Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city happens to be situated right next to a beautiful pine and oak forest covering more than 36,000 hectares (139 square miles). For as long as anyone can remember, el Bosque de la Primavera has been referred to as “Guadalajara’s lungs” and in 1980, when big-time development plans threatened the woods, the […]
Continue Reading
On Wednesday, March 6, 2013, the first book ever on the geology of the Primavera Forest was launched at ITESO University in Guadalajara. La Apasionante Geología del Área de Protección de Flora y Fauna La Primavera was written by U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer and geologist Barbara Dye during her two years of service at the woodland sanctuary. Although written […]
Continue Reading
Run, don’t walk to the next Michoacan Traditional Food Festival (Cocineras Tradicionales) at the Convention Center in Morelia. The entrance is a stairway to heaven and you are about to eat food fit for gods and goddesses. The name “Traditional” only partially describes the Festival because it is traditional woman, in traditional clothing, cooking traditional […]
Continue Reading
Beautiful beaches abound all along Mexico’s Nayarit Riviera. Here are two more gorgeous hidden gems and a historic beach town. Playa Los Tortugas is an exquisite five-mile stretch of beach on the coast of Nayarit in the still unspoiled area of Boca de Chila. This portion of the coast is often referred to as Costa […]
Continue Reading
GastroNomad in Mexico Published or Updated 2009 by Daniel Wheeler © 2009
Continue Reading
Never have I known a name to so perfectly capture the essence of a person as in the case of artisan and philosopher Kupíha’ute-Itzpapalotl. Both parts of his name mean obsidian butterfly — Kupíha’ute in the Huichol language and Itzpapalotl in the Aztec or Mexica language. “The butterfly, or kupí, is the movement, the transformation, the continuous […]
Continue Reading
Some years ago an Australian TV commercial extolled the virtues of a non-alcoholic substitute called “Claytons.” A famous actor refused his last strong one at the bar, telling the barman: “Make mine a Claytons,” over which the voice over intoned: “The drink you have when you’re not having a drink.” Since then, the word has […]
Continue Reading
The Quetzal Dance is one of the most colorful folkloric dances anywhere in the country. It is also thought to be one of the most ancient. Both the dance and the spectacular headdresses worn by those taking part are thought to pre-date the Conquest, perhaps by hundreds of years. The headdresses represent the extravagant colors […]
Continue ReadingThe Through Line: A Journey from Darkness into Life By Jay Koppelman. CreateSpace, 2010 Available from Amazon Books: Paperback Popular Ajijic photographer Jay Koppelman has two things to celebrate this winter: one, the recent opening of Studio 18, on Colón 18 in Ajijic, which features exclusively his photographs; and two, the recent publication of the first […]
Continue Reading
The masses of beautiful violet and yellow flowers of the water hyacinth ( Eichhornia crassipes) add an attractive splash of colour in the Lake Chapala landscape during the rainy season but the lirio as the locals call it, is a serious problem for many of their economic activities. The hyacinth was first described in 1824, in Brazil. In […]
Continue Reading