After many downhill twists and turns, at the very end of a road built for Nayarit royalty, is a little lake that could have spilled from a book of fairy tales. La laguna Santa Maria del Oro, in the crater of a long-ago volcano, is near enough to perfect to forever please Christopher French. He’s been […]
Continue ReadingHenry Wadsworth Longfellow waxed poetic about the bronze bells of San Blas without seeing or hearing them. These less eloquent westwords are about the bugs of San Blas, a very up-close and much too-personal accounting with scars as proof of participation. From a distance, San Blas is just another beach town, in the state of Nayarit, on […]
Continue ReadingThe backroads of Mexico often offer adventure, perhaps a bit of excitement, sometimes a touch of the dramatic and, occasionally, a hint of danger. We thought we’d found all four on a deteriorating 10-kilometer connector between Highway 200 and the Pacific beaches, to and from the almost dead community of El Tecuan, an hour north […]
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Please pardon me. I have neglected Mexico City. It has been years since I have told you how much I love it. Don’t laugh. For much of our time in Mexico, the really big city has meant life-threatening smog, bumper to bumper deadlocks and keep your hand on your wallet. Careful on the metro and […]
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An old gringo and his still-lovely bride returned to Mazamitla the other day after several years in other exciting places. The intriguing mountain town, one of Mexico’s pueblos mágicos, seemed much as we remembered but the approach was startling — cabañas everywhere with workers rushing to complete more. Never would I have expected to find […]
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If you missed the November excitement of the Baja 1000, you can see the December version, minus dust and exhaust fumes, on ABC or ESPN the day after Christmas. The world’s toughest motor vehicle race followed an 883-mile desert loop designed by the devil himself, out, up, down and around, across washes and over boulders, […]
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Intriguing writer Michael Dickson, aka Felipe Zapata atop his famous blog, once said of San Miguel de Allende: “It’s a great place to live if you want to ‘live in Mexico’ without actually living in Mexico.” It is sometimes difficult to tell when Felipe is serious and when he is just stirring the pot but […]
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The wedding was an exciting reason to do Cabo San Lucas. Glamorous “Glee” star Naya Rivera and actor Ryan Dorsey were to take their vows. An area acquaintance, part-time bookie and fishing guide, said come on down, that my fame as a writer and his international influence could get us an invitation to the party […]
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You may have already heard that Mexico is a big nation. It is bigger than big. It is vast — and diverse. There are many places to go and many different things to see. For 17 years we have been here and there, and done this and that, and are still looking. Once, on our […]
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The Pueblos Mágicos program was launched in 2001 by Mexico’s Secretariat of Tourism in conjunction with other federal and state agencies to promote towns chosen for natural beauty, cultural riches and historical relevance. You have been spared by one. The colorful village of Chapala, beside the big lake of the same name, in the exciting state of Jalisco, […]
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