How to get in to Mexico
After an hour of waiting outside the hotel for a taxi in the middle of the night in Flores it finally arrived. It took us to the other side of the city were we got on a minibus, heading for the border. Little did we know when the driver dropped us off on a dead highway in the middle of nowhere, telling us to stand on the other side and wait for another bus. I will always have the picture of Keely sitting on her old fashion (and so cool) suitcase on the side of the highway in my mind. What could we do but wait?
After about 15 min waiting (definitely not too bad) a new minibus arrived and picked us up to take us to El Ceibo, the city right before the border. It was, as always, an interesting ride with the driver driving with his five year old son on his lap and a phone that never stopped ringing, sometimes he answered, sometimes he didn’t. But then, 10 quetzales later, we arrived by the border, all we needed to do was put the bags on our heads and start walking. All of sudden we were in Mexico.
Lately, by the people I’ve met on my travel, I have been known as the girl who basically can end up anywhere. The girl who travels with a plan – but that simply doesn’t follow it. Ever. But this border crossing was special. Once we were over on the Mexican side Keely and I turned to each other: “Sooo where should we go?” Since lack of knowledge of cities in Mexico we both were most familiar with one, San Cristobal de las Casas.
After walking about 500m – 1 km from the border crossing we found a bus that would take us to Tenosique. There we had to grab a cab for the station of the shuttles to Palenque. A very luxurious minibus later we were running after a man with Keelys suitcase on the head, taking us to the station of buses to San Cristobal. Luckily unknown we relaxed and thought that we would actually be in San Cristobal at a decent hour. Little did we know that we had to change once more in Ocosingo, and that meant to change to the worst vehicle so far on my travel. But two uncomfortable hours later we would arrive in San Cristobal, only 16 hours after the first taxiride in Flores.
We did San Cristobal very well without really doing anything. Most nights were spent with tacos in one hand and a tequila in the other, just like I always thought Mexico would be like! We met some really cool people and hung out – practicing Spanish every day. We didn’t know what to expect when we went to San Cristobal, but it was better than both of our expectations. When we went on the night bus to Mexico City we just weren’t sure if it was the right thing to do.
But here we are now in Cuidad de Mexico, also known as El Jefe, a beautiful and huge city where we yet have a lot left to discover!