These 5 secrets of Mexico are taken from our newly enhanced Mexico Destination Specialist course that is launching shortly!
- Green City: More than half the landmass of Mexico City is green with the vegetation of parks, rural zones, and forests.
- Barranca del Cobre: Very little copper has actually been mined in the Copper Canyon.
- Guadalajara’s Name: Guadalajara’s name is of Arabic, not Spanish, origin. Wad al hadjarah means “river of stones,” and Nuño de Guzmán named it after his Spanish birthplace.
- Cacao: Maya and Aztecs used cacao beans as a currency equivalent and as tribute from peoples they conquered. Few objects were more prized than the bean, whose powder was mixed with chili to brew chocolate for the Aztec emperor.
- Pirate’s Last Resting Place: The remains of Isla Mujeres’ pirate-slaver, Fermín Mundaca, were buried in Mérida. His skull-and-crossbones memorial, however, is found in the Isla Mujeres cemetery. The epitaph reads: “As You Are, I Once Was; As I Am, So You Shall Be.”
