The Mexican state of Oaxaca is renowned for its handicrafts. From black pottery and handloomed Zapotec rugs to silverwork and alebrijes, the collector will find a wealth of beautiful handcrafted work. For some time, the Aguilar sisters of Ocotlan have created colorful terracotta sculptures, including figurines of women in traditional Oaxaca costume. Friduskas are newcomers […]
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I once lived next to an elderly woman in Mexico City whose home was a veritable museum of unique and occasionally bizarre collectibles. Her living room was given over to the collection and there was barely space enough to sit. Among the many items the woman possessed were several 19th century, German-made porcelain dolls — […]
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Inside Mexico On February 20th, 1943, after a couple of weeks of ominous earth tremors and strange underground sounds, the Paricutín volcano in Michoacán, erupted among prayers and rogations, fire displays and intense noise. The church bells of San Juan Parangaricutiro, five kilometers down the narrow valley, rang by themselves, dancing with the moving ground. […]
Continue Readingoriginally – galleries/247 – with no article Paricutin is a famous volcano that popped up in a farmer’s field in 1943 and continued to grow until 1952 to form a large cinder cone. Collateral flowing lava covered the valley and inundated adjacent villages of San Salvador and San Juan. The flow was slow enough so no […]
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It all began with a casual comment by my friend Rodrigo Orozco — also known as Tarantula Man, thanks to the anti-poaching project he leads in western Mexico — when I told him about a hike I was organizing for the following Saturday. “Sorry, John,” replied Orozco, “I’m going to be tied up for the next 44 […]
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Certainly Sr., fortunately here in Michoacán, we still have handcrafts, our heart and these hands. And with these we can do a little bit of everything…” – Source: “El quehacer de un pueblo” (“The tasks of a town”), Casa de las Artesanías de Michoacán (The Michoacan House of Handcrafts). This article is a guide to the highways and […]
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Part of the wonder and adventure of experiencing life in Ajijic, Mexico is the incredible diversity of color in the natural world — pungent reds, a range of blues, pale purples, brilliant yellows — and of form: broad leaves, lace-like foliage, sharp narrow leaves of bamboo, and fields of cultivated raspberries, set between surrounding mountains […]
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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 […]
Continue ReadingThe 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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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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