The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck
Back in 1940, just before Pearl Harbour, John Steinbeck and his marine biologist friend, Ed Rickets, chartered a fishing boat, the Western Flyer, in Monterey, California, and sailed down the coast around the Baja into the Sea of Cortez. Their six-week mission was to collect specimens of marine life in the area. They jointly wrote a book about the voyage, largely about marine biology, which was published in 1941. A decade later, Steinbeck himself wrote this more personal book. The result is a mixture of travel writing, journalism, diary-keeping, philosophy, meditation and, yes, there's a lot of stuff about the marine life of the area. After all, the author was something of an authority in that field.
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Peoples Guide To Mexico by Carl Franz
It never ceases to amaze me the number of American tourists who visit Mexico every year with only a thick paperback mystery novel packed away to indulge in while sunbathing on a beach. Rather than titi...
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Nothing to Declare by Mary Morris
Mary Morris is an intrepid and courageous lady. She was living in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, in the Mexican part of town, when she decided to take off on her exploration of Central America. The trip took her to countries such as Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador. Just about all of the transit was on local buses and very little of it seemed to be very tightly planned. Most of the time she seemed to be traveling the back roads.
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The Best of San Miguel de Allende 2005 by Joseph Harmes
Here's a guidebook with a very definite difference. It doesn't just set out in the usual way to give you a rundown on the community and make suggestions on what to do and where to go. Rather, Joseph Harmes, has put together a rather incredible list of 'bests' - some 126 pages of them in fact - to be found in San Miguel de Allende. These range, alphabetically, from Best Art Displays to where to find the Best Yogurt. In between you can mull over several hundred "bests", from Best Views to Best Dance Classes; from Best Tennis Courts to Best Places to Take Out-of-Towners; from Best Parks to Best Hidden Attractions; from Best Tortillas to Best Ways to Avoid Travellers Diarrhea… and so on.
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Mexico, a Higher Vision: Excerpts from the Prologue by Carlos Fuentes
To see Mexico from the air is to look upon the face of creation. Our everyday, earthbound vision takes flight and is transformed into a vision of the elements. This book is a portrait of water and fire, of wind and earthquake, of the moon and the sun. For it is we - you and I - who see and touch and smell and taste and feel today, even as we witness the perpetual rebirth of the land here and now. We are the witnesses to creation, because of the mountains that watch us and in spite of their warning: "we will endure, you will not."
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Dancing Alone in Mexico from the Border to Baja and Beyond by Ron Butler
Here's a book of travel essays from a man who obviously admires this country. He's covered Mexico from coast to coast and from north to south in a criss cross journey that's well described here. Thus we get informed accounts of places like Cuernavaca, Puerto Vallarta, Oaxaca, Mazatlan and so on, along with a lengthy look at Mexico City. But rather than simply giving us the usual guidebook account of a place, Butler finds all kinds of interesting facets and people, too, wherever he goes. Along the way you're also treated to history, politics and whatever attractions are available locally.
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Lake Chapala: a review of "The Lerma-Lake Chapala watershed: evaluation and management"
Edited by Anne M. Hansen and Manfred van Afferden
(New York: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, 2001)
This article is Part 5 of Tony Burton's series:
"Can Mexico's Largest...
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In a Village Far from Home
While living in Guadalajara, Ms. Finerty became acquainted with some Franciscan priests and also with some Huichol Indians who were associated with the Franciscans. Eventually she was invited to visit a Huichol village about a thirty minute flight from Tepic, high in the Sierras in Western Mexico. The only other way to reach this community — Jesús María — was by taking an eight day mule ride. The village wasn't even marked on the map.
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Copper Canyon, Chihuahua, Mexico by Richard D. Fisher
I suspect this may turn out more like a travel article than a book review. In late March we took a tour through the length of the Copper Canyon and I find it difficult to know how to write about this book without bringing in various aspects of the Canyon trip itself.
It really is a spectacular journey and Richard Fisher's account does total justice to the subject matter. This is a large format quality paperback and it contains hundreds of excellent photos of the people and places one encounters along the way. I can't imagine a better souvenir to take away.
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The Veracruz Blues by Mark Winegardner
This is a wonderful mixture of fact and fiction about America, Mexico and baseball. The time of the story is the ‘40s when Mexico had great baseball teams and the Veracruz Blues "was the best ball club that ever was". The story is about 1946, la temporada de oro, the season of gold.
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Miraculous Air: A Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico by C. M. Mayo
Most of us think of the Baja Peninsula as a vast, sprawling, empty, underpopulated space on the Pacific Coast with hundreds of miles of desolate beaches. To a great extent, that's what it is. What Ms. Mayo gives us in Miraculous Air is a beautifully researched account of the history, geography, ecology, oceanography, the folklore, the wildlife and the incredible fishing in this vast area. We read of cave paintings of people who lived in the area some 10,800 years ago. And along the way, we meet a few quite interesting and memorable people.
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Head For Mexico: The Renegade Guide
The latest - Don Adams' Head for Mexico: The Renegade Guide stands out from the rest of the herd. Adams, a Texas-born Vietnam vet who whiled away his working years as a truck driver, insurance adjuster and teacher, actually lived full-time in Mexico for more than five years before setting out to write his book. He still lives in Mexico, and he's here for the long haul. And his experience is not limited to a single area or transient accommodations.
read moreEscape to Mexico: An Anthology of Great Fiction edited by Sara Nickles
Here's a collection of stories with a rather unusual theme. Mexico isn't just the place where the action takes place in these tales. Rather, it's as if Mexico - sunny, exotic, mysterious and occasionally slightly dangerous - is yet another character in each of the tales. There are 18 stories here, by authors such as Stephen Crane, Jack Kerouac, Anaís Nin, Tennessee Williams, Patricia Highsmith and Graham Greene. With those kinds of names you can at least rely on the pedigree of the material.
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Sliced Iguana: Travels in Unknown Mexico by Isabella Tree
Isabella Tree tells about her solitary travels to various parts of Mexico. Is this becoming a sort of literary sub-category - single ladies taking on the world? This book largely consists of a half dozen essays covering specific geographic areas that Ms. Tree visited, including Mexico City, Chiapas and Lake Pátzcuaro. My own personal favorite was "Holy Week," the one on San Miguel de Allende.
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Mexifornia, a State of Becoming by Victor Davis Hanson
Although there's heavy duty immigration going on, there's not a whole lot of integration taking place.
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Exploring the Yucatan, A Traveler's Anthology
Exploring the Yucatan - A Traveler's Anthology
By Richard D. Perry.
A Review
Indispensable for anyone heading for the Mayan world of the Yucatan and equally interesting for those w...
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Strange Pilgrims: Twelve Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The stories almost all seem to deal with Latin Americans travelling to Europe for one reason or another.
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Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly by Sue Halpern
Monarchs are genuinely fascinating creatures and here's a book that really does justice to their story. The travel accomplished by Monarchs is simply mind-boggling. They fly forty miles a day on average but sometimes - depending on winds and weather - they can manage up to 200 miles between dawn and dusk. Those born to the East of the Rockies usually go to Mexico. Those born to the West mostly go to California. All flying is done in daylight - never at night.
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Moon Handbooks: Guadalajara by Bruce Whipperman
Here's a welcome addition to the growing library of Mexican guidebooks. It covers all the information you would expect, like motels, hotels, bed & breakfasts, restaurants, shopping, money exchange locations, tourist highlights and how to get from one place to another. In addition, there's an abundance of information on such items as bus fares, rental cars, walking and jogging routes, exercise gyms, language courses and even where to get rolls of film processed.
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Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks is obviously too seasoned a traveller and too astute an observer to confine himself to ferns. One encounters a host of pleasures as he ruminates on a variety of topics. He muses about the New World's contributions to civilization -cocoa, tobacco, potatoes, tomatoes, chilies, gourds, pepper, maize, chewing gum, cochineal and exotic hallucinogens. In Monte Alban he considers the production of rubber which the Zapotec people used to make balls.
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Mexicasa: The Enchanting Inns and Haciendas of Mexico by Gina Hyams and Melba Levick
Gina Hyams and Melba Levick have created a wonderful compilation of photographs of twenty-one of Mexico's most spectacular and beautiful inns and bed and breakfast establishments. This one is a real winner.
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Oaxaca, the spirit of Mexico
Review of "Oaxaca, The Spirit of Mexico"
Photographs by Judith Cooper Haden, introduction by Phil Borges, text by Matthew Jaffe; published by Artisan, 2002
All journeys of discovery have a beginning ...
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Approaching the Cosmos... Hotel: Travelling the World with a Gay Sensibility by Robert Champ
This is a book of travel essays by a man who certainly has covered the world. I've chosen to review it here because so many of the pieces are concerned with places in Mexico, such as Oaxaca, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico City and Guanajuato as well as my own familiar territory here in Ajijic and the Lake Chapala area. Other locations include Russia, China, Ireland, Paris, the French Riviera and some U.S. cities. In fact, for me one of the most interesting articles was about the author's running away from home in Kansas City with another boy and hitchhiking to San Diego.
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Western Mexico: A Traveller's Treasury by Tony Burton
This useful volume is back in a new and updated edition and it’s still as essential as ever. Whether you’re making a brief visit as a tourist, or escaping the northern winter for a few months or checking out the area more extensively as a place to spend one’s retirement years, this is one item you should have in your survival kit. It’s a nice blend of guidebook, travelogue and history text with lots of local color and some ecological notes sprinkled throughout.
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Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father by Richard Rodriguez
Richard Rodriguez is the son of Mexican parents but was born in California. He sounds as though he understands Spanish but admits he doesn't speak it fluently. I definitely found Rodriguez to be a very provocative writer.
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