The AFP published an article today that troubles me. I’m jaded already with AFP and Reuters imprinting their ideology on the news about Honduras, but there are some facts they let slip that could show what this summit was all about.

Honduras was not invited to the summit. And, that the organizers of the summit should snub Honduras because Honduras is not a member of the OAS is telling. The summit was held to create an alternative to the OAS, a regional “alliance that would exclude the United States and Canada”, AFP reported Mexican President Felipe Calderón as saying. So if it is an alternative to the OAS, why wasn’t Honduras included? Why should it matter if Honduras isn’t a member of the OAS any more?

But even more telling is this: the next summit will be held in Caracas, Venezuela. Smell the sulfur already? The Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas is another alliance created by Hugo Chavez to “liberate us from the yoke of the dollar”, and the “imperialist project that oppresses us and leads us to barbarism.” This new “alliance” seems to be going in the same direction.

The AFP reported Raul Castro as “one of the first to laud the new regional bloc as a historic move toward ‘the constitution of a purely Latin American and Caribbean regional organization.’ ” That AFP should only report host Felipe Calderon’s and Castro’s comments show their leanings a little too clearly.

Calderón’s quote seems very anti-US as well. What do you think? I would shudder to see Honduran president Porfirio Lobo go to the Caracas summit next year, almost as if he were going to Berlin during the Third Reich.

Today was a long weekend because of the celebration of the Mexican Constitution on February the 5th, The holiday is moved to the previous Monday to allow for more productivity and rest for workers.

To celebrate, a group of church friends and I rented a log cabin in a place called: “El Pinal” in the eastern Sierra Madre Mountains of Nuevo Leon.

I barely slept there because of the cold, and getting there was an ordeal of climbing steep and narrow mountain roads in rain and fog, in a rental car, because the friend who was driving us there cancelled at the last minute. Precipices thousands of meters high fell away from both sides of the road.

But, even in the stress, we had a lot of fun; in fact our faith was strengthened. At one moment, after the car had started skidding in a particularly wet uphill climb, my friends and I asked God for the rain to stop. Amazingly, a few seconds later it did! After the tense climb and close to the highest point of the road, we asked God to let us see the road, which was very difficult because of fog. A few seconds later the fog cleared enough for us to clearly see our way.

The rain didn’t return until 5AM or so, and in the meantime we even got to do some stargazing. We built a fire in the fireplace, drank hot chocolate, toasted marshmallows, made quesadilllas, played Scrabble and Monopoly, and had wonderful conversations.

The next day we got up late and visited a small canyon. All the way into it we were led forward by trees covered in Spanish Moss, which made them reminiscent of willow trees. I couldn’t help comparing the trees and rock walls to those in the movie Avatar. We met a group of Canadian and Mexican climbers inching up the steep and overhung canyon walls. We also met a Mexican rancher and his son in their Stetson hats and speaking with the characteristic norteño twang.

We had a wonderful relaxing time, ate good food, had loads of fun, one of the best weekends in a long time for me. Here are some of my pictures.

I was not expecting Zoologico La Pastora, in Monterrey to be very good, but I’m glad to say, it was a very enjoyable place to spend a Sunday afternoon. Here are some of my pics.