José Clemente Orozco
"Art is knowledge at the service of emotion."
Unappreciated in his native land for much of his life, José Clemente Orozco was eventually hailed as “the greatest painter Mexico has produced” during the years preceding his death by none other than arch-rival Diego Rivera. Orozco (1883-1949) dreamed of being an artist since early childhood, but tragedy struck before he was a teenager. First...
Exchanging Money in Mexico
If you’re coming down for a few weeks or even for the entire “high season,” you can convert your funds in three ways. First, you could bring U.S. (or Canadian) cash and trade it in for Mexican pesos at either a bank or a casa de cambio (a money-changing station). Second, you could arrive with...
Travails in Paradise: IMSS ADVENTURES
Renewing your annual IMSS health insurance coverage
Knowing I needed to renew my annual IMSS health insurance coverage for the first time in September, 2011, I hiked over there last month to make sure I had all the newest details on how to do so. Confident I was fully prepared, I hiked back this past Wednesday with three copies of one form and carbon-interlaced copies...
Guadalajara Travelogue
The first time I visited Guadalajara, I was prepared to be completely overwhelmed. I’d been living in Zihuatanejo for awhile and was used to a small town atmosphere. Now I was going to a place about seventeen times bigger…actually fifty times mas grande if you include the seven adjacent municipalities comprising the densely-populated metropolitan area....
Getting a Mexican Driver’s License
It’s really not very difficult to get a Mexican driver’s license in Zihuatanejo if you have the right documentation. The word that best describes the process for those of us hailing from the U.S. and Canada is: puzzling. You don’t have to take a written test to prove you know the rules of the road....
Being Prepared for Emergencies
Travel is one of the great joys life has to offer, but that joy can rapidly become a nightmare if disaster strikes and you’re unprepared. Thinking about accidents and medical emergencies might not rate very high on the trip anticipation meter, but – as Benjamin Franklin so aptly put it centuries ago – “An ounce...
Butterflies of the Zihuatanejo Area
Until recently, only fifty-nine species of butterflies had been formally cataloged by naturalists working in the Zihuatanejo area early in the twentieth century, but thanks to an ambitious college thesis project by Mexico City biology major Ana Luisa Figueroa, that number is up to 155 and still climbing. Figueroa began her work at El Refugio...
Getting the Old Broad’s Card
Mexico’s INAPAM card
Turning 60 earlier this year didn’t exactly find me turning cartwheels of joy. (And could I have even if I’d wanted to, one wonders?) But there was one very bright spot in becoming a sexagenarian, and that was qualifying for Mexico’s INAPAM card. INAPAM stands for Instituto Nacional de las Personas Adultos Mayores, and it...
Climbing Cerro del Estribo
in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán
Pátzcuaro is a city with infinite colonial charm and one of Mexico’s most popular destinations for November’s Day of the Dead celebrations. Centuries-old buildings steeped in history, cobblestone streets reminding you they’ve been here a lot longer than you have, el Baile de los Viejitos (Dance of the Little Old Men) performed daily in the...
Zacatecas Travelogue
The gorgeous colonial architecture invites inspection, and the baroque cathedral downtown is perhaps the single finest example of the ornate Churrigueresque style to be found in Mexico… Zacatecas had never been particularly high on our list of cities to visit in Mexico, but not long ago it was on our way to somewhere else, so...
Ajijic & Mazamitla Travelogue
Here’s a two-destination trip offering not only a big change from the Pacific Coast splendor of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo but vivid contrasts between the two cities themselves: Ajijic and Mazamitla. Both places are located northwest of here in the state of Jalisco, but while Ajijic can lay claim to being the ex-pat capital of Mexico, you might...
Tonala and Tlaquepaque
Tonala and Tlaquepaque….no, neither a singing duo nor a rock group, but sister cities southeast of Guadalajara where you can shop till you drop and do much less damage to your pocketbook than you would have ever thought possible. Some people still consider Tlaquepaque and Tonala “suburbs” of Guadalajara, but with the population of...
