Guanajuato, Mex - House Sitting Part 3

We were suppose to be home by now but the folks for whom we are house sitting ran into a snag in returning. We are still here.

We've finally hit a peace agreement with the animals that has allowed us to sleep soundly. Only the very obedient toy and miniature poodles are allowed in the bed and that is working nicely.

This house is about one and half blocks from where we live and has far more noise, is more polluted, and hotter. We've house sat before here but not at this time of year.

Something more noticeable in Guanajuato now is the dramatic change in climate. When we moved here 7 years ago the air was clean most of the time. Even then, however, authorities were discussing ways to limit car usage in GTO to prevent happening here what has happened to other cities in Mexico--car induced pollution. But, the plans, of course, never got off the drawing board.

The other day it was so hazy and frankly hard to get out and walk. I could not breathe. I talked with a fellow asthma suffer here who is from Mexico City. She commented how the haze that covered the city for what seemed weeks, is what she sees in Mexico City when she visits.

It is the same. It is the same car induced smog that is ruining Guanajuato.

We moved here for the simple reason we would not have to have a car. You can virtually walk anywhere in this town and if not, there are taxis and buses. But, the status symbol of car ownership is what captures the minds of Mexicans. They want to appear "modern" (whatever that is suppose to mean) so they buy cars. The bigger the auto the better.

A study done on Mexico City found that its citizens buy the cars to enhance their status in their communities. To take a cab or a bus is unthinkable. Only those of the lower class take public transportation.

I have that study on the desktop (somewhere) and will post it if I can find it.

As I am typing this the haze is covering the mountains.

Sometimes I think another planet is where we should live.

Guanajuato, Mexico - Dumping Culture

Culture can be a funny thing. Americans do not tend to know their own culture, much less someone else's, so it is a bit difficult for Americans to come to grips with the fact that not all you encounter in Guanajuato, or any where else for that matter, is a sweet expression of a wonderfully kind and patient people.

The word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:

* the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.

* an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning

* excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture


Culture is something that should be embraced and shared with the rest of the world, in my view. However, depending on whose culture it is, there are things within the culture that should indeed be embraced and made timeless, treasure it!

There are also things within culture that a society should very seriously consider eradicating from the face of the earth and never to be thought of again.

Guanajuato is a trash-dumping-where-ever-they-please culture.

At the beginning of June 2009, was the nationally celebrated "Let's all pitch in and clean up Mexico" day. Dressed in their cute little green smocks and with their green hats, volunteers swarmed into the Guanajuato river (cesspool) to pickup their fellow Mexican's garbage.

Admittedly, the river looked pretty decent when they got done. This valiant effort, by the precious few Mexicans in this country who are ecologically minded, allegedly took place all over Mexico.

Today, June 18, 2009, were you to come to my neighborhood in Guanajuato you would see little of the cleaning effort that took place at the beginning of the month.

It is as filthy as ever. The only thing I was unable to see was the discarded tire that sat in the brown mucky water for the past year.

Plastic pop bottles, plastic grocery store bags, shoes, complete bags of households of trash, toys, plastic plates, and God only knows whatever else, is in the river as it was before. The stench turned my stomach.

It was as though the litter thugs thought, "We'll show those neat-nicks and their ecology activism a thing or two," and just re-trashed the river to get even.

And, mind you, it isn't just children who throw their trash into the river when there are trash dumpsters no more than a crossing of the street to take advantage of! Children learn it from their parents and we've seen plenty adults dumping loads of garbage into the river or just on the street itself.

If success of anything is based on results, it does not take a genius to see what the: "the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group" regarding trashing one's environment is in this city.

How Mexicans deal with their environment is a culture of dumping and it is a horror to the world.

It is grafted (infected) in their cultural mindset and does not look to be excised from their culture anytime soon.

A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel Review

Guanajuato Understood!, June 11, 2009

By

S. Faulkner "ESLTeacher" (North Carolina, USA) -

If you have travel plans to Guanajuato, Mexico, are considering a visit to Guanajuato, or only dream of going there, this book is a must read. We recently completed a two week visit to Querétaro, Bernal, San Miguel de Allende, and Tlaquepaque/Guadalajara. Without a doubt, Guanajuato, while knock down gorgeous, was also the most intriguing stay on our trip. However, the city is, in my opinion, the most incredibly perplexing, confusing, and often frustrating destinations in all of Mexico. To make "sense" of Guanajuato, Mr. Bower's book is more than very handy; it is essential.

Before our visit, I read Mr. Bower's book twice. It's not that his writing is difficult to follow; in fact, his descriptions and organization are very straight forward. On the first read, I was so caught up with his wonderful, colorful descriptions and fall down laughing sense of humor, I failed to get my bearings for Guanajuato. On the second read, I concentrated on his very descriptive walking tour of the thirty something plazas/plazuelas of Guanajuato. (Guanajuato was not named a UNESCO World Heritage site by accident). By the way, Guanajuato has no "city block system". It is built on a dry river bed and creeps up the hills that surround it.

I'm now on my third read of Mr. Bower's book, comparing his vivid descriptions to the over 150 photos I shot in our four days in Guanajuato. Mr. Bower truly makes Guanajuato come alive!

Mr. Bower is an excellent, knowledgeable, and prolific author. I also highly recommend his other books about living and working in Mexico.

Finally, if you plan to visit Guanajuato, don't be part of the "deer in the headlights" crowd that "hang out " in the Jardín Unión. They are so confused about the city that they never venture far from this tourist spot. We saw many during our visit there. It was part very funny and, at the same time, kind of sad. Mr. Bower's book will give you step by step instructions to discover the true beauty and intrigue of Guanajuato.

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A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL...Click Here for More Info

Guanajuato, Mexico - Cars, Blood Clots, Pollution

Studies in both humans and animals have shown that exposure to air pollution can affect heart rate, blood pressure, blood vessel function, blood clotting, and heart rate variability (a factor in developing heart rhythm disturbances), and speed the progression of atherosclerosis. -- Source

If you ask anyone, Mexican or Gabacho, what they think of the pollution problem in Guanajuato, a quick chuckle from the Mexican and a slap in the face from the Gabacho will likely be forthcoming.

To buttress their argument there will be a panoramic sweeping of their hand skyward and asking with a screech, "Do you see pollution in this lovely blue sky?"

Well, you won't see (not yet, but it's coming) an orange or brown haze floating over the city like you do in Leon or perhaps Mexico City.

What I am talking about are the dangerous particles from car exhaust that linger about waiting to infiltrate your children's lungs or your cardiovascular system to thicken your blood so that you develop massive blood clotting problems. Car exhaust will make your blood sticky causing clots!

The particles can drift for miles, and accumulate inside most buildings. Vehicles are the major source of the particles in urban air, particularly diesel engines.

During a period of high air pollution, people breathe in millions of these acidic particles which penetrate into the microscopic air sacs of the lungs. Scavenging white blood cells, known as macrophages, are "overwhelmed" by the particles. They release astream of chemicals that set off an inflammatory action in the lungs and increase the stickiness of the blood so it is more likely to clot.-- Source

To update you on my blood clots which were discovered in Feb. 2009, I ended up changing doctors. I wanted someone else with a more professional "feel" in helping me manage my blood clots and ongoing chronic health issues.

Speaking of the clots, they are fine and I am no longer in danger. They have dissolved. Good news, indeed.

However........and there is always a "however": The cause of the clots has been discovered by my new doctor. My blood, it would seem is too thick. It is thick like that of a heavy smoker. The doctor looked over the blood test results and the very first words that came out of her mouth was, "How much do you smoke?"

We had a hard time trying to convince her that not only have I never smoked, but that I was not breathing in Cindi's non-existent second hand smoke (She's never smoked). It must have taken the better part of about 15 minutes to convince her we don't smoke. And yet, the blood results show blood viscosity of someone who is a heavy smoker.

Why?

CAR EXHAUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the reasons we moved to Mexico was the chance to ditch the car and walk. I thought we would be healthier for it. GTO, when we moved here, was largely still a pedestrian town. Now, to our dismay, it seems car ownership has increased exponentially. Everyone drives and we are walking in the bluish-black clouds of exhaust their car belches forth like evil dragons.

In GTO only about 20% of the streets are accessible by car. And yet, more and more people are buying cars. I truly do not get why someone would want to engage in an activity which makes them fat, destroys their children's lungs by destroying the air, and is possibly one of the biggest contributors to the increase of obesity and heart attack.#

When we moved here the obesity rate was about 15% of the population. Now it is more than 50% ---- and this has been in a six year time period. (I got these stats from a doctor friend in Gto).

Because of the topography of this town, car exhaust does not escape very well at all. In fact, it remains at ground level for hours, soaks your clothing and hair, permeates your pet's fur, and can linger in houses and buildings for hours if not days. It is not the color of the exhaust that lingers, it is what you can't see--the particles...and that will kill you!

"In another study, Lung Chi Chen, of the New York University School of Medicine, reported research where he exposed one group of mice to second-hand cigarette smoke equivalent to passively smoking three or four cigarettes a day and a second group to the fine particles present in air pollution, in concentrations similar to a big city. He found that both particles and smoke produced around the same amount of change in the hardening of the arteries, which can lead to heart attacks."

Researchers estimate that one in every 50 heart attacks in London are triggered by air pollution.

Need I say more?

I don't know what we can do.

One solution is to move away from where we live now. Senselessly, cars come in and out of this Privada ( a private street) like it is a major highway. They will stop right in front of our windows, and our house is right on the street, and idle their cars until we starting walking in circles and talking to spots on the walls. There is a dentist's office and an insurance business on our street. Their clients will leave their cars idling in front of our windows while they go into these places and pay their bills or maybe they are exchanging tips on better oral hygiene and saving money on insurance premiums -- who can say?

Regardless, I am convinced that the survey/study conducted in Mexico City a few years ago applies to Guanajuato.

The major reason for car ownership in this city is NOT because they are needed. It is for status.

I will keep you informed............