(But not in the expensive areas) By Barbara Kastelein Want to taste the Acapulco of the movies? It is there for the taking … all you need is the costs of a return ticket (you hardly will have to spend any money when there). Yes it’s true. Acapulco is reborn, and this newest renaissance is bigger and better than the… Read More »The Acapulco of the 60s and 70’s is Alive!
One of Barbara’s early specialities (2000) as a travel writer was travelling with small children. She wrote a monthly column on this topic with the magazine BBMundo (Editorial Mapas, Mexico), but also contributed many articles on the pleasures and challenges of tourism with babes in arms and kids in tow to media in the US and Britain, as well as in… Read More »Travel with kids
Client: planeta.com MEXICO In loving memory of Alejandro Lopez Lopez by Barbara Kastelein Publication date: May 2009 At around 11.30 pm on April 14th, the glinting stars of the black mountain sky witnessed the sad loss of one of the country’s impassioned environmentalists, the much-loved Director of the Izta-Popo Zoquiapan National Park. Alejandro López López was a popular and enthusiastic conservationist,… Read More »In loving memory of Alejandro Lopez Lopez
One can learn about regional textiles, cacti, fiestas, art, astronomical observation, musical groups and choral associations, orchids, indigenous ceremonies, ceramics, different trees, Olmecs, as well as join in culinary workshops and balloon flights.This is just a small taster of what Marlene Ehrenberg is offering with Rebozo, a tour operator whose tentacles stretch anywhere in the country. “I have the Republic in my… Read More »MEXICO: Chatting with Marlene Ehrenberg: Ecotourism Pioneer
Client: planeta.com MEXICO — Cholula in the last years has been taking over from Puebla City as the place to go on a Friday and Saturday evening.It attracts younger poblanos (people from the state of Puebla) for its much more accessible prices, especially for a beer and light snack to the tune of live trova music underneath the arches, and it appeals… Read More »Cholula
Client: planeta.com MEXICO — One of the country’s first ecotourism initiatives to combine government, private initiative and organized civil society has come to fruition in the national park area around the volcanoes of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. Three years in the making, the “senderos interpretativos” (educative nature paths) have been up and running for nearly a year and are now in… Read More »Nature Paths at the Foot of the Volcanoes
If you have driven the length of Acapulco in the last year, from Barra (near the airport) to Pie de la Cuesta from head to toe, as it were you will have seen many changes: Improved roads at both ends, a new plaza in Caleta, and a mammoth shopping center, hotel and cinema complex on the way to the Naval… Read More »Diamonds Are Forever
The stars still shine on and in Acapulco. Legends lie baking in the sun and snooze in its crumbling facades, from John Wayne to Cantinflas, the young Liz Taylor to the sultry Dolores del Rio, Pedro Infante to Frank Sinatra … The list mingles Hollywood with Los Pinos, Hugh Heffner’s bunnies with Charles de Gaulle, the White House (the Kennedys… Read More »Acapulco in those days
Changing Acapulco´s reputation was never going to be easy. Until recently, the transition from bottom-slapping, cocktail-glugging hedonism in the sun, to historical and cultural treasure trove would raise a smirk, rather than an enthusiastic nod. But the port is now seriously laying claim to its past and the pioneer here is one of the country´s grand coastal forts, La Fuerte… Read More »Fortifying Acapulco´s cultural attractions
The historic Hotel Villa Vera in Acapulco, Guerrero, is among the first of the Golden-Age hotspots to begin telling the story of the great days of Acapulco in hopes that the by remembering past success and failure will help guide the resort town in days to come. BY BARBARA KASTELEIN/The Herald Mexico December 31, 2004 “Today as I drive around… Read More »Saving Acapulco’s Golden Age
You should have seen it in the old days – it was so clean, so perfect, the most beautiful bay in todo el mundo.” Mexican children grow up with this misty-eyed patter, absorbing a lament for Acapulco’s glorious epoch of the 1950s from their parents and grandparents, as though it was an enduring love song. The relish in reminiscing about… Read More »It’s a bit of a dive – but I love it
MEXICO CITY–The Mexican Environment Ministry (SEMARNAT) is preparing to publish a final regulation setting criteria for the disposal of hazardous waste–especially from extractive industries–in salt dome caverns, a move designed to enable construction of new waste containment facilities. The draft regulation (PROY-NOM-145-SEMARNAT-2003) would allow waste materials from the oil industry defined as hazardous (under rule NOM-052-SEMARNAT-1993) to be confined in… Read More »Hazardous Waste Mexico Prepares Final Rule to Regulate Oil Sector Waste Containment in Salt Domes