Steven Roll at Travelojos posted today after a recent visit to Puerto Vallarta. A legal editor for a Washington, D.C.-area publishing company, Steven enjoys learning about all things Mexican and Latin American, including fascinating sites, interesting cultural aspects, and great food. Here’s what he had to say:

As the only diners on the roof top terrace of the small hill-top restaurant in Mexico, my family almost had the place to ourselves. The sole exception was the Mexican couple who owned the place and lived there. But after the woman’s second or third trip up the steep stairway from the kitchen to attend to us, I began to feel like she was a Mexican aunt I never knew about.

After we finished our meal and listened to our son and daughter’s banter, the woman gave us a tour of her kitchen and showed us some black and white pictures of what the town looked like in the 1960s.

The $35 tab for our meal and drinks seemed like it was from the 1960s too. Read More…

In today’s New York Times, the reporter says there is evidence it didn’t start in Mexico at all. So just forget everything you’ve read over the last few months…

Mitch Keenan is the owner and founder of the Yucatan’s oldest real estate company, Mexico International. Before moving here fifteen years ago, Mitch worked for Continental Airlines based out of Denver. As a flight attendant, Mitch traveled throughout South America, Asia, Europe and the United States. In this video, he talks about the relative merits of living in Merida and whether or not he feels safe living here.

The video was produced (by Eclectec SA de CV) to inspire people to attend a series of seminars that Mitch and his colleagues will be giving in cities around the United States over the next nine months. For more information about those seminars, visit the Mexico International website.

And while we’re on the subject of videos and Mexico, here’s one from the Mexico Tourism Board that just came out:

Andrés Martinez, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, wrote an opinion piece titled Be Neighborly, Go to Mexico for the Los Angeles Times today.

Your neighbor needs your help. Do you have it within you to lend a hand? Will you book yourself a week on the beach in Cabo or Puerto Vallarta, or explore Mexico City or one of the colonial cities in the heart of Mexico? You know, for the common good. This has been a banner decade for empathy tourism — many Americans flocking to New York after 9/11 and to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did so with a sense of public service. Mexico now needs a similar surge. Read More…

The New York Times video entitled War Without Borders – Fueling Mexico’s Drug Trade is an eye opener for anyone looking for a balanced take on what fuels the drug trade, where the guns used in Mexico come from, and what is being done and needs to be done on both sides of the border. A Mexican official says in the video that the person in the US who is a casual marijuana user doesn’t even think for a moment that their use is helping maintain the Mexican cartels. But it is. Watch this 9 minute video, it will explain a lot.