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Manzanillo: Bustling port? Quiet resort? Or both?

Manzanillo. Most people can’t pronounce it, have no idea where it is, don’t know what the city has to offer, and can’t figure out how to get there. Manzanillo (pronounced mahn-san- nee-yoh), is the largest shipping port on the western coast of Mexico, located 165 miles south of Puerto Vallarta, or roughly midway between Matzatlan and […]

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Hugo's Heavenly Pool on Mexico's Rio Zarco is scenic enough to be used as a movie backdrop. Tala, near Guadalajara, is a wonderland of natural scenery. © John Pint, 2011

Tala, Jalisco: A thousand-year-old Mexican city inside a geological wonderland

Tala is a small town located 30 kilometers due west of Guadalajara and best known for its large, government-operated sugar refinery, infamous for being the major polluter of Lake La Vega. Two thousand years ago, however, Tala was the residential district of a large metropolis with a population of some 60,000 people. “Most likely,” says […]

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Cactus flower

Nopales, tunas and pitayas

Spiny, tough and menacing, the cacti seem peculiar choices as culinary delights. Cacti are well known novelties among potted plant collectors and gardeners, and some cacti, such as nopales (the stems of prickly pears) and tunas (cactus fruits) have recently gained popularity as a healthy foods outside of Mexico. However, the cactus is nothing new in the Mexican diet, […]

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Playa El Amor, a secluded beach in the Cabo Corrientes area of Mexico's Costa Alegre © David Kimball, 2013

Cabo Corrientes: Beaches in Mexico with nobody there

Cabo Corrientes is one of those vaguely heard of places where nobody ever goes because… well, where is it? And how and why would you go there? Literally, Cabo Corrientes means “cape currents.” It’s the point about 30 miles west of Puerto Vallarta where Banderas Bay finally gives up its apparent attempt to swallow the Pacific. Look […]

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Fiesta of the Virgin Magdalena in Xico: A village of enchantment in Veraruz

Xico: A village of enchantment in Veracruz

Founded in the year 1313, Xico’s original name was Xico-Chimalco in the Náhuatl (Aztec) language meaning “where there are bee hives of yellow wax.” Located only 20 minutes from Xalapa, Veracruz, it’s a village bound to charms one’s total senses. To get there, you travel southwest through the town of Coatepec, past the ex-hacienda of Zimpizahua, curving […]

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