Thoughts on Mexico

On the housesit in Tepoztlan, one hours drive south of Mexico City and at an altitude of 1700m, we loved the ‘Goldilocks weather’ as Louise called it: not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, just right!

Enjoyed being in a place that the locals visit, without many white faces, but we still became regulars at the market, the supermarket, and chatted with ‘chicken man’ and ‘dog man’

Got charged the same prices in the market as everyone else, and there was no haggling, it was really easy. Loved being able to buy celery by the stick, and cheap avocados…..

San Miguel de Allende had similar weather, but many more white faces, so prices went up!

Mexico City only saw a small part but enjoyed that and felt safe, where we went.

Hated Cancun, but can see its place in the world and for an expensive family holiday it would be great, loads to keep the kids amused, but it was hot!

Enjoyed going west to Valladolid and Merida, felt it was all quite ‘real’ and once we’d visited Chichen Itza we could much more enjoy, particularly Uxmal, without the ridiculous crowds. The concession stands and ancillary stuff at the ruins in Tulum were horrendous which was a shame as the ruins were really quite cheap, and pretty.

Easy to get ‘ruined out’

Would have been nice to have our own mask and snorkels for use in all the cenotes.

ADO buses make traveling easy, comfortable and affordable.

A huge country, but we didn’t feel safe to travel in all of it. Copper Canyon, up in the North-West near the border with the USA sounded lovely, but….. Acapulco on the Pacific coast sounded lovely but drug gangs make it very dangerous and we’d heard of people in campervans and big cars being ambushed and their vehicles stolen, even heard of a couple who resisted having their campervan stolen being killed and burnt inside their vehicle.

The border town (between Mexico and Belize) of Chetumal felt like an entirely different, and third world, country.

Although apparently the basic daily wage is 80 peso (£3.20) there is a lot of money floating around and it did not feel like a poor or third world country, particularly out in the east.