Mazamitla, Mexico...somewhere you've probably never heard of but should seriously consider checking out

Ah, Mazamitla...It would be as foreign to me as any other small town (it has roughly 15,000 full-time inhabitants but it's fairly close to Guadalajara so there are quite a few of the wealthy set from Guadalajara who spend weekends and summers there away from the city) in Mexico had it not been for the fact that my mother's neighbor, Amelia, up and built an amazing house there and invited my mum and I to visit, relentlessly. Obviously, her perseverance paid off and we went for a week and it was AMAZING!

Getting there: The easiest way to get there is to fly into the Guadalajara airport and take a bus or rent a car to drive head south to Mazamitla, around the shores of Lake Chapala (the largest lake in Mexico and a worthy site to see in it's own right).

Lake Chapala

It is ill-advised for women to travel alone in Mexico (still, unfortunately) so rustle up a motley crew and head on out! Mazamitla is a relatively small town that's also relatively remote, like, no wi-fi remote but you'll likely get mobile phone service (I did) and, aside from the lack of wi-fi, that's pretty much the only modern convenience you'll be missing out on but you won't miss it. Trust me. There is far too much to see and adventures to have for you to be glued to your phone or catching up on your emails anyway. If you're really that desperate for internets, bring a mi-fi or use your phone as a hot spot. Problem solved. 

Mazamitla is hilly terrain covered in forests and avocado trees as far as the eye can see. That's my mum in the left foreground of the photo, also taking a photo.

It's ideal if you're the hiking, camping sort or person and, if you're not, there's still plenty of other things to do. Like stroll through town....

And check out the local architecture...

Or go to one of the many markets...

Or stop for a beer in a shaded courtyard... (Say "hola" to mi abuela)

Or see the oldest shop in town, which is owned by a 98-year-old man who purportedly contributes his good health and old age to the shot of mezcal he has every morning. His daughter runs the shop now but he still shows up every day to hang out and chat with everyone who comes in.

They also sell freshly made butter there that they grab out of the refrigerator, cut a slab off, weigh it, roll it in wax paper and hand to you for about $1/lb. The baker is around the corner and you know he's baking bread when the door is open so you have to drive/walk by to figure it out and grab your bread when he's open and baking. Did I mention that, when traveling, unless it's because of some health-threatening issue, it's absolutely necessary to suspend all eating restrictions and just go for it? EAT THE BREAD and slather on that freshly made butter. Denying yourself these simple pleasures, especially while traveling, rather negates the point of traveling anyway. Since we're on the topic of food, here's what breakfast typically looked like:

So you have plenty of options, including nopales, fresh tortillas, fresh eggs, loads of different fruits and vegetables, and fresh cheese. That's tea with local honey in my cup but everyone else was drinking coffee made the traditional way, which involves bringing water and freshly-ground local coffee to a boil on the stove with a cinnamon stick and a chunk of sugar from a disc of unprocessed cane sugar infused with molasses. Then the whole lot of that is strained through a cheesecloth-like drip strainer into your cup. It made me want to be a coffee drinker, it smelled THAT good. Moving right along...

If you're not being served up platefuls of food by gracious hostesses/hosts such as mine, don't worry. There are plenty of great restaurants all over town and on the outskirts as well where you can get your fill of local cuisine (drooling right now at the thought). 

In an effort to work off breakfast (or lunch or dinner, for that matter), we had the chance to take a stroll around one of Amelia's neighbor's incredible aquaponics farm. 

It was acres and acres of well-maintained land, dotted with ponds that were teeming with different fish (primarily tilapia but also trout) at various stages of their lives. The nutrients created from their waste watered the abundant gardens all around and even supplied his much larger farm up the mountain. I fell in love with all the wild orchids...

So, if you want to check out somewhere in Mexico that's slightly off the beaten path but still provides plenty of modern comforts mixed with a truly Mexican experience, check out Mazamitla. And no post about Jalisco (the state/province where Mazamitla is located, famed for being THE tequila region) would be complete without some mention of mariachi so here's a photo I took of a mariachi band gearing up to serenade anyone within earshot:

Until next time, no matter where you go, enjoy the journey just as much as the destination!

*As usual, all photography is mine and I encourage you to share it if you like but don't be a jerk. At least, give me credit! Thanks!

An Introduction to Copenhagen: Part One

Earlier this evening, I got admonished/advised by mi abuela (not my actual grandmother but, if you could choose your family, I totally would've chosen her to be a part of mine so I'm super stoked that she is in my life and has chosen to take an interest in my life and has challenged me to take hold of my life. I hope I can do the same for you! We can't choose our family but we can choose the people to surround ourselves with that can help to encourage us, make us better at being alive, and to push us, even if we resist out of fear, to move along our own path, to take our own journey for the sake of ourselves.) to write about the amazing life I live. And it truly is amazing. I travel all over the world. I get the opportunity to meet amazing people. I have learned enough of several different languages to be able to find the restroom, order another drink, and find a place to sleep.

I've eaten street food and dined in Michelin-star restaurants. I've slept in a tent on a mountain, in a bed in a five-star American hotel, in a mosquito-infested room in Amsterdam, and been rocked to sleep on many a cruise ship. I once got lost in Luxembourg for three hours, looking for a hostel and rapidly running out of weed in the meantime but that's a different story for a different time. Remind me to tell you about it because it's a pretty good story. But I digress, as I usually do.

So, Copenhagen (which the locals actually pronounce as "Ko-pen-hay-gen," not "Ko-pen-ha-gen," like the rest of us who do) has quickly become one of my favorite cities thus far. It's truly a cosmopolitan city, much like Amsterdam, London, Barcelona, or Berlin. One of the defining characteristics of Copenhagen is that you can walk around the entire city, including Christiania, in the span of a couple of hours and that's at a leisurely pace. Denmark, and Copenhagen in particular, get mad bonus points for being super liberal in their politics, very supportive of their population, and being home to more Michelin-star restaurants than anywhere in the world (again, more on that later...this is just an intro).

Copenhagen is the kind of city that makes you smile so hard it makes it look like your face is going to break. A couple from Indiana took this photo of us after we had done the plane travel and, very jet-lagged found our way to for bevvies and snacks, my mum (on the right) and me (on the left, sunglasses hiding our travel-weary eyeballs). It's on Nyhavn (street, avenue, strasse??), which is one of the oldest paths in the city, on a canal, and, apparently, where all tourists end up when they first get to Copenhagen. So that happened. It also happens to be the place to be on a beautiful Friday late-afternoon when the weather is amazing and the average Copenhagen citizen goes to watch the people walking by, laugh at the silly tourists (see above photo), and enjoy the view. Boats line the canal and droves of people walk by in all states of dress or undress (we just so happened to be there at that time during The Distortion (Thank you, Wikipedia!). If you can manage to make it to Copenhagen during The Distortion, I highly recommend it and I also highly recommend taking part in the festivities (something I aim to do in the future for sure).

The average Copenhagen citizens seemed to be doing what we were doing but according to their own rituals, like these guys:

Perfect summer evening so the perfect opportunity to hang out of the canal with beers, bud, and friends after work. And let's not even get into the architecture or the boats or the chill vibe of the whole place while we're at it. There's a word to describe it and that word is "magical." Take your first stroll down Nyhavn and take it all in and go from there because this city is your oyster, a pearl to be found in every part of the city, in every step you take, in every person you see. Drink it in and savor the flavor of a culture of people who understand how you can truly experience life. 

And now for a very brief presentation of the average snack you'll get in Copenhagen. The place is surrounded by water so fish of all sorts is very heavy on any menu. Despite my Dutch heritage, I'm not actually that big on fish consumption and I usually rebel against it in favor of my comfort food choices (which usually include anything involving the revered potato, some sort of cream-based soup, and anything involving cheese). That being said, while you can get one of the best vegan/vegetarian meals of your life (again, more on that later) in Copenhagen, and especially Christiania, EAT THE FISH!! It's truly incredible what the Danes can do with the freshly caught, totally sustainable (they are WAY into that sort of thing....yet another cool thing about the place) fish and they have cultivated, over the centuries of their existence there, more ways to make fish delectable than anywhere I've been so far. I haven't been to Japan yet and had a real sashimi experience but, at this point, I'd put them head to head with the Danes for fish preparation, presentation, and eating experience. (And, again, I'm Dutch so that's saying a lot.) 

Enjoy this first look at Copenhagen. I have about eleventy-billion photos of this city and I plan to share more of them. You totally need to see the rustic-urban-rebellion that is Christiania, which I will offer you shortly. For now, feast your eyes and challenge your senses to the idea of adding this place and everything it has to offer (wait 'til you see the Opera House!!) to you list of places to spend more than a minute in because it deserves your time and attention.

To wrap up this post, here's a photo that I think is rad:

It's just a photo I took of ropes coiled on the back of one of the boats in the canal of Nyhavn. The beauty and magic of travel isn't always in the big sites, the big destinations, but in the details, the little things that constitute the lives of the populous. And in Copenhagen, you'd best bone up on your boating skills because that can't hurt, right? Humans are about 80% water so it's better to learn how to navigate and understand the tides and go with the flow. Travel on, .my loves!

More to come....and please leave comments regarding your own experiences in Copenhagen or anywhere else that you would recommend I visit. Follow me on IG for more adventure photos and/or tell me where to go for more of this life. 

*With the exception of the photo that the couple from Indiana took of me and mum, I took all of the photos with my phone. You're welcome to use them, share them, etc., as long as you cite you source. And please, PLEASE, travel and have that experience. You deserve it.