feature regional dancing, food, and of course, mariachi music. The custom is deeply rooted in Guadalajara, but prevails throughout the north, central, and Pacific states.Festivals of Music and Performing Arts

Each May Morelia gears up for the annual International Festival of Organ Music. The series of concerts is one of the few times each year the lovely cathedral’s 4,600-pipe organ is used. The 6-day event draws musicians from Latin America, Europe, the United States, and of course, Mexico. Perhaps better known and more widely attended are San Miguel de Allende’s Festival Internacional de Jazz, held in late November, and Cancun’s Festival de Jazz, held for a week in late May. In Mazatlán, the entire month of November is dedicated to cultural events, many held at the renovated, 19th-century TeatroSlow pace of SMART bike path construction frustrates cyclists

A signature element of the Sonoma-Marin rail project and a key selling point for many of the voters who approved it -#8212; a 71-mile bikeway, postponed due to a funding crisis -#8212; is moving forward in places, but not fast enough for bicycle advocates.

The planned bike path, which eventually could be one of the longest of its kind in the nation, was crucial in winning voter support for a quarter-cent sales tax to pay for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit commuter line.

But faced with slumping sales-tax receipts during the recession, the rail authority was forced to build the line in stages and cut a third of the pathway funding.

With revenue now on the rebound, the agency has been laying track