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For years, a noxious mixture of human waste, toxic chemicals and heavy metals flowed into the Río Santiago from the heavily polluted 66-kilometer-long Ahogado River located southeast of Guadalajara. The true nature of these aguas negras was visible for the world to see at El Salto de Juanacatlán, where the cascading water churned up billows of toxic foam said to be so corrosive it could remove paint from cars. 

There are a number of feeder streams along the course of Río Caliente, but none quite like the Black River. And when it comes to adrenaline-raising excitement, as far as I’m concerned, the hike to the source of the Black River ranks among the ten scariest things I’ve done in years.

“It’s time for another visit to the Highland Hermit,” announced my friend Mario Guerrero. “We’ll camp near his cabin and visit one of Jalisco’s most dramatic miradores (lookouts).”

If you’re interested in learning about any sort of outdoor activity from technical rock-climbing to bird watching, the place to go for training is Escuela para Actividades al Aire Libre Carbono-14, which offers 26 courses in outdoor skills, all of them certified by the Mexican Labor Secretariat. 

Six students from the Monterrey Tec university in Guadalajara have created an ingenious way of tapping into the wealth of knowledge that senior citizens have accrued throughout their lives.

In an editorial in Mexico City daily El Universal, left-wing Mexican senator Alejandro Encinas has accused the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) of initiating a process to dismantle the very programs and institutions which itself has set up over the years to protect the environment in Mexico.