She didn't live long but taught us that chickens are not as dumb as everyone thinks Thanks to a few filmmakers and researchers, animal intelligence is getting some respect, beyond the usual dogs and cats that perform cute tricks on YouTube videos, or Jane Goodall's famous chimps that demonstrated how they can use tools, a …
Why is local law enforcement here so ineffective? Last Friday, a close friend I'll call Tom, 81, was carjacked and kidnapped as he returned to his ranch early in the afternoon, at a spot just outside Jalpa, a midsize town near us. In addition to his late model Toyota Tacoma pickup—which had a couple of …
A safari to an African country with teeming wildlife treasures Itinerary: (1) from Johannesburg to Maun in Botswana; (2) Camp at Linyanti River; (3) Camp at Kasanee in Zimbabwe; (4) Victoria Falls; (5) Fly back to Johannesburg. Botswana is boxed in on its northern and western borders by Namibia, on the south and southeast by …
The wages of a too-ambitious itinerary is a major case of jet lag Our recent trip to Dubai and Abu Dhabi and safaris in Botswana and Zimbabwe was both exhausting and fascinating. Hopping from two tiny, ultra-rich emirates along the Persian Gulf to two vast, but largely untouched, nature preserves in Third World Africa was …
How alarmed you should be by crime in the U.S. or in Mexico? It can be a matter of perspective The abduction about ten days ago of four Americans driving across the border from Brownsville, Texas to the Mexican city of Matam0ros, left two of them dead in addition to a Mexican bystander, and restarted …
Offer critters shelter and they will come When we bought our three-hectare ranch (approximately seven-and-a-half acres) about 13 years ago, the land had been ravaged by nature and man, the victim of decades of erosion and overgrazing. We decided to let two-thirds of the land lie fallow, a gesture that in current eco-speak in Britain …
Under AMLO, it's starting to look like an autocracy In the run-up to the 2000 presidential election Vicente Fox, candidate of the National Action Party (PAN) made an unprecedented campaign appearance at a meet-and-greet rally in Chicago, home to one of the largest Mexican-American populations in the U.S. Fox, a hulk of a man about …
To remember her cooking and the family history The exploration of some people's fraught relationship with their mothers must be a leading topic of psychotherapy even if sifting through life's what-ifs and could-have-beens while lying on a couch often doesn't alleviate present-day anguishes. Grandmothers are a different story. Our memories of them are rose-tinted by …
Everyday Mexican cooking is easy, except when it ain't Between the pandemic lockdown and remodeling of our kitchen and terrace, we hadn't done any entertaining for more than two years, not that we were ever a couple of gay Martha Stewarts who would whip up a Beef Bourguignon, set out the fancy china and tableware …
A moving ceremony even if the young participants didn't fully appreciate its meaning First Communion is one of the holiest and most important initiation rites in the life of a Roman Catholic, as the bread and wine consecrated during the Mass represent the continuing presence of Jesus on earth. Yet I'd bet pesos to doughnuts …
El Rancho Santa Clara 