Destination: Mexico
Interview With Nicholas Kristof: Traveling and Tweeting Under ‘Half the Sky’
by David Frey | 10.21.09 | 10:53 AM ET
Photo by Fred R. Conrad David Frey asks the author about his dream vacation, Twitter, travel to hellholes and the trip that changed his life
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Yahoo! BuzzArthur Frommer on Mexico, Travel and ‘Irrational Fear’
by Eva Holland | 10.20.09 | 10:51 AM ET
Here’s some more good news for Mexico’s embattled tourism industry: Arthur Frommer has added his voice to the “No really, Mexico is safe for travelers” contingent. In a recent blog post, Frommer admits that hearing about his daughter’s planned trip to Mexico gave him a moment of fear and worry—but he goes on to explain why that fear was largely irrational, noting that she “returned singing the praises of Mexican vacationing and stressing the relative calm of the country.”
Of course, there could be more at work here than just knee-jerk concern about Mexico. After all, don’t parents—even guidebook-publishing parents of grown children—always worry when their kids travel overseas? As Rick Steves noted in our interview with him awhile back, “It’s natural for a parent to be nervous ... I just have to always reason with myself and think, I was 18 and my parents were freaking out and I was capable at the time.”
Finally Some Good News on Travel in Mexico
by Peter Ferry | 10.16.09 | 10:21 AM ET
iStockPhoto Drug cartels. Murders. The news is often bad out of Mexico. Peter Ferry journeys beyond the headlines.
Find Your Own Damn Zihuatanejo
by Peter Ferry | 10.14.09 | 11:08 AM ET
iStockPhoto Peter Ferry has been there, and he isn't going to help you find it
Travel Song of the Day: ‘El Jinete’ by José Alfredo Jiménez
by Jim Benning | 10.12.09 | 3:53 PM ET
The Oregon-Guanajuato Connection
by Jim Benning | 09.23.09 | 11:22 AM ET
Nice story in the Global Post about a particularly potent sister city relationship between Ashland, Oregon, and Guanajuato, Mexico:
While other cross-continental matchings are largely symbolic, this relationship has fostered academic and musical exchanges, helped build houses—and even led to 79 marriages.
I gotta say, Ashland couldn’t have picked a better sister city than Guanajuato. The Spanish colonial city doesn’t get the attention it deserves—it’s one of my favorite places in Mexico.
Photo We Don’t Love: Aeromexico Hijacking Suspect
by World Hum | 09.10.09 | 1:46 PM ET
REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez Mexican federal police detain Jose Flores, accused of hijacking an Aeromexico plane carrying more than 100 passengers from Cancun to Mexico City yesterday. The Bolivian-born suspect reportedly said he was on a divine mission. He was arrested upon landing and nobody was injured. In fact, passengers said they were unaware of the hijacking until after the plane touched down.
Chiapas: An Economist Correspondent’s Diary
by Michael Yessis | 08.26.09 | 11:36 AM ET
Its focus is Zapatistas and coffee. Mostly coffee.
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Crystal Frontier’ by Calexico
by Jim Benning | 08.21.09 | 11:45 AM ET
The Battle for Cancun’s Sand
by Eva Holland | 08.20.09 | 11:18 AM ET
And no, I don’t mean the resort-goers’ daily fight for the best tanning spot. In the New York Times, Mark Lacey takes a look at Cancun’s shrinking beaches—and the lengths to which some hotels are going in an effort to keep their share of what’s left.
The Hard Life of Los Angeles’ Street Tamaleros*
by Jim Benning | 08.07.09 | 10:55 AM ET
We’ve written before about the sometimes tough plight of L.A.’s taco trucks. Fortunately, taco trucks these days are ascendant—thanks in part to the mobility patterns of young urbanites.
So let us now turn our attention to L.A.’s Mexican street-food vendors. They’ve never had it easy, what with gang battles sometimes raging around them and the watchful eye of health inspectors threatening their livelihoods.
Public radio’s Marketplace recently put together a fine little profile on the struggles of one tamale vendor who works the tough neighborhood of MacArthur Park.
Tamalero Antonio, who sells tamales out of a box mounted on a tricycle, told the show: “It’s dangerous. It’s very, very dangerous. You have to be careful with the gangs, you have to be careful with the police, you have to be careful with the cars. There are a lot of dangers in the street.”
(Via Boing Boing)
* Update 4:16 p.m. P.T. Speaking of dangers, today’s L.A. Times reports that at least 22 taco truck operators have been robbed at gunpoint in East L.A. in the last three months. (Thanks for the tip, Eli.)
Moon-Gazing Around the Globe
by Alicia Imbody | 08.03.09 | 10:32 AM ET
From Puebla to Paris, 12 photos by moonstruck world travelers
See the full photo slideshow »
Make Guacamole, Not War
by Jim Benning | 07.22.09 | 10:17 AM ET
iStockPhoto Does travel make us less happy? Jim Benning laments the news from the Mexican state of Michoacán.
New Border Wall Going Up Between Mexico, U.S.A.
by Eva Holland | 07.07.09 | 2:31 PM ET
This time, according to The Onion, it’s the Mexican government that’s building a wall, and the move is going ahead despite fears for the tiny guitar, novelty sombrero and three-foot tall plastic margarita cup industries. Get all the details in this (sub-titled) video report:
Quesadillas in the Sub-Arctic
by Eva Holland | 06.29.09 | 1:01 PM ET
Photo by Eva Holland I’m no Mexican food addict, but I am perpetually fascinated by incongruous culinary offerings in unlikely locales—so when I spotted Sanchez Cantina, “Yukon’s Only TRUE Mexican Restaurant,” not long after my arrival in Whitehorse, I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist. Once several locals had assured me that it was “really good,” I grew even more curious—after all, I was in the Canadian sub-arctic, more than 3,000 miles north of the Mexican border, in a town of 20,000 where many people keep freezers full of moose meat. How “true” or “good” could it be?