Isla Isabel is located 34 kilometers (21 miles) off Mexico's west coast. It is a National Park and wildlife refuge with a population of some 42,000 birds and, in 2003, was named a World Heritage Site. ... read more

In 1916, the Amparo Mining Company had the most successful silver mines in Jalisco and was making money hand over fist. Although it was located pretty much in the middle of nowhere, 65 kilometers due w... read more

It all began with a casual comment by my friend Rodrigo Orozco — also known as Tarantula Man, thanks to the anti-poaching project he leads in western Mexico — when I told him about a hike I was org... read more

Halfway between Guadalajara and Lake Chapala in Western Mexico, lies little Lake Cajititlan. Although the lake produces great quantities of fish, you'll have a hard time finding a seafood restaurant al... read more

Beneath the high walls of an ancient crater, you glide across the placid lake in a rowboat, mesmerized. "This is surely the most peaceful place in all Mexico and definitely one of the most beautiful," ... read more

In 1870, the richest man in Guadalajara was, without a doubt, Don Manuel Escandón, owner of La Escoba Yarn and Fabric Company. In this year, however, a terrible setback had befallen him. The brand new and expensive equipment he had recently imported all the way from Germany was now sitting idle. read more

"In the paintings of Jorge Monroy we see the hand of a master, the expression of an artist, a cultivated talent forged by the hammers of study, constancy, dedication and creative energy." Godofredo Oli... read more

Tala is a small town located 30 kilometers due west of Guadalajara and best known for its large, government-operated sugar refinery, infamous for being the major polluter of Lake La Vega. Two thousand... read more

Rodrigo Orozco shares his Guadalajara, Mexico, home with thousands of tarantulas and tens of thousands of crickets. He's a man with a mission. "I want to end the illegal trade in Mexican tarantulas," h... read more

Before the revolution, haciendas dotted the countryside of Mexico. With their classic architecture and splendid great houses, each Mexico hacienda is surrounded in an aura of romance. Located 40 kilom... read more

Three thousand years ago engineers in Persia devised an ingenious solution to one of mankind's most serious problems in areas without rivers and lakes: how to get water from point A, where it abounds, ... read more

For a while I've been asking myself how it's possible that I keep finding new natural wonders to write about after 25 years of living near Guadalajara. So, one day I sat down with a map and drew a circ... read more

Soaking wet and covered with mud, we followed the narrow underground stream deeper and deeper into the cave until we found ourselves standing about three meters above a pool of undetermined depth. The ... read more

All the world has been told that tequila, the drink was born in Tequila — the town located 45 kilometers northwest of Guadalajara — but is this really a fact? Curiously, the famed Tequila Express t... read more

Did you ever wonder why rain usually falls in the late afternoon or night during the summer in western Mexico? Can you figure out why the death rate for Mexicans is four times higher than for US-born workers in the southeastern USA? Do you know why "harmless" organic fertilizers washed into a lake can eventually kill every living thing in it? If you find these questions intriguing, you're going to want to own a copy of Geo-Mexico by Richard Rhoda and Tony Burton. read more

The third-largest deposits of obsidian in the world are found west of the city of Guadalajara and are superseded only by the deposits of Africa's Rift Valley and the Oregon Plateau. Obsidian forms when... read more

An old railway station at the western end of the train tracks in Jalisco, Mexico, bears witness to unspeakable cruelties perpetrated upon thousands of Yaqui Indians in the early 1900s.Yaquis were sold as slaves at the station "for 25 centavos a head." read more

During twenty-four years of reconnoitering the highways and byways of western Mexico, I have never come across a road as rewarding as the 53-kilometer stretch from Tala to San Marcos in the state of Ja... read more

Just outside the unassuming little town of Teuchitlán, Jalisco, 40 kilometers due West of Guadalajara, lies one of the most impressive archeological sites in all of western Mexico. read more

The tecpan, or pre-Hispanic palace in Oconahua, Jalisco, dates from between 500 and 1100 A.D. The only tecpan bigger than this one may have been the Palace of Moctezuma, but this can't be verified because it's buried underneath the Zócalo in Mexico City. That makes El Palacio de Ocomo the largest tecpan to be found anywhere. read more

Approximately twenty-five years ago I heard rumors of some curious geological formations hidden high in the hills above the town of Ahualulco de Mercado, which is located about 58 kilometers west of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city. "There are giant stone balls up there," I was told, "perfectly round and lying in a great bed of volcanic ash." When I asked how these megaspherulites (as scientists call them today) came into being, I was told that they had been shot into the air from inside Tequila Volcano. read more