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Mexico is a traveler’s paradise, crammed with a multitude of opposing identities: desert landscapes, snow-capped volcanoes, ancient ruins, teeming industrialized cities, time-warped colonial towns, glitzy resorts, deserted beaches and a world-beating collection of flora and fauna.  This mix of modern and traditional, clichéd and surreal, is the key to Mexico’s charm, whether your passion is throwing back margaritas, listening to howler monkeys, surfing the Mexican Pipeline, scrambling over Mayan ruins or expanding your collection of posable Day of the Dead skeletons.

Mexico is enjoyable year-round, but we went in August, the most hot and humid time of the year.  However, due to its size, Mexico’s climate has something for everyone: it’s hot and humid along the coastal plains, and drier and more temperate at higher elevations inland (Guadalajara or Mexico City, for example).

Cholula is located about 15 km west of the city of Puebla, at an approximate elevation of 2135 meters (about 7,000 ft) above sea level. Cholula, or in Nahuatl Acholōllān, was an important city of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, dating back to at least the 2nd century BC, with settlement as a village going back at least some thousand years earlier. Cholula was a major center contemporary with Teotihuacan and seems to have avoided, at least partially, that city’s fate of violent destruction at the end of the Mesoamerican Classic period. At the time of the arrival of Hernán Cortés, Cholula was second only to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) as the largest city in central Mexico, possibly with a population of up to 100,000 people. In addition to the great temple of Quetzalcoatl and various palaces, the city had 365 temples. During the Spanish Colonial period, however, Cholula was overtaken in importance by the nearby city of Puebla.

Cholula is most famous as the site of the Great Pyramid of Cholula, the largest man-made structure by volume in the world. Below is some video I took at the site. Enjoy!

In my humble opinion, Acapulco is a tourist trap! After falling out of favor with the international jet set decades ago, this not-so-hot spot is heating up again. We decided to visit Acapulco as part of a respite from the pyramids and more urban grittiness of Central Mexico - and boy did we live to regret it!  Don’t get me wrong, this is a beautiful place with gorgeous beaches, high-rise hotels and sunny weather.  But beware of the over priced taxi cabs, the expensive restaurants, and most of all…the time share sales scum!  You have been warned!

Archaelogical evidence indicates that people first inhabited Acapulco around 3000 BC, growing crops and fishing. Around 1500 BC the area was settled by the Nahuas, a tribe related to the Nahuatl, who populated much of southern Mexico. The Nahuatl language provided the name Acapulco, meaning “place of canes” or “reeds.” Although it is generally accepted that the first non-natives to reach Acapulco were Spaniards led by Hernán Cortés, some local historians claim that a Chinese monk named Fa Hsein predated Cortés by 100 years.

From 1565 to 1815 the Spanish maintained a thriving port and trading center in Acapulco.  Acapulco became a town in 1799, but started to decline with the War of Independence, when locals sided with the Spanish royalists. The town remained in relative obscurity until 1927, when a road was built connecting the port to Mexico City and bringing the first tourists. It wasn’t long before Hollywood celebrities and other wealthy world travelers started to arrive, and Acapulco began its transformation. By the 1960s it seemed everyone in Hollywood was vacationing in Acapulco: Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Leslie Caron, Cary Grant, Lana Turner, John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Bridgitte Bardot, Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, etc. Acapulco today, although not the Hollywood hangout of times past, is still a major tourist destination, especially with Mexican nationals, who comprise about 80% of its visitors.

Coyuca Lagoon is one of the picturesque and colorful parts of Acapulco. We took a boat around the lagoon and observed lots of intriguing wildlife such as pelicans and crocodiles.  This area is famous for its tropical vegetation, which has been the location for many Hollywood movies such as that great American classic: First Blood II: Rambo! Just beware as there are lots of mosquitoes and flies!

The La Quebrada Cliff Divers of Acapulco are definitely worth checking out. In fact, they almost makes up for all of the tourist traps in town (*almost*). The divers are a group of professional high divers who perform daily shows for the public, which involve diving 45 metres (~147′ 8″) from the cliffs of La Quebrada into the sea below.

Although cliff diving at La Quebrada had taken place for many years, it was not until 1934 that the La Quebrada Cliff Divers was formed. One of the most interesting aspects regarding the divers are their ages. They couldn’t be older than 18 years old! Below is some video I took of the diving.

The most spectacular presentation of the traditional Oaxacan dance of the Guelaguetza is at the Camino Real Oaxaca hotel. This performance is a collection of dances from the seven regions of Oaxaca. Held in the beautiful 16th century chapel, you will be treated to an Oaxacan buffet, 20 regional dancers in glorious costumes and a 14 piece village brass band provide high spirited entertainment.  Below is some video I took of the dance performance. Enjoy!

Of the hottest 21st-century tourist destinations in Mexico, Oaxaca City, officially called Oaxaca de Juárez, is also the most urban. This vibrant city of about 260,000 still feels surprisingly authentic for a place that has been so “discovered” of late. Perhaps no small city better embodies the bundle of contrasts that is modern Mexico, with a commingling of sights, smells, and sounds both ancient and new. You’ll hear the singsong strains of Zapotec, Mixtec, and other native languages in the markets, Spanish rock in the bars and restaurants, and hip-hop in English blaring from passing cars. Scions of affluent families sip tea or tequila in classy restaurants; out on the streets, men, women, and children of significantly more modest means sell pencils, sweets, and ears of delicious grilled elote (corn) — and let’s not forget the plethora of often bohemian, savvier-than-average American tourists who roam the streets.

Spreading south and east from Oaxaca City, the Valles Centrales, or Central Valleys, are well worth exploring. You could easily fill a week visiting the dozens of villages here. Looking for colonial-era splendor? There are charming squares dominated by graceful churches in Ocotlán and Santa Ana del Valle, to name but two. Unique crafts? San Bartolo Coyotepec is known for its beautiful barro negro, or black pottery, made without the benefit of a pottery wheel, while in Teotitlán del Valle the streets are lined with shops selling tapetes, the woven wool rugs that are known all around Mexico. Colorful markets? Take your pick. There are outdoor markets each day of the week, and each is different. In Zaachila, for example, you could pick up some animals — either small carvings or the real thing. Best of all, most markets are geared toward locals, so you really get a sense of each village.

Oaxaca’s 520-km (322-mi) coastline is one of Mexico’s last Pacific frontiers. The town of Puerto Escondido has long been prime territory for international surfers. Its pedestrian walkways, crowded with open-air seafood restaurants, shops, and cafés, is indeed lively, but also incredibly relaxed. Fishing boats pull double duty as water taxis, ferrying folks to lovely scallops of sand up the coast. Across the highway, the “real” town above provides a look at local life and a dazzling view of the coast.

No matter where you hole up along Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, you’ll find that it’s all about the beach, the water, and the waves. Surfers and bodysurfers whoop it up at Zicatela and less famous breaks; snorkelers hug rocky coves in search of new and unusual specimens; and divers share the depths with dolphins, rays, eels, and schools of fish instead of shoals of other humans. Friendly locals, superb vistas, and first-rate beaches combine to make Oaxaca’s coast a stunner.

Teotihuacán was, at its height in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, the largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas. The city was located in what is now the San Juan Teotihuacán municipality approximately 40 km (24.8 mi) northeast of Mexico City. The name Teotihuacán was given by the Nahuatl-speaking Aztec centuries after the fall of the city and has been glossed as “birthplace of the gods”. There is evidence that at least some of the people living in Teotihuacán came from areas influenced by the Teotihuacano civilization, including the Zapotec, Mixtec and Maya peoples. The culture and architecture of Teotihuacán was influenced by the Olmec people, who are considered to be the “mother civilization” of Mesoamerica. The earliest buildings at Teotihuacán date to about 200 BCE, and the largest pyramid, the Pyramid of the Sun, was completed by 100 CE. Today Teotihuacán is one of the most noted archaeological attractions in Mexico.

The city’s broad central avenue, called “Avenue of the Dead” (a translation from its Nahuatl name Miccaotli), is flanked by impressive ceremonial architecture, including the immense Pyramid of the Sun (second largest in the New World after the Great Pyramid of Cholula) and the Pyramid of the Moon. Along the Avenue of the Dead are many smaller talud-tablero platforms. The Aztecs believed they were tombs, inspiring the name of the avenue. Now they are known to be ceremonial platforms that were topped with temples. Further down the Avenue of the Dead is the area known as the Citadel, containing the ruined Temple of the Feathered Serpent. This area was a large plaza surrounded by temples that formed the religious and political center of the city. The name “Citadel” was given to it by the Spanish, who believed it was a fort. Many of the rich and powerful Teotihuacanos lived in Palaces near the temples.

El Árbol del Tule (Spanish for “the Tule Tree”) is a very large tree located in the church grounds in the town center of Santa María del Tule in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, approximately 13 km (8 miles) from the city of Oaxaca on the road to Mitla. It is a Montezuma cypress and is 43m tall, has a circumference of 36m, and has the largest trunk diameter of any tree in the world at 11.42m. It is so large that it was originally thought to be multiple trees, but recent DNA tests have proved that it is only one tree.

The age of El Tule is unknown, with estimates ranging between 1200 and 3000 years. Local Zapotec legend holds that it was planted about 1400 years ago by Pechocha, a priest of Ehecatl, the Aztec storm-god. The tree is nicknamed the “Tree of Life” for all the images of animals that are reputedly visible in the tree’s gnarled trunk. This is the inspiration for “The Tree of Life” in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, a massive fourteen story (145 ft.) tall artificial tree with carved images of 325 animals.

Mexico’s sprawling capital was not what I expected. After being heavily influenced by American cinema, I was expecting a dangerous, dirty and unwelcome city that would serve as simply a stopover in our travels. Instead I found a huge city with lots to see, do and experience. Its true that the city was known to be unsafe several years ago, but the ever present sight of well armed policemen has served as a strong deterrent to crime. There are affordable restaurants, dynamic nightlife, and outstanding museums all within easy distance by subway or on foot.

Founded by the Aztecs as Tenochtitlán in 1325, Mexico City is both the oldest and the highest (7,347 ft) metropolis on the North American continent. And with nearly 22 million inhabitants, it is the most populous city in the world. It is Mexico’s cultural, political, and financial core — braving the 21st century but clinging to its deeply entrenched Aztec heritage. One of the interesting factoids about the city is that it is built on a water basin and thus is experiencing some of the same issues as Venice in Italy - sinking ground and water damage. You only have to go as far as Xochimilco to see that the city is built on uneven ground.

I encourage you to spend at least a few days in Mexico City if you decide to visit Mexico. It is here that you can get a taste of the true heart of Mexico!