If the bugs don't appeal perhaps the mushrooms will.
A festival of Mexican gastronomy began today in Mexico City at the eighth annual Viva México event in Xochimilco. It will run until Sunday.
Edible flowers, fungi and insects, among other things, will be available for purchase from small producers.
The festival will also feature lectures about the importance of traditional ingredients in Mexican cuisine.
Festival-goers will also have the opportunity to learn how to grind corn and make tortillas by hand in a workshop offered Saturday and Sunday at noon.
There will be performances by a huapango ensemble, a youth choir and traditional dance groups.
The festival takes place at the Jardín Hacienda Los Ángeles cultural center in Xaltocan, Xochimilco. Entrance is free, and the event will be open from 12:00pm to 8:00pm daily.
Federal authorities are investigating threats by the Northeast Cartel to stop gas station owners in Tamaulipas from selling fuel to security forces.
Stations in Nuevo Laredo began refusing service on Monday to state police and the military, the newspaper Excélsior reported. The state approached other suppliers, but they refused for fear of retaliation.
The Attorney General’s Office confirmed that officers with the state Security Secretariat have had problems buying fuel in the border city.
Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero said Tamaulipas Governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca assured her that efforts are underway to discover who is threatening the gas stations.
Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said the federal government will not allow the situation to continue.
“It is a challenge to authority that we will of course not accept. All of the state, federal and military forces will of course be supplied. We are working against these criminal organizations that feel they hold dominance and the ability to launch a challenge of this magnitude,” he said.
President López Obrador also addressed the situation in his Wednesday morning conference.
“We cannot allow these threats to be accepted, this must be resolved. We’re already looking into ways of dealing with it,” he said.
Not a strand of Peña Nieto's hair is out of place, thanks to all that gel.
Former president Enrique Peña Nieto’s personal hygiene was at the center of a corruption charge made at Friday’s presidential press conference.
Peña Nieto’s government spent almost 1.3 million pesos on supplies such as perfume, hair gel and razors for just two flights on the presidential plane, President López Obrador revealed.
The president presented infographics that showed that 1.07 million pesos (US $55,000 at today’s exchange rate) was spent on hygiene products for a flight on October 27, 2017, and an additional 216,804 pesos (US $11,100) was spent on supplies for a flight on July 6, 2018.
More than 1,600 razors, 1,247 toothbrush kits, 486 bottles of Caroline Herrera perfume for ladies, 746 bottles of Caroline Herrera cologne for men, 1,265 tubes of hair gel, 1,263 shoe polish sponges and 1,215 sets of nail clippers were among the supplies purchased for the first flight, López Obrador said.
“Look at what happened, just one flight, look at how many razors [were bought] . . .” he said.
For the latter flight, the government bought almost 500 boxes of toilet paper and nearly 400 liters of liquid hand soap.
“There are other things that we’re not presenting out of modesty, the toilet paper is enough already,” López Obrador said.
The president said there are invoices for the purchases but questioned their authenticity.
“It’s very probable that the invoices in these cases are false . . . The [past] government itself set a bad example with the use of false invoices,” López Obrador said, adding that his administration will change the law so that the use of phony invoices is classified as a serious crime.
Asked whether his administration will file formal complaints about the presidential plane purchases, the president responded that it would.
López Obrador said the previous government didn’t disclose the details of the purchases on the grounds that it was information of national security importance, adding “that’s over, there is nothing secret now.
“That’s what this change [of government], this fight is for, to put an end to corruption from top to bottom . . .”
Federal Police arrest Iguala municipal police in 2014.
Police officers released from prison after being accused of involvement in the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero in 2014 are demanding lost wages that could bankrupt the municipality of Iguala.
The municipal police are seeking 13 million pesos (US $665,000) in unpaid salaries, said Mayor Antonio Jaimes Herrera — 1 million pesos for each of the 13 officers, a figure that represents almost five years of lost wages.
According to the previous government’s “historical truth,” corrupt municipal police intercepted the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Iguala on September 26, 2014 while they were traveling on buses they had commandeered to attend a protest march in Mexico City.
The police then handed the students over to members of the Guerrero Unidos gang who killed them, burned their bodies in a municipal dump and scattered their ashes in a nearby river, according to the investigation.
Encinas said the key suspect’s acquittal set a “grave precedent” that could be used to release more than 50 other people who are in custody as a result of their alleged involvement in the students’ disappearance.
Mayor Herrera said that if more Iguala police are released and demand compensation, the municipality could go bankrupt, pointing out that it already has “historical” debt of more than 100 million pesos.
“The truth is, this represents a serious problem for us,” he said.
The mayor argued that because the officers were dismissed by the federal Attorney General’s Office (formerly the PGR, now the FGR) rather than the municipal government, the former should be responsible for settling their demands.
“. . . We’re directing the [officers’] demands to the FGR because it was that authority that took their jobs from them,” Herrera said.
Guerrero Governor Héctor Astudillo added his voice to the concern about the possible release of more suspects in the case.
“We can’t continue releasing all these people who participated [in the crime]. In a while, they’ll all be in the street. I believe that this is a very sensitive issue . . . [The release of suspects] has to be categorically stopped.”
The 350-meter-long bridge was inspired by the Capilano suspension bridge in Vancouver, Canada.
Mazamitla, Jalisco, is one town that really deserves the name Pueblo Mágico. The quaint streets, the delightful balconies, the beautiful pagoda-like church, the incredibly delicious food, a night before a crackling fireplace with a ponche de pasiflora in hand . . . what more could you ask?
Well, I’m always looking for interesting outdoor sites I can visit the morning after. One such place is the community of Los Cazos just southwest of Mazamitla.
The name Los Cazos refers to “large cauldrons” carved in the bedrock of a small river on the premises. I had heard about the place but hadn’t bothered to check it out until I came upon what seems to be Mexico’s oldest tequila distillery near the town of Amatitán in Jalisco.
Among the ruins of Taberna El Tecuane, I was amazed to see that the fermentation of the sweet mosto took place in 44 huge holes carved into the living rock, each of these giant pots holding around 3,000 liters.
Could the great stone cauldrons of Los Cazos have been carved for a similar purpose? Local archaeologist Phil Weigand told me it was quite likely and off I went to have a look.
Round “cauldrons” carved in the soft rock of the riverbed at Los Cazos.
The housing development of Los Cazos is located two kilometers straight southwest of Mazamitla.
Outside the entrance to this little community, we found a confusion of horses, caballeros and cuatrimotos (four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles). Apparently, Los Cazos and the surrounding area is so attractive that lots of people are quite happy to rent either a quiet horse or a noisy ATV to explore the network of cobblestone roads which wind through these pine-covered hills.
Seeing all this, we suspected that we would not be allowed to drive our car into Los Cazos, but such was not the case at all. As long as you pay a fee of 12 pesos per person, you may enter the fraccionamiento (between 9:00am and 5:00pm), no matter whether the vehicle carrying you has wheels or legs.
We parked 500 meters south of the gate and walked downhill to a charming wooden footbridge crossing a stream. This is the start of what they call the Enchanted Garden, a series of bridges, narrow paths and small waterfalls which follow the stream downward.
From the first bridge you’ll have a great view of the Cazos, big holes carved in the soft rock of the stream bed. Some of these are round and some are rectangular. They come in a variety of sizes and may be up to a meter deep. The rock is a kind of rhyolite, locally known as tepetate, the very same material in which Indians carved the fermentation pots at El Tecuane.
Hand-carved channels a few inches deep permit water to flow in and out of each cauldron and in many cases there are bypass channels alongside the pots. By blocking or unblocking the channels, one could easily fill a pot with water and then “turn off” the water supply. Although the Cazos were probably used to ferment mezcal, on a nice hot day you could also use them as mini-swimming pools.
A shaded bench alongside a hand-carved stone stairway at Los Cazos.
One kilometer southwest of the fermentation pots, you’ll find a 30-meter-high waterfall which, like 90% of the falls in Mexico, is locally known as El Salto (The Jump). This one has a steep trail which takes you down to the bottom in eight minutes, and is relatively easy to negotiate thanks to the addition of crude stairs here and there.
If you want to frolic in the shallow pool beneath the falling water, there appear to be no regulations to the contrary and the local people say the water is pure and clean. Back up at the top of the fall, you can cross the stream via a little bridge and check out a cliff-hanging trail that leads to a good spot for photographing the cascading water from above. For more information Google Fraccionamiento Los Cazos en Mazamitla Jalisco.
On a recent visit to charming Mazamitla, I found another nearby site well worth visiting. It’s called Mundo Aventura, but don’t be fooled by the name: even though it has lots of attractions for kids, it’s a place that visitors of all ages will appreciate.
This I think is due to the fertile imagination of the man who built it, Rafael Pulido, who was enchanted by its magnificent waterfall, plunging 150 meters to the bottom of a deep, wooded canyon, which he was convinced could only be appreciated properly from a colossal hanging bridge stretched over it.
Few would have had the persistence to turn such a dream into reality, but Pulido did it. His bridge is a whopping 350 meters long and possibly the longest hanging bridge in the Americas. Of course, claims of biggest, smallest or whatever are not easy to verify, but I can assure you this particular hanging bridge is spectacular and walking across it is an experience you are unlikely ever to forget.
Another feature of this place which I find fascinating is a sort of Labyrinth of Standing Stones, another creation of Rafael Pulido, consisting of flat blades of shale which stand up to three meters tall, resulting in a strange and beautiful garden.
A small lake at Mundo Aventura is ideal for contemplation or meditation.
Anyone interested in crossing the canyon while whizzing through the air can do so on a zip line a full kilometer and a half long, one of the longest in the world, in fact. As far as I could determine, it appears to be the second-longest zip line in Latin America, right behind Brazil’s Mega Tirolesa Pedra Bela which is 1,900 meters long.
For those who prefer a less speedy way to cross the canyon, Mundo Aventura also has three shorter zip lines that will do the trick.
When you are tired of watching people zipping along all these tirolesas, you can retreat to a quiet lake on the property with a picturesque island in the middle.
I asked Señor Pulido’s daughter Rosalinda to tell me a little about the origins of Mundo Aventura.
“This is a family business,” she told me. “We are 11 brothers and sisters. Everything we have created here is thanks to our father, who is a visionary. He had no money and no education, but he traveled the world with a knapsack on his back.
“In Canada he saw the famous Capilano hanging bridge and instantly knew this was what he wanted to span the deep canyon here. So, 28 years ago my father set out to create . . . well, not just any park, his aim has always been to create the best park in the world! However, people told him he was crazy and no tourists would every come to a place like this in the middle of nowhere.
[soliloquy id="88740"]
“Then, our house burned down, and there we were out on the street. But nothing could stop my father and six months later we opened Mundo Aventura . . . and from that moment on we’ve always had crowds of people coming here.”
Rafael Pulido was convinced people from Guadalajara would flock to his park to escape the stresses of the big city and, his daughter told me, the park now sees over 3,000 visitors per day during peak periods like Easter Week.
“And we have had guests from as far away as India, France, the U.S.A. and England,” Rosalinda Pulido proudly stated.
Mundo Aventura is open every day of the year from 9:00am to 8:00pm. For more information see their web page. To get there, set your navigator for Mundo Aventura Jalisco.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 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.
The country ranked 17th in Ipsos Global Advisor’s 2019 Global Happiness Study.
The survey analyzed the happiness levels of 28 countries worldwide based on the satisfaction inhabitants feel with regard to health, security, economy and consumer confidence, among other indicators.
It used factors and terminology such as living conditions, health and physical wellbeing, personal safety and security, hobbies and interests and others.
Mexico ended up in the middle of the list, with 17% of its citizens claiming to be “very happy.”
Among those surveyed, 42% said they were “rather happy,” while 35% declared they were “not very happy,” and 5% of Mexicans said they were “not happy at all.”
Of the six Latin American countries surveyed, Mexico came in third after Brazil and Peru. Colombia was right on Mexico’s heels, and Argentina turned out to be the unhappiest country surveyed.
Australia and Canada topped the list as the “world’s happiest countries,” where fewer than 15% of respondents claimed to be unhappy.
Happiness across the globe as a whole, however, fell 6% in comparison with 2018.
Renowned artist, activist and philanthropist Francisco Toledo died on Thursday at his home in Oaxaca city.
Family members confirmed that the artist succumbed to a battle with lung cancer. He was 79.
Toledo, a painter, engraver and sculptor of indigenous Zapotec heritage who incorporated pre-Hispanic techniques in his work, will be remembered as one of the greatest Mexican artists of all time.
His artworks were largely inspired by his experiences growing up in Oaxaca and many feature skeletons, insects such as grasshoppers and animals like alligators, monkeys and tapirs that he encountered in his childhood.
Born in Juchitán in 1940, Toledo moved to Oaxaca city at the age of 12 to study at the same school attended by Mexico’s first indigenous president, Benito Juárez.
Red Crocodile, by Francisco Toledo.
“My father had grandiose plans for me, he wanted me to be Benito Juárez,” Toledo said in an interview with the news agency Reuters.
However, a relative noticed his talent as a budding artist and he was transferred to an art school in the state capital.
As a young man in the early 1960s, Toledo traveled to the United States and France, where he worked, learned new techniques and exhibited his art. In Paris, he spent time with Rufino Tamayo, a fellow Oaxaca artist who is considered one of Mexico’s greatest painters.
During a prolific career, Toledo created thousands of works including paintings, drawings, prints, collages, tapestries and ceramics that he exhibited across Mexico and the world.
He was “perhaps the most talented, generous and mystical Mexican artist of an entire generation,” said Guillermo Olguin, a Oaxaca painter and neighbor of Toledo.
“With his leadership . . . and sophistication he put the eyes of the world on a small state like Oaxaca, putting it on the map as an epicenter of art and resistance.”
Francisco Toledo, one of Mexico’s greatest artists.
One painting titled “Tortuga poniendo huevos,” or Turtle Laying Eggs, sold for just over US $1 million in 2018, according to the auction house Christie’s.
Toledo earned international fame and acclaim for his work, winning the Right Livelihood Award – Sweden’s alternative Nobel prize – in 2005 “for devoting himself and his art to the protection and enhancement of the heritage, environment and community life of his native Oaxaca.”
The artist also had a strong social conscience and fought against corruption and to generate greater awareness and respect for natural resources and the environment.
After the disappearance of 43 teaching students in Guerrero in 2014, Toledo made 43 kites, each of which featured the face of one of the missing young men. As the kites were flown in central Oaxaca city, he said that the search for the students mustn’t ever stop – “we must also look for them in the air.”
After a powerful earthquake ravaged parts of Chiapas and Oaxaca – including his native Juchitán – in September 2017, Toledo helped raise funds to rebuild the homes of the victims.
Toledo was also a great supporter and promoter of other Mexican artists, especially those who lived and worked in Oaxaca.
In his later years, he founded the Oaxaca Institute of Graphic Arts (IAGO) as well as a cultural center in Juchitán and helped set up the Oaxaca Museum of Contemporary Art.
In 2015, Toledo transferred ownership of all of his art at IAGO to the National Institute of Fine Arts for just 1 peso.
Toledo also led campaigns to protect the heritage of his home state, famously fighting to prevent the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant just off the central square of Oaxaca city, the construction of a cable car at the Monte Albán archaeological site and a convention center on green space on Oaxaca city’s Fortin hill.
He is survived by his five children including the poet Natalia Toledo, conceptual artist Laureana Toledo and the artist and tattooist Jerónimo López, who is better known as Dr. Lakra.
President López Obrador, who broke the news of Toledo’s death to many Mexicans, lamented the artist’s passing in a post to his Twitter account.
“Art is in mourning,” he wrote.
“The master Francisco Toledo, oaxaqueño, great painter, extraordinary cultural promoter and authentic defender of nature and the customs and traditions of our people, has died. Rest in peace.”
The brittle star, found in a cave in Quintana Roo.
Scientists have discovered a new marine species in a cave near Cozumel, Quintana Roo.
Given the scientific name ophionereis commutabilis, the creature is a type of ophiuroid, or brittle star, and it is already endangered.
The investigation that discovered the species was led by Francisco Solís Marín of the Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology at the National Autonomous University (UNAM). He described the new species in an interview with the UNAM Gazette.
“They have a small, flat body which is shaped like a disc, and five long, thin arms that extend 18-20 centimeters in length. The extremities look like snakes,” he said.
Brittle stars are related to starfish, but they are not of the same genus. They have similar features, but are morphologically different.
“Its Greek name defines it,” said the UNAM Gazette, “as it’s an echinoderm: echino: spine, and derm: skin. In this group are also starfish, urchins, crinoids and sea cucumbers.”
There are over 2,000 species of brittle stars in the world that have been documented since 2010, but only two others live in caves. One is found in the United States and the other in Japan.
This Mexican species is threatened by the area’s hotel industry.
Solís explained that the caves in which the animal lives contain very specific ecological conditions that make them like “laboratories of evolution,” and are therefore very fragile.
“Although there is currently an abundant population . . . this number is finite, and therefore immediate and conclusive actions will be key to preserving them . . .” he said.
The Mexican multinational company FEMSA said yesterday it will invest 61.87 billion pesos (US $3.2 billion) in Mexico between 2019 and 2021.
President José Antonio Fernández Carbajal announced the investment at a meeting with President López Obrador and other business owners.
The company will invest the money in Mexico in 2019, 2020 and 2021, creating 41,000 direct jobs, Fernández said.
He said the company has a value chain made up of almost 41,000 suppliers in the country.
Fernández said he and the president discussed the role of free markets in the development of Mexico and the importance of improving security.
“The meeting was held at my request, and gave me the opportunity to express the importance of keeping a permanent dialogue open, and speaking honestly to find points of agreement and raising differences, always with personal and institutional respect,” he said.
FEMSA’s holdings include Coca-Cola FEMSA, the biggest Coca-Cola bottler in Mexico, and the convenience store chain Oxxo. Oxxo opens a new store in Mexico every eight hours, creating an average of 27 jobs per day.
New safety rules for the canals of Xochimilco will go into effect this weekend after a 19-year-old youth drowned after falling off of a barge on Sunday.
In a press conference earlier this week, Xochimilco borough president José Carlos Acosta Ruíz said the borough and city governments will implement new regulations on barges to prevent the tragedy from repeating itself.
Jumping or stepping between barges will be prohibited, and visitors will be required to remain seated during the trips. Speakers playing loud music will also be prohibited.
Alcohol consumption will be restricted to people over 18, and there will be a two-drink limit during each barge trip.
Acosta added that the 680 barges will be required to carry lifejackets, and that gondoliers will be subject to drug tests.
“It will be a gradual change,” he said. “Some of the restrictions will start this weekend, others on the 15th, and others on October 1. But we’re going to be stricter about regulating alcohol consumption.”
The measures were taken in response to the death of José Manuel Romero, who died while celebrating with friends on a barge in Xochimilco on September 1. A video that circulated on social media shows Romero falling into the water when trying to cross from one barge to another.
