| BOOK REVIEW
TRAVELER’S MEXICO
COMPANION
by Maribeth
Mellin
Photographs by Nik Wheeler
Globe Pequot, Guilford, CT - ISBN 0-7627-1126-4
 There
are lots of Mexico guidebooks on the market–over 35 at last count–but
Traveler’s Mexico Companion by Maribeth Mellin offers such rich text
and beautiful photos that readers can travel to Mexico without getting
out of their chairs.
All guidebooks are
written for a different group of readers and this one isn’t any
different. While page after page of inciteful text gives readers
in-depth information, one section says this guidebook is for budget
travelers. In her section, Safety and Security, Mellin refers to the
absence of toilet seats at budget hotels and the need to bring along
toilet paper. But that’s where this book stops begin a budget guide,
for Mellin gives her readers a sophisticated look at all facets of
Mexico.
Mellin divides her book
into 16 major sections, each filled with Wheeler’s magnificent images.
She divides Mexico into ten regions–Mexico City, The Valley of Mexico,
Central Mexico, Guadalajara and the West, Northern Central Highlands,
The Land Bridge (Oaxaca, Chiapas, etc.), The Yucatan Peninsula, The
Northeast and the Gulf Coast, The Pacific Coast, and Baja California.
Of the many regions of
Mexico admired for their natural beauty, Michoacan is among the most
diverse. Mellin says, "It is a panoply of soaring plateaus, sheer
pine-forested slopes, crashing rivers, tropical valleys, vibrant towns
and , on the Pacific Coast, thundering surf, coastal marshes and white
beaches."
Her book takes readers to
Mexico’s main touirist sights and also to places off the beaten track
where few tourists go. Mellin visits remote villages and out-of-the-way
neighborhoods of Mexican cities where the real Mexico exists and offers
first-hand information for her readers.
Part of the Traveler’s
Companion series from Globe Pequot Press, Mellin’s book provides her
readers with detailed maps and practical tips. But what sets her book
apart are the added sections–"Top Spots," "Off the
Beaten Track" and a special chapter on different vacation
activities. While this is a great book for any traveler to Mexico, it’s
especially good for first timers.
Maribeth Mellin, winner
of Mexico’s prestigious Pluma de Plata Award for the first edition of
this guidebook, has written and contributed to many guidebooks on Mexico
and Latin America.
She speaks with the voice
of experience, a voice tempered by years of travel south of the border. |
Visitors
and locals scream, sing, shout and dance amid confetti and ribbons.
Bands of all kinds play the infectious rhythms of the State of Sinaloa.
And the food–oh, the food–camarones (shrimp) prepared in
every way possible, washed down with ice cold Pacifico beer, for it’s
Carnaval Time, Mazatlán’s biggest pachanga (fiesta).