When the river runs dry
By Betsy Bowman January 25, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Trip to Cruz del Palmar
Sat, Feb 2
Center for Global Justice
Calzada de la Luz 42
Reserve: 150-0025
300 pesos

The Municipality of San Miguel de Allende (equivalent to a township or county) comprises about 540 small, rural communities in addition to the city of San Miguel itself.

Most foreign tourists to our beautiful city, and even many who live here, seldom venture beyond the familiar cobblestone streets into the campo and visit the people who live there. As a result, they know little about the real Mexico—Mexico profundo. That’s why the Center for Global Justice is sponsoring day trips to the surrounding campo.

In Cruz del Palmar, we will see the stone-dry Rio Laja and the high desert landscape as we talk with the people about their struggles with the problems of survival under harsh conditions. Community leaders will brief us on water problems and other issues they face. Since our last visit in the winter of 2007, local residents have succeeded in getting permission to harvest sand and gravel from the river bed to sell to suppliers of construction materials. In the past, big corporations that use heavy earth-moving equipment monopolized this business, doing a great deal of damage to the river bed in the process. Now only the local residents harvest sand and gravel using shovels and wheel barrows, thus protecting the river bed.

We at the Center for Global Justice have talked with them about several possible projects, including a small business that could provide jobs and salaries. We hope to help the locals start a business—perhaps one supplying construction materials such as sand and gravel or selling utility sinks that they could make from the sand and gravel.

Years ago, people could earn the small amount of cash that they needed by selling agricultural surplus from their subsistence farming. Now with so much cheap food coming in from the US (US$1.5 million per day of foodstuffs!), they can no longer market their surplus. They need to create an alternative source of income, no easy thing under present circumstances.

Emigration is always a possibility—about 30 Mexicans emigrate to the US each day—but it is far from the preferred option. Another possibility is to sell their land, but most rural people are very reluctant to do that. So that leaves them looking for scarce jobs or needing to create a small business. The Center for Global Justice can help with a loan from our revolving loan fund or with technical support.

Join us Saturday and learn what the people of this rural community are doing to avoid emigrating to the US. The fee includes transportation, comida, translation and guide. Call 150-0025 to reserve your place or come by our office weekdays 10am–1pm.

Other Saturday, trips this month include a return on February 9 to Peñon de los Baños to see the progress being made on the greenhouse, the Hacienda la Trinidad sewing cooperative in El Moral on February 16 and CEDESA in Dolores-Hidalgo on February 23.

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

Have you been traveling and kept a journal or took photos that you’d like to share with Atención? Send your experiences as Microsoft Word attachments to edit@atencionsanmiguel.org  with a 1000-word limit. Send photos as hi-res JPEG or TIF attachments.

Musings from the Middle East
By Jan Quinn

I recently accompanied my husband, Michael, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he was on a six-week consulting job. I used the opportunity to travel in the area and following are musings from the trip.

Jeddah–It is strange to be back in Saudi Arabia after a four-year absence. Although Jeddah has always been much more liberal than Riyadh—where we lived for 21 years—and, in fact, many young Saudi women here don’t veil, it is still an odd feeling to see them all covered in black after living with the high-intensity colors of Mexico for the past four years.

The city is booming. While there are many infrastructure problems still to be resolved, you can feel the money pouring into the country from high oil prices. Huge boulevards crisscross the city and fancy stores are everywhere. A new research university with massive government funding, and touted as an equal to US Ivy Leagues, is being built on the coast just north of Jeddah. There are lots of foreigners, as Jeddah is the gateway to Makkah, but very few westerners.

Our hotel is over-the-top gaudy—marble and gold leaf everywhere and lots of frou-frou swags and bows on the staircase banister. Our suite is hospital green with green damask couches and matching green rug; but it is well appointed, as is the restaurant buffet where we gorge ourselves twice daily on the sumptuous buffets. We can’t get enough of the mezze section, which we have sorely missed.

On our first night, we discover that our hotel is one of the most popular in the city for weddings. Their four ballrooms and assorted banquet rooms are at 100 percent capacity every night. Saudi weddings begin at 10pm with deafening music, which progresses to drums and ululations when the bride appears, around midnight. They wind down after ‘dinner’ around 4am, with lots of horn-honking to send off the bride.

After eight days, once Michael becomes immersed in his job, I take off for Syria.

Damascus–I step off the plane into a terminal in chaos. The Ramadan Eid has just finished and the immigration area is packed with hundreds of Iraqis camped out in every corner, around every pillar, and on blankets spread out on the floor for lunch. They have been to Saudi Arabia for Umrah (a mini Haj) and cannot fly into Baghdad, so must transit overland through Syria. Until the recent war, they were able to do so without a visa, but now must pay for a visa and go through immigration. Two special Umrah jumbo charter flights have landed ahead of me so it looks as if I, too, should get comfortable on the floor and prepare for a long wait. A young Iraqi in line sees my plight and speaks to the Immigration Officer. After much high-volume discussion and wild gesticulation, I am moved to a special line and whiz through Passport Control.

Despite the problems between the American and Syrian governments everyone is friendly and welcoming. They are a truly warm, hospitable people and, even though I am a woman traveling alone, I feel completely safe.

Life goes on here as it does everywhere. People are concerned with making a living, putting food on the table, and getting a good education for their children. However it is much more difficult to do in a poorer country like Syria. I hear many tales of hardship, which are common stories in this part of the world. It reminds me, again, of how lucky I am.

More than two million refugees from Iraq have inundated Syria, raising costs all across the board from housing prices to the cost of daily goods. This has created big problems for the average Syrian—unintended consequences from our invasion of Iraq.

I think Damascenes are re-incarnated Neapolitans. They have a death-wish approach to driving. Every trip to the souq is a kamikaze thrill ride for me with many sharp intakes of breath and strong bracings of the body against the inevitable collisions which are always averted at the nano-second before impact.

Istanbul–With its outstanding physical location overlooking the Marmaris, the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, and an exotic skyline that never fails to excite my imagination, I am always happy to be back.

There is also a vitality to the country these days and, despite a recalcitrant EU, a feeling in the young people that they have a dynamic and positive future.

My sister joins me from her home in Italy and we spend many hours in the Grand Bazaar. My one kidney barely keeps up with the copious amounts of tea one must drink while chatting with the shop owners; many are vendors whom I carefully nurtured over the years when I bought for my store in Riyadh.

Marrakech–We leave our luggage in the beautifully restored gem of a Riad in the heart of the medina, a block from the Djema al Fna, and then plunge into the thousands of people milling around fortune tellers, henna painters, snake charmers, artisans and food vendors in this world-famous square.

My little bit of Arabic is coming back, having been pushed aside by Spanish lessons and I start to bargain in Arabic with one of the vendors, who switches to Spanish when he learns I am from Mexico. My mind is still 60 years old, and once I am in Arabic mode, I can’t remember a single number in Spanish. I try to continue in Arabic and he is insulted! He insists I speak Spanish. I have to walk away, humbly mumbling Spanish Lesson One…..uno, dos, tres…..

It is my sister’s birthday, so I treat her to a hammam (Turkish bath) at one of the more luxurious spas in town. Pure, sensuous heaven. My attendant sings an Arabic song of the hammam in a languid clear voice while she massages me with warm scented oil. I feel as if I am Cleopatra being prepared for Anthony.

It is too soon time to head for the airport and home. We are overweight by three bags, and carry an antique cane containing a dagger that we do not know is concealed inside. And thereby hangs another tale.

Jan Quinn lived in Turkey and Lebanon for four years in the sixties as an “oil brat” and later in Saudi Arabia for 21 years with her husband and three children. She and Michael retired to San Miguel four years ago.

Tolantongo Revisited: The glory days are here again
By Bruce and Mary Carruth

Audubon trip
Tolantongo, Hidalgo
Tue–Wed, February 5–6, 8am
US$160

Last year if you hadn’t gone on the Audubon trip to Tolantongo and you knew someone who had, you heard nothing but how wonderful it was. You were convinced you had missed a remarkable couple of days and you hoped it would happen again. Good news! Bruce and Mary Carruth are doing a replay of that much-praised event, February 5–6. Bruce and Mary can take only 10 people, so call early.

Tolantongo, Hidalgo, is about three and a half hours from San Miguel. Its high point (no pun intended) is a gorge with an altitude drop of about 3,000 feet to a river fed by hot springs with many grottoes for exploring. There’s a hike to an upper falls area fed by hot waterfalls, great pools for swimming, a trail down to the river through a tropical hillside thick with fruit and nut trees, several river crossings and more wonderful pools fed by hot springs. All this lushness is surrounded by beautiful, far-reaching vistas.

To get a preliminary taste of the spectacular beauty awaiting visitors to Tolantongo visit www. tolantongo.com.mx. The website is in Spanish, but the pictures are accessible in any language. 

Caution: The trip involves real hiking; some trails are steep and one river crossing (optional) is in waist-deep water with a moderate current. The nearest medical care is at least an hour away; there’s limited telephone access and none to the internet; the one restaurant is basic if delicious, with a limited variety of foods. Participants are expected to carry their own supplies and gear and to help in food prep and clean up.

The trip costs US$160 per person and leaves at 8am Tuesday morning, returning at 5:30pm Wednesday afternoon. Drivers with cars are needed and each driver receives US$40 per passenger, paying US$40 less than the tour fee. Lodgings are in a hotel on the cliff side of the site and provide double occupancy. A single supplement is US$30 extra. Lunch and dinner on the first day and lunch on the second are at participants’ expense, but there will be a late afternoon snack the first day and breakfast on the second included in the trip cost.

Bruce and Mary will host a pre-trip get-together when the trip is full, so hikers can get to know each other in advance of this event. To reserve your place, call or email Bruce (president of Sociedad de Audubon) and Mary at 152-2177 or brucecarruth@earthlink.net.