Johannes Leistner

Photo on the left: The Maya city of Chichen Itza is one of the best restored sites in Mexico – history really comes alive here! Especially near the main Pyramid you can imagine the power and wealth the Mayas once had.

Photo on the right: Another Mayan city we went to was Coba. For us the 3rd archaeological site we visited in Mexico and a highlight too, because visitors are still allowed to climb steep and over 40 meters high pyramid. It is the tallest pyramid on the Yucatan peninsula. From the top you can see scrubland, scrubland and scrubland…

After having spent the first three nights in Mexico City (20 million inhabitants), we took a bus to the rather small town of Oaxaca (3,5 million inhabitants), located in the southern part of Mexico. This has been the first stop on our road trip through Mexico.

Instantly we fell in love with Oaxaca’s fabulous old town in colonial style, the beautiful churches which you can find at every corner, the always busy central square (Zócalo) and the fiesta-like atmosphere.
Some say that there is always a fiesta going on in Oaxaca. It is true – especially during the Easter weekend! The city was loaded with tourists from all over Mexico and every day, Easter processions took place in the streets.

Then it was time to hit the road again: A 12 hours bus ride through the night brought us from Oaxaca to San Cristobal, a comparably smaller town with about 150.000 inhabitants. It is located in the Highlands of Chiapas at an elevation of approximately 2100m.
We loved the small colorful houses and the large number of cozy cafés and restaurants. Some of them were European-style as we found an outstanding French bakery, an authentic tapas bar with live music and organic restaurants.

In less than 24 hours I will be boarding a plane to Mexico City. Me and my girlfriend are going to do a three weeks backpacking tour through Mexico and of course we are already excited about it!

The trip will lead us from the vibrant capital Mexico City south to Oaxaca which is characterized by its rich colonial architecture. From there we will take another bus to San Cristóbal de las Casa, a beautiful city which lays 2.100 meter above the sea level. Next stop Palenque, well know for its Mayan temples or ruins better to say. Then we will make our way north east to the Yucatán peninsula.
Still not sure if we gonna stop in Campeche and Mérida before we will reach our final destination: the more or less laid-back Playa del Carmen. This will be our base camp for the last five days while we will be exploring the surroundings (diving, caving, a bit of beach-life, jungle, more Mayan ruins…)
It is planned to take a domestic flight from Cancún back to Mexico City and from there back to Frankfurt an the 18th of April.

I think this sounds like a pretty good plan and we both are very sure that Mexico is an extraordinary country to visit! Are you waiting for the “but” now? Yes, there is a small “but” or a small question-mark so to say. It is the safety question. During the planning process we spoke to many guys who have been there and read many articles. In terms of the safety aspect, the result of this inquiry is not satisfying as it is very ambiguous…
For example I heard one shouldn’t take the metro from the airport to the city as there are gangs specialized in robbing tourists in there, but if you want to take a taxi instead, watch out for the official taxis with registered drivers. Yesterday we heard the story that a guy has been robbed twice inside so called “official taxis”. This story is representative for all other stuff we heard…

Now I am really excited what kind of experiences we are going to make there. Starting off with too many stories is not always a good thing – but we don’t worry too much anyway. I am aware of potentially “losing” all valuables, such as my expensive camera equipment which is covered by insurance. As long as “they” will let me keep my compact flash cards I am happy – because I really wanna show you some nice photos afterwards…

¡hasta luego!