Research◇1. Mexico Routes

Posted on July 6, 2022 by admin

Mexico is pretty big, in fact it is the World’s 13th-largest country by area. It consists of 32 states. Here, I will teach you how to to choose what places to visit in Mexico and when. And at the end, I will share a 6 month Perfect Weather Roadmap in Mexico. The roadmap lets you have the maximum flexibly while traveling, as it is not limiting you to only one route. Instead, it offers multiple choices, allowing you to be your own travel agent.

First, we looked at the climate.

While looking on the map, we noticed how much of Mexico territory is actually a harsh desert. Ouch!

Desert-like states in the north, besides California, New Mexico and Texas that are now part of the United States, were always scarcely inhabited. Could it be the reason why American Army had no trouble marching to Mexico City during Mexican-American War of 1846-1848?

Mexico climate and landscape is desert-like in the north, tropic-like in the south and mild and wonderful in-between. This “in-between” is the true heartland of Mexico with it’s perfect weather, crazy history, mind-bending archeology and colorful traditions. It might come as a surprise, but it is mostly “in-between” is where ancient civilizations rose and fell.

Well, the 22 degree parallel seems as an agreed upon orienteer by many published travelers for separating frigid territories to the north. Removing the states above that line alone cuts the state count almost in half.

Then, we looked at the country’s crime rates.

Is Mexico safe? Mexico territory is divided into 32 states. Some states are safer to visit than the others. Each state safety level is directly related to the prosperity level of its population or the lack of it. Poverty pushes desperate people to become worse versions of themselves. Traveling through a poor state is NOT fun!

We visited Travel.State.Gov for the current travel advisory for Mexico and removed Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan states from our already shortened list.

Now, we chose cities.

Ok, after we selected potential states to visit, we were ready to look at the city level for each state. Also, while traveling, we want to include an occasional visit to a beach. So, whenever possible, we added some beach towns into the list of cities to explore.

State	Cities to start with for state exploration
1. Jalisco	Guadalajara – the second largest city in Mexico Puerto Vallarta – a beach resort town
2. Guanajuato	Guanajuato San Miguel de Allende
3. Querétaro	Querétaro
4. Hidalgo	Pachuca
5. San Luis Potosi	San Luis
6. Veracruz	Veracruz – a port and a beach city Orizaba Xalapa
7. Tlaxcala	Tlaxcala
8. Puebla	Puebla
9. Mexico State	Mexico City – the biggest city in both Americas! Toluca – coolest of all due to altitude (freezing during winter nights)
10. Morelos	Cuernavaca
11. Oaxaca	Oaxaca Puerto Escondido – a beach resort town
12. Chiapas	San Cristóbal
13. Yucatan	Merida – almost a beach city, 30 miles to the nearest beach
14. Quintana Roo	Cancun – a beach resort city

The list of best states to visit in Mexico and some cities to start with.

Look how many states in Mexico offer great adventures! You can stop here and explore any cities on the list and more, or you can get pickier and set some low temperature limit, as did we (in the next step).

Finally, we built our Perfect Weather Roadmap.

We were planning on staying in Mexico for about 6 month during the winter of 2021-2022. Because it was the coldest part of the year, we ignored records on high temperatures. Even the hottest places in Mexico were at their mildest in winters. Instead, we would prefer not to get too cold. So, we set ourselves a limit on how cold the area can be during the night for us to enjoy it. We would comfortably stay above 50F (10C) for the nightly low temperatures.

We found wikipedia of great help, as it posted the temperature tables almost for all the cities on our list.

Source 1: World Meteorological Organization
Source 2: Servicio Meteorologico Nacional (temperature normals and extremes)

As an example, the table above is what wikipedia publish for Mexico City. We looked at Average Low, and added the city name (Mexico City) under each month it is above our limit of 50F (10C). In Mexico City case, the months were March and October. We also added the second half of February and the first half of November as well, expecting that this limit will still partially work. In total, Mexico city got 4 entries (in bold in the table below).

We repeated the process for every city on our list and, TA-DA, we got our Perfect Weather Roadmap!

Month/Cities	All Month	1-15 of the month	15-30 of the month
October	Guadalajara Querétaro Guanajuato San Miguel de Allende Pachuca San Luis Tlaxcala Puebla Mexico City Cuernavaca San Cristóbal Merida	Toluca
November	Guadalajara Orizaba Xalapa Cuernavaca Oaxaca Merida	Guanajuato San Miguel de Allende Querétaro San Luis Puebla Mexico City
December	Guadalajara Orizaba Xalapa Cuernavaca Oaxaca Merida Veracruz Any Beach Town
January	Guadalajara Xalapa Cuernavaca Oaxaca Merida Veracruz Any Beach Town
February	Guadalajara Orizaba Xalapa Cuernavaca Merida Veracruz Any Beach Town		Querétaro Mexico City San Miguel de Allende
March	Mexico City Guadalajara San Miguel de Allende Querétaro Orizaba Xalapa Puebla Merida	Cuernavaca	Guanajuato San Luis Toluca

Weather Roadmap

Now are were ready to comfortably explore Mexico by visiting any city of our choosing at its best time. And so can you! Enjoy!

Do you like my posts? What until you see my quests! If you ever decide to visit Acadia National Park, check out my book available on Amazon as paperback and Kindle editions. Buy a book, change a life! Thank you for your support and patronage.

Copyright © 2022 by E.Gra. Unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, no part of this work may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the author’s prior written consent.

Mexico City◇1. Arrival

Posted on October 7, 2021 by admin

Meet me (47), my mom (74) and my husband (48). In 2021, we decided to trade the usually cold and grey winter of NY to possibly the warm and sunny climate of Mexico.

“Why not stay for 6 month and explore such an exotic country, treating ourselves to fresh fruits and veggies and, maybe, locating a perfect place for future retirement?” we said to each other. The winter weather in Mexico is supposed to be wonderful with full sun and no rains. Agreed, we researched our cities-traveling route based on the best weather and bought tickets.

We didn’t want to carry too many bags around, so we decided to bring one backpack each. It worked wonderfully! First of all, we saved money because the luggage cost was extra for the airplane tickets. Secondly, we saved tons of time for packing and unpacking every time we moved. And honestly, if I had to do it all over again, I would pack even less.

My husband and I landed in Mexico City on October 5th and my mom came from Germany on October 6th, 2021.

The weather was on the hot side with vivid greenery everywhere as the wet season was coming to its end. The city is 7,300 feet above sea level (1 mile high) like Denver, CO. The air is thinner here but it is not really noticeable.

Taxis and Uber have cheap fares everywhere in Mexico. But we heard good things about Mexico City subway, one of them – the ride cost only 25 cents (5 pesos), another – each train has a special cart for women and children only. Both proved to be true and more! I cannot count how many times my mom and I used the women only cart during the peak times. Also, each subway station has armed guards on every platform. They monitor for order, give whistles for trains arrivals and departures and, a few times, they removed men who sneak in the women only cart.

Notice the wall around the green space.
Mexicans love walls! They are everywhere. Even public parks are walled.

The quest to use the subway to get to our AirB&B was actually quite hard. For more that 40 minutes we couldn’t find the closest subway station to the Terminal 2 we landed at. While picking up my mom from the airport the following day, we discovered that the very convenient subway station with the name “Airport” is at the Terminal 1. It is possible to take the airport shuttle train between terminals. However, we did not figure it out right away, got out onto the streets and were trying to follow google directions instead. Even with the directions, it was a challenge. The expected grand entrance or any sort of stairway to the subway station was actually hidden by a labyrinth of market stalls, that grew around it. While walking in search of the entrance, I felt bewildered by the idea of being totally lost, as how can anyone find anything in this chaos, when suddenly we were standing in front of the grand stone staircase. That must be it.

We were staying in an AirB&B, at the heart of the Guerrero neighborhood. This area is not the best visually, as it looks and feels run down. However, it is a true working people neighborhood with a fresh produce and clothes markets and several subway stations.

Our apartment was in a gated building complex. Throughout our Mexican journey, there was never a time when we felt unsafe.

Rain fell for roughly 15 minutes every afternoon, during the second week of October.

After securing the apartment, we went around to hunt for food.

The first few days, I was recovering from a cultural shock of shopping at local farmers markets in Spanish in the biggest city in both Americas.

Besides, fruits and veggies, we also opted for buying whole grilled chicken and eating at home. My mom didn’t get her Hepatitis A vaccine before coming to Mexico, and we didn’t want to risk her life and suddenly end our journey, by eating at restaurants and off street carts.

We got two weeks in Mexico City. It is time to explore it!

HowTo◇2. Identify Nouns

Posted on June 24, 2012 by admin

This is a review lesson. Kids must be already familiar with the definition of noun.

Start the lesson with asking kids to write the title “Nouns” in their notebooks and explaining that today they are going to review what they already know about nouns.

I. Definition

Ask kids to recall what is a noun together. Make sure kids understand that a noun is a word and NOT an object itself.

Noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea.

Ask kids to write the definition down into their notebooks.

II. “Who?”

Ask kids to give you examples of words that name a person: girl, uncle, nurse. Then ask them to write down the following statement:

A noun can tell you "Who?"

While writing, kids will have time to think about the statement. After they are finished, ask them why is this statement true. (Who? A boy. Who? A clown.)

Challenge: Give kids two words: baby and boy. Ask them to determine if the words are nouns by using definition of a noun and the “Who?” question. (Both words name a person. Who? A baby. Who? A boy.) Now, build a phrase “baby boy”. Ask kids find nouns in the phrase. Based on definition, both words should be nouns. But if we try to see what questions do they answer, then Who? Boy. (noun) What kind of boy? Baby. (adjective)

Summary: We need both: the definition of a noun and the “Who?” question to identify a noun in a sentence.

III. “What?”

Ask kids to give you examples of words that name a place: school, gym, park.

Ask kids to give you examples of words that name a thing (anything you can see, hear, smell, taste or touch ): chair, cat, ice cream.

Ask kids to give you examples of words that name an idea (anything you cannot see, hear, smell, taste or touch): joy, bravery, liberty, peace.

Then ask them to write down the following statement:

A noun can tell you "What?"

While writing, kids will have time to think about the statement. After they are finished, ask them why is this statement true. (What? A table. What? Love.)

Challenge: Give kids two words: tree and branch. Ask them to determine if the words are nouns by using definition of a noun and the “What?” question. (Both words name a thing. What? A tree. What? A branch.) Now, build a phrase “tree branch”. Ask kids find nouns in the phrase. Based on definition, both words should be nouns. But if we try to see what questions do they answer, then What? Branch. (noun) What kind of branch? Tree. (adjective)

Summary: We need both: the definition of a noun and the “What?” question to identify a noun in a sentence.

IV. Exercise: “Sort Nouns”

Ask kids to make a table with 4 columns in their note books by dividing the page first into 2 columns, and then each column into 2 more columns.

Name the table Nouns; name each column as Person, Place, Thing and Idea.

Explain that you are going to read some words. Kids need to sort and write the words under the correct column. After each word, stop and ask kids under what column they put the word and why.

Nouns

Person	Place	Thing	Idea

Note: The words you want to use for the exercise depends on the kids level. It is helpful use words from their previous spelling tests to reinforce their memory.

Note: Include NOT nouns words and compound nouns in your list.

Sample word list: Chair, park, sing, friend, love, Mary, blue, popcorn, time, club, officer, zone, freedom, read, north, zoo, president, California, dog, talk, pencil, gym, sad, number, scout, pink, and weekend.

V. Exercise: “Sort Nouns II”

Continue filling out the table from the previous exercise. But now, use words in content by reading a story. As before, stop after each sentence and ask kids what words they found, what column they chose and why. At that time, you can even display the sentence on your board for visual learners.

Story: Emma and her mother went to the science center in the city. They wanted to see the Ancient Egypt exhibition. They looked around at all the artifacts on display. There were statues, jewelry, and coins. Everywhere they looked there were exotic items to see.

VI. Summary.

Summarize the lesson’s points by asking kids what is the correct way to identify if a word is a noun. (By using the definition of a noun and the “Who?” or “What?” questions.)

VII. Homework.

Find and write nouns for each letter in the alphabet. Ask kids to be creative in their choice of words and surprise you.