MEXICO PRACTICALITIES

Facts and Figures

Mexico is the third largest country in Latin America and the most populous Spanish speaking nation in the world.

Area: 1,958,201 sq. km (756,066 sq. miles)

Population: (1995) 91,145,000

Population density: 46.5 per sq. km

Capital: Mexico City (known as D.F.)

Passport/Visa Requirements

Passport valid for six months beyond intended stay. Return ticket required. British nationals require a tourist card, obtainable at entry points or from Mexican Consulates. Be sure to ask for at least 30 days (maximum offered is 180 days). Do not lose the tourist card as it is impossible to leave the country without it and replacing it can take days. If the customs fail to take it off you on departure, post it back to Servicios Migratorios, Av Chapultapec 284, Glorieta de Insurgentes, Mexico City (D.F.). Other passport holders should contact the Trips office for information.

Geography

Mexico borders the USA to the north and Guatemala and Belize to the south. The landscape is very complex and covers almost all variations from swamp to high alpine. A large central plateau is flanked by two high mountain ranges, the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre Oriental, that run roughly parallel to the coastlines. The northern plateau is arid and sparsely populated and occupies over 40% of Mexico’s area. The southern plateau is the heart of Mexico and is home to over half of the population. It is crossed by a range of high volcanic mountains. South of these lie the thinly populated, smaller mountains of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and these lead to the swampy flatlands of the Yucatan Peninsula and the cloudforest highlands of Chiapas in the far south.

Climate

Climate varies according to altitude. Coastal areas and lowlands (tierra caliente) are hot and steamy with high humidity, while the central plateau is temperate even in winter. The climate of the inland highlands is mostly mild, but sharp changes in temperature occur between day and night. The cold lands (tierra fría) lie above 2000m (6600ft). Rainfall varies greatly from region to region. Only the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Yucatan, and the state of Chiapas in the far south receive any appreciable amount of rain during the year, with the wet season running between June and September. All other areas have rainless seasons, while the northern and central areas of the central plateau are dry and arid. There is some snow in the north in winter. The dry season runs from October to May.

Language

 

Spanish is the official language but English is also spoken by some. Mayan languages are widespread in the Chiapas Highlands.

Money

We have recently received reports that travellers cheques are difficult to cash. If you do take them make sure they are in $US. ATM machines are widely available in most towns and cities throughout Mexico. This is often the quickest and easiest way of getting money. You can also get cash with visa, mastercard or cirrus if you have PIN number. Credit cards are widely accepted, but sometimes there is a surcharge. If using a credit card check carefully any receipt before signing. Costs vary hugely between the tourist resorts and the local towns. Dinner in a resort is from about $10 to $25, whilst in a local café anything from $2 to $10. Beer can be anything from $1 to $2.50. Petrol is about $0.70 per litre (about half UK price). Entrance fees about $4 per site, some are free on Sundays, but this rule seems to change from time to time. Some clients have commented that Mexico (especially Yucatan and Baja) is more expensive than they expected. Some of the fancier hotels have UK style prices.

Religion

90% are Roman Catholic.

Time

GMT – 6 hours for most of the country. Baja California South is GMT – 7, north is GMT– 8.

Electricity

110 volts AC, 60 HZ. American style two pin plugs.

Brief History

Mexico’s history stretches back to the very earliest times known to man. Immensely powerful civilisations have controlled the region and their own histories alone have inspired enormous literary works.

It was during the Pre-Classic era (1500BC - 300AD) that Mexico’s first notable civilisation emerged when the Olmecs flourished in the low-lying coastal areas around Veracruz and Tabasco. Their culture is considered to be the mother of all the subsequent cultures that formed Mesoamerica. They had the first calendar and hieroglyphic system in the western hemisphere, but their most celebrated legacy are the colossal, Negroid-featured heads carved from basalt that have inspired theories of travellers from Africa landing here thousands of years before the Spanish made it. La Venta, the most important of the Olmec sites seems to have declined around 400BC, to be replaced with newer sites and developing civilisations elsewhere. For example, the ruins at Monte Alban near Oaxaca show distinct Olmec influence.

By the beginning of the first century, the first buildings were being erected at Teotihuacan (meaning “The place where men become gods”), near Mexico City, and it was this power base that came to dominate all of Mesoamerica from 300-900AD. The enormous structures, built with a mathematical and astronomical precision that continues to bewilder archaeologists today, reflect the importance of the centre, but,

mysteriously (given that they traded regularly with the Maya who recorded so much about their own civilisation), the Teotihuacanos left no written records of their achievements or beliefs. For unknown reasons, their influence dwindled around 600AD and were superseded by the Toltecs from the north, who settled at Tula, and the Mixtecs, who took over all of the Zapotec territories in western Oaxaca, including Monte Alban. Significant cultural developments took place, including an increase in human sacrifice and military operations and the rise in importance of Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent god, who brought civilisation to man.

Meanwhile, in the south the Maya were at their pinnacle of cultural development from 700-900AD, before they too mysteriously collapsed. The power void was ably filled by the Aztecs who emerged in the twelfth century and built the beautiful, island city of Tenochtitlan on the present day site of Mexico City. Their society quickly gained a stranglehold on Mesoamerica and undertook unprecedented levels of human sacrifice in an effort to nourish the sun god, Huitzilopochtli, who they feared was about to die. Whether the Aztecs would have gone the way of previous Mesoamerican societies was never allowed to be answered as their immense empire capitulated during the Spanish conquest led by Cortes. Cortes’ arrival in 1519 was either pre-ordained or pure luck, as the Aztecs believed their revered god, Quetzalcoatl (whose human form was that of a white, bearded man), was to return in that year. Cortes was white and bearded and the Aztec ruler, Moctezuma, allowed him into their ranks without the violent opposition usually meted out to invaders. Following a Spanish quashing of a suspected uprising, the Indians did indeed turn against them an almost defeated Cortes and his men on the Noche Triste (Sad Night) in 1520. Cortes returned in 1521 with re-inforcements and secured the city once more.

Three hundred years of Spanish rule followed, decimating the Indian population and culture via disease and religious repression. The growing mestizo class (mixed blood Mexican/Spanish) became the source of the Spanish downfall. Father Miguel Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende emerged as the first leaders of the independence movement, but their large force was badly organised and failed in a bid to defeat the Spanish in 1811. Morelos took over at the head of the revolt and

quickly won over most of the country, before a series of Spanish fightbacks led to his execution. Morelos’ successor, Vincente Guerrero crucially gained the backing of royalist general Agustin de Iturbide in 1820 and the following year, they secured Independence from the Spanish, whose world power base was in steep decline.

Independence did not bring stability though and the next century was one of disastrous turmoil for Mexico. Fifty-six governments came and went in the next forty years. Santa Ana, who held office eleven times, oversaw the loss or sell-off of over half of Mexico’s territory to the USA, including the crushing defeat at the Alamo, with the subsequent loss of Texas. Santa Ana was deposed in 1855 by Juarez who suspended national debt and confiscated church property; before falling foul of a French inspired takeover by conservative monarchists. Juarez sealed his place as one of Mexico’s greatest heroes when he re-gained power in 1867. Porfirio Diaz took over in 1876 and his policies of disfranchising the poor and protecting the elite encouraged the time bomb of political and social discontent that exploded in the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Emiliano Zapata, Venustiano Carranza and Francisco Villa led the peasants to victory in the armed struggle. Zapata, a face and name that pervades every Mexican town, was cruelly slain by Carranza later.

Mexico’s progress has been slow ever since, with its politics dominated, until very recently, by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and continuing problems of corruption and sporadic political uprisings, particularly in the only remaining Indian heartland, Chiapas. In 1994 Zapatista Guerillas (EZLN) rose up in rebellion against the government and received widespread support around Mexico in the process. PRI’s seemingly unshakeable grip on the nation was under pressure. The catastrophic collapse of the peso in late 1994 (that threatened to send world financial markets into freefall) due to financial mismanagement led to unprecedented US intervention. A bailout package was organised in return for Mexico’s loss of independent control over its financial management. It is also believed that the clearing up of the Zapatista problem was another condition imposed, one that led to the Mexican government sending the troops back into Chiapas in early 1995 without success. With the loss of a local

election (the first in seventy years), PRI finally sat around the negotiating table with the EZLN and signed a deal to end the uprising. There is still a long way to go for the country to truly unite, a journey that, given the nation’s rebellious history, may not be an easy one, but for now things are looking as bright as they have for a few centuries.

Natural History

Enormous potential for wildlife spotting exist throughout the country, but special things to look out for include gray whales migrating down the Pacific Coast off Baja California, cacti species galore, howler monkeys and large cats, including jaguar and puma. In the southern rainforests you can see orchids and toucans and greater flamingos in the Yucatan peninsula.

Special Events

Every day is a fiesta day somewhere in Mexico. They are almost all wild, colourful and quite unique so coinciding your trip with one of them is certainly recommended:

Feb 2 Dia de la Candelaria, widespread, proces sions, dancing, rodeo

Feb/Mar Carnaval, Veracruz, big bash before the 40 day Lent

Holy Week Semana Santa, nationwide, week of proces sions

Sep 16 Independence Day, nationwide, huge party in Mexico City

Nov 2 Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), nation wide at cemeteries.

Some of the Mayan villages in Chiapas, such as San Juan Chamula (near San Cristobal) have spectacular festivals based on the Mayan calendar. N.B. many Maya festivals operate strict photography bans... please respect this.

Music

Think Mexico, think Mariachi. Those round-bellied crooners