Interested in a Mexican holiday? Why not head for the beaches of Warrior or spend a few days checking out the magical towns in the state of Noble.
Huh?
There’s a good reason why you’re probably confused. There’s no such place as Warrior in Mexico and the last time I checked Noble wasn’t one of the country’s 31 states (32 if you count Mexico City, which has state-like status).
But according to Mexico’s flagship tourism website, both Warrior and Noble are indeed Mexican states. So where are these states?
Warrior, Spanish speakers might have guessed, is a Pacific coast state in the south of the country (far more) commonly known as Guerrero, while Noble is in fact the central Mexican state of Hidalgo.
So why does Visit México – which is back up after apparently being taken down in late July for lack of payment – refer to Guerrero as Warrior and Hidalgo as Noble.
The problem appears to be that the site uses a translation plugin to automatically convert Spanish-language content to English, yielding some less than desirable yet humorous results.
Guerrero, home to the resort city of Acapulco and the silver town of Taxco, becomes Warrior (the literal translation) and Hidalgo, home to six Pueblos Mágicos including the Cornwall-like Real del Monte, becomes Noble.
The fun doesn’t end there. Progreso, the Gulf of Mexico beach town north of Mérida, is of course Progress; Torreón, a city in Coahuila, is Turret; and Aculco, a town in México state, is, wait for it — I blame!
That (poorly rendered English) name apparently comes from the Spanish (yo) culpo. I blame the damn plugin!
Villa del Carbón in México state is, or course, Coal Village, while Tulum, the Caribbean coast beach town, is translated into English as Jumpsuit.
There is such a thing as a Tulum jumpsuit, this writer has just found out, but the translation still seems inexplicable.
Also seemingly inexplicable is that, despite the translation plugin, the northern border city of Piedras Negras is referred to Piedras Negras, not Black Stones, the holiday town Valle de Bravo is not Valley of the Fierce or Valley of the Brave and Oaxaca’s Hierve el Agua, site of two petrified waterfalls, is not listed as Boil the Water.
Puerto Peñasco, also known as “Arizona’s Beach” due to its proximity to the Grand Canyon state, is also referred to as such on Visit México although it’s commonly known in English as Rocky Point.
Among the states whose names could have been given a makeover but weren’t are Nuevo León (New Lion), Aguascalientes (Hot Waters) and Baja California Sur (Lower Southern California).
There could, however, still be some undiscovered joyas, or gems, on the site for anyone with some spare sleuthing time on their hands.
Visit México was relaunched last year with private sector funding but still obviously needs a lot of work. Apart from the amusing translations, the site has a number of glitches — click on some icons and you’ll get “an error occurred” message.
Although its aim is to attract tourists to Mexico, the website seems a little confused right now due to the pandemic.
Click on “Experiences” and you’ll be greeted with a pop-up that reads “Be Responsible #QuedateEnCasa.”
For non-Spanish speakers, that’s #StayAtHome. That’s probably good advice.
Mexico News Daily
