MEXICO
The reason why I went to Mexico was to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos. After watching The Disney Pixar movie Coco I wanted to see with my eyes this event while travelling in different regions. The trip took around 3 weeks travelling mostly by local buses. We started in Mexico City and finished in Cancun. These are the places I enjoyed the most in each city I visited.
MEXICO CITY
I loved so much Mexico City and I wished I spent more time here but I had only 2 days since I had to reach Oaxaca for the celebrations of Day of the dead. CDMX was love at first sight! amazing architectures and super friendly people. As usual many people, before my trip, suggested skipping Mexico City all together...I am glad I didn't and I wished I had more time there! With only 2 days at hand, these were the places I enjoyed the most ( I am not gonna mention the main sights as you can find plenty of info everywhere)
Santuario Nacional del angel de la Santa Muerte
This was definitely my top spot in Mexico City. I am not so much into mainstream sights (you will see later how I did not like Chichen Itza), so the more hidden and quirky places usually end up being my favourites. This place is dedicated to a skeleton Saint. The Sanctuary is full of interesting statues of skeletons, a big statue of "La Santa Muerte" and death iconography. Apparently, they also do exorcism rituals 3 times a week but we skipped that and just went to visit the place and see what it was all about. The entrance is not super obvious to spot but you will see 2 dusty statues at the front. The people inside the sanctuary were super friendly and showed us around and let us take many pictures. The area is a bit dodgy so we left all our valuables back at the hotel and went there with just our camera and a couple of dollars in our pockets.
Palacio Postal
If you are a fan of the Pixar movie Coco, you cannot miss this architecture that was used as inspiration for some scenes in the movie.
Leon Trotsky house
This is a walking distance from the Frida Khalo's museum, so I really recommend it if you are interested in Soviet history. This is not a huge place to visit. There are a couple of rooms with some great pictures of Leon Trotsky and some painting with Lenin and the rest is the original interiors of the house where he lived. The best part is the garden with a hammer and sickle sign monument.
Murales en la Secretaria de Educacion Publica
A great piece of architecture with murals of Diego Rivera. We went as soon as it opened and we were the only tourists in the building. It was nice to be able to take pictures without being disturbed by groups of people and have time to appreciate the art. There are 3 floors full of murals, some about politics and some about history. there is also a mural featuring Frida Khalo. The entrance is FREE and you need to have a piece of ID with you to be able to obtain a visitor's pass.
I have travelled from CDMX to Oaxaca by bus. Travelling by bus in Mexico is convenient and pretty easy. The bus departed from TAPO ( Terminal de Autobuses de Pasajeros de Oriente), it took just over 6 hours and costed around 13 EUROS.
OAXACA
I have spent 4 days ( from October 31st to November 4th) in Oaxaca during the celebrations of Dia De Los Muertos. There are so many activities and celebrations to fill your schedule for 4 days. I spent most days looking at altars and watching locals getting ready for the celebrations. It is a good idea to visit a couple of cemeteries both during the day and night. It truly feels like to be in the Pixar movie Coco, with all the colours, the decorations and the sounds.
These are some places I really recommend visiting during the celebrations and things to do:
Panteon Xoxocotlan
This is a little bit outside Oaxaca city and you will need a taxi to get there. Keep in mind that taxis will be very busy during these times so, if you are staying in a hotel, ask your hotel to organise a taxi for you ( this is what I did, instead of trying to find one in the streets). The taxi will not take you right in front of the cemetery but you will still have 10 minutes walk to do as the roads around are closed for traffic. It is impossible to miss as the river of people will go to that same spot. The Pantheon is super crowded with both tourists and locals but I strongly recommend visiting. There are locals paying respect to their ancestors, mariachi bands and people celebrating.
Panteon General
I recommend visiting this cemetery both in the day and at night. you will have different experiences. In the day you will see mostly families decorating and cleaning graves while at night the atmosphere is different with candles and music everywhere. Outside the cemetery, there is a market with food stalls.
Parades
There are parades every night in the Zocalo and surrounding areas. It gets super crowded but it is fun to see the celebrations and all the people dressed up. Impossible to miss!
Hierve el Agua
On one of the days, I have taken a trip to Hierve El Agua to see the petrified waterfalls and rock formations. I booked the trip from one of the many tour agents you can find in the city centre. The trip includes also the visit to some ruins on the way to the waterfalls. It was a great way to get a break from the Dias de Los Muertos.
CAMPECHE
To get to Campeche we travelled with a mix of flights and buses. We took a flight from Oaxaca to Merida. Oaxaca airport is one of the worst airports I have ever been to! So don't expect much and don't get there too early... as I did! We flew Volaris ( a low-cost Mexican carrier) and it took us around 1.5 hours to reach Merida at a cost of around 100 EUROs. Once in Merida, we took a taxi to the central bus station and from there a bus to Campeche. The bus company we used was ADO and the Bus took just over 2 hours at a cost of 13 EURO. The bus station in Campeche is not very central but we walked to the city centre in approx 45 minutes.
We spent 3 nights in the city as we wanted to slow down after the packed schedule in Oaxaca. Unless you do day trips out of Campeche I don't recommend staying 3 nights; one night would be enough to see the city. Campeche is really pretty and it has been appointed UNESCO World Heritage site status in 1999. The city is well known for its well-preserved architecture, the old colonial city walls are still standing, but mostly Campeche is well known for the colourful houses.
MERIDA
Our next stop was Merida and we get back with the same bus we used to get to Campeche. Buses are very frequent and fairly cheap (around 13-15 EUROs) The bus station is fairly central and for most of our time in Merida, we walked around without the need of public transports. Merida is the capital of the Yucatan state and it is a very pleasant city to visit with some beautiful architectures. The main reason we decided to stop here was to get to Uxmal and see the ruins.
Uxmal
This has been my favourite ruins during this trip and possibly I enjoyed it because most of the site was only for us for the first hour. There are many travel agents around the city selling day trips to see the site but we wanted to avoid being in a packed bus and group and we decided to travel to Uxmal on our own. Also, we wanted to get there before the tourists arrived and enjoy the visit without 100s of people around.
Getting to Uxmal is VERY easy and inexpensive. Go to the TAME bus station in Merida and get a return ticket to Uxmal ( it costs around 8 EUROs return). The trip takes about 1.5 hours. The bus doesn't leave you exactly in front of the ruins but on the main road; it is a further 10 minutes walk to reach the site. We took the 6 AM bus and we arrived around 730 AM and we were the first ones to enter at 8 AM. We got the site mostly for ourselves for a good hour before all the buses with the large and annoying groups of tourists arrive. To go back you just wait for the bus on the other side of the road. I suggest purchasing the tickets the day before so you can ask the exact timetable. This bus is not very frequent so it is a good idea to have the timetable handy.
MERIDA BUS STATION:
Cenotes
We did another day trip to visit Hacienda Santa Barbara Cenotes. We organised this through our hotel and they reserved a spot on a group tour. since it wasn't easy to reach with public transports and we didn't want to drive this was for us the best option. Cenotes "Sacred Wells" were used by Mayans as a source of freshwater; they are sinkholes and apparently, only in Yucatan there are around 6000 of them. Each Cenote is different, some are easier to access and some are a little bit more tricky. You can swim in most Cenotes. There are 3 Cenotes in the Santa Barbara Hacienda. You can reach them by a 10 minutes horse cart from the entrance of the Hacienda or by bike. The entrance to the site is around 6 EUROs.
VALLADOLID
Again we travelled to Valladolid by bus, our favourite mean of transport in Mexico. We took an ADO bus and it took just over 2 hours at a cost of 11 EUROs. The bus station is fairly central in Valladolid so we managed to get around the city without using public transports or taxis. The city has nice colonial architectures including a 16th-century convent, nice Cenotes (one right in the centre of the city) and...lots of annoying tourists coming from the resorts in Tulum and Cancun (luckily most of them leave in the afternoon so the evenings are free from them!)
Chichen Itza
This was one of the reasons we came to Valladolid. As most of the wonders of the world that I was seeing on my trips, I was disappointed...or better Underwhelmed! the hype of these sites and their status always leave me with an after taste of disappointment. Too crowded, too touristy too commercial. Uxmal was and still is my favourite ruins in Mexico. How to get to Chichen Itza without a large group (any way you will be with 100s of people anyway on the site). Take a "collectivo" next to the ADO bus station, you will see the small vans parked outside and the driver will call all the tourists passing by. The first one to leave is at 7 AM in the morning and it takes around 40 minutes to get there. We arrived before opening but a couple of buses were already there. By the time they open the site is already super crowded. we literally stayed one hour and left!
Cenotes
There are also numerous Cenotes around Valladolid and in the city as well! Cenote Zaci was 5 minutes from our hotel so we visited for one afternoon. This Cenote can be a bit crowded since it is in the city centre but still nice to visit!
We also visited Cenotes X’kekén y Samula. We took a shared taxi next to the ADO bus station. These Cenotes were not very crowded and it was nice to finally spend some time without having a large group of screaming tourists around. The site looked abandoned as the shops and facilities were either closed or very run down. I really recommend visiting this site but perhaps to go by bike or moped; we had to wait nearly one hour to find a taxi to take us back to Valladolid.
Our Next stop was Tulum before flying out of Cancun to go back to London and Sweden.
TULUM + CANCUN :(
To reach Tulum we travelled by bus. It takes only 1.5 hours and it was super cheap at a cost of 7 EUROs. By this point, Mexico has been truly amazing. We visited amazing places and we had the most amazing time exploring the sites and enjoying the trip. BUT Tulum has been a total disappointment, a Mexican Disneyland for American tourists...so much that they even changed Tulum time zone to be more accessible by 20 American airports ( the official excuse is for sustainability reasons!). Even the beaches were not THAT amazing; after living for more than a year on a tropical island I definitely saw better beaches! So I am not gonna write anything about these 2 destinations as there was not much I enjoyed! Actually, one thing was really nice in Tulum: STREET ART. There was plenty of it and it was a great way to discover the back alleys and avoid the groups of loud annoying tourists!
So if you wanna visit Mexico avoid at all costs Tulum and Cancun and spend more time visiting other places and discover the true Mexico. After 3 weeks in Mexico, it was time to rate this country, on a scale from 0-10. Mexico you scored 8! Thank you (except Tulum) for the great vibes!