Photographs by Bill Begalke Last year, Conde Nast Traveler listed the colonial city of San Miguel de Allende (SMA) as the 7th best travel destination in the entire world! In my book, it’s NUMBER 1. It’s also more than a travel destination. It’s where I live. SMA is a small city of about 90,000, located […]
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Available from Amazon Books: Paperback and Kindle William Kaliher’s book Mexico by Motorcycle is, for the most part, a user friendly mixed bag of suggestion and admonitions for the motorcyclist planning to travel Mexico by bike. But it’s also a bit more. Mr. Kaliher has been to Mexico many times over the years since his first bike trip […]
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Though most of the town is lovely, it’s the historic section, dating back to when the town was founded in 1536 and centered around the Rafael Paez Garden, that creates a feel of wandering back into time. Rectangles of queso fresco, cheese made that morning from the milk of cows grazing on the ranches that surround Jerez, […]
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The rugged Baja California peninsula and the Sea of Cortez, or Gulf of California, have been bewitching hardy visitors for decades. Some of the early fans were John Steinbeck and Earl Stanley Gardner, who took time out from Perry Mason to produce a magnificent photo book on the Sea of Cortez and its villages. Until […]
Continue ReadingEvery time I hear the word “bandidos” the hair on the back of my neck starts to rise. The word sounds scary, doesn’t it? Where do these bandidos come from, anyway? I’d give anything to see a bonifide “bandido.” I’ve heard about bandidos for years, but curiously, have never met anyone who’s actually seen one […]
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“If you’ve ever traveled the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez, just south of the town of El Golfo de Santa Clara, you may have had lunch at a beach restaurant called “Johnny’s Place,” which is located on a long stretch of sand known as “Johnny’s Beach.” You might have wondered about the name; […]
Continue ReadingA surprising percentage of Mexico’s land area is protected in one form or another. A very large number of sites of archaeological or historical importance are managed by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, more commonly known by its acronym INAH. In theory, all buildings more than 100 years old have some degree of […]
Continue ReadingTo the north and west of Mexico City lies the region known as El Bajío, often called “Mexico’s breadbasket.” This rugged, high plateau bears a distinct resemblance to central Spain, home of its original settlers. Religious and hard working, they preserved many of the Spanish cultural and culinary traditions, and this part of Mexico is […]
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Two years ago, I would’ve been leery about driving out of Mexico alone. Well, “everyone says” that the drive to Nogales (from Puerto Vallarta) is a drag: long, flat, boring, and nothing to see – something like, “straight roads and lots of desert.” As is the usual case with “the CV” (the Conventional Wisdom), it […]
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One of the oldest printing presses still in operation anywhere in the world is in Tacámbaro, Michoacán. Juan Pascoe lives on a remote ex-hacienda outside Tacámbaro, Michoacán. Visitors invited to view his work often think they’ve lost their way in the surrounding sugar-cane fields, but then suddenly catch their first glimpse of the former Great […]
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