Dia de las Madres: Mother's Day in Mexico
In May of 1992, we were still in process of finishing up the remodel of our trailer/ cabaña, to turn it into a real house. Over the previous six months the trailer had been dismantled, two bedro...
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Mexico: a visit to Patzcuaro, Tzintzuntzan, Tequila and Mazatlan
Two of my life-long friends from California have been visiting with me the past two weeks. This is Marcy's third visit. It's Nancy's first. I'm always nervous about first-time visitors. Will they see M...
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Trailer tales from La Bufadora, Baja California
Anyone you talk to in Baja with a roof over their head has a story or two to go with the roof. Jack Smith of Los Angeles Times, joyfully chronicled his home building adventures in his book, God and Mr....
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Guided tour at the La Paz Museum
During our Mexican travels, it was often said to us by veteran travelers to Mexico that one travels to the Baja for the "beaches" and that one goes to mainland Mexico for the "culture". That may be jus...
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Surviving a highway accident in Mexico
This was intended to be a straightforward article on driving to Nogales from Guadalajara and back, with information on tolls, distances, hotels, restaurants, etc. However, a young Chicano in a brand new truck changed all that on our return journey. Hence, the use of the word "accident" in the title of this piece. Our little escapade has been a salutory learning experience and perhaps I can pass on a few things we learned to people who might face similar difficulties some day.
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Twilight on the Line: Underworlds and Politics at the U.S. - Mexico Border by Sebastian Rotella Norton
The action never stops at the border. There is no other place like it on the globe. The international boundary stretches for almost two thousand miles, from the Pacific Ocean through the mountains, the deserts, the valleys of the Rio Grande to the Gulf of Mexico. The region is a vast world unto itself. And the westernmost, fourteen-mile strip between San Diego and Tijuana, the border's biggest and richest cities, is the most intense microcosm of that world. The U.S. Border Patrol records half a million yearly arrests of illegal immigrants here, accounting for almost half of all its arrests.
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Mexico beach Christmas
The trailer was packed, the three kids and the dog were loaded into the van as final preparations were made for the "journey to the end of the earth". For us, Baja truly seemed land's end. Nobody we kn...
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La Paz, Baja California Sur
For a city named Peace, it has a rather grim history. A Spanish expedition sailed into the bay in 1533; the leader and several of his soldiers were killed by the indigenous residents soon after, by som...
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Oases on the Sea of Cortez
The rugged Baja California peninsula and the Sea of Cortez, or Gulf of California, have been bewitching hardy visitors for decades. Some of the early fans were John Steinbeck and Earl Stanley Gardner, ...
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Johnny's Beach on Baja's Golfo de Santa Clara
The ubiquitous land crab — about the size of the palm of a hand
© Barbara Sands, 2010
"If you've ever traveled the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez, just south of the town of El Golfo de Santa...
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Mexico Highway Maps, Driving from Nogales to Uruapan
Hi, my family and I are traveling to Mexico in a few weeks. We are entering through Nogales and traveling to Uruapan, Michoacan.
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The adventures of Shadow: My dog, Sombra
When we first met, the attraction was instant and mutual. Her chocolate brown eyes melted into my gringa blues and we knew we were destined to be the best of friends. I smiled at her shyly and s...
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