Punta Chueca

Today we headed to the Seri ( native tribe) village of Punta Chueca. This village is about 15 miles north of Bahia de Kino. In order to get there you have to take a dirt road; the picture here shows one of the flatter and less bumpy parts of the road.

Just before getting to Punta Chueca we stopped to see Estero Santa Rosa (Santa Rosa Estuary) and the Canel elInfiernillo (Canal of Hell). The canel is rightly named due to the high winds and currents that blow through the passage. The estuary is home to mangrove trees which shelter many unique kinds of flora and fauna including invertebrate nursing grounds. The picture shows the thin strip of water which is the canal between the mainland and IslaTiburon. The point of land in the middle of the picture is the estuary.

























It is interesting to note that the Seri stoodtheir ground against colonization for a very long time from the Spanish and still are vigilante about their territory. There is a clear sign when going into their territory and they completely run their land without the Mexican government. Having that said it was interesting to run into a truck of Mexican soldiers on the way to Punta Chueca who usually do not go into Seri land. As we got into Punta Chueca, we were looking for one of the elders of the village who is good friends with the Station; his name was Alfredo. We ended up finding him in a new mangrove nursery that the village is planting. We did not get to find out much about this project but hopefully we will learn more about it later. We were hoping to get a chance to talk to Alfredo but it was not possible at this time so we walked around the town instead.



















My first impressions of the town was: lots of trash, cars are either pretty nice or completely stripped of parts, and lots of people outside of the homes cooking and talking. When walking through the town we saw people of all ages. We stopped briefly at one house where some people were sitting outside and asked them what they did for a living. One of the men said that he was a fishermen and that the blue swimming crab fishing had been good this year. Everywhere you went there were lot of dogs and kids who were all very friendly. The Seri are used to, to some extent, American tourist due to the retired population in Bahia de Kino. They have been selling their artisan crafts to tourists since the 1970's. Things that they make include: shell bracelets and necklace, woven baskets and whale tooth jewelry. We were offered and sometimes pushed to buy these gifts as the group was discovered by some of the makers. While many of their homes were very small you could tell that their panagas ( fiberglass boat) were important to them.




















Even though I would rather say that I didn't I had many judgments running through my head as a walked through the village. One of the major
judgments was why is there so much trash everywhere and why is there so much stuff just lying on the ground. After the field trip I had an interesting discussion explaining my observation. The other person said that before the introduction of western plastics to the village it was easy to throw an unwanted seashell or shrimp head on the ground. Now that the plastics and non-biodegradables are there they accumulate due to this continued practice. The Seris are a very proud people and do not like being told to change their culture, rightly so.

As we drove home we saw a shrimp larvae farming plant ( the place where they are at before the go into an aquaculture farm) which is very close to the station.

Today I enjoyed seeing the Serri village but wished we had been able to spend more time there. Some of the questions that I have are:
- What kinds of ecological projects are the Serri working on?
- Is there any involvement or education of the young people in the village in ecological projects?
- Is the Punta Chueca community population stable?