Mexico Things to Do

Mexico has faced some daunting challenges to its renowned tourism business in the past few years – from swine flu to heavily armed narco-trafficking cartels – which get more traction in the “if it bleeds, it leads” English-language news cycle than all the other great stories coming out of the country combined.

Among the most impressive and inscrutable sights in the Americas are the massive pyramids of Teotihuacan. Located about 40km (25mi) north of Mexico City, the ancient city has posed a seemingly impenetrable mystery since the time of the Aztecs, who may have first named the abandoned architectural marvel “Teotihuacan,” “Place Where Men Become Gods”.

The monarch butterflies have begun to arrive to Michoacan State’s UNESCO Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, as they do every November, reaching peak butterfly density—perhaps a billion individuals flitting about the trees—by mid-January. Visitors from all over the world come to see the magnificent creatures in the mountainous pine forests just north of Mexico City (though they are often so tuckered out after their 3000km (1800mi) trip, that they just hang there quietly in the trees).

Mexico‘s iconic off-road race sets off into the scrub and tumbleweeds of Baja California for its epic annual run this November. For 44 years, the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 has been the world’s most prestigious long-distance desert race, pitting the wild-eyed drivers of fully customized motorcycles, trucks, VW bugs, dune buggies, and other tough vehicles against one another on a legendary track.

Never, in the history of Mexican archaeology, has the tomb of an Aztec ruler been discovered. This is not for lack of trying. Since 1997, Mexico‘s INAH (National Institute for Anthropology and History) has been methodically searching the Templo Mayor, the spiritual center of the Aztec Empire that is now partially buried in the historic center of Mexico City, for just such a grave.