Puerta Hierro Hospital in Guadalajara where blood donations will be taken from Rotary Ajijic donors.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. The Rotary Club of Ajijic is partnering with the Municipality of Chapala and local sponsors to launch a monthly blood drive, starting this Saturday, February 27. The drive will continue on the fourth Saturday of every month.
Anyone who is healthy, 65 years old or younger can participate. Donors will be driven to the Puerto Hierro Hospital in Zapopan – a member of the Mayo Clinic Health Care Network and one of Guadalajara’s finest hospitals – in private buses leaving at 8 am, 12 noon or 4 pm. Donors on the morning bus will be provided lunch at the hospital.
Donors will be given a health screening and a rapid Covid-19 test at the Ribera Medical Center in Ajijic by Chapala ed staff before leaving for Guadalajara. After giving blood they will rest at the hospital and receive a t-shirt celebrating their donation. The process is relatively painless and healthy individuals can easily give a pint of blood a month.
The local Rotary is reaching out to Ex-pats for the blood drive, but both Ex-pats or Mexicans are welcome and urged to become regular donors. Carol Wolff, President of the Ajijic Rotary urges anyone who qualifies to donate blood regularly because of blood shortages in Lakeside.
“Hospitals are having trouble getting blood for surgery”, Wolff told Laguna in a phone interview, “and we realized that all Lakeside has a problems because of the many restrictions on who can give blood – it is only people 18-65 years old – so this is what we can do for the community.”
Wolff added that next month Rotary Ajijic will make a special appeal to parents of players in the Union Soccer project, sponsored by Rotary Ajijic.
The Rotary Club of Ajijic is one of the few bilingual(English/Spanish) Rotary clubs in Mexico, and has been serving the Lake Chapala area since 2002. Its members are business and professional men and women, many retired, who dedicate their time, expertise, and talents to helping others in our local area.
In the past it has been customary in Mexico to locate blood donors yourself for transfusions you may need for surgery as there is not always a steady supply of blood. But this is no longer the case as blood banks, such as the IMMS Centro de Medico de Occidente .
have been established. There is currently no operating blood bank in Lakeside, but the new Ribera Medical Center in Ajijic has the equipment and is waiting for certification. A spokesperson for the San Antonio Hospital told Laguna that they obtain needed blood from Guadalajara-based hospitals, but eventually will establish their own blood bank
Dr. Santago Herndez, of Chapala Med and Medical Director and the RMC hospital in Ajijic, told Laguna that “we need these blood donations to keep blood on standby because some elective surgeries have been cancelled owing to lack of blood and because we never know when we will need it for an emergency – like surgery for a broken hip”.
Costs of the blood drive project are being covered by Rotary of Ajijic and the co-sponsors -Riberas Medical Center, Chapala Med, and the municipality of Chapala. However, Rotary Ajijic will soon begin seeking additional donors to cover the costs of a year-long program. Wolff told Laguna that they estimate enough people will sign up for 3 busloads a month, but this is a test – it could be less or more.
People wishing to sign up to give blood should contact Dra. Cherry at 33-1699-2414.
Hotel in downtown Ajijic.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. Tourism at Ajijic hotels sees an uptick with the end of emergency rules, but most visitors are from Guadalajara and hotel owners are hopeful for a good Easter weekend, but did not see a rush in reservations. Canadians and Americans are virtually gone from most hotels.
Laguna talked with the owners of a number of Ajijic hotels and heard a similar story; last weekend was an improvement, but with the loss of Canadian and American tourism, bookings were shorter and some guests wanted bargain down prices. And, as of the middle of the week, with one exception, reservations for Easter weekend were low or on-existence, but owners say that many guests, especially from Guadalajara, wait until the last minute to book.
All but one said there was an increase last weekend in guests, most said there was no increase this coming weekend as yet. The notable exception was Hotel Danza del Sol, which specializes in multi-bedroom suites for families and groups, whose reservations representative reported a large increase in bookings for this weekend.
The loss of business from Canada and the US has impacted the local hotel business in a number of ways. While hotel owners are pleased with the continuing business from Guadalajara, they report that on average, Tapatios only book for one night, instead of the full weekends, and spend less money than Expat tourists.
This has particularly impacted the business of Casa Tres Leones. Co-owner Emilio Wilson said his hotel established a two-night or more policy 13 years ago because they found that the one-night bookings were more difficult in terms of arriving early, leaving late and requiring extra cleanup work.
“We have been closed since March 20 and are now cleared to open, which we are,” the Australian Expat Wilson told Laguna, “and we had no business last weekend. We could have done well if we took one-night bookings, but our policy for 13-years now is two nights or more, so they did not book.” He added that they have advanced bookings in late March and April from the US and Canada, but those will depend on vaccinations.
The majority of the hotel owners who spoke to Laguna were uncertain about the future. Carmina at Casa Flores said that it has been very hard because “no one is coming from Canada and the US” and she understands that potential tourists from there are not sure of when they can come, so the hotel is not sure of anything. She noted that the Publico Magico could help.
New well in west Ajijic reaches the water table.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. Ajijic’s seventh and newest water well has reached the water table in west Ajijic at 230 meters depth, but according to Ajijic-based SIMAPA representative Omar Gustavo Cerna López , the well will be drilled to 260 meters to provide a cushion that can assure a water supply even in the driest summer.
The drilling began on November 10 of last year in response to years of complaints of an unstable water supply in the La Mojonera neighborhood of the Rancho del Oro subdivision. The well will be the seventh well operated by SIMAPA to supply water to Ajijic, but will be a substantial help to a system stretched by Ajijic’s growth. Of the other six wells in the area, two provide half of the town’s supply; a seventh well in west Ajijic will add needed capacity to the system.
SIMAPA representative Gustavo Cena Lopez told Laguna in response to a question that there will be a 5% increase in water rates. But he did not say when it would take effect and if it would be systemwide or just for the area supplied by the new well.
Water from the new well will supply users from the municipal border with Jocotepec to the La Cristina area. Gustavo Cena López told Laguna that as of now there is no set completion date for the well but it should be relatively soon. Drilling must go down another 30 meters and the drilling time will vary depending on the rock layer it is drilling through and construction time for the3 ancillary equipment needed for operation. However, he noted that as of now it is on schedule.
After the well reaches 260 meters, the necessary equipment for water extraction and storage will be installed, the water will be tested for quality, and a supply pipe will be laid from the well to the water main in the Carretera. From there, existing lateral pipes will distribute the water to homes and businesses. There may be some properties that are currently not supplied with water that will have to connect to the main if they want service from the new well.
Omar Gustavo Cena Lopez pointed out that the 260 meter level is well within the average depth of the water table in Ajijic, which has not fluctuated noticeably over the past five years. In the summer season when people need more water for irrigation and domestic use, it drops; and in the rainy season the water table rise, but the fluctuations are always within a normal range easily accessible by existing wells. Recharge rate of the water table has remained virtually the same for many years and is not expected to drop.
Omar Gustavo Cena Lopez was not able to provide cost figures for the project, referring Laguna to the information office in Chapala. The office did not have this information when Laguna requested it, but it may be available when the well is complete.
PHOTO: COURTESY
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. If you have wondered why it is so quiet in Ajijic during the week, and tourism seems to consist almost only of tapatios from Guadalajara on weekends, the answer lies in Canada. Canadians have virtually disappeared from Mexico and from Lakeside – a big problem for tourist-oriented economies.
Canada is Mexico’s second largest source of foreign tourists, generating over 300,000 people a month nationwide in 2019 – a number which dropped 50% last year after the Covid-19 crisis and travel restrictions were imposed. Puerto Vallarta, the third most popular Mexican destination for Canadians with 134,000 in 2020, has seen 60 flights a month from Canada cancelled leading to a virtual disappearance of Canadians in the tourist areas.
While only a fraction of the total tourists from Canada come to Lakeside, the impact is magnified here by the “snowbird” phenomenon – so many Canadians stay for 3-6 months instead of just a week for a holiday. Their steady spending in markets, shops, restaurants and bars during the week, is a major loss to the local economy, not made up by the weekend spending from Mexican tourist.
Canada suspended flights between January 31 and April 30, 2020, and then again on Jan. 29, 2021, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new agreement with airlines to suspend travel to the Caribbean and Mexico to April 30, 2021. The country’s main airlines ended service immediately, with Air Canada suspending all international flights and laying off 1500 workers.
However, the Canadian government posted revised information from Mexico saying that travelers arriving from Canada can be allowed entry if they have PCR tests, serological tests, health certificates indicating no Covid-19. But with no flights, the Mexican process for entry that allows Canadians to come under strict conditions will not boost tourism from Canada. because they cannot get flights
The restrictions and flight cancellations have dried up travel from Canada and it is not expected to recover before summer, even after flights resume in May. Nationally, this means that 685,00 Canadians who regularly travel to Mexico during the winter won’t be doing so, reducing tourism income by $782,000. The impact will be greater for bi-national resident towns like Ajijic, Oaxaca, and San Miguel which depend on steady spending from resident snowbird Canadians.
The impact locally is exemplified by the drop in attendance at the Lake Chapala Society. A spokeswoman at LCS told Laguna that “many members have not returned at all since March when the flights were cancelled and restrictions imposed. We have seen no snowbirds at all. Even the Americans who regularly come for the winter are not here.”
The staff at one local restaurant said their business is now almost all weekends and almost all tapetios; they used to see Canadians regularly during the week, but they are just gone.
John Kelly at the Royal Canadian Legion told Laguna in a phone interview that there has been an impact on their membership and attendance, but that it has cut both ways.
“Some people are staying in Canada because they can’t get out – there are no flights, and some people are staying her in Chapala because they can’t go home, he told Laguna. “And it is risky. One of our members went to Canada for a short trip on business, and got Covid and could not return – so some of us feel safer here,” he said, adding that he knows of as many as 20 people who want to come back to Lakeside but cannot leave Canada, and about 10 people are stuck here and can’t leave Mexico and if they could, can’t afford the long quarantine in Canada.
The Mexican government has asked Canada to allow flights to resume or risk “a profound economic crisis in the North American region” but, despite Mexicans regulations that allow entry with testing and health reviews, it does not appear that the Canadian government will change policies soon because more contagious strains of the coronavirus have surfaced. So, the disappearing Canadians will stay invisible in Lakeside.
Dr. Lupita Cevallos is assembling the volunteers and the resources to make it happen
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. Dr. Lupita Cevallos has launched a project to build a low-cost hospital on land she plans to donate. Her vision is a local hospital managed and staffed by local Lakeside people to provide anyone who needs it with the best care but at a lower price than the existing private hospitals charge.
“Hospitals are too expensive in Ajijic,” Dr. Cevallos told Laguna in a telephone interview, “Many people postpone treatment or forgo it because they can’t afford it. She says she thinks that there is enough experience and expertise in the local community to build and manage a private hospital.
Dr. Cellavos, who is known throughout Lakeside as a horsewoman and for her activism and devotion to the less fortunate in the community runs her own practice in Riberas and works on community projects including a Christmas gift distribution on her ranch to poor children
The idea for a low-cost hospital came to her when she began receiving offers of high-end medical equipment from friends in the medical and hospital communities in the US and Mexico. She cited one example of a doctor friend in Arizona, USA, who offered her a tomography machine. She said that having this equipment available for everyone here at a low price would be an advantage because the IMMS clinic does not have this kind of equipment.
She began assembling a project team of architects who are working on blueprints and drawings needed for permit application. Her initial cost estimates are in the area of $3 million pesos, some of which she will raise by selling land she owns near her ranch above the Libramiento. But she plans to raise other funds.
At this time, she is assembling a larger volunteer team and encouraging donations of supplies and construction materials and workers. Specifically, she is soliciting volunteers with construction skills, construction materials, and legal advice to help her transfer land to the hospital project. She estimates that it will take less than a year to assemble the full team and to obtain the permits and enough funds to get site preparation and building underway, and another year to finish construction. She is also looking for a volunteer with construction project management skills to take over the day to day running of the project.
Anyone who wishes to get involved should contact Dr. Lupita Cevallos at 33 1229 6265 or message her on her Facebook Page.
John Kelly and firefighting equipment in his garage awaiting distribution.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. Somewhere in a warehouse in Vancouver three shinny pumper trucks are waiting to be put on a ship to Puerto Vallarta to be distributed to three lucky Jalisco fire stations by Lakeside Assistance.
The used trucks – all in very good condition – were donated by fires stations in Richmond Canada and the northern Vancouver suburbs, who have been sending used equipment to charities for years with the blessing of their local mayors and city councils.
The three trucks are pumpers – trucks equipped to pump water from an internal tank or a tanker truck to a fire. The trucks are destined for Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, Poncitlán, and Atotonilquillo, each of which has been waiting for as long as three years for trucks.
John Kelly, of the Lakeside Assistance met with Laguna and said that the trucks came to them through Toronto-based Firefighters Without Borders, who for years have been collecting used fire trucks and other equipment, refurbishing them, and making them available to non-profit organizations to distribute to underequipped fire stations around the world. One of the Chapala Bomberos’ two pumping trucks was donated by Lakeside Assistance who obtained it from Firefighters Without Borders.
According to Kelly, the trucks are valued at about $5000 each, but if the stations had to pay for them through a broker, they would cost at least three times that much. The fire stations have to pay for tires, batteries and shipping costs.
Kelly, who is Canadian retired military, got involved when a friend in the Royal Canadian Legion in Chapala asked for help finding “mules” to bring used fire equipment into Mexico, and the request eventually grew into a container shipment of 650 sets of hoses and uniforms. Kelly has been involved ever since, visiting fire stations all over Mexico to assess their need and ability to use equipment. And even today, he has 50 sets of hoses and helmets and fireproof uniforms in his garage awaiting distribution.
Although the donations and sponsored by Lakeside Assistance, delivery dates are up to the municipalities that will receive the trucks and has not been determined yet, as their transfer is awaiting lifting of Covid restrictions. Processing and customs and safety approvals take about six months
Prototype Covid Hunter scanner identifies evidence of Covid-19 protein in test.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. The American medical equipment firm, Advanced Medical Solutions International (AMSI) has announced a breakthrough technology that enables a hand scanner to instantly reveal the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on skin or surfaces. Tests have found it to be 99% effective, according to the company.
Mexican immunology specialist Dr. Alejandro Díaz Villalobos, who was on the research team that developed the Covid Hunter technology, told Forbes Magazine that an agreement has been signed with the company designating Mexico as the first site for the manufacture and distribution of Covid Hunter. Donald Redman, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of AMSI, has said that eventually it will be manufactured in several other regions including Southeast Asia and the Middle East for worldwide distribution.
However, the initial production appears to be set for Mexico, thanks to the work of Villalobos and a critical mass of manufacturing capability in the country.
«It took a great deal of work for us (the Jordan-based research team and AMSI) to agree to make Mexico the country of manufacture,» he said, noting that the final location has yet to be determined. The state of Chihuahua is favored due to its high concentration of global medical device manufacturing firms. Currently, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, is home to 34 medical device companies some of which are now in talks regarding Covid Hunter. Villalobos hopes production can begin in three weeks.
Covid Hunter is a “non-invasive, non-contact, immediate and portable virus detector, specially designed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes covid-19 disease, demonstrating 99% effectiveness and with sensitivity within 0 to 2 meters on surfaces, through glass or transparent material, and inside the human body” reads a AMSI report.
Prototypes of the device look like an ordinary hand-held laser scanner. It emits a beam of infrared light that the device’s software analyzes in real time based on how it is refracted by the presence of the protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – evidence of the presence of coronavirus . When the scanner identifies this protein, it sounds an alert. It can be programmed for different variants of Covid-19.
The device promises to become a major weapon in the battle against Covid-19 but first must be approved by health authorities including the FDA in the United States and Cofepris in Mexico . No price has been set yet for the Covid Hunter, but AMSI officials have said it should be in-line with other infrared scanners.
The team of Inside the Haanachack Concept Bike shop.
In 1986 a young man by the name of Bob Buckley was advised by his doctor to start riding a bike. He noticed that there were mountain trails on the hilly public lands of Marin County, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Northern California, that would be great for biking, but locals struggled to ride regular street bikes on the trails. So, he invented what we now call the “mountain bike”. He and a team of local bike fans designed a lightweight, low cost, high quality bike perfect for rugged hill trails, and started a company they called Marin Bikes to build and sell them. Along the way they created the sport of mountain biking.
Thirty-five years later, the same Marin Bikes that are renowned throughout the world have arrived in Lakeside at the newly opened Háanchak Bike Concept Store on the Libramiento in Centro de Lago. Founded by three passionate riders – Francisco Mociel, Moises Padilla, and Francisco González – who saw Marin Bikes in a shop in Guadalajara, Háanchak Bike Concept became an immediate success.
“We opened about three months ago – it was the idea of owners – who saw that there were no similar bike stores in Chapala. The other stores did not carry the kind of high-end bikes we specialize in and most importantly they did not have Marin Bikes,” bike specialist and endure rider Ciro Ladrón de Guevara told Laguna, adding that when the owners saw the Marin bikes in Guadalajara, they made a deal to bring in a container of them and open a store in Lakeside.
That decision paid off. In only three months, Háanchak Bike Concept added 3 English-speaking employees to the three co-owners. The shop sells at least three bikes a week and is expanding into a space next door. The repair shop is busy seven days a week doing everything from gear adjustments to brake bleeding to mounting tubeless tires to special modifications for stock bikes.
“We sell three different kinds of bikes, including some road bikes,” Ladrón de Guevara told Laguna, “but I think the best bikes for the local cobblestone streets are the gravel bikes (known in the US as “trail bikes”) which don’t have suspension but come with mountain bike tires.” He added that, “riders can make their mountain bikes more comfortable with suspension forks and softer tires, but that adds weight.”
Háanchak Bike Concept is open 7 days a week from 10 a to 8 pm at #132 Libramiento, next to Tio Sam’s.
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Photo: Courtesy.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. Effective January 26, all airline passengers – either citizens or foreign nationals – must provide a negative COVID-19 viral test taken within three calendar days of boarding a flight to the US. Travelers may also provide documentation from a licensed health care provider documenting recovery from COVID-19 in the 90 days preceding travel if they have been previously infected.
This requirement does not currently apply to travelers entering the United States by land or sea or to children under two years of age. No quarantine is mandated after entry into the US but the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends a 7-day quarantine or stay at home period for travelers arriving by air even if they have tested negative for Covid.
The non-mandatory quarantine recommendation is a result of the Executive Order signed by President Biden last week that tasked U.S. federal agencies to “…identify agencies’ tools and mechanisms to assist travelers in complying with such policy” within two weeks. However, CDC spokeswoman Caitlin Shockey told the Washington Post that current rules are not “a mandatory quarantine” requirement, but rather “just a recommendation.”
In response, several hotel chains and airlines, including Volaris and AeroMexico, are offering Covid tests at reduced prices to visitors returning to the United States from tourist destinations. Aero Mexico has agreements with Lapi Laboratorio Medico and Laboratorio Medico del Chopo to provide discounts for travelers with a valid reservation with Aero Mexico or partner Delta Air Lines.
Despite the availability of discounted testing and the lack of mandatory quarantine regulations in the US, many passengers have cancelled reservations for return travel to the US, causing flights from Mexico City and tourist destinations to take off with few passengers or be cancelled altogether.
Persons who wish to return to the US from Lakeside via Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport should obtain a test at one of the local laboratories three days before travel and bring it to the airport. Passengers with reservations on Delta or AeroMexico should check the airline’s website (https://www.aeromexico.com/en-us/actions-covid19/laboratory-alliances) for laboratories offering discounted tests.
Biden signs executive order stopping border wall construction. VOA photo
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. The United States has a new President. So what will this mean for Mexico, and how much can we trust the Biden Administration to do what the Biden campaign promised?
By the end of Inauguration Day, President Biden signed 6 Executive Orders impacting Mexico and US-Mexican relations. Four of the Orders began changes in Trump immigration policies that have vexed Mexican society and the economy, imposed hardships on Tijuana, and been a topic of constant irritation to the Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) Administration.
Biden signed an Order that strengthened the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)program that protects immigrants brought to the United States as children from deportation and provides a path to citizenship for them, ending the potential for 800,000 people being deported to Mexico, many who have no connection to the country.
Another Order revokes Trump’s plan to exclude noncitizens from the census count, which will ultimately give Latinos more clout in US elections presumably resulting in more Mexico-friendly policies. Given that the Democrats lost ground with Latino voters in the 2020 election, there are no guarantees.
Biden also ended Trump’s attempt to find and deport unauthorized immigrants anywhere in the country, and he ordered an immediate stop to all border wall construction, both sore points between the US and Mexico. However, while Biden also ordered a release of the Latino children held in cages and an acceleration of family reunification, he did not rescind the rule that forces 30,000 asylum seekers to remain in Mexico – mostly in Tijuana – another sore point that will continue to fester.
The fifth and sixth Orders brought the US back into the Paris Climate Accord and cancelled the XL Pipeline, mandating a complete Federal review of regulations as part of Biden’s push for a carbon-reduced economy. AMLO has actively sought to close down solar and other non-carbon energy sources, so this too will lead to friction.
Another flashpoint will be the labor requirements of the USMCA –also called T-MEC – which the Mexican government has been very slow to enforce. Biden campaign spokespeople said the new Administration will insist on compliance. Give that US annual trade represents 76% of Mexican exports, plus an estimated $5 billion in remittances, , this will be delicate and controversial in the precarious Mexican economy.
The signals are mixed. After weeks of delay, AMLO sent President Biden a congratulatory letter, but it was late and contained a warning to stay out of Mexico’s internal affairs — not a great start. But José Medina Mora Icaza, head of the powerful Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) announced that he saw the new US administration as an opportunity to strengthen the High Level Economic Dialogue (DEAN) which had fallen into disuse under Trump, and a way to build up trade under T-Mec.
So what now? At the top of the agenda is immigration, both because of huge pressure from domestic US organizations like Voto Latino , and pressure from the AMLO government to relieve the refugee camps along the northern border and better handle the caravans now moving to the southern Mexican border.
It will be very tough. GOP “immigration hawks” in Congress will oppose any legislation to ease immigration restrictions and close Mexican refugee camps. The immigration prison industry collects over $4 billionUS a year from the government – some of which is recycled into campaigns of the “immigration hawks” to block reform and keep the prisons filled, reinforcing and underwriting opposition.
All of this means President Biden will have to be tough and determined as well as smart to solve the immigration puzzles, overcome the GOP and prison lobbyists, and navigate a new trade and political relationship with AMLO — while he stops Covid, repairs the economy, fights global warming, and outmaneuvers the obstructionist GOP minority in the Senate.
Will he stay the course?
In 2014 then Vice President Biden gave the keynote address at the Netroots Nation Progressive Convention in Detroit. During his speech he was heckled by Latino activists opposed to Obama’s deportation policies. He handled them with courtesy and respect. As Chairman of Netroots Nation, I met the Vice President afterward and complimented him on his deft handling of the hecklers. He thanked me and then looked me in the eye with steely determination as he shook my hand and said they were right – we have to do better on immigration.
He has already begun. I think he will find a way to make Mexico – and Mexicans – great partners.
© 2016. Todos los derechos reservados. Semanario de la Ribera de Chapala