The beaches are fringed with palm trees. The cuisine is fresh, exciting, robust, spiced with chili and in vogue in London, New York, and Toronto. The Jungles are steamy. The cities are dynamic, vibrant, teeming with life. It also has the Weltschmerz of Frida. Yes, Mexico beseeches you with this vivid and diverse heavenly dream. I am a Mexican aficionado.  I have been countless times to the Mayan Riviera, Tulum, Cancun, Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Los Cabos. I get in touch with Mabel Gutierrez E, who wants to give the tourist the real, ethnic experience from her heart and soul.

Mabel, a pleasure to have a fellow blogger and Les Roches Alumni on my blog. Please tell my audience something unique and important about you?

Thank you for this opportunity, Jerry. In the last 9 months, my life has changed completely. For instance, I took a risk to start a new project of my own, after being in the tourism industry for more than 8 years. It was the right time to start fresh with my own company.

Talk to me about why you decided to become a blogger and focus on traveling?

At this point, I am starting my travel agency specializing in Mexico. It is called Malva Travel. I enjoy wearing different hats. As a result, my partners and I realized that we needed to create a blog about Mexico exclusively.

I have seen, that the media only tells one story about Mexico and they are mostly foreigners. I believe that Mexicans need to start telling our own story, as it is more valuable. In other words, it is told from our souls, hearts, and memories.

To be totally honest, I have always dreamt of writing. However, I never followed that dream. When I was studying abroad, I used to send long stories about my adventures to my family and friends. As a result, they mentioned several times that they could imagine the situations with my descriptions and enjoyed a lot reading them. However, after that time I barely wrote anything, and I closed that chapter. It is funny how life can change in a minute and take you to a different path or open up opportunities. Therefore, my piece of advice is to grab those opportunities and make them yours. It could be scary at the beginning, but I believe there are no coincidences and that things happen for a reason.

What is the fun part and what are the challenges of being a blogger?

In this case, as it is a travel blog, the fun part is to visit the places that I will write about. It is important for me to live the experience and be in close contact with people to be able to write the details. I also love taking photographs. I grew up very close to my mom, who is a photographer. As a result,  I learned a lot from her. Similarly, last year I got my first DSLR camera and started taking photography classes. In conclusion, one activity puts together two of my hobbies.  I am pretty lucky.

My personal challenge is to make time to write. I do not make a living from the blog for now. I need to contact clients, visit them, quote different travel options for them, make phone calls and then find a quiet moment to write.

Did going to hotel school help you become a blogger? If yes, in what way?

Well, I believe our past defines us. For me, going to a hotel school in Switzerland was one of the best experiences and one of the most challenging ones. Although I am not from a wealthy family, I have to admit that many duties such as washing dishes, learning to make a bed in a proper way or even cooking, were activities not part of my daily life. I was very spoiled, and I grew up a lot during my university years and internships. I had the chance to speak with housekeepers, gardeners, cooks and I learned to always be humble, respectful and to work hard as a team. Luxury cannot be achieved without all these “back of the house” people, they are essential, but they normally do not appear in the picture. I think that was the most important lesson I learned during that time of my life.

Let us talk about Mexican food. It is my favorite food. What are some exciting trends?

I am glad you enjoy it, I am a big fan of Mexican food too, I prefer it over others, although I appreciate different cuisines too.

Mexican food has a wide variety of flavors, traditions, and versions depending on the region. I believe, the trend is to focus on all the different tacos but there is so much more.

At times, foreigners get confused between taco, tostada, quesadilla, sope, and tlacoyo. They all have in common our beautiful corn which is Mexico`s staple food. The truth is that although the mentioned dishes all contain corn, each of them has a peculiarity and the taste really change.

Jerry, you must come to the central part of Mexico and you will need at least 2 weeks to have time to taste all these delicious treats and learn which one is your favorite.

I would like people to get to know more about the insects that our ancestors ate and that should be well known for its nutrients and exquisite flavor. One of my favorites is the chapulines (grasshoppers), they are crunchy and salty, a great option to pair a guacamole or tlayuda, but my favorite exotic dish are the escamoles, which are the ant´s eggs, normally you can find them finely cooked with butter, a bit of garlic and epazote ( a very aromatic herb).  Another part of Mexican gastronomy that is not well known, is how easy vegetarian people can find delicious options within our cuisine. My favorite vegetarian options are: huazontles (Chenopodium nuttalliae) that are served in a kind of pancake covered in a flavorful tomato sauce and nopales salad which is an edible cactus, served with chopped onions, coriander, tomato, really fresh and healthy.

What are your favorite tacos?

This is the most difficult question to answer. However, it sounds funny but it depends on the time of the day and even the day of the week. During the weekdays during lunchtime, it is easy to find tacos de guisado. These are tacos filled with the recipes that traditional families used to cook such as breaded meat with sautéed potatoes, pork skin in red or green sauce, egg in morita sauce. These tacos are excellent when you are in a hurry but you need the comfort of homemade food during your day. In the evenings, pastor tacos are easy to find, this is a delicacy that we learned and adapted from the Middle East, is now one of my favorites.  It is the combination of pork marinated in achiote, perfectly grilled (as it should be juicy) with a piece of pineapple, coriander, onion, and a great sauce, it is just an explosion in your mouth. The best taquerias are defined by the charisma and speed of the Taquero ( the person who prepares, normally a man but this is changing) and the flavor and level of spiciness in their sauces, I believe this is the key.

Tequilas and Mezcals have come a long way. Most people still drink it with salt and lime. I love it with Sangrita and orange slices with insect salt. Have the producers finally realized there is a sophisticated market out there?

Yes, for sure! The options, varieties, and labels are growing and now there are a lot of options to try, at least in Mexico. In my opinion, if you have the time, the best is to visit the small communities and buy it from an unlabeled bottle, to be able to experience the land and people who have worked so you can have a nice drink in a festive moment. This is the only way to really value the effort and work of the people. You will enjoy the drink better with this knowledge and experience.  I love tequila. The best is supposed to be the young one (not aged in a barrel) as it is the purest and you won´t get a headache the next morning. Personally, I enjoy a lot the reposados or añejos or a nice cocktail with a young tequila. Most of the times I only drink it from a shot glass, no lime or salt, but I also like a nice freshly made sangrita once in a while. With Mezcal I really love to drink it with a side dish of oranges and worm or if I feel wild, I even pair it with a nice artisanal Mexican beer.

I have been to the Mayan Riviera, Cancun, Costa Maya, Cozumel, and Los Cabos a couple of times. But these are all very touristic and American. Tell me some of the places where I can get the real ethnic feeling of Mexico?

I am glad you had the chance to visit some of the best beaches in Mexico! I love visiting them too, but as you mentioned, those are not the most authentic places to get to know the real Mexico. Jerry, how would you feel about visiting a place that still has a strong connection with its pre-hispanic roots, with a wide variety of traditional dishes, the most impressive one, a carefully created sauce with more than 30 ingredients called Mole Negro, normally served with turkey or chicken and besides its strong culinary tradition, it offers some of the best artisanal textiles and other pieces of art such as black and green pottery? Well, if you agree it is an appealing place to get to know the real Mexico. I guarantee you will have an awesome time but be sure to have available at least 5 days to visit this region. Oaxaca is my suggestion to get to know the real Mexico.

Other areas for your bucket list are for sure, Mexico City with all the tasty street-food and the biggest collection of museums.

Guanajuato with its romantic, narrow and colorful streets.

Jalisco where you will be able to see the agave fields and learn about the well-known Tequila or Chiapas with its impressive archeological sites in the middle of the jungle where you would be able to speak with Mayan descendant in the Lacandon jungle. I could go on for a couple of paragraphs, but this is surely my favorite regions in my beloved country.

What is empowering women in the 21st century mean to you?

It has been a long path for women to have rights and benefits that should not be exclusive for men. However, at least in Mexico, it is still a challenge to be a woman, especially in small communities where unfair traditions do not allow women to really be free and have a voice of their own. In the big cities, the situation has changed bit by bit and there are important movements and events that support empowering women.

I recently attended an event during Women´s day with different workshops to inspire women to be a better version of themselves and to be able to start a new business or continue with their goals.
It was a wonderful experience to be able to meet with great women during this 2-day event, where one of my partners and I, had the chance of participating in an intensive workshop for entrepreneurial women where we won a prize for the structure of Malva Travel to Mexico project.

In conclusion, I am very lucky to live in Mexico City as I have more opportunities and there is a good portion of people who are willing to make a change and support women.  I wish every woman on Earth could see and feel this change in her daily life.

How do you balance and prioritize food, faith, finance and family in the 21st century?

It has been hard for me and I have not found the ultimate recipe to have a balanced life. However, I believe faith should be essential and the most important column in our lives. I´ve had the chance to pause the stressful rush of life to work on the faith in myself and in God, although I am not very religious, I am developing my spiritual side slowly. Having this part covered, I believe the other 3 columns should be equally important, but the real challenge is to balance the finances and family. Maybe it is a very common statement, however, the best is to have quality time with the family, in case the work is keeping you very busy. Food is one of my passions and I am always willing to try new options, but I believe you refer to having a balanced diet and a healthy life. In this case, I am also working on a better daily routine that will enable me to feel more energetic and in better shape. In conclusion, one must go through different stages in life to find the best way to have a balanced lifestyle, for some, it might come naturally but for others, it is a one day at a time challenge.

Malva Travel offers experiences in Mexico based on the highest quality, specialized guides, private access, and event management through the collaboration of a service-oriented professional team.

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