Five years ago, I visited the Mexican sea-side resort of San Patricio (Melaque), Jalisco. I arrived with my family and small trailer to join an amiable colony of recreation vehicle campers at the free beach located at the far north end. My impression of Melaque could be summarized in one word… mellow. Graphic rocky hills […]
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Acapulco is world-renowned for its lovely beaches and year-round sunshine. It is the most popular tourist resort on the west coast of Mexico. For sure, more celebrities visit this charming city than any other in Mexico. Its reputation is well deserved. But today, a first-time visitor to this Mexican “Jewel” might well pose the question, […]
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Despite advice to the contrary from 99% of the people we asked, we took the Baja Highway south early in 2006. I pulled into Mr. Kelly’s trailer park in Oceanside on February 2 and said, “Mr. Kelly, I’ve got an idea.” Kelly, my first college roommate, said, “I love it when you have an idea!” […]
Continue ReadingWhen tourists visit tropical Mexico, they are sometimes invited to visit a coffee plantation. My invitation came when I was camping with my family near Aticama, a small village on the Nayarit coast, 10 miles south of the pleasant sea-side resort of San Blas and approximately 100 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. Beyond the village […]
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Being a typical Northern California paraholic, the winter season just drives me crazy! Sure there’s a little bit of flying here and there but there are very few thermals to hook on to and more often than not the flight is a short sled ride…Not that I mind. “A sled ride is better than no […]
Continue ReadingFebruary 1997 Oaxaca is called “Tierra del Sol,” and it a landscape blessed with a spring-like climate and plenty of sunshine. The city of Oaxaca is located in a picturesque valley with an altitude of 1,546 meters. Two chains of the Sierra Madre Occidental converge in the center of the state of Oaxaca, creating a […]
Continue ReadingThe Sierra Madre! The very name conjures up images of movie sets, mine shafts and majestic, rugged mountains, perhaps with cowboys riding through. Nowhere in Mexico is it quite so easy to experience and savor the reality behind these derived images as on the drive from Mazatlan to Durango along Highway 40. Just 24 kilometers […]
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In December 2000, I watched the sleepy fishing village of Puerto Escondido wake up from its summer slumber. When I arrived during the first week of the month, this beach town south of Oaxaca city hadn’t even begun to yawn and stretch from its months’ long, low-season nap. You could shoot a cannon down the […]
Continue ReadingThere is absolutely no place in this world or any other quite like Mexico City. I don’t quite understand why so many people avoid it. One of these days, whenever I can get together enough money or land that job I’m looking at, I expect to live there. Again. My first recollections of Mexico City […]
Continue ReadingThe following extract is taken (with the author’s permission) from the English edition of Western Mexico: A Traveller’s Treasury by Tony Burton (3rd edition, Perception Press, 2001), available from Sombrero Bookss The least touristy town along the northern lakeshore, Jocotepec has a distinctive charm all of its own. The large central plaza which lies in the shadow of […]
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