Onwards through Mexico

As we have just a week to get from Mexico city to Cancun (1100 miles/ 1800 km assuming you go direct, which we aren't), we figured the best use of our time would be to cover the long distances between the cities by using overnight buses. Mexico surprisingly has one of the most developed bus networks in the world, including a large fleet of luxury buses...akin to first class on an airplane, with only three (extra wide) seats across the bus. However, we discovered that no matter how comfy the bus is, or how far your seat goes back, it's difficult to get a good night's sleep when the bus spends most of the time on windy bends and accellerating and decellerating between regular speed bumps.

Nevertheless, after the 12 hour trip through the night, we eventually arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas, a surprisingly flat area high in the mountains of south east Mexico. We had read positive stories about this town from the various guidebooks but were a bit concerned when practically the whole bus emptied out in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the stop 1 hour earlier. Our concerns were further compounded when we spent 3 hours strolling through the unimpressive drab run-down town that appeared to have little character other than a local market selling cheap junk and dodgy food. No decent eateries in sight. Was this a glimpse of how our trip is going to be? We've been told that the only way to enjoy travelling was to get off the beaten track but this was ridiculous.

However, we subsequently relaxed when we found that our earlier misdirection was the result of a map-reading malfunction and we soon found the "real" old-town San Cristobal that the guide books had been raving about. It turned out to be a lot more charming than our morning exploration had uncovered. Colourful buildings. Plenty of nice little bars and restaurants. Interesting shops. A great little band of street performers. Unfortunately we didn't spend the night there as we were keen to make progress towards our next destination - Merida - another 14 hour bus ride away through the night.

Health and Safety - Mexico Style!


So the next morning, we eventually arrived in Merida with Kadi on constant verge of travel-sickness throughout the journey - thanks to the erratic bus driving. Merida is a fairly large city, built over an underground river and is a popular tourist destination since it is often used as a hub for visiting the various beaches and historic Maya sights nearby. We had planned to spend two nights here for a bit of a rest after our earlier bus journeys, but we should have stayed in San Cristobal. Although it was nice to be in a more Cosmopolitan place again, we were not paticularly impressed with Merida as it had no character and just seemed to target the tourists. The restaurants were overpriced, there were too many gift-shops, tour companies and too many people hastling us to buy their junk. We were fairly happy to move on eventually.

We did discover one unusual local fashion accessory: dressing real live beetles with elaborate stones (think beetles with a coat of armour) and attaching them to one's clothes with a small chain thus turning them into living brooches. Bling-bling....pimp my beetle! A bit freaky when you see shiney brooches crawling around in their display case.