Impressions of a Tourist in Mexico

plastering of soft drink signs.

Though early in the trip you will pass through some rather desolate land with a heavy buzzard population, you will be rewarded many times over farther on by a wonderland of spectacular deserts, tropical jungles, sea coasts, rolling hills, misty mountains, great rivers, banana plantations, picturesque villages and teeming cities. But there are things you will miss if you limit yourself to the highway. Sometimes the only clue to a scenic treasure hidden but a few hundred feet off the pavement is a faint footpath and a simple sign displaying a village name. Such an example is Agua Caliente, hidden from the highway just south of Mazatlan, yet thirty or so pacesup a grassy hillside presented the peaceful scene of the lazy cow overlooking the town in the valley below, as shown at top of page 20 of this issue. Another of many rewards was experienced at Santa Teresa, Jalisco, hidden but a few steps from the side of the road. As I arrived on a hill overlooking Santa Teresa, some games of bullfighting and bull-riding were in progress below. A young man came up and took me into his village and to a vantage point on a thick stone wall where, with the townspeople, I could observe the informal activities more closely. When the show was over he insisted I come to his humble but immaculate adobe casa to dine with his family. Our world-apart differences in language and background were dissolved in a warmth of mutual friendship and understanding as we tried to converse by hand signs and halting attempts at very limited Spanish and English. Plan de Barrancas, bottom of page 20 this issue, is another village that will not be seen from this viewpoint, unless one pulls off the road or walks four or five steps from the car door.

Many West Coast villages well worth a visit require side trips of a few miles. One for an example is San Blas in a peaceful, quiet South Seas-like setting twenty-two miles from the main highway just north of Tepec. Here in a Latin Polynesia of cocoanut palms, banana plantations, thatch huts and jungle-rimmed beaches, your pleasure might be such as swimming, fishing or an adventure trip in an outboard-powered dugout, piloted by a local fisherman up a jungle-roofed river tunnel to spy on wild parrots, flamingos, giant iguanas and many strange forms of plant and animal life. As an added attraction, San Blas is known for its modern and reasonable tourist accom-modations.

One of the more lasting impressions of Mexico is the delightful, primitive simplicity with which many of the daily chores are conducted: a dairyman in a small hamlet driving his cows from house to house where he fills pails and pans on the doorsteps; an old man and some boys threshing in a village street by tromping dried beans and then pouring them from basket to basket while the breeze wafts away the light dry pods; street sweepers with primitive brooms of tied brush, bundles and containers transported about balanced on the head; family wash projects in the shadow of most every bridge. Then there are the burros, cattle, chickens and pigs nonchalantly assuming their claim to the highway as a convenient place to stroll and siesta, the little shrines bythe side of the road with a candle burning at a tiny altar, the jungle with its strange trees, colorful macaws and flocks of chattering parakeets, giant cactus draped with blooming morning-glory-like vines, crumbling missions nestled in the hills, the great cathedrals and churches of the cities and the warm tones of their bells, the shady plazas where the people of Mexico stroll, the custom of siesta time every afternoon when shops close and streets are deserted, the soft music of the mariachis on a balmy moonlight night, the roar of the breaking surf beneath a hotel balcony at Mazatlan, the surge of a singing line whipped taut by the leap of a flashing sailfish, all the papaya you want for breakfast, horse-drawn cabs and carriages mingling in city streets with the most modern conveyances of the twentieth century, the foot patrolmen on their night beats in downtown Guadalajara signaling one another, all is well, with short reassuring toots of their whistles every hour, the ever-present pushcarts, the skilled craftsmen and their wares, the fiestas, like that of Zapopan, where on an annual pilgrimage a city of four hundred thousand spills itself empty overnight down a single byway in a continuous river of walking, chanting humanity, the children of Mexico playing games with everything from pebbles to piñatas, the religious reverence shining in the faces at church, the gentle love for family and friends so apparent, if one takes time to observe, the industry of a people who make what little they have go a long way, the ambitious hopes and dreams as witnessed by a host of unfinished or in-process projects. These and countless more impressions brand deep and lasting images in the mind of the visitor to Mexico. There is another side, of course, so much like Home Town, U.S.A., that it tends to go unnoticed: the immaculately groomed business people, working in fine modern offices, shops and department stores, driving modern cars and living in modern homes. But, all in all, it's a good wager the Mexico that will catch your eye and cling to your memory the longest is the picturesque, primitive Mexico of the plowboy behind a yoke of oxen in the hill country, while on the other hand you will probably drive right by an echelon of modern backhome-like combines working the great plains of the Mayo River Valley, scarcely noticing them.

One thing to be sure, there are countless thousands of memorable impressions for everyone who visits this fascinating land below the border . . . simply point your sombrero south at Nogales and help yourself.

SIX LASTING IMPRESSIONS OF MEXICO

Yours Sincerely SHRINE OF THE AGES:

We have read the article in the August issue of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS about the Shrine of the Ages Chapel project at Grand Canyon, Arizona, and I wish to express appreciation for the fine way in which the article was presented.

I would like to supplement the article and explain just a little more about it. As you know, the goal is $1,000,000. I think it is also interesting to your readers to learn that a contribution of $1.00 is all that is necessary for one's name to be listed in the beautiful Memorial Book of Donors, which will be on display in the Chapel lobby for all time.

Contributions can be made from $1.00 and up. In some instances, organizations and groups are accepting memorial designations in an amount from $5,000 up, and these will have bronze memorial plaques to last until the end of time.

I do not want to take the time or the space to go into too much detail about the memorial designations, but should any of your readers be interested, we shall be very glad to furnish additional information. Contributions or requests for information should be sent directly to the Shrine of the Ages Chapel, Grand Canyon, Arizona.

Martin E. Wist, National Campaign Director, Shrine of Ages Fund, Phoenix, Arizona

PAPAGO ACREAGE: A BIG ERROR

I have read with interest the article on The River People (the Pima Indians along the Gila River) (July issue). It is both informative and well written.

The author referring to the Papago Indians states that they occupy a reservation of 300,000,-ooo acres of Southwestern Arizona. This figure is obviously a "big error" for this is an area of 468,750 square miles, which is nearly three times the area of California and more than four times the area of Arizona; whereas the area of the Papago reservations is actually around 65 square miles or 41,600 acres, as given by Joseph, Spicer and Chesky-"The Desert People" (Uni-versity of Chicago Press, 1949) p. 4.

I may add that this is an authoritative book on the Papago Indians. It was prepared as part of the Indian Education Research Project undertaken jointly by the Committee on Human Development of the University of Chicago and the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Louis Bernard Schmidt Tucson, Arizona

BACK COVER JAYCEES:

You have come up with an article in your July issue that deals with something close to my heart, the Junior Chamber of Commerce. I have heard a great many things about the Phoenix Jaycees but have never had the opportunity to sit down and read an article devoted exclusively to them. Your article was superior to all others in every way. The city of Phoenix and the State of Arizona can be very proud of your "young men of action." In truth, the entire nation can be proud of them.

Two years ago I helped charter the Sycamore Jaycees and have devoted many hours of my time since then to keep a struggling organization on the path to success. I have just been elected president and am now faced with the direct responsibility of making the Sycamore Jaycees a better organization. Like the Phoenix Jaycees we have our troubles but with the men I have to work with I'm sure we can make our organization a good one.

Your article gave me courage to face our problems, failures and troubles and look to the future. I now have a goal to shoot at. Someday we may have an organization comparable to the Phoenix Jaycees.

Arnold V. Swanson, President Sycamore Jaycees Sycamore, Illinois

LIBRARY IN INDIA:

If you are very fond of Western classical music and have heard none in eleven months and, then, walking along a street in the eveBesides my own personal feelings about it, there are so many here who are delighted with your publication. We do want to thank you for the contribution which you have made to our Library. I know of no better way of arousing interest in other places than by the kind of presentation you give of Arizona.

Stephanie Pomeroy, for Medhananda, The Librarian SRI Aurobindo International University Centre Library Pondicherry, India

WESTERN AUTUMN

The Wind has struck it rich, at last, And into town he blows, Spending gold-leaves so recklessly That everybody knows Of brief but bright bonanzas Of canyon-sycamore, And plain to see on mountain-sides Rich veins of aspen-ore!

NIGHT BEAT

A frightened cloud across the copper moon As the night closes; Day winds that blew uneasily, stop soon, And earth reposes. Like merest, ghostly footfalls comes the sigh Of night things prowling, And then, the peace of dark is shattered by A coyote's howling.

FROM A HIGH PLACE

Language, have you no fresh descriptive words For wonder such as this I now perceiveNight rasp of crickets, morning glee of birds, The wilfulness by which winds come or leave, The shadow pattern of the needle pine, The signal code of planets hung in space, Infinity of intricate design, And Light reflected in my comrade's face.

Let silent awe first test the words that come; I would speak beauty's truth, or else be dumb!

GOSSAMER SHOWER

Seeking new homes, clouds of baby spiders may travel for miles on floating strands of gossamer.

There was an added shimmer to the air, A glimmer of crystal blown, Of tenuous filaments flown On the dying breeze.

Who cast these nets to snare The fugitive sunset? Whose each aerial berth? O cobweb gossamer pallCascading fairy-fall!As infant parachutists float to earth.

RECEPTION IN PAKISTAN:

Kinnarid College has a subscription to ARIZONA HIGHWAYS and that copy goes regularly to the teacher in charge of our two bulletin boards used for exhibitions of interest and changed twice a week. As soon as the new copies arrive they are displayed on one of these bulletin boards and everyone loves to watch for them. They are, I think, the loveliest of what goes on the bulletin boards. After being displayed they are kept on file and often reused to make special groupings.

It is from my own copy that so many take special pictures for framing in teachers' rooms, in the student reading rooms, social rooms, bedrooms, etc.

Lahore, Pakistan Helen Ferris

"ARCHWAY-ALAMOS, SONORA" BY CHARLES HER-

BERT. Thirty-three miles east of Navajoa is the dreamy, colonial town of Alamos. Once an important mining center and the capital of Sonora, Alamos now attracts the tourist who wishes to find quiet and remote places. Cobblestone streets, the old church, picturesque homes and buildings of colonial architecture recall days of greater glory.

OPPOSITE PAGE "SPEEDBOAT AT GUAYMAS" BY TOMMY LARK. Sonora's

important Gulf port, Guaymas, is one of Mexico's popular sport fishing centers. Marlin run throughout the summer months with various other fish attracting sportsmen throughout the year. Fishing boats at reasonable prices can be rented from owners at Guaymas and at Bopochimpo Bay, four miles west. Weather is pleasant in winter months.