The Foreign Service Journal, November 2014

98 NOVEMBER 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LOCAL LENS BY DAHM CHOI n TAPALPA, MEXICO Please submit your favorite, recent photograph to be featured in Local Lens. Images must be high resolution (at least 300 dpi at 8 x 10”) and must not be in print elsewhere. Please submit a short description of the scene/event, as well as your name, brief biodata and the type of camera used, to locallens@afsa.org. G uadalajara is in the western highlands of Mexico, with easy exits both down to the Pacific coast and higher up into the moun- tains. Our favorite road trip—we made eight or nine visits in a two-year tour—is across a dry salt lake framed by striking green ridges, and from there up to the “magical village” of Tapalpa. With special status maintained by the tourist bureau, Tapalpa attracts urban professionals and families for a weekend hiking in the woods and among these boulders, offering a chance to appreciate a Mexico that is far from the common images of the country. Las Piedrotas, the boulders featured here, lie scattered across the Valley of the Enigmas just behind Tapalpa. Photo specs: Nikon D60, f/8 F-stop, 1/250 exposure, ISO-100, 35mm prime lens, 1.6 aperture. n Dahm Choi recently completed his first tour at Consulate General Guadalajara. He joined the State Department in 2009, and the Foreign Service in 2011. He previously served in the Operations Center and Embassy Dar es Salaam as a Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellow.