Job Discussion Forums

Punter · Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 10

My girlfriend and I wrapped up teaching ESL in Merida for a year and want to take a trip all throughout Mexico. We've done a lot of research but wanted to hear from you guys what should not be missed. Tell us about the great places you live and work! Thanks Smile

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Dec. 12th, Mexico City, Basilica de Guadelupe. If you like crowded events, 7 million or so should do the trick. Pilgrims from around the country every year to mark this day, on which a miracle vision of Mary appeared to a now-sainted Indio named Juan Diego, some 450 years ago.

Monarch butterflies returning to winter in Michoacan. There's another thread about it. http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=32263

T'is bullfighting season. Jalisco and Mexico City attract the best bullfighters all through the winter.

MELEE · Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 11:16 pm Post subject:

When Lozwich was leaving Mexico, I started this thread

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=10329&highlight=

I stand by what I said there, but I've since been to Michoacan, so I'd like to add,

TzinTzunTzan, especially in the rainy season, the mist moving across the lake makes for great views from the ruins (otherwise I wasn't that impressed by the ruins)
Patzcuaro was great, but like Oaxaca City, almost a clich�.

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

I agree with Melee. That area (The T place) is quite pretty. I have friends living there who love it.

M@tt · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 473 Location: here and there

Experiences highly recommended:
* downtown veracruz on a weekend night (preferably not during a norte) for music/ambiente/dancing/weather.
* living with a mexican family, even if just for a little while.
* chichen itza if you haven't done it already, and maybe swimming in a cenote, assuming there are no bodies inside.
* climbing pico de orizaba (secondhand recommendation).
* getting into a metro car at hidalgo, green line, during rush hour. bonus points if you get felt up by strangers.
* getting kissed by short old women who sell chicle(t)s
* guanajuato, GTO, esp. if you can attend a salsa competition
* cheap dance classes
* a transvestite show
* house parties where like 30 cousins show up and all start dancing, or a 15an~os celebration
*one full episode of a telenovela
* trusting people
* shopping in a tianguis in DF on a weekend. bonus points if you don't get robbed.
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Experiences you could live without though you might think otherwise:
* puebla, attempting to get anywhere from outside of CAPU
* san miguel de allende
* the plaza in coyoacan if you've ever been a college student in the US
* polanco and most of the people who live there (sorry to anyone living in polanco)
* learning to wield a machete
* petting street dogs
* any shopping mall that mexicans tell you is an amazing place
* dec 11-12 at or near the basilica (go any other time of the year)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Experiences better skipped altogether:
* shopping in a tianguis in DF on a weekend
* trusting people
* museo de momias in guanajuato, GTO
* most of mexico city after 6pm
* beaches on the entire gulf coast
* mexican television once you've already seen a full epidose of a telenovela
* politics
* cordoba, VER
* "boda mexicana"
* sex in public parks, hookers of any flavor (secondhand recommendation)

abbymaestra · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 5:35 pm Post subject: museo de momias in guanajuato

Oh my God, don't ever go there. It is the creepiest grossest place ever. I loved that city - LOVED IT. Great city. This museum ruined it for me. I was staying with a friend in Leon (don't go there, there is nothing to see) and literally had to leave the city and go back to Leon to get enough distance between myself and that museum. Icky.

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

I take it you didn't make it to the torture chamber house then, either? I can't remember what it is called but it was on the same tour as the mommies. Both were freaky. I was in Guanajuato once in November and nearly froze. It is a beautiful place to visit but I wouldnt want to live there. The car exhaust fumes in those tunnels are enough to kill a person.

About Leon, I think it is fine. I guess it depends what you are looking for, because it has everything. It is the shoe and leather capital of Mexico and is a shoppers paradise for leather. Check out that huge MALL! I was amazed at the bus station to see the kazillions of pairs of shoes being carted off to be resold in other areas of Mexico.

MO39 · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:29 pm Post subject:

Re the Guanjuato mummies. I remember being rather disgusted by them on a visit to that city some years ago, but the Mexicans who were there didn't seem that bothered by the sight of those contorted, seemingly gasping, dried-up corpses. Nothing like the elegant Egyptian mummies. Of course, we must keep in mind that the Mexican mummies were not intentionally preserved but are a result of the kind of soil the original corpses were buried in.

lozwich · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 1536

I haven't seen them myself - on my trip to Guanajuato I found it a bit hard to get there without a car, but I put the whole mummy fascination thing down to Mexicans feeling a bit differently about death than I do.

Cdaniels · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 4:57 pm Post subject: Guanajunta Mummies

For a quick look: http://www.questconnect.org/mexico_mummy_photos.htm

between the years 1896 and 1958 when a local law required relatives to pay a kind of grave tax. You could pay the tax once (170 pesos) and be done with it, but you were also allowed to pay a yearly fee (20 pesos); However, if the relatives could not pay this yearly tax for three years, the body (which had, by the way, become accidentally mummified) was dug up from the cemetery and (if the fee still wasn't paid) placed on display in El museo de las momias.

"They're coming to get you, Barbara!" Laughing

Gary Denness · Guest

This thread died so quick? I've been doing a poll on my blog, based on a rip off of the New 7 Wonders of a couple of months ago. It hasn't gotten so many votes! My N7W one did much better! Feel free to help!

I decided to pick 16 candidates for 6 places, and shoe in Chichen Itza.

1. Copper Canyon

2. Misol Ha

3. Real de Catorce

4. Hierve del Agua

5. Palenque

6. Guanajuato

7. Arbol del Tule

8. Monte Alban

9. Monarch Butterfly Reserve

10. Angel of Independence

11. Teotihuacan

12. El Tajin

13. Tulum

14. Metropolitan Cathedral

15. Palacio de Belles Artes

16. Cozumel's Palancar Coral Reef

16 good candidates, or missing an essential?

Mexican 7 Wonders Poll

MELEE · Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 2:10 pm Post subject:

Why not just use the list that TV Azteca (cannal 13) is pushing,
Las Trece Maravillas de M�xico ?
Some very nice places in this country!

veroax · Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 57 Location: Bogot�, Colombia

I rather like the Catemaco/Los Tuxtlas area in the south of Veracruz. A ridge of volcanic mountains along the gulf of Mexico, it's known for it's own sort of brujeria that is supposedly related to Haitian voodoo. There are waterfalls, secluded beaches, jungle preserves and the like for those who enjoy exploring a bit.

http://www.catemaco.info/

Nearby Tlacotalpan is nice also, though quiet and hot. It's a UNESCO site with its very own running of the bulls on the 1st of February.

http://www.tlaco.com.mx/index.php

danielita · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 281 Location: SLP

Personally, I things that shouldn't be missed are
Teotihuacan (just outside of DF)
The muxe vela (La Vela de las intrepidas buscadores de Peligro --or something like that) in Juchitan, Oaxaca in the middle of November.
San Augustin Beach near Huatulco
The waterfall at Xico

All amazing. There is so much to see and do, a year is hardly enough time to do it all!

Good luck,
danielita