Friday, August 1, 2025

Hiking along Río Ferrería is easy and drama-free — with a few caveats

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Ferreria River, Jalisco
A small pool captures the water from a thermal spring alongside the Ferrería River.

Here, at last, is a place in western Mexico that offers you a chance to commune with Mother Nature yet is not located at the end of a suspension-destroying, washboard brecha (dirt road).

On the contrary, on this journey, you can park your car — no matter its clearance — at the side of a nicely asphalted road and — in just five minutes — cool your feet in the clean and picturesque Ferrería River, located 80 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara and on the way to the little town of Chiquilistlán, Jalisco.

If you happen to be wearing an old pair of tennis shoes or a new pair of Teva sandals, you can wade to the other side of the river — which is less than a foot deep — and follow the trail straight to a rustic, man-made pool filled with the water of a warm spring. If it’s a hot day in May, jump into the deep part of the river for a swim.

Quite possibly, you will find that you have the whole place to yourself.

Continue upstream a bit further and on the riverbank and you’ll see a curious waterfall, which is doubly delightful: it’s great both for drinking and for showering. And if you like the taste of Eau Minérale Perrier, you are in for a treat.

Caver in Jalisco, Mexico
Before COVID, Mexican cavers wore masks to guard against Histoplasma fungus.

This sparkling water, which I call “Agua Mineral Ferrier,” is not only naturally carbonated but also has a subtle flavor that might just remind you of the Mexican coconut.

Since this river runs all year round, it’s home to all sorts of insects, birds and all sorts of other animals. You can see deer, brightly colored butterflies, kingfishers and hawks, all while enjoying the flute-like song of the melodious clarín, the bird known in English as the Townsend’s solitaire.

Mosquitoes, however, we did not encounter, but do bring your repellent because there are a few pesky jejenes (gnats) in these parts. Also, watch out for poison ivy here and there.

As you walk alongside the Río Ferrería, you will notice occasional holes in the rock wall that look suspiciously like cave entrances. While most of them go back only a few meters, some do open up into genuine caverns deep and complex enough to get you lost.

The reason you find so many holes around here is that the rock through which the Ferrería flows is karst, a kind of limestone especially suitable for cave formation. Put a few drops of dilute hydrochloric acid on a rock in these parts and it will immediately fizz and bubble.

Since ordinary rainwater is just a little bit acidic, it can over thousands of years eat away limestone deep beneath the surface, creating a big empty space, perhaps with a river running through it.

Ferreria River, Jalisco
Don’t pass up tasting the sparkling water!

This is how many caves are formed, including two big caves along this stretch of the Ferrería.

One of these is La Cueva de Los Bandoleros, supposedly named after the legendary bandit Don Benito Canales and his gang.

With a name like this, people automatically assume the cave must be full of gold coins and bars of silver, but when we mapped it in 1994, the only treasure we found was bat guano — but not nearly as much of it as fills another cave alongside the Ferrería River.

This one is known as La Cueva de Paso Real and La Cueva de Chiquilistlán, but I prefer to call it La Cueva que no Debes Entrar (the cave you should stay out of) because local people say that more than 30 men died after trying to mine the tons of bat guano found inside it.

While shoveling the bat droppings into bags, they breathed in spores released by a fungus that grows on this guano — and on the guano found in almost every cave in western Mexico.

The spores settle in your lungs, and your immune system reacts to these foreign bodies by encapsulating them, leaving you feverish and coughing — or in some cases dead. This is why I recommend you stick to the river and stay out of the caves.

caver in Jalisco, Mexico
Susy Pint rappels into la Cueva de los Bandoleros.

While the Ferrería is very shallow in most places, there is a stretch where it’s deep enough for swimming and especially refreshing during the hot months of the dry season. In the rainy season, however, the river — whose source is a dam 20 kilometers away — can present serious problems, as I discovered one fine summer day when I took two geologist friends for a dip in the thermal pool.

The sky was blue, without a cloud to be seen, as we lowered ourselves into the agua caliente. Five minutes later, I noticed that the river had risen.

It was, in fact, rising so fast that the three of us barely had time to get out of the pool, grab our clothes and run up the side of the riverbank. A few seconds later, the warm pool simply disappeared, completely covered by the now swollen river.

Obviously, it was raining hard somewhere upstream, far, far away.

Fortunately, that was as high as the water got, and after an hour, it began to recede. We then made our way downstream back to the point where we had originally crossed the river. Although the water level had dropped, it was still a raging torrent that looked very capable of sweeping us away.

If we wanted to get back to our car, we would have to cross those frothing, chocolate-colored waters.

Paso Real Cave, Jalisco
Rock climbers come to the Paso Real cave to test their skills on its angled ceiling.

“I have a 15-meter length of nylon webbing in my backpack,” I told my companions, whom I will call Mario and María. “Can either of you swim?”

The look of surprise — and perhaps a glimmer of terror — in their eyes told me the answer.

“Okay, I’m going to tie the webbing around my waist. Mario, you hold the other end tight, please. I’m going to walk out to that big rock in the middle of the river, and then you, María, holding onto the rope for dear life, will come over to join me.”

Although María was a tough geologist accustomed to beating her way through the bush with the best of them, this prospect terrified her. “No! no! I can’t do it!” she told me.

“Yes, you can; I know you can,” I replied as I stepped into the churning waters.

And I was right. Once all three of us were at the big rock in the middle of the river, we repeated the procedure. Soon, we were back in the car, changing into dry clothes … and there still was not a raincloud to be seen over the limestone hills above the ever-fascinating Río Ferrería.

Ferreria River, Jalisco
Be prepared for wet shoes: you’ll need to cross the river several times.

To visit the Ferrería River, ask Google Maps to take you to 535R+46M Cítala, Jalisco, where you will find an abandoned house alongside the highway to Chiquilistlán. Next to a locked gate you will see a trail that will take you 150 meters down to the river crossing spot.

On the other side of the river, you will find a trail that leads to the warm pool 300 meters upstream — and 175 meters beyond that, the natural shower. Driving time from Guadalajara: about 90 minutes.

The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.

 

Paso Real Cave, Jalisco
Paso Real Cave is filled with bat guano, which, in turn, is impregnated with a fungus that causes histoplasmosis.

 

Ferreria River, Jalisco
It’s difficult to find a tree that’s not filled with bromeliads here.

 

Ferreria River, Jalisco
A short stretch of the river is deep enough for swimming.

 

Ferreria River, Jalisco
The Ferrería is shallow and peaceful, but flash floods are possible during the rainy season.

7 killed in Zamora, Michoacán, massacre; state leads in homicides this year

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After the shooting, state police secured the perimeter.
After the shooting, state police secured the perimeter. Twitter

Seven people were killed and three others were wounded in an armed attack in Zamora, Michoacán, on Thursday night.

Gunmen opened fire at a clandestine cantina known locally as “La Casa Azul” (The Blue House).

Four women and three men were killed, according to the Michoacán Attorney General’s Office. The ages of the victims ranged from 22 to 72. Two other men and one woman were wounded and taken to hospital for treatment.

Municipal and state police as well as members of the National Guard attended the scene of the crime but no arrests were reported.

The gunmen reportedly intended to abduct one man but began shooting when the people inside the property put up a fight.

According to a report by the news agency EFE, the illicit drinking hole also functions as a brothel and drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana are sold there.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel and La Nueva Familia Michoacana are among the criminal groups that operate in Zamora, located about 180 kilometers northwest of Morelia.

On a per capita basis, the municipality was the third most violent in the country last year with 187 homicides per 100,000 people, according to data compiled by crime monitoring website elcri.men.

Michoacán was the third most violent state for total homicides in 2021 with more than 2,700. It has recorded more murders this year than any other state with over 200 victims in the first 27 days of January.

With reports from EFE, Reforma and Infobae 

Elections chief warns against efforts by government to exert control

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INE president Lorenzo Córdova
National Electoral Institute president Lorenzo Córdova speaks to a meeting of National Action Party lawmakers on Thursday. Lorenzo Cordova/Twitter

National Electoral Institute (INE) president Lorenzo Córdova has warned National Action Party (PAN) lawmakers to be wary of any efforts by the government to exert pressure on the country’s electoral authorities.

Córdova attended a meeting of PAN deputies on Thursday and spoke of the possibility that the ruling Morena party will present an electoral reform during the upcoming sitting period of Congress.

A reform could be a good thing, but it must be aimed at improving Mexico’s party system and strengthening electoral institutions, legislatures and political institutes, he told the deputies, according to a statement issued by the INE.

“Be careful with a reform that, under the pretext of rescuing the autonomy of electoral authorities, includes greater political controls, given that via these controls pressure could be exerted on [state and federal] electoral authorities,” Córdova said.

The INE chief — who claims that the INE is already under attack by the ruling government — also said there is a possibility that the government will seek to change funding rules for the nation’s electoral authorities under the pretext of austerity but with the real aim of generating “conditions of submission.”

INE President Lorenzo Cordova
Córdova raised concerns that the ruling government could try to change electoral funding rules under the pretext of austerity. INE

“It’s not a good idea for electoral authorities to have to ask for money from executive powers [the president or state governors], given that the budget is a mechanism of control. … When you depend in a budgetary sense on the generosity of a government, the autonomy of electoral bodies is placed at grave risk,” Córdova said.

He noted that previous electoral reforms have occurred in the lead-up to midterm elections rather than presidential elections.

Implementing a wide-ranging electoral form in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election — Mexico’s midterms were held last year — would be a risk, Córdova said.

He said last June that it was “unbelievable” that President López Obrador was proposing an electoral reform just three weeks after “impeccable” elections were held.

The two men have clashed on several occasions, most recently over the staging of López Obrador’s so-called “revocation of mandate” vote — a referendum on his leadership, which will be held in April.

The INE chief on Thursday called on PAN lawmakers to be guided by the logic of “improving what we have but not reinventing the electoral system.”

López Obrador on Friday was critical of Córdova’s participation in the PAN meeting, asserting that it was inappropriate for him to attend, given that the INE is supposed to be an “impartial authority.”

The conservative National Action Party is currently the main opposition party in terms of the number of seats it holds in Congress. Morena and its allies have a majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Mexico News Daily 

López Obrador moves to eliminate key component of anti-corruption system

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SNA official Francisco Ciscomani said the Executive Secretariat is the “pillar” of the anti-corruption system and should not be eliminated.
SNA official Francisco Ciscomani said the Executive Secretariat is the “pillar” of the anti-corruption system and should not be eliminated. Twitter

A National Anti-Corruption System (SNA) official has called on President López Obrador to rethink a plan to get rid of one of its key components.

López Obrador intends to send a bill to Congress proposing the abolition of the Executive Secretariat of the SNA, an autonomous federal entity whose role is to coordinate the different institutions that make up the anti-corruption system.

Among those institutions are the Ministry of Public Administration, the National Institute of Transparency, the Federal Auditor’s Office and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.

The Executive Secretariat of the SNA has a budget of 123.2 million pesos (US $5.9 million) for 2022. Savings generated by its elimination would likely go to the funding of the federal government’s social programs.

Francisco Ciscomani, president of the SNA’s coordinating committee and citizens participation committee, said Thursday that he was worried about the president’s plan given the Executive Secretariat is the “pillar” of the anti-corruption system.

While “the president’s intention to send this money to social programs is laudable, the work of the Executive Secretariat is indisputable and necessary to solidify the National Anti-Corruption System,” he said at an online SNA meeting on Thursday evening.

Ciscomani noted that the secretariat’s budget was cut by more than 40% last year as part of the government’s austerity drive and its workforce was reduced by 20%. Yet it remains an “efficient institution” that has contributed to the construction and defense of the SNA, he said.

“… The citizens participation committee is going to … respectfully ask the president to … rethink the [plan to dismantle the Executive Secretariat] and to allow the work of this branch [of the SNA] to continue,” Ciscomani said.

He called on the attendees of the virtual meeting, among whom was Public Administration Minister Roberto Salcedo, to urge López Obrador to rethink his plan, but none committed to doing so.

María de la Luz Mijangos, head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, was the only attendee to respond to Ciscomani’s exhortation, but she was non-committal, asserting she wasn’t in a position to comment on the matter.

Eduardo Bohórquez, Mexico chief of the international nonprofit organization Transparency International, questioned why López Obrador – who has made combatting corruption the central objective of his government – wants to get rid of the Executive Secretariat when it is a “small, efficient body” that coordinates the anti-corruption actions of the various public institutions.

Ciscomani said that the president's intention to find more money for social programs was "laudable" but the SNA Executive Secretariat is "necessary" to the fight against corruption at an online SNA meeting on Thursday evening.
The president’s intention to find more money for social programs was “laudable” but the SNA Executive Secretariat is necessary to the fight against corruption, Ciscomani said at Thursday’s online SNA meeting. Screenshot

“… Like all administrative and government bodies it could be improved but if we analyze its cost in relation to its benefits, [we see that] it would be more expensive to eliminate it than to strengthen it,” he told the news website La Silla Rota.

Khemvirg Puente, a political science academic at the National Autonomous University who specializes in transparency and legislative issues, asserted that the only thing that abolition of the Executive Secretariat would achieve is to “hinder” the SNA.

He noted that the secretariat is not mentioned in the constitution and therefore the president’s proposal to eliminate it could pass Congress with the support of a simple majority, which the ruling Morena party and its allies have in both houses.

Without the secretariat, “what entity or area will be in charge of following up on the implementation of anti-corruption policies?” Puente asked.

In the president’s opinion, he said, the fight against corruption shouldn’t “necessarily involve organized civil society and other actors” outside the federal government.

López Obrador has long faced criticism for seeking to concentrate power in the federal executive.

He indicated more than a year ago that his government was planning to incorporate autonomous organizations into federal ministries in order to save money and avoid having more than one body doing the same thing.

“… We have to review all these bodies so that there is no duplication [of responsibilities] because we have to save, be efficient, not have so many apparatuses that eat up the budget,” he said in early January 2021.

The president’s critics say that he wants to concentrate government power while getting rid of autonomous organizations that might expose corruption or shortcomings in his administration.

López Obrador’s bill proposing the elimination of the SNA’s Executive Secretariat would also result in 16 autonomous organizations being absorbed into government departments. The newspaper Reforma, which has seen the initiative, listed the organizations that would be affected.

Among them are the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, which would be incorporated into the Interior Ministry; the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change, which would become part of the Environment Ministry; and the National Institute for the Elderly, which would be absorbed into the Welfare Ministry.

With reports from La Silla Rota, Milenio and Reforma

2021 was second worst on record for theft against taxi passengers in Mexico City

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A client gets into a Mexico City taxi.
There were 569 recorded thefts against taxi and ride share passengers in 2021

Attacks on Mexico City taxi passengers dropped during the lockdowns of 2020, but came back with a vengeance in 2021.

According to federal data, theft against taxi and rideshare passengers in Mexico City in 2021 was the second worst year according to available records, with 75% more recorded robberies than in 2020. The worst year was 2019.

There were 569 recorded thefts against passengers in 2021 compared to 326 in the previous year, according to Public Security Ministry data. Of the 569 robberies, 270 were violent.

The attacks were more common in some boroughs than in others. In 2021, the highest incidence of such thefts was seen in Cuauhtémoc, 93, Iztapalapa, 79, Benito Juárez, 56, Miguel Hidalgo, 52, Venustiano Carranza, 50, Álvaro Obregón, 49 and Gustavo A. Madero with 48.

One victim, Jennifer Espinosa, was robbed in a taxi in the city center. The driver stopped the taxi, allowing two men in, who blinded her with an ointment. “They told me it was an assault and that they needed my credit cards, money and whatever else I had with me. Sure enough, they took the cards out of my wallet. Later … we stopped at an ATM and they forced me to give them my PIN numbers and they took out the money. After that they took my rings, chains, earrings, bracelet, watch, and they told me that if I behaved well nothing was going to happen to me. That they were thieves, not rapists,” she said.

Another victim, Regina, was involved in a violent robbery. She took a taxi on Reforma Avenue in the historic center. Seven kilometers south, the driver stopped citing a mechanical failure. "I tried to get out, but there was no way to move the handle to open the door … I saw another person was standing by the door. [The driver] told me, we are not going to rape you, we just want your paycheck."

Regina was warned to close her eyes and keep her head down, while she was beaten in the face and stomach. “They took everything I brought of value … they even took my Metro card … it is still difficult for me to get into a taxi, the truth is that they beat me a lot, they hit my face, they hit my stomach a lot, I could not work for a long time,” she said.

With reports from Milenio

COVID roundup: death numbers spike as new cases keep rolling in

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Doctors attend to a COVID patient in serious condition in Mexico City.

Reported COVID-19 deaths have spiked this week while confirmed case numbers also increased sharply after dipping on Sunday and Monday.

The Health Ministry reported 475 additional fatalities on Tuesday, 532 on Wednesday and 495 on Thursday. Wednesday’s figure is the highest daily death toll since early October. It came a week after a new single-day record of over 60,000 cases was reported.

Mexico’s official COVID-19 death toll increased to 304,803.

An additional 44,902 reported infections on Tuesday, 48,627 on Wednesday and 49,150 on Thursday lifted Mexico’s accumulated case tally to 4.82 million. The estimated active case tally is 302,473.

The top five states for active cases on a per capita basis are Baja California Sur, Mexico City, Colima, Tabasco and Nayarit.

The nationwide occupancy rate for general care hospital beds is 45%, while 28% of those with ventilators are taken. There are currently more than 8,750 hospitalized COVID patients.

In other COVID-19 news:

• President López Obrador defended Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell on Thursday after a judge last week ordered the federal Attorney General’s Office to investigate the coronavirus czar to establish his responsibility for Mexico’s high COVID-19 death toll.

“The services provided to society by Dr. Hugo López-Gatell have been exceptional. He’s a professional of the first order. It’s good fortune that we have a professional with so much knowledge in such difficult circumstances as these. He’s one of the best pandemic specialists in the world. He’s an authority [on the subject], a decent, honest person, an authentic public servant,” the president said.

He asserted that “conservatives” were behind the complaint filed against the Johns Hopkins University-trained epidemiologist.

The case against López-Gatell is the “product of rancor, hate and politicking,” López Obrador claimed.

As cases rise, a teachers' organization has called for a temporary suspension of in-person classes.
As cases rise, a teachers’ organization has called for a temporary suspension of in-person classes.

• The average cost of treatment for COVID-19 in a private hospital has increased 108,000 pesos (US $5,200) in the space of a year, according to data from the Mexican Association of Insurance Institutions.

A hospital stay cost 412,000 pesos on average in January 2021, but it now costs 520,000 pesos (about US $25,000) – a 26% increase.

The increased cost of medical supplies is one reason why costs are up. Price gouging could be another factor. Consumer protection agency Profeco late last year accused private hospitals of increasing their prices well beyond the inflation rate.

“Inflation was 2.83% last year and is 5.59% this year. However, the [price] increases at private hospitals have been 15% to 20%,” Profeco chief Ricardo Sheffield said September 29.

• A teachers’ group has called for in-person classes to be suspended until the omicron-fueled fourth wave recedes.

Alianza de Maestros, which has members in 18 states, urged the Ministry of Public Education to close schools until case numbers begin to decline.

“While the authorities have insisted that schools are not spaces of contagion, let me tell you that’s what schools are becoming,” said Carlos Aguirre, the group’s director.

“… We need to put a stop [to in-person classes] at a national level, … for two, three, four weeks, classes should be virtual,” he said.

UPDATE (5:50 p.m. CST Friday, January 28): The Ministry of Health reported 45,115 new cases on Friday afternoon and another 437 deaths.

With reports from El Economista, El Financiero, El Universal and Milenio

AMLO accuses media of invasion of privacy

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President López Obrador on a morning walk, in an image he shared before his election.
President López Obrador on a morning walk in Guerrero, in an image he shared before his election. Facebook

President López Obrador has accused the media of invading his privacy by taking photos of him while he exercises.

He told reporters at his regular news conference on Thursday that he had begun walking on the advice of his doctors.

The president suffered a heart attack in 2013 and recently underwent a cardiac catheterization, a procedure to check the health of the heart. He also recently recovered from his second bout of COVID-19.

“Yesterday I went [to a sports complex] to walk because my doctors recommended it, and they [the media] go there to take my photo and they take cameras. It’s a complete invasion of my scant, limited privacy,” López Obrador said.

“Since I started going – … my doctors recommended that I walk for 20 or 30 minutes [per day] so I become stronger … –  they’ve been climbing up a building, a bank, and from there they’ve been taking my photo, and it was with conventional telephones. But yesterday … it was [with big] cameras,” he said, using his hands to emphasize their large size.

“And I have to put up with it, respect them, but they’re going too far,” AMLO said.

He claimed their intention was to show him “dragging his feet” and “doddering,” but asserted that he was fighting fit.

“The doctors already told me that I’m 100% [healthy],” the president declared.

With reports from Reforma 

This man’s bamboo bikes proved the Shark Tank experts wrong

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Diego Cardenas owner of Bamboocycles
Diego Cárdenas got the idea to build bikes with frames of bamboo after seeing a still-functional one that was made in 1890.

It wasn’t the very first question out of my mouth, but it was close.

“How can bamboo be stronger than metal?”

A tinge of exasperation swept across Diego Cárdenas’ face, but he launched into an explanation anyway.

“Metal has the characteristic that if you bend it, it starts to take on that form; it has a certain flexibility if you apply force to it,” he said. “It’s resistant, but the truth is you can bend a piece of metal and it stays bent. Bamboo receives force and sends it back to you. It doesn’t have that flexibility, the plasticity. Bamboo will do nothing until you hit it hard enough to break. In terms of compression, it’s the same; it’s much stronger.”

Later, he explained that this was the No. 1 question that people ask him about his bamboo bikes, his face giving away his fatigue at convincing people of this one simple fact.

Bamboo Cycles
Bamboo is lighter and more resistant to bending than metal, according to Cárdenas. “It’s much stronger,” he said.

Knobby and earth-toned, Cárdenas’ bamboo bikes appeal to cyclists who want something completely unique but also super slick. Their base prices range from the more economical — about 8,000 pesos — all the way to bikes costing in the neighborhood of 35,000 pesos.

He started building bamboo bikes in his mom’s garage in 2010. The first model was just for him. But when he rode it through the city, people peppered him with questions: where and how they could buy a bike just like it? After a while, he was convinced that bamboo bikes might be a good business.

In his shop, Bamboocycles in the San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhood of Mexico City, sit delivery bikes, skinny-tired street bikes, fat-tired mountain bikes and piles of bamboo tubing and carbon fiber, the latter for the lugs that connect the bikes’ bamboo frames.

A returning client (who already owns two of Cárdenas’ bikes) arrives to discuss the recumbent bicycle that Diego will build for him in the next few weeks. Three other customers test out models, riding up and down the street.

“I mountain bike,” says one of the women. “Not here, but in Mérida. There aren’t really mountains, but there are a lot of different types of rocks; I was using an Orbea brand bike and they are relatively heavy; if you pick this one up, it’s so light.”

The weight of Cárdenas’ bikes is frequently mentioned as one of their best virtues. That and the fact that the bamboo absorbs more vibration than metal, making for a more pleasurable ride, especially in a city known for its potholes and uneven pavement. Oh yeah, and there’s the fact that this bike is biodegradable and will be folded back into the earth at the end of its lifetime – though that won’t be for a while.

Bamboo Cycles
A satisfied customer visits with her Bamboocycles bike.

“If you maintain [the bike] in a place without too much humidity or too much sun,” says Cardenas, “It could last all your life. The example that I found from the 1800s, it’s still around.”

He’s referring to the inspiration for this entire project, an 1890 bamboo bike that he stumbled upon while studying industrial design at the National Autonomous University.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I want one of those,’” he said.

While the process of perfecting the design was laborious — how do you ensure alignment in a tube that is a natural, organic thing? — bamboo as a plant had impressed him; it produces 30% more oxygen than other trees and is one of the fastest-growing plants on the globe.

Cárdenas had already experienced how liberating it could be to move through a city by bike while studying one summer in Europe. When he came back to Mexico City’s traffic and mayhem, he just didn’t want to get back into a car.

Bamboocycles ended up in the national spotlight in 2016 when he presented the project on the TV series Shark Tank México, although he didn’t get the financial support he had hoped for.

Today, he is proving his critics wrong. There are 2,200 Bamboocycles bikes out in the world, bought both nationally and internationally, all owned by cyclists who got its appeal right away.

“There are clients who will never be convinced [to buy one] no matter how many facts you put in front of them,” says Cárdenas, “and then there are people that you don’t have to say anything to and they just show up. Word of mouth is my best publicity.”

Lydia Carey is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.

Opposition slams federal auditor for lack of clarity on cost of canceled airport

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PAN Deputy Iván Arturo Rodríguez Rivera said the ASF was more concerned about pleasing the president than providing an accurate cost estimate of the airport's cancellation.
PAN Deputy Iván Arturo Rodríguez Rivera said the ASF was more concerned about pleasing the president than providing an accurate cost estimate of the airport's cancellation.

A National Action Party (PAN) lawmaker has criticized the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) for the lack of clarity surrounding the cost of canceling the previous government’s Mexico City airport project.

The ASF has given three different estimates on the cost of canceling the partially built airport in Texcoco, México state. Most recently it said the cost was 184.5 billion pesos (US $8.9 billion).

The ASF provided an estimate of almost 332 billion pesos in February 2021 but revised it to 113.3 billion pesos last May after President López Obrador disputed the higher figure and called on the auditor to explain how it reached it.

López Obrador canceled the partially built airport after a legally questionable referendum held before he took office in late 2018.

He had long argued against the US $15 billion project, the signature infrastructure undertaking of former Institutional Revolutionary Party president Enrique Peña Nieto.

Construction at the proposed Mexico City airport in Texcoco, before the project was canceled.
Construction at the proposed Mexico City airport in Texcoco, before the project was canceled.

PAN Deputy Iván Arturo Rodríguez Rivera charged that the ASF was more concerned about pleasing the president than providing an accurate estimate on the cost of canceling what would have been a “world-class” airport.

“… After the complaint the president made to the auditor’s office, the office concerned itself more with getting along with him than with fulfilling its duty to ensure transparency and accountability,” he told the newspaper Reforma.

“… The inaccuracy and inconsistencies in its work is now a constant,” Rodríguez said.

The lawmaker said it was incredible that three years after the airport was canceled there is still no clarity about the cost of the decision. Rodríguez, secretary of a committee that oversees the ASF, also said that the PAN will request a report detailing who is responsible for the different estimates provided by the auditor.

“The role the Federal Auditor’s Office has played in this very important issue is regrettable,” he said.

The deputy also lamented the decision to cancel the airport, asserting that it would have been the most important air travel hub in Latin America. “Hundreds of billions of pesos of Mexican [taxpayers] went to waste,” Rodríguez said.

“There are no formal accusations for the supposed acts of corruption in the construction of the project that the president pointed to, nor are there culprits for the terrible work carried out by the auditor’s office,” he added.

The deputy said the PAN has previously supported the ASF but on this occasion cannot be an accomplice to an institution that appears to be looking after “other interests” rather than fulfilling its duty.

“… The actions of the officials involved will be reviewed in detail and responsibilities will be defined in order to act in consequence,” Rodríguez said.

With reports from Reforma 

Michoacán ‘superhero’ dedicates himself to animal rescue

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In addition to rescuing animals and finding them homes, Zadrigman spreads a message about loving and respecting animals. Facebook

Fulfilling a promise he made to his dog before he died, a 25-year-old man-cum-superhero has been rescuing animals from the streets of Morelia, Michoacán, for the past eight months.

“Zadrigman was created on May 11, 2021,” the animal rescuer – who declined to reveal his identity – told the newspaper Milenio.

Before his Siberian husky, Duke, died of a bacterial infection in December 2020, the man made a promise to his pet that he would help animals in need.

“The idea was that both of us would go out together to rescue animals, both with a costume, because he liked to help. I’m fulfilling what I promised to him,” Zadrigman said.

He was immediately well-received by the residents of Morelia, who frequently thank him for what he does and stop for photos.

Children crowd around Zadrigman during a classroom visit.
Children crowd around Zadrigman during a classroom visit. Facebook

The man told Milenio that he cried tears of gratitude after his first appearance as Zadrigman because he didn’t think he would make an impression on people so quickly and because he had begun to fulfill his promise to Duke.

Eight months later, the superhero has rescued and found homes for almost 60 dogs and cats. Among them are dogs he found after they were hit by cars.

“… I take them to the vet to be operated on, they recover and they’re put up for adoption,” Zadrigman said.

Originally from Tijuana, the man said that another of his objectives is to be a good role model to children.

“They normally tell me that they want to be superheroes in order to help animals. I try to cultivate that love in them so that they grow up with the idea of loving, caring for and respecting animals,” he said.

He admitted that he has considered giving up on his noble pursuit “two or three times,” in part due to the costs he incurs while looking after the animals he rescues.

“But I remember that I don’t do this for myself, I do it for Duke and all animals that have died, because he is a representation of all animals. For me this is a life mission,” the man added.

In addition to winning acclaim on the streets, Zadrigman has built up a strong following on social media, with more than 5,000 followers on his Facebook and Instagram accounts.

With reports from Milenio