There are guidebooks that tell you where to go, spend the night and eat lunch and dinner. They might even list out-of-the-way places where the locals hunt for bargains or celebrate a daughter's wedding.
Carl Franz, along with editors Lorena Havens and Steve Rogers, has written a different kind of guide to Mexico. "The People's Guide to Mexico" (John Muir Publications, 25th anniversary edition, $22.95) is really a manual on how to travel or even live in that country.The book informs you about when you might offend someone, how to deal with an arrogant traffic policeman, when to buy souvenirs by the dozen and when a cantina isn't a cantina.
"You won't find hotel or restaurant listings," said John Muir publisher Steven Cary. "But it tells you how to become a temporary Mexican and integrate with the culture."
The book gives you the feeling you are traveling with friendly, very knowledgeable guides.
They are. Franz and Havens, partners for 29 years, have been going to Mexico for decades. Coming of age in the late 1960s, they spent a lot of time in Mexico and poured their expertise into the book. It was the kind of information needed before Mexico had developed resorts such as Cancun or attracted north-of-the-border retirees in droves.
They were going to self-publish the book, but when John Muir, a relative of the famed naturalist, saw it, he asked them if he could publish it. It was only the second book for Santa Fe-based John Muir Publications.
"The People's Guide to Mexico" became a vocation for Franz and Havens, and a staple of the John Muir list.
"The thrust of the book is to make people as comfortable as possible," said Franz. "This is especially true for Americans going to Mexico, because there is so much conditioning of a negative image that lurks in the back of the mind. The slightest thing can cause it to well up and overpower you."
To counteract this, Franz tries to share the good and bad experiences and explain why they happened.
One of the negative images relates to crime, particularly in Mexico City, the state of Chiapas and along certain highways at night. For the most part, Franz dismisses this.
"The only crime I know about in Mexico City is what I read in the papers. I would be much more nervous in a city in Florida (where several European tourists were murdered three years ago).
"Mexico has changed. It's become much more like the United States in terms of safety." He suggests that people who visit Mexico exercise as much caution as they need to, and then gradually let their hair down while using common sense.
In the course of 25 years, Mexico has changed in many ways. "When we first did the book, there were no traffic signs," he said. "There were relatively few highways, and driving there was an adventure. It didn't matter who you were; it was a guaranteed adventure."
So the first edition of the book was aimed at reassuring people that back-country travel in Mexico could be done at all. Oftentimes, the couple were the first tourists to get into remote villages. "We were constantly searching for the end of the road," he said. "In a lot of ways, we were trying to entice them south of the border and alleviate their greatest fears."
This edition has much less focus on driving and camping, largely because there are now hotels in places where none existed before. The edition does, however, still give directions for sharpening a machete and building a thatched hut.
With more experience in the country, Franz added information on contemporary life and customs, including popular music and the media.
This edition does include some suggestions on places to visit. The Yucatan Peninsula is at the top of his list, especially for first-time independent travelers or solo women. He recommends looking for a cheap flight to Cancun and then renting a car or bus and traveling to Merida, the Puuc Hills, where Mayan ruins are located, and Chichin Itza.
Next he would add Oaxaca to the list, which might even be done as a loop trip out of Yucatan. After that come the colonial cities. "Puebla is a very overlooked city," he said. "It's a short bus ride from Mexico City. You couldn't believe the service on El Uno." The bus has a single row of seats on one side so you can sit alone if you choose. It's like an airline on land with served meals, reclining seats, videos, soft drinks and sane driving. The one-way fare from Mexico City is $23.
Then he would move on to less visited places, such as Vera Cruz or Copper Canyon.
But more important than place is how and where you spend your time when you get there. Even in places such as Cancun or Puerto Vallarta, heavily weighted to gringo visitors, you can get a real sense of Mexico. At Cancun, he and Havens never stay on the resort strip, but in the town where people who work in the resorts live. They always eat at restaurants and shop where local people do.
"Ask people working in the shops where they enjoy having lunch," he said. "These places are usually very nice, and they're much more traditional places to eat."
Another suggestion is to look at the entertainment sections of the newspaper or the phone book. Here you can find Mexican nightclubs listed where you can have dinner and see a variety show that is usually an old-fashioned burlesque type of entertainment. The whole theme of the book is to encourage people to dig into the country rather than being quick tourists. Their next book will be on retiring and living in Mexico, a logical extension of their long-term engagement with the country.
In addition to the book, Franz has a Web site, (www.peoplesguide.com/mexico).