When I first heard that Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta personal injury lawyer, had brought a particularly strong strain of Tuberculosis into the United States with him when crossing the Canadian border, my first thought was, “How ballsy of him…”

I mean, back in college when I went to Montreal with a few friends of mine, I smuggled some Cuban cigars back home with me and thought I was the next Pablo Escobar. But even contraband from a politically sanctioned Communist nation is nothing compared to a deadly infectious disease.

Although I actually know someone who brought back their own infectious disease from Guatemala. She was there working with a non-profit organization to help the children of poor families gain access to American colleges and universities. Unfortunately, she got typhoid (which is why I always say that charity work doesn’t pay).

She didn’t know it at the time, but as she started to feel worse she decided to fly back to Boston. By the time she got to the hospital, she was convinced that she had typhoid. (It was a topic of discussion amongst the locals where she was living.) When she told this to the doctor, he replied quizzically, “Typhoid, hmm?” He proceeded to look it up in some medical books and on the internet, explaining, “We don’t see much typhoid around here.” Finally, a call was placed to a doctor who was off that day. Apparently, he was old enough to know how to diagnose typhoid. When he arrived at the hospital at 2:00AM, grumpy and in his sweats, he took one look at my friend and said, “Where have you been?”

“Guatemala,” she replied
“That’s too bad. You have typhoid,” he said.

Swedish liquormaker Absolut Vodka has pulled an ad showing a map of North America from before the US stole nearly half of Mexico's land during the Mexican-American War and the Annexation of Texas. The ad only ran South of the border, but it managed to draw the ire of conservatives who watch Mexico's every move because they are scared of brown people. Thank god Absolut didn't dare to make an ad wishing anyone "Happy Holidays," then the right-wing culture warriors really would have been pissed. There's no word on whether or not Bill O'Reilly or Lou Dobbs is trying to start a movement to build a fence between the US and Scandinavia yet, but I'd recommend stocking up on lutefisk and cheap modish furniture just in case. [Yahoo News]

Mexico is looking to make major advancements in supplying clean water over the course of the next four years. According to President Felipe Calderon, the government will invest $21bn in order to improve drainage and water treatment in Mexico so that the country can guarantee at least 95% of the population access to clean drinking water by 2012. With Mexico's population having quadrupled in the last 55 years, and most of its citizens living in urban areas, ensuring clean drinking water has been an upward battle. "Among the projects to improve drainage and wastewater treatment will be the construction of a 62km-long (38 miles) drainage tunnel to serve Mexico City." [BBC]

An estimated 20,000 people disrobed in the main plaza, all for the lens of photographer Spencer Tunick. Reports the Washington Post: “His arrival was preceded by weighty philosophical battles about public nudity. The prominent Mexican art critic Raquel Tibol declared that Tunick’s photos would be ‘an antidote to Mexican prudishness,’ while the Spanish critic Roman Gubern sniffed that the photographer’s work is redundant and doesn’t appear artistic.” Tunick’s first choice for the photo shoot was Teotihuacan, with its ancient ruins, but the government refused him that.

Mexican officials are concerned about an alarming rise in dengue fever—cases have risen 600 percent in the country since 2001—and they recently dispatched teams to coastal resorts to spray pesticides and clear pockets of standing water where mosquitoes multiply. It’s “one of the primordial public health problems the country faces,” one Mexican health official told the AP. 

Sort of. Mexico’s landlocked capital now boasts a $200,000 fake beach, complete with real beach sand and palm trees. The inspiration? Not a real beach, but a faux beach that opened in Paris in 2001.

Because it’s so close to Southern California and Americans don’t need a passport to visit or return (at least until next year), Tijuana remains a popular destination for many Americans, even if they stay for only a few hours. Given that nearly three-quarters of Americans don’t have a passport, that means for many, Tijuana is the only experience of a foreign country they’ll have. Which is all the more reason why they should consider venturing beyond Revolution Avenue, with its strip clubs and curio shops. If all you saw of the rest of the world was Revolution Avenue, you just might never want to leave the U.S. again. (And you’d be forgiven for wanting to build a giant wall between the two countries.) Tijuana locals I know avoid Revolution Avenue like the plague, yet tourists flock to it, generally because they have no idea where else to go. So where else to go in Tijuana?

The youngest of 11 children, Alex Espinoza never felt the same connection as the rest of his brothers and sisters to his family’s native Mexico. They mostly grew up in a village called El Ojo de Agua in Michoacán; he was raised riding his BMX bike, watching cable TV and collecting “Star Wars” action figures in Los Angeles. “Their connection to Mexico was close, deep and also painful, something I simply could not grasp,” he writes about his family in a terrific Lives essay in the New York Times Magazine. “Growing up, I felt no ties to El Ojo de Agua. I traveled into Mexico with my family as a child a few times, but I felt disconnected and uninterested during those trips—and was always eager to return to my American life.” Recently, however, he returned to El Ojo de Agua with his mother to see if he could connect with a place that, over the years, had become “mythic” in his mind.

In the headlines this weekend: continued fallout from the JetBlue fiasco, planning a different kind of Spring Break, with a few tropical beaches thrown in for good measure, and the New York Times’ guide to cruising.

Air Travel Woes and the Passengers’ Bill of Rights
– “Time for a bill of rights for air travel?” (Chicago Tribune)
– “Well? We’re Waiting” (Washington Post)
– “Stranded Fliers Adapt” (Washington Post)

Spring Break
– “Spring Break can include more than partying” (Chicago Tribune)

New and Renewed Beaches: Hawaii and Mexico
– “Extreme Makeover Waikiki edition” (SF Chronicle)
– “In Playa Chacala, sun, sand and something more” (LA Times)

The NYT Cruise Issue
– “Strategies to Make More Passengers Maiden Voyagers”
– “Sailing With Few Frills or Inhibitions”
– more stories

French Road Trips
– “Three of France’s best drives” (Times of London)

Toronto’s Underground
– “Under Cover in Toronto” (Washington Post)

You have to feel for Tijuana tourism officials. The Mexican border city is plagued by murders and drug trafficking. And what of the city’s police force? Officers recently had their guns taken away from them by federal officials investigating organized crime. Yes, visiting Tijuana is a tough sell these days, especially for families on holiday in San Diego. But Tijuana officials think they’ve come up with a way to spit-shine the city’s image: a mascot. Meet Xuani, a cuddly costumed character representing a mix of Mexico’s native Indians. With his bright smile and fuzzy red-and-hello hat, Xuani will stroll along touristy Revolution Avenue, past the sad painted zebras and strip clubs, and, as the San Diego Union-Tribune put it in paraphrasing one official, “provide a more positive representation of the city’s offerings.”