She Said...

Personally, I haven’t had the opportunity to visit the place though I was invited a few times, but I did get a chance to see with my own eyes what is going on up where the Amapas I and II projects are being developed. What I saw was horrible.

What used to be lush jungle growth, populated by myriad birds (including Military Macaws!) was now a quasi vertical hillside covered with cement. And what’s worse is that the whole thing appears to be in suspense. We didn’t see anyone working, and my friend told me that is because the money has run out… Their 2-page spread in the fabulous Spring issue of Vallarta Lifestyles shows a building surrounded by jungle that makes it look like the Mayan pyramids at Tikal. Nothing could be farther from the truth. That’s the third mega development I know of where work has been suspended. Sure doesn’t augur well for the future.

On the positive side of the topic of construction, Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) has started a project whereby it is studying the country’s beaches to determine the best ways to preserve and even improve them, with jetties, reefs, and other such measures. I sure hope they’re more successful than the folks who tried to do the same up along the coastlines of Cape Cod, Cape May, South Palm Beach, etc… Those «experts» were completely unsuccessful against Mother Nature. She doesn’t take well to our shenanigans.

Ok, enough about construction.

I want to use this space to personally apologize to our photographer, Javier Perez, for all the covers of last week’s Tribune that showed a purple primavera tree in the foreground. I saw the original photo. It was nothing short of breathtaking, as so much of his work is. I couldn’t tell you what happened, especially considering that some covers came out quite well, while others, well… All I can say is that one of these days, the folks at Telefonos de Mexico who have been messing around with the program that enables our designer to upload every issue to the World Wide Web, will get their act together. And when they do, and when all the missing issues are uploaded to our site, you will be able to see how beautiful that particular photo is.

Talking about photos, I’m including a couple I took at the Passover Seder held at Sol’s Café Bohemio. As expected, the place was full (sold out in two days!), there were folks from everywhere, including a good part of this town’s Jewish community, and this time, Sol really outdid himself. The food was great, very different from what Ashkenazi Jews are accustomed to – really delicious.

When I heard about the verdict delivered by the judge in my friend Brenda Martin’s case, aside from my own personal reaction which I will not share here, another thought came to mind… If the folks running the Puente Grande women’s jail in Guadalajara were related to those running the little jail here in PV, she could have switched clothing with another inmate and gotten a «release from the powers-that-be, and escaped months ago… As things stand now, we’re all waiting to see how much clout our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has with Mexico’s President, and whether they will truly expedite her extradition back to Canada, as promised.
There’s some truly good news among the other recent headlines in the local papers: It appears that the town’s Public Services Department has installed some 30,000 square feet of sod on top of the old dump. They claim that this will help stabilize the site so that there will be no run-off of noxious substances once the rainy season begins, and that this grass will also help absorb the noxious gases given off by the refuse beneath. An additional 100,000 square feet were scheduled to be covered with sod this past week and the plan is to plant trees over the entire area, thus improving the appearance of the site while giving back green spaces to the community. Sounds good to me.

And the front page of the Vallarta Opina daily stated that the Hilton hotel chain was going to spend some $250 Million Dollars on expanding its investments in 14 Mexican tourist destinations, including Puerto Vallarta! I’m curious to see where this new hotel will rise.

I wish you all a super fun week, don’t forget your sunscreen ‘cause it’s gotten HOT out there, folks. Take care of yourselves and of each other. Hasta luego. pvmom04@yahoo.com