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Well, it’s not like there aren’t enough amazing things to see around here, but it’s still good news for us cinephiles that Guadalajara’s Cinemark is opening a new movie theater in Plaza Caracol next spring with eight salons. We already have three commercial movie theaters in town, but because they’re all owned by the same family films tend to cycle from one to another. So now, we can anticipate more variety on the big screen.
Meanwhile, staying at a home on Flamingos Golf Course in the state of Nayarit for the summer, I’m appreciating what a bio-diverse part of the planet Banderas Bay is! On an average day, I see armadillos, crabs, iguanas, lizards, crocodiles, turtles and birds of all descriptions, including ducks, doves, owls and oystercatchers. I must say, Pavarotti has nothing on them, and I love it! Initially, however, it was a bit of a disconnect to watch satellite TV and my old Toronto journalism peers out of one eye and eight-foot crocs in a nearby lagoon out of the other! They remind me of my long-ago days on the Blue Nile, which I traveled primarily to see these fascinating creatures. By the way, did you know they can gallop? I didn’t, until I did my Internet research, but I did know they can leap and lunge no matter how sleepy they look. So it’s disconcerting to see families go right up to them as if they’re cartoon characters void of natural instincts and men who should know better wading in the lagoon for golf balls.
The subject of AIDS has been in the press a lot lately, a “New York Times” headline saying world leaders were scarce at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok mirrored by our own “Vallarta Today” bemoaning the lack of interest in Vallarta’s First Annual Mexico Against AIDS Forum. Attendance was 15% of what was expected, yet the problem here is escalating, as it is around the world. No matter how perfect the paradise, this is one scourge that respects no boundaries.
So is cancer. And this year, Canadian Consul Lyne Benoit and the 3,500 participants, volunteers, sponsors and officials involved in the annual Puerto Vallarta Terry Fox Run raised a stunning $1.4 million pesos for cancer research in Mexico, doubling last year’s contribution. Fox, a hero known to every Canadian over the age of 30, was a determined young man with one leg the other lost to the disease who set out to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. Before reaching that goal, the disease claimed him, but his indomitable spirit set an example well worth following. And in the 23 years since his death over $250 million USD has been raised in his name.
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about what you’re reading, you’re encouraged to let me know at heather@mexmags.com.
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