About 10 families sat quietly around tables at Hacienda Xalisco restaurant in south Oxnard Friday morning They were waiting for a bus to arrive from Los Angeles International Airport filled with family from Cuquío it has been more than a decade since they last saw their relatives “You don’t know how you’ll react after you see them,” Luis Loza Ma Dolores Cadena Pinto and Jose Luis Loza Perez Miguel Loza said through a translator he was excited and nervous to see his parents again The reunion was an effort between the restaurant and Club Cuquío San Felipe Club Cuquío helped the families apply for travel visas and make the journey was born in Oxnard but attended school in Cuquío He opened the restaurant four months ago to help the south Oxnard community “This area is pretty beat down and needs a little investment,” Mejia said those waiting at the restaurant were greeted by representatives from Club Cuquío Families were called up one a time before the crowd each group stood with watery eyes as loved ones quietly approached from behind tres,” prompting those waiting to turn around Eric Martinez of Oxnard said through a translator he was speechless when he saw his parents Ambrocio Martinez Tolentino and Esther Lopez Garcia “It’s something I can’t explain,” Martinez said Martinez and his parents are going to make the trip to Green Bay in coming days Jazmine Vazquez and her uncle Joel Martinez Padilla traveled from Virigina to reunite with her grandfather she last saw her grandfather when she was 6 The family will travel to Virginia where the rest of Martinez Lopez’s sons are waiting for him The family sat around a long table after the reunion The family's matriarch said through a translator seeing her sons together reminded her of their youth “It’s like seeing them again as babies,” Cadena Pinto said Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805 The Primavera Forest’s Río Caliente (Hot River) is one of Jalisco’s most popular natural phenomena The 16-kilometer-long river literally boils out of a canyon wall and eventually cools down to become the Río Salado (Salty River) famed for its numerous rapids which give it a marvelous Jacuzzi effect — and it even has a few deep spots where you can almost swim I believed Río Caliente was the only hot stream in the state that truly deserved to be called a “river.” an electronics engineer who enjoys exploring the wilds of western Mexico “I know a hot river in Los Altos (the Jalisco Highlands) that can certainly give Río Caliente a run for the money,” he said aiming our GPS literally at one waypoint after another that Roy had supplied After what seemed like endless hours bouncing over miserable a rather ordinary swimming pool filled with the usual crowd of screaming kids and surrounded with the usual battery of giant speakers blasting the usual sort of music preferred by water parks I suppose the pool was filled with hot water but I wasn’t really interested in finding out A man wearing a sombrero stepped up to us: “Thirty pesos per person “We’re looking for the hot river,” we told him “Our fee includes access to the river you seek gave the noisy pool a wide berth and eventually came to the shore of El Río Santillán and all along river’s length were stately Montezuma cypresses known as sabinos in Spanish and ahuehuetes (old men of the water) in Náhuatl all this was happening during the hottest part of May so we had no desire to throw ourselves into a hot river garbage and trash were strewn absolutely everywhere on both banks both upstream and downstream — kilometers of unsightly litter This visit to the Santillán River occurred in 2012 and I never bothered to write a word about what I considered one of those adventures best forgotten I came upon an enticing video clip on YouTube showing people happily splashing in what was billed “Mexico’s deepest hot river,” the Río Santillán the water was crystal clear and nary a dirty diaper or discarded tequila bottle could be seen littering the shore This particular watery paradise on the video was called El Charco de la Vaca is perfectly drinkable and is wonderful for curing rheumatism there were no concrete swimming pools anywhere to be seen Google Maps showed two routes to El Charco de la Vaca: the awful one I had taken previously each of them about a three-hour drive from Guadalajara “How would you like to take a dip in the Puddle of the Cow?” I asked my friend Josh because he had told me he wanted to take some gringo and Russian visitors on a “John Pint adventure.” “Let’s go for it,” he replied ever-winding road through the dramatic Barranca De Oblatos After that, Google Maps skirted the town of Cuquío and led us onto a very nicely and recently paved road that brought us to a bridge over the Río Verde (Green River) one of Jalisco’s most picturesque and perhaps cleanest rivers we were told to take an anything-but-enticing dirt road heading off to the left and now it seemed that the bodiless Google voice was asking us to drive right into it immersed our hands in the water and discovered it was nice and warm no loudspeakers and no one asking for 30 pesos — no human being to be seen neat sign saying “Yahualica Thermal Waters: set a good example and keep them clean!” may have had a lot to do with this dramatic about-face in the locals’ attitude toward nature and littering but instead of driving into it as Google wanted we turned left onto a dirt road paralleling the small stream and drove a bit until we came to two cars and a handful of people happily bathing in the warm (I would not call it hot) river The Santillán — which empties into the Río Verde — seems to be no more than two kilometers long its southern half accessed the way we had come and the northern half (with the noisy balneario) best reached via Tepatitlán Recent spurts of heavy rain had turned the river a milk-chocolate brown The river has a few rapids and a few picturesque narrow spots where you can get as much of a Jacuzzi effect as you could ever desire Because the water temperature is “just right,” we could soak for hours to our hearts’ content We found a local man who offered to guide a group of us to the spot which sounded like a pool at the foot of a small waterfall The guide described the hike to the Charco de la Vaca as feo (ugly) and those of our group who went with him ended up agreeing and the owner has put up a concrete-and-barbed wire wall around it to keep people away So much for the “all Mexicans have the right of access to all lakes and rivers in the nation” law I recommend that you visit this place on a weekday or Saturday when there will be few people If you are in Guadalajara and take the Cuquío route (OK for any sort of car), you may want to stop off at Restaurante la Magueyera. Apart from its excellent food, it offers a magnificent view of the Santiago River Canyon as well as of the picturesque Cola de Caballo Waterfall The Horse’s Tail and the Cow’s Puddle: what more could you ask from a Saturday’s outing The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for 31 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC even for those with health insurance medical bills can run into tens of thousands of dollars Pedro Martínez would drive his truck through the mountains of Jalisco state carrying stock for clothing business in the week and taking his family on excursions at the weekend was long retired when he was admitted to hospital in early October with coronavirus-linked complications His family prayed he would soon recover and return home leaving them emotionally and financially ruined “This illness broke us,” said his 54-year-old son Manuel “The moment came when we had to decide whether we had to mortgage the house or take out a loan We sold everything we could: a plot of land my father’s truck – which we sold as junk for $300.” Few countries have suffered more from coronavirus than Mexico where an average of nearly 1,300 daily deaths are being recorded during a punishing second wave of infections For many Mexican victims’ families, the devastating emotional toll has been accompanied by brutal economic price: the exorbitant cost of medical care for patients with the virus has left many in debt or bankrupt or forced to sell everything they have to cover treatment and hospital bills. Read morePedro Martínez had paid health insurance for more than a decade and thought that would cover his treatment What he didn’t realize was that the deductibles would jeopardise his entire family’s finances the moment he entered hospital in the western state of Jalisco “We had to pay $2,500 before they’d even admit my father to hospital Then two days later they asked us for $5,000 more,” said Manuel the village where the family lives a two-hour drive from the hospital in the city of Zapopan In less than a week they asked us for a deposit of $15,000 or they wouldn’t treat him When he died there was a bill of more than $60,000” – more than 13 times Mexico’s average annual wage Covid-19 is now one of the five most expensive illnesses to treat in Mexico with an average treatment cost of $20,000 – although the price-tag can go beyond $1m in cases where patients go into intensive care or are put on ventilators Members of the Oxygen on Wheels non-profit group prepare to attend Covid-19 patients by bringing them oxygen tanks at home Photograph: Francisco Guasco/EPAOne of the most widely used drugs to treat Covid patients in Mexico is Tocilizumab which has an average price of $500 per dose and is not covered by many health insurance plans The economic crisis faced by Pedro’s family was such that they were forced to halt his pulmonary rehabilitation therapy 10 days before he died so we had to suspend the physiotherapy,” said Manuel but we reached the point when there was no more money to pay for them.” According to the Mexican Association of Insurance Institutions without medical insurance it is almost impossible to cover all expenses associated with coronavirus Even if a patient is not admitted to hospital treatment at home with oxygen and drugs costs an average of $3,000 as Mexico’s second Covid wave began to gather pace The doctors said by then he was free from coronavirus but his lungs had been weakened and he had picked up a bacterial infection from his intubation “I keep asking how this is possible,” his son Manuel said as he came to terms with their loss and ruination “I just can’t believe that now we don’t have money to pay for electricity or water or gas – and neither do we have my father.” An operation to arrest a Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader triggered a violent response in Jalisco and Guanajuato on Tuesday where at least a dozen vehicles and businesses were set on fire Carried out by the army and the National Guard in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara the operation reportedly succeeded in detaining Ricardo Ruiz Velasco a presumed CJNG plaza chief in western Mexico and the Bajío region the violence began at approximately 7:30 p.m when a group of armed men seized three public transit buses and two private vehicles in Zapopan They subsequently set the vehicles alight to create fiery narco-blockades Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro reported on Twitter that there was a confrontation between the army and organized crime members in the area where the municipalities of Ixtlahuacán del Río and Cuquío meet In an attempt to block the passage of security forces vehicles were set alight on the highway to Saltillo The situation is under control,” Alfaro wrote The violent response to the arrest of Ruiz – who has previously been identified as a leader of a CJNG elite group – spread to the neighboring state of Guanajuato later on Tuesday night Armed men set vehicles and businesses on fire in the municipalities of Celaya Reforma reported that public transit vehicles and convenience stores were also torched in León and Guanajuato city a city known as Mexico’s strawberry capital with at least a dozen stores and a gas station set alight More narco-blockades were created by setting vehicles on fire on the highway between Celaya and Apaseo el Grande Guanajuato Governance Minister Libia García said that the violence in that state was related to the events in Jalisco she also said that some of the aggressors involved in setting vehicles and businesses on fire had been detained “The criminal action is contained and under control there are no injured persons,” García wrote Una vez más por eso la ganas de salir de esta ciudad, de este estado, de este país tan inseguro y tan impune #Irapuato #Guanajuato #mexico pic.twitter.com/Ex2W1gljfW — ᐯ乇ㄥ乇乙 (@Antoniovelezj) August 10, 2022 Ruiz was wanted in connection with the 2012 murder of Venezuelan model Daisy Ferrer and the 2013 homicide of former Jalisco tourism minister José de Jesús Gallegos Álvarez With reports from Reforma, Milenio and Publimetro