The warm afternoon breeze wafts a gentle mist of dust across the floor of the Oaxaca valley and into Oaxaca city, softening the colonial patina of the richly carved, 300-year-old cathedral. The dust is two thousand years old, the dust of Monte Alban, the first major city in the Americas. Now a ghost city, Monte […]
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Given the long and illustrious history of Mexico, it is only fitting that just a few kilometers to the east of the oldest urban center in the Americas is one of the loveliest present-day cities in the Americas – the city of Oaxaca. All visitors to Mexico should consider Oaxaca (pronounced Wah-hah-cah) a “must-see”. Over […]
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Of all the thousands of possible day-trips from tourist centers in Mexico, perhaps none is as varied, educational, beautiful and just plain fun as that along the eastern part of the Valley of Oaxaca. One of the great attractions of this trip is that it is less than fifty kilometers drive along a good highway […]
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“Ay Chihuahua!” Have you ever heard this time-honored phrase of amazement uttered by some dumbstruck or exasperated Mexican? Whatever its origins, it is perhaps never more appropriately used than by those visitors who come to appreciate the state’s wide diversity of tourist merits. Once familiar with them, they too can rightly exclaim, “Ay Chihuahua!”. While […]
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Originally from Boulder, Colorado, I have lived in Xalapa, Veracruz, for the last 27 years. Xalapa (hah-LAH-pah) is truly the place of my dreams. Nestled in lush coffee growing hills, with a micro climate averaging 68° F (20° C) year-round, it’s the capital of the Gulf of Mexico state of Veracruz. Xalapa comes from the […]
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The first Englishman to set foot in Xalapa was an unfortunate fellow called Robert Barrett. That was back in 1568. Some 432 years later, another Englishman has set foot in this delightful city. But Richard Nathan considers himself a lot more fortunate, even though he arrived here after walking nearly 4,000 miles (6,400 kms). A […]
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Many visitors in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, realize that the quaint mountain town, aside from being a destination in itself, is a perfect jumping-off point for dozens of side-trips. Surrounding indigenous villages, the Lagos de Montebello, and even Palenque, four hours away, are accessible for ambitious travelers. But not many tourists venture deeper […]
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Not a river exactly, Xochimilco is a vast system of canals and gardens at the southern extreme of this megalopolis called Mexico City. It was a lake at the time of the Aztecs. They floated rafts on the shallow lake´s surface and heaped them with rich soil and compost and grew enough produce on them […]
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The Valle de Maiz drops away from the old highway to Queretaro into a narrow, gloomy gulch, the dirt streets bounded by broken walls, unfinished homes, dark shadowed places and an occasional vacant lot cluttered with refuse wind blown down the canyon from the nearby Mexican mesa. It is where the witches and sorcerers live. […]
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“Wait,” she protested. She bent over the crouched photographer busily framing the pleasant scene for posterity, his camera at the ready, shutter cocked. She spoke loudly into his ear. “Wait!” On the very street – no, more like a boulevard in a city of grand boulevards – where being seen is becoming the number one […]
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