The balloon festival in León, Guanajuato, is one of several big events scheduled during the remaining months of 2019.
There are only three months left in 2019, but the calendar still has plenty of festivals and fairs to enjoy. From film and dance presentations to book releases and DJ sets, entertainment and cultural enrichment opportunities abound.
Here are five big ones coming up in what remains of the year.
2019 Christmas Ornament Fair
Now in its 20th year, this artisans’ festival is held in the Pueblo Mágico, or Magical Town, of Tlalpujahua, Michoacán. Highlighting the work of over 300 glass blowers, the event is sure to dazzle spectators and shoppers as they begin to feel the holiday spirit. All pieces are handmade and hand-painted, making for lots of unique ways to decorate the Christmas tree. There are also workshops for visitors to learn the process themselves.
The fair opened on Sunday and runs through December 15. Admission is free.
Entijuanarte 2019
One of the biggest festivals of northwestern Mexico, the 15th anniversary of Entijuanarte invites visitors to immerse themselves in contemporary Mexican culture in Tijuana’s Centro Cultural. This year’s festival brings together over 100 wide-ranging projects, including theater, dance, film, concerts and visual arts expositions, all tinged with the essence of Tijuana’s vibrant energy.
Aguascalientes is this year’s guest of honor, and other invited states include Coahuila, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Zacatecas, Oaxaca, México state and Mexico City. Admission is free.
Festival Internacional Cervantino
Now in its 47th year, Guanajuato’s El Cervantino, as it’s popularly called, is one of Latin America’s most important cultural events. Celebrating the life and work of Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, it hosts plays, dances, concerts, film screenings, workshops, readings, book releases and much, much more. The festival has become so important to the commemoration of the Don Quixote author’s work that in 2005 UNESCO dubbed Guanajuato the “Capital Cervantino” of the Americas.
This year’s event takes place on October 9-27, and hosts Guerrero and Canada as honored state and country. Tickets to the events can be bought through Ticketmaster.
Morelia International Film Festival
The 17th iteration of this small but respected film festival in Morelia, Michoacán, is dedicated to the people who came to Mexico after fleeing Spain during its Civil War in the 1930s. One such exile was Spanish film director Luis Buñuel, who himself wrote much of his work in Michoacán and ended up becoming a nationalized Mexican citizen. A total of 94 films from states across Mexico will be featured. Check the Cinépolis website for tickets.
2019 International Hot Air Balloon Festival of León
The fun begins at 6:30pm on November 15 when over 200 hot air balloons from 16 countries take off from León, Guanajuato. There will be workshops, camping, concerts, a magical night glow and, of course, hot air balloon rides. The featured concerts include musicians like María José, Yahir and world-renowned DJ Martin Garrix.
It all takes place in León’s Metropolitan Ecological Park, ending on November 18. The entrance fee is 143 pesos (US $7).
Academics and public servants alike admit that emigration has turned at least 20 municipalities in Zacatecas into all but ghost towns.
The representative of the National Immigration Institute (INM) in Zacatecas, Ignacio Fraire Zúñiga, says the state has the third highest levels of emigration in the country, surpassed only by Michoacán and Oaxaca.
“This exodus shouldn’t fill us with pride. People don’t emigrate to another country for pleasure, but rather out of necessity, and it’s not something we desire. [Mobility] should be something optional for people and not an obligation in order to have a better quality of life,” he said.
He said emigration rates are the highest in the state’s canyon country, in towns like Jerez, Tlaltenango, Juchipila, Jalpa, Fresnillo, Nochistlán, Río Grande, Sombrerete, Miguel Auza and Juan Aldama.
And although emigration has been a problem in Zacatecas for years, Fraire says it has also brought economic benefits to the state through remittances sent from the United States.
“The amount of money that comes as remittances is almost equal to what the federal government invests in the state,” Fraire said. “The money that people from Zacatecas send home is the second most important source of revenue, providing a subsidy for our economy.”
This importance is also recognized by Javier Mendoza Villalpando, a state delegate of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations (SRE).
“The total budget for the state is around 26 million pesos [US $1.3 million] and we’re talking about almost 18 million pesos of that coming from remittances,” Mendoza said. “That’s how important our compatriots in the United States are.”
A professor and researcher at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas (UAZ) says that Mexican authorities have not been able to provide the education or work opportunities necessary for its citizens so they are not forced to leave the country.
“For at least 40 years, bilateral emigration to the United States from Mexico has become an escape valve for problems like poverty, marginalization and lack of growth and development, which are the consequences of the neoliberal economic model,” Rodolfo García Zamora said, using the catch phrase preferred by President López Obrador to describe Mexican governments of the last few decades.
Contrary to Fraire and Mendoza, García claims that the remittances have not been a benefit to Zacatecas, but rather a palliative for the state’s social, economic and labor deficiencies.
“In Zacatecas we have a 100-year history of international emigration, and the billions of dollars that come in annually haven’t been able to rectify the marginalization and lack of employment,” he said.
African migrants attempt to stop UN officials from leaving new registration center.
As United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi opened a new registration center for asylum seekers in Tapachula, Chiapas, on Saturday, African migrants renewed their protest to demand transit visas that would allow them to travel to the northern border.
The migrants also tried to storm the new facility but were prevented from entering by Federal Police, the newspaper Milenio reported.
When Grandi and other UN Refugee Agency officials left the building, the protesters — with children placed in front — surrounded their vehicles and tried to prevent their departure. A Congolese woman even grabbed onto the front tire of one of the vehicles in a desperate attempt to be given the opportunity to plead her case to the UN officials.
But Grandi boarded the vehicle without speaking with the protesters.
The migrants, many of whom have been stranded in Tapachula for months, are demanding transit visas in order to travel legally to the northern border to seek asylum in the United States.
Police wrestle with a Congolese woman who wished to plead her case before UN officials.
Luis García Villagrán, head of a local human rights center, said that Mexican law stipulates that migrants have the right to travel through and leave the country.
However, the National Immigration Institute (INM) has insisted that their departure be via the southern rather than the northern border and in recent months it has only issued visas that allow the migrants to stay in Chiapas.
Citizens of countries including Ethiopia, Mali, Cameroon, Somalia, Congo, Mauritania, Guinea and Haiti have protested in Tapachula on several occasions and in early September they damaged a service module that had been set up to review their cases.
At Saturday’s inauguration of the registration center, Grandi acknowledged that there is room for improvement in responding to migrants’ claims for asylum and transit visas.
“Chiapas receives the highest number of asylum applications of any state in Mexico. We have to work together to respond [to them] efficiently, quickly and fairly, respecting the rights of those who have to flee,” he said.
Commissioner Grandi speaks at Tapachula registration center.
The high commissioner said the new center – a converted coffee warehouse located in south Tapachula that will be managed by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) – will play an important role in ensuring that happens, stating that it will enable asylum applications to be dealt with “promptly and fairly.”
“Comar needs more resources and room to work because the challenge is increasing,” he said. “There has been an important increase [in migrant arrivals] but this does not equate with the resources that Comar has . . .”
Meanwhile, federal authorities said on Saturday that they had arrested two suspected leaders of a human smuggling ring that earned up to US $40,000 a week by bringing migrants into the country illegally via the Mexico City and Cancún airports.
“According to intelligence information, the alleged culprits led a criminal group that received on average 25 foreigners per week, mainly Ecuadorians and Peruvians as well as undocumented persons of Indian origin,” the Secretariat of Security and Citizens Protection (SSPC) said in a statement.
The SSPC said the migrants were transferred to properties in Mexico City and México state where they stayed for one or two days before being put on buses to Mexicali, Baja California.
The arrests of the two suspected ringleaders followed a tip-off from a citizen, the secretariat said, adding that each foreigner brought into the country illegally paid between US $1,500 and $2,500 for the criminal organization’s services.
When director John Huston came to film The Night of the Iguana in 1963, Puerto Vallarta was just a sleepy little fishing village. A little Hollywood glamour, provided by the famous cast and scandalous and media-drenched affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and this little pueblo suddenly became an international beach hideaway for starlets and regular folks alike.
Palm-lined beaches, turquoise waters, brown sugar sand and a sultry year-round climate — there’s a lot to love in Puerto Vallarta.
Unbeknownst to a lot of travelers that beach-hop north – to the beaches of Punta Mita, Sayulita and San Francisco – Puerto Vallarta’s southern shores are dotted with delicious little inlets and a handful of quaint towns that boast some of the coast’s most beautiful beaches. It takes a little effort to get to these off-the-beaten track expanses of sand, but I think you’ll find it worth it once you arrive.
From Boca de Tomatlán to Yelapa
The road south out of central Puerto Vallarta is a jungle-lined trek past luxury hotels, public beach accesses and a half-dozen, half-built dream houses. Despite the constant construction, a dense fog of humidity and heat permeates everything, slowing even the most ambitious projects and most energetic tourists.
Along this road you’ll pass the now-closed Night of the Iguana hotel, and several exclusive housing developments in pre-sale before you reach the highway entrance to Boca de Tomatlán, a small village about 30 minutes down the coast. Whether you go by bus or by cab, it’s easy to find the town’s boat dock as you enter Boca’s small handful of streets. This is one of the bigger towns along this stretch of coast and the take-off point for the boat that takes you down the shoreline.
You’ll see handfuls of locals and Mexican tourists waiting for the next water taxi to set out. Boats to Yelapa leave every hour on the hour starting at 8:00am with an additional final boat at 6:30pm. Sounds prompt, but everything here is variable, so arrive with sunscreen and patience. The Yelapa taxi will drop you off at any of the beaches between Boca and Yelapa (about a 40-minute ride) but you have to ask the boat’s captain in advance.
Alternatively you can ask around to see which boats are going to the specific beach you want and you can often find someone leaving sooner and getting you there faster. There is a single walking path that will take you overland to both Animas beach and Quixmo beach but it is a long and hot walk. The boats are infinitely faster and more enjoyable. In the case of the water taxi you pay when you get off; a private boat ride requires you to set a price in advance.
I suggest riding the entire way to Yelapa to take a look at the beaches as you decide what suits your fancy. There is a first tiny, rocky-edged beach called Madagascar as you pass a palapa “house” on the edge of a cliff heading out from Boca. There is nothing here as far as amenities and not much shade, but it is an isolated pinpoint of a beach to drop anchor and swim for a bit.
A little farther down and you will see a short, palm-lined strip of beach that is absolutely lovely called El Caballo. This has little human presence to speak of although there are a few hotels on either end tucked up into the mountainside. Just past the rocky outcrop at the end of Caballo is Animas beach. Animas has a decent strip of beach and a long dock in the center.
This a popular beach for tourists because there are a couple of dozen restaurants that sit between the sand and the jungle backdrop. The water is nice but not as crystal clear and gorgeous blue as some of the others.
Morning in Yelapa.
The next big beach is Quimixto, which you will recognize by the terracotta-roofed house that sits to one edge, almost in the water. This is a splendid beach for an afternoon, and many locals told me it was their favorite. There are a handful of restaurants and hotels but much fewer than at Animas.
Next is Caletas, which is the home to the Ritmo de Noches show put on by Vallarta Adventures at night. This was also the once home of director John Huston and the beach is absolutely adorable, even though there are just a few hotels and no restaurants open to the public. Majahuitas beach (the next down) is similar in that there are a few hotels but not much with open arms to the public. Still the beach is delicious and small.
Yelapa is next up, with an ample beach to one side of the town, home to about 1,500 people. Several restaurants, including the most famous, Fanny’s, sit center-stage on the beach and boats bob in the water near the town dock as many of the locals you see working in this area either live here or in Boca. Yelapa is a nice town to make your base if you’re comfortable depending on water taxis for transportation or paying exorbitant rates for private boats (someone quoted me US $70 an hour for a private ride).
The town has some nice hotels including Hotel Lagunita, Casa Pericos and others that sit along the edges of Yelapa’s tiny bay. The rock outcropping to the south end of the bay down the little coast to Playa Isabella has nice snorkeling.
Yelapa to Chimo
Twice daily from Yelapa runs a taxi that heads farther south down the coast to Chimo beach, about 30 minutes away. Again, beware of trusting timetables too much and always be early and prepare to wait. Catch the morning taxi to head to La Manzanilla, a minuscule beach that glitters like a jewel just 10 minutes down the coast by boat. There’s nothing there to distract from the beauty of the crystal-clear water but a shady palapa for picnics.
Manzanilla glitters like a jewel.
From Manzanilla you can walk south over the rocks (watch out for iguanas!) to the next beach ingeniously called Playa del Medio, or beach in the middle. This is another gorgeous little gem, and quiet, unless there is a rowdy yacht parked just off the coast like the day I was there.
From Playa del Medio you can walk along a cement path to Pizota, a small fishing village at the farthest end of this strip of beaches. Pizota has that same lovely water, but the beach is scattered with locals’ kayaks and canoes and the water with taxis and fishing boats. Most days you will have a little audience if you want to swim there as the local boat operators hang out in the shade near the edge of the beach, gabbing and drinking beers.
Pizota is a regular stop on the Chimo taxi’s route, but be sure to ask the taxi captain and not the locals what time they will be coming through – answers varied wildly and I ended up missing it altogether. There is a small convenience store on the edge of beach with some surly women running it – a fine place if you need to get a beer or water or snacks.
Inland and then out again
Too far to go by water (unless you have your own boat) there are a handful of places farther south, what is commonly called Costa Alegre, that I think you should know about.
Mayto beach is absolutely divine. The water makes a deep drop just past the sand-dune style coast, but while it looked rough, the day I went the waves were a joy. A single hotel sits on the beach, the Mayto Hotel (what else?), and they serve cheap beer and delicious food in an exclusive setting. This beach is starting to be on people’s lips, but it’s still so far out there (about an hour from the closest town of Tuito) that it’s yet to be overrun with tourists.
Playa del Medio is another gorgeous gem.
The day I went (albeit during the low season) there were only about six other people (and most of those eating at the hotel). The beach stretches lazily around a 12-kilometer bay that the staff of the Mayto says can have rougher waves in the winter season. There is no shade here so bring that umbrella or prepare to fry. There is a small tortoise refuge that releases turtles in the evening if you stick around. You can camp at the tortoise refuge for about $8 a person a night.
Once you make it out to Mayto you can hop down the coast for a few other hidden beaches. The Playa del Amor (love beach) is just a five-minute drive and another five minutes will take you to Tehu, a small fishing village famed for their oysters and ancient lighthouse. Talk to Juan Pablo at the XXX, he speaks perfect English after living in Los Angeles most of his life and can give you all kinds of tips on where to hike and which beaches he loves.
His suggestion, which I didn’t have time to follow, was Playa Corrales, about an hour north, where he said the bay is so small and intimate it’s like floating in a Jacuzzi. Sitting at Juan Pablo’s place you can see the beaches of Villa del Mar across the bay. Supposedly the waves are rough because of their location but you should definitely decide for yourself.
For a stop on the way back to Puerto Vallarta, the tiny town of El Tuito is growing in popularity. It is famed for its dairy products so make sure to order the jocoque or queso fresco from a local restaurant. Another lovely side trip? The Vallarta Botanical Gardens on that same road, a breathtaking collection of local flora in the midst of the dry, tropical forest.
While travel times and complications can sometimes feel overwhelming, I promise you any of these hidden beach that you make the effort to visit will reward you with a delicious swim and an equally delicious day.
Lydia Carey is a freelance writer based in Mexico City and a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily.
Flooding caused by Narda on the weekend in Guerrero.
Tropical Storm Narda is moving north along Mexico’s Pacific coast, leaving a trail of extensive damage to infrastructure and at least one death.
Narda made landfall in Oaxaca on Saturday before being temporarily downgraded to a tropical depression. But after delivering destructive rain and wind to states along the coast over the weekend, the storm gained strength and was upgraded back to a tropical storm on Monday.
According to Oaxaca Civil Protection Secretary Heliodoro Díaz Escárraga, a 26-year-old man disappeared on Saturday in the municipality of San Pedro Mixtepec, and was found dead the next day. Díaz said he was probably carried away by the strong current of a river he was attempting to cross.
The rains also caused a landslide in Santa Catarina Juquila which buried a butcher shop and a clothing store, although no one was injured. Thirteen Oaxaca municipalities suffered serious damage, especially in the Costa and Mixteca regions.
In Acapulco, Guerrero, floodwaters dragged three vehicles off the roads, and flooding damaged a public hospital.
Road damage in Oaxaca.
In Jalisco, Civil Protection evacuated 450 people from coastal regions before the storm hit early Monday morning. When it did, it brought wind gusts at speeds higher than 60 kilometers per hour and heavy rain, causing landslides, overflowing rivers and damage to 248 houses.
A search was under way for someone who authorities fear may have died in the town of Yelapa, Cabo Corrientes, after the Yelapa river broke its banks. Yelapa has been isolated by the flooding and can only be reached by air or sea.
At 11:00am CDT, on Monday, Narda was located 80 kilometers south of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and 75 kilometers west of El Roblito, Nayarit, according to the National Meteorological System (SMN). It forecast that Narda will reach northern Sinaloa by Tuesday morning, and the state of Sonora on Wednesday, after which it will once again be downgraded to a tropical depression.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for San Blas, Nayarit, to Guaymas, Sonora, and for Islas Marías.
The SMN said Narda will cause intense rains in seven states, and very heavy rains in another 17, including Mexico City.
Schools have suspended classes across Guerrero, Nayarit and Colima, and in some municipalities in Jalisco, Sinaloa and Oaxaca.
The roller coast where Saturday's accident occurred.
Mexico City prosecutors are investigating an accident on a roller coaster in the Feria de Chapultepec amusement park that killed two people on Saturday.
The borough of Miguel Hidalgo, where the park is located, said the company that operates the park follows a security program with the borough, and that investigators should focus their efforts on the program’s records, which include a maintenance and operations calendar.
“Prosecutors should focus investigations on the records, especially for the Quimera ride, because someone didn’t do their job,” the borough said in a statement.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said the city could ask for international help in investigating the accident.
“We need to find out if the protocols we have in the city are the same as in other parts of the world,” she said. “The Civil Defense Secretariat will look over it and will call different international organizations, which we will announce later, because the most important thing is to ensure the security of people who go to amusement parks.”
She added that if anyone is found to be criminally responsible, they will be punished.
The accident happened on Saturday around 1:30pm when the last car on the ride derailed and fell about 10 meters to the ground. Two young men were killed in the fall and two women were seriously injured. The operator said the park will remain closed for one or two weeks.
Park vendors who spoke with the newspaper El Universal said that technical problems with the ride had existed for about three years, but had been ignored by the park’s management.
Police in San Miguel are now among those receiving higher pay in Guanajuato.
Police officers in Guanajuato are deserting the state force to join municipal forces that offer higher salaries.
Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo acknowledged that the goal of having a state police force with more than 14,000 officers has not been met due to the desertions.
“We haven’t reached the goal because . . . a lot of [state] officers have deserted and gone to municipal police forces . . . A large group went to enlist in Irapuato,” he said.
“I’m glad that a lot of officers have deserted because they’ve gone to municipal police forces. I’ve always said that security is built from the local level and if we want strong municipal police forces, we need fewer soldiers and fewer state police,” Rodríguez added.
Authorities in Irapuato, Guanajuato, León, Pénjamo and San Miguel de Allende are now paying new recruits up to 18,000 pesos (US $910) a month, the governor said, adding that he was hopeful that all municipalities in the state will increase police salaries.
“It’s important for municipal police forces to restore officers’ spirits, to pay officers better,” Rodríguez said.
“They must pay police in Celaya better in order to have good quality officers . . .” Rodríguez said.
After advocating for higher salaries for officers, the governor touted the quality of training they receive.
Rodríguez explained that new state police recruits undergo seven months of intensive preparation while their municipal counterparts spend three months in training before they hit the streets.
That training was crucial in avoiding the loss of police officers’ lives in two separate clashes with criminals in Villagrán and Celaya on Friday, he said.
However, 35 police have been killed in the line of duty in Guanajuato this year, according to the non-governmental organization Causa en Común, a figure that is higher than that of any other state.
Guanajuato has also been the most violent state in Mexico this year, recording 1,790 homicides to the end of August.
Ecoducto's artificial wetlands purify 30,000 liters of sewage daily.
In a city that’s no stranger to water shortages, one public park not only provides space for jogging and dog walking, it purifies thousands of liters of wastewater a day for reuse.
Mexico City’s Ecoducto is a linear green space where a system of artificial wetlands purifies 30,000 liters of sewage daily, enough to fill the city’s 87,000-seat Estadio Azteca soccer stadium each month.
The artificial wetlands were designed by Dr. Alejandro Alva, a hydrobiologist at the National Autonomous University (UNAM).
“One of the lasting lessons we wanted to leave with this project was to show the possibility of creating wetlands inside of cities, that we can rescue natural water systems in urban areas,” Alva said in an interview with CGTN America.
The Ecoducto park is located on the median of the Viaducto Río de la Piedad, one of Mexico City’s busiest thoroughfares, itself constructed atop a subterranean river. The river was channeled into an underground tunnel in 1942, and the highway was built above ground in the 1950s.
Ecoducto is a wetland within a city.
Since then, the river has flowed on, unseen and unconscionably filthy. The Ecoducto project aims to be an example for similarly polluted urban waterways both in Mexico and abroad.
And the idea is starting to catch on, according to urban planning architect María del Mar Tomás.
“More and more in modern developments, we are seeing that water recycling systems are being installed, because in the case of water crises, this type of infrastructure in your own building makes you less dependent on the main supply,” she said.
Tomás is an organizer of the Open House CDMX architecture festival, which showcased the Ecoducto park this year.
Wine-tasting at the Mexico Selection in Aguascalientes.
A record number of winemakers and distillers took part in this year’s edition of the Mexico Selection of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, held this year in Aguascalientes.
A total of 517 wines and spirits from 15 Mexican states were sampled by an international panel of judges invited to the event known colloquially as the United Nations of Fine Wines.
Baja California continued its reign as the nation’s premier wine-producing state, winning three of the six grand gold medals as well as 31 golds and 30 silvers.
The other three grand gold medals, the competition’s top honor, went to wines produced by two different wineries in Coahuila and one in Aguascalientes. Gold medal winners came from Baja California, Coahuila, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, Guanajuato and San Luis Potosí.
Mexican sommelier Laura Santander, part of the jury that included wine experts from Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Spain, the United States, France and the United Kingdom, said that a lot of winemakers have taken note of international trends to make wines that are “less woody and a bit fruitier.”
Bodegas Los Cedros in Coahuila, one of the grand gold winners.
She added that the varying standard of wines on offer at the competition can be partially attributed to the experience of the winemakers.
“Of course, there are producers who are evolving, which is completely natural when you have a new winery and you start to produce wine,” Santander said.
Natasha Hughes, a wine expert from the United Kingdom, said the best wines she tasted at the event were recent vintages.
“People here appear to think that if a red wine is aged for a long time . . . it’s good. The best wines I tried here weren’t those, they were the young ones. If you’ve put in the effort to produce good fruit to make a balanced and fresh wine, why detract from it through barrel aging?” she said.
Hughes added that Mexican winemakers should look to countries such as Australia and South Africa for inspiration rather than cold European countries and choose grape varieties that are well-suited to Mexico’s climate.
In the spirits category, judges awarded four grand gold medals, including two that went to Guanajuato mezcal maker Penca y Piedra. The other two went to a Oaxaca mezcal and a tequila from Jalisco.
Wine expert Natasha Hughes: recent vintages were the best.
Distilleries from Oaxaca took out six of the 10 gold medals that were awarded, while three Chihuahua makers of sotol, a liquor made from the desert spoon plant, also won gold medals. A tequila was the recipient of the 10th gold medal.
Chihuahua will host next year’s Mexico Selection contest.
The full list of this year’s grand gold medal winners, the states from which they come and the wineries or distilleries that made them appears below. Full results are available on the Mexico Selection website.
Wine:
Los Cedros Fusión / 2017 / Coahuila / Productos del Campo Vibe
Rubber pavement that regenerates with rainwater is the national winner of the James Dyson Award, an international award that challenges students and recent graduates to design something that solves a problem.
Created by Israel Antonio Briseño Carmona, a student at the Coahuila Autonomous University in Torreón, the self-regenerating pavement is made out of discarded tires.
Regeneration of the pavement occurs through the absorption of rainwater, a process that prevents road damage such as potholes.
Briseño said that his inspiration for the idea was a question: why do potholes appear every time it rains?
“What happens is that when it rains, water filters down to the sub-base creating a fault and when a car goes over it, it collapses. That’s why I wanted to turn the main agent of deterioration [asphalt or concrete] into an agent of recovery [rubber]. With my project, water would be a [source of] maintenance for our roads,” he explained.
Rubber pavement inventor Briseño.
Briseño obtained a patent for his unique idea in April under the name Paflec. It has not yet been used to build a road but Briseño hopes that will change soon.
He explained that he has a three-phase plan to make his road-building idea a reality.
The first phase involves meeting with an engineer to “resolve doubts” about the project and then building a short section of road to ensure that it functions as envisaged. The second phase is to certify the construction system with the national building certification organization ONNCCE and the third phase is to gain approval from the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation.
“In the medium term, I would like to start my own construction company to be able to implement my invention,” Briseño said.
The James Dyson Foundation also announced two Mexican runners-up, which along with the self-generating pavement are in contention for the international James Dyson Award that comes with a cash prize of 730,000 pesos (US $37,000).
The first runner-up is an automatic hygiene system designed by a team of students from the Emiliano Zapata Technological University in Morelos.
VIDEO: Cardboard crutches were second runner-up in the competition.
Called HA-WA (short for hand wash), the system makes use of infrared sensors to trigger the release of water and soap for washing the hands. It both reduces the amount of water that is used when the everyday action is performed and allows the water to be recycled for other domestic purposes such as the flushing of a toilet.
The second runner-up is an invention by Mexico City industrial designer Rafael Riego: crutches made out of recyclable cardboard.
The young entrepreneur said the aim of his idea is to make crutches available at a low cost to everyone who needs them.
“I downhill skateboard and have practiced martial arts my whole life, sports where ankle and knee injuries are prevalent . . . Having to use crutches many times I started paying attention to people with the same type of injuries. Not everyone has access to medical grade orthopedics and have to resort to homemade, unsafe methods,” Riego said.
“I’ve designed a low-cost method that is easy to manufacture to get everyone back on their feet safely.”
The international finalists, each of whom will win 120,000 pesos, will be announced October 17. The grand-prize winner will be announced November 14.
