COYOACÁN Urban Oasis BY www.insidemex.com THE ENGLISH SPEAKER ’ S GUIDE TO LIVING IN MÉXICO MARCH 2007 MEXPETSMEXPETS ISSUEISSUE dog tales Dogs dine out at the Bow Wow Deli › 10 One animal shelter’s mission to rescue and to educate › 14 Need to travel overseas with your pet? Here’s how › 19 Jonathan heath on Mexico’s economy › 7 // a dvanced frequent flyer tips › 27 around coyoacán what’s the strangest food Taste your dog likes martha to eat? ortiz 20 her medium is food. her inspiraTion, The world. Rumbo a... “Sushi – what weirder thing could she eat?” Guadalajara Pulkue, three-year-old Chihua- Travel To hua, and owner Karo AGuilar The biG ciTy wiTh 8 a differenT sense of Time. “Strawberries and cream, and hotcakes with syrup Market Meter and peaches.” NiKi, one-and-a-half-year-old French Poodle, and owner open the door LiLi Huerta $1,000,000 pesos aparTmenTs in The DF 25 4 Inbox Steals and Deals Editors Letter Dog Days Lingo for Gringos 24 real estate Creature Talk CloseUp Oscar Cedillo: “Guayava and bananas.” 5 InvoIces Keeping it Real in Roma 12 arts&culture KiKiN, one-year-old Cocker Span- Ceci Connolly iel-Maltese, and owner Carolina Herrera in Oaxaca Bush and Latin America 26 transItIons SalomóN Caballero Glimpses Victor Solis Los Folkloristas sing Mexico’s How Healthy is that Taco on Past the Corner? 7 news and notes The Fixer A look at rules 14 cover story for renters in Mexico x Factor Mexico’s macro- economy by the numbers For Mexican pets, a shelter from the storm 28 the Green GuIde And practical advice on Can Mexico go Solar? 9 InsIde out preparing your pet for an G1 CloseUp international move A Xoloitzcuintli breeder 29 Farewells the GuIde 22 taste Marilyn Greenwald “Tacos, but as if a person coyoacán 10-11 InsIdeout The Cava were eating them, with Lorraine Orlandi on the Dog Why a Wine’s Nose Matters 31 the backPaGe & the calendar Café salsa and everything.” Rossana Fuentes-Berain LeX, two-year-old Poodle, and owner Giovanna Villegas [ ] InsIdeMéxIco March 2007 You will feel at home. Get closer with MBE. PUBLIC SERVICE Doggone it! ANNOUNCEMENT LTHOUGH THIS WAS GOING TO BE THE PETS ISSUE, THINGS QUICKLY WENT TO Friend calls. A THE DOGS… The poor dog, in life the firmest friend/ In Mexico City you’re more likely to see The first to welcome, foremost to defend/ dogs steeled against the cold – or at least Friend Whose honest heart is still the master’s own/ their owners’ idea of cold – wrapped in chic Who labours, fights, lives, breathes/for him alone/ sweaters that would make Carolina Herrera Unhonour’d falls, unnoticed all his worth/ (see pg. 12) proud. We even saw one dog, Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth / whose owners could not afford a fashionable “Let’s get While man, vain insect hopes to be forgiven / doggie top coat, dressed in a tattered, but together.” And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven. somehow quite literary, black turtleneck. The bonding of human with dog always You –LORD BYRON, inscription on the gravestone has the feeling of inevitability…of all the of his Newfoundland dog, 1808 doorways in all the world, this furry love All you cat, ferret, gerbil, rabbit, horse and walked into yours. So it was with Birdie finch lovers out there, be patient, we’ll re- and Beck, who last month brought their “Cool!” turn to the theme. For now, send us your puppy chaos from the parking lot down the Friend favorite animal stories and we’ll begin by street full-tilt into our lives. And we’ll never posting some of them at in- forget how one friend of ours found his dog. sidemex.com. A stray sidled up to him during lunch at a “Where do And what about “man’s restaurant in Puerto Escondido, rested his (and woman’s) best friend”? chin on our friend’s thigh, and gently gazed you want The phrase belies the com- into the friend’s eyes. That was two years to meet?” You plexity of our relationship ago. Now Brando makes the annual round with our canine compan- trip to Mexico in the winter and back to ions. Or maybe, it’s that the Maine in the spring with parents and four best friendships aren’t the legged brother. “…?” simplest of relationships. From Tara FitzGerald’s cover story on The one between humans the shelter Presencia Animal, to Lorraine and dogs has its ups and downs, as well Orlandi’s afternoon at a dog birthday party to as moments that can be are hilarious, poi- Quade Hermann’s interview with a breeder gnant, gruesome, ridiculous, and spiritual of Xoloitzcuintli (the ancient breed thought by (think Amores Perros). the Aztecs to accompany their masters to the Many foreigners have a negative view of a netherworld) we take a curious, wet-nosed We suggest you sign dog’s life in Mexico. And in fact, the number look at our closest companions, who some- up for INSIDE MÉXICO’s was somewhere north of one hundred when how, through their wise and wacky ways we stopped counting the bodies of dogs who’d teach us what it means to be more human. weekly e-mail. ventured unfortunately close to the Mexican road. On the other hand, it’s just as common Woof, woof! THE TIP will help to see a dog with its owner or family, eating, playing and conviviendo. Aran, Margot, Birdie and Beck Shetterly you avoid awkward situations like the one represented above. Once a week distribution 40, 000 aran shetterly (paper and online) we’ll recommend editor -in-chief [email protected] Printed by SPI: servicios something fun, tasty, NuMBeR 3 • FebruARY 2007 profesionales de impresión, s.a. de c.v. margot lee shetterly advertising Derechos reservados © editorial Manda S.A. de C.V., cool, or interesting. managing editor emilio deheza Cordoba 206A #4, Colonia Roma, C.P. 06700, México creative consultant [email protected] catherine dunn D.F., México 2007. Se prohíbe la reproducción, total art & photography o parcial, del contenido de esta publicación, así como méxico city editor alejandro Xolalpa contributors también se prohíbe cualquier utilización pública del commercial director luz montero Víctor Solís, Quade contenido, como por ejemplo, actos de distribución, staff photographer Hermann, erick Montero, Carlos Xolalpa, Sales transformación y comunicación pública (incluyendo la ediTorial conTribuTors Patricia Cerezo transmisión pública). Griselda Juarez, Sales Carlo Cibo, Ceci Connolly, design Certificado de reservas al uso exclusivo del título: 04- Sign up now! Georgina del Angel, Tara Marcela Méndez in monterrey: Olivia Deheza 2006-111512075500-102. Fitzgerald , Rossana Fuentes- Ana Ma. Prado [email protected] Certificado de licitud de título y de contenido: en Berain, Mario González- Emilio Deheza diseño Román, Maya Harris, Quade Maya Harris trámite. Los artículos aquí contenidos reflejan única- Send us an e-mail: legal counsel mente la postura de su respectivo autor, y no necesari- Hermann, Beatriz Mancebo, pr coordinator, méxico amente la de editorial Manda S.A. de C.V., por lo que Lorraine Orlandi, Gibran Raya Luis Fernando González [email protected] [email protected] Nieves for Solorzano, Carvajal, dicha empresa no se responsabiliza por lo afirmado por Jamie Rosen, Michelle M. John Boit, Melwood Global, us Stroud González, Pérez-Correa, s.c. los respectivos autores aquí publicados. [ ] InsIdeMéxIco March 2007 [email protected] Víctor Solís Is Bush’s trip an opportunity for Latin America? Ceci Connolly President Bush arrives in Latin America out of fashion, are equally eager to prove March 8 for a six-day swing that cul- they can lead. And immigration reform minates with meetings in Mexico with appears to be one of the few subjects where President Felipe Calderon. they and Bush are more simpatico than The reason for the trip, according to the he and Republican lawmakers. It isn’t dif- White House, is “to underscore the commit- ficult to envision a scenario in which House ment of the United States to the Western Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Major- Hemisphere and…highlight our common ity Leader Harry Reid—both border state agenda.” Democrats—craft a compromise with Bush My first thought was, why bother? Six the Texan. years after Bush and his companero Vi- Homeland Security Secretary Michael cente Fox chummed it up on the ranch, Chertoff signaled the administration’s open- the most notable changes in U.S. policy ness in his mid-February visit to Mexico. have been exactly the sorts of things Mexi- “Every time a Border Patrol officer is cans most dislike. Last year, Bush signed transporting a load of future housekeepers into law authorization for a 700-mile fence and landscapers to some place to be re- along the border and last month raised ap- turned, he’s not looking for drug dealers or plication fees for legal immigration, in some drug loads,” he said. “So to me, total immi- cases by as much as 80 percent. gration reform that addresses economic mi- Aside from his quick blow through Cancun grants is actually an enforcement enabler a year ago, Bush’s last trip to Latin America because it lets us focus more on the people was in November 2005. And that is perhaps that we don’t want in the country under best remembered for the raucous anti-U.S. any circumstances, namely the criminals protests in Argentina and the taunts of Ven- and the dangerous folks.” ezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Bush’s visit should also encourage Today, the lame duck president is as Calderon and other more democratical- unpopular throughout Latin America as ly-oriented leaders in the region to act as Inside México Listens In elsewhere, largely because of the ongoing checks against the Chavez, whose clout has war in Iraq.