RON MADER'S UNUSUAL MEXICO LINKS
(Mexico on the Web)

His Bio
His Home Page

Journalist and savvy webmaster Ron Mader sifts through the web to find the most interesting and unusual Mexico-related websites. Ron is the webhost of the popular Planeta.com: Eco Travels in Latin America website -- http://www.planeta.com -- and has written about the internet since the early 1990s.

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BEST ON THE WEB
YEAR 2000

Each year, "Mexico on the Web" pays tribute to the best Mexico-related websites, and 2000 has been particularly generous to Internet-savvy Mexicophiles. Hand-crafted sites such as The People's Guide to Mexico and the The Pacific Coast of Mexico took on new lives. Spanish-language sites became de moda. Billboards and TV commercials hawked new portals, from SportsYa! (www.sportsya.com) to Yupi, (www.yupi.com). Simply put, if you wanted to learn about what's happening in Mexico, you were quick to turn to the Net. Here's a selection of the best of Y2K's "Mexico on the Web."

Fonart -- National Fund for the Development of Arts and Crafts

www.fonart.gob.mx/
/5 Stars

Looking for a souvenir or holiday gift? Visit the government-sponsored Fonart stores for crafts ranging from textiles to children's toys. Where to go? You'll find the addresses of stores in Mexico City, Ciudad Juárez, Oaxaca, and San Luis Potosí with the click of a button (www.fonart.gob.mx/html2/fonart/stock.htm). This is one of the better government sites. It provides the basic information about Fonart's crafts contests and marketing in both Spanish and English. What would make this better? Online shopping! I also wish the Webmaster could include a calendar of in-store promotions. Maybe next year!
Email contact: fonart@data.net.mx

The People's Guide to Mexico

www.peoplesguide.com
/5 Stars

For more than a quarter century, this unusual guidebook - it doesn't list a single hotel or restaurant - has been a perennial best-seller. Now authors Carl Franz and Lorena Havens have developed their own website with detailed information about living, retiring, and just plain travelling in Mexico.

Trivia fans, take note: The People's Guide is the source of the memorable Buckaroo Bonzai line, "Wherever you go, there you are." If you are planning a trip in Mexico, check out the extensive Copper Canyon overview (www.peoplesguide.com/1pages/cc/cctrek/1cctrek-index.html) as well as Carl's Notebooks (www.peoplesguide.com/1pages/chapts/notebks/0-notebkindex.html). The site is frequently updated, so it's worth many repeat visits.
Email contact: mexico@peoplesguide.com

Mexico Daily

www.mexicodaily.com/
/5 Stars

Read all about it! Mexico Daily is part of the larger World Newspapers (www.wn.com) and is an impressive portal for Mexico-related news from leading English-language newspapers around the world. Unfortunately, the news is automatically filtered by keyword. The search engines evidently look for any news story with "Mexico" in its title, leading to gaffes such as "New Mexico" sports features and business news. On the bright side, the site does provide handy links to Mexican daily newspapers and related sites. So despite its glitches, Mexico Daily is worth a bookmark, and with luck, the site will either develop its own original material or at least hire an editor who can sort the stories.
Email contact: staff@wn.com

Juan Ciudanano.com

www.juanciudadano.com/
/5 Stars

Meet the "Joe Citizen" of Mexico's Internet. Hosted by Grupo Reforma, publishers of Mexico City's Reforma newspaper (www.reforma.com), this Spanish-language site campaigns for the public's right to know. Polls gauge readers' opinions and special features include explanations on the legal impediments to public information access and other tools for those interested in specialized topics. It will be interesting to see how or if the site can pressure politicians to be more open about their sources of funding.
Email contact: juanciudadano@juanciudadano.com

Honorable Mentions:

El C@dillo

www.elcadillo.com.mx/portal/portal.html
- Spanish-language satire of Mexican politics.

The Center of Guadalupan Studies

spin.com.mx./~msalazar/
- Virtual home for Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Pacific Coast of Mexico

www.tomzap.com/
- Independent overview of regional tourism.

Yahoo Mexico

mx.yahoo.com/
- Spanish-language cousin of the famous Gringo portal.

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