More Glimmers of Normalcy

Old fools are the hardest ones to convince and then, at times, to be re-convinced.    It is not my wish to plow over ground that cannot be broken.   It is hard on the plow.  It is even harder on the mules.
    So, that is why, when somebody asks me about "the situation" in Mexico and I respond and then the questioner contradicts me....my conversation is over.   The second party can say whatever he wishes, but the Gringo Viejo neither responds nor hears.   The usual case is that the less a person knows about Mexico....the less he has been throughout Mexico....the less he has experienced things in and about Mexico....the less he has studied matters concerning Mexico, and the more he relies upon authoritative news and information sources, then the more he knows that he knows more about Mexico and most other things than I.

     El Gringo Viejo will continue to post certain facts and interpretations for the benefit of OROGs.   Most OROGs are sharp people.   Most are as smart, if not smarter, than the Gringo Viejo.    It is up to the OROG to determine how he or she will stuff his or her pipe with the information provided here,  and whether he or she will light the pipe with a match or with a BIC.

      T0-day, after Mass, El Gringo Viejo and his long-suffering wife had an extremely pleasant conversation with another couple in the Parish Hall.   It turns out that that we had common interests in various things, as one might suspect.   The conversation turned to whether the Gringo Viejo thought that the news, generally being disseminated here on the frontier, about relative stability becoming the rule again, is true.   They were considering going down to Cd. Valles, in the eastern part of the  State of San Luis Potosi' to visit relatives.    Last year the same relatives said not to go....too problematic....etc.   Now they say those same relatives are declaring everything to be normalised.   They asked the Gringo Viejo's opinion.

      Standing there, four people, face-to-face, in real time, it was necessary to make a final judgement, about how to answer these reasonable folk.   It was necessary to say, that for all practical purposes, the family was correct.    The caveat was put in place that one should be reasonable and call or check ahead....study the situation at the moment....but that it is reasonable to assume that things are a mix of almost normal, normal, and better than the used to be even before the disorders.....better police, more military, better highways and bridges, better facilities....all the physical plant has continued to improve even during the Cartel mess.    There are still isolated incidents.   There is still the criminality (or a little less) that one might expect to find in a country with the  demographic of Mexico.   There are still the lunatic political manifestations that occur here and there at various points on the map.....like always.   But....it is....dare one say....beginning to look a lot like normal.

       One little barometer is the following.   Last year there were no hunting permits and gun license permits issued for American hunters looking to bag the famous Mexican mule deer that are found in the great barren, mountainous and desert-like extensions of Northcentral Mexico....overlapping the two northern States of Coahuila and Chihuahua.   The disorders had taken the number of hunters involved in the commercial business of the mule deer season down from around 3,500 American hunters in 2006 to a big fat zed (zero) in 2010.   This year, the Secretary of Agriculture/Department of Forestry and Wildlife issued 1,600 permits for the taking of one mule deer to foreign applicants.     An identical number of hunting rifle importation permits were issued by the Secretary of National Defense.   All such permits must be signed and authorised by a Mexican Army General, either active or retired and commissioned for such action by the Secretary.

      The relationships between the hunters and their Mexican and/or American guides and organisers are very private, very confidable, and very, very personal.   The American operators are people who have been through every up and down imaginable doing business in Mexico.   They are willingly mired in the mess and they love the fishing and hunting business and the people and the locale where they perform their services.  Their Mexican interfaces are the same....and the times the Mexicans provide.... the astounding geographic settings, the food, the liquor and beer, the camaraderie, the hunting and/or fishing experiences are legendary.

       Many Mexicans think that the involvement of the American hunters has resulted in the massive rebounding of the mule deer, brown bear, quail, migratory geese and duck, and types of dove populations.   Ducks Unlimited of Mexico has been very contributive.   The improvement in Mexican enforcement of basic husbandry and conservation rules and laws has had considerable impact as well.    The return of the Gringos to the field and lake marks another step in the slow return to normalcy....only this normalcy will be to a better level than what existed before.

Click onto the linkage below to see the world's record largemouth bass caught during a tournament at Lake Guerrero, not far from our place.    This was during the Summer just past, about when things started to begin to think about  returning to full normal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5AmtWJpVYI&feature=autoplay&list=ULSrN4GSbUay0&lf=mfu_
in_order&playnext=1

      This video is very dull and boring, all in Spanish, but the OROG will see many, many fished being weighed in a over 6 kilos.    One fellow brought in three fish from one contestant that weighted 4o pounds.    The scenes of the two boys fishing from a boat are taken where our Rio Corona makes its entry into the Lake Vicente Guerrero, about 22 miles (by a straight line) away from the Quinta.

All very much fun and, we hope, the harbinger of things to come.
Thanks for your time and interest.   More later.
El Gringo Viejo