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Driving into Mexico in rental car

January 24, 2012 | 1 Comment

by Churpa

Writing about cars yesterday reminded me of another tidbit dredged from Lorena’s infamous and swamp-like inbox: fellow travel writer Ben Starr sent us a tip regarding Advantage, a rental service that allows cars from select locations in California, Arizona, and Texas to cross the border into Mexico. Purchase of a $25 dollar (per day) Mexican insurance policy is mandatory, and the car must be returned to its original U.S. location. We have not used this service, but we would like to hear from readers who have. If you have a story or advice regarding Advantage or a Mexican car rental service, please comment or email us. Excerpts from juicier emails may be featured on the blog.

Also, in all due fairness I should mention that Butch rented Especial (see post below for details) during the Christmas holidays and Especial was literally the last car on the lot. Presumably, all of the nicer vehicles were already packed with screaming children and headed for the coast to terrorize sleepy beach bums . I don’t want our experience to discourage other travelers from renting a vehicle in Mexico, as taking a drive is a great way to jump start your Mexico adventure (sometimes literally). Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

On the road in The Sweat Lodge…

January 23, 2012 | 7 Comments

by Felisa Churpa Rosa Rogers

Ah, vans! Tina Rosa, on the far right.

Mexico used to have a real van culture. I grew up in it. When I was two months old, we traveled across the border in a Dodge camper my parents called the Sweat Lodge. The Sweat Lodge was succeeded by a white Chevy van we called Cebu, and then by Jolly, a Forest Service green Dodge van my dad bought at a government auction.

All these vehicles were tricked out as homes on wheels. My sainted mother sewed curtains for the windows, and Steve built his “food box”, a giant cube of plywood with a lid that folded out into a tiny counter. With this contraption Steve could set up a kitchen in under 60 seconds; it was perfect for emergency roadside cooking.

 

Jolly

The box was packed with obscure ingredients, including an arsenal of spices that would have put many a gourmet restaurant to shame. If you tried to tease my dad about it, he’d get a wounded expression, as though to ask:

“What kind of philistine would embark on a four month trip without Fenugreek leaf?”

 

Steve Rogers

In those days, campgrounds and camping beaches were crowded with vans and small campers from the U.S and Canada, and I was always on the lookout for interesting new arrivals. When a van (perhaps billowing smoke and loaded with surf boards) would cruise down the beach road or into the campground, I’d crane to see if it had other kids on board. After waiting a respectful moment that allowed the newcomers to hang their hammocks,  inevitably Steve would amble over to the new vehicle to talk roads, routes, and rigs with the drivers.

As an adult, I made my first drive in a ’94 Nissan pick-up named El Gato Negro. When El Gato retired, I caught my next ride in Miss Lousianne, my friend Tia’s intrepid ’87 Dodge van. Loaded to the gills with camping gear, Miss Lousianne traversed the highlands and the coast. I was depressed to note very few gringos traveling by van and pick-up. I am always impressed by the intrepid snowbirds who still wend their way south in RVs every winter, but I’m a little sad that my own generation is missing out on the joys of driving in Mexico.

 

Churpa and Steve. In the background you can see Cebu

Yes, the joys of driving in Mexico. It’s true that everyone drives like a maniac, but once you adopt the maniac mentality,  the rules of the road are liberating. Due to the hazardous nature of the art form, your average Mexican driver is more aware. There’s a give and take to Mexican driving, a sort of feral politeness. Yes, the truck overloaded with mattresses will cut you off, but an hour later when you suddenly realize you have to get over a lane, he’ll also let you in. Of course, all these joys turn to ashes if you have to, say, navigate the length of Guadalajara, hellish glorietas and all.

But the real benefit to having a car in Mexico is the enhanced ability to explore. On our last drive south, we explored an abandoned resort, huddled in Miss Louisianne for 48 hours straight during a spectacular coastal storm, and enjoyed many an impromptu carnita stop. Nothing can match the ability to stop at every interesting roadside eatery or make an abrupt right when you see a promising road heading in a beachly direction. Not to mention all those fascinating mechanics you meet…

Our finances did not allow a lengthy road trip this year and I was reduced to traveling por avion to Mexico City. I was thus greatly pleased when my friends Butch and Sara invited me to tag along on their road trip to Michoacan. We would have a rental car! I imagined myself traveling in air-conditioned luxury, a far cry from the rattling vans that are my normal lot in life.

In typical Mexican fashion, things didn’t got quite as planned. Although Butch took to Mexican driving (being a bush pilot in Alaska probably helps), the car wasn’t exactly a chariot. We dubbed it Muy Especial because it demanded special treatment, including periodic push starts. I spent half the trip begging water from mystified campesinos, who were out of sight of the highway and thus unable to see Especial, steaming and spouting coolant. Even when I think I’m finally high flying, somehow I always end up down by the side of the road.

 

The author peering from van.

Stay tuned for the 14th edition of the People’s Guide and a new story on one of my more alarming memories of Steve as chauffeur.

 

The Mexico you love is still here

January 17, 2012 | 5 Comments

by Churpa Rosa Rogers

As a kid, I was accustomed to the double take, the long stare, the muffled giggle. We spent months of each year traveling the backgrounds of Mexico and Guatemala, and we ended up in a lot of places where the locals hadn’t seen a gringo in years. Of course that was back in the days when Americans were afraid to go to Mexico because they were convinced the country was overrun with murderous banditos and crooked cops. Oh wait…

photo credit: Tina Rosa

After decades of grumbling about tourists crowding my favorite haunts, this December I felt like I’d time-traveled back to the days when Mexico was a truly exotic destination. Upon arrival, my friend Chelsea and I got the eerie impression that we were the only gringas in Mexico City. When I traveled to Michoacan to see the monarch butterflies, my friends and I were, in fact,  the only Americans in the town of Ocampo (despite the town’s proximity to a famous tourist destination). In San Miguel de Allende, I saw a healthy number of local expats, but very few American, Canadian, or European travelers. My friend Carlos says enrollment in his Spanish classes is down by 50%.

Why is Mexico so empty? Part of the drop in tourism is the result of the crappy global economy. The other reason is just as obvious, but it doesn’t make as much sense.

Many travelers seem to understand that some parts of Mexico are relatively safe (Cancun remains inexplicably popular), but I don’t think Americans and Canadians realize how many parts of the country are relatively safe. As Tony Burton reports at the excellent Geo-Mexico blog, narco-related deaths in 2011 were heavily concentrated in eight states: Chihuahua, Guerrero, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Durango, Jalisco, State of México, and Coahuila. Mexico has 31 states and a Federal District. When it comes to the narco wars, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato isn’t even on the map.  But even in areas that do register on the narco violence radar, tourists are statistically unlikely to be targeted. For example, Burton’s co-author Richard Rhoda notes that an American who visits Mexico City is more likely to die of a traffic accident in the US than as a result of drug violence in Mexico City. 83 times more likely, in fact.

Here at the People’s Guide, we enjoy statistics, but we are even more fond of anecdotal evidence. To this end, I recently conducted a highly scientific survey of safety in Mexico.  The results: Mexico feels just as safe as it ever has.  I did not encounter crooked cops, nor was I menaced by black Escalades. I was not mugged, beaten, robbed, or executed. On my entire trip, I was the victim of one crime: someone (presumably an employee of United Airlines) stole a bottle of 12 year Flor de Caña rum out of my suitcase while en route between Houston and Portland, Oregon.

To the casual traveler, the most noticeable effect of narco violence is the lack of foreign tourists. The overall number of visitors to Mexico is at its lowest level in 15 years, and my trip through the highlands definitely illustrated this statistic. I might have enjoyed ‘authentic’ gringo-free vistas if it weren’t for my gnawing sadness for the people who are hard hit. Everywhere I went, I saw hotel owners and waiters tending to empty businesses with a resigned dignity that is muy Mexicano. Meanwhile, with equally typical cynical optimism, Mexican politicians and tourism authorities are counting on an ‘end of the world’ tourism boom for 2012. I’ll believe that when I see it. The good news is that Mexico is still here, and these days the entire country feels off-the-beaten path.

photo credit: Tina Rosa

 

 

 

 

Green Map San Miguel

January 14, 2012 | 2 Comments

By Felisa Churpa Rosa Rogers

As Lorena dredges through her bottomless inbox she often sends me tidbits. This one struck my fancy: Green Map San Miguel or Mapa Verde San Miguel allows visitors to search a directory of sustainable goods and services in the San Miguel Area. A calendar provides info on upcoming events, including bird walks, eco-tours, workshops, documentary showings, organic farmers’ markets, volunteer opportunities, and activities for kids. The site features an interactive map of the town that shows bus routes. Pages are legitimately bilingual, which I appreciate, and the tone is informative, rather than commercial. Very cool.

Ghosts at the Hotel Isabel: Saludos de John Ross

December 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment

by Felisa Churpa Rosa Rogers

Hotel Isabel--photo by Chelsea Mcalister

The pretty teenage receptionist at the front desk of the Hotel Isabel is miffed that I don’t have a  reservation and we spend the next 20 minutes negotiating my room, wake-up call, and tomorrow’s 5 AM taxi to the airport, all of which entails filling out paperwork in triplicate, as per the Mexican custom. “The electricity is out and so is the water,” she mentions blandly as she hands me my room key.  “The elevator and television and Internet don’t work either,” she says. “Do you still want to stay?”

When I question her further, she is typically vague about the reason for the outage: “they’re doing something to the street”, and alarmingly definitive about the likelihood of the power and water coming back on anytime soon: “en realidad, no”.  In the land of mañana and mas tarde and ahorita, being told a definite” no” is almost startling.

This is a testament to my devotion to the Hotel Isabel, I think as I drag my heavy hard-shell suitcases up the first flight of stairs. I never thought I’d miss the Isabel’s tiny deathtrap of an elevator, but ascending six flights of stairs in complete darkness makes the claustrophobia of the lurching tin box seem positively civilized by comparison. As I peer down the hotel’s spectral Colonial hallways looking for room 306, I question my own sanity. A rational person, I think, would have hailed another taxi instead of paying full price for a parched, pitch-black hotel room. As I squint at the dark numbers at the tops of the 14-foot wooden doorways, I curse the teenage receptionist. She could at least have given me a candle.

But when dropping into The Big Enchilada, a home away from home is indispensable. Besides, there’s just something about the Isabel. When I finally find my room and unlock the door, I’m glad I didn’t get back in the taxi. The familiar pink 1980s bedroom set looks strangely beautiful in the ancient room with its 16-foot ceilings and rickety wardrobe. A narrow window looks out on the roof of the former National Library. Like most of the buildings in Mexico City’s Centro Historico, the stone-scrolled fortress looks like it has provided the backdrop for at least one tragic conspiracy, three or four wars, and a handful of long-forgotten crimes of passion.

Speaking of which, the Hotel Isabel has been in operation as a hotel for over 100 years, and the institution gives new meaning to the term “storied”. I’ve loved the Isabel for more than a decade, and beat poet John Ross  has been confirming my sense that the former Colonial mansion is a world unto itself. Ross moved to Mexico in 1957 and spent the last 25 years of his life at the Isabel, during which time he kept his ears to the ground and his fingers tapped on the pulse of the most improbable city on earth. My nonfiction read for this trip is El Monstruo:  Dread and Redemption in Mexico City, Ross’s gutsy ode to the city he knew best. Drawing from street gossip, interviews with local characters, dusty news archives, and the writings of some of the city’s finest scholars and troublemakers, Ross has created a masterwork that is at once a colorful leftwing diatribe, a serious work of scholarship, and a hell of a story.

As I breath the familiar smell of diesel exhaust  and tacos that wafts up from Isabel la Catolica street along with a cacophony of horns, mufflerless VW bugs, and the vehement whistling of traffic cops, I contemplate a few of Ross’s stories: D.H. Lawrence drinking at the bar Isabel; Lawrence’s acquaintance, the British writer Wilfred Ewert, who was shot on an Isabel balcony on New Year’s Eve 1923; and Ross himself, who entangled himself in the city’s violent political struggles, marched with the Zapatistas, and died here in Mexico on January 17, 2011.

After freshening up as best I can with a bottle of drinking water, I go out for tacos al pastor and a Victoria at La Bota, a local bar that’s like a living work of folk art. It’s Friday night and the neighborhood buzzes with life, but I’ve got a plane to catch in the morning, so I return to the Isabel to settle down for my last night in Mexico. Much to my amazement, the lights are back on. This is a very good thing: Not only is the Isabel way less creepy by lamplight, but El Monstruo awaits.

After reading through the Aztec bloodbaths and the era of the great Zapata and the colorful years when Che and Frida and Trotsky crossed paths, I’ve reached the modern era. Ross was personally involved in the political turmoil of the 80s and 90s, and the latter half of the book is a dissection of modern Mexican politics, marked by a level of detail and nuance that is exceptional, particularly for an English-language publication. Ross’s voice is scathing and deeply opinionated—his sympathies emerge only in his coverage of everyday people: the 70-year-old former boxer who hauls suitcases at the Isabel, a friendly local fence, the activist mother of a student activist who disappeared in ’68, a street musician called “El Vampiro”, and the hundreds of downtown residents who dug their neighbors out of the rubble when the government failed to respond to the great earthquake of ‘85. Ross’s palpable love for Mexico and Mexicans gives life to the book. Like the Hotel Isabel, El Monstruo is a monument to the perverse, splendid, and bad ass spirit of Mexico.

 

An Interesting Blog about Mexico

March 22, 2010 | 4 Comments

Recently, I came across an interesting blog written by a young lady (Catia) who is, at the moment, traveling in Mexico by herself. She is writing as she travels, and, obviously, enjoying the experience and growing with it. I think many of the readers of  ”Talk About Mexico” will find it informative; she takes time to describe the cities and towns she visits as well as their impressions on her.

The name of the blog is Vagabond Roots and this is the link: Guanajuato, Mexico

Rio Guzman

The Eye of the Dragon | Cuernavaca an Excerpt

March 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment

by Rio Guzman

The afternoon sun was beginning to cast the giant shadow of evening upon the dusty downtown streets of Cuernavaca. I walked downhill toward the center of town, leaving behind the crowded bus station filled with bawling infants and angry blaring horns. I walked in earnest with the anticipation of the newcomer, welcoming the new sights and smells, the mouth-watering smells emanating from the “carne asada” and onions frying on ambulatory food stands by the street corners.

Without delay I set up residence in an inexpensive downtown hotel. I remember it was about four o’clock. I remember because the moment I entered my room, I dropped my backpack, grabbed my recently made jewelry and rushed out to find a place to sell my wares before the sun set. In a period of about two hours, standing on a street corner, close to the main plaza, I sold every single piece I had. As a result, I had a good dinner that night, the first of many to come. Read more

Caballo Blanco in the Copper Canyon

February 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Mike Huckaby sent this alert about our mutual friend and soon-to-be-legendary character “Caballo Blanco”.

The 2009 book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall churns circles around the running shoe industry, and now this video catapults Caballo Blanco into unanticipated prominence. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIyEvomUz14

Paragliding In Mexico?

February 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment

¡Hola!,

my name is Thomas and I am a german paragliding pilot. I visit Mexico from 17th till 25th of March. During this time I want to fly somewhere around Puebla. I read something about Valle de Bravo. Maybe there are some closer or better places to fly. Can you tell me where the best place to be is?

To proof my insurance and membership in the German Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (DHV), I will take my national license and my IPPI-Card (International Pilot Proficiency Identification) with me. Is there anything else I have to consider?

Kind regards

Thomas Stengler,  Bültenweg 64 38106 Braunschweig (Germany)

thomasstengler [at]web.de

Carl replies:

Thomas, we have a good friend who lives in Valle de Bravo — he is a former paragliding pilot and has told me that Valle is a very important center for this sport.  I will forward your email to him and ask that he contact you directly.  In the meantime, one of our contributors on this blog, John Olson, might well have some advice for you so I suggest that you check back to see if he or anyone else has a comment.

A Vagabond in Mexico

February 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment

A new edition of A Vagabond in Mexico is available at:
Create Space

The book was originally published in 1993, and it is as timely today as it was then.  Although it is not a travel guide anyone traveling in Mexico will find it useful. And anyone who thinks that the new border fence is anything other than a waste of taxpayer’s money will find it instructive.

The “Search Inside” feature will be available in about 8 weeks, but you can see excerpts and reviews right on this site: A Vagabond in Mexico


Kayak in Baja?

February 18, 2010 | 1 Comment

Hi!
My name is Rachel. I am a student at Alaska Pacific University. For January 2011, we are looking into organizing a Sea Kayaking Expedition class to Baja, California. The trip needs to be around 21 days to qualify for Expedition credit. I’ve been trying to do some research into a trip that might meet this requirement and be feasible with January weather conditions down there. Any suggestions would be appreciated! What are your thoughts on a Mulege to La Paz trip? How long would it take, how is the weather in January, and are there places to get water drops in between? Also, are there any kayak outfitters in or nearby Mulege?
Thanks so much for your time,
-Rachel

TAKING MEXICO FLYING

January 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment

by John Quinn Olson

Poor Mexico, so far from God,

so close to the United States.

–Porfirio Díaz

Sure the gringo was going to fly. He was looking at five months in Mexico—maybe six—where he would likely get a hundred days or more of great soaring. Who knew the future—maybe he would never return. So, he was going to need some reading material. Plenty to read in fact, and he would have to bring the books himself. Heck, nobody reads anything down there, or so it seemed to the gringo.

That was an exaggeration of course, but there was no doubt books were more easily found in Gringolandia, that bookstores were rare in Mexico and that libraries, well… Walter had never visited a public library in all of Mexico. Maybe there were lending libraries in Mexico, but not like in the States. In fact, about all the flier had ever seen for reading material in Mexico were the daily newspapers and those silly comic books you saw the peasants reading.

He swung his pickup off the street and into the parking lot at Title Wave Books in Tucson, Arizona. This was his last chance to load up on books, and since they were all used books he could really go wild and spend very little. He was hoping to add to his collection of Mexico books and books on Mexico that he was forever hauling around. He loved the idea of going flying in Mexico with Mexico books. Read more

More on safety in Mexico

April 10, 2009 | 2 Comments

I am just back from Mexico and once again, it is frustrating that there is so much stirring about the security situation there. Obviously there is an issue in the border towns and some other isolated incidents.

I certainly have an interest in keeping our Authentic Copper Canyon guests safe…it just seems that the whole country has been characterized as out of control and that is so far from true
What I have found in-country is that locals agree that things are more secure than a year ago.
Muy tranquilo…
nov08copper-059

Dave Hensleigh

Horsing Around The Sierra Madre – 1974 Style

March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Horsing around the Sierra Madre-1974 Style: A journey on horseback across Mexico’s great divide…

by Gary R Ziegler

garyhorseride-1

“A horse trip across Mexico’s wild west- you gotta be crazy! What about Pancho Villa and all the bandits” said a citified friend? ” Remember what happened to Humphrey Bogart!”

The summer was 1974. I was running Bear Basin Ranch in Westcliffe, Colorado, a remuda of half locoed Appaloosa horses and a string of rangy long horn cows while occasionally guiding educational programs for Outward Bound in remote canyons of Mexico’s Sierra Madre. I was very much ready for a good winter adventure. Thinking about the Sierra… Read more

I spent most of my adult life flying Mexico

March 2, 2009 | 1 Comment

Saludos amigos!

I have truly been blessed. I learned to hang glide 30 years ago and I have spent almost every winter since then flying Mexico. I have seen this country as few gringos- or human beings for that matter- have ever had the opportunity. I have seen Mexico like the halcones and the zopilotes. But unlike our feathered friends- I got to sample the beer too. And sample, and sample and sample… Well, you get the picture.–

Or do you?

I am compelled to try and describe my experiences in an effort to share them with the millions of Mexico fans who will never get to huck themselves off a cliff and disappear into the Mexican back country. It has been an exciting quarter century. The results can be found at my new web site www.TalesFromTheWildBlueYonder.com

I would post a few episodes here if that’s appropriate.

Currently I am camped and flying on the beach in Nayarit.

Carl chimes in:

John, it is great to see your post but you forgot to sign your name… And please, don’t deprive us of further episodes or excerpts from your books.  One of the purposes of this blog and our newly opened Talk About Mexico forums is to provide a friendly soapbox for other Mexico authors and bloggers.  There is so much “fluff” on the internet about Mexico that the really good stuff tends to get lost in the crowd.  Keep it coming!  Adelante!

Here’s a link to John Q Olson’s WildBlueYonder website.  John alsohas some very cool videos of flying along the beach in Nayarit, Mexico on YouTube.

I also encourage anyone interested in flying in Mexico to get a back-and-forth conversation going with John on the forum.  I’ll copy this post to the forums and hope that John is able to pry himself out of his hammock occasionally to contribute some more of his experiences.

Hiking In Mexico: Where?

March 19, 2008 | 2 Comments

Congradulation for that site, it is very nice !!  My name is Simon and i am a french canadien who study in united states.

In between march 25 and april 6 i am going to spend 1 week in Mexico.
My question is : I am looking for a Hike, for a couple of days ( not 10 days, it’s too long) and i was wondering if you would be able to guide me on my research..I don’t want to do a hike with escalade stuff, but only getting the top of a montain, to get a challenge. i would appreciate it a lot !!  Gracias, have a good day.

Simon

Carl replies: I’m glad you enjoy the website, Simon, and I hope it proves useful for you.  Unfortunately it is very difficult to help you on short notice without having more information on your plans.  For example — where do you plan to go in Mexico?  Imagine if I asked you, “where can I hike in Canada?” Mexico is huge and the possibilities are almost endless.

Having said that, since you’ll be leaving soon I suggest that you search for information using Google.  If you are going to Oaxaca, for example, do a search for “Oaxaca hike camp trail”.  I’d also try a good Mexico forum, such as Lonely Planet’s ThornTree.

Next time, give me more time and a lot more information and I’ll try to be more specific.

The Expanding Maya World

June 14, 2005 | Leave a Comment

The boundaries of the ancient Maya civilization are expanding with one discovery after another. Here’s the latest from the New York Times (registration required — and well worth doing).

Maya Tomb Tells Tale of Two Women, Elite but Doomed – New York Times:
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Published: June 14, 2005

In their more scholarly moments, archaeologists may speak earnestly of settlement patterns and cultural transitions, the analytical thrusts of their research. But down deep, they live for the thrill of turning stones aside and finding a full tomb, especially if they are searching around Maya ruins in Guatemala.




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