Sanborn's Mexico Travel Insurance

One of the “must do” activities when visiting Guadalajara is to take a side trip to the town of Tequila and get a glimpse at how tequila, Mexico’s national beverage, is produced.

To have the designation of “tequila”, a mezcal must be produced from blue agave grown in the dry highlands of Jalisco and a few surrounding states and distilled in this same area.

Tequila is located 37 miles west from Guadalajara.  There you can find many distilleries, including the world famous brands Cuervo http://www.mundocuervo.com/english/ and Sauza, that offer tours showing how tequila is made, learning their process and of course, the expected tastings of tequila.

If you want to have a unique experience, you can also take the TEQUILA EXPRESS http://www.tequilaexpress.com.mx/home,   an hour and a half train ride that takes you to the town of Amatitan, where you find the Herradura distillery. This tour visits historic haciendas, and explains the process of making tequila, however, is more about having a wonderful time aboard a train, accompanied by Mariachis and tequila sampling, while creating your own experience.

Traveling south, beyond Lake Chapala, the road leads to Mazamitla, a two hour drive from Guadalajara.

Its name comes from the Nahuatl and means “place where arrows to hunt deer are made.” Here you can stay at Hostal El Ciervo Rojo a 100 year old house preserved in perfect condition. The hotel is really quiet and cozy and has only five rooms.

The town has become an idyllic tourist retreat surrounded by immense green forests ideal for camping holidays and horseback-riding. Its church it reflects various eclectic styles including influences from the Orient while a clock has been built into the church’s principal spiral. Painted all white, much like rest of the town’s buildings, one can understand why people compare Mazamitla to Austria and Switzerland especially when taking into consideration the surrounding lush, alpine, scenery.

Tapalpa, is another option for a one day trip near Guadalajara. Just an hour and a half drive will take you to this town which 6000 feet above sea level. It is no wonder that Tapalpa has been the host of Mexico’s Open Paragliding Championships.

Culture consumes the Jalisco mountain town of Tapalpa for its annual Festival de la Luna, a three-day feast of theater, art, movies, literature and music festival from October 29-31.

The name, Tapalpa, comes from the náhuatl word, ‘Tlapalpan’, meaning the land of colors. The locals used the polychromatic mineral earth in the pigmentation of cloth.

Three restored churches stand in the heart of Tapalpa. This beautiful town is a haven for artists. There is also a unique school called “Centro de Integración” dedicated to nurturing the artistic, creative and academic potential of special-needs children. The inexpensive crafts they create are for sale at the school. www.mexicoartshow.com/talalpa.html/

Four miles from town, you will find the Valley of the Enigmas, where the colossal “Piedrotas” sit, an odd outcropping of round volcanic rocks. Six miles outside of town, in a village called ‘La Barranca De Refugio, El Salto de Nogal plunges 300 feet. Near the waterfall, crumble the ruins of ‘Taberna’. Here the mezcal, “Barranda’ was produced until the middle half of the last century. The millstones were destroyed after fifteen days of continuous flooding in 1917. A guide is recommended for visiting the waterfall.

Tapalpa offers attractive lodgings available around the central plaza and colonial churches and in the surrounding countryside, like Hotel Posada La Hacienda, www.posadalahacienda.com

Tequila, Mazamitla, and Tapalpa are included in Mexico’s Magic Towns list. A Program initiated by the Mexican government to promote tourism and to help preserve towns that have known to safeguard the cultural, historical and architectural richness that surrounds them.

So, what are you waiting for? Come visit Guadalajara and all its magical surroundings it.

• Mariachi and Tequila Museum http://www.museodeltequilayelmariachi.com
• Historic Haciendas and Colonial Homes of Jalisco

Live Mexican history by visiting and staying at a historic hacienda or colonial home http://haciendasycasonas.com/eindex.html

Guadalajara embodies the essence of traditional Mexican culture. It is Mexico’s second largest city, one of Latin America’s wealthiest, and  an impressive metropolis whose manufacturing industry has earned it the nickname of Mexico’s Silicon Valley.

The weather is mostly mild, with the warmest months of the year being April and May, which are hot and dry. Rainy season is from June to September. You may experience afternoon showers, which keep the temperature cool.

You will find everything from historic sites and remarkable museums (more than 20) to traditional architecture and elegant monuments which attest to its nearly 500 years of history. Its vibrant cultural and intellectual life has made it a magnet for foreign students. Last but not least, the city takes pride in being the birthplace of Mariachi music.

Centro Historico is the heart of the city, with many plazas and churches (http://vive.guadalajara.gob.mx/recorridos/puntosInteres/paseo-centrohistorico.html), theaters, museums, and several historic buildings with magnificent murals, including the well know “Rotonda de Jaliscienses ilustres”. Must see are Guadalajara’s Cathedral and the Government Palace, first occupied by the governors of New Galicia during the colonial period. The palace later served as a residence for Miguel Hidalgo, who, from that very palace, passed a law abolishing slavery in 1810.

Other must-see attractions include the Institute of Jalisco Handcrafts, the Museum of Archaeology of Western Mexico, the Jose Clemente Orozco Museum, the Museum of Huichol Indian Handcrafts, the Museum of Journalism and Graphic Arts, and Teatro Degollado.

This city is also home to the largest enclosed market in Latin America: the Liberty Market also known by locals as the Mercado San Juan de Dios. More than 1,000 vendors sell local blown glass, leather goods and other handcrafts the city and its surroundings are famous for

For outdoor recreation, Guadalajara offers two large parks ideal for hiking and extreme sports. Barranca de Huentitan is a favorite for adventure sports, and the Tequila Volcano, a 9,580-foot-high peak near the town of Tequila, is most frequented by hang-gliders.

Guadalajara is known internationally through one of their most important annual event, the “Encuentro Internacional del Mariachi y Charreria”, where Mariachi bands from around the world meet and play to the most knowledgeable audience. There are concerts including orchestral arrangements, and it ends with the participation of the traditional charreadas.

Your visit cannot be complete without shopping in Tlaquepaque and Tonala. Tlaquepaque, a quaint craftsman’s village near Guadalajara,  is located about 20 minutes from downtown, where the most talented, prestigious and skilled potters molding clay into amazing forms, and artists from different fields can be found.  If you are restoring and old hacienda or a chapel, this is the perfect place to buy religious art, wood carved furniture, and antiques.

The colorful village of Tonala, is Jalisco State’s pottery center, where ceramics are produced using eleven different techniques, since pre-Hispanic times. You can also find blown glass, papier-mache, embossing, candles and textiles. Tonala has market days on Thursday and Sunday, where you can find traditional Mexican art pieces at inexpensive prices.

Tequila, one of Mexico’s Magical towns, is located 37 miles from Guadalajara.  Here you can find many distilleries, including the world famous brands Cuervo and Sauza, that offer tours showing how tequila is made, learning their process and of course, the expected tastings of tequila.

If you want to have a unique experience, you can also take the TEQUILA EXPRESS, to the town of Amatitan, where you find the Herradura distillery.  This tour visits historic haciendas, and explains the process of making tequila, however, is more about having a wonderful time aboard a train, accompanied by Mariachis and tequila sampling, while creating your own experience.

Historic Haciendas and Colonial Homes of Jalisco – Live Mexican history by visiting and staying at a historic hacienda or colonial home – http://haciendasycasonas.com/eindex.html

Encuentro Internacional del Mariachi – http://www.mariachi-jalisco.com.mx/

Guadalajara Reporter – News – http://guadalajarareporter.com/

Guadalajara Tourism office – VIVE GUADALAJARA! – http://vive.guadalajara.gob.mx/indexi.asp

Mariachi and Tequila Museum – http://www.museodeltequilayelmariachi.com

Mundo Cuervo – A tourist center created by the Jose Cuervo Distillery – http://www.mundocuervo.com/english/

TEQUILA EXPRESS – http://www.tequilaexpress.com.mx/home

Medical Tourism in Jalisco – http://www.turismomedicojalisco.com/index.html.en

Tonala – www.tonala.com.mx

The natives of the state of Chihuahua love to say with pride: “Como Chihuahua no hay dos” – “There’s nothing else like Chihuahua.”

Chihuahua occupies an area of 95,000 square miles, which makes it the largest state in Mexico, and holds other records too. It is home to one  of Mexico’s highest waterfall, 810 feet-high Basaseachi, and its climate of extremes gives it Mexico’s highest and lowest temperatures. It also has the country’s largest canyon, Barranca del Cobre or “Copper Canyon”. Its name comes from the metal which was once mined in its flanks.

Copper Canyon is a magical place of nearly unreal beauty. Visitors are engulfed by a sea of blue-tinged mountains. The air is brisk, and a profound silence reigns. Only eagles glide over the mountains. At the canyon’s highest point, 6 164 feet, the Barranca del Cobre and Tararecua Canyon merge.

As far as the eye can see, there is nothing but mountain ranges cut by deep ravines. Copper Canyon is cut by the Urique River, over 31 miles long. At the top of the canyon, you find a vegetation of small oak trees, madrosos (small, red-barked trees) and tascates (a sort of cypress). Below, tropical vegetation proliferates: palm, banana, orange and lemon trees, a true oasis, thanks to water and higher temperatures.

Access to the Barranca del Cobre is easy thanks to the Chihuahua-Pacifico train line. Every day, the little blue train crosses the western Sierra Madre mountain range from east to west, from Chihuahua to Los Mochis, a few miles from the Pacific coast.

The construction of this railway was a true exploit. 86 tunnels and 26 bridges were built, of which two are particularly spectacular: the highest bridge on the Chinipas River (360 feet high) and the longest, Aguacaliente on the Rio Fuerte (1,640 feet long).

Divisadero Station, where the Barranca del Cobre is located, is at the midpoint of the railway. This is where the two trains meet, one climbing toward Chihuahua and the other descending toward Los Mochis.

The trains stop for 15 minutes, just long enough to take in the view, five minutes from the station. The best way to savor the beauty and the serenity of the canyon and to observe the changes in color, from pink-violet to blue-green, then on to the ochre of the sunset, is to spend the night at Divisadero.

Two hotels have been built facing the splendid view of Barranca del Cobre. There are tours through the canyon on foot or horseback riding. If you have time, you may spend the night in Hotel Divisadero www.hoteldivisadero.com or at Posada Barrancas Mirador www.hotelesbalderrama.com/mirador.htm

A must-see attraction is Tarahumara Grotto, where some native families have settled in order to shelter themselves from the intense cold from the high plateaus.

The area is beautiful year-round, but the most pleasant time to visit is in the spring, a time of dry, sunny weather.

http://www.visitmexico.com/wb/Visitmexico/Visi_Barrancas_del_Cobre

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico — The Mexican government has declared parts of the Gulf coast state of Tabasco disaster zones due to flooding from days of heavy rains, freeing up federal relief funds for the area.

The Interior Department decree issued Monday covers the cities of Cardenas and Huimanguillo, where the government is handing out food and household goods to some of the estimated 200,000 people affected by high waters.

But flooded roads are making it difficult to get aid in. Some areas have been under water for about 10 days. Tabasco Gov. Andres Granier says some victims lack food and drinking water.

About 40,000 people remain in emergency shelters, but others are waiting out the floods on the roofs of their homes.