Art & Cities Nature 1 Welcome Culture & Towns & Wildlife Adventure Need to Know worldnomads.com Where Nomads Go Nomads Where your way from coast to coast. the curl at Puerto Escondido, and eat the curl at Puerto Escondido, an ancient pyramid at Muyil, shoot Dive with manatees in Xcalak, climb MEXICO 2 worldnomads.com World Nomads’ purpose is to challenge Contents travelers to harness their curiosity, be Adam Wiseman WELCOME WELCOME 3 brave enough to find their own journey, and to gain a richer understanding of Essential Mexico 4 Spanning almost 760,000mi² (2 million km²), with landscapes themselves, others, and the world. that range from snow-capped volcanos to dense rainforest, ART & CULTURE 6 and a cultural mix that’s equally diverse, Mexico can’t be How to Eat Mexico 8 contained in a handful of pages, so we’re not going to try. The Princess of the Pyramid 14 Think of this guide as a sampler plate, or a series of windows into Mexico – a selection of first-hand accounts from nomads Welcome The Muxes of Juchitán de Zaragoza 16 who’ve danced at the festivals, climbed the pyramids, chased Beyond Chichén Itzá 20 the waves, and connected with the locals. Meeting the World’s Authority Join our travelers as they kayak with sea turtles and manta on Mexican Folk Art 24 rays in Baja, meet the third-gender muxes of Juchitán, CITIES & TOWNS 26 unravel ancient Maya mysteries in the Yucatán, and take a Culture Mexico City: A Capital With Charisma 28 crash course in mole-making in Oaxaca. Whether you’re into Art & art, history, food, wildlife, or adventure, you’ll find plenty of Colonial Standouts 32 inspiration and enough practical information to get started Border Towns: The Real Story 36 planning your own journey. Underrated Mexico 40 Discover Mexico, World Nomads’ style! & Towns NATURE & WILDLIFE 44 Cities Exploring Mexico’s Megadiversity 46 Whale Bays & Turtle Beaches 50 Tijuana El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar ADVENTURE 52 Biosphere Reserve Kayaking in Baja’s Loreto Bay 54 Wildlife& Nature Chasing Waves on the West Coast 58 Chihuahua Mexico’s Best Diving & Snorkeling 62 Cenotes, the Jewels of the Yucatán 66 NEED TO KNOW 68 Adventure Climate & Weather 69 La Paz Where to Stay 70 Getting Around 72 Guanajuato Top 10 Safety Tips for Mexico 74 Guadalajara Querétaro Campeche MEXICO CITY Need to Know Festival Calendar 76 Veracruz Calakmul Biosphere A Local’s Guide to Social Etiquette 78 Reserve Oaxaca City Essential Insurance Tips 79 San Cristobal de las Casas Our Contributors & Other Guides 80 Market in Puerto Escondido Juchitán worldnomads.com Mexico City de Zaragoza Get a Quote 82 2 3 worldnomads.com SEEK EXPERIENCES ESSENTIAL MEXICO Welcome Don’t miss out on these uniquely Mexican places, experiences, and adventures. Culture Get your Art & recommended dose of “Vitamin T” – tortillas, tamales, and tacos Commune with gray whales in & Towns Explore a Magdalena Bay Cities surrealist Images Carlos Sanchez Pereyra/Getty garden in Xilitla Sample sultry, Meet Witz, Quasarphoto/Getty Images smoky mezcal the Mountain in Oaxaca Monster, in Campeche & Wildlife& Nature Patricia Castellanos/Getty Images Patricia Adam Wiseman Explore an Join the underwater fun at a lively Mexican festival Images S. Greg Panosian/Getty museum in Adventure Isla Mujeres Donald Miralle/Getty Images Kayak on the Sea of Cortez, the “world’s aquarium” Need to Know Visit the Yucatán’s Cheer for your favorite fairy tale-pink masked wrestler at a Joe Hernandez/Unsplash Images Darryl Leniuk/Getty Joe Pilie/Unsplash lagoons Lilic/Getty Images Romana Lucha Libre match 4 5 worldnomads.com Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images Ronaldo Welcome Culture Art & & Towns Cities Cities & Wildlife& Nature Mexican culture doesn’t stop at margaritas and mariachi. With more than 60 different indigenous groups, global influences from Europe, Asia, Adventure ART & and the Middle East, and civilizations that date back thousands of years, it’s a colorful and diverse place that CULTURE can’t be easily defined. From Need to Know rowdy, weeks-long fiestas to elegant colonial churches, “Parachico” dancers perform during the ancient Maya temples and Fiesta Grande de Enero in Chiapa de Corzo craft-brewing hipsters, Mexico offers endless variety. 6 7 worldnomads.com Street tacos CONNECT LOCALLY Matt Mawson/Getty Images HOW TO Welcome EAT MEXICO When it comes to food, Mexico is many cuisines, not just one. Each of its 31 states is proud of its characteristic tastes, Culture Art & ingredients, and traditions, although everyone agrees on the essential “T vitamins” – tortillas, tamales, and tacos. Writer Kendall Hill shares some of the highlights. & Towns he chef and author Alejandro Ruiz is “intangible cultural heritage of humanity” – Cities giving me a crash course in Oaxacan alongside tango, Tibetan opera, and French Tcuisine. We have an afternoon gastronomy, the only other national cuisine together but I’d need months, possibly so honored. years, to grasp the complex cooking rituals The citation mentions Mexico’s unique of this southern Mexican state. crop-growing and cooking techniques, Take a simple yellow mole, the chili- its utensils and, crucially, its amazing Wildlife& Nature based sauce found all over Oaxaca but treasury of native ingredients. Corn, rarely prepared the same way twice. beans and chili all originated here. So did “On the Pacific Coast it’s made with tomatoes, sweet potato, turkey, pumpkin Yucatán custom of cooking pibil-style, in the ground, iguana,” explains Ruiz. “But in Oaxaca City (and its squashy cousins), avocados, and – Preparing cochinita pibil is a messy dates back thousands of years. It’s still it’s beef or chicken. On the Isthmus (of it’s thought – cacao, which the Maya turned business. a popular tradition at weddings and big Tehuantepec), you’d have it with sun-dried into chocolate to create one of humanity’s In the little city of Izamal on the Yucatán celebrations such as Day of the Dead, shrimps.” And of course, cooks in each favorite foods. Peninsula, Hermelinda de la Cruz is up to though the tamales are made with chicken Adventure region would use a different chili to flavor But the strength of Mexican cuisine is In 2010, her elbows in corn dough (masa), stuffing or pork these days instead of the hairless their sauce. in its mestizo or mixed roots; the combined it with shredded suckling pig meat and dog of much earlier times. Mexican food is infinitely more complex bounty of pre-Hispanic Mexico with the UNESCO smothering the lot with earthy red achiote Other typical Maya foods include chaya, than the familiar export version of beans foods of its Spanish invaders and, later, named paste and a garlic- and tomato-spiked the spinach-like leaf hailed as a superfood and cheese. In Oaxaca alone there are eight those of Lebanese, Korean, Chinese, traditional masa gravy. Then she trusses the hefty, in the West but found here in humble regions differentiated by climate, customs, Italian, and Caribbean immigrants. While Mexican food six-pound tamale in banana leaves and preparations such as a cold “juice” and a hot Need to Know and ingredients. And Oaxaca is just one of researching a book on Mexican food part of the lowers it into a hole in the earth lined with soup sprinkled with Edam cheese, which the 31 United Mexican States, each with its I criss-crossed the country, meeting “intangible stones and embers. Yucatecans adore. own distinctive culture and food. professional and home cooks, learning “It’s much better for the flavor in the Salbutes are local tortillas stuffed with In fact, traditional Mexican cuisine is so regional food traditions, eating grasshoppers cultural ground,” de la Cruz assures me. “It’s more chicken, onion and lettuce (add refried exceptional in scope and heritage that, and ants and an entire taxonomy of chilis and heritage of smoky, especially with the achiote.” beans and you have panuchos). Sopa de in 2010, UNESCO named it part of the tortillas. Here are some of the highlights. humanity” In the Maya homeland of Yucatán, the lima is lime soup with chicken, coriander 8 9 worldnomads.com CONNECT LOCALLY popsicles that come in exotic flavors such as guanabana (soursop) and – my favorite – the caramel custardy sapote. You’ll find their stores in every Mexican city. Frederik Trovatten/Unsplash Robert Landau/Getty Images Landau/Getty Robert Oaxaca “This is the dish that takes the most time,” Welcome Deyaniro Aquino says as she places a pot of estofado, a festive beef stew with plantain, apple, and pineapple, various chilis, and cinnamon, on the table at La Teca restaurant. “Sometimes there can be a whole cow cooking for 24 hours. And there’s a lot of love that goes into making Mezcaleria Culture signage Images Omar Torres/Getty this stew too. You must be very patient and Art & do it from the heart.” At her tiny restaurant in Oaxaca City, Aquino recreates the food of her homeland Mezcal Tasting in Oaxaca in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrow The sultry, smoky flavor of mezcal is increasingly waist of Mexico between the Pacific Ocean found in bars around the world, so it’s no surprise and Gulf of Mexico. Like all of Oaxaca travelers are flocking to Mexico to enjoy this liquor & Towns – and Mexico – on her menu there are straight from the source. Cities tamales, including a creamy, light one filled First, a primer. Both mezcal and tequila come from the with tender corn, and various incarnations wondrous agave plant. Tequila is a distinct subset of mezcal, of tortillas including garnachas laden with but mezcal is not a type of tequila. If you’ve ever enjoyed a beef, onion, and chipotle and totopos to go margarita loaded with Patron or Jose Cuervo, you’ve already Hand-made blue Elotes (grilled with the cumin-scented mole de camarron sipped mezcal – just the tequila variety of it.