By Tom Thumb, Posted Mar 23, 2007
Sections: Intro 1. Bombay 2. Dubai 3. Liverpool & Manchester 4. Any American Suburb 5. Guatemala City 6. Sao Paolo 7. Beijing 8. Singapore 9. Milan 10. Cancun Comments about this guide?
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Being so close to the US, Americans are intimately familiar with the culture of their Mexican neighbours – it’s just like Taco Bell, right? Manana, si, senor, sombreros, tequila and Speedy Gonzales and all that good stuff.
When the 9% of Americans who actually own a passport ever go to Mexico though, many come running back freaked out and disgusted. Oh, no one spoke any English, nowhere sold pizza and no one was playing castanets anywhere.
The tourist industry had a good think about this a few decades ago and came up with Cancun! The Mexican town constructed purely for American tourists! Really. It was just a small fishing village before of a few hundred people and now Cancun has a couple of million.
Everywhere are malls with all the reassuring franchise restaurants and shops that Americans can get back home and no one ever raises a fuss if you want to pay in dollars. Palm trees are imported to the beaches after every hurricane, tourists stay in a nice line of hotels on the beach far from any actual Mexicans who aren’t serving cocktails or sweeping rooms, and there’s HBO on the TV in every room!
Best of all, though, is the ultimate Mexican dining experience – Taco Bell in Cancun!
Read more on the Mexico Travel Guide
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