Get down to business!

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For the first few weeks when I walked around at night I would hear this creepy "PSST!" sound. It happened on a beat, so I didn't think it was a person, so I told myself it was a sprinkler... except people don't really use sprinklers here, and if the do, its during the daytime! Other people heard it too, but to some it sounded like a "SHHHH!". Turns out, its a bird! There's also a bird with a cat-call whistle, and woodpeckers everywhere.

So this is the rainy season! When it rains here, it RAINS. This morning it was chilly, i wore a short-sleeved sweater and a knee length skirt, and was cold. then i was able to lay out in the sun at 12-3, burning hot in the bright sun. At 3 I walked to Starbucks, and the heavens opened up. at first it wa s a light drizzle- i was wearing a sun dress, and got a little damp but was still warm. But, when I left at about 5, the rain was pounding angrily on the ceiling and the streets were flooded ankle deep. I made it nearly all the way home avoiding the water by staying on the raised sidewalks, but I had to cross a few streets and ended up wading in the waters a few times. By the time I got home, I was soaked! The odd thing is, by tomorrow it will repeat itself all over again! The thing that is making all the people here worried is that, its not actually supposed to be the rainy season. The rainy season is in June, yet it started in April. Summer is early here and in England, and late in the Northwest.

Water use is really odd here. Its almost as if, since the water is undrinkable, the people decide to waste it. I see women washing their sidewalk instead of sweeping it. my school is built on a protected wetland, which is also the only wetland in the state. This is where a majority of the state's water comes from, yet they just finished a new building, and are starting on another one. If you build on wetlands, the rain has no where to go, the aquifers don't get refilled, the country has droughts and floods both. UNLA can build on wetlands because they call themselves the "Environmentalist school" and add in things like cobblestone instead of concrete, so a portion of the rain can still get through.

The same thing happens in Chiapas, and in the Lancondon jungle. Logging is outlawed on a federal and state level, and there are police monitoring it, yet the jungle is still disappearing. My teacher told a story she heard that the police caught a man logging, and fined him for it, but the man had to cut down more mahogany and cedar trees to pay the fine (which is all the police cared about anyway). The jungle cools the country, gives the rain a place to go, offers land for sustainable corn and bean farming (NOT cattle farming, which is what it is being used for right now), cleans the pollution, and offers tens of thousands of species of plants, many with medicinal qualities. And yet, it is being cut down for its wood and land. The government is giving it to the Zapatistas and campesinos to raise cattle on, which only works for a few years before the land is ruined forever and can't make money for them. (Can you start to see a reason to cut out red meat?) Cattle raising destroys the jungle (which shouldn't belong to the government anyway, its the Lancondon's jungle), and doesn't pull the farmers out of poverty. All it does is pacify the Zapatistas and the poor farmers for a little while so they'll stop staging revolts against the government.

Oh, and PS- I went to Ixtapa last week! haha.

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Photos

Zihuatanejo
Looks more like the Sound!

Zihuatanejo
Playa De Las Gatas

Ixtapa
Playa Linda!

Jellyfish!
This creeper stung me!

Comments

[elias]

wow...
...you're such a liberal, environmental whacko!!! Soy de México, y me encantó leer tu blog. Y como me imagino que estás allá para aprender español, pensé que te gustaría leer esto en español, pero la verdad es que te estás yendo muy pero muy a la izquierda que pronto darás círculos como loca. A ti ¿qué te importa que la gente coma carnes rojas y que corten o no los bosques. Mira, si Inglaterra fuera la Utopia que tanto piensas que es, no estaría llena de mierda como está ahora -- llena de ilegales, llena de corrupción y una bola de islamo-fascistas. Mira, México tendrá sus problemas, pero por lo menos somos gente más auténtica que vive en un mundo de problemas reales y soluciones prácticas, soluciones que nos han sacado de muchos apuros. Asi que la próxima vez que piense criticar el gobierno de México tanto federal, estatal o local, piensa que todos tienen que comer. Si tanto quieres cambiar el mundo con tus ideales liberales, ahí tienes a Inglaterra que ya no se reconoce... Bueno, por otro lado me gustan tus fotos y tu blog como de muchos otros viajeros. Buena suerte, y espero que no te sigan metiendo tanta basura en la cabeza en esas "universidades" llenas de profesores liberales e izquierdistas, socialistas y comunistas. ¡Ah!, casi olvido que los Zapatistas son solamente una bola de indios inconformes que quieren todo sin levantar un dedo... ¡Adiós!

[Gema]

Response to Elias
I am going to translate your comment into English, so that I can be sure I understand everything you're saying, and so that my friends and family can read it too: I am going to translate your comment into English, so that I can be sure I understand everything you're saying, and so that my friends and family can read it too: "wow... you're such a liberal environmental whacko! I am from Mexico, and I loved to read your blog. And as I imagine that you are there to learn Spanish, I thought you would like to read this in Spanish, but the truth is that you are going, but so far to the left that soon you will make circles like crazy. To you, what does it matter that the people eat red meat and cut down the forests or not? Look, if England was the Utopia that you so much think it is, it would not be full of shit like it is now- full of illegals, full of corruption and a section of Islam-Fascists. Look, Mexico will have its problems, but at least we people are more authentic and live in a world of real and practical solutions that haven't taken away our needs. And so, the next time you plan to criticize the government of Mexico so much, federal, state, or local, think of all those who need to eat. If you really want to change the world with your liberal ideas, there you have to England that no longer is recognized... Well, on the other hand I like your photos and your blog as much as the other travelers. Good luck, and I hope they don't continue putting garbage in your head in those "Universities" full of liberal, leftist, socialist, communist professors. Ah! I almost forgot that the Zapatistas are only a section of unconforming Indians that want everything without lifting a finger... Bye!" And now I will respond in English: Where did you get the idea that I am from England? Or that I have ever been there? Or that I know anything about it at all? Or that I think England is a utopia? Or that I think any country is perfect, let alone a "Utopia"? I have many criticisms of every country out there, I am merely writing about Mexico because I am here right now, and taking a class on it. To me, it does matter if people eat red meat for many reasons, most of which the environmental factors which I believe I explained- maybe you should go back and read it, or check out the multitude of literature on why our environment needs jungles and forests like the Lancondon. You obviously did not read everything I wrote, and are reading much more into it that what I actually did write. Also, you tell me to think before criticizing Mexico- then you say you don't like the Zapatistas anyway! Whom did you think I was talking about?? And of course I am thinking of those who need to eat. The land issue is very complex, which is probably why it hasn't been solved yet and why people are still hungry. This was just my view on what is going on right now, on this particular way of solving the issue. Of course there need to be practical solutions- but cutting down trees to raise cattle for a few years is not practical, because the land is ruined after that and then the people starve again. I do not know what the practical solution is, only that the current one is not the right one. I think you are taking my opinions and statements too seriously- this is just an observation, and I believe I have said many good things about Mexico. As for "socialist, communist, leftist, garbage" that the university is putting in my head? That statement comes off very rude and ignorant, as well as calling me a “whacko”, so I am going to warn you that if you comment with that tone again, I will block you from commenting. I am glad you enjoy my photos and travel stories, but the politics and people are a part of this land, too, and I am going to write about it. If you don't like it, don't read it! Its that easy.