About this item
Culture Smart! Mexico takes you to the heart of Mexican society. It describes how people socialize and meet members of the opposite sex, the dynamics of daily life, the central importance of family, and the annual cycle of Catholic feasts and fiestas. For business travelers there are key sections on the economy and vital insights into the general business culture. The third-largest country in Latin America, Mexico is hugely diverse, having both rural areas where time seems to have stood still and manic urban centers like Mexico City, one of the most densely populated and exciting cities in the world. Famed for its well-preserved archaeological sites, cobblestoned colonial towns, and beautiful beaches, it is a major magnet for tourists. Mexico also has a name as a creative powerhouse in the region, with world-renowned artists such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, a cinema industry that has been producing award-winning movies since the Golden Age of the 1940s, and a literary scene second to none in Latin America.
About the Author
A journalist and traveller, I went to Venezuela for a two-week holiday and was so blown away by the people I met and the places I visited, I ended up staying for 12 years. Along the way I bathed in the spray of Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall, trekked to the Lost World table mountain of Roraima (four times) , rafted down jungle rivers with wonderful indigenous guides and swallowed my fear of heights to paraglide at impossible heights in the Andes. I also took my first faltering steps of salsa in Venezuela and learnt the lingo by watching slushy soap operas.The results of my adventurings are gathered in the Bradt Guide to Venezuela, an exhaustive and comprehensive guide to where to go and what to do that is my small way of giving something back to a country that has given me so much.I hope others who read the guide are encouraged to follow in my footsteps and explore this incredible country. I am now based in the UK and it tugs at my heart strings some nights that I am too far from Choroni to hear the tambores on the malecon. Fortunately my job as a journalist in England allows me to follow Venezuelan and Latin American developments and keep my Spanish up to scratch. The UK is also a good place to do research and meet other like-minded Latin-America-philes for proper rum and salsa sessions.No matter how many trips I take back to Venezuela, I always find something new and unexpected, a dish I've never tried before, a mountain never climbed, something exciting that the world needs to know about. It's that kind of country.To keep up to date with my articles on Venezuela visit my blog at www.venezuelanodyssey.blogspot.com
