Any Travels

Mexico is a traveller's paradise, crammed with a multitude of opposing identities: desert landscapes, snow-capped volcanoes, ancient ruins, teeming industrialised cities, time-warped colonial towns, glitzy resorts, lonely beaches and a world-beating collection of flora and fauna.

This mix of modern and traditional, the cliched and the surreal, is the key to Mexico's charm, whether your passion is throwing back margaritas, listening to howler monkeys, surfing the Mexican Pipeline, scrambling over Mayan ruins or expanding your Day of the Dead collection of posable skeletons.

One look at this country is enough to remind visitors that there is nothing new about the so-called New World. Despite the considerable colonial legacy and rampant modernisation, almost 60 distinct indigenous peoples survive, largely thanks to their rural isolation.

Mexico is a diverse place, and has a lot to offer to travelers. Whether you decide to visit the beautiful beaches famous around the world, historical cities from the times of the Spanish colony and archeological sites of cultures such as the Maya, Olmeca and Azteca among others, beautiful national parks in deserts, mountains and forests, or just hang out in one of the modern cities, you will enjoy it.

Highlights in Mexico are the capital city of Mexico City, Monterrey, with its beautiful colonial buildings and Guadalajara. For colonial cities one should visit Oaxaca, Morelia, San Miguel de Allende., Guanajuato, Morelia, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Veracruz, Merida in the Yucatan peninsula, among others. Acapulco, Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen located at the Riviera Maya, Mazatlan, Manzanillo, Ixtapa and Puerto Vallarta among others, are the place to be for all fun loving creatures. The peninsula of Yucatan offers an ideal mix of Maya culture, great weather and some of the world's best snorkeling and diving in places such as Cozumel and Cancun located at the Riviera Maya. Los Cabos in Baja California Sur has been a favourite get-away for Mexicans and Americans for years.

Archeological sites in Mexico are vast, one should keep in mind Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza, Palenque, El Tajin among just a few.

For those looking for an active vacation Mexico offers golf courses, scuba diving and lots of mountains to go hiking in.

Refrain from visiting the Northern parts of Mexico near the California border at night, or just in general. Southern and Central Mexico are beautiful and much more culturally accurate.

Deeply rich and colourful, Mexico's vibrant culture is evident wherever you look. It has a spirit that soaks itself into the art, the architecture, the food and the literature. Mexico is covered with murals, littered with galleries, carries a deep folk-art tradition and has produced some of the world's most renowned painters. Its ancient civilizations have produced some of the most spectacular architecture ever built, while its modern proponents deliver some ground-breaking examples of contemporary design. And its writers, such as Carlos Fuentes and Octavio Paz, poetically evoke the Mexican psyche.

Mexicans have had a talent for art and color since pre-Hispanic times. Today, Mexico is covered with murals and littered with galleries of contemporary and historic art, which are a highlight of the country for many visitors. Mexican creativity is also expressed through the country's vibrant folk-art tradition. Notable examples of pre-Hispanic art include the Olmecs' monumental stone heads, the early Paradise of Tlaloc murals at Teotihuacan and the Mayan murals at Bonampak in Chiapas.

The art of the colonial period was largely religious and Spanish in tone. The influence of indigenous artisans can be seen in the elaborate altarpieces and sculpted walls and ceilings that decorate the country's many churches. The arts were regarded as an important part of the national revival after the revolution. Mexico's top artists, such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco, were commissioned to decorate important public buildings with large, vivid murals on social and historical themes. Frida Kahlo, who married Rivera, painted anguished self-portraits and surreal images that became hugely popular in the 1980s, decades after her death. These days Mexico City and Oaxaca have thriving contemporary arts scenes, with artists like Luis Zarate and Rodolfo Morales leading the charge.

Mexican cuisine is centered around three national staples: tortillas, beans and chili peppers. Tortillas are thin round patties of pressed corn or wheat-flour dough cooked on griddles. Beans (frijoles) are eaten boiled, fried or refried, in soups, on tortillas or with just about anything. Apart from an astonishing array of freshly squeezed fruit juices (jugos), which are readily available from street stalls, Mexico is also famous for its alcoholic beverages - mezcal and tequila in particular. Pulque is a mildly alcoholic drink derived directly from the sap of the maguey.