San Pancho Life Newsletter

San Pancho Magico A.C.
(Community Association) 

Meeting every Wednesday 6:00 pm at Cafe Del Mar, weekly reunion AC San Pancho Magico (in formation), all invited to participate, it is very important to your presence, please spread the word.

SanPanchoLife.com Visitor Statistics 

Statistics for July 15 - July 28, 2011  

Total Pageviews:   5,333

Total Unique Visitors:   4,075 

Reservation Requests:   33   

Most Popular Business   

Groceries for Vacation

BY NICOLE SWEDLOW 

www.entreamigos.org.mx    

IF you stopped in at entreAmigos this week, you might have been overwhelmed with all of the action.  KIDS, KIDS AND KIDS!  This year, entreAmigos has 185 enrolled kids, making it the largest Summer Workshop attendance ever and has had to completely close and wait list all classes for kids under 10.    In these last two weeks of classes the offerings have included the core classes of English, Computers and swimming as well as skateboarding, basketball, circus arts (several different ones), cultura Nahuatl, yoga, lima lama, exploration of the sea, kite flying, art and constellations, sewing, embroidery, glass fusion, creativity, hula hooping, video production and photography.  These classes are offered by volunteer artists, professionals and just simply amazing people who choose to spend a week in San Pancho working with kids. 

In addition to all of the volunteer class teachers, it is also a time when entreAmigos does all of their summer maintenance and building improvements.  A huge thank you to Rick, Greg and Kenny who have been on hand to mend and fix and improve "the details" that ensure that entreamigos is open and safe for the community.   

Turtle Season Has Begun in San Pancho!

Two years ago, when entreAmigos undertook the re-construction of their current 16,000 sq foot facility the replacement of the roof was a huge priority and took nearly 1/3 of the total budget for the project.    The new roof had proven to be well worth the investment, serving as a refuge for many families in the massive flooding last summer and the entire building had been designated by the government as the official emergency shelter for San Pancho. 

So, it was a huge surprise when at 10 am on Tuesday, during a short but intense downpour, the gutter system in the main library was overwhelmed and water began cascading into the building and directly over the bookshelves.    Within less than 5 minutes, the entire library had been flooded and the water had reached the computers.  The first instant was utter chaos as 200 kids and teachers tried to get a grasp on what was happening but all of that turned into a beautiful community emergency response as the older kids and volunteers began a human book chain to save the library books and get them to the dry space in the "fridge" room.   entreAmigos staff and volunteers determined that the only current safe space was the sports room and carefully moved the children into the room.   For the next several hours a very organic "emergency response" plan was carried out as volunteers managed to keep 150 scared kids busy and having fun while the remainder of adults were moving books, computers and supplies to higher ground.

In the end, the entreAmigos library will lose a few hundred soggy books but it seems that everything else has been saved.  The kids were kept busy in the sports room for the remainder of day or until their parents came and no one was hurt. Summer workshops continued as usual the next day.   But... what happened?? 

Only a week earlier, entreAmigos volunteers had cleaned the gutter systems and patched holes in leaky skylights.  It seems that despite that preventative maintenance the culprit  was a plastic ball that had blocked one of the gutter downspouts and a plastic bag that had blocked another.   The main central gutter system that receives the rain from two of the entreAmigos roof slopes, had no outlet, the water pooled into a lake and the weight of it caused the gutter to fall into the building.

A huge thank you to everyone who sogged it out and lent a hand and a clap on the back once again for the kids and community of San Pancho who worked hard and smart in a difficult moment!

For some of us, Birding is more than a sport or a hobby: it is a possibility of contributing to science and to the knowledge of the avian fauna and the many different aspects related to it.  One of the most useful and revolutionary resources to expand the global knowledge on any bird species is www.ebird.org .  This world-wide database allows birders to share their bird sightings with others with detailed information so that anyone with an ebird account

Photo courtesy of www.ebird.org

(completely  free!) can access the information arranged b location, bird species, period of time, etc. Ebird not only allows to share relevant information on birds but it is also designed to help users understand and arrange information with a variety of tools such as histograms and range maps.

The information below is the histogram for San Pancho, Nayarit during the last year, counting from July 2010 to July 2011. The histogram shows a total of 194 species. Not bad considering that the whole state of Nayarit has 546 bird species and Mexico around 1700 species. For the short range and diversity of San Pancho`s ecosystems we can confidently say San Pancho has a large diversity of species.

I will continue providing a further analysis of this extensive report in the next issue of La Voz de San Pancho, in the meantime, enjoy the summer!

Luis Morales 

is a Marine Biologist, Director and Founder of the San Pancho Birding Club, and Owner of Birding San Pancho. Luis has vast experience on leading nature tours both in land and aquatic habitats.  He has lived in San Pancho for 3 years and has become not only a frequent and avid observer of the local birds and nature but also an educational resource for our community and an environmental activist to help in preserving and restoring natural habitats.

Notes from the Ranch 

Will return in 2 weeks!     

Tamara Bode has been living in San Pancho for 15 years. She is the owner of Harmonia Holistica. She is a Massage Therapist, and also specializes in nutrition counseling and lifestyle coaching.  Contact

Tamara