Easy living in Mazatlan, the Pearl of the Pacific
Mazatlán, (pronounced “maz-it-LAWN”, with the stress on the last syllable), means “place of the deer” in the Nahuatl (Aztec) language,. It is a city of around half a million people, located on a long, flat stretch of the Pacific coast of Mexico, just to the south of the Tropic of Cancer and due east of the tip of the Baja peninsula. It is here that the cool waters of the deep Pacific meet those of the warm, shallow Gulf of California. You might think of Mazatlán as having one foot in the tropics and the other in the dryer, dessert climate to the north.
read moreFrom Baja to the Mexican mainland by ferry
Last night I met Karen Greenbury in person. I first met her on the Internet after she quit her secretarial job in Alberta, Canada and was preparing to take a one-year sabbatical in Mexico. Karen is for...
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Outside Mazatlán: Mexico's real Sierra Madre
The Sierra Madre! The very name conjures up images of movie sets, mine shafts and majestic, rugged mountains, perhaps with cowboys riding through. Nowhere in Mexico is it quite so easy to experience an...
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Mexico's Copper Canyon
For an unusual winter break, how about a Mexican train ride? The Reader's Digest called Mexico's famous Copper Canyon railroad trip, "the most dramatic train ride in the western hemisphere". Even that ...
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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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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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