Tag Archives: ecology

Huatulco

Ants in the Selva Seca

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By Julie Etra—

Ayayay. Ants are everywhere—in and outside our house here in the Bahías de Huatulco. That should come as no surprise given the climate. According to the literature, Mexico is home to more than 1,100 species of ants across 10 subfamilies.

Our house hosts the big, flesh-colored mordullos, or carpenter ants, who appear in the bathroom just before dawn. There are the tiny “sugar” ants—whom I call crazy ants because their movement seems randomly drunk—skittering across my desk. At least two species of small black ants are nearly always on my kitchen counters, despite my diligence (and generosity) with vinegar, bleach, and insecticides.

I’ve written before about the truly terrifying barranderas (sweeper ants) that invade in coordinated waves in pursuit of live prey (www.theeyehuatulco.com/2012/06/01/sweeper-ants-of-the-selva-seca). During the five-plus months we’re here each year, we usually endure two or three of these incursions. And then there are the leafcutter ants—the subject of this article—capable of stripping my vigorous, 15-year-old bougainvillea in a single night. Here, I’m talking about Atta mexicana, the Mexican leafcutter ant.

Ants in Mexican Mythology and Culture
Ants appear in pre-Hispanic mythology, most notably in stories involving the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. In one version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl transforms himself into an ant to retrieve the first kernel of corn from a mountain, bringing sustenance—and civilization—to humanity. Through this story, ants become linked to the origins of life and agriculture.

In the Mexico City neighborhood of Azcapotzalco—whose name means “place where the ants live”—ants appear repeatedly in sculptures, murals, and architectural details. Once a distinct community and now absorbed into the city’s sprawl, Azcapotzalco is home to the Parroquia y Convento de los Santos Apóstoles Felipe y Santiago el Menor, built in 1565. A depiction of an ant still adorns its façade.

Legend holds that the Spanish enslaved the local population to construct the church, and that the maltreated locals responded by placing an ant at its base as a curse. One interpretation suggests the ant represents Quetzalcoatl returning from the underworld with corn for humanity—though how this constitutes a curse is unclear. Another version claims that when the ant reaches the base of the bell tower, it will announce the end of the world, for which we are all still waiting.

As explored in The Eye archives, ants remain part of Mexico’s culinary culture in the form of escamoles (ant larvae) and chicatanas—the winged reproductive females that appear during the rainy season. These prized ants are captured, their wings removed, and prepared in a variety of traditional dishes.

Range and Habitat
Leafcutter ants (Atta spp.), known in Mexico as hormigas arrieras (muleteer ants), are aptly named for their ability to transport plant material weighing up to ten times their own body weight—the ants themselves serving as pack animals.

They range throughout the Neotropics, from southern Mexico through Central and South America and the Caribbean, and occur as far north as southern Texas and Florida. They inhabit elevations from sea level to nearly 9,800 feet (3,000 meters).

Leafcutters require warm, humid environments and well-drained soils to build their vast underground fungus gardens. Although the literature often claims they thrive mainly in managed landscapes such as farms and roadsides, my own observations suggest otherwise. I’ve watched them harvest flowers and leaves from native trees in the selva seca, and friends in Pluma report similar behavior. At least here, they seem just as at home in wild ecosystems.

Foraging and Food Preparation
Because leafcutter ants cannot digest cellulose, harvested leaves—and occasionally flower parts—are transported back to the nest, processed into pulp, and incorporated into existing fungus gardens.

There, the ants cultivate a specific symbiotic fungus using enzymes produced in their fecal fluids (yes—ick). The fungus produces nutrient-rich structures called gongylidia, which feed the entire colony, particularly the developing larvae. In return, the ants protect the fungus from pests, while symbiotic bacteria suppress unwanted molds.

Physiology
Leafcutter ants are astonishingly strong and agile. They can carry fragments weighing up to 50 times their own body weight, thanks to powerful mandibles, robust muscles, and flexible, multi-jointed legs equipped with grasping feet. They can even pivot on their hind legs to maneuver material into designated chambers.

This remarkable physiology allows them to travel 600 feet or more from the nest in search of suitable plants.

The Colony
A single leafcutter colony can contain up to eight million individuals, ruled by a single queen who may live more than 20 years. The nest itself is vast—sometimes covering more than 720 square feet (67 m²) and extending 23 feet (seven meters) underground.

These subterranean cities contain thousands of chambers, including fungus gardens, brood chambers, a queen’s chamber, food-processing areas, and separate garbage dumps to maintain sanitation. Sophisticated ventilation tunnels regulate airflow throughout the nest.

Caste System
Leafcutter ants operate under a highly structured system of task partitioning, with roles determined largely by size:
· Minims: Tiny workers that tend the fungus gardens, brood, and waste.
· Minors: Slightly larger workers that groom and cultivate fungus.
· Mediae: Foragers that harvest and transport plant material.
· Majors: Large soldiers that defend the nest and perform heavy labor; they bite.
Older ants often become trash workers, a hazardous role that exposes them to toxins and pathogens. These ants effectively self-quarantine, protecting the queen, brood, and primary fungus gardens.

Reproduction
Leafcutter ants reproduce through massive mating flights that occur after the first substantial rains of the season. Winged queens (chicatanas) and males take to the air, mate, and shed their wings.

Each fertilized queen carries a pellet of symbiotic fungus from her natal nest to seed a new colony. She lays eggs and initially feeds the larvae with infertile eggs, storing sperm for life.

The mating flights are said to be spectacular—and lucrative—for human predators who harvest chicatanas during this brief window.

Huatulco

Cochineal; The color that became an International Sensation

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By Julie Etra—

Cochineal, Dactylopius coccus, is a scale insect that resides and feeds parasitically on the pads of nopal , known as prickly pear cactus, which when processed produces a bright red color that was unknown to the conquering Spaniards. The insect produces carminic acid, the source of the pigment, which deters other predators and thus protects the insect. Only the female produces the color when she is crushed, sometimes along with eggs, either fresh or dried. Carminic acid can be mixed with aluminium or calcium salts to make carmine dye. It takes about 70,000 dried cochineal and around 25,000 fresh insects to produce 0.45 kg (one pound) of dye. Historically in Mexico it was primarily produced in the state of Oaxaca by the Zapotecs and Mixes at least three centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards. It was also cultivated to a lesser extent by the Aztec (Tenochtitlan) and Otomi (Hidalgo, México, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Michoacán and Veracruz) cultures. The plant was bred to eliminate the spines on the cactus pads and was thus easier to cultivate for cochineal production. In addition to textiles, it was used for painting manuscripts as early as the thirteenth century.

Traditional (and non-traditional) production is a tedious labor-intensive process. Historically, the insects were sun dried, steamed or boiled, all which produced slightly different colors, prior to being ground into a fine powder.

Farming of cochineal takes place on a nopal farm, either by planting infected pads (which readily root, and thus are easy to propagate vegetatively, as is true of all species of Opuntia) and by infecting existing plants with hand placement of the insects. An alternative method consists of placement of small baskets, called Zapotec nests, on the pads. The baskets contain fertile females which then migrate from the baskets and infest the host plant. Both methods require protection from the elements for the entire three-month maturation cycle, at which time the new cochineals are allowed to reproduce and/or are collected by knocking or brushing the insects into an awaiting bag, after which they are usually sun or oven dried to obtain about 30% of their original weight, necessary for stable storage. Pest control is required throughout the entire cultivation process to ensure success of this coveted product. The dried, crushed insects are then sold to small local processors or exported.

Today’s producers may add aluminum salts are added as a precipitate to the carminic acid. By manipulating the pH and adding mordants, such as acidic lime, or metals salts, the color can be shifted to various shades. Lime juice produces purple while vinegar, also an acidic mordant, can shift the color to a brighter orange-red.

This pre-Hispanic, Oaxacan dye was an eye-opening surprise for the conquering Spaniards who quickly understood its value in European markets as no other comparable color existed in Europe at the time. It rapidly became the most lucrative Spanish colonial trade item following silver, especially coveted as a status symbol by the wealthy, which included the clergy. The monopoly was strictly controlled by the Spanish government until the 19th century when synthetic dyes became available.

The construction of the Church of Santo Domingo in Oaxaca City, originally a monastery and now a museum and ethnobotanical garden, was entirely funded by the sale of this dye. The museum houses an excellent exhibit on the bug and its rise to become an invaluable trade item. The gardens behind the museum are home to Opuntia ficus -indica, amongst dozens of other native species, so one can observe the scale insect on the host plant.

Peru is now the leading producer of cochineal with over 80% of the world’s supply followed by Mexico and the Canary Islands, all three industries being established by the conquering Spaniards. Chile and Argentina are also significant contributors to the current market.

These days it is a common food dye, listed as carmine or carminic acid or even cochineal extract. It is found in yogurt and countless other products including cosmetics.

As an interesting aside, the red uniforms worn by the British forces in the US Revolutionary War were primarily dyed with the roots of madder, although some wealthier officers preferred the brighter, more expensive red derived from cochineal. Of course they had the means to purchase the uniforms.

If you want to see the insect and how it is used plan a visit to Teotilán del Valle, a famous community of weavers and their gorgeous tapetes (wall hangings) south and east of Oaxaca City.

 

Huatulco

Bring Your Own Bottle: A Small Choice with a Big Impact

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By Alicia Flores

When you come to Mexico on vacation, one of the easiest and most meaningful ways you can reduce your environmental impact is by bringing your own reusable water bottle. It may seem like a small gesture, but it can make a big difference.

Across Mexico’s coastlines, discarded single-use plastic bottles are one of the most common forms of litter. Many travelers, trying to stay hydrated, accept dozens of small water bottles throughout their stay—on excursions, in hotel rooms, and at restaurants. Unfortunately, most of these bottles end up in landfills or, worse, in the ocean.

By bringing your own bottle, you can help shift this pattern. Most restaurants, cafés, and hotels are happy to refill your bottle with purified drinking water if you simply ask. In fact, many properties now have refill stations or large garrafones (19-liter jugs) available for guests.If you’re staying at a large resort, do your part by politely declining small plastic bottles whenever possible. Instead, ask where you can refill your own. The more guests who make this simple request, the more hotels will prioritize refill options in the future.

Traveling responsibly doesn’t mean giving up comfort—it means being thoughtful about the small daily choices that add up. Bringing your own bottle is a simple way to stay hydrated, save money, and help protect the beautiful landscapes you came to enjoy.

Bottled water waste: The average traveler staying one week at an all-inclusive resort can easily go through 30–40 small plastic bottles of water. Multiply that by hundreds of guests, and a single hotel can generate thousands of bottles per week.

Global picture: An estimated 1 million plastic bottles are sold every minute worldwide, and less than 30% are recycled.

Ocean impact: Every year, 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean—much of it from disposable food and drink packaging.

Refillable wins: A single reusable bottle can replace hundreds of disposables each year.

Travel Tip: If you plan to order takeout or eat on the beach, consider packing a reusable food container (a simple Tupperware works perfectly). Many local restaurants will happily pack your meal into your own container if you ask—it reduces waste and keeps your food fresher on the go.

Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

“Human exceptionalism is at the root of the ecological crisis”
Christine Webb, author of The Arrogant Ape

November is my favorite month of the year. It’s when the landscape bursts with color. Morning glories line the roads, their vines growing over everything, creating a blanket of purple flowers. Marigolds appear—electric orange spots that fill the air with a scent that will always transport you back to Day of the Dead if you’ve been fortunate enough to celebrate it, even once. The ocotillo trees become laden with small white flowers that almost instantly begin to dry, making the treetops look as though they’re draped in French lace from the 1930s. The brilliant green of the rainy season softens into a muted shade that cloaks the hillsides, while bursts of pink blossoms poke through. It is easy to be in awe of nature when it’s right outside your door.

As I watched a hummingbird dig into a hearty breakfast from an elegant orange heliconia, I thought about how every animal, plant, mushroom, and mineral serves a purpose in the ecosystem. This is a community of living organisms interacting together, benefiting one another. Bees feeding on nectar help flowers with pollination. Butterflies drift between hibiscus and bougainvillea, carrying pollen as they drink. Beneath the soil, fungi form unseen partnerships with roots, trading nutrients for sugars. And through the decomposition of fallen leaves and creatures, the earth renews itself again and again.

As a species, we have long prided ourselves on human exceptionalism. Most of our myths tell us we are at the top of the chain: the most intelligent, the ones who tamed fire, we with our opposable thumbs and insatiable egos. As the world gathers for variations on “No Kings” marches, I wonder if this sentiment will ever stretch beyond our politics—if we might learn to organize ourselves with the same grace found in nature’s systems.

Compared to the rest of nature, we lack elegance; we are like a rowdy classroom of kindergartners diving at a piñata. We are the destroyer species. Through pollution, habitat destruction, overexploitation, and the introduction of invasive species, we have scoured the planet—each of us wearing our little crowns, believing the Earth to be our right or inheritance.

The Earth does not ask for much—only that we remember we are guests here, not rulers.
Welcome to the Green Issue.

See you in December,

Jane

Huatulco

¡Ojos! Watch Out!!! Avoiding the Venomous Snakes of Oaxaca

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By Deborah Van Hoewyk

One of Huatulco’s major attractions is its natural setting. From the famous “nine-bays-and-thirty-six-beaches,” to waterfalls and wildlife, to mountain trips and horse-back riding, being active outdoors is just at your doorstep. And going farther afield in Oaxaca, you find the lagoons and mangroves of the coast, the frozen white waterfall of Hierve el Agua (literally, “boil the water”), and the hiking trail between the eight villages of the Pueblos Mancomunados (hard to translate, sort of a “community of towns”), to name just a few outdoor adventures.

In all of these environs, you will find snakes. Some are venomous, and some are harmless. Left alone, all of them will leave you alone. But should you not be looking, and step on one, it may well attack you. Here are the venomous ones, what they look like, and where you should be watching out for them.

The Vipers

Rattlesnakes. There are two kinds of vipers in Mexico, and most belong to the genus Crotalinae, the rattlesnakes. In the articles in this issue on snake venom, you will learn that Oaxaca has its share of rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes are “pit” vipers – they have pits near their eyes that contain heat-sensing organs. The sensors let the snake “see” warm-blooded prey. Most hunt at night, so the heat-sensing is key to being able to strike at their prey in the dark.

There’s the pygmy rattlesnake (Croatalus ravus, with three subspecies) – it’s 18-30 inches long and is found in the mountains. It is the usual mottled brown you associate with rattlesnakes.

There’s the black-tailed rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus oaxacus) – it grows to over 4 feet long, and is found in the desert, mesquite grasslands, and pine-oak forests (in the Sierras between 7,000 and 10,000 feet). It comes in varied colors – brown, yellowish, olive-greeny – but the scales on its tail are black.

The small-headed rattlesnake (Crotalus intermedius) – is small all over, growing to about 24 inches long. It is found in the pine-oak forests on the mountains, and looks like your idea of a rattlesnake.

The famous fer de lance. Another pit viper, even more to be avoided than the rattlesnakes, is the fer de lance (“spearhead,” Bothrops asper). Various species of Bothrops have been called fer de lance, so herpetologists prefer the term terciopelo (velvet) for Bothrops asper (see Julie Etra’s article elsewhere in this issue). The terciopelo looks pretty much like a rattlesnake, although its head is somewhat bigger and flatter, dark on top and light on the bottom. The female terciopelo grows much larger than the male; males can be 4-6 feet long, but females can exceed 8 feet.

You are not likely to see any terciopelos in Huatulco, as they do not like the dry winters. Unlike rattlesnakes, they prefer a moist environment; if you visit the tropical rainforests or cloud forests of the Yucatán or Chiapas, you could indeed find them; young ones like to climb trees.

Given that vipers hunt at night, using their heat sensors, you might want to reconsider any nature adventures scheduled for after dark.

The Elapids

The Elapidae family of snakes are the stuff of nightmares – they have permanently erect fangs (rattlesnakes and terciopelos have hinged fangs) and when ticked off, are exceedingly testy, not to mention exceedingly venomous. Some rise up and spread out the skin of their neck like a hood – think Indiana Jones and cobras.

The Oaxacan coral snake (Micrurus ephippifer and Micrurus ephippifer zapotectus) is found in tropical deciduous forests, as in the Huatulco National Park, or farther up in the pine-oak forests of the mountainsides. These snakes can be quite small, and almost never exceed 3 feet. They like to burrow under leaf litter, logs, forest debris – you won’t see them before you step on them. They are also fond of wetlands, so watch your step on marshy ground.

Sea Snakes

The subfamily Hydrophiinae contains the sea snakes. Note that there are very rarely Hydrophiinae in the Atlantic (a few have been sighted in the Caribbean, but it is thought that humans released them or perhaps they made it through the Panama Canal).

Sea snakes do, however, occur in the Pacific waters of Huatulco, and they are poisonous. They do not attack humans, preferring to strike fish, paralyzing them with their venom so they can chew them up at leisure.

The only one you are likely to see in Huatulco waters is the yellow-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis platurus). This snake is extremely venomous. While its coloring can vary, it is usually black on top and yellow or light brown on the belly, and the colors are clearly separate. Its tail is flattened from top to bottom, has a marked pattern (usually spots), and helps the snake swim. Males are less than 30 inches long, while females can be up to 35 inches long. The water needs to be above 61˚F (16˚C) for long-term survival.

On the other hand, I myself have seen what appeared to be an aquatic coral snake (Micrurus surinamensis) while out watching dolphins. Definitely red, white/yellow, and black. If that’s what it was, it was considerably off course, since its usual habitat is the Pacific waters off northern South America. Of course, it could have been a Oaxacan coral snake wandering off from the wetlands of the Parque Nacional …

Huatulco

You – Yes, You! The Impact of Tourism on Mexico’s Water Shortage

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By Deborah Van Hoewyk

We’ve probably all heard about the water crisis in Mexico City (see Julie Etra’s article elsewhere in this issue), but Mexico City’s problems are just the worst example of a country-wide shortage of water.

· Historically, 30 of Mexico’s 32 states have suffered from water scarcity; currently, drought conditions affect all of Mexico except Oaxaca and parts of Veracruz and Puebla. January to May of this year was the driest spring ever recorded.
· Having water is not the same as getting water – in places with plumbing, up to 40% of the water is lost through leaks in poorly maintained piping. Huatulco homeowners often experience water cutoffs (rumor has it that the water is diverted to the fancier hotels).
· Reservoirs have receded, leaving mudflats littered with trash, surrounding brownish ponds where once there were sparkling lakes; some have been closed. Perhaps worst off are the three reservoirs that comprise the Cutzamala system, which supplies Mexico City. Authorities started reducing the water distribution in October 2023; in June, they shut it down for 6 hours to make repairs. Fortunately, the rainy season has restored the Cutzamala system to 67% of capacity, from a low of 28% in June (the system is completely closed when the level drops to 20%).

Tourism and Water

Despite the water crisis, Mexico is a wildly popular tourism destination. In 2022, tourism employed 2.8 million people, over 7% of the Mexican workforce, who served over 38 million visitors. In 2023, Mexico as a tourist destination was 4th in the world, 2nd in North America; over 42 million tourists visited Mexico. In 2022, tourism spending constituted 8.5% of Mexico’s GDP; in 2024, estimates say it will make up 14.2% of GDP – tourism brought in $2.3 billion in June of 2024 alone.

All those tourists, including non-resident snowbirds, presumably come from places that are not experiencing a water crisis. And they bring their water consumption habits with them, along with a pretty accurate perception that drinking tap water is not a good idea in much of Mexico (see the Chaikens’ article elsewhere in this issue). A 2012 article on “Tourism and Water Use” in the journal Tourism Management indicates that each tourist visiting Mexico used 300 liters – just shy of 80 gallons – of water per day; in Randy Jackson’s article elsewhere in this issue, tourism consumed 15% of Huatulco’s water supply.

Current data on just how many tourists are using that water are hard to come by, outdated, and generally only count people who arrive by plane; we do know that nearly 500,000 people arrived at the Huatulco airport in 2018, and that arrivals this year are almost back to pre-pandemic levels. As tourism increases, so does tourist water usage. Rest assured, however, it’s not just that those folks are splish-splashing, taking a bath. Direct consumption of water is far from the only impact tourism has on Mexico’s water supply.

The Price of “Big Tourism”

There are those who argue that Mexico’s government privileges the interests of tourists and the tourist industry over those of local people, especially through large-scale tourism projects that bring more tourists. Referred to in 2023 as “anchor products” by then Secretary of Tourism Miguel Torruco Marqués, they include new and remodeled airports, the highway from Oaxaca to the coast, the largest aquarium in Latin America (in Mazatlán), the Callejón de Liverpool honoring the Beatles (also in Mazatlán), museums, arenas, and a Chinatown in Baja. More tourists, more swimming pools, more 5.3-gallon garrafones de agua.

The biggest “anchor product” of them all is the Tren Maya (Mayan train), pet project of Mexico’s last president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Intended to promote – Torruco Marqués said “detonate” – tourism in the Yucatán, the train will transport visitors from Mayan ruin to Mayan ruin throughout the Yucatán Peninsula, with side stops for other attractions. The track runs for 1,554 km (about 966 miles); the seven sections run from Palenque in Chiapas up to Mérida in Yucatán, over to Cancún and down to Chetumal in Quintana Roo, and back over to Escárcega in Campeche. In addition to tourist passengers, the train will carry freight; notably, the primary freight client is Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos), which will be hauling fuel.

Various efforts to make the Mayan Train sustainable have taken place. The train itself provides low-impact public transportation, reducing traffic emissions. Portions are electrified or hybrid ultra-low-sulfur diesel and electric, there’s an extensive tree-planting program to replace the clear-cutting for the track, there are safe passages for wildlife, and large portions of track have been elevated to avoid disrupting the landscape beneath the tracks.

The Mayan Train and the Great Maya Aquifer

Missing, however, seems to be any concern for the Great Maya Aquifer (Gran Acuifero Maya, or GAM) one of the world’s largest aquifers, extending through the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Chiapas. It provides drinking water for 5 million people – if you’ve ever gone swimming in a Yucatán cenote, a water-filled sinkhole, you’ve been in the GAM.

The Yucatán peninsula was once a huge underwater coral reef, but has risen out of the sea to form a plain composed of porous coralline and limestone, and the latter is water soluble. When rain, which is slightly acid, falls on the peninsula, it percolates through to the underground cave system, wearing away the limestone. When the limestone is weakened by serving as a water filter, it collapses into the underground system, creating the open-air cenotes.

The GAM is a network of underground caves and rivers. The Great Maya Aquifer Project, part of the National Institute of Archeology and History (INAH), is mapping the aquifer and investigating “cave archeology and paleontology” – basically, what fell, or what the Maya threw, in the water, along with artifacts and wall paintings done before the caves filled up.

The Mayan train speeds over the aquifer, sometimes on crumbling limestone only three feet thick. Track builders drove 15,000 long pilings down through the limestone and into the aquifer to support the train; the impact of construction on the aquifer has yet to be measured. The process coats once pristine caves with a shards of concrete and broken stalactites. According to Guillermo D. Christy, a civil engineer with the group Cenotes Urbanos, a voluntary collective focused on preserving the cenotes of the Yucatan, “Pouring concrete into a cavern, directly into the aquifer, without any concern or care – That’s total ecocide.”

Tourism’s Indirect Effects

Less direct are the impacts of increased tourism brought by the Mayan Train. As the Yucatán population has increased (Playa del Carmen had 46,000 people in 2000, and 304,000 in 2020 – a 661% increase), the cenotes have been filling with the trash and human waste generated by too-rapid urbanization. Nearly 50% of individual wells have registered contamination. The cenotes and the wells connect to the aquifer.

Contaminating the water supply destroys more than clean drinking water. One of Tulum’s more popular tourist attractions is a cenote park called Dos Ojos (“Two Eyes”). Dos Ojos is a community-managed attraction in the nearby ejido of Jacinto Pat (ejidos are community-owned lands). Recent explorations have revealed that Dos Ojos is connected with the aquifer. The path of the train was routed around the two main cenotes, but passes directly over several others.

Some Jacinto Pat residents are not happy. An article in Time magazine (by Soraya Kishwari, January 2023) focused on the Maya Train’s impact on indigenous lifeways. One villager spoke anonymously about not wanting the Mayan Train: “It will destroy the jungle, our home, and contaminate the cenotes, our life source.” Gabriel Mazón, a resident who refused to move to make way for the train, says, “As a people, we have allowed ourselves to be bought … there is no support from indigenous people [for the Maya Train]. If our ancestors could see what is being done in their name, they would die of sadness, knowing how they have been profaned, prostituted, and their culture and traditions used.” Mazón continued, “We are little more than a brand or marketing slogan for the government. The people have already been paid off. There will be no more benefits. All we have left to wait for now is the invasion.”

Changing a culture by changing its environment is a very complicated issue. As culture and local heritage are redefined to meet tourist expectations – as they are made into commodities that are more “salable” to outsiders – culture and heritage change to reflect the value placed on them by those outsiders. You can live without water for three days; living without your history is a long, slow death.

Huatulco

Las Nanacateras: The wild mushroom collectors

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By Julie Etra

Mushroom collection and consumption in Mexico go back thousands of years, predating the Spanish conquest. The Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca, the mountain range between the coast and the valley of Oaxaca, is known for its wild mushrooms, edible, hallucinogenic, and poisonous (the latter two can be somewhat synonymous). It is estimated that there are 250,000 species of mushrooms in Mexico. Produce markets here in the Bahías de Huatulco might lead you to believe Mexico has only introduced button, crimini, and portobello mushrooms (all different life stages of the same species, Agaricus bisporus), and occasionally other cultivated varieties, such as oyster mushrooms. But the many wild mushrooms found growing in temperate forested highlands are becoming more and more popular when seasonally available, particularly in urban areas, including the gourmet markets in Mexico City.

Otomi
In the State of Hidalgo, northeast of the state of Mexico, when conditions for growth are optimal during the rainy season, skilled, exclusively women, mushroom collectors known as nanacateras are busy. August is known as mushrooms month or hongosto (hongos = fungi, gosto short for agosto). The Otomi nanacateras (the Otomi are an indigenous group, with their own language, Otomi) apply their exceptional skills distinguishing the edible from the non-edible and teach the methods of both collection and preparation.

Elsewhere
Other well known nanacateras are also from Hidalgo, including the pueblo of Acaxochitlán. These women offer workshops on identification, methods of collection, and preparation. San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan, a rural area southeast of Mexico City in a region known as the Milpa Alta, located on the steep slopes of an extinct volcano just east of the state of Morelia, is also known for its climate, ideal for wild mushrooms.

Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca
We have passed through San Jose del Pacifico on our way to Oaxaca on numerous occasions and have seen signs posted for identification and collection workshops. We don’t know if these workshops are taught by nanacateras or other skilled collectors, but, like other snowbirds, we are never here during the optimum period, the rainy season.

Huatulco

The Lagunas of Manialtepec and Chacahua

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By Julie Etra

What to do beyond the gorgeous beaches of Huatulco? Well, if you are a nature lover and want to experience unique ecosystems, consider a visit to the lagunas (lagoons) of Manialtepec and Chacahua. These are large, unique wetland ecosystems located along the southern Pacific coast of Oaxaca, west and north of Puerto Escondido. Together they are home to more than 327 species of birds.

Laguna Manialtepec

Manialtepec, which means place of the lizards in Náhuatl (manine means animal that drags, e.g., lizard or perhaps crocodiles, which are known to inhabit the lagoon, while tepetl means location, usually a raised area) is the smaller of the two lagoonal systems and is located just a short drive west of Puerto Escondido. It is about 15 km (9 miles) long and up to 15 meters (nearly 50 feet) in depth. The water is brackish – a combination of fresh and salt water – and varies in salt content with the season and with the breaching of the barrier beach during the rainy season.

There is one outlet to the Pacific Ocean at the west end of the lagoon, known as Puerto Suelo or El Carnero, where it is joined by an adjacent river descending from the Sierra Madre Sur. Dense vegetation, dominated by mangroves, provides habitat for abundant wildlife, including many species of birds. The lagoon is an excellent site for bird watching.

It is also known for its phosphorescent microalgae, called dinoflagellates, which are luminescent in moving water and visible at night – it is best seen on a moonless night, and is said to be more prominent during the rainy season. When we were there a few years ago, a paddle, or even just a hand, sufficed. The luminescence is caused by a chemical reaction; although not all bioluminescence is well understood, in algae the mechanism provides protection from predators.

The Manialtepec lagoon is easily accessed from Highway 200 west of Puerto Escondido, and guided trips at dawn or dusk via a lancha are readily available.

Laguna Chacahua

Chacahua is a much larger system than Manialtepec; it comprises much of the Parque Nacional Lagunas de Chacahua, established on July 9, 1937 (I can’t imagine what the coast looked like that far back!). In the Mixtec language, Chacahua means place of abundant shrimp, or chakal. Like Manialtepec, Chacahua offers a chance to experience bioluminescence caused by microalgae in the water.

The laguna is actually three lakes, Chacahua, La Salinas, and La Pastoria. This rich ecosystem includes 14,000 hectares (almost 35,000 acres), with over 153 species of birds, Abundant wildlife includes mammals and herpetofauna – amphibians and reptiles. There are two species of marine turtles (Laud [leatherback], the largest of the marine turtles, and Golfina [Olive Ridley]) and of course extensive stands of mangroves.

Four species of mangroves occur here: the red mangrove, mangle rojo (Rhizophora mangle); white mangrove, mangle blanco (Laguncularia racemosa); brown/salt mangrove, mangle prieto or saladillo (Avicennia germinans) and buttonhole mangrove, mangle botoncillo (Conocarpus erectus).

Mangroves provide nesting sites and cover for the myriad of avian species, but also harbor the nurseries for fingerlings (young fish) and marine/brackish water species, including crabs and shrimp. Mangroves are also nature’s engineers as they are essential for shoreline protection and erosion control.

There are several small islands in the lagoon, including el Corral, with its 80 inhabitants totally dependent on fishing for a living, and where chicken is considered a delicacy. The western end of the outlet to the sea is maintained by two constructed breakwaters consisting of rock riprap.

There is even a cocodrilario (crocodile nursery) founded in 1969, on the west side of the southern outfall, where two species of crocodiles (river and wetland), as well as caiman, are raised for reintroduction to the wild. The nursery has about 140 animals. Entrance is free, as it is operated by the federal government, but the visitor is encouraged to donate to its maintenance.

The Park’s famous surf break, called Chacahua, on the south side of the southern breakwater, is where most of the basic – read “funky” – tourist facilities are found, including surf lessons, rustic cabanas, restaurants, and small stores. Spectacular views from the lighthouse (el Faro), located at the southern end, include both the open Pacific and the lagoon to the north. The other outlet to the sea, at the east end of the lagoon south of the small town of Zapotalito, is often blocked by a sand bar and a smaller breakwater.

It is located farther to the west/northwest of Manialtepec – it’s about a 1.5-hour drive from Puerto Escondido to the community of Zapotalito; the Park can also be reached by boat.

Close to Home

If you are short on time but interested in wetlands and lagoons, you can explore several closer to Huatulco. Laguna Cacaluta (blackbird in Zapotec) is considered an ephemeral system, as surface water typically disappears completely during the dry season. Recognized by the Ramsar Convention, an international non-profit organization established in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, initially to protect aquatic birds, particularly migratory species (www.ramsar.org), Cacaluta was officially included in the global wetlands registry in September 2003 (Ficha Informativa de los Humedales de Ramsar [FIR]). In Huatulco, FONATUR developed the estuary of Chahue into the existing marina, but historically it was a backwater lagoon. Similar seasonal wetlands can be found along the road to Playa San Agustín and at Barra de la Cruz (barra refers to a sandbar).

2020

Ten Simple Steps to Help Preserve Mexico’s Ecology

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By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken

  1. Sunscreen: wash it off before swimming in lakes, lagoons or ocean bays. Previously, much of coastal Mexico was a natural aquarium, teeming with brightly colored fish and exotic sea life feeding off myriad varieties of coral. Today, many of the most accessible bays and lagoons have a visible oily slick of sunscreen on the surface, with mainly dead coral and greatly reduced sea life. Many inland lakes have also been polluted.

There are still wondrous places to snorkel and dive, mainly accessible by boat. If you are fortunate enough to visit some of these sea or lake homes to see thousands of aquatic creatures, please help preserve them by wearing a sun-guard shirt (an inexpensive teeshirt will do) instead of poisoning the waters with sunscreen.

  1. Picnics: if you carry it in, carry it out. The beaches, vista points and forests in Mexico are great places for a picnic. It’s tempting after an afternoon of eating and drinking to just leave your empties and other trash behind. If you do, you’re basically creating an unattractive garbage dump and providing the animals with materials that can choke or otherwise kill them. It’s so simple to bring and use paper bags to collect your detritus (recyclables in one bag and trash in the other) and dispose of them in bins for recycling.
  2. Flora and fauna: observe but do not disturb. Plants and animals, both on the land and in the water, are fascinating. We can spend hours watching whales playing in a bay, or geckos scrambling around our patio walls, or an octopus hiding under a rock and sending out a tentacle to catch a fish or a sea turtle nesting on a beach. We’ve also watched in horror as people use sticks to poke at iguanas and disfigure other animals, or disturb nests of turtle eggs, or surround whales with multiple motor boats, or dig up plants that support multiple forms of animals. Please remember that you are a guest in their homes and, just as you wouldn’t enter a human home and purposely maim or torment your hosts, be a good guest to the animals and plant life here.
  1. Paths and trails: stay on the beaten path. In addition to not trampling or otherwise disturbing flora and fauna, staying on the beaten path will help you avoid unpleasant encounters with the native life. Many forms of plants and animals in Mexico have developed excellent forms of self-protection, including sharp spines, toxic stingers, pincers and teeth that can deliver a painful bite. Not all snakes rattle or give a warning before they spring. So keep on track and keep your eyes where you are about to step.
  2. Drinking water: avoid plastic bottles. In many places in Mexico the water is fine to drink. If you are at a moderately or expensively priced hotel or restaurant and you are served water from a pitcher, it generally is filtered and potable. The same is true of ice. If you are at an economy-priced place where you are not sure about the hygiene, you can ask for a glass of water from their garafon, the huge jugs of filtered water kept on hand for the staff to use. But please, please, please, help stop the world-wide pollution of the earth with billions of tons of plastic bottles. Until someone figures out how to turn plastic back into its natural components (a future Nobel-Prize-winning discovery), every plastic bottle of water you drink and discard will contribute to choking off life in Mexico and around the world.
  3. Restaurants: no plastic straws or one-use plastic anything. Plastic straws are literally killers. They find their way into the ocean and are gobbled up by short-sighted sea turtles. Hundreds of turtles die each year from ingesting a plastic straw. Many fish and sea-birds are also injured. Other plastic utensils also contribute to the injury and death of marine life. If you must use a straw, at least use a paper straw. But folks, who really needs a straw? Every sip from a plastic straw you take shortens the life of rapidly disappearing species.
  1. Shopping: bring your own bags and select ecofriendly packaging. Buy organic.
    Fortunately, most Mexican supermarkets are legally prohibited from providing plastic bags for packing your purchases. And there are wonderful colorful cloth or other material shopping bags for sale in gift shops and from vendors all over Mexico. They’re not always environmentally friendly but they are easily packed, great souvenirs. But before you even reach the checkout counter, please think ‘green’ before you place something in your shopping cart. Two or three tomatoes really don’t require a thin plastic bag to keep them separate from an avocado; and the avocado comes in its own natural wrapper. By reaching for the fruit and vegetables that are labelled ‘organic’ you may pay a little more, but you are helping keep toxic pesticides out of drinking water and out of the bodies of many living creatures – including your own.
  2. Signs: read them and obey them. Much thought and effort has been spent on placing signs around Mexico to protect wildlife and to protect you. The road signs depicting silhouettes of local fauna are charming – but they are danger signs. Keep your eyes peeled on the road in front of you and to either side and slow down so you can stop in time to avoid an animal that darts out to cross to the other side. The signs on beaches and in parks that have the universal multiple “no” symbol should be studied and heeded. At the very least, they will give you a heads-up about human behavior required to protect life in Mexico. And ultimately, you may be saved from a hefty fine or even drowning.
  3. Showers: keep them short. Many places in Mexico, as throughout the world, are suffering from severe water shortages. You are encouraged to shower off before entering pools to save filtration systems; but all that is required is a quick rinse to remove sand and salt. A long hot shower before you dress is as passé as a flip-top cell phone. Remember to save water in other ways too. Turn off the water while you’re brushing your teeth. If you have a kitchen, fill that dishwasher before you run it. And although washing your hands frequently is highly recommended, turn off the water while you soap and sing the canonical ‘happy birthday’ song twice.
  4. Prevent COVID: You may be on vacation, but the coronavirus never takes time off from work. Until Mexico vaccinates most of its population and enters a low COVID tier, wear your mask, frequently wash your hands and stay at a safe distance. The life you save could be your own.
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To Hibernate, or To Migrate?Bats in Mexico

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By Julie Etra

Mexico is well-known for hosting migrating birds and butterflies on their seasonal journeys north and south. Bats? Maybe not so much, but it’s hard to tell. In cooler climates, the majority of bats just hibernate for the winter. It’s apparently very difficult to track bat migratory patterns, so there’s only one bat that’s well known for migrating south to winter in Mexico.

Bats have been getting a lot of bad press these days, given that they were the most likely source of the spillover, the technical term for pathogens jumping from animals to humans, of the COVID-19 outbreak that started near Wuhan, China last year. Bats were also responsible for the SARS virus outbreak in 2002 and are notorious vectors of rabies. Bats carry a huge assortment of viruses to which they are not susceptible. Spillovers generally occur when we humans encroach on a wild animal’s habitat. It can happen in reverse as well, as COVID-19 is known to have recently passed from humans to the mountain gorillas of the equatorial African rainforest in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Humans have passed a nasty fungus to bats, called the white nose syndrome, most likely from Europe, that has led to huge die offs of this essential mammal, particularly when they are hibernating and vulnerable. This is unfortunate, because bats are extremely important in many ecosystems. They consume insects that would otherwise damage crops, and pollinate numerous species of plants, including agave, or maguey, as it is called here in Mexico. Besides insects, nectar, pollen, and fruit, some species also eat vertebrates. According to science writer David Quammen, “A single colony of big brown bats in the American Midwest, by consuming 600,000 cucumber beetles in a year, prevents 33 million cucumber beetle larvae from feeding on the next year’s crop. Mexican free-tailed bats eat cotton bollworm moths in Texas. By one estimate, from 2011, bat predation on insects was saving $23 billion annually for agriculture in the United States.”

Bats are a hugely diverse group of mammals, varying in habitat, behavior, diet, morphology, longevity, you name it. They are the second most diverse group of mammals following rodents (mice, rats, rabbits, and other chewing animals). There are over 1,400 species of bats – among them is the much maligned but well named common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, which occurs from Uruguay to Mexico, including our lovely Parque Nacional de Huatulco. The rotundus part of the name, which means “portly,” comes from the fact that they get so fat after drinking blood they can’t fly again until they pee away a substantial amount of urine.

The two traits in combination that uniquely characterize bats are that they have “colonized” the air and they are nocturnal; they fly and feed at night. Bat species that eat insects have an extraordinary capability – they hunt by “echolocation,” that is, they emit high frequency sounds that bounce off their prey (e.g., swarms of mosquitoes) and bounce back to the bats’ highly sensitive ears.

Bats in Huatulco

The National Commission on the Protection of National Areas finds that here on the Oaxacan coast, and more specifically in the Parque Nacional de Huatulco, have six species of bats in the park.

Great fruit-eating bat (Artibeus lituratus). Obviously, this bat eats fruit, and occurs from Mexico through southern Brazil, and on some islands in the Caribbean. They are polygamous with groups called harems, one male and two to five females. They change their feeding behavior with the position of the moon, decreasing feeding time when it is full, most likely to avoid predators that hunt by moonlight, like owls.

Jamaican, common, or Mexican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis). This is a large, stout bat that roosts in caves, hollow trunks, and under palm leaves. Its range is Mexico to northwestern South America. It loves figs, which don’t grow in the Parque Nacional in Huatulco, but does eat other fruit and vegetation. Because it carries its food all the way back to its roost, it is an important seed disperser. The Mexican fruit bat also has harems, and can live as long as nine years.

Little yellow-shouldered bat (Sturnira lilium) is another frugivore, critical for seed dispersal. It is opportunistic in its eating habits, feeding on whatever is available.
Palla’s long-tongued bat (Glossophaga soricina). This nectar-feeding bat is super interesting. It has the fastest metabolism ever recorded in a mammal, similar to that of a hummingbird. Although it uses 50% of its stored fat over a day, over 80% of its energy comes directly from simple nectar sugars as soon as the bat consumes them. Its tongue is are powered by bloodflow and the tip can increase by over 50% in length.

Vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), described above.

The fishing or greater bulldog bat (Noctilio leporinus) occurs from Mexico to northern Argentina and on most Caribbean islands. It uses echolocation to detect waves made by fish, its prey.

As for the bat that migrates, it’s the Mexican (or Brazilian) free-tailed bat, which likes to live in caves, although it will make do with a bridge underpass if it has to. In the summer, it lives – and breeds – in the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico; in the winter, it moves to southern Mexico and Central America. The Mexican free-tailed bat makes a formidable migrator: if they get a tail wind, they can cruise along at 60 miles an hour, and they’ve been tracked at an altitude of 10,000 feet.

A 2013 study in Ecosphere, the journal of the Ecological Society of America, located winter cave roosts for the Mexican free-tailed bat in Hidalgo, Michoacán, Jalisco, Querétaro, and Chiapas, but who knows? In Huatulco, a popular cocktail-hour pastime in Santa Cruz is to take your margarita and beach chair to sit on the greenspaces atop the Sector E canals. Bats about the size and color of the Mexican free-tailed bat emerge in droves at sunset.