To Part 2 La Paz La Paz was almost unrecognizable. I’d enjoyed the small town atmosphere when I first visited it in 1980 but it now has the big city pretensions that I find far less appealing. Despite my reservations, the family enjoyed several days in La Paz in December 2007, wandering about the downtown […]
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Here’s a place for retirees and snowbirds to seriously consider. I previously extolled the charms of Morelia and wondered aloud why there weren’t more ex-pats living there. After continuing our tour of several colonial cities throughout Central Mexico I’m even more puzzled as to why Xalapa hasn’t become more of a permanent residence for Americans […]
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On my last visit to Cabo San Lucas in 1997, the city had installed its second traffic light four months ago. It stands on the northwestern outskirts of town, where Mexico Hwy. 19 begins its winding journey to Todos Santos, 45 miles away. So far no one had bothered to turn it on, but I […]
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Less than 500 metres south of the U.S. border, in front of a ochre-stuccoed shopfront signed ‘Café Nueva Asia’, a technicolor banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe hangs side by side with a red paper lamp bearing Chinese characters. Although nearly three months have elapsed between the Feast Day of Guadalupe and Chinese New Year, […]
Continue ReadingI recently returned from three weeks in North America’s highest and oldest capital— La Ciudad de México, La Capital, el Distrito Federal, or simply “ De Efe” for short—researching Moon’s new Mexico City Handbook, and I fell in love. Maybe I always fall in love with cities I write about, but It’s difficult not to be impressed […]
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Todos Santos is a place people disappear to. Something about the layout — the way the single two-lane highway through town can take in casual visitors at one end and dispense with them at the other end without revealing too much — keeps the profile relatively low, especially considering Cabo San Lucas is only an […]
Continue ReadingLong-time travelers to Mexico will have noticed an increase in the presence of Mexican military units around the country, particularly roadblock inspection squads purportedly searching for drugs and weapons. In remote areas of the Sierra Madre it’s not uncommon to come upon small, camouflage-clad patrols bivouacked outside towns and villages. Larger troop movements in Chiapas, […]
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“The mountain, she is not innocent….” Senor Reyes’ voice trailed off as his words hung in the dry air of the climber’s hostel in Tlachichuca. John and I toned down our giddy anticipation and shifted uncomfortably in the sudden gravity of the moment. Reyes was perfect, exactly the type of mountain man you expected to […]
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Crooked under one arm, he lovingly hugs a water-beaten body board as if it were his best friend. A mass of dirty blonde dreadlocks crowns his scalp and from under sun-faded Hawaiian shorts, his bronzed muscular body depicts a carefree, beach bum lifestyle. He bids us a “G’day, mates,” and I have to remind myself […]
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Xilitla has so many structures it would be impossible to count them, such as this fragment of arches, columns and windows of the most varied architectural styles, built for the simple pleasure of feeling the wind, the dampness and the freedom that pervades every moment in this magical place… Endless stairs leading to unsuspected destinations. […]
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