FaceGlobalWarming.com

What no paper? You have got to be kidding.

No, not really. Paperless started in a place called Silicon Valley where a few tech companies decided that paper was a relic just like the tape cassette and Corvair. Paper? We don’t need any stinkin’ paper…

And then there are those of us that have fought with paper all our lives. We lose it, misfile it, spill coffee on it, loan it, rip it, tear it and wrinkle it. We actually do a lot more things with it and that is the problem.

Looking out across the dark Caribbean night from Punta Allen one sees three equally sized glowing areas on the distant horizon to the north. The furthest out is Cancun, the next Playa del Carmen and the last Tulum.

Cancun has a bit less than a million people; Playa has 300,000 and Tulum now over 30,000. Playa Del Carmen is the fastest growing municipality in Mexico.

But from Punta Allen each lighted area appears to be the same size since Cancun is farther away than Playa and Playa is farther away than Tulum. The three groups of lights are a reminder of the environmental impact of civilization, including light pollution.

The jaguar or panthera onca has to be one of the most magnificent animals on Earth. Maybe the most magnificent. Only the tiger and lion are larger cats. Our Maya friend Aniceto says we have a jaguar den on our ranch; probably some shallow limestone cave covered by dense growth. Part of our ranch is virgin rainforest.

We’ve never seen our jaguar but he has. One evening coming back from his “milpa” he saw it in the middle of the road. Usually they don’t come out at all when it is light, but this one did. The jaguar or “el tigre” as he is called by the Maya, probably was hungry and looking for a tepe, tejon or javalina. Humans eat the same food, though we barbecue tepe and the jaguar chomps it down raw.

The first few days after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, Santa Cruz was landlocked. Highway 1 was closed in both directions as were Highways 17 and 9. Highway 9 was the first to open and that’s what I used to get to San Jose and the Bay Area. It took several extra hours so I also spent the night in hotels. But the phones eventually worked and the power was fine and business continued if not somewhat altered. Altered is an understatement; after a major earthquake, nothing is the same.

All three of these are true; I couldn’t have made them up. I was an eye witness to all three and even ate some of number three. If you are a little queasy, you might want to read these accounts a bit later when your system has settled down.

Rat Story #1 ocurred recently after we had constructed our house in rural Veracruz. It was made of adobe mud walls and had cement floors. It has wooden rafters and a tin roof that heats up in the hot season. It is dry but could flood with long periods of rain or a hurricane. It is still standing and with relatives living in it now.