For snowbirds in Mexico and other highwaymen
To you motorized snowbirds of the United States and Canada, come on down. Mexico awaits. Tourists are really important to the economy.
Mexico hasn't changed much while you were away. Flowers are bloom...
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Mexico sights and sounds
Because most of our neighbors don't speak English and because our Spanish is at least awful, some strange things happen in our Mexican community. The other evening a woman stopped at our front gate. A ...
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A slight exaggeration...
Back in the previous century, at about the time Albert Gore was inventing the internet, clean air, space stations and probably diet Coke, we got hooked on Lake Chapala.
This was an era when Gordon Wea...
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Learning to shop in the village
John's point wasn't, I sensed, simply a lesson in village economics.
When we moved to Mexico in 1976, I didn't regret leaving behind the Alpha Beta Supermarket, the 7-11 quick-stop, or Newport Mall. I...
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Massage Exchange With A Traditional Maya Massage Therapist
Night fell and it got dark with tropical quickness just as I was dropped off in a real VW bug at the bone-setter/massage man's home. On my way inside I almost stepped on a tarantula that seemed as big ...
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White pelicans on Lake Chapala
White Pelicans on Lake Chapala;
photo: John Mitchell, Earth Images Foundation
Granddaughter Kim couldn't resist. Our slender, pert redhead scampered along the flatland toward the water. Thousands o...
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Sweet secrets of Sayula
In the early years of the 21st century, the beautiful Mexican town of Sayula had a wildly fluctuating gringo population. Half of it was lost in one day -- when Paul and Debbie Katz moved to Chapal...
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Good man comes home to Mazamitla
Point your car (or take the bus) along the south side of Lake Chapala, past San Pedro Tesistan and San Cristobal Zapotitlan and San Luis Soyatlan and San Nicolas and Tepeguaje to Tuxcueca. Make a right...
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Barra de Navidad: the sand spit is slipping
It is my sad duty to inform you that the times they are a changing, at Barra de Navidad.
Our favorite spit of Pacific sand, sticking out just a little bit from Highway 200 along the west bank, is not ...
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Keep it simple
Half a lifetime ago, the West family went south for a Christmas vacation in a quaint, little village on the Gulf coast of Florida. The pencil factory was long gone from Cedar Key. Tourist traffic roari...
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Insulted at Tom's Texas Bbq
Cantankerous restaurateur Tom Sandilands, 74, has completed a rare gastronomic circle. Years ago, he was in the barbecue business. He switched to pizza and became a far-out legend -- far out at the cit...
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Traveling to Tapalpa
After an all-Mexico breakfast of fresh-squeezed orange juice, honeydew, banana, raspberries and mango, we dusted off our faithful VW bug and pointed it toward Tapalpa.
(Tom McEwen of the Tampa Tribune...
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"Isabel's Enigma"
"Isabel's Enigma"
© 2003 T. Adams
I
n June I saw the first indications of rain. Clouds from the northeast began building in the late afterno...
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"The Passion Fruit Vine"
A
fter nine years in Jalisco, my infatuation with the Mexico that visitors experience had long since become the Mexico where I worked for a living-where I filed taxes, met deadlines and had the o...
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Gracias Y Adios
Dear Readers,
When "Tales From the Maracuyá" first appeared as a Mexico Connect column in July 2003, I hoped to chronicle an extraordinary year in Mexico with an extraordinary friend. My ...
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"On The Road To The Cofradia"
B
y the end of June, the villages around the Lake were cool and green and deserted, the time of year everyone waited for. Influenced by tourism, we knew that visitors would begin returning in Nov...
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"A Foreigners Tale"
"My father thought Mexico was the best place on earth," said Isabel as she heaved a huge pot for steaming
tamales onto the stove in her kitchen. "But he always felt like a Spaniard. Always like ...
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Single in Mexico and San Miguel de Allende revisited
I recently returned from a wonderful trip down memory lane. My 40th high school reunion near San Jose, California allowed me to reconnect with friends I hadn't seen in 40 years. The reunion was held wh...
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Leap of faith: an accidental tourist starts a Mexico business
It's been a long time since I wrote a story about a midlife maverick. I met another one recently and had lunch with her in order to hear her story. I enjoyed it and I hope you will, too
Connie Kimmitt...
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Querétaro, Thanksgiving and pickled beets
After Lyn and I left Oaxaca, we drove northeast to Puebla, skirted around Mexico City and spent two and a half days in Querétaro. It's been less than two months since we made the trip, but at my age, ...
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Oaxaca and the Pinotepa Nacional
I just returned yesterday from a two-week trip through central and southern Mexico. A girlfriend and I decided to drive, rather than fly and, although I prefer driving on the autopistas (toll road...
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This And That
Sometimes life in Mexico gets so surreal that you think you're living in a theme park. There's this guy who periodically comes around dressed up in an Aztec costume - feathers sprouting from a headdres...
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A Mexican Picnic
Mary had to fly back to the States for the weekend, so I was left on my own. I don’t know if Mary planned it, but Sergio, a Mexican friend that I had met through Mary called to ask if I’d like to g...
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The Death Of The White Bullet?
My car, a 92 Pontiac affectionately christened "The White Bullet" by Harry, may be dead.
Mary and I were thinking about moving to the town of Colima. Guadalajara was fun at first, but it is too exp...
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Another Adventure With Sam
A few days after my foray with Sam into the electronics world of Guadalajara, my car died. It appeared that a wheel bearing was going out and that had affected the brakes. Whatever had happened, I mana...
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