Some time around the turn of the eleventh century indigenous tribes from the Valley of Anahuac trekked north and settled in the land that Franciscans, half a millennium later baptized, “Tlanepantla”. Today Tlanepantla thrives among Mexico’s largest populations, with nearly twelve million (12,000,000) inhabitants. Below the gray stones of Chiquihuite Hill, smelting, metalworking, machine-building, and […]
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Checklists referred to from Camping in Mexico a warm sleeping bag a quality foam or air mattress (insulation from cold ground) a quality tent with a rain fly and breathable roof a drop cloth (to protect the tent floor from ground moisture and punctures) sturdy tent stakes (save the aluminum stakes that came with your tent […]
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Ismael put his hands on the top of his broom stick and hung his arms there a moment and warned me about local mechanics: “Aquí ¡El qué tiene un alambre y unas pinzas es un mecánico!” (“Here, he who has a piece of wire and a pair of pliers is a mechanic!”). Ismael is right. Auto travel […]
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Driving across the state of Durango, flowers paint each region’s landscapes with local colors. Wildflower lovers enjoy Durangan flowers nearly all year long because a few hardy species tough out the region’s mild winters. Even so, mid- to late-summer and early-fall stage Durango’s most spectacular wildflower show, with composites lining roadsides, converting them into flowing […]
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Colonial Durango — Victoria de Durango, Durango — staged many of Mexico’s most important historical events. Historic figures, including Guadalupe Victoria, Francisco Gómez Palacio, José María Patoni, José Ceballos, Domingo Arrieta León, Francisco “Pancho” Villa, and Francisco Castillo Nájera carried out their duties within and among the city’s colonial buildings. Many of the city’s important […]
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In a single second, excitement, awe, terror, and fascination passed through my mind, as I began the walk across Mapimi Municipality’s Ojuela Bridge, in the Chihuahuan Desert, of eastern Durango, Mexico. The adventure began years before the sole of my shoe touched the first plank of the more than 300-meter- (990-yard-) long bridge. As exciting […]
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As the world’s environment deteriorates, some of Mexico’s streets and plazas are stepping back toward better ecosystems by going native. Curiously, most ornamental plant species in many Mexican cities are not at all Mexican, but rather, introduced, or exotic, species. However, that’s changing as some Mexican city planners are going native and helping their cities […]
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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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We sit in darkness, on an earthen floor. Hot vapor condenses and drips down my skin as I hug my knees against my chest and breathe lightly to cool the scalding vapor before it reaches my lungs. The beat of a drum, leather stretched over a wooden frame, penetrates my chest, and we begin to […]
Continue Reading Much of what makes camping in Mexico intriguing and even mysterious also makes it challenging: It’s easy to disappear from the mapped highways and become emerged in the Chihuahuan Desert or the Sierra Madre Occidental, but a smooth and safe trip can be anywhere from difficult to impossible without careful planning and preparation. Even so, […]
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