Gallery: Tapalpa: Land of colors Tapalpa is an alpine town south of Guadalajara. Surrounded by forests, lakes and streams, Tapalpa beckons visitors to its restful landscape. One winter weekend, as my van snakes up the Sierras, I stare at the valley falling away… fast. At 2200 meters above sea level, it is no wonder that […]
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Photo Gallery Cradle of the mariachi, tequila, and the Jarabe Tapatío, or Mexican hat dance, for many, the state of Jalisco is the essence of Mexico. Colonial cities with architectural jewels, Pueblos Mágicos, quiet alpine towns, sophisticated urban centers, and the pre-Hispanic site of Guachimontones with its circular pyramids vie with tropical beaches along Jalisco’s […]
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If you’re getting married, turning 50, or planning that anniversary bash… consider Oaxaca They say that Mexicans really know how to party. Here in Oaxaca we do it in spades, because it’s part of a longstanding cultural tradition. Also because it’s affordable, certainly relative to what it would cost in the U.S. or Canada. What […]
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If visitors to Oaxacan cooking school La Casa de los Sabores came away with nothing more than great recipes and a wonderful meal, they would leave fully satisfied. Oaxaca’s unique gastronomy is rich in unique herb- and spice-accented flavor combinations that are its hallmark. But a visit with owner and chef extraordinaire Pilar Cabrera also […]
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Gallery Forget the crystal clear blue skies that stretch beyond infinity, or the magnificent Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range that embraces the Oaxaca Valley like a mother’s arms. Never mind the proud saguaro cactus, erect like obedient soldiers guarding a cantankerous landscape dotted with lush agave, grazing sheep, a lone herder riding the hindquarters […]
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In Spanish, Puerto Escondido means ‘hidden port’, and the little beach town tucked away in the southern part of Oaxaca certainly lives up to that name. Part of its elusiveness is because there are no direct jets from Miami, New York, Denver or L.A. This discourages some travelers and tones down the ritz and glitz […]
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Gallery: In memory of Don Pedro: Alebrije art from a master artist A constant fluttering, deafening whirlpool of claws, fangs, fins, tongues and horns bewilder the senses in a frenzied shuttlecock of figures. This is the Mexican art of crafting alebrijes, monsters lovingly formed out of ordinary cardboard. Their grotesque faces and body-parts are delicately sculpted and […]
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Whether you live in Oaxaca or vacation here on a regular basis, if you’ve begun to integrate into the community, eventually you’ll be asked to be a padrino or madrina (godparent) to an ahijado or ahijada (godchild), so you’d better familiarize yourself with “compadrazgo,” or co-godparenthood. In a nutshell, it’s a web of mutual rights and obligations of monumental importance throughout Mexico and […]
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My favorite travel writer, Jan Morris, who has probably written about more cities than anyone else on the planet says about Oaxaca: “It is unmistakably Mexico, but Mexico idealized perhaps, a Mexico almost without tears. For travellers of my own sensibility, often tempted to stay at home rather than face the hassle of this endemically […]
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Gallery: Bahias de Huatulco on Mexico’s Oaxaca coast Bahias de Huatulco (pronounced Wa-tool-co) located on the coast of Oaxaca, ( map) about six hours from Oaxaca City by car, and approximately three hundred miles south of Acapulco, is the latest development of Fonatur, Mexico’s tourist promotion board. Rumor has it that back in the early eighties, […]
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