Travel guides Mexico

Abstract

Mexico assaults the senses with the sights and sounds, tastes and smells of a unique mix. of cultures and landscapes. Nowhere else in the Americas are ancient history and magic rituals so inextricably entwined with the routines of modern daily life. Mexico's arid north abuts the US along a 3,140-km (1,950-mile) border. This frontier is the only place on the planet where the so-called "first" and "third" worlds come face-to-face. To the south, Mexican terri-tory ends amid tropical forest on the banks of the Usumacinta river, the border with Guatemala. North and south Mexico are starkly different. The northern states are wealthier, whiter, more urban, and industrialized. Although there are indigenous communities in the north, the south-ern states are home to the vast major-ity of the country's Indians, most of whom remain peasant farmers. [CLCDT.8.1.28]