Recently, my father-in-law and my husband were talking about shoeing horses. Apparently, the price per shoe has gone up to 400 pesos and as horses have 4, well, that’s a pretty penny. Although we’ve had horses that have been shoed, our current mare, Lady, is unshod.
My father-in-law said that none of the horses he has ever owned have worn horseshoes. He wondered about the prevalence of shoeing in Moroleon. I thought that perhaps since most horse owners here are hobby riders, that is they only take their horses out for shows or parades, shoeing might help protect the underside of the hoof from overgrowing in the absence of normal wearing down that occurs with a working horse. (See Pros and Cons: Are Horse Shoes Necessary for Hoof Health?)
Of course, not shoeing a horse doesn’t mean that our Lady’s hooves are neglected. Periodically my husband checks for stones or dirt buildup in the soft part of the hoof. He also occasionally files down the hoof if it seems to need it. (See Ten Hoof Care Tips to Help Keep Your Horse’s Hooves Healthy and Strong)
In order to do this little bit of maintenance, he had to accustomed Lady to lifting her feet, one at a time so he could examine them.
Lady isn’t the only animal we need to check hooves though. Our goats and sheep regularly pick up thorns in the soft part of their cloven hooves. Sometimes, an animal we have just bought may need some filing done if it was kept in a soft ground area and not allowed to graze. Otherwise, the rocky terrain found in La Yacata, keeps those little tootsies appropriately worn. (See Hoof Trimming)
January 22-265 is International hoof-care week this year. If you have hooved animals, why not take the time to give them a little pedicure this week?
If you’ve been following the news on the current gas crisis in Mexico, you may have seen the word huachicolero in reference to those that buy and sell illegally obtained gasoline. This is a word that originally referred to people who knocked fruit from trees using a huachicol which is a long-handled instrument with a basket at the end to scoop the fruit in. Huachicol can also refer to watered-down liquor. Thus huachicoleros are those that sell the watered-down liquor. Which brings us back to huachicoleros in the news these days who are dedicated, and I mean dedicated, to obtaining and selling water-down gas. These are the people that AMLO intended to bring down with this change in distribution methods.
Pemex, the government owed petroleum mega-giant, has been losing money hand over fist in recent years. It is estimated that $7.9 billion USD has been lost because of gasoline theft in the last 7 years. AMLO believes previous presidencies have been in colusion with the theft. No surprises there!
So how is so much gas stolen? Well, it’s not nearly as exciting as this scene from the Fast and The Furious.
Long pipelines crisscross the country running under both private and government-owned lands. It isn’t so very hard, although sometimes quite dangerous, to tap a pipeline and build a warehouse around it where trucks can come and go unmolested and is much less difficult than stealing what would amount to 250 20,000-liter tanker trucks each year.
Central Mexico was hit hardest with this new distribution regulation. Large sections of the pipeline run through rural areas in Michoacan and Guanajuato which are not regularly monitored. For example, “everyone” knows there is a pipeline tap in nearby Cuitzeo, just outside of Morelia, Michoacan. It’s run by the cartel with the complete cooperation of local officials.
So how did things get to this crisis level? Gas stations that were in the habit of buying large quantities of this water-down gas, had scheduled low numbers of tanker truck deliveries from Pemex distribution centers this month, as they have had every month previously. With the pipelines shut down, the huachicoleros lost their supply of illegal gas and have been unable to make their regular deliveries.
You might already know that the previous president Pena Nieto opened the petroleum market up for foreign investors. So now, Exxon and Mobile stations have sprung up all over the place, even taking over formerly owned Pemex stations. In our area, these foreign-owned stations ran out of gas long before the lone Pemex holdout. Now in the third week of the gas crisis, this single Pemex gas station has been receiving regular shipments every 2-3 days, which is not enough to meet demand with the other gas stations in town being effectively closed. So many people are still camping out in their cars awaiting the next gas shipment that an entire lane of traffic has been closed to accommodate them stretching for miles. Traffic has been entirely rerouted.
That’s not to say that only foreign-owned gas stations have been buying stolen gas. I think there might be an inherent bias in the distribution system these days. AMLO has been vocal about Mexico for the Mexicans. Foreign importation of gasoline has already been reduced. So it’s no far stretch to believe Pemex is taking care of its own first.
Gas ahead.
What will happen next? According to AMLO, the pipelines will remain closed. The income loss experienced by the huachicoleros won’t be taken lightly. There are bound to be violent repercussions in our cartel-run area. In fact, in some areas, the regular ol’ Joses and Josefinas have taken up the call of the huachicoleros and tapped their own pipelines.
In the meantime, enjoy the La Cumbia del Wachicol by Tamara Alcantara while you can.
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Would you like to read about my own experience with governmental correuption in rural Mexico?
Well, with the current gas situation going on, vacation driving becomes a risky venture. Since we are hunkering down in our ol’ ranchito La Yacata, I thought I’d take a virtual vacation this week. Destination Ixtapa, Guerrero. Every couple of months, I’ll see posterboard signs up announcing a group trip to one place or other. Ixtapa is one destination that comes up time and time again.
So why should you head to Ixtapa? Because there’s a beach! Apparently, the landlocked Guanajuatenses (people from the state of Guanajuato) long for the salt sea air and head to this particular beach by the busload. It’s the 9th most visited beach in Mexico, coming ahead Cozumel but behind nearby Acapulco.
But Ixtapa is far more than just a pretty beach along the Pacific.
Ixtapa is part of the larger Zihuatanejo de Azueta in the state of Guerrero. The name Ixtapa comes from thenáhuatl term Iztal, pa which refers to salt or something white which of course is the perfect name for the salty coastline. It used to be a coconut plantation and mangrove estuary until it became THE place to be sometime in the 1970s. The town was designed by master architects Enrique and Agustín Landa Verdugo.
Mexican Telenovela Marimar was filmed here in 1994 and more recently parts of the 1987 film Hot Pursuit, which is a funny movie to be sure!
Besides your typical beach activities like laying in the sun and splashing about in the ocean waves, there are several other noteworthy tourist attractions. Why not swim with the dolphins at Delfiniti? Or visit the Xihuacan Museum and Archaeological Site and see the Soledad de Marciel pyramid ruins? How about a round of golf at the Marina Ixtapa Nautica Golf Club? Or go snorkeling at Isla de Ixtapa? You could always play a little BlackJack at the WinClub Casino or bike the Ciclopista de Ixtapa.
Ah! Now wasn’t that virtual vacation imagining yourself soaking up rays on the white beaches of Ixtapa refreshing? Next time those posterboards go up, I’m going to have to check into the packages offered. It would be nice to get away for a bit.
