Christmas in the city and the best of 2011

¡Felices Fiestas! I hope everyone’s enjoying the holiday week.

With the start to the New Year just a couple of days away, markets all across Mexico City are doing a brisk business in red and yellow underwear and grapes — both popular New Years Eve traditions in Mexico.

Red and yellow New Years Eve underwear for sale in the market

This year we’re planning a low key start to the Año Nuevo, which will most likely involve staying in and watching the fireworks from the rooftop.

In other news, my holiday running streak only lasted 17 days, not 25 as originally planned since I broke the streak on Christmas Day, which means I won’t actually be streaking into 2012. But I’m still happy I made it as long as I did and if nothing else, running daily helped me to get back into a regular routine heading into the New Year.

And I’ve spent most of December completing my annual review and planning for 2012. In other words, focusing in on what went well in 2011, what didn’t go maybe as well as I would have liked and what I’ll be working toward next year. It’s all there in a special end of the year blog post that I’ll be publishing tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are this month’s highlights and the best of 2011…

In case you missed it…

Not surprisingly, this month was all about the holidays. From Mexico City’s annual “Magia de la Navidad” Christmas program to the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Christmas posadas, night markets, parades, festivals and even the world’s largest nativity scene, it’s been another busy and very, very crowded month in the capital.

The best of 2011

I went back and forth a bit trying to figure out what to share as the best of 2011 on Go Mexico Guide. I thought about sharing the most popular posts based on pageviews (which almost always end up being list posts, food posts and photo posts), but realized that wasn’t really representative of the posts I’m most proud of this year.

Instead, I’ve decided to highlight five of my favorite posts from the past year — posts that touched on professional accomplishments, personal challenges, unique topics and interesting travel destinations. Follow the links below to see which ones I choose, and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

First, it was a huge honor this past June when I was invited by Ogilvy to be one of 24 ambassadors to the México Today initiative that was launched this year by Marca Pais – Imagen de Mexico. Not only has it been an incredible opportunity for the 24 of us, but it’s also a very positive sign that PR firms and tourism boards are recognizing value in working alongside the travel blogging community. Our first order of business was a group trip and program kick-off event in the city of Oaxaca which I wrote about here.

A performance of la Guelaguetza at the Camino Real Hotel in Oaxaca

In August I heard about Dave Hensleigh’s plan to Walk Across Juárez, Mexico’s most violent border city, and my interest piqued. I couldn’t help but follow along as he blogged and tweeted his way around the city. His experience and insight provided a unique perspective on a city that’s often immediately written off as a danger zone.

Running is a favorite activity of mine and something I try to do regularly, regardless of the challenges that exist in Mexico City like weather reports of smoke, crowded streets and insane traffic. Since I prefer to run outdoors, I’ve put together a list of my favorite Outdoor Running Paths in Mexico City.

One of my biggest challenges since moving to Mexico has been learning to speak Spanish, and there’s no question that my ideas about what it means to learn a language have changed a lot since I first arrived. This post sparked an interesting discussion about the definition of fluency and what it takes to really learn a foreign language.

Finally, it’s always nice to escape the city for a day or two. We try our best to take day trips from Mexico City as often as possible, and our visit to the ruins at Tula was one of the more interesting of our recent trips outside the capital.

And in case you really are wondering, Mexico in Print received the most pageviews in 2011 making it the most popular post of the year.

Coming up…

The Christmas season in Mexico doesn’t officially come to an end until January 6th with the celebration of Día de los Reyes, or Three Kings Day. In Mexico and much of Latin America gifts are exchanged on this day rather than on Christmas Day and delivered during the night by the Three Kings, or Tres Reyes Magos, so if Santa didn’t bring everything you wished for this year, there’s still time to ask the Three Kings.

Don’t forget to stop back tomorrow and check out my annual review post!

What was your favorite post on Go Mexico Guide this year and what topics would you like to see more of in the future? Let me know in the comments.

Have a safe and happy start to the New Year!