Monterrey, Birthplace of Ecotourism

Monterrey is a city fusion, it offers contrasting natural and urban settings, history and traditions converge with imposing buildings, innovative entertainment and cultural spaces, and imposing financial and industrial developments.
When you will go to Monterrey you must visit the ecologic park "Chipinque" is a natural paradise is just 20 minutes from Monterrey and seems totally removed from the big cities. It is a favorite spot for nature lovers and other visitors who are looking for a little peace and quiet.

The Macro Plaza is certainly the focal point of the city center. Throughout it´s 40 hectares extend a series of small squares containing fountains, benches, trees, parks, and monuments and historic buildings, among which the Lighthouse of Commerce, which dominates the landscape and is the most top Mexico. Here also are located Monterrey Cathedral, the City Theatre, the Esplanade of Heroes, the Government Palace, the Government Palace Museum and the Fountain of Life.

The "Parque Fundidora" it is a unique space of 123 hectares that combines history, recreation and entertainment plazas, walkways and gardens. The resort is home to two major event venues in Monterrey, also houses the House of Parrots, the Steel Museum Ice Rink and Mabe Fundidora.

The complex mountain system which stretches along Nuevo Leon is a great attraction for those who like strong emotions and beautiful natural scenery. This destination is home to waterfalls, incredibly large rocks, caves and high hills. The canyons in Nuevo Leon, not only offer an extraordinary view, they also are a challenge for even the most experienced sportspersons.
In the Cumbres de Monterrey National Park, the more adventurous can tour the Matacanes Canyon, one of the best places in the world to practice canyon climbing.
The El Salto and Laberinto canyons are just as beautiful, located in Cienega de González; here you will be able to rappel down from different heights, go zip-lining and swim in ponds. During the rainy season, you will find a spectacular waterfall in El Salto.
The Potrero Chico Canyon, one of the 10 best destinations in the world for climbing, is a real paradise for sportspersons. It is almost 2,953 feet high, and in addition to climbing and rappelling, you will be able to visit ponds, a slide made out of rock and beautiful waterfalls.

The Cola de Caballo (Horsetail) waterfall is perfect for a picnic or to go horseback riding.

Northern Mexican cuisine is usually very different from cuisine eaten in the rest of the country. Its semi-arid soil forced the Spanish settlers to import cattle, hence starting the tradition of the cattle ranches. Due to the meat's intense flavor, the sauces are milder than in the south and the central regions of the country. Another culinary difference is that when you eat a taco. The tortilla is made from wheat and not corn, which is typically the main ingredient of the tortillas in the rest of the country. Some of them are really big and are called "sobaqueras".

Monterrey restaurants' specialty is "cabrito al pastor", which is baby goat cooked slowly over mesquite coals, which gives it that special smoked taste. The locals say that if you haven't tried roasted baby goat, it's as if you had never been to Monterrey. Ask and get personal recommendations as to which part of the goat to choose to have an extremely satisfactory culinary experience. The tender "arrachera" beef is also typical of this region and it is an excellent alternative to the traditional meat cuts. You shouldn't miss the famous "machaca con huevo", which is a specialty made with pulled beef jerkey, fried with eggs, accompanied by wheat tortillas, and eaten usually for breakfast.

But in Monterrey you will find much more than meat-based dishes. The area's vast gastronomic offer will let you enjoy the most appetizing and varied dishes. While dining in Monterrey, you will find from restaurants that serve traditional Mexican food and tacos to French, Chinese or Italian cuisine, among a wide assortment of international specialties, in addition to a great number of American chain restaurants and well-recognized fast-food spots.

Dining in Monterrey will be a great experience and won't hurt your wallet. Even the most sophisticated Monterrey restaurants have more competitive prices than the ones at the beach resorts and many of them offer, as an added plus for their customers, entertainment and live music in the evenings

An Underground Adventure in Zacatecas

When you will go to Zacatecas you must visit the church of Santo Domingo this beautiful building  was built by the Jesuit order between the years of 1746-1749. In 1785 it was occupied by the Dominican Order who became the second most important city after Cathedral of Zacatecas. Its facade, Baroque chairs the Plaza Santo Domingo located in the historic center of Zacatecas.

Have you ever been down to the very center of a hill to explore a silver mine? On your next visit to the beautiful city of Zacatecas, don't even consider missing the opportunity. The Eden Mine, located only 10 minutes away from the historic city center, is one of the state’s most popular tourist attractions.

A small train will take you to the heart of this underground site where you can go back in time to find out more about Zacatecas’ rich mining history and about the workers who, at great physical cost, extracted tons of silver.

The cuisine is mixed Zacatecana a wealth of flavors, aromas and spices, creatingdelicious dishes that can demand a palate. Just walk through any of their seats and perceive the environment, the time characteristic of this cuisine. At first the inhabitants of this place, had as their staple diet of beans and corn, with those using their wits, they elaborated tamales, tortillas and porridge, which in turn served to accompany the delicious turkey (kind of turkey) mending with Chile and qualites (grass wild). 

We may extend this text and end up not to mention all the dishes can be found in Zacatecas, as the delicious roast weddings, which often is the typical food inweddings in the region, this delicacy is prepared with pieces of pork although the true flavor gives it the mixture of ingredients like ancho chiles fried in lard and spices such as cloves, pepper, cinnamon, bay leaf, orange peel, golden bread, chocolate, sugarand salt to bring it to the table with rice.

Beverages, in addition to its traditional mezcal Huitzila, Zacatecas is a great wine region, so taste a good red wine, pink or white, will be a pleasure.

Acapulco, the best option to fun in waves

Classic of classics, this essential destination is, and will remain, the preferred Mexican and foreign travelers. In family plan adventure, with friends or with family, Acapulco is one of those  places that has something for all the world and for all budgets! The popular Caleta beach holds some of the most precious treasures of the port as its historic Fort of San Diego and the legendary jump from which the divers. In La Quebrada, travelers continue surprising with the men and women who are dropped from the high rocks into the sea. At night, the divers offer a beautiful torchlight spectacle worth seeing.

"If it’s done on water, you’ll find it in Acapulco" The calm waters of Acapulco Bay are perfect for water sports of every variety. For those looking for fishing charter, tournaments, yacht rentals, and sailing regatta info, the Acapulco Yacht Club and Marina Acapulco have numerous events throughout the year.



Some activities are:
* Snorkeling: is popular around Caleta and Caletilla Beaches, and off Roqueta Island. Best sites are at El Ripio, Las Palmas, and Bahia de Yerbabuena Beaches.
* Swimming: is generally safe at all beaches along the bay.
* Parasailing: was invented in Acapulco, and promises a thrilling view of the bay.
* Jet skis, hobie cats and “broncos” (mini motor boats) can be rented at many spots around the bay.
* Windsurfing.
* Sport fishing: is available through most hotels.

Seafood Dishes

Possibly Acapulco's most famous dish is ceviche. Ceviche is fresh, raw fish, usually diced. The fish is not actually cooked, but the protein is coagulated using salt and the acidity of limes. Other flavorings include cilantro, onion, garlic and chiles. Caldo de cabeza de pescado, or fish head soup, is another traditional favorite found in Acapulco. This intense broth is often served with zambaripao, or beans and rice. Other seafood dishes found in Acapulco include pescado a la talla a coal-grilled fish marinated in a chile sauce---and river shrimp served in a garlic and chili sauce.

Meat Dishes

While Acapulco is known for several traditional seafood dishes, there is plenty of room in the surrounding areas to raise farm animals. Traditional dishes include pork, goat and chicken. Huaxmole is a dish of braised pork ribs. The succulent ribs are slowly cooked in a mole sauce. Mole sauces vary by region and even by family, however, all include some type of chile. Huaxmole is made with guajillo chile, guaje beans and, often, one or more types of gourd. Barbacoa de Chivo is goat that has been grilled. It is often served with corn tortillas and rice. A popular breakfast food is aporreado, which is pieces of pork mixed with egg, chiles, cumin and garlic.

Drinks

Traditional drinks in this part of Mexico include a tea made out of toronjil, a popular herb found throughout the country and agua de jamaica, a sweet drink made with red hibiscus flowers. More potent drinks include tuba, a drink made by fermenting the juice of coconut palm and often flavored with pineapple, lemon or chiles. Sangre de Baco, or Bacchus's blood, is a drink made from fermented crushed grapes.

Jalisco: the state to go with your adrenaline

In Jalisco there are a lot a variety of places for visit, if you prefer swimming, take the sun and do aquatic activities option is Puerto Vallarta. Puerto Vallarta offers a lot of visitants that love to visitants, the beach of Chinas, Punta Negra and gold beach are good option for relaxing. The Costalegre zone it´s a touristic corridor that have several beach´s where can find beautiful sceneries and are a lot of restaurants, store and discotheques.
Near to the metropolitan zone of Jalisco it´s Zapopan with his archeological zone, Tlaquepaque and Tonalá that are beautiful and little cities for admire the architecture of its buildings. If you visit Jalisco, you must will go to Chapala, San Juan de los Lagos, and of course Zapotlan.

Jalisco, for its many ecosystems and geography ranging from the plains to the most capricious extreme mountains, through rivers and lakes, gorges, canyons and coast that sways between the sober calm waters and crashing waves on the cliffs, is the ideal setting for the practice of all ecotourism, adventure tourism and extreme sports. Some examples of those activities are:

* Diving: The diving is an exciting activity, and Jalisco has spectacular scenery for her, especially in the fabulous beaches of Puerto Vallarta, and Boca de Tomatlan Costalegre.

* Canyoneering: Jalisco is a state that lends itself to the practice of this exciting sport of adventure in wet and dry canyons of this state. You can admire and feel the adrenaline in contact with nature. In the state there are many options for this adventurous sport.

* Mountain Biking: The rugged terrain of the mountains of Jalisco allows that mountain biking is one of the activities most important adventure tourism.

* Cavalcade: Many areas of Jalisco has specific routing paths and practice of cavalcade, not only in the mountains, you can cavalcade too near to the dams and rivers, around mountain towns or parks where they perform other ecotourism activities.

It's hard to travel around Mexico without trying the food.  Every region has their own specialty and even though some of the dishes are more common than each region has their own variation on each dish.

I was once recommended that if I wanted to try the food of that particular city or town, that I should find a market. A traditional Mexican market sells fresh fruits and vegetables as well as has a section of stands where you can find everything that is typical of local fare. The colors of freshly cut red carnations, engulfed by the smells of dried chili peppers and onions and around the corner from the burlap sacks of rice and beans can be an intoxicating sensation and a gourmet's dream.

Food stands are usually grouped into one section and can consist of a large grill, a choice of soft drinks and the steamy smell of green onions and strips of meat grilling. Each stand has a specialty, where you can get your food in one stand and a juice or a milkshake in another. You can also go to a restaurant and find these dishes so whatever your fancy, Mexico can offer a little bit of everything.

Jalisco is a state that is so rich in the food department that it is pretty much impossible to name all the wonderful dishes that come from this region. There are, however, several staple dishes of Jaliscan cuisine that have become synonymous this area of the country and only a few of which I'll be mentioning here.

There is the ever popular, "torta ahogada" which in Spanish means "drowned sandwich." The "torta" is another typical food in Mexico (a sandwich made with a bread roll called "bolillo" and which can usually be stuffed with anything from scrambled eggs to breaded pork and almost always has tomato, beans and jalapenos) but in Jalisco, they "drown" them in a spicy red sauce and usually garnish them with onions. They are normally served on plates or in bowls and the bread is called "birote," a bit more salty, crusty and dense than bolillos. These are normally filled with "carnitas," pork fried in lard.

Birria is another dish you just can't pass up. Traditionally, this is made with goat meat, basted with a chili pepper marinade, wrapped in maguey leaves and placed in earthenware, where it cooks over hot stones in a hole in the ground for about 4 or 5 hours. It can be eaten in tacos, pulled, with a bit of salsa or in stew.

A hearty dish to try is the pozole Tapatio. This is a stew with hominy and depending on the region, it is prepared with a red, white or green broth. Pozole from Jalisco, however, is either red or white. It includes pork or chicken and can be garnished with lettuce, onions, radishes, salt, lime, avocado, cheese and oregano.

Another soup dish is the Carne en su Jugo. This is a broth that has beans and pieces of beef in it, garnished with bacon. Add finely chopped onions, cilantro, salt and lime and you've got yourself a very tasty meal.

If you feel like you need something sweet to finish off your meal, try a Jericalla. The story goes that a Spanish nun was working in a Mexican orphanage in Jalisco, where there were many undernourished children. In order to get the children to eat protein, this nun created a custard dish using milk, eggs, sugar and cinnamon. She had accidentally left it to bake too long and it burned on top. She tried it anyway to see if it was edible and it was an absolute hit. It caught on with the children and was so popular that it was quickly being served all across the state. This delicious custard (still served a little burned on top) was named after the region of Jerica, Spain, where the nun was born.

Mexican culture is intrinsically linked to its food. Dishes that are so a part of everyday life has its history and can date back as far as pre-Colombian times. If you are interested in learning a bit more about a region as culinarily as rich as Jalisco, land of the mariachi, tequila and the Mexican cowboy (the charro), try any one of the dishes above. You won't be disappointed.

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