2018-February

I’m really quite simple. I plant flowers and watch them grow… I stay at home and watch the river flow.

George Harrison

Most days I need to pinch myself. When I moved to Mexico over 20 years ago I didn’t have a well-defined plan, I just knew that the options facing me in Canada were not what I was looking for. I wanted things simpler and purer than working for a large company and counting down the days until I could retire. Continue reading Editor’s Letter →

By Carole Reedy

Despite the conflicts of daily life, we readers can always seek consolation in the hours we spend with our favorite authors and books. This year won’t disappoint. Here’s a sneak preview of what’s to come. Continue reading 2018: Books to Brighten the New Year →

By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken

We certainly were not spring chickens when we first came to Huatulco. We marveled that people over age sixty-five traveled here from distant places. And we were sure that by the time we were seventy, we would need to find a warm place in the U.S. rather than in Mexico to provide the comforts and care that our aging bodies would need. Continue reading Growing Old in Huatulco – and Loving Life →

By Vair Clendenning

Every year we decide that we’re going to Huatulco again and every year we go through the same travel trauma, how are we going to get there? Do we fly direct from Calgary or do we fly to Florida and visit friends before flying to Huatulco through Mexico City? Is there a better route that we missed, are there better flights than WestJet and Air Canada? All of these choices make travel decisions difficult for us seniors. Continue reading Getting to Huatulco →

By Julie Etra

It was 2007, Día de los Muertos in Oaxaca City. We left the Valley of Oaxaca and drove over the Sierra Madre to the Bahías of Huatulco for the first time. This area was suggested to us by a client of mine, an engineer who had visited this coast, and who also suggested we watch the Mexican movie ‘Y Tu Mama También’, which included gorgeous yet poignant scenes filmed on Cacaluta beach. We were fed up with Los Cabos and were looking around, for new experiences and opportunities, fewer people, more nature, and a swimmable sea. Mexico. We passed fields of agave (maguey) as we headed south to the Sierra Madre Sur. Up and over via the sinuous one-lane highway, crossing oak-pine woodlands, cloud forest with tree ferns, tropical perennial forest, selva seca (deciduous semi-tropical forest), and the gorgeous coast. The sea, the air, the flowers, the birds, the wildlife, the food, the people, the music. A day on the ocean, a Saturday night on the zócalo, La Bocana, Zimatan. Another day up to the Rio Magdalena, Hagia Sofia and on to Pluma, west to the Lagunas of Manialtepec and Chacahua. The diversity. That’s is what I love about Huatulco, the diversity, right here, and so close.

By Brooke Gazer

We left Canada in February of 1999, spending five months living like gipsies, exploring every beach on Mexico’s Pacific coast. We were looking for the perfect place to open a B&B but had not found it until we arrived in Huatulco.

Continue reading How We Chose Huatulco →

By Marcia and Jan Chaiken

On January 20, 2001 at exactly noon, George W. Bush became POTUS, and Jan became the former Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice. The transition of administrations had not gone well and, sure that the US was in for a catastrophic event, we decided to store all our possessions near Washington DC and drive to Mexico. We packed some clothes, snorkel gear, a pot, a pan, a toaster oven, and Marcia’s computer – essential for the research projects she was still leading in the US – and we headed south. Continue reading How We Wound Up in Huatulco Mexico →

By Renee Biernacki

It’s nearly impossible to choose one attribute that I love about Huatulco. There’s the amazing food, gorgeous bays, unfailing weather, friendly people, and the authenticity. I could go on and on but unfortunately I have to choose one. Well actually I will chose two because the people and authenticity of Huatulco go hand in hand. This extremely diverse town is made up of so many interesting and authentic individuals, which makes this place so captivating. Continue reading Loving Huatulco Life →

By Carole Reedy

1. The view from my terrace as the sun rises over the trees while below the cacophony of the city awakens all.
2. Purchasing freshly ground Cuban coffee from Gran Premio, the 55-year-old corner coffee shop.
3. Tacos de cochinita pibil at the Diablos Rojos baseball game.
4. Talking to taxi drivers, who know more about politics than anyone else in the city.
5. Taking visitors for a ride on the Turibus.
6. Attending morning MET opera transmissions at the Auditorio Nacional…and the lecture just before given by maestro Sergio Vela.
7. Buying pirated DVDs from street vendors.
8. Slugging down vino tinto from my boda bag, accompanied by empanadas de carne, at a corrida de toros at Plaza Mexico.
9. Roaming Avenida Reforma.
10. Observing the care with which young women apply their makeup on the Metrobus.