Yucatan News: Financial Revival and Fishing
The First Tropical Wave Has Formed
It’s only the middle of May, with another two weeks to go before hurricane season is officially here, but the first tropical wave has formed in the Atlantic. While this tropical wave is one of many that will form and dissipate without ever reaching Mexico, it is still a reminder to make sure that you get ready now – just in case. It is always better to prepare for the worst and never need use those resources than to not have what you need when the worst comes.
Tourism Will Be Up in July and August
For the first half of the year, the Cancun airports are reporting tourism rates that are well above those of last year, with a flood of tourists already booking flights from July and August through Christmas. Cancun is already handling 107 flights a day. Since planes are continuing to be larger, this serves an ever-increasing number of foreign and domestic tourists. The airport in Merida reported 1,200,000 visitors in 2012, with 600,000 in just the first five months of 2013. This bodes well for tourism for the rest of the year. It should also be noted that Merida has become a huge center for domestic and international conferences and sporting events. Some of the week-long sporting events drew in almost 20,000 people in 2012 and more are expected in 2013.
Limons Limons Everywhere!!!
Limon production, in Yucatan, is up 19% for the first quarter of 2013, over the same period for last year. . This equates to 5,735 tons of harvested limons. Orange production is down 22.3% for the quarter, while corn was up 39.5% and maize was down 43.3%. Sorghum is up 10% and honey is down 49.7%. Many of these numbers are due to extreme cold and rain, coupled with changes in political support for one crop over others. However, there is one thing that is certain – Yucatan’s farmers work hard every day and, overall, are quite successful in every project they take on.
Yucalpeten Fishing Docks: Dangerous Light Poles
Local fishermen and their families, as well as tourists and expats, fish from the docks that border Fisherman’s Park. This is the park where you will find the Monument of Anguish, with nameplates for fishermen who died at sea. The fishermen in the area are reporting that ten of the fifteen concrete light poles are in serious danger of coming down at any time. It is expected that these poles will be replaced in the near future but, until then, if you fish from the docks in Yucalpeten, please do be careful to stay well clear of those light poles.
Progreso: Twelve Honorable Mentions in Houston
These are no ordinary COBAY students and this was no ordinary competition. Three of the group of a dozen students who worked on this project actually went to Houston, Texas, to Texas to compete in the International Olympiad of Projects in Sustainable Energy and Development: Iran Ivan Alpizar Duran and Jonathan Andres Perez Castillo, students of Chemistry-Biology, and Abigail Martinez Perez, a Community Health student. The honorable mention earned by their solid waste included the names of all twelve students from Progreso. At this very special International Olympiad of Projects in Sustainable Energy and Development, there were a total of 1,500 projects from 52 nations. Other honorable mentions went to Argentina, the United States, Peru, Jordan, Russia, Slovenia, South Korea, China and the Philippines. That is quite some company Progreso’s COBAY students are keeping up with these days. Congratulations to each of the twelve students who worked so hard on their solid waste utilization project, to their teachers and to their families.
Fighting Hunger in the Southern Cone
As welfare nations have taught us, feeding programs with no hope of ever getting away from them do not work in the fight against hunger. In Yucatan, however, there is a different scenario going on. This program provides food to fight initial malnutrition, then goes on to provide jobs (in this case, growing chile habaneros), housing, public baths and bathrooms, and education. All of this begins with providing the people with chickens to raise for meat and eggs, and seeds to plant a vegetable garden. We have watched as each of these projects have been tested with groups of school children and with farmers. They have all been successful and now form the foundation of a sustainable fight against the hunger that has long stalked outlying villages that lie deep in the Southern Cone of Yucatan. It is, indeed, now a brighter day in Yucatan.
Fires (almost) Over? Farmers Ready for Rain
Is it just us or does the calendar seem to be flipping a little faster these days? The last of the field burning has ended and the people of Tizimin have already asked San Isidro Labrador to bless them with the first rains to moisten the soil enough to begin a favorable planting. However, even though the official field burning has ended, some producers still need to do a little burning, so do keep an eye out for wild fires and field burnings when you are on the highway. The heat is far from over in Yucatan and the risk of wild fires will be with us for several months yet.
Mobile Banking and Financial Education
While people in larger cities live by their ATM and credit cards, people in rural Yucatan often continued to live in local economies that are based on cash and barter. However, as the 21st century unfolds, rural Yucatan is taking giant leaps ahead and those cash and barter days just don’t quite fit with the current lifestyle of the people, nor with their financial hopes and dreams for the future. This week, Bancomer took a mobile bank out to Hunucma and provided the first banking and financial education to residents there. The classes will go on for 3 days and nights. This is a wonderful idea whose time has certainly come, and we fully expect to see more of these teaching opportunities, in banking and other services, in the near future.
Economic Program: Come to the Center and Win!
There is a new program in Merida, designed to be the basis for a financial revival in Centro. In the Council Chamber of the National Chamber of Commerce in Merida, Merida’s Services and Tourism Department announced that it has invited 1,000 micro-, small and medium size businesses to participate in this program. A total of $3,000,000 pesos has been set aside as seed capital to assist these businesses reach their goal of revitalizing the economic heart of Merida. We wish them all well and, with all of the growth in tourism that lies ahead, they cannot help but succeed.
