Las Vegas to Xico – 2222 Miles

We expect an arrival on or about Wednesday. They are driving a newly acquired Mexican plated Ford truck hauling an enclosed utility trailer.

What an adventure.

This is the second duo to up and leave to relocate in Mexico, lock, stock and barrel; pretty much based on our adventures and information. In both cases neither party had ever been to Xico or Puerto Escondido.

This could be a lot to shoulder. We advised both couples that it would be wiser to visit before selling out, packing up and just coming. Again both couples, chose to ignored this advice.

This lets us off the hook – sort of. Has our descriptions of life below the border been distorted or overly positive? We hope not. It is not so much whether it is better or worse. There is no right or wrong here. It is about change. We hope for the better.

Our track record so far is good. Jim and Mindy came here in 2006 after a lot of communication between Jim and I. Sadly we have expunged a couple years of the Blog due to server space constraints. Thus their entire story is not here. But some of their story is here. They started out living near Teocelo, just 5 miles south of us. They relocated here in Veracruz a few times. They chased warm weather for a while, settling in a small Colonia near Antigua, Veracruz.

We are happy to report they remain happy living here in Mexico. Our success rate is 100% to date.

Now my BIL (brother-in-law) Ricardo is in route. He has more options in that they will checkout both the Xico area and the Puerto Escondido area. They seem to be leaning towards Puerto. We recently Blogged about how after some deliberation could not say we liked one location more than the other. We find six months at each place works for us.

They are on their way!

Yesterday morning we received this in our email, “Good Morning. We said all our farewells to family and friends yesterday … Rich started out this morning at 5:30 am on our new adventure to Mexico. We will drive at dawn to dark today, we are so excited to be on the road to see you two. Keep you up dated and see you soon…. Love Ricardo and Darline” (Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®)

It should be interesting to follow their move – so Stay Tuned!

Cruise Azul Sparkling Clean (a few years ago)

There was a time, what seems like not so very long ago, that even before attempting to start we would have washed the little two-wheeler.

But alas a Mark Twain quote comes to mind, “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” We are a lot less concerned with image than before our hair started turning gray. The important thing now is will you start little blue scooter?

This time we applied a battery charge for 20 minutes without even attempting to turn its little 150cc motor over, figuring we would be lucky if it didn’t need a new battery after four years.

Charge complete – with little to no effort little Cruise Azul started up – we were quite pleased and sang its praise to the guapa Señora Calypso puttering about nearby. She smiled and agreed, much like any wife who leaves mechanical issues to their mate might do. We have been together a long time and have our roles.

Together we mounted our little trusty steed and headed off to Coatepec to garner some pesos being that the exchange rate is quite favorable at the moment; also to get a brake cable for Cruise Azul. The rear brake cable had broken before we headed to Puerto. With front and back brakes working the scooter does not stop on a dime; with one brake malfunctioning you might need to assist stopping with your tire rubber sandals.

Cruising Calypsos photo by mexicomystic

The moto parts and repair shop had moved across town. We eventually found the new location – leaving off the scooter and heading home by bus. Later we bussed back. We had new front brake pads and new rear brake cable – but we were advised it needed new rear brake shoes as well. Total for work to date was parts and labor 440 pesos or about $34 U.S. Try to get out of a motorcycle shop for under a hundred bucks these days in the U.S.

We will go back today weather permitting. It has been raining off and on for the past two days; first rain we have seen in six months.

We will have the rear shoes replaced (quoted cost parts and labor 150 pesos or $11.50 U.S.). All new brakes and a new brake cable for less than $50 U.S. – you have to love that.

The word ‘brakes’ is ‘frenos’ in Spanish. Often one can reason out a word converting from English to Spanish by adding a silly ending on a word. That works sometimes like “I need….” By saying “Necesito…’ There you would be correct and most likely understood. But there is no way around the word ‘brake’. You just have to know it is frenos.

In October the little Chinese scooter will turn four. It has nearly 7000 kilometers or 4,340 miles. In Chinese scooter years this is near middle age. One of the reasons we recently bought a Suzuki scooter with a far greater life expectancy.

Our Suzuki Awaits in Capitan, New Mexico

We have repaired and replaced quite a few parts on the Chinese scooter – all still it is economical and maneuvers around and parks handily.

Detractors will raise safety issues, suggesting one is crazy to run around Mexico on a tiny little scooter – perhaps.

Our soon to be arriving brother-in-law is trailering a motorcycle. We hope one day soon to have the Suzuki Burgman scooter, a masterful 650 cc scooter, here on the scene and in Puerto. In the mean time we will do our best to keep the’ rubber side down’ as they say. Stay Tuned!

In today’s news a story about a presidential candidate debate here in Mexico. Headlines in the L.A.Times reads: “Busty hostess steals limelight in Mexico presidential debate”.

Julia at the Debate

The article continues: “To mark the debate’s start, a stunning, undeniably well-endowed model took the floor, smiling silently and carrying a box with four pieces of paper in it that candidates drew to see who went first.” Apparently she won the debate hands down or other parts of the anatomy up.

Our first thoughts were so what else is news. Anyone that lives in Mexico is well aware of the place in Mexican media that lovely “undeniably well-endowed” ladies maintain. You cannot get away from them, even if you wanted.

Julia Rocks

From morning news to evening novellas Mexican television fills huge high definition screens with a bevy of beauties. We are guessing that the Mexican male prefers not only well endowed on top ladies but equally endowed bottoms. We will simply describe their taste and thus the ladies as Rubenesque.

For those who are shocked we have to ask what rock are you living under? Sex sells – bottom line.

Julia Sells

One incensed female commenter to the Times article wrote: “This is not at all the real image of Mexican women, more than 57 million women have more respect of themselves than this hostess. I feel totally disrespected by IFE for giving this image to the world. I condemn those who have had the nerve to make a serious debate into a circus! Why don’t they show the real Mexico, the women who have to fight everyday to support a family and don’t walk around like this! Rating is all what matters?”

Now to be fair there are a lot of amazingly handsome shirtless and more hombres that grace the novellas. We wonder what the commenter’s take on the hunks might be?

Novella Idol Mario Cimarro

And in the UK press: “Model Julia Orayen’s tight white dress cameo in Mexico debate sparks frenzy – Former Playboy model Julia Orayen catapulted the first of Mexico’s presidential TV debates to the forefront of the world’s media – for all the wrong reasons – after making a fleeting appearance dressed in a revealing white frock.”

Personally we would prefer to see Julia Orayen wandering around the political debate platform than the candidates, and George Will, Jim Leher or Donald Trump or even Brian Williams. In any case it is pretty much ado about nothing. Stay Tuned!

But first an observation that was inspired from reading my Blogging amigo Steve Cotton’s entry today:

“Courtliness….And it is a trait I long ago associated with the Spanish. A trait that has been inherited — to one degree or other — in the Mexican culture.”

This baffled us as it most assuredly is NOT an inherited characteristic to any degree within the Mexican culture where we live – neither in Xico or Puerto.

Not to stereotype an entire country, but after living here seven years we feel we can write with some authority that rudeness is very much a way of life here. Much of it is thoughtless rather than premeditated, but rudeness it is. Take yesterday for instance.

We do not often venture to Xalapa as the traffic and lack of ease of getting around a very complicated street layout quite simply makes us want to avoid visiting. However there are things that plainly are otherwise unobtainable without heading into the BIG city.

We chose Sunday as the traffic is a bit less; however the shoppers are probably in greater force; which brings me to the point. In spite of visiting U.S. origin outlets like Home Depot, Sam’s Club and Superama (a higher end Walmart, owned by Walmart), where you might expect to encounter a higher-end group of shoppers, the rudeness and inability to manage what we will call proper shopper decorum permeated yesterday’s shopping experience.

Cart management quite simply does not exist in the Mexican lexicon. It is not just that they leave their carts blocking isles; it is as if they setup their carts in blockade fashion with full intent. Most often the operators of these offending carts are nowhere to be found. Of course this allows us a greater freedom to re-park their wayward carts, but it remains oh so frustrating and bewildering as to why they cannot figure out that others might need to pass? Or how simply maneuvering their cart in an orderly manner might help move things along for the collective shoppers.

Then there is the incredible gall of interrupting a conversation with a salesperson. More often than not while in mid conversation the Mexican shopper will simply angle his way in front of you and begin a dialogue with the salesperson as if you simply do not exist – huh?

They cut in line with the clever posture of avoiding eye contact as a means of not taking responsibility for such rudeness. To add to that irony other Mexicans in line do not complain. Apparently this is left up to the very frustrated gringo. We should add that they also use eye contact avoidance to do very stupid car tricks – we have filed that complaint herein several times.

The bottom line is proper shopping decorum left the building or never existed since way before the Calypsos invaded Mexican turf. You will get used to it or deal with bulging veins, most assuredly. This is not to say fighting back a little without much anger hasn’t satisfaction. Yesterday we moved an offending cart straddled across an isle in Sam’s Club noticing approval and a shared frustration from a fellow shopper (a Mexican national at that). Chalk one up for international relations.

Our aforementioned amigo Steve is on a world cruise; something the very green Calypsos would never do – or could we afford – would that be an inclination. We live this cruise vicariously through Steve’s wonderfully written Blog.

We commented back relating to his comment about Mexican courtliness: “Our differing parts of Mexico must be showing. We find the Mexican people particularly rude relating to letting the other guy go, giving way and courtesy in lines etc. Our experience is an ‘every man for himself’ and harsher conduct here in our parts of Mexico; virtually no refined behavior.
Oh and the way they operate their shopping carts! I’ll stop now.”

Now to the gossip which could very well deserve an entry on its own, but we do not like gossip much so it will get a dishonorable mention here: A lot has been written about Mexico cleaning up its baby act. They have improved their population increase numbers dramatically in the last ten years – this is well documented.

But we have to say here in Poor Man’s Shangri-La, in the Hood, the baby production is quite astounding and has to be skewing those numbers. Upon arrival we learned that a large number of the very young ladies are pregnant or sporting a new child – here we are talking children having children in a BIG way.

To really bring it home our very close friends here have a 16 year old son who we have known since he was 9. We well remember the little tag-along chimaco that our now 21 year old son played with early on upon moving here more than 7 years ago.

The boy now has a baby due in July. His new ‘wife’ is living with our friends (his parents) – one and a half more mouths to feed in a small casa supported by one hard working adult. The parents of the expected child are still attending the equivalent of U.S. high school.

Another of our son’s young friends is expecting, another already has a 4 year old. The cute little girl right across the street from us is now living with her ‘husband’; and is currently dealing with a nervous breakdown that has distorted her formerly pretty face. Her mouth has skewed to one-side. She went blind for a time and remains on heavy tranquilizers. We celebrated her 15th birthday just before we headed to Puerto six months ago.

Everywhere we look there are new babies. Mexico has reduced child production from seven something to less than two and a half.

Our friend’s son’s new baby will enter the world with a living great-great grandmother. An all too common circumstance here – do the math – children having children – four generations often living under the same roof. This saddens us. Stay Tuned!

We did not even try for an Internet connection until Monday morning as Thursday through Sunday were spent cleaning and doing yard work – always the first order of business after being away 6 months. We did call a couple days ahead to have someone clear a path so we could get to the Casita without trudging through knee deep vegetation.

The trip was pretty much standard – no mordida, no road blocks or banditos were encountered.

We were stopped three times at military checkpoints: one was a wave through; the next required lifting the trunk lid and quick look see; the third was a fairly extensive inspection going through boxes, luggage and such. At each stop we were not asked to produce any papers. Questions about where we had come from and where we were going – the usual.

We did notice a change in the driving process. Apparently the left turn signal has yet another purpose. Of course the universal notice of making a left turn is here. Additionally here in Mexico one might turn on their left blinker to indicate that it is safe to pass – this is mostly used by commercial vehicles, large trucks etc. New is the left blinker appears to be used to notify a slower vehicle in the right lane that they are in the process of being passed on the left.

We saw this last explanation used quite a bit – never before. Since we have been hiding out in Puerto Escondido for six months sans any television, perhaps we missed the news bulletin about this new driving technique? Anyone?

Yesterday we began the task of getting connected to the Internet – but we came with new tools this time, and hopes of reuniting with friends down the road that shared their connection and costs with us whence last here. The offer remained.

We immediately set up a wifi unit, connected it to their Telmex Internet modem and set up an antenna at our casa where we get a small signal and a slow Internet connection. Running out of day light and energy we retired early from all the wires and settings to read email and see what was going on in the world according to several news sources.

Romney is apparently the candidate of choice by the Republican Party and Obama continues to flail away at a poor attempt at being the President of the United States (nothing new there).

Also noted in other political races that the PRI’s presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto is poised to be victorious in Mexico come July. It should be noted he has held this position of favorite for more than two years.

Moving on to things that actually matter we are readying conditions for the arrival of Anita’s brother and his lady come mid-May. We reunited with several friends here in the Hood drinking a bit too much tequila in the process.

Today we were able to connect to the Internet with radios that provide very positive connections from distances as far as 10 kilometers (six miles). All is working and well – more on this soon.

Feeling better today, we also did some dress up work (read gardening) on the vine wall at the top of our property along our street as May 3rd is the celebration of the Capilla (also just at the top of our property). Last night a few of the locals were sprucing up the little Capilla with some new paint and roof repairs. We covered this extensively in 2008 here

You folks north of the Rio Bravo might be surprised to know May 5th (Cinco de Mayo) is not a highly celebrated event in Mexico – nothing like the partying in the U.S. But here locally May 3rd is a real party for our Capilla.

Some interesting things happening in the Hood. Stay Tuned for all the chismes (gossip).

Ah but here in Puerto Escondido the sole huggers attached by straps of some fashion are a way of life. Your sandals will always be close afoot. You will be challenged to see any other kind of foot wear as you look amongst the crowds. Staying here longer than a 10 day vacation will lead you to sandals and shorts as a way of life. A way of survival. If your feet are cool, you most likely will be cool moving up from there.

We have been thinking a lot about last minute advice to give to Anita’s brother and his partner. Her brother is no stranger to Mexico; in fact he is bilingual and of Mexican lineage. His woman is another matter – strictly gringa.

If you have been reading along you may recall they have chosen to sell out of their position in the United States and head to Mexico to take up residence. A bold decision.

At this point they are not sure whether Xico or Puerto will be the soft landing – perhaps they will discover another part of Mexico to live once they get down here? But for now they are packing up all their stuff. Their motorcycle is loaded up in a trailer. They are just days away from beginning the long trek down here, where they will meet us in Xico.

Since we are probably as guilty as any for having encouraged the move, we have been trying to impart our wisdom regarding what they might experience here – especially early on.

With a little soul/sole searching we were quick to suggest they invest in a lot of shorts and sandals. Whence last in Las Vegas we stormed the thrift shops scouring their selection of shorts and sandals. Recall the entry we made on the shot glass sipper Reef sandals. We kid you not –a pair of sandals that doubled as booze carriers – read about them here.

Our Reefs When New

After six months with the Reef sandals the report is mixed. They are without a doubt one of the most comfortable sandals we have owned. The bad news is they started falling apart pretty much from the onset. They seemed to shred their snazzy gray coating within hours – but they operated fine without the coating.

Our Tattered Reefs This Morning

We actually did transport some tequila in them to demonstrate the novelty a few times. Here in Mexico there is little call for hiding your tequila bottle, flask or bota bag. After a couple months one shoe bottle cap went missing. Shortly thereafter the other cap was left in the sand somewhere. Then the plastic housing started to crack and make a strange crackling noise.

After a while the annoying crackling noise stopped, but no more sealed vessel capacity. The sandals had turned pretty ragged. However because they remain comfortable they are still around. The Booze Reefs are generally NOT recommended. All still there is a feeling that Reef Sandals sans the libation gimmick are pretty terrific Puerto Escondido footwear.

Reef Sandal company visitor(s) take note: ‘Would be happy to review another pair or two for you.

You can read more about sandals here.

We recall the very common north of the border sign: No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service. In Puerto you will NEVER see that sign. You will be out of place with sneakers or street shoes – that is a guarantee. Grab your sandals, shorts, and surf boards; and head on down here. We will continue doing some sole searching to find as comfortable but sturdier sandals. Stay Tuned!

He was unshakable. Amidst chaos he would smile and become a peacemaker. There was no pretentiousness, while he remains one of the very few that I would suggest was justified for that.

Our friendship began in the sixties; possibly the greatest time ever to be alive. In a statement from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted Helm in 1994,”In the late 1960s and early 1970s when the country was divided, The Band still projected a sense of unity and brought generations of fans together from all over the world.”

We were a generation that rebelled and lost our innocence. It was quite possibly the last idealistic time. We denounced war, racism, sexism, and greed. We espoused love, peace and community. And we made sweet music.

The gap between generations was as wide as it has ever been to this day.

During a session while recording the Band’s Moondog Matinee album I recall a problem between Robbie Robertson and me relating to EQ (equalization) on Levon’s unique snare drum. The group was in my studio, Capitol Records Studio A. The ground floor of the round building on Vine Street just north of Hollywood Blvd.

Levon Helm (far left) Photo of The Band

A recording studio that at that time no one knew better than me. I knew about every wire, every connection as I had been instrumental in designing its sound specifications and recording capabilities; as well as being the main rock n’ roll engineer for Capitol Records Inc. at that time.

Robertson was insisting on some very radical equalization. While it was my room, it was his music. I reluctantly backed off. But you should note that making music then was intimate yet collective.

During a playback playing at high decibels in the control room Levon, having heard Robertson and I, leaned in and whispered in my ear to change the EQ to where I knew it should be; to not pay attention to any alternative direction. That was the way he was gently in control. Richard Manuel passed over the bottle of Grand Marnier, and with his Mona Lisa smile nodded in agreement.

Levon was not a man to get in the way, but was one to get his way, because you just could not help but like him with his gentle southern accent and gentler mannerisms. Nothing ever got in the way of his ability to play the drums and belt out a vocal. A true southern gentleman.

I am too sad to say more. Levon you will be missed – never forgotten amigo! Stay Tuned!

The days are more humid. Mountain air and summer rains are calling to us. We have completed a lot of our to-do list (one should never complete that list).

The question is what will we miss? What should we take a good hard look at as we will not see it until October?

For sure we will miss the Pacific Ocean that lulls us to sleep at night and makes our days feel like we are important because there is just so much space sea side. And those perfect sunsets that have burned into our brains and taken our breath away will have to suffice as memories until next time.

We are going to miss 5 mbps second down and 600 kbs up – the Internet connection that finally came together has been a treat. We know we are headed into unknown territory for getting on the Internet. Perhaps like energy as that expended to acquire the great connection here will come together there – remains to be seen. We have two new radios in tow and considerably more knowledge than when we arrived here.

A subtle pleasure, yet something that will be greatly missed, is the balcony on our second floor of Casa Maria del Mar where we have enjoyed eggs and beans with fresh homemade tortillas in the morning and tequila and orange juice with cheese and crackers as we watched many sunsets drop into the ocean. Also the occasional late night visit to that balcony terrace where the breeze off the ocean and the city lights peaking through coconut tress has been a wake-up call to remind us just how lucky we are to be here; to b alive! Life here has been good for the last six months.

The fish will really be missed. Anita bought some tuna steaks from a fisherman that comes to our gate. Eighty pesos for a kilo of virgin tuna – ocean fresh not farmed raised. That is $2.85 U.S. per pound of fresh, off the boat tuna fillets – you have to know we will miss that.

We have done a lot of work that mostly will not really be enjoyed until next time. Of course next time we will dust off the to-do-list and add to it. We have two finished bathrooms; tiled; new plumbing; paint, screens; first world type bathrooms. We just finished installing the sink in the upper bathroom yesterday – running water up there for the first time this visit! We actually did a lot of tiling – the walls of two bathrooms and the kitchen floor.

This last week or so we have been (with the help of our friend Simplicito) making a barbeque area and steps leading to it from our patio – the BBQ will not actually get used until our return. Some photos of that project:

We will miss the restaurants and activity that surrounds a tourist community. Perhaps not as much the high vacation seasons when the town is over-run with people.

All that left behind, the future remains bright. Anita’s brother, my brother-in-law for close to 25 years, and his woman will be heading down to Xico mid-May to start new lives in Mexico – we look forward to their arrival and the challenges they will encounter as well as the pleasures we know are in store..

In Xico we will refresh relationships with good friends. Doctor Veronica, Vicente and Lidia, Javier and Claudia and many more folks that have enriched our Mexican experience. Our long established friendships suffer when we are away six months – yet they always seem to start from where they left off without missing a beat – a good thing.

As we start the laborious process of packing up we are sure we will remember more to be missed and more to look forward to Stay Tuned!

Confused yet?

Apparently all that word play is far less confusing than buying or ordering tuna and other species of fish in Los Angeles and other parts of the United States.

In an article in today’s L.A. Times, “Seafood in L.A. frequently mislabeled, group says”, we learn that the nonprofit group Oceana is reporting they found in DNA tests of seafood from 74 retail outlets in Los Angeles that “Red snapper, Dover sole, white tuna and other fish were often different species. In all, 55% of 119 fish samples from across L.A. were misidentified”.

Be still my heart. We now know that we are being sold and served counterfeit fish in Los Angeles, and most likely similar crimes are occurring in other places. “Consumer Reports found that 18% of seafood samples its researchers collected from retail stores and restaurants on the East Coast last year was mislabeled. A 2011 investigation by the Boston Globe reported that 48% of the fish it collected from Boston restaurants, grocery stores and seafood markets was sold with the wrong species name.”

What is up with people!

Here in our Mexico, and we say this with all due respect, the hombres selling fish off the boats simply do not have the deceptive marketing expertise to pull this off – and thank goodness for their lack of sales and marketing skills. Apparently Sushi restaurants had the highest incidence of mislabeling.

“In [some] L.A. samples, red snapper was misidentified 100% of the time, DNA tests showed. Tilapia and pollock were popular substitutes, the report said. Dover sole was discovered to be Asian “sutchi catfish” or common sole, and white tuna was often actually escolar, a snake mackerel with known diarrheal effects. The fish has been restricted in some countries.” Yum!

If we were living in the United States we think we would move on from being pescatarians to full-fledged vegetarians – muy rapido!

Here in Puerto Escondido there is a friendly hombre that comes to our casa door selling fresh fish out of a cooler. We recently bought a kilo of tuna steak fillets for 80 pesos ($2.85 U.S. a pound) – photo below:

The REAL Deal -Tuna or Atún

At the conclusion of the L.A. Times article they write, “Lisa Simon, 66, a self-described pescatarian in Eagle Rock, eats fish two or three times a week. She said Oceana’s findings make her angry.

‘It’s sort of like that pink slime stuff they put in ground beef and nobody knew about it. If halibut isn’t really halibut, God knows what it is or where it comes from,’ she said. Simon said the report is likely to inspire her to eat more vegetables, beans and rice.”

Pink slime (we wrote about it here), snake mackerel and God knows what is being foisted off on the public by some very uncaring people we think. This makes us mad as hell. When will societies start demanding better character from its members? Stay Tuned!

We often sight the example of our being taught in the 1950’s about the perfect concentric circles of the nine planets (now eight) orbiting around the sun; how they now know these planetary objects travel around the sun, in a manner far from perfect concentric circles. Maybe you recall those solar system models with wire circles on which nine various sized balls revolve in perfect circles around a big yellow sun ball.

Still later we learned Pluto from its discovery in 1930 until 2006, was originally classified as the ninth planet from the Sun; now is categorized as a dwarf planet. The times and the facts they are a changin’. At least in our lifetime we had moved beyond the belief that we might fall off the edge of the earth – we will give science that.

The propagandized teachings of history where the United States could have done no wrong – we could site so many examples of erroneous facts we learned along the way in life – much of it debunked in that same lifetime. Certainly causing one to question the authority and veracity of those sage authorities and educators.

We have often argued the veracity of the Americas Indians characterized as nomadic savages who were rightly driven nearly out of existence by our cultured European ancestors. We have been known to refer to that as ethnic cleansing. But we are not here to argue that point.

We are here to recommend a terrific book by Charles C. Mann titled, “1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus”.

A book description at Amazon.com describes it thus: “[The book 1941] is a groundbreaking study that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492.

Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus’s landing had crossed the Bering Strait twelve thousand years ago; existed mainly in small, nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas was, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last thirty years proving these and many other long-held assumptions wrong.”

We read a Kindle version of the book. A historical wake-up call if you will; and a real page turner all wrapped up in one. The Amazon reviewer concludes: “Mann sheds clarifying light on the methods used to arrive at these new visions of the pre-Columbian Americas and how they have affected our understanding of our history and our thinking about the environment. His book is an exciting and learned account of scientific inquiry and revelation. “ And how we chime in!

If you are here in Mexico or thinking about being here, this is a must read. It will certainly provide some new thinking about the people and the history of the Americas. Stay Alert and please Stay Tuned!