The Soul of Mexico

The latest issue of Travel+Leisure has a feature on Mexico’s colonial cities, “The Soul of Mexico.” The writer visited six cities: Puebla, Querétaro, Morelia, Guanajuato, Cuernavaca, and Oaxaca. I only managed to spend a couple of days in Guanajuato this past March, but I fell in love with it and I want to go back with more time to explore it and the other cities in the area. While we were there, we met a friendly couple from Morelia who toured some of the sites with us in Guanajuato, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Lovely warm people, and their description of their home city of Morelia put it very high on my list of places to visit whenever I go back.

As the article says, “The colonial cities are ideal for walking: compact, yet architecturally rich and accentuated with unanticipated blasts of color and imagery.” I’m suddenly filled with a longing to return.

By the way, the article rightly suggests that you don't try to drive yourself in Mexico. They recommend instead that you hire a car and driver. That might be a nice thing, especially if you get someone who can also act as a guide to the local culture. My travel companion had been to Mexico before so we took buses everywhere and they were a fabulous way to get around. The bus system in Mexico is excellent; see this article for more on taking buses in Mexico.

Comments

[Steven Erat]

Yes, in my experience, the bus system in Mexico was very good.

For several years in the mid 90s, I usually travelled on Chihuahuenses through the 6 hours of scorching desert between Ciudad Juarez near El Paso and Ciudad Delicias. This bus was typically stopped several miles past Juarez and boarded by either some branch of the military or police for a brief drug sweep I presume. Along the journey, the bus driver would make frequent stops at small vendors selling ice creams and sodas from their vehicles parked on the roadside, which I suspect was a mutually beneficial, informal business arrangement. I recall that during the leg between Delicias and Chihuahua the bus driver would often permit a 'guest speaker' to board and solicit the riders to visit spas or buy some artisan products.

On my one occasion in the south of Mexico I traveled on ADO (Autobuses de Oriente) from the very busy TAPO station in Mexico City to Oaxaca. Both Chihuahuenses and ADO bus lines were very much like the US's Greyhound bus line and equally as comfortable. There were several military checkpoints as we approached Oaxaca (this was 1999), where I think the threat was Zapatista uprisers.

From Mexico City I also traveled to and from Queretaro and San Miguel de Allende on the luxury bus line ETN. This was a fantastic, first-class experience, and not much more expensive than the former bus lines.

All the buses had heavy shades to block out the strong sun, and most were supplied with TVs, although the range of movie selection bordered on the absurd on some journies.

I read that it was very dangerous to hail a cab on the street in Mexico City, and that you should always request a cab from a nearby kiosk. At La Gruta, a thermal spring near San Miguel, a man told the story of how his cab had stopped at a traffic light, sandwiched between other vehicles, and the cab was forcibly entered by a team of thugs who promptly took everything.

[leslee]

Oh yeah, we frequently had vendors on the bus at the beginning or at a stop - sometimes selling food, once hawking some miracle cream (smelled like Ben-Gay). The guy in front of us said the bus driver gets to decide who gets to board the bus and sell stuff.

We rode a big comfy bus from San Miguel to Guadalajara. The buses on our shorter trips were okay, though - a couple of times the AC wasn't working and it got pretty warm. The movies were awful!! Usually bad American movies with subtitles - LOUD! At least with the luxury bus we didn't have to deal with that.

I've heard about the taxis in D.F. We hailed cabs on the street in Guadalajara. At least at this point it seems to be pretty safe there.