, Hotel Rancho Río Caliente attracted the attention of spa-goers all around the world.
In 1991, Sue Chastain wrote in the L.A. Times, “If you’re aching to retreat about half a century from the tensions of modern living — to soak in hot mineral waters, laze in a eucalyptus-scented steam room designed in the ancient Aztec manner, detoxify by slathering your body with the local mud, visit a primitive nunnery to see age-old techniques of natural healing at work, this just may be the spa that hits the spot.”
“The water kind of seduces you,” Chastain was told by an architectural designer from Los Angeles on her third visit. “It puts you in a place where you can let go.” It does take time to adjust to such a totally relaxed lifestyle, said the designer, “but it’s a great stress release.”
Chastain was surprised at how good the food was:
“Not at all the bland stuff I’d expected from a lacto-vegetarian menu low in sodium and fat. I had never imagined raving about a nut loaf, or taking two helpings of a dish of chickpeas, lentils and brown rice, but it happened here.”
A 2011 U.S. travel advisory turned the heavily booked hotel into a “ghost spa”.
Over the years, the spa turned into a legend: even the Discovery Channel was talking about it. Then, in 2011, disaster struck. Was it a forest fire? An earthquake? A terrorist attack?
No, none of the above, just a little change in the U.S. government’s travel advisory list, shifting Mexico into the same “danger” category as Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.
“Overnight they decided that Guadalajara was dangerous,” the spa’s owner, Caroline Durston told me in 2011, “and overnight all my clients canceled their reservations.”
A month later, this spa — so popular that guests often had to make reservations a year in advance — was forced to shut down.
“Just how many of your former guests have been mugged, murdered, attacked or otherwise accosted?” I asked the soft-spoken woman.
“What?” she said, her eyes widening, “Attacked? No one has ever been attacked or accosted in any way, not even once, neither here at the ranch nor on their way to or from the airport — never.”
Caroline Durston was a feisty and knowledgeable expat Englishwoman.
Rancho Río Caliente is spread over 10 hectares, with 53 cabins as well as several houses, not to mention the dining hall, gym, sauna, massage rooms and the palapa.
Ah, yes, the palapa. It was a sort of multipurpose gathering place where my wife Susy used to give Spanish classes. One day she came home and said, “Now I’m teaching Spanish to a movie star!”
“Oh, really?” I replied. “And what’s this star’s name?”
“Louise Fletcher.”
“Good grief? You’re teaching Louise Fletcher who played evil Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — that horrible creature who had Jack Nicholson lobotomized? That must be terrible!”
“Oh no,” replied Susy. “She’s the sweetest thing!”
After Durston’s passing, Lisa Versace, a frequent visitor to the spa, wrote:
“When I found Rio Caliente, I found more than a spa or a ranch, but a home away from home in the truest, deepest sense of the word. I returned over and over again, for the love, warmth, joy and community that I would experience there. For many of us, the place was magical, healing and transformative.
“By returning year after year, our lives changed, through both the healing we experienced there and the deep relationships cultivated and carried on, far outside our little spot in the Primavera Forest.
“For me, these relationships were mostly with her staff or with people connected to Caroline or the ranch in some way. She brought together the most amazing people and provided a place for those visiting to flourish.”
Rumor has it that Rancho Río Caliente will soon be reopened by new owners inspired by the achievements of Caroline Durston and determined to preserve this magical spot as a place of healing. That will be a tall order to fill, but I wish them the best.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for 31 years, and is the author of “A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area” and co-author of “Outdoors in Western Mexico.” More of his writing can be found on his website.
CORRECTION: The previous version of this story incorrectly referred to Durston as an Australian. She was, in fact, from England. Our apologies.
Hikes in the Primavera Forest were a daily offering at the spa.
The Little Lane of Dreams, so quiet you can hear the birds and the bees.
Passengers check in at Guadalajara airport, whose operator plans to make it the best in Mexico.
The upgrade to the Guadalajara airport announced at the start of the year will be carried out over seven years rather than five, the facility’s director said Thursday.
Speaking at a meeting on Thursday, Martín Pablo Zazueta said that a new proposal had been developed and that the upgrade in the Jalisco capital will be completed in 2026 rather than 2024.
He said that GAP is awaiting approval of the new plan from the federal Ministry of Communications and Transportation.
An additional runway and new terminal building are planned for the airport while the existing terminal will be renovated and expanded. The facility’s parking lot will also be expanded and a new “mixed use” complex that includes a hotel, offices and commercial establishments will be built.
Zazueta said that 6 billion pesos will be invested in the upgrade in the five years to the end of 2024 and an additional amount of about 4 billion pesos will be allocated in 2025 and 2026. The total investment of 10 billion pesos is 4 billion less than the amount announced in February.
Still, Zazueta said “the Guadalajara International Airport will achieve what was promised at the start of the year,” asserting, “we’re going to turn it into the best airport in Mexico.”
Once the upgrade is completed, the airport will have the capacity to handle more than 30 million passengers per year, according to GAP. Sixty percent more flights will be able to depart from and arrive at the facility.
That the upgrade is going ahead, albeit over a longer period, is welcome news for the airport, which saw passenger numbers slump due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Zazueta said that in 2019 and the first two months of 2020 passenger numbers were at record levels.
“Everything pointed to us having double digit growth [this year] and breaking the 16 million passengers barrier,” he said.
However, due to the pandemic the current projection is that only 8 million air travelers will have passed through the airport by the end of 2020, which would place this year’s passenger traffic on a par with 2013.
“That’s the size of the impact we’ve had,” Zazueta said.
However, the airport director expressed confidence that the airport can recover reasonably quickly.
“At a global level they’re saying that airports with the quickest recoveries could reach the level of passengers they had before the pandemic in a period of three years. The Guadalajara airport is in that range. We estimate that in 2023 we’ll reach the traffic we had in 2019.”
