Color is everywhere in Sayulita, making the town a cheerful place for relaxing and enjoying life © Christina Stobbs, 2012

Sayulita: A quintessential Mexico beach town on the Riviera Nayarit

This charming little beach town located on Pacific Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit, is only a forty-minute drive north of Puerto Vallarta. Sayulita has exploded in popularity as an alternative beach vacation destination during the past few years and celebrity sightings are becoming rather common place. You just know that Sayulita is special, even before arriving, because […]

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Mexico’s Copper Canyon spans Chihuahua and Sinaloa: introduction and resources

The most common way to visit Copper Canyon is by train, which runs from Los Mochis to Chihuahua – one of the few remaining passenger trains in Mexico. While this rail trip offers spectacular views, passengers do not get an opportunity to go deep into the canyon. Therefore, a few years ago, I opted to […]

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The Magic Circle Ecosystems

The Magic Circle: Mexico’s five ecosystems meet around Guadalajara

For a while I’ve been asking myself how it’s possible that I keep finding new natural wonders to write about after 25 years of living near Guadalajara. So, one day I sat down with a map and drew a circle around the city, with a radius of about 250 kilometers, nicely encompassing many of the […]

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All roads lead to copper smelting in Xiuhquilan

Did You Know? Mexico’s vultures have very different eating habits

Vultures (zopilotes in Spanish) are among the most conspicuous birds in many parts of Mexico. Commonly misidentified as eagles, these blackish scavengers can be seen almost anywhere, often in large flocks, either circling lazily overhead or feeding greedily on roadkill or other carrion. A few years ago, in the early morning mist at a municipal garbage dump […]

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Did You Know? Oldest winery in the Americas is in Parras de la Fuente, Mexico

The oldest winery in the Americas is in Parras de la Fuente In Mexico, vineyards and wineries exist in several states, including Baja California, Sonora, Zacatecas, Querétaro, and Coahuila. Wine experts usually claim that Mexico’s finest wines come from Baja California, but award-winning wines are also now emerging from the oldest winery anywhere in the […]

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The Cathedral of Santiago in Saltillo has maintained a powerful, yet pleasing, presence in this colonial city for more than 200 years.

Saltillo, Mexico: color, culture and colonial charm

The Cathedral of Santiago in Saltillo faces the Plaza de Armas where young couples relax on iron benches surrounded by manicured gardens and children chasing pigeons. Streams of water rise from a fountain into gentle arcs in the sunlight, and a young man sells paintings of feathered Indians, the Virgin Mary, and Mexican villages with […]

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A man strolls through the primal beauty of the biodome at Museum of the Desert in Saltillo.

Saltillo’s Museum of the Desert in Mexico explores every aspect of desert life

A cool waterfall rushes over rocks into a pool surrounded by Boston ferns, split-leaf philodendron and magnolias in the desert of the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. Turtles bask on the shore, iguanas stare through a window into the herpetarium in the next room, and dinosaur eggs lay nestled beneath lush foliage. The biodome of […]

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Chiles give traditional dishes their deep red color.

Flavors of Mexico’s indigenous kitchens: the Purepecha of Michoacan

The Purepecha Indians throughout Michoacan have developed a tantalizing culinary heritage for centuries that still awakens the senses with its powerful aromas and flavors. In Uruapan, Morelia and other parts of the state, corundas and huchepos, both Purepecha variations of the tamale, eagerly await the opportunity to extinguish the hunger of visitors while imparting a delicious cultural experience. Of […]

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Colorful crafts fill doorways and sidewalks in the streets of Capula.

Catrina: skeletons take over the art of Capula, Michoacan

Inspired by the caricatures of lithographer Jose Guadalupe Posada, the elegant Catrina has her origins in Day of the Dead celebrations. Capula’s Catrinas arrived only recently. They stand in the doorways of this small quiet colonial town, Catrinas of every size and description decked out in flowered dresses and clenching flowers in their cratered teeth, plumed […]

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