Topic - Lifestyle

Mexico’s geographical territory is composed of a diverse topography including coastal plains, temperate highlands and extensive mountain ranges which climb to heights of over 10,000 feet above sea level. This diversity gives rise to a range of different climate zones . . .

By Monica Rix Paxson

Until I began to research breasts cosmetic surgery, I was kind of snotty about it. I figured that most of the women who wanted breast implants were seeking double Ds to please a husband or boyfriend. Although breast enlargement is the most common procedure, in truth it is more often women who want a more natural looking change, from an A-cup to a C. Breast enlargement is considered safe and so common it is a routine surgery these days and implants are safer than ever . . .

Mexico’s communications network is one of the most well developed in all of Latin America. This convenience comes at a price, as telephone costs in Mexico are relatively expensive. There are alternatives to chose from, and if you know where to look and how to buy, you can save a lot of money…

An important feature of Day of the Dead festivities is the creation of an ofrenda – an offering – that usually manifests as an alter in Catholic homes; placing upon this photographs of the remembered dead, accompanied by a number of traditional foods and decorations, including caramelized pumpkin, small sugar skulls, and orange marigold flowers called cempaxochitl, or Flor de Muerto. Another traditional food oftentimes found on ofrendas is Pan de Muerto: literally translated, Bread of the Dead; colloquially, ‘Dead Bread’ . . .

Most people who want or need affordable healthcare don’t know what services are available to them in Mexico, and they are also unsure about how to go about accessing those services, how to engage with the process of getting healthcare in Mexico, how much it will cost, etc. . .

In the US and UK, supermarkets have steadily lured custom away from local stores by providing enormous ranges of goods including comestibles, home-wares, hardware and pharmaceuticals. The result has been that many of the local ‘mom and pop’ stores have closed down and vanished from the trading landscape. In Mexico, this has not come to pass . . .

If you spend some time in Mexico, sooner or later you’ll come across the word chilango, probably in some derogatory way, such as “¡típico chilango!” or ” ¡tenía que ser chilango!”

According to the Bank of Mexico there are more than 360 billion pesos in coins and bills in circulation, which works out at about 3,600 pesos for each of the country’s just over 100 million inhabitants. Why then does it seem that no one ever has any change? . . .

Foreign currency exchange used to necessarily involve buying foreign cash in your home country or, more usually, taking traveler’s checks on your journey for exchange overseas. In either case, money exchange involved spending time and effort lining up at banks or exchange houses to get access to local currency.

By DBC Pierre

I suppose my parents concerned themselves with questions of schooling, healthcare, insurance, security, and other pointless trifles. But when I moved to Mexico as a seven year-old I just wanted to know what that smell was; I wanted to know why chocolate was bitter and bread was sweet, what the songbirds were called that sounded like emptying bottles. To me it was a scratch-and-sniff Disneyland where, between the ups and downs of beginning to understand inequality, stuff came along to furnish a childhood…