This article is Part 3 of Tony Burton's series:
"Can Mexico's Largest Lake be Saved?" .
Part 1: May, 1997 - Can Mexico's Largest Lake be Saved?
Part 2: M...
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An earlier column described several Guinness records and their connection to Mexico and Mexicans. This month's column examines four more very different Guinness records which do not involve quite as mu...
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This article is Part 2 of Tony Burton's series:
"Can Mexico's Largest Lake be Saved?" .
Part 1: May, 1997 - Can Mexico's Largest Lake be Saved?
Part 3: M...
read more
Three sets of twins - two of them unusual tourist delights - await the intrepid traveller who explores the area around the industrial cities of Gómez Palacio and Torreón in northern Mexico.
The firs...
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"Ay Chihuahua!"
Have you ever heard this time-honored phrase of amazement uttered by some dumbstruck or exasperated Mexican? Whatever its origins, it is p...
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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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(Part 1: The America's Oldest Urban Center)
Having reached Monte Alban and entered the site, on your right as you stand at the corner of the main plaza is the North Platform, the site of th...
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The warm afternoon breeze wafts a gentle mist of dust across the floor of the Oaxaca valley and into Oaxaca city, softening the colonial patina of the richly carved, 300-year-old cathedral. The dust is...
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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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At the start of the Mexican Revolution (1910) painting in Mexico had reached an all-time low. The then President, Porfirio Diaz had been in power for more than 30 years and in the words of famous Ameri...
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This article describes "a delightful little spa town too few foreign travelers have discovered", to quote the 1979 edition of Fodor's Guide to Mexico. Astonishingly, this description is as appropriate today as it was then.
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Very few visitors to Guadalajara and, indeed, only a minority of Tapatios (Guadalajara residents), realize that several ancient pyramids, built more than a thousand years ago, still stand in silent pri...
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The lovers of the curious will find plenty to whet their appetite (and satisfy their thirst) in the small western Mexico town of Tequila.
The town lies in the shadow of an imposing 9000 foot volca...
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The earliest human inhabitants of the Lake Chapala area were probably nomadic tribes of Indians who had settled on the shores and islands of the lake, catching fish, extracting salt, and trying to herd...
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In Guadalajara with a short time to spare after a business meeting or a long wait between flight? Even an hour or two will suffice to see something of the artistic heritage that Mexico's second city, G...
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One of the prettiest towns in the state of Jalisco is Mazamitla, set high in the pineclad mountains near the Michoacan border. Among its many attractions are some fine restaurants specialising in Mexic...
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Both the name and the coat-of-arms of San Luis Potosi recall the tremendous importance of mining to Mexico's economy. Called Potosí in emulation of the mines of that name high in the Bolivian Andes, t...
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Early in 1980, exploring various off the beaten track areas of Mexico looking for potential geography fieldwork sites, one fateful Saturday morning found me standing in the main plaza of the small Mich...
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Brown, arid hillsides barely visible in a distant haze. Isolated green cacti with contorted, knotted arms, coarse, spiny fingers and bright red, seemingly nailpolished fruits set against an endless tan...
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The San Marcos Fair, held from the second week in April to the first week of May each year, attracts thousands of visitors from all over Mexico and the United States. It dates back to 1604 when a small indigenous Indian settlement, San Marcos, was founded within walking distance of the growing Spanish city of Aguascalientes. The fair's religious origins, long forgotten, have given way to a lively, colorful three week spectacular, in which bullfights, folkloric dancing, mechanical games, cockfights, cultural events and merrymaking all compete for visitor's attentions.
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Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest natural lake, is dying. The lake right now plays a vital role in a gigantic ecosystem, the River Lerma-Lake Chapala drainage basin, which includes more than 8 million peo...
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One of the pleasures of even a brief visit to Monterrey is the chance to explore its art museums and galleries. There are three important art museums in the city. The Museo de Monterrey (at Ave. Alfons...
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