To Durango and to Mazatlan North America » Mexico » Durango By Traveller1 April 19th 2007 After leaving Zacatecas we headed north to Durango. Some of you may remember as a child reading comics about Roy Rogers, the Cisco Kid etc. and of course someone might remember the Durango Kid. At least I do. Well here we are finally expecting the wild west. In fact Dura [View Full Entry]

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Mazatlan North America » Mexico » Mazatlan By Traveller1 April 19th 2007After taking our lives in our hands on the road from Durango, we finally landed in Mazatlan. This city is on the central pacific coast of Mexico with a population of about 300,000. It is a working port with mucho selection in treats from the sea. We had planned on staying awhile and t [View Full Entry]

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Zacatecas North America » Mexico » Zacatecas By Traveller1 April 9th 2007Zacatecas is the most northern of Mexico's silver cities. It is located in the northern, central highlands. The city takes it's name from the local Zacatecos tribe, part of the Chichmec group of tribes. This tribe was extracting mineral deposits long before the Spanish arrived. Howev [View Full Entry]

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After leaving San Miguel we headed up to Guanajuato (GJ) where the countryside is dry and desert like. We are in the north central highlands now and although the sun is as bright and intense as at the lower elevations the air is noticeably cooler. GJ is at 2017 meters, higher then Denver. This town of 78 thousand souls is stuffed into a ravine with steep sides with access roads leading into the terrain following the old mining tunnels constructed years ago. Coming into the city involves coming through these underground tunnels which are not well lit. Traffic in the [View Full Entry]

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San Miguel De Allende North America » Mexico » San Miguel Allende By Traveller1 March 28th 2007 Here we are in San Miguel de Allende, that icon of norte americano, european, gringo cosmapolitan ambiance or so the rumer has it. Actually, the town is quite small with only about 70,000 inhabitantes, according to the Lonely Planet guide. Perhaps its a [View Full Entry]

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After leaving beautiful and cultural Merida we took our second class (segundo) bus west along the gulf to Campeche and then up to the port city of Veracruz. Campeche, a UNESCO designated city is a must see with its' pastel colored street shops and homes. From its inception and for a number of years after, Campeche was plagued by pirates who periodical would come ashore and do what pirates do i.e. basically pillage the town. This went on for years up to the mother of all pillages when pirates took control of Campeche for several months. After this, the Spanish government [View Full Entry]

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After kicking back on Isla for about 3 weeks decided to head out to Merida in the Yucatan as well as Progresso on the Gulf. We used a 2nd class bus (segundo) from Cancun to Merida, taking about 7 hours and visiting every Tom, Dick and Harry type town along the way. This is the way we like to travel i.e. seeing folks and places along the way rather then barreling through. Have to say though, Merida was a welcome site. Merida, as a Spanish city, started with its´ conquest by Francisco de Montego. Prior to this, it was the Mayan [View Full Entry]

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ISLA MUJERES We flew into Cancun on February 6th and immediately hot-footed (boated actually) over to Isla Mujeres (Island of Women) where beautiful beaches and torrential rains greeted us. It is uncertain where the name of this island originated. Some believe Spanish buccaneers stashed their women here, others believe that the conquerors discovered a stone temple with clay figurines of Mayan goddesses and others that Isla was a stopover for the Mayans on their route to worship their goddess of fertility on Cozumel. Given the number of sunning tourists on its´beaches this is definitly a [View Full Entry]

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