My Mexico Trip

The idea came from a casual conversation we had over dinner after a sales meeting (or so I remember) - wouldn't it be great to experience the REAL Mexico? Soon enough, I was headed to Mexico City in Janurary with friends from the office right before Chinese New Year's

<--- Historic Downtown, Mexico City



I had joked about the one time in Cancun where they had a red/green traffic-light system for handing out customs inspections. This time, I thought it was odd that my luggage was being x-rayed ENTERING the country...and sure enough I also had to press a button for the "traffic-light customs draw"!

<--- Mural by Diego Rivera,Mexico City


Had my first Mexican beer the moment I cleared customs, drank it too fast; add to that the elevation (7000ft above sea level), got tipsy turvey and rolled-out of the lift taking us to the apartment in which we were to staying - totally embarrassing and avoidably as I was well aware of my alcohol tolerance!! LOL!

Sunset in town of San Miguel de Allende -->

The theme of our trip was sights and sounds of the colonial heartlands of Mexico. We ended up spending most of our time trying out all the Mexican dishes we could find on restaurant menus and of course all the makes and brands of beers and tequilas the waiters could rhyme-off in front of us: Bohemia, Pacifico, Modelo, Indio, Estrella.....etc.

<--- The gang atop a hill overlooking town of Guanajuato

First stop after Mexico City was San Miguel de Allende, small town filled with artesans and, surprise, tourists! Picturesque, peaceful. Lovely.

In Guanajuato, we visited a mummy museum. Mexico is fascinated with the dead - worshipped and at the same time subject of humour. We saw the mummy of a Chinese woman who died in Mexico in the 1800's - curator theorized she was likely headed for California, gold rush. Also saw an Inquisition museum archiving some tools of torture - didn't want any keepsake pictures of them, for sure. And how could we not see one of the old mines of Guanajuato?

<--- Mural by Jose Clemente Orozco

Final stop, Guadalajara. We were warmly received by Daniel's buddies and his wonderful relatives. Of course, when old friends meet, there's lots of laughing, eating and DRINKING. Tequila smooth like cognac goes down fast and goes right to your head. Seafood is good in Guadalajara, the sweetest oysters and clams, straight up with sea salt, lime juice and hot salsa.

Historical downtown, Guadalajara -->

Casuela: fruits, fresco (soda), ice, 2 shots of Tequila -->
To me, Mexico is a place of interesting contrasts besides the obvious ones between the "have all" and "have nots" - drivers in the big cities like Guadalajara and Mexico City would sooner die that let your merge into their traffic flow, but whenever we were lost during the road trip everyone went out of their ways to help find us the correct route. I was always on high alert for pick-pockets, purse snatchers etc.. like everyone tells me to be, and yet I know of no other country where you can "pick-up" a tour guide from roadside, entrust him with your car keys and your life (he drives, not you!) while you go into a museum for an hour - like we did in Guanajuato.