DebConf6 - Fun in .mx
There are plans to travel around in .mx around DebConf6, as many of us have a long way to go there, so we could use that for more than only DebConf6. If you are interested to join add your name below. The trip is planned to be right after DebConf. See http://lists.debconf.org/lurker/message/20060106.195759.eb272555.en.html and now, more recent: http://lists.debconf.org/lurker/message/20060202.231009.8d1e21dc.en.html
*new* - Oaxaca: http://lists.debconf.org/lurker/message/20060211.171743.e5e32a02.en.html
Participants
*AFTER* Debconf!
Currently most people plan to travel around after Debconf. http://wiki.debian.org/MatejVela
Name |
Nick |
notes |
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Joerg Jaspert |
Ganneff |
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Danny Cautaert |
?DaCa |
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Christoph Berg |
Myon |
arrival 5th, departure 28th |
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Martin Krafft |
madduck |
I am flying back on the 28th from MEX, 20:50 on LH 499 to FRA |
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Martin Wuertele |
maxx |
my flight back is booked for 31. from Mexico City |
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Andrew ?McMillan |
karora |
While I am at Debconf my parents and son will be travelling around Mexico. Looks like I'm meeting them at Mexico City airport late on the last day of conference and flying to Oaxaca for a few days. Then we will be returning to Mexico City for a few days before leaving on 30th May. |
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Holger Levsen |
h01ger |
GULEV (http://www.gulev.org.mx/ - an international free software congress), which happens to be the oldest free software conference in Mexico, will be held from May 22nd to 24th in Xalapa, capital city of Veracruz state. Xalapa is a nice, not-too-hot, city, located about three hours driving (or by bus) to the east of Mexico City. Two or three hours more to the east you will find the beautiful port of Veracruz, just in the Gulf of Mexico. |
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Miguel Hernandez y Lopez |
mike |
:-D ! |
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Kurt Roeckx |
Q |
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Peter Van Eynde |
pvaneynd |
I would like to fly back the 28th. |
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Matej Vela |
vidra |
Flying back on the 29th. |
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Nicolas Francois |
nekral |
Flying back on the 29th |
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Tiago Bortoletto Vaz |
tiagovaz |
Flying back on the 03/Jun |
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Tassia Camoes Araujo |
tassia |
Flying back on the 03/Jun |
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Riku Voipio |
nchip |
Flying back on 30th May. The idea would be to see Oaxaca/San Cristobal/Palenque and then relax somewhere. OTOH that might too much for one week and we'll take a shorter trip |
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W. Borgert |
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I'll stay in the Ciudad de México post-DebConf: Museo Nacional de Antropología, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Catedral Metropolitana, Zócalo, Palacio Nacional, Teotihuacán, Museo Dolores Olmedo, Museo Casa Azul de Frida Kahlo, Museo Diego Rivera, Museo León Trotsky, too much for one week! |
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Frans Pop |
fjp |
Flying back on June 11 |
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Roland Stigge |
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Flying back on May 27 from Mexico City. The week after Debconf, I will be travelling around and probably staying the last days in Mexico City before departing. Still looking for Spanish speaking people who are planning to do similarly. |
Planning the trip
This section is meant to help forming groups and deciding what to really to. Below is the list of people repeated, sorted on their departure date and very shortly the destinations and kind of trip you're interested in.
When you decide to travel alone, please move the line with your name to the table below the "traveling alone" caption.
When you form a group and decide where you're going, please take your names out of this table and create a separate table below the "groups" caption containing just the members of your group and your initial destination.
Next meeting is Friday 21:00.
Name |
Leaving |
Destination / main interests |
Roland Stigge |
May 27 |
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Moray Allan |
May 27 |
Travelling with a friend from the evening of 22 May. Before then would like to see anthropological museum and/or Teotihuacan |
Christoph Berg |
May 28 |
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Martin Krafft |
May 28 |
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Matej Vela |
May 29 |
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Peter Van Eynde |
May 28 |
Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca; cultural, archeological mainly pre-colonisation sites |
Nicolas Francois |
May 29 |
Oaxaca, Puebla, Mexico City; cultural, archeological, Mexican food |
Andrew ?McMillan |
May 30 |
Oaxaca 22-27 May, Mexico City 27-30 May. Local cellphone # 01 777 209 4115. Staying at Parador San Miguel in Oaxaca and at Royal Zona Rosa in Mexico City. Cultural, Archaeological and Resting. |
Riku Voipio |
May 30 |
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Martin Wuertele |
May 31 |
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Jeroen van Wolffelaar |
June 1st |
Oaxaca, ..., ending in Mexico City |
Tassia Camoes Araujo |
June 03 |
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Tiago Bortoletto Vaz |
June 03 |
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Kurt Roeckx |
June 4 |
Mexico City, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatan, archeological |
Frans Pop |
June 11 |
Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca; cultural, archeological |
Danny Cautaert |
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Holger Levsen |
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Joerg Jaspert |
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Miguel Hernandez y Lopez |
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W. Borgert |
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Traveling alone
Name |
Leaving |
Destination / main interests |
Groups
Initial destination:
Name |
Leaving |
Destination / main interests |
Before Debconf
Some people have time to spare for a trip before Debconf, but not after.
Name |
Nick |
notes |
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Womble2 |
Arriving 6th May, will be at part of Debcamp but expect to have some days free. |
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Sam |
I'll be in Debcamp but I'd like to spend one day in Xochicalco. Or somewhere else, since it seems a trip to Xochicalco is now planned (DebConf6DayTrip). |
Random Information
Before anything else: Mexico has a fame of violence, of being a crime-prone country. This fame is overrated, it is quite safe to be mostly anywhere, as long as you keep your eyes open. An important advise is to try to arrange to travel along somebody who speaks Spanish, specially if you go to smaller towns, as few people will understand English - In any case, you can get along with a very basic phrasebook... But try to convince Spanish speakers to tag along your trip.
Please note that Mexico is a very large country - Almost two million square kilometers. It is also a very varied country, with enough things to please practically everybody (module those looking for a good place to ski). And of course, the following recommendations mainly follow what I have seen - I (GunnarWolf) am far more familiar with Central and Southern Mexico than the Northern and Western parts. Doing an arbitrary split of the country:
Mexico City: It's not (just) because I live here - but if you want to do some tourism in Mexico, you simply cannot miss Mexico City. Here you will find everything you want - Museums, colonial and prehispanic architecture, modern city life... Even some adventure if you go to the not-so-tourist friendly regions
Some great aereal pictures of Mexico City
Colonial architecture: You have beautiful samples of colonial architecture all over the country, but IMHO the best exponents would be cities in Central and Central Northern Mexico:
You can easily spend a day at each of them, and they are roughly two hours away from each other in order (being Querétaro roughly two hours north of Mexico City)Puebla has also some impressive buildings, and is much closer to Oaxtepec (about two hours north of neighbouring Cuautla).
Oaxaca deserves a very special mention as well, but is a bit farther away, ~5 hours South-East of Puebla. More info: http://lists.debconf.org/lurker/message/20060211.171743.e5e32a02.en.html
Archeological sites: You will not find Mexico's reach archeological past just about anywhere. If you are interested in prehispanic ruins, feel lucky, as in Morelos state there are many such places, mainly of Aztec origin:
Xochicalco (another link, in Spanish, one of the most important archeological sites in Mexico, and the top one in Morelos. About 45 minutes away from Oaxtepec.
The neighbouring town of Tepoztlán, charming by itself, sits at the bottom of the Tepozteco mountain. You can walk from Tepoztlán up about one hour, and you will reach the Tepoztlán pyramid. But if you dare go beyond Morelos state:
Teotihuacán is Mexico's probably best known and preserved archeologcal city, just by the North-Eastern edge of Mexico City.
Close to Teotihuacán, Tula is also impressive, built by the still misterious Toltec culture.
Of course, if you go to Oaxaca, you will go to Monte Albán, practically inside the Oaxaca metropolitan zone
Also in Oaxaca, the amazing Mitla, ~2hr west from Oaxaca city
If you are really serious about archeology, you will be truly amazed if you reach the Mayan South-Eastern Mexico, maybe even reach to Guatemala - Mayan culture and architecture are completely different from other meso-american ones. It's a long way - From Mexico City to Chiapas, where you will find the first such sites, it's over 16 hours by bus. In Oaxaca and Chiapas you will find so much cultural and natural richness you will want to spend a longer time there. But once there:
Palenque is by itself the reward for such a trip
Don't overlook La Venta in Tabasco, of the mysterious Olmec culture.
Chichen Itzá and Uxmal are plain breathtaking - Very large and beautiful structures in the middle of the very thick jungle.
And not much farther to the East, in Quintana Roo (near Cancún, see beaches) you will find yet another site famous for being simply incredible, and that I have yet to know: Tulum.
Oh, and by the way: If you can only afford to be a tourist in the Mexico City area and are interested in archeology, don't miss the Museo Nacional de Antropología. It's big. It's huge. It's very well done and complete. It's too tiring for some people, though.
Beaches: We are surrounded beaches. Mexican beaches have great warm water (not unlike the Mediterranean beaches, to give as a parameter). The landscape around most of them (except for the arid Northwest - Baja California, Sonora and part of Sinaloa) is incredibly green, quite humid, maybe even too hot for some people's taste... But hey, there is a reason our beaches are so famed in the world
The closest beach we have from Oaxtepec is ~3.5 hour to the South, is the world-famous Acapulco, a beautiful bay with all the tourist infrastructure you can imagine - unfortunately, it also hass all the tourists you can imagine, so if you are looking for a calm beach, that's not for you.
All of Guerrero state, just south of Morelos, is famous for its various beaches, most of them really less crowded than Acapulco. Among them, I know only a few:
Ixtapa Zihuatanejo is 180 Km west of Acapulco.
I have nice memories of a little known place between the two called Papanoa, a small and simple hotel with a beautiful beach.
You will probably find many such places if you travel along the Guerrero coast. Beaches in Oaxaca, to the East of Guerrero, are also famous. If you go there, note that the best route is probably not going through Guerrero and then eastwards, as both states sit on the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range, and roads are not very good - Go instead North-east to Puebla, then East to Tehuacán, then South-East to Oaxaca, and from there South to the coast. In Oaxaca you will find beautiful spots as:
Huatulco (apt for those looking for a beautiful place with all the amenities - a top tourist resort)
Puerto Escondido which, although far more developed than some decades ago, is still more known as a genuine spot
Nudist and hedonist Zipolite.
Now, the most famous beach in the country is quite far, in the Eastern end of the country (over 20 hours by bus, don't try it, you want to fly there): The Mayan rivera, with touristic destinations ranging from the suntuous and over-sanitized to the small and genuine.
Cancún, with beautiful, clean, white sand and amazing turquoise sea. Cancún is the most visited and famous vacation spot
Nature: Did I mention I love this country? There are plainly too many places to list - This list is necessarily too short. I know only some spots in Mexico. I'm mentioning first places in the area, then only the most famous places in the rest of Mexico.
Tepoztlán sits at the bottom of Tepozteco - literally, the broken mountain. I just love looking at it. And it is just around the corner. Of course, you can go up the Tepozteco and have a great view of Morelos state.
If you are a mountain person, you will be delighted to know we are reasonably close to Popocatépetl (smoking mountain) and Iztaccíhuatl (sleeping woman or white woman), mountains dividing Mexico, Puebla and Morelos states. The Popocatépetl is closed to the public as it has entered (over 10 years ago) an active phase, and sadly its glaciars have melted, but you can go up Iztaccíhuatl, Mexico's third highest mountain, with 5230 meters above sea level.
The Cacahuamilpa Grottos (Cacahuamilpa, other link) are a series of underground galleries, starting very near Taxco, over 1hr south of Oaxtepec, in which anybody can enter with a guided tour, and where speleologists can continue for hours, eventually surfacing at Grutas de la Estrella. Incredible stone formations.
Go North-West all the way to Los Mochis, Sinaloa, maybe stopping for a day or two at the beach in Mazatlán or San Blas - Beware: If you go by land, it is over 20 hour ride. But once there, you can take the famous train to Chihuahua through Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon). Go further down this page for Christian Perrier's description of this trip.
If you plan on going to the South-East, Chiapas has it all. 40 km from its capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, lies Cañón del Sumidero. Official cañón del sumidero site
In Chiapas as well, near the Guatemala border, the Montebello lagoons are probably Mexico's most beautiful lake areas, originally cenotes, with intense blue, violet and esmerald colors
Agua Azul waterfalls, near Palenque, are widely regarded as very beautiful. I cannot but recommend them to you as well.
Adventure:
Although not a really a natural attraction (as it is an artificial lake), Tequesquitengo lake, near the small city of Jojutla, is an important destination for those looking for water sports. There is an underwater village whose church is known to be worthy, but it is not a place apt for beginners - Record of the descent to the Tequesquitengo lake, in Spanish.
You can get to know in a very different way Mexico City and Morelos state: By flying over them!.
- In the Tequesquitengo and Cuautla areas there are some skydiving groups - Ask us and we will give you more information (I got 404s only right now :-/ )
There is a well known group for rafting in Veracruz, starting near the Filobobos archeologic zone
Some maps and other links
General Mexico map Morelos State is just South of Mexico City (look for Cuernavaca)
Morelos State Oaxtepec is located close to Yautepec, towards Cuautla
Morelos State, split in smaller maps, but more detailed
Airports in Mexico Not complete (I know of at least one missing national airport), but might be useful
Weather in Oaxtepec... well, is from Cuernavaca, but is the nearest city. Another weather site with Cuernavaca
Climates in Mexico, so you know where to expect what
Morelos Travel Morelos Tourism Board
General information for tourism in Mexico, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores
Ancient Mexico, with information on most of the main archeological sites http://www.visitmexico.com/wb/Visitmexico/Visi_Home
Copper Canyon and the Chihuahua al Pacifico (Chepe) train
From ChristianPerrier:
I originally intended a short trip in Northern Mexico before Debconf. This unfortunately will not be possible but I can recommend it to people who love the beauties of canyons and mountains.
You can travel north up to Los Mochis, or even better, fly to Los Mochis when coming from your place. From there (nothign really worth visiting), take the Chepe train to Chihuahua. The trip is one full day long. You can also go by bus to El Fuerte, then take the train from there.
An alternative is stopping at Creel on the trip. Creel in in the middle of the Copper Canyon scenery. You can spend a day there and then catch the train, the next day, up to Chihuahua.
From there, continue by train to Chihuahua and enjoy the city. Going back to Mexico City, eventually stopping at Guadalajara, could be a good idea. If you do so, do it by bus, using the lower class busses, to enjoy real mexican ambience. This is a one full day trip so you must not be afraid by riding a bus for long hours. Spending a day in Guadalaraja can be worth it.
This full trip should need 3 to 5 days, from Los Mochis to Mexico City. Be sure to take the Chepe train from Los Mochis to Chihuahua, not the other way.
There are two trains a day, each way. The 1st class train is mostly intended for tourists: less stops, more comfortable, more expensive. The 2nd class train is intended for locals. Of course, Debianers should use the 2nd class train..:-)
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