I dreamt we would have a park!
By Nacho Cadena Owner of La Petite France - September 2005
I decided to take a vacation taking advantage of the season and the circumstances. Four days should be enough to recuperate the spent energy. It is really not that much because here in this beautiful town the energy tank is filled through spontaneous generation.
Nevertheless it is a good idea to get away from the traffic jams, to forget the plan of urban development, to get away from the heat attacks in the airport, from the races of the local busses and from the necessity of wanting to plan the future of Vallarta.
When you are going on vacation you would like to be accompanied by the one whom you love most or by many whom you like or by a crowd (crowd means many) of good friends in order to enjoy common interests and shared pastimes. This time I decided to get lost alone, well actually not that alone, but sometimes it is good to travel with your Solitude that usually is a good companion and this way you can go to those places which only you like or you can sit next to pure strangers trying to find out who they are or simply to enjoy a space where you can laugh, roar with laughter or shout and nobody will think that you are crazy.
This time I decided to invite my other "I". I took 2 suitcases, I threw in a pair of tennis, some white pants and four shirts of the same color and there I accommodated my other I with attention and order, well protected, cushioned with some small underpants and a T-shirt. The correct thing would have been to buy a ticket for him, too but plane tickets are so expensive. Thus I just put him in the suitcase and locked it with a key. after all it is a flight which will not last for more than two hours.
The rain is one of the great delights that we get with summer. The dry creeks get damp and in a little while they will grow strong, gathering water and delivering it to the rivers, so that it may be conducted further for the benefit of everyone. The rivers Ameca, el Pitillal, los Orcones, and all the rivers of the area will fill up with this vital element, producing well being in the region. But I will drop nature to change to a different tone.
My Solitude stayed at home alone and I think that it will have a good time, too. It had already threatened me of being tired of me and had told me that there were many things which bothered it. Thus it stayed behind untroubled, alone, enjoying itself, the owner of the bedroom and everything, of the stove and the coffee maker, of the books and the old stuff in the house. My Solitude will like all this and I am certain that it will miss me and that it will receive me with open arms because my Solitude knows that it is good to be alone, as long as you know as well that you have company whenever you would like.
Summer fruits give rise to refreshing drinks, guanabana, tamarind and mango water, and they are also to blame for those very well arranged small street carts, preparing without asepsis but with lots of flavor, those glasses of water melon, pineapple, papaya and not to forget the white stylized figure of the jicama with powdered chile.
Well, this time it was the turn of my other I to travel and my Solitude stayed at home with Garlic and Onion and Commander Dexter (the small Chihuahua dogs)
Cirque du Soleil
 One of those days I found that the beautiful yellow and blue tent of this circus was next door to my hotel. A marvelous spectacle and the same tent I saw almost twelve years ago when a small poster that said: "the no animals' circus" caught my attention, but this was on another vacation.
I do not want to talk about this topic, rather on another day I would like to talk a lot about this circus. Nevertheless I cannot leave out telling you about the marvel of the balanced combination of majestic music, dance, wardrobe, song, theater, choreography, illumination. Wow! And some acts of juggling, acrobatics, clowns, trapeze artists, simply incredible. What a delight!
The Park
In the morning I discovered that the tent was inside a park, a splendid place, well planned, well carried out and impeccably taken care of, full of trees, many of all varieties, paths, avenues, small creeks, small waterfalls, lawn, sidewalks but above all on any day, it was a Tuesday, it was full of people, full of children, of mothers, of grandparents, of sportsmen, of runners, walkers, skaters and people sitting on the benches, talking, having conversations, listening, holding hands, contemplating, trying to decipher the symphony of the birds with their trilling. Yes, the park was full of birds and of people, too.
I chose one of the many benches there and we sat down, I and my other I. Without talking, we remained calm. Suddenly he took out a small book from his bag and began to read out loud, every time with a louder voice, alone, for himself, with a clear and very heartfelt voice. Suddenly he surrounded himself with various birds, a squirrel, a line of ants and several grasshoppers and crickets. They were enjoying listening as much as my other I was enjoying reading. A park causes delight.
We walked, changing the route and the bench several times. We looked at the sun from one side and the other side and the shadows were changing as well with the movement of the sun. Observe and you will find the movements of the leaves of the trees interesting and the length of the grass and the drops of water joining and forming the small creek and further ahead the waterfall. A park makes you look at and listen to things never before seen nor heard.
Some discreet loudspeakers in English green color, the classical color of the equipment of parks, broadcast classical music, Beethoven, Mozart, List. Suddenly I hear the Convert of Aranjuez and that part which you know took the hand of my other I and together we lifted up until the end, where we gave each other a big hug. How necessary it was for me to have an encounter with this "I" that I always carry inside, packed in the same body and sometimes with very little communication. It was good that we went together and it was good that we spent our vacation in a park... a clean park, without any sales booths and fast food, which breeds bacteria and viruses making visitors sick.
We Need a Park
 Vallarta is a city with almost three hundred thousand inhabitants according to the well-informed, a full-fledged city with all the advances, huge supermarket chains, the most modern movie theaters, national brand pharmacies, car dealers, a huge number of private schools; however it is a city without a park. I do not refer to a main square I am talking about a huge park, like the one I described at the beginning of this column, like the one of the Colomos in Guadalajara or the one of the Vigia in Zapopan, that what is called a park, ten, twenty of more hectares of trees, shrubs, paths, contemplative tracks. A park to walk in, to exercise, to stroll through, to meditate, to be in touch with the nature.
One where children can play, where parents and grandparents take their family and tell them stories, so that they may know the trees and that they learn to count as many shades of green as possible. A park with benches so that the old folks can take a rest and retell their lives, to hold hands with the girlfriend and humming a song from Lara. A park for groups of nuns to tell their beads, for athletes to run and exhaust their energies, for poets to become inspired and for everybody to enjoy it however they most please.
A pretty park with many trees and shrubs, well enclosed, clean, without street vendors, so that it may be for everyone and not just a few, a park without fritters nor fast food or the sale of illegal CD copies.
There could be a botanical garden in the park, an area of flowers, of fruit trees, many things designed by experts in the field. Some small streets where primary school teachers take their groups to give them classes on good citizenship, where the pretty high school girls go to skate, where there is music, joy, laughter and good humor.
A harmonious, balanced place, where families spend a day off, have a picnic, play, run, shout and sing. Plants and trees grow a lot in Vallarta if they are not cut down, it is not expensive to make a park and it is a durable and inexhaustible pastime for the families. It is better to invest in a park than to spend money on short-lived spectacles that nobody remembers, even though for the moment being it had been entertaining. The park is a permanent, durable, inexhaustible, educating, tranquilizing, repetitive pastime, it favors communitarian life as well as caring for nature and our environment.
I dreamt that soon a great man will come, an authority who will give a park to the inhabitants of Vallarta, a great park, not a square (which is needed, too) but a great experience in order to enjoy a whole day with the family or with oneself. Without noises, without games, without street vendors, only trees, plants, birds, squirrels, iguanas and as many flowers and animals as could live there.
That would truly be a contribution of the government that the people would appreciate.
Hopefully my dream soon comes true. The old folks of Vallarta, the children and those in between really deserve it. For now this was all.
Nacho Cadena - Owner of La Petite France
E-mail: nachocadena@lapetitefrance.com.mx
* From My Balcony
is an independent column of Mr. Ignacio
[Nacho] Cadena, owner of La
Petite France Restaurant
in Puerto Vallarta and source of this information.
To contact Mr. Ignacio Cadena please email
to: lapetitefrance@prodigy.net.mx
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