Take our advice, and travel like this. We live in the golden age of travel. Never have so many world destinations been more accessible and more affordable. Budget-minded travellers can find affordable alternatives to hotels through internet-based services, like VRBO and AirBnB. Uber and Lyft have cut the price of ground transportation. And discount airlines…
Among the many fascinating people found in San Miguel de Allende was a couple who sold everything to travel the world
I’ve just returned from San Miguel de Allende full of interesting new experiences gathered in a 475-year-old Mexican central highlands town renowned worldwide for its hospitality to culturally creative folk. Those visitors like to rent 300-year-old casas, practise speaking Spanish and participate in a nuanced cosmopolitan life. The local media refer to this phenomenon as…
There are signs of unwelcome change on the horizon for the Mexican community of about 150,000 residents
I’ve been a cultural disciple to San Miguel de Allende for the fourth time in four years in the last week. San Miguel de Allende is a Mexican community of about 150,000 residents, founded in the early 1540s. It’s in the central highlands, 274 kilometres north of Mexico City, in the far eastern part of…
From the hospitality to the extraordinary food to the sublime experience among the butterflies, this is a place of exceptional grace
[slideshow_deploy id='112857'] SAN MIGUEL de ALLENDE, Mexico March 12, 2017 /Troy Media/ – When you drive up the paved road into Macheros village in Donato Guerra, Estado de Mexico, you enter a high altitude (2,600 metres) ejido (essentially a Mexican communal farm) that has a unique relationship with about 400 million monarch butterflies. There's a lot to…
Taking rough roads, with an eye out for bandidos, in search of the increasingly endangered species
SAN MIGUEL de ALLENDE, Mexico March 5, 2017 /Troy Media/ – “We’re going to see the monarch butterflies at the Cerro Pelon Butterfly Sanctuary.” What? When my friend Scott said he’d booked us into JM's Butterfly B&B in the remote Mexican village of Macheros, Donata Guerra, Estado de Mexico, I admit to some misgivings. “It’s…
Our columnist attends a four-hour cooking class with successful San Miguel, Mexico, restaurateur Paco Cardenas
[slideshow_deploy id='112857'] SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Mexico Feb. 26, 2017/Troy Media/ - My friend Scott loves to organize vacation activities that go on beyond the call of normal vacation duty. This now entails full-time planning for three couples who gather once per year, sometime between the Dia de Meurtos (Nov. 2) and the end of…
I love Mexico but it is not lost on me that very few Mexicans are able to come to Vancouver for parallel vacation experiences
VANCOUVER, B.C. April 3, 2016/ Troy Media/ - It’s hard not to like Mexico. First of all it’s easy to fly there from here, and the cost of airfares has fallen over the past decade. Once you arrive, visitor clearance is pretty straight forward, especially at the major airports like Mexico City. There are convenient…
The festival dates from pre-Hispanic times and fuses Aztec, los Indios, and Christian traditions into something new
[slideshow_deploy id='91198'] Download this column on the Day of the Dead for your publication or website. Free to subscribers Subscriptions are FREE Terms and Conditions of use VANCOUVER, B.C. Nov. 8, 2015 /Troy Media/ - When my pal Scott asked whether we would like to join him in celebrating the Day of the Dead in…
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico Aug 11, 2015/ Troy Media/ - Having done travel writing for 30 years I've had my share of exotic, far-flung locales that were often in off-beat, hard-to-reach places. Sometimes the journey there was the best and most rewarding adventure. But there are other times when a winter-weary traveller wants to buy a…
Monica Serrano is the most famous woman matador in Mexico
SAN MIGUEL de ALLENDE, Mexico, Apr 27, 2014/ Troy Media/ - Monica Serrano enters the Plaza de Toros “Oriente” in San Miguel de Allende as the third bullfighter of a four-bull afternoon. The Saturday crowd numbers about 1,000 people. Most of us have paid 150 (about $15) Pesos for “shade seating;” a very few have…
Take our advice, and travel like this. We live in the golden age of travel. Never have so many world destinations been more accessible and more affordable. Budget-minded travellers can find affordable alternatives to hotels through internet-based services, like VRBO and AirBnB. Uber and Lyft have cut the price of ground transportation. And discount airlines…
I’ve just returned from San Miguel de Allende full of interesting new experiences gathered in a 475-year-old Mexican central highlands town renowned worldwide for its hospitality to culturally creative folk. Those visitors like to rent 300-year-old casas, practise speaking Spanish and participate in a nuanced cosmopolitan life. The local media refer to this phenomenon as…
I’ve been a cultural disciple to San Miguel de Allende for the fourth time in four years in the last week. San Miguel de Allende is a Mexican community of about 150,000 residents, founded in the early 1540s. It’s in the central highlands, 274 kilometres north of Mexico City, in the far eastern part of…