Johannes Leistner

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!

Posted on 28. March 2010 in categorie Mexico. You are the 767. reader. Follow future comments through RSS 2.0 feed. Write a comment, or create a trackback on your page.