A guide for a single woman over sixty traveling alone to Mexico

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a single woman that lives alone, over sixty and master of my domain, I felt I could tackle any project I chose to do.  I decided to travel to Mexico and after you read about what and how I did it, I am sure you will decide you are very capable of doing it too.

 

I began thinking about visiting Mexico several years ago.  I had heard the usual horror stories about the banditos and taxi driver robbers, not to mention the bad food that would get you running for the Pepto Bismol that I had my doubts about traveling.  I did however, chose to try a bus tour to Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende looping through several other cities in seven days.  It was safe, structured, timed down to a minute, they fed us at certain pre-arranged stops and offered craft and art vendors that were also pre-arranged. The guide was efficient and I learned many things about the Mexican culture and country, but never even had enough time to linger or wander very far away from the group of about 40 people.

I soon learned that an hour to see a place, or visit an ancient pyramid site, church, museum or anything else was completely impossible.  Of course the hotels were very nice and I am sure most of the cost for the trip was the hotel charge.  Some of the meals were included but not all and the stop for the night was timed to get to a hotel before 9 pm.  All of that was ok, but not good enough.

I yearned after the things I saw as the bus passed them at 60 mph, and wished I could stop and spend some time investigating.  But, that was not to be.  After returning home, I was not satisfied with the quality of the time I spent.  I decided to do it on my own terms. 

I spent the next two years talking to everyone that had any information on Mexico or lived there, or was from there and surfed the net for endless sites that had any information that would be useful.  I bought tour books and gleaned every scrap of knowledge they had to offer.  I looked up links and wrote e-mails to everyone I could find with an internet address and was delighted when some of them actually answered me.

My next major decision was to make a list of what I wanted to see.  My focus was on museums of anthropology and pyramid sites.  I came up with the gulf coast of Mexico, Yucatan, Chiapas and Oaxaca valley area as the ones with the most sites in a concentrated area.  As I live in Texas it was very easy to get to the border of Mexico.  I ruled out Guatemala as I didn’t want to get too far down into unfamiliar area and the danger rumors were extremely high for single travelers, especially women alone and over 60. 

 

With that part of the plan as an outline, I began to fill in the details.  I e-mailed hostels and hotels to find out about reservations.  I did not get much of a reply.  I went back to the internet and searched the cities and towns with the museums and pyramids I wanted to visit and found out what they had to offer.  Some of the web sites were good, some outdated, some not manned and some that were only in Spanish.  Sort of a mish mash of information, but I kept on looking.  I tried travel and tour sites, quickly eliminating the ones selling time shares in Cancun and the Mayan Rivera.  Most of them are rip-offs.  I tried looking at sites people set up to show pictures and stories about their trips. I began to get some sense of direction when I e-mailed Travel Yucatan.com.  Bingo! Finally I had located a person that cared and actually answered my questions.  Cattle Ken was the most informative and helpful person I found that took the time to give me the nitty-gritty info about what to take, what to look out for, how to pack, what to wear and even offered helpful guides I could hire.  He and I carried out a two month conversation as I pieced together my trip plan.

During my search I found three Canadians and an American soul that had bed and breakfast type lodgings and they even spoke English.  With their guidance added to the advice from Cattle Ken, I quickly started to anchor my trip stops.  I booked a week with each one, as they are located in different parts of the Yucatan area.

First is Rio Bec Dreams, in Xpujil, between Escargcena and Chetumal.

Second is Flycatcher Inn in Santa Elena near Uxmal.

Third is Genesis Retreat in Ek Balam east of Valladolid and the forth is Casita Carolina in Bacular just 40 miles from Chetumal on the way to Tulum.

My answer to the inquiries made to Palenque came from Marco Morales that owns the Hotel Xibalba.  He also was able to arrange tours to Yaxcilian and Bonampak sites.  His family has archeologists that worked on the Palenque site and is very knowledgeable about all things in that area.   An e-mail to Hotel Francia in Oaxaca was a bonus as most of the town was booked for the holiday and they had a room so I made a booking with them as my base for the week there. 

For the places to stay in between them I looked up hostelworld.com and found youth hostels in many of the places I needed to stay on my way. You do not need to be a student to stay there, but you do need to be ready to share accommodations with up to four to six roommates.  That not being a problem for me, I found super rates that helped the budget greatly.

 

 

 

I was very hesitant to drive to Mexico as I remembered what a nightmare the traffic was when I was in Mexico City two years before.  I would not even try that. With a lot of encouragement from Diane, at Rio Bec Dreams I decided to look up a car rental in Merida to rent a car for the thirty days I would be in the Yucatan area.  Most of the sites could be seen a continuious loop and see them all and end back in Merida without backtracking. 

I found the Mexciorentacar.com owned by the Alvaro Alanzo family.  They were very helpful and accommodating and answered my every e-mail promptly.  I was able to make arrangements for a VW beetle for thirty days for 25.00 a day that included all the insurance I needed.  I booked with my credit card and had it done before I ever left the states.  Super family and they helped me with other information about Merida that helped me choose what to visit.

I contacted the guide, Manny Morales, that Cattle Ken recommended who lived in Tikul.  He not only spoke Spanish and Mayan, but English as well.  I made arrangements for him to guide me through the Puuc Route area for the week I stayed at the Flycatcher Inn in Santa Elena, (10 miles apart) as many of the small towns would be very hard to get any translation or directions without speaking Mayan.

All this took two months to arrange.  Some times the e-mails would take a while to get an answer and I did not find out until I was in Mexico that most of the people relied on the internet cafes to do their business, as it is very expensive to get a private satellite connection.

By the time I felt my plan was fairly set in stone, I only had two places I had not found a place to stay, one was Coba and the other Izamal.  I would have to wing it and if worse came to worse, I could find a flea-bag hotel.  Which is what ended up happening. 

I then looked up the ticketbus.com.  They are the ticket booking agency for all the bus lines in Mexico.  They have a great web site and you can reserve and pay for your tickets online.  You can also buy tickets from ticketbus offices in most major cities.  Tickets are also available at the bus terminals, but you really need to buy your ticket the day ahead at the last resort.  Busses fill up very fast and to avoid being stuck for a day, plan ahead.  If you don’t have your ticket already purchased, buy your ticket when you arrive at a bus station for your next departure before you leave the terminal.

I did very well with reserving my bus seat on the internet and when I arrived in that town I would take the reservation number to the ticket office or bus station and buy the ticket.  Very easy.  The only hitch was the internet only had the schedule posted for a month ahead.  Anything after that you have to wait until it is posted.  I almost had vapors when I had made all ticket plans to Merida on the bus, but when I rented the car for thirty days, I had to watch the internet each day for the schedule.  I finally found the posting for the Merida- Palanque bus ride and booked the reservation on the internet with my credit card.  When I got back to Merida and before I turned in my rental I stopped at the bus station, having to park 6 blocks away and walk to the terminal to buy my ticket.  That was the only place I bought a ticket I had to show my visa paper and drivers license to charge them to the credit card.  Apparently they will reserve but not charge until you come in person to pick up the tickets. Thank goodness numbers in Spanish are the same as English as the conversation would have not been possible with out the printed confirmation numbers. 

The bus terminals do not have lockers to put bags in, but they do have secure rooms you can pay a fee to have someone watch your bag.  It is very expensive and not worth leaving them over night. Take everything with you.

Be prepared to pay excess baggage charges for anything over two bags or 100 pounds.  I found it depended on the bag handler and the size of the bags.  I learned after trying to pack everything in one huge bag that is cost me more when he got a hernia lifting it.  I repacked and used several smaller bags after that. Sometimes it cost for the 6 bags I loaded and sometimes not.  It depended on the bag handler’s mood and then it went straight in his pocket.

I took several empty bags with me packed in the first two suitcases I had, and didn’t unload them and repack until I got back to Merida in the rental car.  That is where it cost me 15.00 for the excess.  I saved my shopping list for the last of the trip where I only had 3 or 4 bus changes to make.  I also allowed a two dollar tip for each porter for his extra trouble. I never had any problem or complaint from anyone after the tip.  Everyone was very helpful and willing to give a hand even if they were not employed by the bus company.  Gray hair has its’ advantages.