Mexico

While I wasn’t too excited about returning to Puerto Vallarta at first, I came to appreciate its beautiful lush green mountain backdrop and charming Old Town..

An amazing year is coming to an end – our first as full-time travelers! Rather than rattle off a list of everywhere we’ve been, check out our year in pictures, from the pre-trip ‘planning’ phase to our current location of Honduras.

The Zocalo in Merida is home to several shoe shine men and boys, as are most central parks or squares throughout Mexico and Central America. We stopped to talk to him because of that adorable (and very pregant!) black cat.

It is amazing how much life you can squeeze into 100 days. It seems like forever ago that we wrote our first 100 days on the road post from Mazunte, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Between then and where we are now, in San Salvador, we have visited four countries, explored caves with Mayan skeletons, climbed volcanoes, swam with sharks and sting rays in the Caribbean, lived for a month in a beach front apartment in Playa del Carmen, had two fairly major illnesses, almost got robbed, traveled to places almost completely off the beaten path, met loads of people, worked full time, even took on extra work, blogged more, and we are nearly finished with a globetrottergirls.com website redesign.

This week’s Polaroid features one of Mexico City’s most iconic attractions: the Beetle taxi. Sadly, they all have to retire by the end of 2012 – find out why!

Although Valladolid is with 45,000 considerably big, it has more the feel of a sleepy Mexican village, with pastel colored colonial buildings and a tranquil town center. A lot of the women still wear the typical Mayan dresses and sell hand-made dresses and other crafts around the town square.

Mexico City’s Plaza Garibaldi is best known for the gatherings of the Mariachi musicians, especially on the weekends. The Plaza is located a ten minute walk up the Eje Central …

My last stop in Mexico was the tiny island of Isla Mujeres with its picture-perfect Caribbean beaches and laid-back vibe. The perfect place for a mini vacation!

The ceremony was originally held to reconcile the gods for rain and a rich harvest and is still very important for the folk groups as the indigenous culture still plays a significant role in Oaxaca.

In my monthly round-ups, I am looking back at my travels over the past four weeks, what went well and what didn’t, and what’s next for me.