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

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

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

The third-largest deposits of obsidian in the world are found west of the city of Guadalajara and are superseded only by the deposits of Africa's Rift Valley and the Oregon Plateau.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

Climbers from the US and Canada looking for a new experience, and more altitude than they can find in the lower 48 states, can fly to Mexico City, and set a personal altitude record on the Mexican Volcanoes. This is a good warm-up trip for an attempt on a 20,000 ft peak in Alaska or South America. As a climber and a long-time fan of Mexico, here is my advice on climbing the Mexican volcanoes. read more

The first detailed scientific account of Lake Chapala was written by Henri Guillaume Galeotti. It was based on a visit to Chapala in February-March 1837. The article was published first in French in 18... read more

The world’s largest natural crystals (of selenite, said to enhance sex drive) have been discovered in caverns in Chihuahua. Early in 2001, news emerged of a truly extraordinary discovery in caver... read more

Literary-minded travel writers describing Puerto Vallarta as an "island of tourist delights" probably don't realize that their words are closer to the truth than they might imagine. At present, Puerto ... read more

Thousands of dinosaur bones have been found in northern Mexico. Bones literally litter the ground. Here's a femur; there's a tibia; vertebrae, ribs, skulls... Dozens of dinosaurs, including the world... read more

Several small towns in northern Mexico offer a welcome respite and interesting overnight stop for tourists bored by the long and monotonous stretches of desert driving on their way south. One such dest... read more

What the Spanish Conquistadors thought was gold was often only an alloy called tumbaga. As they explored the New World, the early conquistadors were spurred on by the possibility of finding treasure a... read more

The Cuexcomate volcano, in a suburb of the city of Puebla, is generally considered to be the world's smallest volcano.   The world's smallest volcano Weighing in at an estimated 40 metric tons, i... read more

When Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés was asked to describe Mexico in the early 1500s, he is said to have crumpled up a piece of paper and set it on a table, demonstrating Mexico's mountainous land... read more

Every two years, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) awards the Equator prize (worth 30,000 dollars) to communities that have shown "outstanding achievement in the reduction of poverty thro... read more

Scientists first explored El Pico de Orizaba, Mexico's highest peak, as long ago as 1838. El Pico de Orizaba, or Citlaltépetl (= star), is Mexico's highest peak, with a summit 5,746 meters (18,853 fe... read more