Our first stop was the Seattle Airport Hotel. Okay, not the most adventurous way to begin our trip, so we moved on quickly.
So our next proper stop was Mexico.
We flew to Mexico City and were warned explicitly about safety in this city from our lovely Mexican friend back home, Lorena. I believe her words were, “Wes, this is serious. Don’t skimp on getting an authorised taxi. It’s a matter of life and death”. With those words ringing in our ears, we made sure we did everything properly once we arrived. We had a night in a business hotel which was very functional but had zero atmosphere; and then spent the second night in Hostel Amigo – a fun hostel that provided a fantastic brekky and massive dinner each night, both free. We did a tour of the Mayan pyramids with the hostel, and managed to fall asleep going both to and from the pyramids. It seems 5 months of doing nothing really takes its toll. Climbing the pyramids was a real highlight.
Our verdict of Mexico City was that it was a very interesting place. It was a massive, sprawling city, and the old district where we stayed had a fun feeling about it. Not at all as scary as we feared.
The Mexican Pipeline - Puerto Escondido
We were eager to hit the beach and get some sun, so after 2 days, so we went to Puerto Escondido on the Southern Pacific Coast of Mexico. We had the choice of either taking a 45 minute flight, or a 24 hour bus ride. Not surprisingly we voted for the flight.
Puerto Escondido is world renowned for its surf. The main beach has huge barrel waves that never relent, and that swimmers don’t muck around with. We stayed in a massive room in the Mayflower Hostel which had a fan to give us some reprieve from the sweltering heat. We spent 4 nights here, swimming at the swimming beach around the corner, drinking cervezas, reading books, eating fish, Wes attempting surfing on the non-existent waves at the beginner beach, and sleeping lots. It was very relaxing. Wes discovered “Heuves a la Mexicana” for breakfast, which are essentially scrambled eggs with diced tomato, chilli and onion – delish!
It was here that we had our first experience of the Mexican “Collectivo”. Which is basically collective transport, (like a bus, but smaller). Our collectivo was a ute with canopy and bench seats lengthways and an open tailgate. We got some funny looks from the 8 locals already in the back, but we piled in with them anyway and after a while got “chatting” in spanglish. 40 cents later we were at our destination .
Living on a nude beach - Zippolite
4 days later we took off. We jumped on a local bus and a collectivo cab to get to our next destination called Zippolite. Unfortunately the cab driver thoroughly ripped us off and so our arrival in Zippolite was slightly tainted.
Nevertheless, this town was unique. It is a sleepy little town right on the beachfront. We found ourselves a Cabana literally right on the (nude) beach called... “A Nice Place on the Beach”. The Cabana was a tree house built out of trees. We scored the best room in the house which had only a bed and mosquito net, and was idyllic. We spent 3 nights here chilling out, swimming, drinking, eating, sleeping and practising our Spanish on each other.
We mostly ate Mexican food (amazing chicken soup and guacamole), but as had been theme so far, all the waitresses thought we were American and consequently did not treat us very well. Once we made it known that we were Australian we were treated much better, but we weren’t always able to tell people so it was tricky. Also, on the one night where we ate western food, it didn’t agree with poor Wesley!
So far the heat (35c) in Mexico had been quite a shock to the system, by this stage though, we had the solution down pat: 3-5 showers a day plus beach chairs under a tree while drinking a beer.
A colonial city in the mountains - San Cristobel de las Casas
This was our next stop. We met a delightful Canadian couple at the bus stop near Zippolite who had fluent Spanish, so chatting to them helped pass the time while we waited for the 12 hour overnight bus to San Cristobel.
The bus trip was actually fine. We slept most of the time, and we have our routine down pat now – eye patches, ear plugs and jumpers to keep us warm as the air con gets cranked up on these vessels. Despite the sleep, it is hard not to get off the bus feeling like you have jet lag!
When we arrived, we were met by a guy wanting to lure us to his hostel. Always suspicious, we double checked it was a legit operation before we accepted his invitation. It was, so we stayed at Planet Hostel, and it was noisy. The staff loved to yell at each other at all times of the day. San Cristobel on the other hand, was delightful. A lovely city with a huge Spanish feel, colourful buildings, cute little shops, and lots of local markets.
On one of our days we did a boat tour of the nearby Canyon, and it was truly amazing. The Canyon was absolutely enormous, and contained a few crocodiles and other birds, but the tour was in Spanish so we don’t actually know anything about it.
Mayan Ruins in the Jungle! - Palenque
Our next stop was a 7 hour bus ride away. Palenque has Mayan ruins tucked away in the jungle, and so we were told it was a must see. We found ourselves a Cabana in the jungle and spent the night listening to the monkeys going nuts. The heat was sweltering!!! But the nice thing was, there were lots of people also staying in the jungle and there was live music at dinner, so the atmosphere was really fun.
The next morning we took off to explore these ruins. The guide book said you could see them in 3 hours, but we managed to whip around them in about half an hour. They were really impressive, but the heat was so overpowering that we couldn’t spend any longer looking at a pile of rocks. So instead we set off to find the waterfall in the jungle that we were told you could swim at. We stripped down to our swimmers and refreshed ourselves under the cool water.
That evening we took another overnight bus to Tulum – but this time we decided to splurge on the “Executive Bus”. The Mexican Bus system has a variety of classes of bus, and the executive class is second best, better than first class, but without the flat bed seats, and a huge improvement from the ones we had taken so far. We got a cold soft drink on arrival, and the leg room was the best! Definitely worth the extra $9. Even so, it didn’t stop us from holding our breath when the army boarded the bus at a checkpoint in the middle of the night. Not sure who or what they were looking for, but the big flashlight was intimidating.
The Island of Women (Tulum...Isle de Mujeres)
12 hours later we arrived in Tulum, a town on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. Everyone we had spoken to raved about it – the white sandy beaches, the ruins on the beach, and the general beauty. So we were excited.
Well, it was indeed beautiful, but we decided not to stay. We had found a sand floor cabana right on the beach, but it was expensive, the toilet situation was dire, and the place felt empty and isolated. We thought we could get more for our money, so after a quick squizz at the white sandy beach, we went straight back to the bus station and onto a bus headed for Cancun.
Quite randomly on the bus we ran into some friends we had met in Fernie – so it is a small world after all.
Once we got to Cancun, we jumped on a ferry to Isle de Mujeres, a resortie kind of island half an hour off the coast of Cancun. The water was crystal clear, and very Caribbeanesk. We found the Poc Na Hostel which is the place to stay on this island, and were shown to our room. Our room was no more than a prison cell – white walls, cement floor and a bed. Oh, and bars on the windows of course. It wasn’t exactly welcoming, but it was perfectly functional. The Hostel itself was great – full of lots of travellers and full of life, right on the beach. However, it was surrounded by a barbed wire fence, so just when you thought it was a resort, you need only look outside and be reminded it was definitely NOT a resort.
We spent 4 nights chilling out here and felt much more content and less lonely than we had in some of the other places. We met another couple who were also travelling for 6 months, and I think we were all desperately craving some people contact that we spent a couple of nights hanging out with them for drinks and dinner which was fun.
The beach was stunning, white sand and beautiful aqua water. We had to wade out about 250metres in knee deep water to get to any sort of depth. We spent our mornings lounging on the beach, swimming every 20 minutes to cool off, and reading. For lunch we had the most delicious Fish Tacos, and for dinners we ate either at the hostel or at a local fish restaurant. It was utterly relaxing, and easy to imagine doing this forever.
So there ends our 2.5 weeks in Mexico. It was a great trip, though my overall feeling was that the Mexicans were not as friendly as I had hoped. If I go back, I’d personally like to go back with a much bigger budget so I can stay at some of those all inclusive resorts!
Next stop Fort Lauderdale in Florida for a night....
Until then.
