Hola de Mexico! This week wraps up my first and only (very short!) week in Mexico. It has definitely felt like a very short week, but a fantastic introduction to all that Central America has to offer – the food, the drinks, the music, parties and so much more.
I began my week flying to Mexico City from Memphis. It started far too early, like many travel days, and after two flights and a taxi ride I met my host Erick at this apartment in the Americas Unidas area of Mexico City. In Mexico I’m using Couchsurfing, which I also used in the US. It’s a great way to get some local knowledge about where you are, and Erick was the perfect example of a host who is willing to share the best of his city with his guests.
My first full day in the city I went to check out the Museo Nacionale de Antropologia, which houses a truly incredible collection of artifacts from throughout the history of Mexico. The museum is divided into different halls each dedicated to a particular part of Mexico. It’s a very long history to cover and I was amazed at the quality and quantity of artifacts they had. The only downfall was that most of the signs were, of course, in Spanish so I couldn’t learn much. That evening Erick and I visited the Coyoacan neighbourhood, which is very trendy and beautiful. We had dinner and tequila in a local Cantina while Mariachi played some traditional tunes. A perfect evening.
Coyoacan’s old Spanish church, the grounds of which now make up the vibrant town square
The next day I headed out on the bus to Teotihuacan, one of the best preserved and definitely the most significant examples of of a Mayan city. It was the main city in it’s time and the power centre of the Mayan empire. The pyramids there are huge and the city itself is spread over a large area. A visit is definitely a bit of a workout but completely worth it climbing to the top of the pyramids to eat lunch overlooking the valley below and the hills on the horizon. The evening was another dinner with my host and a little salsa dancing. Salsa is something I love which I would like to do much more of in these Latin countries. I used the metro to get around in Mexico City and I have to say it’s excellent. It could happily sit alongside Paris or New York for the area of the city it covers and ease of using the network. Trains come every 2-4 minutes and it costs 5 pesos a ride, which is incredibly cheap. They even have carriages for women only during rush hour for safety, which is a wonderful idea.
A lot of stairs went into this view…totally worth it!
The next day it was time to head to the Yacatan Pennisula, destination Tulum. I had a train ride, a flight to Cancun and two buses ahead of me, and although normally a travel day like that would be boring but I was so excited to get to Tulum I barely noticed the time passing. I met my host, also named Erick, and prepared for a night out. In Tulum it’s possible to party most nights of the week. Friday is definitely one of them. We headed to two bars, one in the town called Todos Santos and another in the hotel zone near the beach named Gitano. It was a great introduction to Tulum, both very cool places with great music.
Saturday, not surprisingly, consisted of much the same. We spent some time hanging out with friends of Erick, then headed to a Full Moon Party at Papaya Playa Project, which is a very popular bar which spills down onto the beach. It’s a fantastic view, looking out from the bar over the tables, across the sandy dance floor with lights strung above it, and finally to the beach dotted with little cabanas and sun lounges.
Sunday we headed to one of Tulum’s other attractions, a lagoon called Kaan Luum. It’s absolutely beautiful and peaceful. The water is nearly warmer than the air temperature so you can float about for hours. It was a very relaxing visit. Sunday night went from a quiet night at home to a night out in Playa del Carmen within the space of a few minutes. The feeling in Tulum is you’re always only a whim away from a party if you want one. Playa is a much crazier place with many more tourists than the smaller Tulum. It was great to visit and I felt it had a more relaxed atmosphere than what I would expect from Cancun and less of the tacky.
The final day of the week I woke up to torrential rain, which I had been lucky to avoid until that point considering it is the wet season here. Luckily it stopped around midday and I was able to get out to see the Maya ruins, a few kilometres out of town. They are built from limestone, so look quite different to Teotihuacan, but have the appeal of being right on the beach. It’s a beautiful setting to walk about in the ruins and appreciate how incredible this spot must have been 2,000 years ago.
I have loved my time in Mexico. I felt just slightly apprehensive about what I would find here. It is the first non-English speaking country I’ve been to in a long time and the first without the order and organisation of the Western countries I’ve visited. There definitely is less order here, but it is most of the time a positive thing. There are many things that don’t trouble the people here that would trouble most Westerners, and if you are capable of going with the flow of it it’s a very relaxing thing.
women of the world 