North America Adventures

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 158

Best guide to Mexico

The People’s Guide to Mexico

I love works that are renewed and improved. Carl Franz and Lorena Havens have been exploring the hinterlands of Mexico and reporting back their travel suggestions in amusing detail since their first edition of this book in 1972. For four decades this venerable guidebook has been the best manual for visiting Mexico, getting better with each edition. It has just been released in its 14th. Franz and Havens are not going to be much help in keeping you up to date with the best hotel in the usual tourist destinations (your standard Lonely Planet-ish guide will handle that). Where The People’s Guide transcends the usual guidebook is in its devotion to the blue highways and backlands, the off beat places and indigenous living.

This guide is best for those driving around Mexico in a vehicle, camping in its many parks, exploring its meandering dirt roads, hanging out on undeveloped beaches, sampling native foods and immersing yourself into the culture of our neighbor as much as possible. It’s chock full of all the advice you’d expect from a couple who have been noodling around Mexico every year for thirty five years: how to live off the land, keep on the right side of the law, shop for strange and exotic foods, survive, educate yourself in local customs, and remain healthy and sane. It’s a fat 700-page book with lots of great stories, and endless good counsel. (They run a supplementary website for updated tips.)

A lot of this lore is universal travel wisdom (the less money you spend the more fun you have). In fact The People’s Guide to Mexico is one of the best travel guides I’ve ever seen to anywhere in the world. You could easily transfer many of their tips to traveling in Asia or Africa, and the rest of Latin America. But the bulk of it is very particular to Mexico. Every page yields golden nuggets of fine advice for every part of a very large Mexico. I find myself reading whole chapters for the pure enjoyment of being in the presence of great, gifted guides teaching me useful stuff I didn’t know.

The Mexico/US borders is one the most abrupt borders in the world. There’s almost no where else on earth where you can travel so far in so few miles as crossing this imaginary line. This trip has the additional benefit of being guided by this amazing encyclopedia of practical tips and insights. You’d be a fool not to take it with you.

It’s the operating manual for people in Mexico. — KK

• I climbed over other passengers and cargo to the cab of the truck, determined to check our speed.”Hey,” I yelled back to Lorena, “It’s really not so bad after all. We’re only doing 90 to 100 kilometers an hour. That’s fast but not so dangerous.” I took another peek through the rear window; a curve was coming up and we were slowing to 70. i was just about to turn and work my way back when I noticed a small “MPH” beneath the speedometer needle.MPH! I felt the blood drain from my face and go roaring through my ears and down to my feet. Seventy into a curve! One hundred on the straightaway!”Let me off! Let me off!” I screamed, pounding the roof of the cab with my fists. I got a glimpse of the driver’s startled face turned toward the rear of the truck.
• Many common driving hazards and annoyances found in the U.S. are also in Mexico, though usually in a slightly altered form.In the U.S., the omnipresent teenager hunched birdlike behind the wheel of his 400-hp candy-colored, air-foiled Supercar, passes you dangerously close at 140 mph as he calmly munches a DoubleBurger and squeezes an annoying pimple.In Mexico, he’s still the same basic teenager, apparently oblivious to other traffic and mesmerized by the blaring radio and the dangling ornaments that festoon mirrors and knobs. But there is one difference: He’s behind the wheel of a hurtling semi-truckload of sugarcane. And he’s passing you on a blind mountain curve. You glance over, afraid to imagine what is about to happen. He grins, flashes a peace sign and cuts you off as he swerves to miss an oncoming bus.Low-flying buzzards are a very real hazard, as are piles of drying corn, beans and chili peppers placed on the hot pavement by enterprising farmers who prefer the smooth road surface to the dusty shoulder.As you fly around a curve and find yourself unexpectedly in the middle of small village, it seems that everyone suddenly leaps up and crosses the street, forcing you to brake madly. Pigs that haven’t moved from gooey wallows for a week lurch frantically to their feet and stumble in front of the car, followed by reckless children beating them with twigs.These are relatively minor hazards that you’ll soon become used to. For really serious trouble, nothing compares to other drivers.”They may be wild, but they’re damn good!” is a comment you might hear, especially about Mexican truck drivers. If good driving involves good sense, however, they must surely be among the worst. Many truckers would be disqualified from a destruction derby on ground of excessive zeal and disregard for human life.The good news is that the average Mexican chofer (driver) is definitely getting better. Drivers are more courteous and less likely to indulge in macho grandstanding while behind the wheel of the family car. Bus drivers have also gotten the message about safety and many of them could give lessons to American drivers.Still, it is dangerously easy for tourists to fall into the same driving habits they see demonstrated by others. When you’re breathing fumes behind a slow diesel truck in a steep mountain pass, the temptation to pass on a blind curve can be very strong. At this point, you should seriously consider what the consequences are if you don’t make it.
• Diarrhea and Dysentery
  Powdered scorpions, chia and 7Up, camomile and “dog tea,” food enzymes, acidophilus, papaya seeds, dried apricot pits: When it comes to upset stomachs, nausea, diarrhea, and disenteria, I’ve tried almost everything. As a firm believer in the value of medical plants and folk remedies, I’m sorry to announce that a dose of bismuth solution (such as Pepto-Bismol) seems to beat them all. In fact, our experience clearly shows that taking the pink stuff in moderate doses before, during, and even after traveling can dramatically reduce stomach problems.Though it is effective, I’m no fan of bismuth’s cloying pink taste and I don’t like to pour it repeatedly into my stomach. I now take about half of an adults dosage (one tablespoon 3-4 times a day). I start my bismuth program a few days before leaving home and continue taking it once or twice a day for about a week. If my stomach shows no sign of rebellion in that time, I go to “standby” and keep the bismuth close at hand in the event of sudden turmoil.
• In Mexico, “look before you leap” isn’t just an expression, it’s a survival tip. Forget about bandits; the greatest threat to your safety comes from slippery cobblestones, uneven sidewalks, knee-high curbs, head-knocking signs, eye-poking awnings, toe-stubbing thresholds, open trenches, unexpected drop-offs and discarded construction debris.
• Keep track of your personal belongings. When Lorena and I lead tours or travel with friends, we continually pick up our companions’ stray cameras, passports, purses and room keys. Tourists routinely walk away from their suitcases, leave their credit cards at souvenir shops and their only shoes at the beach, and can’t recall which lavanderia (laundry) they left their clothes in.A fellow we traveled with in eastern Mexico left his binoculars hanging on a chair in the restaurant of a small hotel. By the time he realized his mistake, we were hundreds of miles away and couldn’t go back. When I returned to the hotel two years later, the owner’s first words were, “I have the binoculars your friend forgot. … As a postscript, the fellow who lost and regained the binoculars returned to travel with us again. This time he left a very expensive Nikon camera in the washroom of a museum. In this case, however, the camera had vanished by the time we returned for it.

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Alaskan highway guide

The Milepost

If you’re thinking of doing a road trip to Alaska, The Milepost is a must-have. This thick publication, revised annually, has mile-by-mile conditions of all the major highways in Alaska and other northern points, including Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories and the Yukon.

It’s available in some brick and mortar bookstores, and online from their website.

— Regis

• “What is the best time of year to go?” is one of the most frequently asked questions about traveling to Alaska. During the summer, the weather in the North is as variable and unpredictable as anywhere else. Go prepared for both hot, sunny days and cold, rainy days. Regardless of weather, the Alaska Highway is open all year.May: fewer people on the road, can be fine weather.
  June: long days averaging 20 hours of daylight.
  July: busiest month on the highway, can also be the wettest.
  August: trees start to turn colors, nights get chilly.
  September: fall colors, first frost and snow possible in some areas, uncrowded ferries.
• Is the Alaska Highway paved?
  All of the Alaska Highway is paved, although highway improvement projects- such as the Shakwak Project between Haines Junction and the AK-YT border-often mean motorists have to drive miles of gravel road through construction areas, bringing into question whether that statement is altogether accurate.
  But the Alaska Highway is much improved from what is was even 20 years ago. It was during the 1980s that many of the rerouting and paving projects were completed. By 1992, the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Highway, the last section of original gravel road had been rerouted and paved.

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

10/6/25

Brief life advice/Codenames/The Scale of Life

Recomendo - issue #482

Brief life advice

Unlike many of his peers in the advice business, Dan Pink is concise. In his books and videos, he distills his counsel into brief, well-crafted, bombs of wisdom with zero fluff. In 40 Harsh Truths I Wish I Knew in My 20s he packs all his hard-earned life wisdom into 13 minutes. Well worth your time. – KK

Fun party word game

We played Codenames every night when our out-of-town friends stayed with us. It’s a tabletop game with simple rules, so you can start playing without a lot of explaining. Players are divided into two teams. Each team’s leader must help their team guess the assigned words on a grid of cards by providing one-word clues; however, guessing the wrong words can result in penalties. The first team to find all their assigned words wins. — MF

The Scale of Life

The Scale of Life is a website that visualizes worldwide statistics in real time, displaying a live count of everyday events, things made, and natural phenomena the moment you open the page. It’s fascinating to watch the spectrum of activity—from packages delivered and lightning strikes to new trees sprouting. It’s not 100% accurate, but if you are curious can click on counters views sources and explore deeper. — CD

Tiny ring light

I spend way too much time zooming, often at night (because most of my audience is in China), so I needed a way to fill in good flattering light at my computer. The solution which has been working for a couple of years is a small, cheap LED ring light that clips onto my monitor on USB. These are generic commodities; brands don’t matter. I use something like a Cyezcor ring light ($19), which lets you set the color temperature. I usually set mine to warm. — KK

21 party planning tips

Uri at Atom Vs Bits has written up the 21 essentials of hosting great parties. Tested tips include starting at quarter to the hour for better timing, using party apps to display guest lists, and having close friends arrive early to set the mood. Parties are a “public service” — good gatherings create meaningful connections that can change lives. Top tip: Don’t stress out; “it’s better to have mediocre pizza from a happy host than fabulous hors d’oeuvres from a frazzled one.” — MF

Quotables

Here are some quotes I’ve carried with me for years—reminders that keep me aligned with my heart. — CD

• “When you meet the monster, anoint its feet.” — Bayo Akomolafe
• “Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.” — Alejandro Jodorowsky
• “We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.” — Carlos Castaneda
• “I recommend the freedom that comes from asking: Compared to what?” — Gloria Steinem
• “In order to experience true freedom, we need to be able to welcome everything just as it is. To welcome everything is an act of love.” — Frank Ostaseski
• “We are as personally free as we can permit the autonomy of others.” — Antero Alli
• “I kept looking for a logic that would explain life. It never occurred to me that instead love is the vital synthesis.” — Jane Roberts
• “I’m not one of those people with their heads in the clouds; I’m one of those whose entire body has been consumed by the clouds.” — Antero Alli
• “I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive… so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” — Joseph Campbell

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10/5/25

Third Place Happiness/Flight Payment Plans/Escaping the US

Nomadico Issue #173

The Happiness of Coming in Third

This week I’m curating some interesting articles from others. The first is strange and encouraging. It turns out that multiple studies with different methods have found that Bronze winners in the Olympics are happier than the Silver winners. There are probably lessons in here about drive and ambition, but maybe it’s just a good reminder to enjoy the moment when you appear on life’s podium. If you expect everything to go perfectly and to win every time, including on travel days, you’re going to suffer a lot of disappointment. Via Chris Guillebeau at A Year of Mental Health.

Payment Plans for Airline Tickets

My friend Kerwin McKenzie wrote an in-depth article for T+L on all the options that are out there for you if you need a plane ticket now but don’t want to pay for it now. Usually you’re better off putting the purchase on a credit card that earns you something back, but if that’s not an option, see these ways to buy a flight on a payment plan and stretch out the due dates. (Many budget airlines around the world offer this directly too in the purchase process.)

The Inherent Conflict of “Live Like a Local”

Despite the best intentions, you will never really see life from a local perspective if you’re on vacation or sticking around for two months as a digital nomad. As this sarcastic “live like a local” article points out, you can only scratch the surface. Most people who live there are working a physical job to pay the bills, dealing with family issues, fighting with the local government, and doing zero sightseeing. Working remotely for a Silicon Valley company at 10X the local salary while in a posh Airbnb rental is just not the same. Found via James Clark at The Travel Wire.

Bolting the USA

Nomadico partner Mark Frauenfelder, from sister newsletter Recomendo, interviewed me at Boing Boing for this article on escaping the USA. If you’ve got your eyes set on greener pastures, check it out for some ideas and considerations. Remember too that “moving abroad” doesn’t need to have a one-destination answer. Plenty of working travelers and retirees bop around to different places in the course of a year and having a home base doesn’t have to mean spending 12 months there.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

10/2/25

What’s in my NOW? — Melissa Willis

issue #224

Melissa Willis is a writer from northern New Mexico, USA. She is a hobby family historian and genetic genealogist who weaves together the stories of her ancestors. She lives on a diversified farm with her family where she documents the past and present in the margins of her busy days. Her personal blog is undertheelderberrytree.com, and you can find her on Bluesky @melis-willis.bsky.social.

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PHYSICAL

• THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT: It must’ve been the mid-1980s when I first read Stephen King’s The Stand. I was probably too young for such stories, but it filled my imagination with visuals of a whole new world, for better or for worse, and there was no looking back. Alas, when I found out about THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, I had to get my hands on it. This short story anthology, fully authorized by King himself, brings us back into the world of The Stand from different points of view, during and after Captain Tripps wreaks havoc on society. At nearly 800 pages in total, each short story (~20 pages each) offers just a snippet into the plague that haunted so many of our dreams. I’m taking each story as it comes, when time and space allow, and my youth heart couldn’t be happier.
• Creative Journals: When I finally committed to keeping a physical journal in 2020, I knew I wanted to have a proper cover with fresh inserts that could be replaced when one journal was full. So, I began searching for a journal cover that would last through years of regular use and fell in love with Oberon Designs leather embossed offerings. I started with the Honeybee cover for my personal journal and have since added two more journals to my shelf; a Heritage Journal for creatively tracing my ancestry and a Folk Magic Journal for documenting nature’s cycles, herbalism, and my spiritual practices. I am so glad I took this route and love how each cover gently softens over time, adding comfort and security to the stories they each hold.
• Noise Cancelling Earbuds: As someone who lives in a tiny house on a diversified farm with a lot going on, being able to pop in my earbuds and have agency about how much I can and cannot hear happening around me has absolutely saved my sanity. Whether I’m listening to music, an audio book, or a TV show, being in my own world while not entirely closing out the household or the critters outside is such a gift.

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DIGITAL

• The StoryGraph: What can I say, I’m a sucker for solid lists and pretty charts. After spending much of my youth with my nose in books, my young adulthood found me reading for educational purposes instead of for fun. Add children and a career to the mix and reading for the joy of it just took the back seat. A few years ago, though, I decided to intentionally read for fun again and I’ve never looked back. While I have personal reading goals and a massive TBR list, I’m not in competition with any speed readers out there. The StoryGraph keeps me organized in ways I never could on my own and the colorful data tracking is quite satisfying.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: A few months ago, I created a 50 before 50 list of affordable and achievable experiences I want to complete before I turn 50 in November of 2026. As soon as I started my list, I knew I had to add in re-watching every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Not only because I’ve been wanting to do this for ages and just never have, but also because, in order to watch all 178 episodes, I’d need to get started right away. I’m now 13 episodes in and loving how 1980s fantastic it all is. Truly a blast from the past. And yes, Counselor Troy and Wesley Crusher are still my favorite characters.

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INVISIBLE

There But For The Grace

It could have happened.

It had to happen.

It happened sooner. Later.

Nearer. Farther.

It happened not to you.

You survived because you were the first.

You survived because you were the last.

Because you were alone. Because of people.

Because you turned left. Because you turned right.

Because rain fell. Because a shadow fell.

Because sunny weather prevailed.

Luckily there was a wood.

Luckily there were no trees.

Luckily there was a rail, a hook, a beam, a brake,

a frame, a bend, a millimeter, a second.

Luckily a straw was floating on the surface.

Thanks to, because, and yet, in spite of.

What would have happened if not a hand, a foot,

by a step, a hairsbreadth

by sheer coincidence.

So you’re here? Straight from a moment still ajar?

The net had one eyehole, and you got through it?

There’s no end to my wonder, my silence.

Listen

how fast your heart beats in me.

~Wislawa Szymborska

These words have lived on the pulse of my heart since I first came across them decades ago. It is not lost on me how our lives can be seen as a series of happy (and not so happy) occurrences and, when you look back on the journey, our survival through the mosaic of it all is quite miraculous.

10/1/25

Trees of Life / Where Discovery Sparks Imagination

Issue No. 86

TREES OF LIFE – THE MOST UNUSUAL AND BEAUTIFUL EVOLUTIONARY TREE MAPS FROM THE LAST 200 YEARS

Trees of Life: A Visual History of Evolution
by Theodore W. Pietsch
Johns Hopkins University Press
2013, 376 pages, 8 x 10 x 1.1 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

The primary metaphor for visualizing evolution is as a tree. The trunk is the oldest ancestor species which branch off newer species, which branch further leaves of the newest species. Ever since Darwin, biologists have been drawing trees to attempt to capture the complexity of evolution in various domains. These evolutionary trees are not only scientifically useful, but works of art. Over the years, many approaches to the trees have been tried – some minimal, some ornate, some abstract. This tome collects the finest, most unusual, most beautiful evolutionary tree maps produced in the last 200 years. They not only inform biology, they are fantastic examples of great design. – Kevin Kelly

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WHERE DISCOVERY SPARKS IMAGINATION: A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF RADIO AND ELECTRICITY

Where Discovery Sparks Imagination: A Pictorial History of Radio and Electricity
by John D. Jenkins
American Museum of Radio and Electricity
2009, 224 pages, 8.2 x 10 x 1 inches

Buy on Amazon

If you’re ever up near the Canadian border in the little college town of Bellingham, WA make time to check out a gem of a museum there: The SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention. It’s fully charged up and literally crackling with excitement (and a 4-million volt Tesla coil!). SPARK showcases all manner of fascinating artifacts all about the history of electricity from early static electricity generators to advanced vacuum tubes that went to the moon. Can’t make the trip? Then get this wonderful book!

And even if you do go to SPARK in person, you’ll also want to read Where Discovery Sparks Imagination. It features lavish color photographs of hundreds of the items on display together with the interesting stories of the people and places that go along with the things. I learned even more about Alessandro Volta and volts, Andre-Marie Ampere and amps, and Georg Ohm and ohms. See the recreation of the Titanic’s radio room. Learn how an undertaker in Kansas City invented the first dial phone to short circuit his competitor’s switchboard shenanigans. Anyone who has used a phone, listened to a recording, or turned on a lamp will enjoy seeing the primitive but clever inventions that predate today’s smart phones, PCs and LED lights. Fans of steampunkery will geek out at the endless array of 19th-century wonders like Wimhurst generators, telegraphs, “electro-magnetic motive machines,” as well as a forest of vacuum-tube devices, handsome wood-burl radio cabinetry and brassy mechanical sound players.

I was delighted to see included whimsical touches, too, like the mascot characters that put a friendly face on electrical consumer products: sure, they have a “Nipper” (the RCA mascot dog), but also the very cool 1920s Maxfield Parrish designed “Selling Fool” point of purchase display doll (with wooden jointed, posable limbs with slits for holding ad cards – and a radio tube for a helmet!). Until I can go back to SPARK (Science Powered Adventures for Real Kids) in person, I’m digging this book! – Bob Knetzger

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

09/30/25

Visual Reference

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 157

I go to books when I need to stimulate my imagination. Books never fail. I am a visual thinker, even when I write words, so I especially respond to visual books full of images, graphs, and pictures. Over the years I’ve accumulated a pretty good library of visual source books. Today, used books are cheap. You can build a good library of inspiration rather easily and inexpensively. These reference books will be the last to be replaced by digital screens, and they will still work perfectly well in the next century — no obsolescence. If you can find space to keep them, a good reference library is a working treasure. I probably have several hundred visual reference books, so I will list only the two dozen or so that I would truly hate to lose. I am mostly omitting single-artist retrospective books, including my favorites, since these are easier to find than the ones I include here, which are not obvious and less well-known. Oh, the possibilities! – KK

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Secret Museum of Mankind

This hefty softcover is a facsimile collection of thousands of exotic and sensational photographs dating from around the turn of the century when news of any sort from far away lands was rare. It’s sort of a combination of early uncensored National Geographic and Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Reproduced without a known author, or copyright, or even authentication of the captions, it was for many years a “secret” underground publication. And for pure gawking pleasures it still can’t be beat. Cannibals, executioners, and fakirs, oh my! Toolwise, it serves as a mighty sourcebook of amazing costumes, body modifications and hairdos, architectural novelties, and extinct strange rituals. (I’m convinced science fiction film directors mine this for alien worlds.) I like to think of this book as the best one volume catalog of cultural diversity on Earth. For the most part these societies are long gone, and remain only in rare books like this one. —KK

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Fantastic Illustrations of Grandville

Surreal and whimsical did not start with hipsters. These book of 266 pen and ink illustrations by the Parisian Jean Grandville in the early 1800s depicts fantastical chimera, and phantasmagorical visions. It’s old-timey hallucinogenic scenes, often switching animals for people. Always guaranteed to wake you up. —KK

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Art Cars

Why are cars so boring, uniform in color, undecorated, unpersonalized when they could be…. covered in pennies, painted in polka dots, or traced in iron? You’ve probably seen an art car on the road and smiled. This is one of several albums of homemade art car culture by Harrod Blank. If you can improve cars this way, you can do it with toasters and the rest of the stuff in Walmart.

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Fantasy Worlds

Sometimes, despite all pressures toward normalcy, people are compelled to construct their own worlds. The old lady who over the years arranges broken bottles into a house, or the man down the road covering his barn with tiny quotes from a channeling spirit–each glues raw symbols into a whole that makes sense for them. This happens all over the world. I’ve collected an entire stack of books about self-made worlds, and this one is the best for sheer exuberance, geographic inclusion, and variety.

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Street Art San Francisco

A deep and wide collection of the best of San Francisco’s murals. A bit of hippy style, plus Mexican, plus punk, plus hipster. Great mix, hundreds of examples. —KK

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1000 Steampunk Creations

Steampunk is a contrarian reaction to the sleek minimalism of modernity and the “nothingness” of an iPod. It takes inspiration from the visible workings of brass pipes, rivets, and gears of Victorian technology and transfers that maximalism — how many doo-dads, filigree, extra decorations can one add? — to artifacts and clothing today. While this extreme counter-style is dated (by definition), it holds many potential ideas. This one volume compendium contains a thousand vibrant examples of excessive transparency. —KK

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Street Graphics India

This book inspired me to begin recording street graphics as I traveled so now I have my own collection, but this modest book will give anyone a good representation of the graphic landscape in India — from Bollywood billboards, to painted rickshaw covers, matchbox covers, wall advertisements, signage, and household symbols. —KK

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

09/29/25

What’s in my NOW? — Melissa Willis