I was just reading a post on the Zihautanejo Ixtapa Troncones Message Boards about a Report on how dirty the water in Zihuatanejo main bay has been for the last three months.  That is one reason I feel so much better about swimming in the ocean farther away from main population centers.  The water is cleaner. This means a healthier environmental for all including marine life and the fish we eat.  The long list of follow ups pointed to the source of the problem, pushing local politics to help solve the problem.

I took this photo during our last visit. This young fellow is part of the community of Juluchuca and one of the volunteers in the turtle sanctuary. It is great to see young faces like his mixed in with the town elders participating in this activity.  But at the same time, the range is only young and old, the middle age group is missing, most of them have gone to the big cities or most likely to El Norte to seek work and economic opportunity. It is a trade off of quality of life vs. economic opportunity. When asked where most of his family lived, this young man answered with names of cities in the US. He then followed this by saying he would like to go north as well.

 Our challenge is to create economic opportunities here locally, to push for higher quality environmental standards and to help maintain the quality of life that makes living here so attractive…like heading out in the morning and catching lunch and dinner (and that it be clean of pollutants and toxins).