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OTHER CITIES
Journey south of the border to discover the history and architecture of this magnificent country and enjoying Acapulco, Cancun and the Riviera Maya, Cozumel, and Mexico City - but also, Guadalajara, Manzanillo, Mazatlan, and Puebla and Tlaxcala. Ask our Mexico Specialist to arrange your travel to these fascinating Mexican cities. Guadalajara Manzanillo Mazatlan Puebla and Tlaxcala Guadalajara Mexico's second largest city after Mexico City. Contains colonial homes, baroque churches, markets, mariachis, monuments, and a surprising number of shoe stores! LOCATION GEOGRAPHY POPULATION CLIMATE HISTORY SPECIAL
EVENT CENTRO HISTORICO Features four plazas laid out in the shape of a cross: Plaza Tapatia, Plaza de la Liberacion, Plaza de Armas, and Plaza de los Laureles surround the cathedral, the heart of the old city. PLAZA TAPATIA A seven-block-long promenade - Guadalajara's gathering place day and night. Vendors sell everything from candy to canaries. PLAZA DE ARMAS On Sundays, the setting for dressed-up families parading up and down after church services. PLAZA DE ARMAS Guadalajara's traditional square, where free concerts of Jaliscan music take place on Thursday and Sunday evenings - as they have done continuously since 1898. PLAZA DE LOS LAURELES Planted with Indian laurel trees, a nice place to rest mind and body between excursions. Highlights include... THE CATHEDRAL Anchoring the four plazas, its twin 200-foot towers, emblazoned with yellow and blue tiles, are a conspicuous and famous landmark. Begun in 1558 and consecrated in 1616, the structure is almost as old as the city itself, and remains one of its top attractions. (In fact, Guadalajara's churches in general seem to draw crowds. (The city center alone has 14 churches along with the cathedral.) REGIONAL MUSEUM OF GUADALAJARA A cool place to visit - literally! It's thick stone walls function like air conditioners on hot days. The exhibits of the charros (Mexican cowboys) and a fiberglass replica of a 1,700-pound meteorite discovered near the city in 1792 are fascinating MERCADO LIBERTAD (LIBERTY MARKET) Near Calzada Independencia, it is an enormous maze of vendor stalls under one roof. Haggling is permitted for everything from fruits and vegetables to tortilla presses and herbal potions. (Anyone who is squeamish should avoid some of the food stalls, such as those selling tripe stew and calves' heads.) PLAZUELA DE LOS MARIACHIS Near the Mercado, it is known for the mariachi bands that play day and night. Cafes and restaurants line the plaza, and bands stroll, strum, and offer a song to their customers for a price. CASA DE LAS ARTESANIAS DE JALISCO Located near the Parque Agua Azul 20 blocks from the center of town, it contains more handicrafts than you may have ever seen in one place. Both the quality and quantity can not be beat. Open daily and admission is free. TLAQUEPAQUE* (teh-lack-ee-pack-ee) About eight miles southeast of town, it is home to high-quality and distinctively hand-painted pottery, tiles, blown glass, furniture, and carved wood. Many shops and galleries are housed in refurbished old mansions with thick stone walls and iron gates. Prices are high and haggling is 'out'. (Most shops close for siesta between 2 and 4 p.m.) TUNAL* (toh-nah-lah) Just before Tlaqueparque, this is another pottery center with lower prices and less flair. The best days to visit are Thursdays and Sundays, when the open-air market takes place. Items are spread out on the sidewalks, and street entertainers mingle with shoppers. Some of the glass-blowers invite visitors to watch them at work in their studios behind the shops. *(There is a bus - No. 275 - that departs regularly for Tlaquepaque and Tonala from Guadalajara's historic center. The trip takes about a half hour.) Legend has it that when the galleons of Hernan Cortes first dropped anchor in the shallows off Manzanillo, sailors saw fairies dancing in the moonlit water. Nearly half a millennium later, visitors are still discovering the allure of this seaside city ringed by an emerald rain forest and twin turquoise bays.
Also known as the "Sailfish Capital of the World" because of its abundance of trophy fish, was put on the map years ago due to BO Derek's multi-braided beach scenes in the movie "10". That famous beach, La Audiencia, is now home to the SIERRA HOTEL and the site of numerous aquatic activities such as scuba and snorkeling.
Also, of interest to golfers and others, and twenty minutes from the Manzanillo airport is BARRA DE NAVIDAD, a small town on a large sandbar in a large bay - site of the GRAND BAY ISLA DE NAVIDAD, with a 27-hole golf course! WHERE TO STAY... PEPE'S
HIDEAWAY Eccentric gray-haired surfer Pepe Telarana owns Manzanillo's most unusual inn, an assortment of palapas scattered about a two-acre wedge of jungle. Each of the seven primitive huts on stilts comes with modern amenities: a king-sized bed, electricity, running water, and a sunken tub. There's even a swimming pool, spa, and thatched dining pavilion. LAS HADAS
GOLF RESORT & MARINA Its white-washed towers and minarets glow in the sun, waterfalls trickle in nooks along cobbled walkways, and bougainvillea blossoms cast shadows in the lagoons-like pool. The 234 guest rooms at Manzanillo's most prestigious resort have marble floors, stucco ceilings, and oceanview terraces. CASA
ARABIA You won't find Casa Arabia in any guidebook or, for that matter, in the local phone book. This villa with four guest rooms, in the gated community of La Punta, delivers the ultimate in luxury (including a chef, butler, and concierge) and privacy. No wonder Julia Roberts came here to unwind before last year's Academy Awards. KARMINA
PALACE Each expansive suite is designed with wall-to-wall marble, a sunken living room, and a bathroom that has a deep tub and a walk-in-shower. The only downside to this resort: the restaurant. After 11 p.m., the refined Carioca is transformed into a raucous open-air disco. HOTEL
COLONIAL Manzanillo's oldest - and probably least expensive - hotel. Constructed around a courtyard restaurant in the heart of the business district, it has three levels of adobe adorned with hand-painted tiles and stained-glass windows. WHERE TO EAT... LA
TOSCANA (WILLY'S) Ask any resident to name the best restaurant in town, and you're sure to be told it's Willy's. What they won't tell you is that the French bistro was destroyed by a rogue wave more than a year ago. Instead of rebuilding, Jean Francois Laroche elected to round out the menu at La Toscan, his Italian restaurant just up the beach, with a few French favorites from his dearly departed establishment. Now the cuisine at Toscana is mostly French, and everybody just calls it Willy's. L'RECIFE In March you can watch the whale migration from a table in the palapa, poised high above Play L'Recife. Even if the rocky cliffside location weren't so dramatic, the chateaubriand - stuffed with shrimp, wrapped in bacon, and slathered in mango sauce - would be worth the half-hour drive from the Santiago Peninsula. Do as the locals do and bring your swimsuit: diners are invited to take their dessert between dips in the nearby cliff-top pool. LOS
DELFINES Exceptional seafood - most notably the deep-fried whole red snapper - is served in a thatched pavilion that juts into the ocean like the prow of a yacht. Request a table by the water, toss the fish head over the rail, and watch the water churn as angelfish pick it clean. HAMBURGUESIA
JUANITO'S Expat John Correy's hideaway acts as Manzanillo's unofficial American Embassy. Here, Yankees watch football on ESPN, check their e-mail, or savor a burger and curiously sweet fries (a result of the high starch content in Mexican potatoes), while speaking in their native tongue. RESTAURANTE
CHANTILLY Don't let the name or the greasy-spoon ambience fool you: the fare is pure Mexican, the dollar enchiladas are muy autentico, and the tables are always packed. And since Chantilly is directly across the street from the Palacio Municipal, you just might find yourself sharing a table with Manzanillo's mayor. WHAT TO DO... GOING DOWNTOWN To get a feel for the real Manzanillo, spend an afternoon in El Centro, the lively business district. Stall after stall along Avenida Mexico is stocked with baskets of grain, religious statues, kitchen appliances, fabric - every conceivable thing, it seems, except bona fide souvenirs. At the indoor market on Avenida 5 de Mayo (between Guerrero and Cuauhtemoc), tables are piled high with mangoes, limes, papayas, bananas, spices, and layers of fresh snapper and giant shrimp. All of El Centro shuts down at two o'clock- Siesta. Those who don't venture to their brightly painted houses in the hills spend the afternoon in the plaza sipping cups of tuba (coconut palm juice sprinkled with peanuts). A keyboard player livens up the BAR SOCIAL (across from the main square), a jam-packed 1950's cantina, until 4 p.m., when the city goes back to work. FISHING Lucky anglers can reel in their own marlin on a sportfishing expedition with FLOTA AMARILL; 5-hour trips from $195 or OCEAN PACIFIC ADVENTURES; 5-hour trips from $200. SNORKELING/DIVING The water is clear up to 60 feet, and there's plenty to see beneath the waves. Susan Dearing, one of the most experienced dive operators on Mexico's Pacific court, and the owner of UNDERWORLD SCUBA (Plaza Pacifico, Santiago; 2-hour snorkeling trips from $38, including gear, 3-hour dives from $76), organizes excursions to the best sports. The company also leads half-day hikes ($55, including lunch) to a swimming hole at the base of a 100-foot waterfall and to the cloud forest in the foothills of the Sierra Madre. GOLF Often cited as one of the world's 100 best courses, LA MANTARRAYA at Las Hadas is also one of the most challenging. SHOPPING Manzanillo might not offer much in the way of upscale boutiques, but it does have a resident fashion designer. PACO SILVA (Plaza Pacifico, Santiago) embroiders his couture designs with sequins the way Seurat painted with dots - meaning, the more the better. Mazatlan The city of MAZATLAN is a history buff's dream, with a rich and varied past. The old section of the city has many restored 19th century buildings. Palm trees and colonial-style buildings surround the city's main square, the Plaza Revolucion. Facing the square is Mazatlan's astounding Cathedral, which took 43 years to build. The Moorish style church has twin blue and gold spires and an ornate gilded triple altar. Nearby is the Plaza Machado, the city's historic center and the site of Mazatlans' annual carnival celebration. Puebla & Tlaxcala These two fascinating cities are studded with archeological and colonial attractions. One of Mexico's most significant archeological sites, Cholula, lies just west of PUEBLA, and is home to the Great Pyramid of Tepanapa, the largest pyramid ever built. Covering more than 46 acres, the pyramid is capped by a blue and white Spanish church, a classic symbol of the conquest. In TLAXCALA CITY is the Plaza de la Constitution, bordered on all sides by colonial-era palaces and mansions shaded by thousand-year-old laurel trees. A series of portico arches spans the east side of the square, home to several outdoor cafes. |
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