Mexico – आवारा मुसाफिर

A hidden paradise under threat

June 1, 2024209 Views

A fragile system of 10,000 subterranean caverns, rivers and lakes wind almost surreptitiously under Mexico’s southern Yucatan peninsula Now, construction of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s crown jewel project – the Maya Train – is destroying part of that cave network Rays of sunlight slice through pools of crystal water as clusters of fish cast shadows on the limestone below. Arching over the emerald basin are walls of stalactites dripping down the cavern ceiling, which opens to a dense jungle. These glowing sinkhole lakes – known as cenotes – are a part of one of Mexico’s natural wonders: A fragile system of an estimated 10,000 subterranean caverns, rivers and lakes that wind almost surreptitiously beneath Mexico’s southern Yucatan peninsula. Now, construction o...

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Monarch butterfly numbers in Mexico plummet to near record low

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

February 9, 2024380 Views

The population of monarch butterflies in the Mexican forests where they spend the winter fell to the second-lowest figure on record this season, offering a grim snapshot of the already endangered orange-and-black insects. The iconic butterflies' presence was only documented in 2.2 acres (0.9 hectares) of forest spanning a couple Mexican states where they traditionally hunker down for the winter, according to the latest annual study published on Wednesday and conducted by Mexico's protected natural areas commission and the Swiss-based World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an environmental group. In the mid-1990s, monarch butterflies could be found on around 45 acres of the same forests covered largely by pine and fir trees, along the border between Michoacan and Mexico states. FILE PHOTO: A ...

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For the first time, AI allows identification of 5 jaguars in Mexico

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

May 27, 2023902 Views

A team of nature conservation experts have recently announced that with the help of Huawei Cloud and artificial intelligence, they have identified at least five jaguars in a nature reserve in Dzilam, Yucatan, in southeast Mexico. The Tech4Nature Mexico project, launched in the Dzilam de Bravo nature reserve last year, uses an integrated and continuous monitoring system analyzing images and sound data to identify and track jaguars and their preys. The project involves partners including the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Polytechnic University of Yucatan, C Minds' AI for Climate initiative, Rainforest Connection, the local community of Dzilam, and the government authorities of Yucatan. Huawei supplied the capabilities of Huawei Cloud to the project. To ...

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At Mexico’s Chichen Itza site, researchers discover ancient ‘elite’ residences

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February 12, 2023818 Views

Archaeologists have revealed a group of structures discovered at the famed Mayan Chichen Itza archaeological site in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, believed to have been part of a housing complex inhabited by the elite of the sacred city founded in the 5th Century AD. Archaeologist Francisco Perez Ruiz said there were no known residential groups in Chichen Itza, meaning the housing complex would represent "the first residential group where a ruler lived with his entire family." Workers of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) work in the restoration of Chichen Viejo during a media tour at the archaeological site of Chichen Itza, in Piste, Mexico February 10, 2023. REUTERS/Lorenzo Hernandez The area, known as Chichen Viejo, is expected to be integrated in the...

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Worries abound that Mexico’s Maya Train will destroy jungle

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

February 5, 2023874 Views

Miguel Ángel Díaz walks slowly so his footfall on dry leaves doesn’t drive away what he’s trying to find in this dense forest of seeded breadnut and sapodilla trees. Coming to a small wetland, a sign warns: Beware of the crocodile. Díaz, a tourist guide, shines a laser pointer at a woodpecker and a toucan, and then moves it over to the blue tail of a Yucatecan jay. He learned years ago to decipher the sounds of the Calakmul jungle in Mexico’s southern Yucatan. Although it’s high season, this recent morning Díaz had a hard time finding tourists to guide. Last year, just over 50,000 visitors came to Calakmul, home to an ancient Mayan city that today is a UNESCO world heritage site. A woman climbs up a pyramid in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve at the Calakmul Mayan ruins in the Yuca...

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Collapse, contamination: Mexican scientists sound alarm at Mayan Train

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 5, 2023635 Views

Parts of Mexico's remote southern jungles have barely changed since the time of the ancient Maya. In the eyes of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a railway his government is building - known as the Tren Maya - will bring modern connectivity to areas for generations deprived of significant economic benefits. But the railway and its hasty construction also critically endanger pristine wilderness and ancient cave systems beneath the jungle floor, droves of scientists and environmental activists say. A house stands on the edge of forest which has been cleared for construction of section 5 of the new Mayan Train route, in Solidaridad, Quintana Roo, Mexico, November 6, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez The railway "is splitting the jungle in half," said Ismael Lara, a guide wh...

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Notorious island prison is now a Pacific tourist resort

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December 18, 2022925 Views

One of Mexico's most notorious prisons begins a new chapter this weekend as a Pacific Ocean getaway after a makeover aimed at bringing in tourists to the former penal colony. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday evening opened the Islas Marias Tourist Center, bidding to turn the decades-old federal prison in the Islas Marias archipelago into an environmental attraction and place for history lovers. "This is tourism for excursions, to explore, to live with nature," Lopez Obrador said this week. "To recreate history, it's something exceptional, extraordinary." Alongside villas to lodge guests, a restaurant, a cafe and beaches, the revamped site includes an arch named after Nelson Mandela, who spent some 18 years behind bars on South Africa's Robben Island before bein...

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Devotion to Virgin Mary draws millions to Mexico City shrine

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December 11, 2022793 Views

It is one of the world’s most visited and beloved religious venues – the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, with a circular, tent-shaped roof visible from miles away and a sacred history that each year draws millions of pilgrims from near and far to its hilltop site in Mexico City. Early December is the busiest time, as pilgrims converge ahead of Dec. 12, the feast day honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe. To Catholic believers, the date is the anniversary of one of several apparitions of the Virgin Mary witnessed by an Indigenous Mexican man named Juan Diego in 1531. The COVID-19 pandemic curtailed the number of pilgrims in 2020. Last year, even with some restrictions still in place, attendance for the December celebrations rose to at least 3.5 million, according to local officials. Bigg...

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In Mexico, endangered monarch butterflies inspire hopes of a comeback

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December 4, 2022743 Views

From a distance, they appear like autumn foliage: millions of endangered monarch butterflies blanketing trees in a kaleidoscope of brown, orange and black. As the crisp mountain air warms, they flutter above dazzled visitors who have come to see an annual tradition that persists despite the environmental and human pressures threatening it. Monarch butterflies fly at the Sierra Chincua butterfly sanctuary in Angangeo, Michoacan state, Mexico. December 3, 2022 REUTERS/Raquel Cunha Every year, migratory monarchs travel up to 2,000 miles (3,000 km) from the eastern United States and Canada to spend the winter among the forests of central and western Mexico. Winter weekends bring hundreds of visitors to Sierra Chincua, an idyllic monarch sanctuary in the western state of Michoacan,...

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Mexican sanctuary prepares to re-wild endangered jaguar cubs

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December 3, 2022171 Views

Lying on a shady patch of grass under the hot Mexico sun, Zazil, a female spotted jaguar stretches her limbs. Born in captivity, she is a top candidate to help boost wild populations of this magnificent, endangered species. Reino Animal, a sprawling animal conservation park some 56 kilometres (35 miles) northeast from Mexico City, plans to move one of their female jaguars and her future cubs to its new facility next spring. A jaguar is seen at the jaguar sanctuary inside of Reino Animal Conservation Park, in Oxtotipac, State of Mexico, Mexico, November 2022. Reino Animal/ Handout via REUTERS After two years without human interaction, it plans to release the cubs into the wild. Animals bred in captivity in contact with humans or those rescued from the exotic pet trade cannot be se...