The Rough Guide to Mexico (Travel Guide eBook)

Rough Guides

Description

World-renowned 'tell it like it is' guidebook available

Discover Mexico with this comprehensive, entertaining, 'tell it like it is' Rough Guide, packed with comprehensive practical information and our experts' honest and independent recommendations.

Whether you plan to see the sprawling Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá, listen to mariachi in Mexico City, go diving off Isla Cozumel or try Mexico's favourite tipple in Tequila, The Rough Guide to Mexico will help you discover the best places to explore, sleep, eat, drink and shop along the way.

Features of The Rough Guide to Mexico:
- Detailed regional coverage: provides in-depth practical information for each step of all kinds of trip, from intrepid off-the-beaten-track adventures, to chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas. Regions covered include: Mexico City, Acapulco, Inland Jalisco, The Bajío, Veracruz, Copper Canyon, Baja California, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco, The Yucatán.
- Honest independent reviews: written with Rough Guides' trademark blend of humour, honesty and expertise, and recommendations you can truly trust, our writers will help you get the most from your trip to Mexico. 
- Meticulous mapping: always full-colour, with clearly numbered, colour-coded keys. Find your way around the colonial town of Guanajuato, the beautiful beaches of Baja, and many more locations without needing to get online.
- Fabulous full-colour photography: features a richness of inspirational colour photography, including the rich wildlife of Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve and the ancient temples at Bonampak.
- Things not to miss: Rough Guides' rundown of Mexico's best sights and top experiences, from Real de Catorce and The Zócalo to El Tajín and Tulum.
- Itineraries: carefully planned routes will help you organise your trip, and inspire and inform your on-the-road experiences.
- Basics section: packed with essential pre-departure information including getting there, getting around, accommodation, food and drink, health, the media, festivals, sports and outdoor activities, culture and etiquette, shopping and more.
- Background information: comprehensive Contexts chapter provides fascinating insights into Mexico, with coverage of history, religion, ethnic groups, environment, wildlife and books, plus a handy language section and glossary.

About Rough Guides: Rough Guides have been inspiring travellers for over 35 years, with over 30 million copies sold globally. Synonymous with practical travel tips, quality writing and a trustworthy 'tell it like it is' ethos, the Rough Guides list includes more than 260 travel guides to 120+ destinations, gift-books and phrasebooks.

Sujets

• México
• Travel
• Mexico

Informations

• Publié par: Apa Publications
• Date de parution: 01 août 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789196191
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 19 Mo

Extrait

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COWBOY IN GUADALAJARA
Contents
INTRODUCTION
Where to go
When to go
Author picks
Things not to miss
Itineraries
BASICS
Getting there
Visas and entry requirements
Getting around
Accommodation
Crime and personal safety
Health
Food and drink
The media
Festivals
Sports and outdoor activities
Culture and etiquette
Shopping
Travelling with children
Travel essentials
THE GUIDE
1 Mexico City
2 Around Mexico City
3 Acapulco and the Pacific beaches
4 Inland Jalisco and Michoacán
5 The Bajío
6 Veracruz
7 The north
8 The northwest and Copper Canyon
9 Baja California
10 Oaxaca
11 Chiapas and Tabasco
12 The Yucatán
CONTEXTS
History
Environment and wildlife
Music
Books
Language
Glossary
SMALL PRINT
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Introduction to
Mexico
The home of tacos, Aztecs, sombreros and tequila, not to mention Pancho Villa, Salma Hayek and Frida Kahlo: almost everyone on the planet knows something about Mexico. Yet there’s far more to this country than the stereotypes. One of the world’s great civilizations, Mexico offers a tantalizing blend of Mesoamerican cultures, Spanish traditions and contemporary arts. Its landscapes range from the shimmering blue coastline of Baja California and the iconic cactus-strewn deserts of the north, to the Maya villages and gorgeous palm-smothered beaches of the south. You can climb volcanoes, watch whales, sunbathe on golden beaches and tour agave farms. And sprinkled throughout you’ll find richly adorned colonial churches, giant pyramids and some of the tastiest food in the world.
The 130 million people of Mexico reflect this variety, too. Indigenous communities represent around ten percent of the population, with the Nahua, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Otomí and Totonac the largest groups. There are also a few Mexicans of predominantly Spanish or European descent, invariably forming the ranks of the mega-rich, even if billionaire Carlos Slim actually has Lebanese ancestry. The great majority of the population (over eighty percent), though, is mestizo , with a mix of European, African, Middle Eastern, Asian and indigenous heritage. Add in a multitude of distinct regional identities, from the cowboy culture of the northern deserts to the Mesoamerican traditions of the south, and you have a thrilling, constantly surprising place to travel.
Despite the inevitable influence of the US, looming to the north, and close links with the rest of the Spanish-speaking world (an avid audience for Mexican pop and soap operas), the country remains resolutely individual. The music that fills the plazas in the evenings, the buildings that circle around them, even the smells emanating from a row of taco carts: they all leave you without any doubt about where you are.
Mexico has a fairly robust economy, the world’s fifteenth largest, a remarkably thorough and efficient internal transport system and a vibrant contemporary arts and music scene. Indeed, in thepast twenty-five years or so Mexico has largely become a middle-class society , perhaps the country’s greatest achievement since Independence. Mexico has the highest GDP in Latin America after Brazil, but huge inequalities of wealth remain and it is far from all suburbs and SUVs.
Adventure in Mexico can be found through happening upon a village fiesta , complete with rowdy singing and dancing, or hopping on a rural bus, packed with farmers all carrying machetes half their height and curious about how you’ve wound up going their way. It’s also true that Mexico is not always an easy place to travel around. The power may go off, the water may not be drinkable and occasionally it can seem that there’s incessant, inescapable noise and dirt. Although the mañana mentality is largely an outsiders’ myth, rural Mexico is still a land where timetables are not always to be entirely trusted, where anything that can break down will break down (often when it’s most needed) and where any attempt to do things in a hurry is liable to be frustrated.
More deeply disturbing are the extremes of wealth and poverty that still exist, most poignantly in the big cities, where unemployment is high and living conditions beyond crowded, as well as the ongoing drug wars that provide a seemingly non-stop stream of sensational, often gruesome, headlines. While the violence is very real in some parts of the country and it pays to be vigilant, the danger for tourists is generally minimal – for the most part, you’ll find this is a friendly, varied and enormously enjoyable place in which to travel. Mexico is a country that draws you back again and again.

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QUETZAL DANCERS IN AZTEC COSTUMES, PUEBLA

Fact file The world’s richest person in the 2010–2013 period was Mexican: Carlos Slim Helú is thought to be worth around US$67 billion thanks to his holdings in companies such as Telmex and América Móvil. Because it is built on an ancient lake bed, Mexico City is sinking at a rate of 15–20cm per year. Mexico is the home of chocolate (from the Náhuatl “xocolatl”), chiles and maize (corn), though it exports more tomatoes than any other crop (also derived from the Náhuatl word “tomatl”). The Chihuahua is officially the world’s smallest breed of dog and really is named after the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Bugs have been culinary delicacies in Mexico since Aztec times, with some of the most popular cocopaches (a type of cockroach), chicatanas (flying ants) and escamoles (ant larvae and pupae). Some 66 million years ago the Chicxulub asteroid crashed into the Yucatán Peninsula, dramatically disrupting the climate around the world and triggering the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Where to go
Mexico City , though a nightmare of urban sprawl, is totally fascinating, and in every way – artistic, political, cultural – the capital of the nation. Around the city lie the chief relics of the pre-Hispanic cultures of central Mexico: the massive pyramids of Teotihuacán and the main Toltec site at Tula . Guadalajara , to the west, is a city on a more human scale, capital of the state of Jalisco and in easy reach of Michoacán : between them, these states share some of the most gently scenic country in Mexico, where the thickly forested hills are studded with lakes and ancient villages.
South of the capital, the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, home to some of the largest populations of pure indigenous groups, are mountainous and beautiful, too, but in a far wilder way. The city of Oaxaca is especially enticing, with an extraordinary mix of colonial and indigenous life, superb markets and fascinating archeological sites. Likewise, the strength of indigenous traditions in and around the market city of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas continues to make it a big travellers’ centre. It’s typically the stop before the picturesque Maya ruins of Palenque . East into the Yucatán there is also traditional indigenous life, side by side with a tourist industry based around truly magnificent Maya cities – Chichén Itzá and Uxmal above all – and the burgeoning Caribbean resorts that stretch down the coast, most notably Cancún and Playa del Carmen .
On the Pacific coast, where the surf is wilder and the scenery more rugged than in the Caribbean, Acapulco is the best known of the beach destinations. Along the ocean to the north, hundreds of kilometres of relatively empty sand are broken up only by resort cities like Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta . Relatively few tourists venture over to the Gulf coast, despite the attractions of Veracruz and its mysterious ruins. A pity, as for music and general bonhomie, the city’s central plaza is one of the country’s finest destinations.
Coming through the Bajío , the heart of the country, you’ll pass the beautiful silver-mining towns of Zacatecas and Guanajuato , the historic centres of San Miguel de Allende and Querétaro , and many smaller places with a legacy of superb colonial architecture. Between here and the US border lie vast deserts and mountain ranges, home to the Copper Canyon , with its spectacular rail journey, the mysterious ruins at Paquimé and the dynamic industrial city of Monterrey . Baja California in the far northwest of Mexico is a major destination in its own right, with world-class whale watching, untrammelled beaches and crumbling Spanish ruins.

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TACO SHOP, SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS

Mexico’s magnificent markets
The colour and bustle of Mexico’s markets is hard to beat. Even if you have no intention of buying, half an hour is always well spent meandering through narrow aisles surrounded by heaps of perfectly ripe fruit and stacks of nopal cactus leaves (though stay away from the meat sections if you’re at all squeamish). In small villages, like those around Oaxaca , inhabitants still recognize one day of the week as the traditional market day.
Towns of any size will have a market, usually daily, an important centre of local life and source of cheap eats (San Cristóbal de las Casas and Papantla are good examples), while in the cities, each barrio has its own vibrant mercado: among the best are Mexico City’s La Merced and the arts and crafts-oriented Ciudadela . Markets in San Miguel Allende are also better known for arts and crafts , as are Oaxaca’s city mercados . Toluca is the mother