Reclaiming the Lakeshore

A Mexican milagro happened yesterday.

The federal water commission ordered the state to tear down the wall. In the early afternoon a backhoe showed up and started work. There were three federal reps present. They presented us with a copy of the order, which curiously enough was signed by a local Chapala government official. That seems like it doesn't make sense, but this is Mexico.

The media was out in full force: three newspapers and two television stations.

The bad guys that made threats have left the neighborhood, and the police are guarding the main street entering our neighborhood off the highway.

For those of you not living in Mexico: this kind of thing never happens. The rich and powerful routinely buy off authorities, make threats to anyone in their way and do exactly as they please.

This is, as far as we know, unprecedented and fast! It was just this past Monday that we went to see the local authorities. If you read part two of "Stealing the Lakeshore" you'll see that we had totally given up hope for a resolution in our favor.

Margarito, the man who owns the 99-year lease from the federal government to farm on a portion of the beach here in La Cristina and who was asked to leave two years ago at gunpoint, is happy beyond measure.

Whoopee!

Read the story in the Guadalajara Reporter.

Stealing the Lakeshore, Part Two

A state water representative is scheduled today to be down at the lake surveying the situation. We don't know what, if anything, they can or will do.

Two other government officials were down at the lake late yesterday afternoon when we walked our dogs. They stopped the workers and made them leave. We were down there this morning walking our dogs and there were no workers.

However, there was one man who we believe is a supervisor sitting on the old seawall. He made threats to us and to the La Cristina residents in general.

He was reported to the police.

Since this is the third threat, some of us have decided to discontinue pursuing this apparently lost cause. I will not be walking in the neighborhood at all in the foreseeable future, much less down to what's left of the beach.

To see the first post on this subject, look in the archive for "Stealing the Lakeshore".

Abby's Big Adventure

In puppy kindergarten I was told by the trainer that Abby is very "food motivated", thus easy to train. If by that she meant Abby would sometimes obey a command if I have treats in my hand and if she's in the mood, then yes, she was easy to train.

This afternoon my partner, Gail was putting out roach poison which apparently looks like peanut butter. Abby, being food oriented and never missing a beat, licked some of it.

"Abby! No!" Well, it was too late of course. I read the label, well, it was in Spanish, started to Google translation and then realized it was going to take too long.

I grabbed Abby's harness and leash and got her into the car. The vet we use is three towns away but, this being May, I was able to get there in less than 20 minutes.

"I have an emergency". Dr. Hector took us right in, I gave him the container and said, "She had about this much of it 20 minutes ago". He and another vet looked at it and spoke to each other, weighed Abby, got the medicine and gave her a shot. Like in 10 seconds. I was told it would make her vomit, and they would wash out her stomach. And then they whisked her away.

I sat in the waiting room for about 20 minutes. Dr. Antonio came out and told me he had to take Abby to their main hospital in Guadalajara. He repeated that they would wash out her stomach and put her on an IV and that they had to sedate her. He said he would keep her with him and keep an eye on her and call me later.

When Dr. Antonio called he said the only thing they found in her tummy was what looked like a piece of bolillo. Hmmm. I wonder where she got that? He said she's fine, he's going to keep her overnight and bring her back to Lakeside in the morning. He gave her some canned food and she scarfed it up.

She's very food motivated.

Spotacus

A lovely dog was dumped in our neighborhood a few weeks ago. Reticent at first, she soon learned the neighborhood was full of friendly people and dogs. And she got treats.

Spotacus, as she is now known, soon became excited to see us, rolled on her back for pets and followed us down to the lake when we walked our dogs. One day she followed us all the way back to our house.

After three weeks of this I decided she needed to be rescued so she could have a home of her own. While everyone here thinks she's just great, no one is really in a position to adopt her.

Last week we took her to the Animal Shelter. There was concern that she may have mange, but the vet said no, it's just ear mites and fleas. She was quickly given ear drops, a de-worming pill, a shot and sprayed for fleas. She's definitely in good hands.

We've been back three times so far to walk Spotacus. I discovered that she is not only sweet but very smart. She learned to walk on a leash very quickly.

The vet says that Spotacus is 10 months old and is a Pointer/Setter/Border Collie mix.

She can be adopted here.

Stealing the Lakeshore

About ten days ago someone started building a sea wall down at the only lake access point in La Cristina where we live. One of our neighbors went to the offices of the municipality of Chapala and submitted a formal complaint. An order was made to halt the work last Thursday, the police were dispatched and the work was - supposedly - halted. Except it wasn't.

We saw the work continue over the next few days, including Sunday. A bunch of us quickly organized, took photos, got up a petition and ten of us went to "city hall" this morning and spoke to the 'president' which is like the county commissioner. We sat with him around a conference table. He was very polite. Two of our members, a Mexican woman and an American fluent in Spanish, spoke for the group. The president and his aides seemed interested, especially when a digital video of the work being done on Sunday was shown. They provided a copy of the order to cease work. But we got the impression they wouldn't or couldn't really do anything. We were hoping they would send the police to guard the area for a week while we pursue other avenues. We then checked with the planning department, and they had no record of the project. Then we talked to the ecological dept. They were going to try to stop it.

The folks from the ecological dept. just sent someone out to take a look, but they don't really have jurisdiction. They could stop the cutting of trees or fine them for cutting trees, which the workers have done. Two minutes before he showed up all the workers ran, jumped over a fence into someone's yard and hid. Clearly they were tipped off. The guy from the city did turn away a truckload of rocks while he was here. The truck was followed by some folks in our neighborhood group as it returned to the rock yard. There is no company name on these trucks.

It is federal land. Someone in the group is going to Guadalajara tomorrow to talk to the federal water commission or whatever it's called. We think they are the ones who have jurisdiction.

The police came again and put yellow police tape around the site to stop them. They are still working, going right through the tape.

This afternoon there was a reporter from Mural taking notes and photos.

The photo at the top of this post was taken in March of 2009.

This is what is currently happening.