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Riding off the Edge of the Map Reviewed by James Tipton

Riding off the Edge of the Map by David Bryen

Do you remember that best seller several decades ago, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, in which author Robert Pirsig details (but gets lost in digressions) a motorcycle trip from Wisconsin to California?

David Bryen's new book, Riding off the Edge of the Map, is a much better book, detailing (and reflecting upon) a far more fascinating motorcycle trip — through Mexico's Copper Canyon.

What began as a pleasure trip metamorphosed into something else: "The highway had deteriorated from asphalt to terror..."

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book-reviews exploring-tourism Copper Canyon

Western Mexico: A Traveler's Treasury, 4th edition James Tipton

Western Mexico, A Traveler's Treasury by Tony Burton
As Tony notes in his Introduction, this is "not intended to b a comprehensive guide to all the possible day trips and longer tours in the region…. Rather, it is a personal, idiosyncratic collection of my favorite places in Western Mexico…." The book is filled with whatever Tony finds fascinating… interesting and curious details of history and geography and geology and flora and fauna, and art and architecture and archaeology.... read more
history maya travelogue Chiapas

Mexico City metro adventure: 148 stops Marvin West

As I have said before, Mexico City, to these old eyes, is too big, too hectic, too crowded, too liberal, too much of several things. Mexico City is very exciting, prosperous, problematic, fashionable,... read more
transportation Mexico City, México D.F.

Lancandon Journal - 1969 Reviewed by James Tipton

In July of 1969, Bulgarian born artist-adventurer Dimitar Krustev, almost 50 years old, and his inexperienced young companion named Gary set off, in their folding kayak, to explore, traveling on its waters, the jungles of southern Chiapas, the still largely unknown land of the Lancandon Maya.

In 1969, this culture was already in decline, undermined by the relentless forces of what some still call progress.

Jungle adventures are always challenging. This trip was a very difficult one for Gary, his young companion, and although difficult as well for Krustev, the artist was generally of a calm and philosophically disposed spirit... read more
book-reviews exploring-tourism indigenous-groups Chiapas

Busing it in Mexico: What's not to love? Christina Stobbs

I adore travelling Mexico by bus. Mexico's bus system offers travelers an economical, efficient and effective means to explore the entire country. The routes are highly organized and the connections a... read more
exploring-tourism transportation

Mexico exploration: Jocotepec discovered Marvin West

This news bulletin just in: Mexico considers revising history books. Another holiday proposed. Famous explorer discovers Jocotepec! Okay, maybe not in the way Christopher Columbus did his thing. It ap... read more
exploring-tourism Jocotepec, Jalisco

The Mango Orchard: The Extraordinary True Story of Family Lost and Found Reviewed by James Tipton

All of his life, Bayley had listened to the stories told to him by his beloved grandmother, stories that usually were about her father, Bayley's great-grandfather Arturo (Arthur Greenhalgh, born 1874 in Tottington, England) who managed a cotton mill in western Mexico in those challenging years immediately preceding the Mexican Revolution.

Worried about life passing him by, in 1898 Arturo "kissed his sweetheart Mariah goodbye and set off on his Mexican adventures."

Bayley, over one-hundred years later, "was plagued by the same fear about life passing me by." read more
book-reviews exploring-tourism history

Mexico lives! Cheers for Mexico Marvin West

Our Lady of Sorrows church in Dolores Hidalgo
Come see and taste and smell. Have fun. Soak up some sunshine. Learn something. Visit a historic hacienda or maybe Pueblos Mágicos — or even a wind farm. Enjoy fresh fruit, veggies, flowers and tacos. Sing along with the mariachis in the big city, tour museums and cathedrals, pose beside monuments, dine at famous restaurants, relax and watch the plaza multitude. read more
exploring-tourism politics

San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato & The Bajío Reviewed by James Tipton

I like the Moon Handbooks and I own several of them — well used, I might add. They are sturdy, easy to read, compact and therefore easily packable whether in luggage or purse or large pocket. This latest, a first edition, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato & The Bajío, covers one of Mexico's most popular tourist destinations.

A resident of San Miguel de Allende for several years, the author, Julie Doherty, writes both with affection and enthusiasm about the Bajío — a vast central plain that includes the states of Guanajuato and Querétaro.

She concentrates on two lovely towns, San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, but she also offers us a glimpse of Querétaro City, Tequisquiapan, San Sebastian Bernal, Dolores Hildalgo, Mineral de Pozos, and the large manufacturing city of León. read more
book-reviews San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato

Tehuantepec: Hold on to your sombrero Gerry Soroka

Wind farms in Tehuantepec, Mexico
The tehuano endlessly blows where North America stops. The tehuano, the unforgiving forever wind of the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, ceaselessly scours a path through the wide gap where the continent of North America ends and Central America starts. This narrow neck of land joining the Atlantic to the Pacific — once a candidate along with Panama for a deep sea canal — is about 35 miles from north to south. read more
geography Oaxaca
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