It is late on a wednesday night. The three staff leading the trip are in the office scrambling our brains on account of news from the US state department. Yesterday, a warning was issued for american travelers in Mexico, with a list of potentially dangerous cities. Three of them were ones we were planning to pass through on our way to Cuatro Cienegas. Apparently drug cartels have been having shootouts with the Mexican police on highways in the areas we were wanting to visit.
Executive decision: we're not going to mexico.
So here we are, red-eyed and mildly frantic, having hashed our brains and tickety tapped all over the internet exploring now options for the six days we have to rewrite. We leave in five days.
We all stepped up to the plate, though. After a couple of hours of mildly manic brainstorming, we have a new schedule and even some good contacts for a completely revised field trip. We'll break the bad news to the kids in the morning. They will be bummed.
I am too. I was really looking forward to spending time in Cuatro Cienegas. My first field trip at AMS went there, and i have been looking forward to continuing to build on the relationship we have with that community. And the ecology of the region is fascinating. On the upside, we don't have to worry about immigration one way or the other.
Our new plan: Refugio, Padre Island, Austin, then New Orleans and back on schedule.
Jason S.
Wednesday, February 24
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