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Mexico enjoys a cultural blend that is wholly unique: among the fastest growing industrial powers in the world, its vast cities boast modern architecture to rival any in the world, yet it can still feel, in places, like a half-forgotten Spanish colony, while the all-pervading influence of native American culture, five hundred years on from the Conquest, is extraordinary.
Each aspect can be found in isolation, but far more often, throughout the Republic, the three co-exist - indigenous markets, little changed in form since the arrival of the Spanish, thrive alongside elaborate colonial churches in the shadow of the skyscrapers of the Mexican miracle. Occasionally, the marriage is an uneasy one, but for the most part it works unbelievably well. The people of Mexico reflect it, too; there are communities of full-blooded indígenas, and there are a few - a very few - Mexicans of pure Spanish descent. The great majority of the population, though, is mestizo, combining both traditions and, to a greater or lesser extent, a veneer of urban sophistication.
Despite encroaching Americanism, a tide accelerated by the NAFTA free trade agreement, and close links with the rest of the Spanish-speaking world (an avid audience for Mexican soap operas), the country remains resolutely individual. Its music, its look, its sound, its smell rarely leave you in any doubt about where you are, and the thought "only in Mexico" - sometimes in awe, sometimes in exasperation, most often in simple bemusement - is rarely far from a traveller's mind. The strength of Mexican identity perhaps hits most clearly if you travel overland across the border with the United States: this is the only place on earth where a single step will take you from the "First" world to the "Third". It's a small step that really is a giant leap.
You have to be prepared to adapt to travel in any country that is still "developing" and where change has been so dramatically rapid. Although the mañana mentality is largely an outsiders' myth, Mexico is still a country where timetables are not always to be entirely trusted, where anything that can break down will break down (when it's most needed), and where any attempt to do things in a hurry is liable to be frustrated. You simply have to accept the local temperament - that work may be necessary to live, but it's not life's central focus, that minor annoyances really are minor, and that there's always something else to do in the meantime. At times it can seem that there's incessant, inescapable noise and dirt. More deeply disturbing are the extremes of ostentatious wealth and absolute poverty, most poignant in the big cities where unemployment and austerity measures imposed by the massive foreign debt have bitten hardest. But for the most part, this is an easy, a fabulously varied, and an enormously enjoyable and friendly place in which to travel.
Physically, Mexico resembles a vast horn, curving away south and east from the US border with its final tip bent right back round to the north. It is an extremely mountainous country: two great ranges, the Sierra Madre Occidental in the west and the Sierra Madre Oriental in the east, run down parallel to the coasts, enclosing a high, semi-desert plateau. About halfway down they are crossed by the volcanic highland area in which stand Mexico City (or México) and the major centres of population. Beyond, the mountains run together as a single range through the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. Only the eastern tip - the Yucatán peninsula - is consistently low-lying and flat.
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Distances in Mexico can be huge, and if you're intending to travel on public transport, you should quickly get used to the idea of long, long journeys. Getting from Tijuana to Mexico City, for example, could take nearly two days nonstop. Although public transport at ground level is frequent and reasonably efficient everywhere, taking an internal flight at least once may be worthwhile for the time it saves.
There are more than fifty airports in Mexico with regular passenger flights run by local airlines, plus several smaller airports with feeder services. The two big companies, both formerly state-owned and with international as well as domestic flights, are Aeroméxico and Mexicana, which between them connect most places to Mexico City, usually several times a day. Their monopoly is being challenged by a handful of smaller airlines that are growing rapidly and offering greater numbers of destinations all the time. Of these, Aviacsa serves the Yucatán, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guadalajara, Acapulco, Cancún, Tijuana and Monterrey. Aerolineas Internacionales and Aero California also cover most major destinations while Aeromar operates mainly in the north. The stiff competition between these airlines serves to keep prices steady and relatively low. Information about them is not usually available in cities not served by them, nor from Aeroméxico and Mexicana offices, though a good travel agent should be able to help track down details.
Internal airfares reflect the popularity of the route: the more popular the trip, the lower the price. Thus the flight from Tijuana to Mexico City costs little more than the first-class bus, while the much shorter, but less popular flight from Tijuana to La Paz costs the same. Obviously, fares like the first are a real bargain, but even on more expensive routes they can be well worth it for the time they save. While the smaller airlines might be cheaper, the price of a ticket on a particular flight doesn't normally vary from agent to agent. There are few discounts, and it's usually twice as much for a round-trip as a one-way ticket.
Within Mexico, buses (long-distance buses are called camiones, rather than autobuses, in Mexican Spanish) are by far the most common and efficient form of public transport. There are an unbelievable number of them, run by a multitude of companies, and connecting even the smallest of villages. Long-distance services generally rely on very comfortable and dependable vehicles; remote villages are more commonly connected by what look like (and often are) recycled school buses from north of the border.
There are basically two classes of bus, first (primera) and second (segunda), though on major long-distance routes there's often little to differentiate the two. First-class vehicles have numbered, reserved seats, videos and air conditioning, though increasingly many second-class lines have all these, too. The main differences will be in the number of stops - second-class buses call at more places, and consequently take longer to get where they're going - and the fare, which is about ten percent higher on first-class services, and sometimes a lot more. You may be able to get a discount with a student card, though it's not, it must be said, especially likely. Most people choose first-class for any appreciably long distance, and second for short trips or if the destination is too small for first-class buses to stop, but you should certainly not be put off second-class if it seems more convenient - it may even prove less crowded. Air conditioning is not necessarily a boon - there's nothing more uncomfortable than a bus with sealed windows and a broken air-conditioner. The videos , by the way, are occasionally in English, and aren't necessarily tasteful family viewing - bad kung-fu movies are especially popular.
On important routes there are also deluxe or pullman buses, with names like Primera Plus or Turistar Plus and fares around thirty percent higher than those of first-class buses. They have few if any stops, and waitress service and free snacks and drinks over longer distances, extra-comfortable airline seating, and air conditioning that works - be sure to keep a sweater handy, as it can get very cold. They may also be emptier, which could mean more space to stretch out and sleep. Pullman services almost all have computerized reservation services and may accept credit cards in payment: these facilities are increasingly common with the larger regular bus lines, too.
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