About 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Guadalajara as the crow flies is a wild and inhospitable arm of the Western Sierra Madre called the Sierra of Bolaños, a rugged northern extension of Jalisco most easily reached by light aircraft. The one way trip by road requires driving more than 320 kilometers (200 miles) from […]
Mexico is the world’s largest producer and exporter of avocados. In the 2012/13 season, Mexico’s avocado orchards produced a record 1.3 million metric tons of avocados. More than 90% of Mexico’s avocados are grown in the state of Michoacán, where about 12% of all agricultural land is currently under avocado orchards. Avocado exports rose 33% […]
The breathtaking scenery of the El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve in the northern state of Sonora affords visitors a dramatic combination of two very distinct landscape types: volcanic landscapes (El Pinacate) in the east, and sand dunes (Gran Desierto de Altar) towards the west and south. Volcanic scenery (El Pinacate) The […]
Mexico City and its surrounding areas have a strict “Hoy no circula” (“Today you can’t drive” or “Day without a Car”) program. The program is intended to reduce air pollution from vehicle emissions. The graphic shows the major rules for most vehicles. With few exceptions, these rules apply to all tourist vehicles as well as […]
Welcome to our seventh quiz about the geography of Mexico. How many of the following can you answer correctly? If you answer a question incorrectly, you can have more attempts at each question before the answer is revealed. Good Luck! [mtouchquiz 7] Previous quizzes: How well do you know Mexico? The geography of Mexico: Quiz […]
Innovation is an important ingredient of economic growth, especially growth in the decades ahead. While most people know what innovation is, it is not an easy concept to measure. Fortunately three different groups have attempted to measure it and compare countries on their “innovativeness”. All three rely on such measures as research and development, number […]
A series of historical maps of the city of Monterrey was published earlier this year in the city’s online Catalog of Buildings of Historic and Artistic Importance in Barro Antiguo, The maps, dated 1765, 1791, 1846, 1865, 1922, 1933 and 1947 respectively, offer a good basis for considering the urban growth of Monterrey, the industrial […]
The Pew Research Global Attitudes Project (released 24 October 2013) provides results of face to face interviews with a national sample of 1,000 adult Mexicans. The report revealed opinions concerning a wide variety of issues including the country’s direction, most important concerns, law and order, drug war, national institutions and attitudes toward the USA. Mexicans are […]
Mexico’s latest UNESCO World Heritage Site is the El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve in Sonora, added to the UNESCO list in June 2013. Mexico now has 32 World Heritage Sites. The El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve is part of the Sonoran desert, which extends from Sonora into […]
San Miguel de Allende has been selected as the “World’s Best City”, in the Condé Nast Traveler‘s 26th annual Readers’ Choice Awards, announced 16 October 2013. (See also, The world’s best city is… by Frances Cha, CNN) While being declared “the world’s best city” is an honor for San Miguel, and will no doubt increase tourism, […]
For the first time since 1958 Mexico was bashed virtually simultaneously by two very destructive storms: Ingrid in the east and Manuel in the west. Before discussing their destructive impact, we will describe the tracks of the two storms (photos below) and chart their chronology. On September 10, weak weather disturbances were observed in the […]
President Enrique Peña Nieto has officially opened the new Durango-Mazatlán highway which has taken more than a decade to complete. He inaugurated the new highway early today (17 October), Mexico’s annual “Road Workers’ Day” (“Día del Caminero”). The new 1.2-billion-dollar, partly 4-lane, 230-kilometer highway will slash the time taken to drive from the city of […]
The city of Monterrey in Nuevo León has begun an urban regeneration scheme to rejuvenate one of its oldest sections, Barrio Antiguo (see map below). Barrio Antiguo is the area to the east of the Macroplaza. It is bounded to the south and east by Avenida Constitución, to the west by Calle Doctor Coss and […]
In November 2012, the federal Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Semarnat) refused a request to allow open-pit (opencast) mining in the buffer zone of the Sierra La Laguna Biosphere Reserve in Baja California Sur. The request came from Zapal SA de CV, whose mining project, currently named “Los […]
Much of northern Mexico experiences either an arid (desert) climate (less than 250 mm [10 in] of rain/year) or a semiarid (semi-desert) climate (250–750 mm [10–30 in] of rain/year). Areas with an arid (desert) climate (see map) include most of Baja California and western Sonora (together comprising the Sonoran desert), as well as the northern […]
There is no doubt that Mexico’s indigenous farmers developed numerous ways to ensure successful harvests. The details varied from one region to another, but among the techniques employed were: the mitigation of erosion by building earth banks and check dams in gullies polyculture, recognizing that this minimized the risks inherent in monoculture. the terracing of […]
Once TV México (“Eleven TV Mexico”) is an educational TV network owned by the National Polytechnic Institute (Instituto Politecnico Nacional) in Mexico City. Over the years, Once TV México programs have won numerous national and international awards. Many of its programs are available as webcasts or on Youtube. Once TV México has made hundreds of […]
The Garcia Caves (Grutas de García) are located in the Cumbres de Monterrey National Park, 9 km from the small town of Villa de García, and about 30 km from the city of Monterrey (state capital of Nuevo León). The highest point in the park is Copete de las Águilas which rises to 2260 m […]
This post describes some of the many online resources about chinampas, one of Mexico’s ancient and most important indigenous forms of sustainable agriculture. For photos, the best starting point is Dr. Jason Turner’s site about chinampas which includes an extensive bibliography about chinampas as well as several “Virtual Field Trips” (photo sequences). Even though these […]
Canadian firm Goldcorp is the largest gold miner in Mexico, with mining concessions covering more than 40,000 hectares. Since 2008, it has been actively developing the mine of Los Filos, in the municipality of Eduardo Neri, which could become Latin America’s largest gold mine. Los Filos is in Guerrero’s “Gold Belt” that runs from Mezcala […]
In 2012, the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad AC, IMCO) published an analysis of the competitiveness of 77 of the largest cities in Mexico, looking to see which of them offered balanced growth alongside a good quality of life for their inhabitants. The elements of competitiveness considered included the degree of […]
A recent study by Pew Research analyzes the geographical distribution of the over 53 million Hispanics who currently live in the USA. The “Hispanic” or “Latino” population is composed of many different segments. It includes families that have lived in the USA for numerous generations as well as recent immigrants from many countries. Mexicans are […]
Silver working in Mexico The center of Mexico’s silver craftsmen and silver making industry is the city of Taxco, in the state of Guerrero. Several pre-colonial groups had developed the technical skills needed to fashion elaborate and complex silver items, especially jewelry, but knowledge of these techniques had largely died out by the start of […]
An innovative aerial public transport system is being proposed in Mexico City as a way to help reduce traffic congestion and increase personal mobility. TUEP (Transporte Urbano Elevado Personalizado), a Mexican start-up, is being supported by the Federal District’s Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation (Seciti) and has manufacturing support from vehicle manufacturer DINA. TUEP […]
In this post, we consider the unfortunate plight of the Tohono O’odham people, whose ancestral lands now lie on either side of the Mexico-USA border. How did this happen? Following Mexico’s War of Independence (1810-1821), the rush was on to draw an accurate map of all of Mexico’s territory. Mexico’s boundaries following independence were very […]
Welcome to our sixth quiz about the geography of Mexico. Previous quizzes: How well do you know Mexico? The geography of Mexico: Quiz 1 How well do you know Mexico? The geography of Mexico: Quiz 2 How well do you know Mexico? The geography of Mexico: Quiz 3 How well do you know Mexico? The […]
Production of gold has more than tripled from the 23.5 metric tons recorded in 2000 to 88.6 metric tons in 2012, 3.2% of world production, 5.3% more than the previous year, and the ninth consecutive year-on-year increase. Analysts believe that gold production will double again between now and 2020. Mexico is the world’s 11th largest […]
Prior to European contact in 1519, what did the Aztec people eat? The basis of Aztec diet was corn (maize). They cultivated numerous varieties of corn, as well as many other crops including beans, amaranth and squash. Some dishes were seasoned with salt and chili peppers. This mix of items provided a balanced diet that […]
By way of contrast to the much-criticized, and now collapsed, Maya Biosana chocolate project, the Tikul Plantation, near Merida (Yucatán), is a well thought out cacao-growing project, with an educational component, being carried out by people who have decades of real experience with cacao. (Follow the link for a series of photos which gives a […]
As the US Congress debates new immigration reform legislation there is considerable confusion concerning the fiscal impact of immigrants. One side argues that immigrants pay relatively little in taxes and absorb costly benefits in terms of public health, education, welfare, etc. Others note that immigrants often pay significant amounts in taxes and get little back […]