Here are the winning articles from the Mexico Experience 2008 testimonial articles contest.

 

For her personal touch and enthusiastic description of her experience, Ms. Valerie Ward won the great prize, a dinner for 6 people at Frida Restaurant & Bar in Toronto.

 

We would like to thank again everyone who participated.

 

My Mexico, by Valerie Ward, 1^st place

My name is Valerie Ward, I am business development Manager for Total Vacations.  I was very lucky to be part of your recent Michocán Colonial Mexico Fam trip hosted by Veronica Rivas. 

 

I have been to many costal resort areas of Mexico over my years of travel, but had not experienced the interior towns.  I fell in love with this Mexico, the people, the culture, the language, the history, gastronomic delights, the architecture of the Colonial towns and cities, etc.  This product (Colonial Mexico) can be sold as an alternative to Europe, and easily combined with a beach holiday.

 

Our accommodations at the Virrey de Mendoca in Morelia were outstanding, and really gave us the opportunity to experience the life around the Plaza, cafes, people gathering, etc. A real Latin flair.  While having lunch at the Best Western Morelia, we were lucky enough to have the chef join us and tell us the history of the hotel and her culinary delights…a very special person.

 

My trip to the Monarch sanctuary will always be a special memory, just breathtaking.  I enjoyed Santa Clara, the copper making and the history behind all of the towns.  The city of Morelia is now one of my favorite cities in the world.  Pátzcuaro city is as well a special place.  I went to the basilica to visit the virgin of health, my Mom was going in for surgery the next day, to what we worried may cancerous.  My mom had successful surgery, is feeling amazing and there was no cancer.  I will take my Mom back to Pátzcuaro to thank the virgin next year.

 

The experience of your Fam was exquisite, a lasting memory, and truly makes my job easy to sell your destination.  I would love the opportunity to explore the other areas and work with my travel partners.

 

My Experience in Tampico, by Erika Linares, 2^nd place

My name is Erika Linares and I am a tour specialist, I was invited by the Mexican Tourist Board here in Toronto to be part of a wonderful Fam Trip to Tampico, Tamaulipas. At the beginning I was a little skeptical since I did not picture Tampico as a tourist destination and I think after talking and meeting some very wonderful people everybody was in the same situation as me. We did not know what to expect but were all very anxious to arrive, since the moment we landed we were treated like royalty. The immigration process and luggage pick up was done really fast, we were transported by four buses to our hotel which it was Club Maeva Miramar Tampico, we were greeted by a bunch of Maevamigos dressed in their typical Mexican costumes and welcome drinks, since we were a big group (more than 150 travel agents) check in was run smoothly.

 

After we went up to our rooms, in my own opinion the rooms were in good condition. The resort has 3 pools, one near the restaurant Blue Seagull (delicious food) and one for adults only with a pool bar.

The beaches in Tampico are great, the sand is soft and water is warm.

There are many activities going on at the fit for everyone.

 

On the second day we went to “El Tajín” which was amazing all the interesting stories narrated by the very knowledgeable guides. This is an archeological site located north of Veracruz. Over 150 buildings have been identified on the site, although so far only 20 have been excavated. This is one of Mexico’s most enigmatic archeological sites. After this wonderful visit we went to El Tajín Theme Park, which we were greeted by a lady who will cleanse your body with natural herbs. Afterwards we watched “Los Voladores de Papantla” they have a ritual were they go up more than 10 meters high and throw themselves down representing they are birds, it was amazing. In this park they have many workshops, one is for clay, they show you how to build casseroles, mugs, etc. other workshop is for candle made by bees wax, and the last workshop we visited was for Papel Picado, in which they teach you how to work with tissue paper.

 

Tampico offers many activities, you can visit downtown Tampico were you can appreciate many New Orleans inspired balconies most of them built with English cast iron.

Tampico is mainly used as a port, also has the biggest refinery in the country. The diversity of the delicious food, beaches and warm people made my experience unforgettable.

 

I would also have to thank Cristina Alvaradejo for her great job and for the opportunity to be part of this fantastic adventure that I will never forget.

 

Pierre Gingras: an ongoing love story with Mexico, media testimonial

Pierre Gingras is certainly one of the most specialized and experienced writers at Montreal’s La Presse newspaper. He has been a collaborator of the French-language daily since 1972.

 

He is the definitive reference in all things related to nature, such as gardening, bird-watching, fishing and hunting. He is also well-versed in tourism, gastronomy, politics and sports. For the last 36 years, he is been combining his many passions with his professional career in the press, as well as on radio and television.

 

During his many years in journalism, he has collaborated with many radio and TV programs, most recently C’est bien meilleur le matin, Radio-Canada’s radio daily morning show hosted by René Homier-Roy. He also currently works with the popular cooking show Ricardo, which airs in both French and English on Radio-Canada and CBC television.

 

Gingras is also the author of many books about gardening, bird-watching, fishing and hunting, some of which have been translated in English. He was born in the Montreal east-end working-class neighbourhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

 

Passionate about traveling and about his profession, Pierre Gingras visited Mexico for the first time at the turn of the 1980s. First stop: Playa del Carmen. Astonished by the tropical reefs as much as by the local people of the village, he decided on studying Spanish, with the goal of really knowing this country he describes as exceptional.

 

Mexico, he says, has much to offer to the tourists: landscapes, gorgeous towns, but first and foremost come the inhabitants themselves. “If you makes the effort [of speaking Spanish], you gets a completely different contact [with the people], allowing you to better grasp the essence of this nation. With this idea in mind, Gingras returned to Mexico, heading this time for the town of Cuernavaca, Morelos.

 

This new adventure was to be the source of many reportages and articles about the state of Morelos. Following the trail of the monarch butterflies, the Montreal-based reporter then visited the monarch reserve in the state of Michoacán. This moving experience inspired other reportages, in which he describes the amazing scenery created by the presence of tens of thousands of butterflies which return every year to the evergreen trees of the El Rosario natural reserve.

 

Gingras also intensively covered the south-east of Mexico, writing numerous articles about the cuisine and the people of Mérida, as well as the impressive archaeological sites of Chichen Itza, Tulum, Palenque and Coba. This last site is ideal for bird-watching, thanks to its dense foliage. The passionate journalist sees Yucatán as a place where architecture and ornithology come together perfectly, a prime space for all the nature-lovers.

Behind the wheel, riding a bus or flying a plane, Pierre Gingras is moving all across Mexico, on the lookout for beautiful landscapes, authentic Mexican cuisine and encounters with Mexican people, whose culture and customs truly fascinate him.

 

This is how he ended one fine day in Tepoxtlán (Puebla), at Los Colorines restaurant. The mouth-watering taste of the huauzontles capeados en huevo with cheese and tomatoes (huauzontle is a wild vegetable coming from a plant related to Good-King Henry and quinoa) is still very fresh in his memory. The piece he wrote after this senses-awakening journey certainly convinced more than one reader to follow in his footsteps and visit Puebla, the caves of Cacahuamilpa and Taxco (Guerrero), the famous silverwork capital of Mexico.

 

Despite his many trips to Mexico, Gingras’ curiosity is still very much alive. “I still have so much to see!”, he says lively, adding he is presently preparing his next trip to Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.

 

Pierre Gingras and his wife now live in Boucherville, on Montreal’s south shore, where they just love working on their 300 sq. m garden. In the future, they plan to spend winters in Oaxaca, renting a house with a large kitchen where they can cosily escape winter and enjoy their favourite activities: cooking, snorkelling, and observe local nature and architecture.