A jaunt to the beach
By Jerry Davis January 11, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Fundraising Trip Jovenes Adelante Sun, Jan 20 returning Sat, Jan 26 Melaque, Jalisco US$435 double, US$520 single 154-9544

The beach beckons. Flee our chilly mountainside on January 20 to spend the week in Melaque, Jalisco, where warm ocean breezes, fresh seafood and relaxation are waiting. Join Jovenes Adelante (Youth Forward) on their annual pilgrimage to this warmth-worshiper’s Mecca. 

This pleasure jaunt leaves San Miguel on Sunday evening in a first-class luxury bus that will deliver us to our comfortable hotel, rested and ready to enjoy Melaque’s relaxing atmosphere. Combing the beach, loosening up on the hotel terrace, dining in marvelous restaurants and shopping for silly beach souvenirs will make the days slide by pleasantly. The bus will be at our disposal all week and the tour leader can organize short excursions to other lovely beaches and towns nearby. 

Our hotel is the El Dorado (The Golden) and the name says it all. For a good reason we are going back for the fourth time. It is right on the beach, clean, comfortable and within easy walking distance of restaurants and shopping. Five hotel breakfasts are included in the tour package, as is first-class transportation, hotel, baggage handling and gratuities. The cost is US$435 double occupancy or US$520 single, or the peso equivalent.

Organized to benefit the scholarship fund of Jovenes Adelante, our goal is to finance the five-year university education of a deserving but needy scholar. Carefully selected from the uppermost ranks of high school students, our jovenes now number 42, with four graduates. Without our aid most of them would have been forced to follow the footsteps of their parents—working menial jobs, struggling to get ahead or emigrating to “El Norte.” Bright, ambitious and armed with a degree, these young people will go adelante and take their families and Mexico along with them.

For information, call 154-9544 or email cjdavis@cybermatsa.com.mx.  Trip ticket are available in the Jardín, 11am–1pm until all spaces are sold.

A tale of two ejidos
By Betsy Bowman

Campo trips Peñón de los Baños Sat, Jan 12, 9am–4pm Cooperative Hacienda la Trinidad in El Moral Sat, Jan 19, 9am–4pm Sponsored by Center for Global Justice Calzada de la Luz 42 Each trip 300 pesos, 150-0025

On January 12, the Center for Global Justice will visit Peñon de los Baños, a nearby rural dairy community. We will gather at the Calzada de la Luz 42 (near the corner with Calle Lareto) at 9am and return by 4pm. The fee covers transportation, guide, translation and comida. Call 150-0025 to reserve your place. 

Mexico is special because it is one of the few countries that has had genuine land redistribution. After the Mexican Revolution (1910-20), starting in the thirties with the administration of President Lázaro Cárdenas and continuing through the seventies, the Mexican government redistributed land from large landholders and the church to the peasants working the land or to other groups of people who had been displaced, creating ejidos. An ejido is a form of collective land-tenure: residents of an ejido have the right to live and farm their parcel of land and share the communal land. 

About 40 years ago, the government wanted to expand the Mexico City airport. Local residents were resettled on an ejido named Peñon de los Baños north of Los Rodriguez. They soon left, but farmers from Celaya and Salvatierra came to the deserted ejido of Peñon de los Baños, settled and stayed. Their grandchildren live there to this day. 

For many years, peasants were protected from predatory developers by article 27 of the Mexican constitution which forbids the sale of ejidal land. However, this all changed in 1992, under then-President Salinas de Gortari. As a condition for joining NAFTA, Mexico had to allow the sale of land, including ejidal land.

Residents of Peñon de los Baños ejido have steadfastedly refused to sell, but their neighbors have sold parcels to a wealthy landowner. The Center for Global Justice has been talking with a Peñon group for over a year. They struck us as well-organized, hard-working people who also have about 500 cows from which they earn their living now. We introduced them to friends in the state of Hidalgo who have spent the last 3–5 years organizing a network of some 20 agricultural, livestock, construction and sewing cooperatives. They have built greenhouses and are successfully growing and selling tomatoes in local and Mexico City markets. So the people in Peñon de los Baños also have decided to build a greenhouse to grow organic tomatoes using drip irrigation. Patricio Bravo, the organizer of the Hidalgo network, advised and helped them. Thanks to generous contributions by a number of visitors, the Center for Global Justice’s Fund for Community Support has been able to loan them US$9,000 for their project. They still n
eed another US$3,000.

NAFTA and globalization are devastating the Mexican countryside. Every day US$1.5 million worth of US foodstuffs enter Mexico and every day 30 Mexican peasants head north. But there are alternatives to emigration to the US and the sale of one’s land. With help from the Center for Global Justice, the people in Peñon de los Baños are forging such an alternative.

This winter the Center for Global Justice will visit several communities to witness the alternatives Mexicans are creating for themselves. With a little help from their friends, everything is possible.

Please join for this community day-visit to, discuss problems of emigration/immigration, alternatives to these problems, your experiences, their experiences and share a traditional Mexican comida. 

On January 19, we visit the nearby community of El Moral and the sewing cooperative, Hacienda la Trinidad. On January 26 we visit CEDESA (Centro para el Desarrollo Social y Agropecuaria) in Dolores Hidalgo, which has developed plans for sustainable country living complete with dry toilets, water catchment, etc. 

Watch our website for further announcements www.globaljusticecenter.org.  Sign up to be on our email list by writing info@globaljusticecenter.org  or call 150-0025. 

Betsy Bowman is a research associate at the Center for Global Justice.

Travel News You Can Use
By Judy Newell

International News

What’s a Yotel?

It has happened to us all at least once. You either have a long international connection time or arrive at the airport to find that your flight has been delayed. Airport seating isn’t exactly the most comfortable place to while away that time and there is only so much coffee you can drink or duty-free shopping you can do. That is why the Yotel could be the answer to every exasperated, delayed traveler’s prayer. 

Yotel is the brainchild of British entrepreneur Simon Woodroofe. Combining elements of Japan’s capsule hotels and British Airways business class sleepers, he came up with the idea of providing air travelers with a place within the airport where they can relax for as many hours as they need. 

Yotel provides cabin-style rooms that can be reserved by the hour—perfect for delays or the time between connecting flights. You can relax, freshen up and prepare yourself for the rest of your journey without having to leave the confines of the airport. 

The cabins come in two categories, standard and premium class. The difference is in the size of the cabins—standard cabins are 75 square feet and the premium cabins are 107 square feet. Each is equipped with all the facilities you’d expect to find in a regular hotel room. They offer bunk style and double beds with their own en suite bathroom and shower facilities.

If you just want to relax, the flat-screen TV has free internet access, over 50 television channels—everything from the BBC to Dubai Sports, a selection of movies (these are an extra £5/$10 each) and music. Feeling a little hungry? Once again, the TV can provide you with this. Select your food or beverage of choice from the on-screen menu and it will be delivered to your cabin by a staff member, on call 24 hours a day.

Prices for the standard cabin start from £25/$52 for four hours (minimum time required) and can be booked on the hour or half-hour. Yotels are currently in operation in London’s Gatwick (in the South Terminal) and Heathrow (Terminal 4) airports. A third is scheduled to open in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport in early 2008.

Starwoood to open three properties in Peru

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is rapidly expanding its presence in South America with the recent announcement of plans for three new properties in Peru. Starwood will open its first Westin hotel in South America in Lima, and two Luxury Collection properties: one in Cusco, the capital of the ancient Inca Empire and the other in the sacred valley of Urubamba, near the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. Both properties aim to integrate local customs and culture into the guest experience. 

The Cusco property, Palacio del Inca Libertador, will undergo renovations prior to its opening in 2009. The second Luxury Collection hotel will open in early 2010 in Urubamba, a small town located just one hour outside of Cusco. Lima’s hotel will be a new building, located in San Isidro, in the heart of the city’s financial district and is scheduled to open in early 2010. 



Travel Technology

You’ll never have to call the front desk again

This month, the Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas, near Dallas, is testing an online room service feature that’s an industry first. Guests can use their laptops to access a web page where they can place room service orders, fill out electronic comment cards and request that a housekeeper clean their room. In future tests, the online service will be available through the guest room’s TV and remote control. If all goes well, Omni will expand the service to its 44 other high-end properties.


Sources: Budget Travel, Travel Agent, The European, TRO 

Judy Newell, a writer and travel industry executive, heads the custom tour company Perfect Journeys that specializes in luxury and adventure travel. Contact her with comments or suggestions at JudyNewell_03@msn.com  or go to her website www.PerfectJourneys.net.