Travel

Mexico (Spanish: Mexico ), is a fascinating country in North America. lying between the United States of America to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast.

"Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in charge, but in the dialect between the two." — Octavio Paz

Mexico is officially called the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos ).

Mexico is one of the most popular tourist countries on the planet. Much of the tourist industry revolves around the beach resorts as well as the altiplano in the central part of the country. Visiting the northern interior allows visitors to get off the beaten path a bit. American tourists tend to predominate on the Baja peninsula and the more modern beach resorts (Cancun and Puerto Vallarta ), while European tourists congregate around the smaller resort areas in the south like Playa del Carmen and colonial towns like San Cristobal de las Casas and Guanajuato .

Mexico uses the metric system for all measurements. All weather forecasts are in Celsius (°C).

The climate varies dramatically across Mexico's vast landscape. In the northernmost area of the Baja Peninsula, on the Pacific coast, the climate is Mediterranean, whereas the climate is arid on the other side of the peninsula, facing the Sea of Cortez. As you go south on the Baja Peninsula, the climate changes to become a subtropical sub-arid/semi-arid climate, until you reach La Paz and Cabo, which has a unique tropical desert climate. On the mainland, the northern area of Mexico tends to be mountainous and chilly, and the lower areas have an arid climate. A tropical climate prevails from around the Tampico area down to Cancun, as well as the adjacent side on the Pacific.

High, rugged mountains; low coastal plains; high plateaus; temperate plains with grasslands and Mezquite trees in the northeast, desert and even more rugged mountains in the northwest, tropical rainforests in the south and southeast semiarid in places like and temperate coniferous and deciduous forests in the central part of the country .

Easter is widely observed nationwide, according to the yearly Catholic calendar (the first Sunday after the first full moon in Spring). Actual non-working days may shift to the Monday before the holiday, so check an up-to-date calendar.

Mexico observes daylight savings time (DST) the same way as the US prior to 2015, from the first Sunday in April to last Sunday in October. This now includes the tropical regions of southern Mexico as well. There will be several weeks each year when the US is on DST, but Mexico is not. The state of Sonora south of Arizona does not observe DST since Arizona doesn't have it either.