Week 8
Right, we’re in a position no journalist should ever be subjected to. A fully inclusive five star resort in Playa del Carmen, the chichi beachside hangout south of Cancun and everything is free. I mean everything – there are optics in the mini-bar, three restaurants open all day, and a roving team of waitresses petitioning unsuspecting guests to drink more. Champagne is served at breakfast. It’s right next to the orange juice.
But we haven’t got there yet, and there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip as my old dad used to say, so that can sit on the horizon for the moment while we rewind the clock.
Veracruz turned out to be a lot better than expected. Even with a bust lens. This was fortunate and gave us some leeway when the final leg...
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Week 7
From San Miguel to Hidalgo and the town of Pachuca for a feature on Cornish Pasties. Actually this turned out to be rather better than expected. It started inauspiciously with a terrifying nocturnal journey in a cramped car down a lethal road with a driver who was a waddling testament to the nourishing power of English cuisine. He insisted on overtaking articulated trucks on blind corners and farting slyly.
During the nineteenth century over a thousand Cornish came to Hidalgo to bring their mining expertise to bear on the rich deposits of silver that lace them there hills. Pachuca and other neighbouring towns were founded on the proceeds. They also brought certain traditions and recipes with them, most notably the pasty...
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Week 5-6
Off to Tequila country to film a charreria – a popular type of cowboy contest followed by a distillery. Except the state office in Guadalajara turned out to be quite unprepared for our arrival. The Mexican tourist board in London had informed them several weeks earlier that we needed to shoot some horseplay, either an actual event or something staged on a farm. It was Monday and Al couldn’t reach them until we were already on the road. Not that he knew who to speak to as no one wanted to carry the can. By the time we had a contact we had arrived in the second largest city in Mexico, one that makes London look like Trumpton. He knew nothing about us, had done nothing, so there was no shoot and nowhere to stay. It was the Muppet show....
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Week 4
Another hotel, a new day… This one’s not bad actually – the Marquis, about ten clicks outside Los Cabos. Five star, palm trees, infinity pools hanging over the Pacific. My room has a whirlpool bath, which is nice. It’s everything a rich American looks for in a luxury break. And there are plenty here to confirm this. There was one “helping out” the unfortunate girl providing the Karaoke on the lounge deck. His arm was wrapped around her in a vicelike grip as he bellowed flatly to the strains of “I will always love you”, while his mate (why do I suspect he was called Brad) clicked and flashed away like David Bailey...
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Week 1-3
Monday night, I’m lying in a double bed, in a hotel suite in the mountains of northern Mexico. The only light, other than the incongruous radiation from my laptop, is an oil lamp beside the bed and the glow of a log fire in the corner of the room. It is the end of our first full day filming and I’m bushed.
We landed in Mexico City last Thursday around half ten in the morning, with a mountain of gear and no clear destination. Al, my producer/cameraman had decided we could manage to film the whole series with just the two of us, despite an upgrade to high definition which involved twice as many bags. To do this he’d taken everything out of the hermetically sealed flight cases and crammed it into several backpacks. Even so it was a lot of stuff; sixty thousand pounds worth in fact....
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Visit the FLAVOURS OF MEXICO website and read Charlie's recipes, episode description and more!