Mexico City, which has the partially-destroyed Aztec Templo Mayor in the dead center of the city, a giant statue of Cuahatemoc on Avenida Reforma, streets and neighborhoods named after Aztec princes, fighters, heroes of the 19th Century Mexican Revolution, screams defiance of colonialism and imperialism.
Read MoreMy Mexico Manifesto
This essay consists of my overall thoughts on today’s Mexico. I write this after spending almost two entire months traveling through out the country starting in Tulum, south to Bacalar, making my way across the Yucatan peninsula (Coba, Playa del Carmen, Isla Holbox, Valladolid, Merida, Celestun, Progresso), flying to Tabasco to get to Chiapas, winding my way through the jungle and mountains, flying to Oaxaca City and then to the beaches of Oaxaca, making a pitstop in Mexico City, touring the supposedly dangerous state of Michoacan, up to Guadalajara, then to el norte to Monterrey, back down south to the center of the country to Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Queretaro and finally back to Mexico City.
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Guanajuato
Central Mexico: Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende & Queretaro
My last stop outside of Mexico City was the trifecta of Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and Queretaro. I would stay in San Miguel for three nights but only day trip to the other places. These were not destinations known to most backpackers, but to more traditional travelers. I was curious to see how these cities would cater to the tastes and needs of this group vs. then backpacker crowd…
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Monterrey with Robert & Charlie
Robert and I have been discussing on and off for years about doing a visit to Monterrey. I met him when I was a freshman in college and he came to NYU to visit Andrea and Natalia. He was studying architecture in Monterrey.
Robert picked me up from the airport and immediately took my to Habita, the famous rooftop restaurant and bar with panoramic views of the city and it’s surrounding mountains. The first thing I noticed on the way there was that Monterrey had the most beautiful and modern highways I had seen in Mexico, except for the intra-urban left-side exits every now and then. Eeek…
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Energetic signage.
Guadalajara
I’ve met some lovely people over the years who have described Guadalajara with such lovely phrases as “The Boston of Mexico”. It has been on my list for a while because I’ve been to the state of Jalisco many times but only to Puerto Vallarta. As the capital of the state, I figured Guadalajara would be a good mix of Mexican urban life, architecture, history and food. It ends up that Guadalajara is not that simple. It’s public transportation infrastructure is mostly based on highways and the newly implemented, but not highly functional, bike share system. There is a small metro, but it does not touch the Bario Americana or the trendy Avenida Chapultepec, where I was staying…
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