06232015Tue
Last updateTue, 23 Jun 2015 11am
CP Electronics

New app for drivers warns of hazards

Tec de Monterrey University has developed a new app so smartphone users can avoid hazards on the roads. Drivers will be able to consult their handheld devices to keep an eye out for breeches, landslides, fallen trees, rain, animals and traffic. The app was developed for Continental Automative Services.


Gov’t agency develops app for boaters, fishermen

A new smartphone app, in both English and Spanish, allows fishermen and boaters to stay in compliance with Mexican laws covering visas and permits.

Developed by Mexico’s Aquaculture and Fishing Commission (Conapesca), the app includes the requirements for boaters who plan to venture into Mexican waters, vessel requirements, fishing and boat permits, visitor immigration documents (FMMs), bag and possession limits, violations and trip and fishing log information and other requirements. It also includes a sport fishing manual, Visit Mexico brochure, a directory of all marinas in Mexico, and a quick guide to sport fishing in Mexico.

To download the app, go to http://pescadeportivaenmexico.sectur.gob.mx/en.

Blowing up the bad guys

No Mexican festivity seems complete without noisy fireworks, even the most solemn of all religious celebrations, Easter. The traditional Quema de Judas follows the celebration of the late night Misa de Gloria (Glory Mass) on Holy Saturday.  The fiery detonation of effigies representing Christ’s treacherous disciple – and by extension sinful and despised  public figures and other  powers of evil – is a deep-rooted custom embraced by popular culture for more than four centuries.  While the custom is still popular, it appears to have been more so in years gone by. Writes Dorothy Gladys Spicer in her 1937 “The Book of Festivals,” Judas “is made to look as horrible as possible. Sometimes he has a huge red nose and wears a high hat and frock coat. Coins, pasted upon his garments, represent the 30 pieces of silver for which he sold Christ. By ten o’clock Saturday morning everything is in readiness for Judas’ execution. Effigies of the traitor are suspended from roofs, balconies, lamp posts, trees, shop windows. As soon as the mass is over, fuses are lighted. Church bells peal forth.  With loud explosions the Judases are torn to shreds. The people in the plazas shout with glee.”

GDL-JFK flights to start in July

Discount Mexican airline Volaris will start direct flight from the Guadalajara International Airport to New York JFK from July 15, although some travelers may find the timing of the flights inconvenient.  

Flights will leave Guadalajara on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 5:45 p.m., arriving at JFK at 11:55 p.m. The return flights are overnight, leaving JFK on Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday at 1:25 a.m. and arriving in Guadalajara at 5:34 a.m.

At press time, the cost of flights for the first month of the new route (returning one week later) was 6,236 pesos (417 dollars). Tickets can be booked online at volaris.com.

Volaris now offers more routes than any other Mexican airline – 38 in total, to 18 domestic destinations and 20 international ones. The airline carried more than 16 million passengers last year.

Easter Closings

Don’t waste your valuable time this Easter. Be prepared for those seasonal closedowns that can wreck the plans of unknowing foreign residents.