Mexico -dos and don't

Mole poblano in Puebla is a must to eat, though I loved all the food in Mexico. Monte Alban outside Oaxaca has grebt ruins - and of course if you are in Mexico City the Pyramids of the Sun & moon are a must. The Anthropological Museum in MC is brilliant too.

I want to go back to see Guadalahara and Copper Canyon.

Don't: Sing guantanamera or wear a sombrero with sperm when you enter a house.

How are you going to fit ten days into next week? Do you have a temporal (as opposed to spatial) tardis? (i.e. time lasts much longer inside, and it moves through space but not time)(like a hot and stuffy tube train where you are sure you've been on it fucking hours but when you come out it wasn't all that long, but you have travelled a few miles)(this is sounding less SF by the word)

http://www.mysteriousplaces.com/mayan/images/mayan2.jpeg

however, i can't remember the name!! from looking around the web, it might be Kankerixche, here is another picture of that one:

http://www.prodigyweb.net.mx/abc098/kankirinche.jpg

but i don't actually think that's the right one. aargh. the one in question is close to chichen itza, i think

search: the gulf coast, between mexico city and north to monterrey
destroy: most of the west coast, any effort to find good vegetarian food

Never before in my life have these words been connected so meaningfully.

S: West Coast south of Vallarta is awesome
D: West Coast north of Vallarta, except for Baja West Coast North of Cabo.

i'm going to Cancun for the first week of June w/two other couples. i'm super duper excited

I found an AMAZING veggie place in puerto vallarta, I think they call it natural food, comida natural. It was near the hard rock cafe, I just told the cabbie I was vegetarian and could he recommend anything?

sorry I can't help in monterrey tho. :(

DON'T: Lean out a second-story window, saying "Pelujae? Pelujae?" just because a stray dog followed you home.

You could also go walking in the city's parks, first picking up some warm homemade flour tortillas from a molino and then walking around eating tortillas and looking around at the sights. You obv know Spanish, right? Because that will come INCREDIBLY handy no matter where you go. Um... you could go drive around and sightsee, that's for sure. And there are lots of movie theaters and venues to catch traditional mariachi/ranchero performances and the like.

The whole of Mexico really works on a different time schedule than what we here in the States are used to. They eat big breakfasts, snacks in the middle of the day, and really late dinners, like at around 10 p.m. or so. Then they go out and either walk around or attend various events until about 1 or 2 in the morning, at least. There are lots and lots of street food vendors throughout the city, so that makes snacking (and picking up snacks to go along with meals) easy. Oh yeah, and don't drink the water -- but you didn't need to be told that! Ha. AND -- if you're used to diet sodas here in the States, you will not be able to stomach the diet sodas in Mexico, because they're always really bitter and hard to choke down. Best stick with fruit juices or regular sodas.

How long would it take to drive from LOS ANGELES to GUADALAJARA?

I've only been to Ciudad Juarez!

My bro who lived in Chihuahua for two years says hitchhiking is the best form of transportation. If you are a man. Which I'm not.

I am a man

ALRIGHT.

I imagine this wld mainly be a possibility if you spoke Spanish tho.

I am thinking of going for some across-the-border dental care. They pick you up from the El Paso airport (~35 miles away from me) and drive you down, get yr choppers fixed. I wld have to get a passport tho.

I have a passport

The answer to your FIRST question might, possibly, maybe, perhaps be aided by google maps.

nope

It's far too racist for that

or xenophobic or whatever

May as well get yr teeth did in between getting 60¢ 40s of Carta Blanca.

I'm British

Was Queen G not the best poster evar?

British...meaning? You don't need to? Or you really need to?

Meaning haha funny teeth but really I get it free when i go home. I don't have to worry, like an American would!

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

You are living in a MAGIC LAND in other words.

Tulum is incredibly awesome, don't miss it.

I loved Cozumel's beaches more than Mazatlan's or Puerta Vallarta's. If you do any sort of surfing you won't like Cancun or Cozumel's beaches.

Loved Guanajuato as well.

If you want to see a city, Oaxaca is nicer and calmer than Mexico City

Yeah, because Oaxaca has about the population of Duluth, Minnesota whereas Mexico City is one of the biggest cities in the world, with more people in it than New York City. Just something to keep in mind.

Oaxaca (city and state) is beautiful. Nice unspoiled beachtowns south of Oaxaca town like Puerto Escondido and Zipolite. I second Guanajuato too. I wasn't too keen on Puerto Vallarta tbh.

Count me among the Tulum lovers. Airfair to Cancun can usually be found for pretty cheap (though Dec/Jan is high season so ?). Rent a car and get to Tulum in under two hours. Do not stay in Cancun any longer than you have to.

If you're into desert beaches ringed with huge Cardon cacti, Southern Baja is your place. Fly into San Jose de Cabo and rent a car; skip Cabo San Lucas and go to Los Barilles for great beaches. No real cities in Baja, however.

Oh I don't really speak Spanish but have managed to live in rural Mexico (less English spoken than in cities/tourist towns)for four months so don't worry about it.

We've stayed a few times in Akumal, which is maybe 90 minutes south of Cancun by car. It's beautiful, the people are really nice, food is tasty (lotsa fish), snorkeling is ace and it's super quiet. 20 minute drive to Tulum, and from an hour or so to a lot more to other Mayan ruins in the jungles, where you can rent bikes. Temperature in Dec. and Jan. is not bad at all, compared to what it can get to, though the further inland you go the hotter it gets. Also, while the violence seems to have chilled a tad in Mexico, the Yucatan peninsula was never terribly rife with crime.

Live baach cam:

http://www.locogringo.com/Upload/akumal-beach-cam.html?CFID=30027317&CFTOKEN=241dbdd0f0402193-FE2EF189-D9D5-7C40-8B2D019B9153475F

underground swimming caves

Yeah, cenotes rule. You can just pull off the road and pay a couple of bucks and then snorkel in these awesome fresh/salt inlets full of awesome fish.

Also, yeah, avoid Cancun, which is lame. Get your tourist stuff out of your system in Playa del Carmen, which has a Wal-Mart where you can load up on supplies and henceforth avoid cities.

I've never been to Oaxaca or Mexico City, but both seem like destinations in their own right.

Playa del Carmen is great!

I use to visit Topolabampo Bay and Maviri beach every summer when we'd visit my grandmother in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. I was there last in 2007 and the beach remained lonely and beautiful. The area seems a bit far from destinations to be an excursion and not an ideal destination in the tourist sense. Mentioning it though because if you have more than a week to spend in Mexico, this place is worth checking out.

i just spent a week in mexico city at the end of august, it was spectacular. i was there for a work conference but had a few extra days to explore. there is infinitely more stuff to see than one week allows obviously, but i did feel like i fit in a good amount in the time i had. if you do spend a few days there, a few highlights included: 1) the frida kahlo house/musuem, which really was amazing and is in a great, colorful neighborhood with lots of good food and markets (coyoacan); 2) pyramids of teotihuacan, about an 1 hour north of the city, some of the biggest pyramids in the world; 3) national museum of anthropology, which is gargantuan and houses some of the most famous aztec, mayan, and other mesoamerican artifacts (and also some amazing contemporary murals);3) palacio de bellas artes, which is great for a brief visit on sunday (when admission is free) to see famous mexican murals, e.g. rivera, siquieros, clemente orozco, etc.

i totally felt though that while mexico city is amazing, i really wanted to explore other areas, smaller towns, beaches, etc. oaxaca i will surely visit next time.

what an amazing country. i left with the feeling that i will visit mexico many many more times in my life. such a rich and varied culture, art, music, folklife, even the food alone is worth going for.

Hi I am in Tulum

so jealous.

http://www.danplusnicole.com/travel?category=Tulum%20Mexico

Omg I looooooove Tulum! Where are you staying? Have dinner at the restaurant at Posada Margarita!

rad. mexico is like the center of the world to me.

jealous

I've been to Akumal 4 times. Tulum is awesome. Dive in some off-highway cenotes.

Just back from a 3 week trip and amazed to see only one mention of Guanajuato upthread. Beautiful place, maybe the nicest I've been to anywhere in Latin America.

I once left my wallet in Guanajuato. It is indeed a beautiful town.

quincie, when was the last time you were in Todos Santos?

March of this year!

It has been five years since I was last there. Are you going???

Since I *had* been there. Quite a lot of development over the past 5 years. It struck me as kind of cruise-ship destination this time around, but I had some great beer at a local micro and there is good food to be had.

Pacific side water is too brrrrrr for me, though, so I prefer the Sea of Corte side of Baja.

Heyyyyyy!

Going for a wedding next month, I havent been in a looooong time. I heard its changed.... seems like it has quite a bit!

Do you drink mescal? I normally stick to beer tbqh.

The US State Department says the roads in Michoacán are dangerous. My wife wants to go to a nature reserve there where Monarch butterflies travel to. There are group tours to a different such Mexican locale that is not in the State Department don’t go area. Folks commenting on Trip Advisor think the roads in Michoacán are fine by day to the butterflies area. Anybody know more?

the US State Department says to not travel to Michoacan at all

what do you wanna do, live forever?

don't travel at night, go with a reputable tour group and don't wander off by yourself, and avoid doing obviously stupid stuff like flashing wads of cash or expensive smartphones and cameras and you'll be OK.

IME the US State Department travel warnings do not jive with actual travel risk (in my case tested in Mexico, Lebanon, North Korea).

Friends from the State Department (I live in DC, and those ppl used to be all over the place) explain that the travel warnings are all about diplomatic relationships and not actual travel risk.

If it were me I would go without a second thought.

When I lived in southern Baja roads were in fact dangerous at night but that was due to vacas not banditos.

I've personally just gotten very weary of more dangerous places as i've gotten older. my parents went to rio a couple of years back and witnessed two distinct gunpoint robberies and i was thinking "maybe cross that off the old list".

having said that lots of cities in america are p dangerous so i dunno, live a little

incidentally I'm going to mexico in february (my first ever honest to goodness vacation!!) and am v stoked

oh! am thinking of just taking a quick trip over the border to TJ in March. like just a day trip to grab badass tacos and maybe a bottle of nice tequila or whatever. anybody have recs on anything there? considering driving to san diego and just taking a bus to avoid some of the border-crossing mess.

We found a butterfly reserve in Piedro Herrada, that is NOT in a region that the State Department says not to visit. We hired a tour guide who picked us up at our Mexico City hotel and took us out there. We rode horses part of the way up the mountain trail and then walked further uphill from there, where we saw hundreds or more Monarch butterflies high in the trees and low by bushes . It all worked out well. The tour guide played his fave rural Mexican Banda and durenguese country music for us in the car and there, plus we ate a good lunch there ( and drank some mezcal). After spending some time in Mexico City, we flew to Cancun and rented a car and went to Tulum ( where Dan’s upthread suggestions helped out).

Piedra Herrada

i am going to el DF in less than a month -- are there any music-related places i need to go while i'm there? (it's just a few days, i've wanted to go there for as long as i can remember so this is probably a first visit not an only visit)

Can't remember your music inclinations but Saturday punk/hc flea market el Chopo. Just past Revolucion station and next to the really cool library.

It was kinda corny but we enjoyed the Mexico Folkloric Dance (and singing) company that performs at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. We also were probably the only gringos at a Victor Manuelle salsa romantica concert ( he’s Puerto Rican) at a place called the Forum that gets rented out for salsa shows

i like all types of music-related places. i am trying to learn something to take home so i can get brownie points at work + personal satisfaction :) i'm collecting things/venues/publications? to google when i have time before the trip. thanks for the tips!

I saw an astonishing Mariachi band in Plaza Garibaldi one night - a skiffle punk version who looked like they slept in their suits - but it might have been a lucky one off. As I said in the DF thread, just go and hang out at one of the shitty pulque places and avoid the big tourist traps.

Here's the link to the Mexico City thread (that I had missed before, doh!) with good, detailed Aldo comments on it:

Mexico City

re music in Mexico City...I am not seeing any upcoming gigs there right now by my faves Julieta Venegas or Cafe Tacuba.

Here's a link for the corny but good Folkloric Ballet company that includes mariachi musicians and dancers and more whom wife and I did see at the Palacio de Belle Artes (they perform here regularly)

https://www.balletfolkloricodemexico.com.mx/presentaciones-ballet-de-mexico-amalia-hernandez/

I read about these Mexico City clubs but uh, never made it to any of them:

La Maraka salsa merengue dance club

Mama Rumba

Mojito Room

Multiforo Alicia - indie

Pasaguero - indie

do: have a blast :)

Near the Mexico City Airport I noticed the Discos Colombia record store but I didn’t have time to go there. It’s on this list from a little while back
http://remezcla.com/lists/music/10-mexico-city-record-stores/

thanks curmudgeon! very helpful. i plan to have 1 or ideally >1 blast :)

going to Tulum (and parts nearby) next wednesday for a week! very excited!

We enjoyed our recent time in Tulum. The beach time was nice despite the seaweed issue there ( lots floating to shore). The Mayan ruins are a must to see and going to cenotes is also fun. We enjoyed a tour of the Sian Kaan Biosphere area where via boat we saw manatees and crocodiles and birds. There we also got to float down a tributary propelled by the current. Dinner at Cetli Restaurant was impressive—fancy Mexican in a casual but nicely designed restaurant ( out on a highway and not with the trendy places on the coastal road.

The Mayan ruins at Coba aren't that far from Tulum. worth seeing as well. Chichen Itza is 2 1/2 hours from Tulum (we didn't end up going there but i want to someday)

Tulum food rec: Pollo Bronco, on the main strip in town. So good.

Can you still climb Coba? You could when I was there but then 10 years is a long time ago.