The male strippers were reportedly hired to entertain the attendees of a campaign event for women in Ziracuaretiro, Michoacán, after the main guest, a federal Senate candidate, had to cancel. (Screen capture)
A mayoral candidate in Michoacán has raised eyebrows and possibly some temperatures after he reportedly hired a group of male strippers to “lavish attention on” the attendees of a women-only campaign event.
Alberto Orobio Arriaga, a candidate with the National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), reportedly hired the male strippers for an event held at an aquatic center in Ziracuaretiro, located about 100 kilometers southwest of Morelia.
Alberto Orobio Arriaga is a National Action Party/Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate for mayor of Ziracuaretiro, Michoacán. (Alberto Orobio/Facebook)
Orobio arranged the event for a PAN candidate for the federal Senate, Alberto Lucatero. Lucatero was supposed to meet with female attendees at the Michoacán campaign event, but Orobio announced on social media that Lucatero was unable to go and that he was sending “a surprise” in the Senate candidate’s stead.
Video footage shows that at least two strippers entertained dozens of women, a few of whom got up close and personal with the semi-naked young men.
One attendee, identified only as Soraya, told local media that some women stayed outside in the garden and pool area of the aquatic center while the striptease was taking place but that others went inside to check out the performance because “curiosity got the better of us.”
“… All of us screamed, laughed, clapped and had a lot of fun,” she said.
The news website SDP Noticias reported that the women at the campaign event were treated to a “taco de ojo” – literally an “eye taco,” but also a term that can be translated into English as “eye candy.”
Radio Fórmula reported that Orobio has faced criticism for possibly using public money to hire the strippers for the event, as political parties in Mexico receive public funding for campaigns.
Other social media users opined that it was a good strategy to get people’s attention.
It is not the first time that the PAN-PRI candidate has sparked controversy on the campaign trail: he also attracted attention after saying that he identified as a woman when registering his candidacy with the National Electoral Institute.
He reportedly did so to avoid falling foul of gender quota rules.
Mexican law enforcement have made record illicit fentanyl seizures since AMLO took office, and also have shut down some significant clandestine narco-labs, like this one in Sonora. (Cuartoscuro)
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged on Wednesday that the current Mexican government has seized “a record amount of fentanyl,” but stressed that additional U.S. funding is needed to help Mexico further strengthen its anti-narcotics capacity.
During an appearance before the United States House Committee on Appropriations, Blinken was asked by Representative Hal Rogers how the State Department planned to use a requested US $1.56 billion in “international narcotics control and law enforcement funding” — an increase of $166 million from the current fiscal year level — to “help end this ongoing tragedy” caused by illicit fentanyl, which is responsible for the majority of overdoses deaths in the U.S.
At an appearance in Congress on Wednesday, Blinken said Mexico needs continued U.S. financing and support in the ongoing fight against illicit fentanyl. (Screen capture)
“One of the most critical things is continuing to build the capacity of partner countries as well as to strengthen our cooperation with them. I think Mexico is a good example of that,” the secretary of state responded.
Blinken said that the United States in recent years has “significantly increased” its “collaborative efforts” with Mexico “to try to disrupt, dismantle” and “take down” transnational criminal organizations that engage in fentanyl trafficking, and to combat associated financial networks.
“We have worked with … [Mexico] for example, with information and support that’s produced dozens of arrests of first and second-tier operatives in these criminal enterprises,” he said.
Mexico has “seized a record amount of fentanyl” and “disrupted production facilities,” Blinken said.
Nogales, Arizona is considered a major point of entry for fentanyl into the U.S.; pictured here are over 33,000 pills found strapped to a smuggler’s body in an attempted crossing in February. (CBP Troy Miller/X)
“But all of that comes with our assistance, our support, so this is just one example of where the additional funds would allow us to further strengthen … [Mexico’s] own capacity,” he added.
Blinken also stressed the importance of bolstering efforts to stop fentanyl entering the United States from Mexico, where the powerful opioid is made with precursor chemicals shipped from Asia, especially China.
“[It’s] very important that we deploy the most modern and effective technology in detecting efforts to smuggle fentanyl or other synthetic opioids into the United States,” he said.
“We have the technology. It’s both the old kind, things like canines can be very effective, but also actual technology — screening technology. … Based on our best assessments, the overwhelming majority of the fentanyl coming into this country is coming through our ports of entry, so deploying that technology on both sides — the Mexican side and our side — that can make a big difference,” Blinken said.
The capture in January 2023 of Ovidio Guzmán of the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel was considered a victory for this administration. He was extradited to the U.S. to face charges. (Cuartoscuro)
His remarks came two weeks after the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said in its National Drug Threat Assessment report that the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel have a presence in every state of the United States and “have caused the worst drug crisis in U.S. history.”
The “dominance” of those two cartels “over the synthetic drug trade in particular is evident in the relentless stream of illicit fentanyl and methamphetamine crossing the border toward U.S. markets,” the DEA said.
How much fentanyl have Mexican authorities seized since AMLO took office?
Although large amounts of fentanyl continue to enter the United States from Mexico, the current Mexican government has seized far greater quantities of the drug than any previous administration.
National Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval reported last week that a total of 8,222.5 kilograms of fentanyl, or 8.2 tonnes, was confiscated between Dec. 1, 2018 — the date President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office — and May 13.
He has previously acknowledged that fentanyl seizures have increased because drug consumption and production patterns have changed.
“There was a change in consumption, there was a change in drug markets due to the ease of producing synthetic drugs,” Sandoval said in late 2021 when reporting that the quantity of fentanyl seized in the first three years of the current government had increased 525% compared to the previous three years.
The lab shut down in February in Sonora was reportedly the largest discovered so far during AMLO’s term. (Semar/Cuartoscuro)
Only 532 kilograms of fentanyl were confiscated during the final four years of Enrique Peña Nieto’s 2012-18 term, a figure that accounts for just 6% of the total seized during this administration.
In addition to seizing fentanyl destined for the U.S. market, authorities in recent years, as Blinken noted, have dismantled clandestine “narco” labs where cartels make fentanyl, methamphetamine and other drugs. One shut down in February in Sonora was reported to be the largest seized during López Obrador’s administration.
The federal government has said on repeated occasions that it is fully committed to the fight against fentanyl and is doing all it can to stop the flow of the powerful synthetic opioid into the U.S.
Ovidio Guzmán — son of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera and an alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader — was finally detained in January 2023 after authorities let him go in 2019, and there have been arrests of other high-profile suspects allegedly involved in fentanyl trafficking, such as that of Gilberto Martínez Rentería, another alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader known as “El 50.”
“We’re working with our partners on the other side of the border and there I would say it’s very uneven. We’ve had some instances where we’ve had a key arrest, an extradition, a key operation — we’ve started to work with vetted teams down there which is an important effort in the right direction, but we need much, much more than we’re getting from the Mexican government,” he said.
Greenpeace activists in front of the National Action Party (PAN) offices in Mexico City. They were returning "election trash," — PAN banners and posters they collected around the capital. (Gustavo Graf/Greenpeace México)
To protest the abundance of “election trash” — i.e., banners and posters produced for political campaigns in Mexico’s June 2 election — Greenpeace activists in Mexico City undertook a symbolic gesture last weekend: returning the electoral detritus to the doorsteps of the parties responsible.
Coming just two weeks before the June 2 elections, the action on May 18 and 19 against campaign materials as environmentally unfriendly election trash spanned several municipalities, including Iztapalapa, Tlalpan, Coyoacán, Benito Juárez and Miguel Hidalgo.
¿Cuánta basura electoral más tenemos que soportar? 🛑
Llevamos a los partidos políticos propaganda con la que han inundado nuestras ciudades, hecha de plástico e imposibles de reciclar.🚫♻️
Greenpeace México activists also called upon citizens to sign an open letter supporting their demands. (Greenpeace/X)
According to a Greenpeace México post on the social media platform X, the nongovernmental organization Foundation for the Rescue and Recovery of the Urban Landscape (@TuMexicoLimpio) estimates that in Mexico City alone, election garbage during this election cycle could reach 25,000 tonnes.
To make their point, activists and volunteers took the banners and paraphernalia they had taken down from buildings, bridges and other locations around the capital to the headquarters of various political parties. Most of the “election trash” haul went to the offices of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) or the National Action Party (PAN).
Morena leads the Let’s Keep Making History coalition, which also includes the Labor Party (PT) and Green Party (PVEM) and is backing Claudia Sheinbaum for president. The PAN-led Strength and Heart for Mexico alliance, which supports Xóchitl Gálvez, includes the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).
The posters and banners, some of which are torn down and discarded by political rivals, end up accumulating without a recycling plan. Greenpeace México said that most political banners are made of plastics, which can take between decades and hundreds of years to degrade.
Ornela Garelli Rios, an activist with Plastic-Free Oceans at Greenpeace México, emphasized the urgency of the situation regarding election trash.
“In the midst of an unprecedented environmental crisis, it is unacceptable that political parties and coalitions flood our cities with electoral propaganda made with plastics. The statistics are staggering,” she said, citing the 25,000 tonnes figure.
The campaign to get parties to take responsibility for their campaign materials is part of a larger Greenpeace México move to reduce plastics generated in Mexico. On May 14, the organization protested at a Unilever de México factory where personal hygiene and household products are made. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
Greenpeace México called for accountability on the issue from Mexico’s political parties.
Their demands included: publicly disclosing the quantity of election materials being used, its makeup and plans for recycling the resulting trash; ending further placements; and replaciing banner use with more innovative campaign strategies, such as online platforms.
As Mexico heads toward the June 2 elections, the INE has already enforced the prohibition of various forms of campaign materials in an attempt to foster an environment conducive to free and mindful voting.
The genesis of the ban lies partly in clashes between current contenders in the Mexico City mayoral race.
The Electoral Institute of Mexico City (IECM) intervened following a “propaganda war” between Clara Brugada of the Let’s Keep Making History coalition and Santiago Taboada of Strength and Heart for Mexico, opposing candidates for mayor of Mexico City.
The situation, which included sabotage of political banners, led to revised guidelines on the distribution of campaign materials.
Greenpeace seized upon that moment to urge the mayoral candidates to confront the plastic pollution engendered by their election campaigns.
Prior to June 2, there will be a three-day period in which the parties must halt political campaigning and refrain from placing new banners, posters and other campaign items in public. Said items must be removed during the seven days after Election Day.
"Les Distractions de Dagobert," painted in 1945, draws from the life of a 7th-century Frankish king. (Sotheby's/Leonora Carrington)
The British-born painter Leonora Carrington, who fled war-torn Europe to Mexico City in 1942, has become one of the five most valuable women artists in the world after one of her paintings sold for US $28.5 million.
“Les Distractions de Dagobert,” painted two years after Carrington settled in the capital, sold at Sotheby’s in New York last Wednesday to the Argentine businessman Eduardo Costantini, founder of the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art (Malba).
The artist in 1963 while working on “The Magical World of the Maya” for Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology.
With this sale, Carrington broke her own record, which had stood at US $3.3 million in 2022. “Les Distractions de Dagobert” itself was actually sold 30 years ago for less than US $500,000.
Back then, Constantini was outbid.
The painting “is one of the most admired works in the history of Surrealism and an unparalleled masterpiece of Latin American art,” Constantini said after the sale, adding that this time, he wouldn’t let the piece get away.
“I said, ‘This time, I can’t fail again,'” Constantini said in a video about the sale produced by Sotheby’s.
“Les Distractions de Dagobert” is widely considered an icon of its author’s surreal world. Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s head of impressionist and modern art in New York, called it “the definitive masterpiece of Leonora Carrington’s long and storied career, bearing all the hallmarks of the artist at her absolute height.”
The work’s title references Dagobert, a Merovingian monarch who ruled the Kingdom of the Franks in the early 7th century. On the canvas, Carrington captures a tapestry of vignettes ranging from extinct volcanoes, lakes of fire and aquascapes to hybrid creatures and mysterious rituals, in a composition that represents the four elements.
Outbid 30 Years Ago, Eduardo Costantini Finally Won This Leonora Carrington Masterpiece at Auction
Eduardo Constantini, who bought the painting after being outbid on it at auction 30 years ago, speaks about his love of “Les Distractions de Dagobert,” by Leonora Carrington in a video produced by Sotheby’s.
According to Sotheby’s, the imagery draws from the Irish mythology that Carrington learned about as a child, as well as the Kabbalah and Indigenous Mexican cosmology. The painting’s technique “is a testament to Carrington’s technical brilliance,” the auction house added.
For Anna Di Stasi, senior vice president and head of Latin American art at Sotheby’s, “Les Distractions de Dagobert” is “an achievement only possible in 1940s Mexico.”
Born in Lancashire, England in 1917, Carrington joined upon arriving in Mexico a community of “exiled” and native Surrealists. These figures included Spanish painter Remedios Varo, the Austrian artist Wolfgang Paalen, French poet and artist Alice Rahon and Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
Carrington’s son Gabriel Weisz Carrington, who is a professor of comparative literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, (UNAM) said that her work “developed a very personal interpretation of Surrealism, influenced by motherhood.”
This historic auction comes as part of increased interest in female artists associated with the Surrealist movement — a path led by Kahlo. In 2021, Kahlo’s painting “Diego y yo” sold for the historic sum of US $34.9 million at Sotheby’s in New York. This was the highest price ever fetched by a work by a Latin American artist, and the second highest price achieved at auction for a female artist.
Breaking another record, Carrington is now the most valuable UK-born female artist. According to Sotheby’s, the value of her pieces now surpass works from her fellow Surrealists Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst — the latter of whom she was once romantically involved with.
Learn to make these Nayarit seafood classics - and cocktails to wash them down with. (Carlos Escamilla Molina/Shutterstock)
Puerto Vallarta is probably my favorite place in the world. When I close my eyes and think of it, several images come to mind: the lush jungle, the clear beaches of the Pacific coast and the enchanting town. Most importantly, the flavor of traditional Puerto Vallarta seafood recipes is an essential part of my childhood, and something I won’t easily forget.
The resort city on the Mexican Pacific coast has been my family’s vacationing spot for decades. While we’ve witnessed the city’s growth thanks to tourism and the expat community, there are two things that Puerto Vallarta has managed to preserve: the small-town feeling and its traditional and delicious food.
Despite massive growth in recent years, Puerto Vallarta still feels like a charming fishing village – and has the seafood to match. (Alonso Reyes/Unsplash)
Thanks to its great location, Puerto Vallarta enjoys an amazing array of seafood all year round. The local catch in Puerto Vallarta includes shrimp, sailfish, swordfish, marlin, bream, sawfish, snapper, and many more.
While most of these delicacies can be found along Mexico’s Pacific coast, each region has its own recipes. That is why all seafood restaurants in non-coastal cities in Mexico specify what type of seafood they prepare (i.e. seafood Sinaloa style or Cabo style).
Today, I’m going to share two staple Puerto Vallarta style seafood recipes (also known as Nayarit style, despite the fact Puerto Vallarta is in Jalisco). If you read through the end, you’ll find bonus alcoholic beverage recipes to pair with these delicious dishes.
Zarandeado Fish
Pescado Zarandeado, a Puerto Vallarta classic. (Gobierno de Nayarit)
Serves 6-8
Pescado zarandeado is hands down the most famous dish in Puerto Vallarta and the wider Bahía de Banderas region. Its name comes from the zaranda, a pit made of wood used to grill the fish. The secret of this grilled fish lies in the marinade, which is made up of several spices that blend to turn the fish a vivid red. If you don’t have a grill, you can cook this dish in an oven.
Ingredients:
1 whole red snapper, opened, scaled and cleaned
50 grams of achiote
3 chiles de árbol, crushed
¼ onion
1 garlic clove, finely grated
Juice of 1 orange
Juice of 1 lime (limón verde)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 cup water
1 tsp oregano
Coarse salt and pepper to taste
100g butter
Corn tortillas
Preparation
Warm grill to medium heat or preheat oven to 180 Celsius (350F).
For the adobo marinade, mix the achiote with chiles, lime juice, orange juice, vinegar, garlic, onion, water, oregano, salt and pepper. Season both sides of the fish fillets with salt and pepper, then brush the top side with melted butter. Place the fish fillet in a container and add the adobo sauce on the flesh side, making sure it covers the entire fish. Leave a little adobo on the side.
Grill the fish with the skin side down until it is charred (about 8 to 12 minutes). Turn the fish and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes or until charred and the flesh can be easily removed. Add the remaining adobo to the flesh and turn to cook again for about 1 minute.
If you cook it in the oven, cook it for 8-10 minutes or until the flesh can be easily removed.
To serve, place the fish on a platter with the flesh upwards. Decorate with sliced onions and serve with tortillas to make tacos. Add your favorite salsa, serve with guacamole and squeeze lime on top.
The adobo is also ideal for shrimp.
Pickled Marlin Tacos or Tostadas
Tostadas de Marlin are another staple of my childhood visits to Vallarta. (Nutrioli)
6-7 tostadas
Marlin tacos and tostadas are very popular in Puerto Vallarta — and extremely easy to prepare. They’re usually served as an appetizer before a pescado zarandeado or main dish. This recipe uses smoked marlin which you can easily find in any supermarket.
Ingredients:
400g smoked marlin, shredded
2 onions, finely sliced
1/4 piece cabbage, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic finely grated
2 peeled carrots, shredded
3 bay leaves
1 chipotle chili
2 pickled jalapeño chiles and carrots with 2 tablespoons of pickled juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
Corn tortillas and tostadas
Preparation
Place a pan over medium heat and sauté the onion slices until crystalized. Add coarse salt to taste to avoid the onions turning yellow. Once the onion is ready, add garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes making sure the garlic doesn’t get burned.
Add smoked marlin and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add bay leaves, season with pepper and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add carrots and cabbage, cook for 2-3 minutes, and add pickled chiles, carrots and juice. Sauté for 2-3 minutes and serve.
Serve on a crispy tostada or on a tortilla to prepare a taco. You can add one pickled chili to each tostada and taco if you like it spicy.
Provecho!
Bonus cocktail recipes
These marisco dishes pair perfectly with an iced-cold michelada or paloma.
Michelada
Wash your seafood down with a perfect michelada. (T. Tseng/Flickr)
The michelada is made up of two main ingredients: beer and clamato (tomato and clam) juice.
You’ll first need to frost the rim of your glass with lime and salt. Then, add 1 cup of Clamato and the juice of 2 lemons. Add Worcestershire sauce to taste, black seasoning sauce (salsa Maggi), Valentina and salt and pepper. I also like to add Tajin.
Mix all the ingredients well. Add ice and beer and enjoy!
Paloma
The name of this tequila cocktail is apparently inspired by the mariachi song Paloma, which was traditionally sung in the cantinas where customers drank tequila with mineral water and grapefruit juice.
Just as with the michelada, frost the rim of your glass with lime and salt. Add a shot of tequila (1-2 oz.) to a glass and mix with the juice of half a lime and a pinch of salt. Add ice and equal parts of pink grapefruit soda and mineral water. Mix well and enjoy.
Salud!
Gabriela Solis is a Mexican lawyer turned full-time writer. She was born and raised in Guadalajara and covers business, culture, lifestyle and travel for Mexico News Daily. You can follow her lifestyle blog Dunas y Palmeras.
Citibanamex surveyed over 30 banks and institutions including Barclays, HSBC and JP Morgan. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
The Mexican peso will weaken to just under 18 to the US dollar by the end of 2024.
The Mexican economy will grow by 2.2% in 2024.
Mexico’s average inflation rate this year will be just above 4.2%.
The Bank of Mexico’s benchmark interest rate will be 10% at the end of 2024.
These are some of the consensus forecasts derived from the latest Citibanamex Expectations Survey, for which more than 30 banks, brokerages and research organizations were asked to provide economic predictions for Mexico.
The consensus forecast of the banks, brokerages and research organizations surveyed by Citibanamex is that the peso will trade at 17.90 to the dollar at the end of 2024. That forecast was unchanged from that of the previous survey, conducted two weeks earlier.
A USD:MXN exchange rate of 17.90 would represent a depreciation of over 7% for the peso compared to its current level.
The end-of-year USD:MXN exchange rate forecasts ranged from 16.75 (from the bank Natixis) to 19.80 (from the brokerage Masari Casa de Bolsa).
The consensus forecast for the end of 2025 is that the peso will be trading at 18.66 to the dollar.
The consensus forecast is that Mexico’s average inflation rate will be 4.21% this year. That outlook is up from the 4.17% consensus forecast derived from the previous Citibanamex survey.
The highest 2024 inflation forecast was 4.65% (from the Monex financial group), while the lowest was 3.80% (from Oxford Economics).
In 2025, the consensus forecast of those surveyed by Citibanamex is that inflation will average 3.71%.
The Bank of Mexico currently targets inflation of 3% with a “tolerance” of 1 percentage point in either direction.
Interest rates
The consensus forecast is that the Bank of Mexico will cut its official interest rate by 25 basis points to 10.75% in June.
Around three-quarters of the entities surveyed by Citibanamex — 26 of 34 — predicted that the central bank will make a 25-basis-point cut to its key rate next month.
The others forecast that a cut of the same size will come in either August or September.
The bank’s governing board will hold its next monetary policy meeting on June 27. Its subsequent meetings will take place on Aug. 8 and Sept. 26.
The Bank of Mexico reduced its benchmark rate to 11% from a record high of 11.25% in March. It left the rate unchanged after the governing board’s meeting on May 9.
The consensus forecast is that the central bank will make additional cuts in 2024 to leave its key interest rate at 10% at the end of the year. That prediction is unchanged compared to the previous Citibanamex survey.
The lowest end-of-year forecast for interest rates was 9% (from Oxford Economics), while the highest was 10.50% (from Masari Casa de Bolsa).
The consensus forecast is that the Bank of Mexico’s official interest rate will be 7.88% at the end of 2025.
Step inside the Garden of Ghostly Delights in Tala, Jalisco, which hides a prehistoric world world of wonder. (All photos by John Pint)
Nearly fifty years ago, Dr. John Wright came to Mexico to study pyroclastic flows: great “rivers” of incandescent volcanic ash that flowed across the landscape some 95,000 years ago when a huge, explosive volcanic eruption occurred not far from what is now Tala, Jalisco, close to Mexico’s second city of Guadalajara.
Among the curiosities that Wright encountered during his two field trips in the 1970s to the woods around the little town of Tala, were rock formations that less scientific nature lovers have dubbed “fairy footstools.”
Dr. John Wright mapping volcanics in 2012, in South Australia. Wright plans to revisit Tala’s extraordinary rock formations this October.
Typically they look like nicely rounded tree stumps, perhaps a foot or two high. The casual observer first sees them as cut trees, but on closer observation, they discover that they are made of stone.
In his book on Volcanic Successions, published in 1987, Wright calls them steam pipes or paleo-fumarolic pipes, formed eons ago when water vapor percolated upward through thick layers of hot ash.
“The steam bubbles,” says Wright, “altered the ash chemically, precipitating minerals harder than the surrounding ash. Wherever bubbles rose, smooth cylinders of rock perhaps over 20 meters in length, were created beneath the surface.”
The Great Wall of Pipes
The most notable collection of steam pipes is conveniently located near Parque Recreativo La Hiedra, a campsite in the Primavera Forest located 21 kilometers west of Guadalajara. Alongside this park runs El Río Salado, the Salty River, whose waters are a pleasant 25 degrees Celsius.
A close-up of pipes in the Great Wall. Their horizontal orientation has so far baffled scientists.
The park has dammed the river in two places to create large pools for swimming and has an extensive flat area, perfect for camping.
The Great Wall of Pipes is located 300 meters downstream. It is about 70 meters long and 25 high and is filled with hundreds of big cylinders of rock, all of them lying on their sides. This has left scientists baffled. The theory of steam bubbles rising through hot ash would result in vertical pipes, not horizontal ones. But similar walls of horizontal pipes — not as large as this one — have been found all around the Tala area, casting doubt on the theory of how the pipes were formed.
“New theories are being proposed,” says Wright, “theories that the percolation was downward — or perhaps every which way. More study is required.”
Just how it was formed remains a mystery, but one thing is certain, adds Wright: “Nothing like the Great Wall has ever been described in the literature. It appears to be unique.”
Ghosts, goblins, and happiness
The so-called “King of the Goblins” towers over passing hikers.
Apart from ”fairy footstools,” the environs of Tala host “goblins.” These are bizarrely shaped rocks named after similar features seen in Goblin Canyon Park, New Mexico. Unlike the pipes, these are roughly textured rocks that may take many shapes, for example, tall stately spires or curvy meandering walls, which you’d swear were man-made. Other bizarre forms may remind you of a sofa, an armchair, or a spooky version of SpongeBob Squarepants.
The best place to see the full range of these weird formations is a failed subdivision called Villa Felicidad, located directly east of Tala. Here you can drive to a path through what I call The Garden of Ghostly Delights which will take you to a tall spire known as el “Rey de los Duendes,” the King of the Goblins.
Along this short two-kilometer trail, you can see the full gamut of rock formations created by the bubbling action of steam trapped under a blanket of hot ash nearly 100,000 years ago.
The bizarre Martian Eyes
The geological formations of Tala appear to be unique to the area, and their origin remains unclear.
Of particular interest is the Little Wall of Martian Eyes. Yes, it’s another set of horizontally oriented pipes that definitely look like they come from another planet.
This trail parallels el “Río De Las Ánimas,” the River of Ghosts, so named because it runs through many kilometers of strange stone figures which, if seen at dusk might convince anyone that they had wandered into the realm of the undead.
Because the River of Ghosts is born inside the protected Primavera Forest, it is completely free of pollution from human sources and its mild temperature invites you to jump right in.
Long pipes lie exposed to view near Agua Dulce Campground in the Primavera Forest.
At the northern edge of the Kingdom of Ghosts and Goblins lies the Agua Dulce Park and Campsite. This is perhaps the best place to camp inside the Primavera Forest. The park is named after “the Río Agua Dulce ,” or Sweet Water River, which originates within the confines of this campsite. Drinkable, delicious, crystal clear, cold water bubbles out of the ground here, a curiosity in an area dominated by hot rivers.
Besides a natural swimming hole, this site offers restrooms, ponies, a zipline, and a high watchtower from which you can see clear across the forest to Tequila Volcano on the horizon.
A hike from Agua Dulce to the Salty River (the continuation of Rio Caliente) will take you past a nice selection of goblins and pipes. The pipes are large and lie neither horizontally nor vertically but somewhere in between, just to give the researchers another headache.
The Ghost and Goblin Park is huge, covering an area of more than 80 square kilometers.
“Hugo’s Heavenly Pool” in Villa Felicidad is fed by the clean, but extremely cold Río Zarco.
A unique natural marvel
“The next largest place displaying these phenomena is Goblin Canyon New Mexico, which measures less than a square kilometer in size, a magnitude smaller than what you will find in Jalisco,” says John Wright.
Could there be another site like this somewhere else in the world?
“We’ve been looking,” says Wright. “New Zealand has the perfect conditions for this, but if they had pipes and goblins, we would have seen photos by now. South America is another good candidate, but it’s crawling with geologists and none have reported anything like this. At the moment, Tala seems the world champion: the largest paleo-fumarolic area known on the planet.”
“And then, it has the Great Wall of Pipes,” adds Wright, with a sparkle in his eye. “Where else are you going to find something like that?”
John Pint 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.
Lake Pátzcuaro in the state of Michoacán, showing cracks in the lake bed where water once flowed. (Juan José Estrada/Cuartoscuro)
As much of Mexico experiences high temperatures this week with the third heat wave of the season, the latest national drought monitor report published by Conagua (National Water Commission) on Monday shows that drought also continues to increase nationwide.
Some level of drought was affecting 70.76% of the territory in Mexico through May 15, with different locations falling somewhere on Conagua’s range of “moderate” to “exceptional” drought conditions.
From Conagua’s latest report on drought in Mexico through May 15, released on Monday. The color key at center left ranges from “abnormally dry” (yellow) to “exceptional drought” (maroon).
The cyclical El Niño climate pattern, which began last June, features warming conditions in the eastern Pacific Ocean and has been blamed for high temperatures and dry conditions in Mexico. This week, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) warned that in some states, temperatures would be in excess of 45 degrees Celsius.
The agency has also forecast two additional heat waves to come over the next month.
Forecasters predict a strong La Niña phenomenon — characterized by strong winds pushing warmer Pacific waters west and bringing cooler temperatures to Mexico’s Pacific coast — will follow as El Niño concludes, and should bring heavy rains to western Mexico this summer. Additionally, meteorologists predict an active hurricane season in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
As the Cutzamala system struggles to provide enough water, officials in Mexico City and Mexico state have put increasing pressure on aquifers to supplement to meet demand, installing groundwater wells. Zumpango lake in México state is one casualty of both drought and this strategy. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
Even though rain is forecast over the next 7–10 days in many parts of the country, total precipitation for May will be below normal; that’s particularly bad news for the 51% of Mexico which is experiencing severe, extreme or exceptional drought — Mexico’s three worst drought ratings.
Mexico City finds itself in the severe drought category, and Conagua’s latest report indicates that the Cutzamala water system — the transfer system which supplies roughly 25% of Mexico City’s water — is operating at historically low levels (at 29.8% capacity).
It is the first time Cutzamala has ever been recorded at below 30% capacity.
Three of the reservoirs that make up the Cutzamala system are at alarmingly low levels. The El Bosque reservoir in Michoacán is at 38.1% of capacity, the Villa Victoria reservoir in México state is at 25.5% and the Valle de Bravo reservoir is at 27.5%.
The water scarcity has prompted federal, Mexico City and México state water authorities to reduce the flow into the Mexico City metro area to 8 cubic meters per second. Water supply has been restricted several times in recent years, steadily being reduced from 14.8 cubic meters per second in June 2022 — a rate that had been sustained for at least the previous seven years, according to a report authored by Conagua and the World Bank.
News outlet ADN 40 reported that “day zero” for the Cutzamala water system — when water would run out unless rains refill the reservoirs — would have been as soon as June 26, had the flow not been reduced.
ADN 40 also reported that the Cutzamala system requires the equivalent of 488 days of rain to restore its reservoirs to an acceptable level.
According to the national weather agency, last year’s rainfall was 32% below the historical average.
Prime Minister Johnny Briceño visited Mexico on May 7 and met with President López Obrador, who confirmed on Tuesday an agreement to supply the Central American country with electricity. (Cuartoscuro)
Blackouts recently affected many parts of Mexico as demand for power increased amid hot weather, but the country will nevertheless supply electricity to Belize, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Tuesday.
“We just had a meeting with the prime minister of Belize and there is an agreement with them to help with electricity even with this special situation due to the heat,” López Obrador told reporters at his morning press conference.
“We’re going to fulfill the agreement … so they don’t lack electricity in Belize,” he said. “… We are neighbors and we have to help each other.”
López Obrador didn’t say how much electricity Mexico would supply to Belize, when cross-border transmission would commence or whether the government of the small Central American country would pay for the power it receives.
Belize borders the state of Quintana Roo, from where electricity will presumably be transmitted to Mexico’s neighbor.
López Obrador met with Belize Prime Minister Johnny Briceño in Mexico City on May 7, and energy was one of the issues they discussed, according to a government statement.
Last week, the president discussed the stability of the national grid, which he reiterated on Tuesday is “in good shape.” (Lopezobrador.org.mx)
Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Bárcena said the same day that Mexico was willing to sell electricity to both Belize and Guatemala. That remark came just hours before blackouts occurred in more than 20 states after the National Energy Control Center declared a state of emergency in Mexico’s electricity system.
On Tuesday, López Obrador noted that there were no blackouts on Monday despite high demand for electricity that coincided with the commencement of the third heat wave of the year.
“Yesterday was a day of high energy usage, but fortunately there wasn’t a suspension of electricity service,” he said.
Despite what “some people” say, the national electricity sector is in good shape, the president said, insinuating that Mexico was in a position to supply power to Belize without compromising domestic service.
He asserted that his government took action as soon as it took office to strengthen the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), a state-owned utility.
An indigenous Maya beekeeper extracts Melipona honey from a jobón, a hollow log used in a Mayan beekeeping tradition that goes back to before A.D. 1000. (Mark Viales)
Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced Monday the discovery of a cache of ancient Maya beekeeping tools found during construction on a Quintana Roo section of the Maya Train.
The significant discovery appears to support the theory that ancient Maya beekeeping and honey production were practiced not only in the northern part of modern-day Quintana Roo — something which researchers have long known — but also in the southern part.
The Maya today and in precolonial times cultivated the Melipona beecheii, known in the Mayan language as xunán kab. (Wikimedia Commons)
The discovery of the three limestone jobón lids, plus other artifacts of Maya daily life not related to beekeeping, was made in an area of southern Quintana Roo encompassed by Bacalar and Felipe Carillo, southern Quintana Roo municipalities along the Maya Train’s Section 6, the Tulum-Chetumal route.
The discovered jobón lids — also known colloquially as panuchos — are round and measure between 20 and 25 centimeters long. They are believed to belong to the Mayan Postclassic Period (A.D. 950–1539), a time during which the peninsula was the central hub of Melipona honey production.
“Only one of the lids is in a good state of conservation,” Carlos Fidel Martínez said in a statement published by INAH, but “the other two [lids] have a high degree of erosion.”
The jobón — a hollow log in which an active hive of melipona bees is housed, according to Maya beekeeping tradition — is still used today by Indigenous Maya on the Yucatán Peninsula. In traditional Maya beekeeping today, lids like the ones discovered by INAH are also still used to plug the opening of a jobón.
According to Martínez, excavators initially thought that they had bumped into a wall. However, upon discovering the lids, they realized that they had discovered the vestiges of a meliponary, an apiary dedicated to cultivating Melipona beecheii — the Maya’s “sacred bee.”
Melipona honey was important to the ancient Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula: they used it for ceremonial purposes, as food and as a trade commodity.
It was not until excavators with the National Institute of Anthropology and History found the three jobón lids — one of which is pictured here — that they realized they had discovered an apiary from the Post Classical Mayan Period. (INAH)
In addition to the lids, archaeologists unearthed other artifacts made of ceramics, stone and flint, including a cajete, or vase, with red and orange decorations. They also found two limestone metates that are 40 centimeters and 50 centimeters long, an ax, a hammer and a star-shaped shell bead.
The area where archaeologists found the beekeeping tools and the other artifacts is referred to by INAH as Frente 5, archaeologist Raquel Liliana Hernández Estrada said — an area inhabited by ancient Maya communities that did not belong to the elite.
“Most likely, we are in the presence of housing complexes from cities peripheral to ceremonial sites such as the Chacchoben Archaeological Zone and the Los Limones site,” Hernández said.
Since the construction of the Maya Train began in 2021, archaeologists have remarked that the discoveries made along the route could be considered Mexico’s “greatest archaeological treasure” in recent decades.
