Mexico Trip May 08

I went to Mexico. Not Tijuana-south-of-the-border-Mexico, not Puerta Vallarta-tourist-trap-Mexico, but to a remote village in the heart of Mexico. The village is called Otates y Cantarranas. That translates roughly into the Bamboo and Singing Frogs. The location of the village is in between Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. Otates is just a hop, skip and jump from Playa Las Tortugas (Turtle Beach), which is located along the coast directly west from Otates. My purpose for going to this exotic locale was to help the village of Otates with clean water. The village is home to roughly 900 people. Most are farmers who work are part of a cooperative farming effort. The local health clinic, the kindergarten, primary, and secondary school do not have access to water. The rest of the village relies on a water source that provides 1/2 the town with one hour of water one day, and 1/2 the town with 1 hour of water the next day. All of this water, although chlorinated, needs to be boiled before drinking.

I was able to go with a new philanthropic arm of my company called Projects for People. Under this organization, we have established a chapter with Engineers without Borders. The purpose of EWB is to serve as a broker between those in need, and those wishing to help. This trip has been a long time coming. Last year our company was holding a town meeting with all the employees at one of our office locations. The CEO finished his presenation and then opened up the floor for anyone that had questions. One lady asked what the company was doing to allow engineers to use their skills to help those in need. The CEO mentioned a few things, but none that directly answered this lady's question. So he assigned the office manager the task to come up with a plan in the next three months. Several employees (including myself) sent the office manager some suggestions. He gathered us all together a week or two later and handed the assignment to us. He would provide direction and input when he was in town (He is a very busy guy) from a corporate standpoint, and we would hash things out on the front line. After 3 months we had a proposed plan for the company. One month after that, we presented this plan to the CEO who received it whole-heartedly. Now that the plan was approved, we just needed a project. Our first submittal for a project to EWB was not successful as 7 other chapters "bid" for the same project. The next attempt was successful and we officially had a project!

This project in Otates is pretty tame when compared to some of the other projects going on at EWB. Ours was just a few hours from a short non-stop flight. Some others I have heard of take 2 days of flight followed by 10 hours in a truck, followed by 4 hours by donkey. We wanted a project that we would be able to be successful without traveling to the other side of the earth.

So roughly a year after the townhall meeting, the core of our team was in Mexico. Two other spanish speakers joined our team. It was a good thing too. They were extremely helpful in communicating with the village while were there.

OK, back to the trip details. Typical EWB projects require the volunteers to sleep in a bag on the floor somewhere. We had a contact near Otates who has their winter home there and said they would let us stay at their cost. They were very gracious hosts who fed us well. The accommodations were amazing as you can see from the photos.

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta on Thursday around 1:00 pm. I volunteered to drive while we were there, as I thought it would be a fun adventure to drive in another country. We rented two cars for the group (7 total) and we were off. The other driver grew up in Guadalajara and was familiar driving in Mexico. I was not, but soon realized that the speed limit signs don't mean much when everyone is going 30-40 km faster than the posted limit. We drove for a couple of hours before stopping in a little town called Buceriasfor lunch.


The food was great. I had some shrimp, followed by some ice cream down the block. Then we were off to Otates...Well almost. My teammate and I had to backtrack a 1/2 hour to pick up some hydrological and topographical maps. Hopefully these will help us determine the best spot for a well for the town. After picking up the maps, and heading toward Otates again, we made a stop for some local cuisine.

I had a coconut sliced open and had some fresh coconut milk. It was a green coconut, and the milk wasn't that good. But after that, they took the coconut and sliced it open, scooped out the flesh (which had a creamy smooth texture as opposed to the fiberous texture found in all the other coconuts I have eaten) and mixed it with slices of jicama, freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice, some chili powder, and a little salt. Heaven in a sandwhich bag....mmmmm. I forget what we ate that night at Casa Soledad, but it was great. I wondered down to the rocky overlook at the bottom of the beach and watched the sun set.












The next day we made a quick visit to Otates to see the Clinic, and the schools and then had a meeting with the Ijidros (city council). I was designated as the spokesperson. So I stood there and told them who we were and why we were here. As we thought, they decided on wanting water as their first priority. Right after that, myself, another teammate and a member of the Ijidros left for the state capital of Tepic to get water sample bottles and meet the state director who would be the one to approve permits for future work. We arrived in Tepic and had a good meeting with the director. The longest part was the drive to Tepic. If I had known it was 260 hairpin curves to Tepic, I probably wouldn't have sat in the back seat and tried to write a text message to my wife while the driver played pole position along the way. I got carsick, but didn't loose my breakfast. I made a movie of a portion of those 260 turns. I will try and post it another time.

After visiting with the director, it was 2 or 3 in the afternoon. We were hungry, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a local fast food chain place called Pollo Feliz. It reminded me of my dad's dutch oven chicken served with chips and salsa and fresh tortillas. Good food!! One interesting thing was that the restaurant had a greeter who seated you. Your meal was brought to you, and bus boys and waiters stopped by periodically to make sure everything was OK. Ever see that in a KFC?

Then we headed back another 260 hairpins curves and called it a day. The following day, Saturday, we headed out to the jungle near Otates to look at a potential water source. I didn't realize it would involve a 15 mile ride in the back of a truck, followed by a 4 mile walk through dusty and tick infested jungle.

The girls wore shorts and tank tops. Coming from a Boy Scout background, I thought this was probably not the best idea. All the guys were in long pants. Yet the guy that I thought was the best dressed for the environment had 13 ticks. I ended up with 2, and I think one girl had one. So maybe the less clothes the better for ticks. No cloth to climb up. Ticks give me the heebie-jeebies.

Here is a photo of me crossing the stream with one of my teammates. During the hike up to the water source we saw all sorts of native plants.


Here we are at the water source. Our guides were very gracious, and although I didn't understand most of what they said, a couple reminded me a little of my grandpa.

Funny story at the water source. We were taking water samples at several locations to test. The engineer had told us to take these samples within 12 hours before being brought to the lab. This was a long hike in, and the rest of the group got it was not feasable to come back and take a sample the following day. I didn't at the time, and so we had a terse discussion for about 10 minutes. After one guy finally talked some sense into me and I conceded, another girl said, "Mike, your fly is down." I mumbled a thanks and after few seconds remedied the situation. To me that was incredible embarrassing, and made sense that no one was looking at me at eye level as they sat on the rocks and I stood. Oh boy... Pretty funny now, but I felt really silly especially thinking this was around 1:00 pm, and I had been running around in this condition since 5:00 am. LOL...


Here is a photo of one tree that bears star fruit shaped fruit, but the taste is a cross between a cucumber and zucchini. You will also note that there are few to no leaves on this tree. This is typical for many trees down here. They have leaves when they don't have fruit. And when they have fruit, they have no leaves.


The tree had apple shaped fruit all over, like a typical apple tree, but without a leaf in sight. Very strange!



This fruit tastes like a cross between a pineapple and a pear. It has a name like Guanabana or something. I didn't get to try this fruit, but I had some juice that someone had bought. Mmmmm. Very good!


After the trip to the spring, we relaxed at the Mayor's house. I guess he isn't a mayor per se, but that is the closest thing to here in the states. Maybe the president of a city council... He fed us some tasty popsicles. Frozen coconut juice mixture was one flavor, and I think a berry for the other one. Very nice people.


While we were relaxing, one girl decided to catch a chicken. I have a couple videos of her running around. Everyone had a good laugh, and she successfully caught her chick.

That night we had another good meal, I think ceviche. Very tasty. The previous night we had chili rellenos. I thought of my friend who grew up in Mexico, and ate one for him. He says they never taste as good in the states as they do in Mexico. He is right.

That night we went to a look out on nob point. you can see the outlook in this photo in relation to the house.

Our host said that typically at sunset over 1000 bats come out all at once. Plus it is a nice sunset. So we all piled in their surburban and headed up to watch the show.



Going



Going



Almost gone.


Closest thing I have to gone.

Couple of the team taking photos.




The bats were supposed to come out of the rock shown on the left about eye level. They never showed up in droves. But it was a pretty sunset.


View looking straight down from the point.


The next day was spent doing a health survey, and looking at another potential water source. Here is a picture of our team tracing a potential route for a new water supply.




The soccer field.



This is a watering hole in the field for the proposed well location. The water is at its low point, and is located about 2 meters below ground level in this shot. The farmer had a small gasoline powered pump that he ran for over an hour without any drop in water location. My worry is that while it is a good well for a couple of folks, how can we determine if it will provide a substantial increase for the village.



Kindergarten



Clinic



Primary school. Water has to be hauled in for drinking and to flush toilets.



Secondary school.


Cute girl taken while team was conducting a health assessment. This is my inspiration when I look to the work ahead. I can't imagine my little girls not having drinking water at school.


After everything was done, we then had a bunch of SWAG to give to the children. Our company had a bunch of promotional material that they couldn't use and gave it to us to give to the children of Otates. It was so fun to give away. The children were so excited and appreciative.

That is about it for the trip. We went back to the little casa we were staying at, relaxed went swimming, and then packed up and left early in the am.



Very good trip. I am looking forward to getting started on the design. The plans are to have a couple of designs that the village picks from in September. Then hopefully the implementation in December/January timeframe. That, I hear, is the best time to visit.