Sights in Mexico
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El Panchán
El Panchán is a legendary travelers’ hangout, set in a patch of dense rainforest. It’s the epicenter of Palenque’s alternative scene and home to a bohemian bunch of Mexican and foreign residents and wanderers, including a number of archaeologists and anthropologists. Once ranchland, the area has been reforested by the remarkable Morales family, some of whom are among the leading archaeological experts on Palenque. El Panchán has several (fairly rustic) places to stay, a couple of restaurants, a set of sinuous streams rippling their way through every part of the property, nightly entertainment, a meditation temple, a temascal (pre-Hispanic steam bath) and a constant strea…
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Zócalo
The heart of Mexico City is the Plaza de la Constitución, more widely known as the Zócalo, meaning ‘base.’ City residents gave it this nickname in the 19th century, when plans for a major monument to independence went unrealized, leaving only the pedestal. Measuring more than 220m from north to south and 240m from east to west, the Zócalo is one of the world’s largest city squares.
The ceremonial center of Aztec Tenochtitlán, known as the Teocalli, lay immediately northeast of the Zócalo. In the 1520s Cortés paved the plaza with stones from the ruined Teocalli and other Aztec buildings. The Inquisition performed its first auto-da-fe here in 1574. In the 18th cent…
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Tonalá
This dusty, bustling suburb is about 13km southeast of downtown Guadalajara and home to even more artisans. You can feel this town beginning to take Tlaquepaque's lead, with a few airy, inviting showrooms and cafés opening around town, but it remains happily rough around the edges. It's fun to roam through the dark, dusty stores and workshops. Anything you can buy in Tlaquepaque, you can find here for much less, which is what attracts wholesale buyers from all over the world.
On Thursday and Sunday, Tonalá bursts into a huge street market that sprouts on Av Tonaltecas and crawls through dozens of streets and alleys and takes hours to explore. This is where wholesale meet…
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Ex-Hacienda San Gabriel de Barrera
To escape Guanajuato's bustling streets, head 2.5km west to this magnificent colonial home which is now a museum, Ex-Hacienda San Gabriel de Barrera, with stunning gardens. This tranquil retreat is well worth a couple of hours.
Built at the end of the 17th century, this was the grand hacienda of Captain Gabriel de Barrera, whose family was descended from the first Conde de Rul of the famous La Valenciana mine. Opened as a museum in 1979, the hacienda, with its opulent period European furnishings, provides an insight into the lives of the wealthy of the time.
The large, shady grounds, originally devoted to processing ore from La Valenciana, were converted in 1945 to a serie…
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Catedral
Morelia's beautiful cathedral (unforgettable when it's lit up at night) dominates the plaza and took more than a century to build (1640−1744), which explains its combination of Herreresque, baroque and neoclassical styles.
The twin 70m-high towers, for instance, have classical Herreresque bases, baroque midsections and multicolumned neoclassical tops. Inside, much of the baroque relief work was replaced in the 19th century with neoclassical pieces. Fortunately, one of the cathedral's interior highlights was preserved: a sculpture of the Señor de la Sacristía made from dried corn paste and topped with a gold crown from 16th-century Spanish king Felipe II. It also has a w…
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Reserva de la Biosfera El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar
North and northwest of Puerto Peñasco extends the massive, 7145-sq-km Reserva de la Biosfera El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar. The reserve comprises the 5000-sq-km Gran Desierto de Altar, with dunes up to 200m high; and the Sierra El Pinacate area with majestic volcanic mountains, nine giant extinct craters, 400-plus ash cones, and petrified lava flows. It’s a surreal and astonishing landscape with an extreme climate. You can access the dunes area at the new, solar-powered visitors center, about 8km west of Km 73 on Hwy 8 (some 25km from Puerto Peñasco).
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Palacio de Bellas Artes
Dominating the east end of the Alameda is this splendid white-marble palace, a concert hall and arts center commissioned by President Porfirio Díaz. Construction began in 1905 under Italian architect Adamo Boari, who favored neoclassical and art nouveau styles. Complications arose as the heavy marble shell sank into the spongy subsoil, and then the Mexican Revolution intervened. Architect Federico Mariscal eventually finished the interior in the 1930s, utilizing the more modern art deco style.
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El Cedral
This Mayan ruin, which functioned as a jail in the 19th century, is the oldest on the island, dating way, way back to AD 800. It's not obviously alluring, but it is the most accessible of Cozumel's ruins. The ancient structure is the size of a small house, so keep your eyes peeled. El Cedral is thought to have been an important ceremonial site. Today a small stucco church sits next to the ruin.
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Playa Delfines
Delfines is about the only beach with a public car park; unfortunately, its sand is coarser and darker than the exquisite fine sand of the more northerly beaches. On the upside, the beach has great views, there are some nearby Maya Ruins to check out and, as the last beach along the boulevard, it is rarely crowded. Heed the signs regarding swimming conditions as undertows are common here.
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Museo Casa Allende
Near the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel is the house where Ignacio Allende was born, now the Museo Casa Allende. Recently remodelled, the museum relates the interesting history of the San Miguel area. The 2nd floor is a reproduction of Allende’s home. A Latin inscription on the facade reads Hic natus ubique notus, which means ‘Here born, everywhere known.’
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Museo del Ámbar de Chiapas
Chiapas amber – fossilized pine resin, around 30 million years old – is known for its clarity and diverse colors. Most is mined around Simojovel, north of San Cristóbal. The Museo del Ámbar de Chiapas explains all things amber (with information sheets in English and other languages) and displays and sells some exquisitely carved items and insect-embedded pieces.
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Baluarte de Santiago
Until 1880 Veracruz was a walled city surrounded by mighty medieval defenses. Baluarte de Santiago, the only surviving fort of nine, was built in 1526 beside what was then the waterfront. A small exhibit of pre-Hispanic gold jewelry is inside. The price covers admission to the fort’s interior, but you can walk around the outside battlements for free.
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Cathedral
On the north side of the plaza, the cathedral was begun in 1528 but wasn't finally completed till 1815 because of several natural disasters. Sure enough, new earthquakes struck in 1816 and 1847, causing considerable damage, but it was restored again in 1920-22. The gold-leaf interior has five gilded altarpieces featuring 18th-century paintings by Miguel Cabrera.
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Mercado De Xochimilco
South of the plaza, the bustling Mercado de Xochimilco covers two vast buildings: the one nearer the Jardín Juárez has colorful flower displays and an eating annex for tamales and other prepared foods, while the one nearer the train station sells mostly produce and household goods, with a few pottery stalls.
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Templo de Santa Rosa de Viterbos
The 18th-century Templo de Santa Rosa de Viterbos is Querétaro's most splendid baroque church, with its pagoda-like bell tower, unusual exterior paintwork, curling buttresses and lavishly gilded and marbled interior. The church also boasts what some say is the earliest four-sided clock in the New World.
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Paraninfo
West of the city center, where Avenidas Juárez and Federalismo meet, is shady Parque Revolución, which has become a haven for pierced skaters. Three blocks further west is the Paraninfo, one of the main buildings of the Universidad de Guadalajara (UDG).
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Museo de Cera
Most of the motley crew at the Museo de Cera look mildly constipated, but it’s fun anyway. Madonna appears to have had open-heart surgery, Michael Jackson looks creepy and John Lennon, yep, appears appropriately stoned.
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Grutas de San Cristóbal
The entrance to this long cavern is among pine woods. The first half kilometer of the cave has a concrete walkway and is lit. The Mexican army took control of the land around the caves in 2003, though visitors are still welcome.
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Museo de la Medicina Maya
The award-winning Museo de la Medicina Maya introduces the system of traditional medicine used by many indigenous people in the Chiapas highlands. It's a 15-minute walk north from Calle Real de Guadalupe or around $18 by taxi.
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Palacio Nacional
Home to the offices of the president of Mexico, the Federal Treasury and dramatic murals by Diego Rivera, this palace fills the entire east side of the Zócalo.
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Zoh-Laguna Museum
Zoh-Laguna's interesting history is illustrated photographically in the small Zoh-Laguna Museum, opposite Hotel Bosque Modelo.
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Park Las Palapas
Park Las Palapas is quiet and safe, a great place for an afternoon picnic or an evening stroll.
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Statue of Hidalgo
The balding head of the visionary priest Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla is familiar to anyone who's ogled Mexican statues or murals. A genuine rebel idealist, Hidalgo sacrificed his career and risked his life on September 16, 1810 when he launched the independence movement.
Born on May 8, 1753, son of a criollo hacienda manager in Guanajuato, he earned a bachelor's degree and, in 1778, was ordained a priest. He returned to teach at his alma mater in Morelia and eventually became rector. But he was no orthodox cleric: Hidalgo questioned many Catholic traditions, read banned books, gambled, danced and had a mistress.
In 1800 he was brought before the Inquisition. Nothing w…
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Templo de las Inscripciones Group
As you walk in from the entrance, passing to the south of the overgrown Templo XI, the vegetation suddenly peels away to reveal most of Palenque's most magnificent buildings in one sublime vista. A line of temples rises in front of the jungle on your right, culminating in the Templo de las Inscripciones about 100m ahead; El Palacio, with its trademark tower, stands to the left of the Templo de las Inscripciones; and the Grupo de las Cruces rises in the distance beneath a thick jungle backdrop.
The first temple on your right is Templo XII, called the Templo de La Calavera (Temple of the Skull) for the relief sculpture of a rabbit or deer skull at the foot of one of its pil…
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Canals
Xochimilco (Náhuatl for 'Place where Flowers Grow') was an early target of Aztec hegemony, probably due to its inhabitants' farming skills. The Xochimilcas piled up vegetation and mud in the shallow waters of Lake Xochimilco, a southern offshoot of Lago de Texcoco, to make fertile gardens called chinampas, which later became an economic base of the Aztec empire. As the chinampas proliferated, much of the lake was transformed into a series of canals.
Approximately 180km of these waterways remain today and provide a favorite weekend destination for defeños. The chinampas are still under cultivation, mainly for garden plants and flowers such as poinsettias and marigolds. O…
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