Mexico: A Many Layered Land

Mexico is distinguished as a country of parallel realities,
countless contradictions and staggering disparities. It is a
country where ancient cultural tradition meets spring break
debauchery and mass consumer industry collides with indigenous
craft. Mexico's extraordinarily long and tumultuous history can
account for such modern juxtapositions, as highly developed
civilizations have inhabited the region for nearly 3,000 years.
The rise and fall of great societies, particularly before
Spanish arrival, has enriched the country with fantastic legends
and lore that infiltrate every aspect of Mexico's art, design
and architecture. Hernán Cortés' Spanish conquest of the Aztec
(Mexica) capital in the 16th century resulted in a unique
superimposition of Spanish culture over indigenous heritage and
beliefs that can be identified everywhere in Mexico today.

Mexico's Advanced Ancient Age

The Yucatán Peninsula is an archeological goldmine. Situated on
the Gulf of Mexico's southern shore, the region was the center
of Mayan civilization throughout their rule. The extensive ruins
at Calakmul ("The City of Two Adjacent Pyramids") are some of
the most spectacular, embedded in the thick tropical forest of
the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve and best viewed from atop one of
the ancient city's pyramids. Just east of the peninsula,
Teotihuacán is the archeological site of ancient Mexico's
largest city and most unifying empire. By 200 A.D. this
metropolis was home to the third largest pyramid in the world,
the Pyramid of the Sun, with a total of 248 steps. The remains
of the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Mayan and Aztec Empires, along with
their surviving descendents, expose an intriguing ancient
history of advanced mathematics, astronomy, farming and
technology unknown to the rest of the world and largely
obliterated by European conquest and disease in the 16th century.

Solace in the Sand and Sun

Travel to Mexico to experience one of North America's most
popular vacation destinations, particularly during the winter. A
majority of Mexico is situated in the tropics, making weather
somewhat reliable and the months of July and August necessarily
avoidable, when temperatures may not drop below 90F at night.
Visit the year-round resort towns of Acapulco and Puerto
Vallarta along Mexico's Pacific coast and Cancun and Veracruz
along the warmer waters of the Gulf coast. The island of
Cozumel, just off the coast of Cancun, boasts some of the
world's best scuba diving and the surrounding sea is completely
protected as an underwater national park. Baja California, which
borders the Sea of Cortes and the Pacific, is an extremely
popular destination for surfers, sea kayakers and loungers
alike. Great waves, sea caves and the proximity of many
interesting locales intensifies the lure of this western
peninsula.

Time-Out Tijuana

Mexico's majesty lies south of the border. Move past the mental
images of Tijuana stereotypes and explore Mexico's grand urban
centers like Mexico City and Guadalajara. Put on a sombrero,
dance to a Mariachi band and sip the finest tequila on Earth
while exploring nearly 20,000 years of human history!

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