Allano's Travels in Mexico and Guatemala

By Allan Taylor

The joys and hazards of traveling alone and with companions are described in detail for Mexico and Guatemala in particular. Major tourist attractions such as Acapulco, Mexico City, the Yucatan, Antigua Guatemala and many more are investigated and evaluated, in the hope this will inspire others to do likewise.

The history of the towns and regions are explained and how they have changed from Spanish colonial times to the present day. The beautiful towns of the colonial era from Taxco to Guanajuato and Zacatecas are explored. Silver jewellery with precious stones is often admired and bought as everlasting mementoes.

Allano's favourite chillage spot of Panajachel, Guatemala and adjacent Lago Atitlan, a beautiful lake surrounded by volcanoes, is described in detail. It is the result of a super volcanic eruption that blew a huge hole in the landscape, which subsequently filled up with water. Another massive climatic disturbance described is the ancient meteorite strike in the Yucatan that destroyed all the dinosaurs.

Misadventures are related and how to travel safely is elaborated. On average you may be robbed once per month. The secret of successful travel is to know how to minimize the risks encountered. Finally, Allano leaves Mexico and takes a month to get to Panama by bus, arriving safely, in time to catch a plane to South Africa.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allan Taylor
• Release date: Sep 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301682669

Allan Taylor

Allan Taylor is the minister of education at First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Georgia, where Sunday School attendance has grown from 2,500 to 5,000 under his leadership. He is also the founder of Ember to Blaze Ministries and writes Sunday School, leadership, and training materials including his previous book, The Six Core Values of Sunday School. Allan and his wife, Linda, have three children and two grandchildren.

Book preview

Allano's Travels in

Mexico and Guatemala

By Allan Taylor

Table of Contents

Introduction

Mexico City * The Silver Cities

Guanajuato * Uruapan

Monarchs of the Mountain

Acapulco and Pacific Beaches

Mexico City Again * Grand Pyramid of Cholula

Oaxaca Interlude * Yucatan Mysteries

Belize * Guatemalan Traverse * Safety in Numbers

Tikal Ruins * Lago Atitlan * Jade at Antigua

Gemstones of Mexico and Guatemala

Copan Ruins in Honduras * Pyramids Compared

Gulf of Honduras * Nicaragua

Costa Rica & Panama

Conclusions

Copyright 2013 Allan Taylor

Smashwords Edition

License Notes

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Photo Attribution

Cover image is of El Castillo at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan. Photo by Eric Baetscher from Wikipedia Commons. (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)

Introduction

Life begins at sixty, so they say. It did for me. This ebook is a collection of 20 travel articles (ca 30,000 words) about Mexico and Central America that I had published in various newspapers and magazines ages ago. It seemed a pity to see them fade away into obscurity and be forgotten. They recount my observations and adventures whilst travelling at the age of sixty plus. This is important for several reasons. The sixties decade is the last era to travel comfortably. If you don’t make the effort then you will never do so in later life, because of the real possibility of poor health and/or lack of money, and lack of life itself. So make the most of being a spry sixty year old.

I have travelled through Mexico on four visits of two to three months duration. Up-to-date travel information is now added and with links to the Internet, although original data on prices mentioned in the articles are unchanged. A final &&& mark delineates the end of a rescued travel article. Spanish accents in place names have not always been retained because they are not liked by Smashwords, which prefers simple type for conversions.

Before, I have never written about my misadventures since travel writers don’t like to look stupid. Here I include some worrying incidents and how they were overcome. Every trip of a few months duration will have some life-threatening incident where, if you make the wrong decision, you could end up much poorer, mugged or dead. Now that I am safely retired I can write and explain what happened. Mostly this ebook is about roaming Mexico and Guatemala with brief excursions further south and finally to Panama.

I was born and grew up in New Zealand. This is a wonderful country full of mountains, volcanoes, lakes and rivers full of trout. The countryside is a lush green dotted with sheep and cows. You could not be more isolated from the rest of the cultured world of the Northern Hemisphere, unless you lived on the Falkland Islands, near the southern tip of South America. So naturally, every New Zealander has the urge to travel the world and see if it really exists as portrayed in books. I lived for twenty years in windy Wellington and then opted for Adelaide, South Australia, which has a wonderful Mediterranean climate. Adelaide, for the past fifteen years, has become my base from which to explore those parts of the world that interest me most, namely Latin America. So let’s start with Mexico and Central America.

How to get to Mexico from Australia? There are no direct flights, like as from Sydney. You have to fly to Los Angeles, USA and change planes for Mexico City. Twice I entered Mexico by bus from the USA, crossing the border at Nogales and Nuevo Laredo. The cheapest way now is to fly Japan Airlines to Tokyo, stay free overnight and next day go via Vancouver, Canada, overflying the US, to land at Mexico City.

MEXICO

My first visit to Mexico was in November 1995. I was travelling alone and entered at Nogales from the USA. Nobody was around at the frontier. I walked across and took waiting taxi to the bus terminal. I caught a bus to Los Mochis and stayed overnight at a cheap hotel. Next day I was up early to catch the train to Copper Canyon and to stop over at Creel. My lack of exist and entry stamps on my passport proved rather embarrassing at subsequent border crossings. I was told You can’t leave because you are not here! This was difficult to explain in my Ossie Spanish. Eventually I arrived in Mexico City for the first time.

Mexico City

The largest city in the world, so they say, with more than 25 million people and possibly the worst air pollution!   Would the pilot see the airport for smog, I wondered?

For this reason, I had ambivalent feelings about flying to Mexico City.  Better go by bus. I was loath to leave the sun and surf of Acapulco, the premier Mexican Pacific beach resort. To visit el DF as the locals call it (el Distrito Federal), was a daunting thought. I took a luxury bus ride to the capital. The highway climbs through rocky, barren mountains studded with cacti. Isolated corn fields and children riding donkeys broke the monotony.

Mexico City sprawls across the altiplano at 2240 meters altitude and is ringed by mountains. Automobile exhausts and industrial pollution can create a great smog, especially when the phenomenon of thermal inversion occurs. This happens when the warm Pacific air flows over the Valley of Mexico and traps the cooler polluted air at ground level which rapidly becomes even more polluted.

Air pollution levels are continually monitored. At a specific high level there is a mandatory reduction in certain industrial activity and use of automobiles is discouraged. People are advised to stay indoors and if venturing on the streets, to wear a mascarilla, or face mask. One occasion during my December visit visibility was down to 4 kms briefly, otherwise things were OK. This means there are no twinkling stars at night time.

I arrived at Terminal Sur full of apprehension. But slowly this evaporated! I found the taxis well organized. I went to a kiosk and explained where I want to go, paid a standard fee, got my ticket and fronted up to the taxi rank.

Lléveme al zócalo, por favor. I wanted to go to the central plaza. My Lonely Planet Guide mentioned several economical backpackers close to the Zocalo.

The Zócalo is one of the world’s biggest plazas measuring 240 meters square. A monster size Mexican flag flies in the center. The entire northern side is taken up with the Metropolitan Cathedral, perceptibly leaning this way and that, and on the east side is the National Palace and entrance underground to the metro station.

The metro is fantastic! For only a few pesos you can go anywhere all day with transfers on nine lines. The trains are rubber-wheeled, long, crowded, fast and zoom by every 30 seconds or so. The 135 metro stations are modern, often with shopping malls. Amazingly, the metro actually goes to the airport and all four major bus terminals!

Taxis are plentiful and inexpensive, especially the VW beetles. The net result is that Mexico City, although huge, is easy to get around in.

The natural starting point to explore Mexico City is the Zócalo. Formerly this was the center of the lakeside Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, which was a thriving metropolis with a population estimated at 200,000 when discovered and later destroyed by Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés, in 1520 AD. He rebuilt the city as the Spanish capital of the New World.

Much of the paving stone in the Zócalo is derived from destroyed Aztec buildings. The foundations of the Great Pyramid are preserved in the block adjacent to the Cathedral. On site is the superb Museo del Templo Mayor which records the development of human habitation here.

Next door is the National Palace, now home of the Mexican President, the Federal Treasury and National Archives. It was built by Cortés on the site of the palace of Emperor Montezuma II. The main attraction for tourists today is the display of dramatic historical murals by Diego Rivera, that adorn the walls of the balconies overlooking the central courtyard.

The guardians of Federal authority are conspicuous around the Zócalo making it one of the safest places in Mexico for the tourist to roam. The policemen are polite and helpful. On a busy street corner I got