Day 112 : Goodbye Mexico, Hello Germany

Flying business class had been fantastic! 

Personalized service with air stewardess individually taking food requests and delivering it in person, rather than out from a push cart, better food and drinks options, bigger leg space, and what I enjoyed most was being able to stretch out all the way flat and getting some good sleep. 

I could get used to this lifestyle!

On economy, I usually take an aisle seat, so that I have more space to stretch my legs, but also to get out of my seat to take a walk whenever I want. 

For the business class seat, I was assigned a window seat, which was great, as I got to see the aerial view of Mexico one last time, and it's beautiful in the night. 

Look at all the lights down below! 

And here's the scene on arrival at Frankfurt Airport... Check out the snow!  I had seen snow before but this must be the first time I had seen it so close to the runway. 

It was 2 degree when I arrived, I better get used to this cold quickly, as it's forecast to reach -6 degrees later in the week with more snow.

*Gulp*!

Day 108 – 111 : Mexico City

Still recovering from my stomach infection, I spent the first few days staying indoors.  I could hardly eat and my diet was made up of just a couple fruits the entire day. 

Even the smell of food made me feel like puking.  No fun being sick on a trip

Thankfully I started showing signs of getting better yesterday, partially helped by herbal drinks, which Emilio and his brother Barry made for me when I first arrived at their house.

It’s a good thing I had covered a number of the key sights on my earlier stays in Mexico city, and only had a couple more “to-do’s” on my list. 

Drama again at airport!

I have the strangest luck and encounters with Mexico airport.  Checking into my flight on Lufthansa, the counter staff actually told me I need a visa to go into Europe, or a return ticket. 

Completely bizarre, considering that I had flown to Europe countless of times, and never had this issue – Okay, I always had a return ticket.  But I also had friends who had been to Europe and had no return ticket booked!  

What are these people thinking?  That I will seek refugee status?!? 

It took the team a fair bit of time and some additional questions before I finally got my boarding ticket.

And when I did, I was pleasantly surprised – Business class seat! Whoopee! I got a free upgrade.

Not a bad way for making up for the trauma they put me through :p

Day 105 – 107 : San Miguel de Allende

I wish I could had said I enjoyed my stay in San Miguel de Allende. Unfortunately I was stuck in the dorm for most part of the time I was there.  

Thankfully the hostel I stayed in was really comfortable, with even a flat screen TV with cable channels (including English programmes) in front of my bed, and only 1 other girl in the same dorm while I was there. 

I had arrived into the city with a high fever, and the next day, it had morphed into a stomach infection, with numerous runs to the toilet and also vomiting.  I had tried self medicating for over a day, but when that didn't seem to have any improvement, I went to see a doctor. 

This was an experience on its own as I had never been to the doctor in this part of the world, and having to explain myself in Spanish. 

A sympathetic looking doctor, Dr Mario, in his late 40s or early 50s was waiting in his room for patients.

As I walked in, I made a disclaimer to Dr Mario that I only knew a little Spanish and went about telling my story on why I was there.  Thankfully the words for fever and diarrhoea and vomit are very similar in the Spanish language, so the key message got across OK.

Dr Mario asked if I had eaten something wrong, or if I was unused to spice, but told him that I only had a bowl of soup the day before and we are used to taking spicy food in Singapore. 

Dr Mario said there were a lot of inflammation and gas in my stomach and will prescribe a strong antibiotic, which I will have to take over the next 8 days as well as another medication for the diarrhoea and fever. 

The cost of the consultation, MXP35 (SGD2.50), probably the cheapest doctor visit I had ever been to, and a doctor with the neatest handwriting I had ever seen!

I brought the prescription to the pharmacy located next door, and even the medication was cheap at MXP267 (SGD18.70).

The sights that I did get to see in San Miguel de Allende, were mostly confined to the direction where the doctor is located as well as the main square, which was just 2 streets from the hostel.

Streets were all cobblestone paths and lined with numerous shops selling boutique line clothing and jewellery (aka pricier but refine stuff), and plenty of art galleries.

The iconic monument within the main square was the Cathedral, a Gothic style design with a grandeur of its own. 

Day 102 – 104 : Guanajuato

It’s easy to see why everyone who had been to Guanajuato, loves this city. 

Filled with numerous European flavoured monuments in the historic centre, pedestrian only narrow cobblestone alleyways, and numerous colourful houses built up on the hillside, with amazing vibes and music filling the air at all times. 

It’s beautiful during the day to stroll down the streets, but also at night when all the major neoclassical and baroque style colonial architecture buildings get litted up in a way which enhances its beauty. 

Day 100 – 101 : Guadalajara

I am so in love with Guadalajara. There's so much beauty in this area.  

Guadalajara is the 2nd largest city in Mexico, after Mexico City.  Though it's the 2nd largest, it is less crowded and not "in your face" as compared to Mexico City, and a lot cleaner too.  There is also a good balance of city and nature here.

It's surprising there is very little information about this city online, and because of that, I had only allocated 2 full days here, when one could easily keep occupied with about a 4 to 5 days stay. 

Downtown area is easily worth spending at least 2 to 3 days, and filled with numerous beautiful colonial buildings with a great vibe. 

Guadalajara Cathedral, Plaza de Armas, Plaza de la Liberacion, Palacio de Gobierno, Plaza de Guadalajara, Mercado Libertad, Institute Cultural Cabañas are just some of the sights the downtown has to offer, and more. 

Mariachis are said to had started in Guadalajara, so it’s not uncommon to find some singing in the Mercados or on the streets.

Day 101 : New Year’s Eve in Guadalajara

It's New Year's Eve, and what better way to celebrate New Year’s by drinking the Mexican national drink, tequila from 12 noon? 

No, I am not an alcoholic, but I am in the district of Jalisco, which is also where the town of Tequila is located and where all the world's Tequila is made. 

I had signed up for a Tequila tour on my last full day in Guadalajara. Departing at 9.30am, we were whisked off to Tequila factory Tres Hermanos, where they produced 100% organic tequila.  Apparently some of the other tequila producers add chemicals during the production. 

 

Day 99 : Costa Rica – Mexico

It's been a very long day of not so smooth sailing travel, lasting over 12 hours.  Enough for me to travel from Singapore to Europe!

First, I had taken an Uber from my hostel in San José to the airport.  As we were approaching the airport, I noticed the runway and airport looked really small and had some suspicions that I was being brought to the wrong one.

That was when I realised there were 2 airports in San José, and the search in Uber had automatically pinned the destination to a smaller chartered flights only airport.

Thankfully the main international airport was in the same direction approximately 20 minutes away, rather than being located on the opposite end of the huge San José city. 

Second, taking a 3hr flight from San José and bound for Mexico city airport, where I would then switched to another domestic flight to Guadalajara, I had a buffer of about 2 hours to catch my connecting flight.

Unfortunately my luggage could not be checked in through to Guadalajara at San José, and with the delay of luggage reaching the baggage claim turnstile, I had less than 30 minutes to check in for my connecting flight. 

The lines were long at the check-in counters and even after getting special treatment for immediate check-in, it was already too late to check my bag in at the counters and was asked to pull my luggage to the gates directly instead, with less the 15mins before the flight is due to fly. 

The airport in Mexico was rather large.  Running with luggage in hand to the security counters, I was panting on arrival, while trying to explain in my broken Spanish or Spanglish why I was pulling a big bag with me. 

What the staff at the check-in counter failed to tell me when I pulled my main luggage with me, was that by doing so, I would had to go through the security checks and no exemption would be given to liquids that exceeds 100ml per bottle (I had my toiletries, and even liquor in my main luggage),  and other dangerous objects such as multipurpose pocket knife. 

Not keen in giving those items up, and also with the security checks I had been put through, it meant that the plane would had likely taken off by the time I reach the gates.

So I decided to take a chance and went back to the counters and told the staff I wasn't allowed to pull my main luggage through security. 

The staff spoke in Spanish to another staff, something which I didn't understand, and after some communication and working on the computer, he turned to me and said, "the next flight is at 10.10pm, and there will be no additional fees. Wait at the section A/B, and check the gate number closer to departure time".  Phew! 

But that wasn't the last of it.  I could had easily miss boarding the plane, as the flight was no longer at 10.10pm, but rather 9.40pm.  Thankfully I asked one of the staff as I could not locate my flight with the right timing, and was pointed to the gate. 

Such a screwed up system at Mexico airport, and seems its always with Interjet that I had issues.  I recall the last time I flew Interjet, they insisted that I paid for the Cuban visa, when Singaporeans don’t need one to enter the country.

By the time I reached , it was close to midnight.  Thankfully I was Couchsurfing and to be hosted by Carlos, whom waited up for me to arrive.  If I was staying at a hostel, I might have trouble checking in at that hour! 

I suppose things could had been worse.  At least I managed to still arrive in Guadalajara on almost the same day and with no additional charges or penalty. 

Day 62 : Chetumal Mayan Museum

Chetumal is the capital of Quintana Roo. It is also a point of entry into and out of Mexico by sea, from Belize. 

Although it's the capital, it's a very small town, with no major noteworthy attraction.

Day 61 : Bacalar

I had not heard of Bacalar prior to this trip.  However while travelling over the last few weeks in Mexico, the name came up a number of times with fellow travellers I had met along the way, with strong recommendations to visit.

Located about 40km from Chetumal and just a small detour from Calakmul to Chetumal, I decided to stay 1 night in Bacalar with time to explore in the morning before returning the car, and of course accompanied by Alex and Pau, whom had also expressed interest in visiting Bacalar after hearing numerous stories about the lake too. 

By the time we arrived at the hostel Magic Bacalar, it was already pitch dark and we were extremely exhausted. 

I woke up early in the morning with hopes to catch the sunrise. As it was cloudy, I had a dramatic view of the magnificent orange hues forming on the edges of the clouds, with the same shades reflected in the still lake.

Day 59 – 60 : 3 Strangers on a Road Trip to Calakmul

I had read good reviews about Calakmul, located in the middle of a jungle with all temples climbable and with little visitors. There's a good reason for the little crowd, since getting there wasn't easy without own transportation and tours were very expensive.

Adamant on visiting the site, I decided to rent a car for 2 days and was prepared to go on my own, staying a night each in Zoh Laguna and Bacalar. 

It would had cost me close to S$200 for the car and gas if I had done it alone. By luck, I managed to get 2 more people whom I hardly knew to join, just the day before I was due to travel to Chetumal to pick up the car. 

First was Pau from Spain, a chance encounter as he happened to share a table with me at a local taco place. We had a random conversation regarding each others travel plans, and when he heard of my plans to Calakmul, he expressed interest on joining the road trip, and immediately bought the bus ticket from Tulum to Chetumal for the next day. Pau didn't speak much English, so I am proud of myself for explaining in Spanish!

The second person was Alex, a Venezuelan guy, whom works as a volunteer at the Weary Traveller Hostel where I was staying. He heard about my plans when I first arrived into the hostel, but was only keen to join and split cost only if there were more than 2 people.

Day 56 – 58 : Tulum

Located about 1 hour from Playa del Carmen is Tulum, which could be referred to the town of Tulum, the Tulum Ruins or the beaches of Tulum. 

I had spent 3 days in Tulum, and stayed in the Town Centre.  It was a small undeveloped village dotted with some restaurants on the main road, with no signs of any famous fast food burger joints, a total opposite of Playa del Carmen.  This gives it a very laid back feel, with it being a rather sleepy town during the day, with slightly more activity in the night. 

The most beautiful beach in Tulum is El Paraiso, located about 10mins drive from the town centre.  It spots beautiful white sand beach with very clear water. Being way less busy than the beaches in Playa del Carmen, it was a more pleasant beach to laze down and sunbathe with more personal space.

Day 53 – 55 : Playa del Carmen

3 days in Playa del Carmen had gone by so fast! I had originally intended to spent a day visiting Cancun and Cozumel just to see how it looks like, but never got the time to do it.

It was also very expensive to go to Cozumel just for a day trip, with a return ferry ticket costing USD70.
I also heard Cancun is more populated than Playa del Carmen, and unlike Playa del Carmen where the beach is easily accessible by walking from the town, one needs to take a Collectivo from Cancun town centre to the beach, and thus skipped the idea for Cancun too. 

Playa del Carmen is filled with constantly new apartments coming up in the city centre, with the main touristy street called 5th Avenue, which is lined with numerous gift shops, restaurants and travel centres. 



From 5th Avenue, one can easily access the beach.  Soft white sand beach, with clear water.  However, I personally felt that the main Playa del Carmen beach is too crowded and didn’t really like it.

Day 50 – 52 : Valladolid

Valladolid is located in the Yucatan region, between Merida and Cancun. 

A very small town, there isn’t too much to do within the city itself. 

I wasn’t in Valladolid for the city, but rather to use it as a base point to visit the infamous Chichen Itza. 

It is also closely located to Ek Balam Archaeological site, as well as a few famous Cenotes, such as Cenote Ik Kil and San Lorenzo Oxman.  There is even a Cenote in the centre of the town, which looked really big and nice, but I had my fill of Cenotes for the day when I went to check it out.

There were always groups of people dancing in the different plazas when I walked around, possibly because it was a Friday evening. 

I did however had the best crepe in my life, from a store vendor located in Parque Francisco Canton – Crepe with Nutella and Strawberries… Heavenly!

 

 

 

 

 

Day 52 : Ek Balam

Ek Balam is located about 30 mins by collectivo from Valladolid.  Again, I was shocked at the entrance fee, not as high as Chichen Itza, but still a slap on the wrist with a state fee of MXP127, on top of the “standard” MXP 65 entrance fee. 

There wasn’t much crowd at this site, since most of the attention goes to Chichen Itza, but there were still a couple tour groups that came through while I was there. 

The excavated area of Ek Balam is rather small, and could be easily covered in 40mins, with almost every monument climbable. 

Day 51 : Chichen Itza

There had been a lot of mixed reviews about Chichen Itza, some say to go, others say to skip because there are too many tourists and you can't climb onto any of the monuments. 

Having travelled such a long distance and maybe never getting another chance to be in Mexico again, I figured that I should just do it and make my own decision whether I like it or not. After all it had made it onto the list of the New 7 Wonders of the World, so it shouldn't be that bad. I'll just leave early in the morning as I usually had done with the other Archaeological Sites, to avoid the crowds, especially since many had said the tourists usually only reach at about 10am.

I only managed to reach the site at about 8.30am, due to some delay at the hostel with a slightly later breakfast service and waiting for the Collectivo to fill up before it would leave.  Upon arriving at Chichen Itza grounds, the Collectivo driver announced "Chicken Pizza". Everyone laughed.

There was already a couple of tour buses at the carpark ... "Damn! Aren't they suppose to only arrive after 10?" 

I quickly made my way to the ticket counters and waited for my turn. Then I saw the cost of the tickets... MXP237?!?

This is ridiculously expensive – the cost of the entrance was the usual MXP65, but apparently that's just the Federal fee. The State had decided to slap a State fee of MXP167 on top of that, just to rip off the tourists (Mexicans pay a slightly lesser State fee).

I was starting to have 2nd thoughts on going in, and then I thought, "What the heck, I am already here. It's expensive, but a small fraction of the cost of my Airticket to get to Mexico".  

The queue was super slow as I had to pay the 2 different fees at 2 different counters. This is a stupid system and a time waster. No wonder there was a long queue waiting to go in. 

I walked into the entrance and followed the path, with make-shift store vendors starting to put up their wares along the path. Soon I got to a clearing and right in front of me was the iconic monument seen on most pictures and postcards on Chichen Itza – El Castillo.

Day 51 : Cenote Ik Kil

Located on the way from Chichen Itza back to Valladolid is Cenote Ik Kil. This is the 2nd cenote I had visited thus far, and completely different from Cenote San Lorenzo Oxman.

It was very commercialized, with a huge parking ground and a few tour buses.

Walking in, a modern building had been built around the cenote, with proper changing and bathing areas and lockers that had to be rented, as bags are not allowed into the cenote area. 

There’s even security to keep a sharp eye and prevent people from going down if they had their belongings with them, or had not taken a shower at one of the many showering points located just outside the stairway.