I had quite a lot of difficulty procuring a direct flight to Mexico City. This, I think, is mainly due to the fact that Mexico City is mainly used as a transfer destination for European travellers heading to Cancun or Acapulco. I personally wanted to sample a little more than just tourist resorts in the short time I was there. However I managed to get a flight, via Miami, from Gatwick to Mexico City and soon found myself winging across the Atlantic Ocean to sample the delights of Mexico.
On arrival in Mexico City I was greeted with a warning that the friendly looking green and white VW Beetle taxis were in fact often driven by the more unscrupulous members of Mexico City and advised against using one. I instead booked a taxi from inside the airport with a recognised firm where you pay for the ticket before getting into the taxi, thus removing any cash transactions with the actual taxi driver.
The drive to my overnight hotel was both manic and thrilling. Mexico City streets are lined with roadside vendors hawking their wares, generally slightly suspect looking food packages. I was able to view some of these stalls very close up due to the driving skills(or lack of) demonstrated by the taxi driver. This, coupled with the fact that Mexico City roads are heavily congested with both trainee formula one drivers and roaming dogs, made for a pretty hair raising journey through the streets. A taxi journey that lasted 30 minutes however did cost less than 4 pounds, in any American or European city it would have been at least 10 times that.
Mexico City is huge - over 20,000 square kilometres housing over 20 million people. It is also generally dirty and encased in a smog far worse than even L.A. I decided that I wasn't going to stay more than the 1 night.
The next morning I ventured to the main bus terminal and had a pleasant surprise. My only experience of bus travel outside my native England was on Greyhound in America. This generally meant run down terminals and unhelpful staff. The bus terminal in Mexico City was both clean and efficient. The staff happily spoke English and I found out that most places I wanted to visit were frequented by various buses every day. Unlike the States where there is only 1 type of bus and 1 company for the entire country, Mexico is serviced by various companies and 3 standards of buses.
First class buses, run by companies such as ADO are fast, clean and very comfortable. They have complimentary tea, coffee and soft drinks. They show movies on in house TV's and only stop at 2 or 3 destinations on a 7/8-hour bus journey. The seats are large enough to be comfortable to all but the most obese of travellers and recline sufficiently to make sleep a viable opportunity. There are also stringent baggage checks to ensure that you and your baggage both arrive at the same destination.
Second class buses are also generally clean, although there are no televisions or drinks, the seats are slightly smaller and they stop far more regularly. Whilst I only used 1 when I was in Mexico the baggage situation seemed similar to the first class buses.
Third class buses, however, are much worse. They are often dirty, overcrowded (if you purchase a ticket and all the seats are taken, be prepared to spend the entire trip standing) and will stop anywhere where more than 3 or 4 houses are clustered together. Also these buses generally do not have baggage handlers at many of the stops and therefore the risk of all your belongings becoming permanently separated from you increases dramatically.
I took a 9 hour drive east of Mexico City to a small town just inside the Gulf coast called Catemaco. The scenery on the journey was stunning as the bus traversed mainly mountainous areas. Lush green flora abounded everywhere I looked, much of which I had only ever seen on documentaries on television. At times we were literally up in the clouds, at others racing across the bottom of ravines and all for less than 20 pounds. Admittedly some of the driving was a little disconcerting, especially when I peered out of the window and we were so close to the edge of the road that all I could see was a sheer drop but I soon learned how to fix this problem…don't look out of the window.
Catemaco is a town of less than 30,000 people, situated on the edge of a huge lake surrounded by volcanic mountains and thus is very picturesque. At the bus terminal I was greeted by locals offering to help with bags and show me to the best hotels. As I was tired and had no idea of the geography of the town I readily accepted. After half an hour viewing a few local hotels I decided on the first one I visited (isn't this always the way) and was treated to a huge clean room, 40 television channels, a swimming pool and quality eating establishment on site for around 18 pounds per night for 2 people. The Hotel Catemaco was also centrally located, just outside the Zocalo (main town square) and less than 10 minutes from the lake. The restaurant was equally economical and very friendly, with a 3 course meal for 2 costing less than 6 pounds.
The vast lake is punctuated by islands but the main one is Monkey Island. Around 30 years ago scientists bought monkeys from the Far East and placed them on the island to study them. The monkey community has grown considerably since then and you can take boat trips to the island and then wander around as much as you like. After having been there for around 1 hour I must have counted at least 100 monkeys, many of which stay high in the trees but some came down and seemed as intrigued by me as I was by them.
After a few days I learnt of a small coastal village called Montepio, about a 2 hour drive from Catemaco, which was rumoured to be idyllic and very much away from civilisation. It was accessible only by taking one of the many open backed trucks that leave from Catemaco to Montepio every half an hour or so. I found this bizarre taxi terminal near the bus station and jumped aboard the truck. Setting off I soon realised why most of the other people were standing even though there was room to sit on the makeshift seating, it was very sore on my rear end and so I too took to standing. Initially the drive was on normal paved roads but this soon changed, first to gravel tracks then completely unmade paths. Again mountains were the order of the day with still more flora and fauna abounding on every turn. The road came to an abrupt halt less than 500 metres from the shore line so I reasoned that this must be Montepio.
It was indeed remote, horses as opposed to cars were generally the order of the day and telephones were almost non existent, although televisions could be seen in most of the open doorways. Of course dogs were also found everywhere, it was almost unheard of to see a horse without at least 1 dog in tow. Only 3 hotels were here, all very cheap and of much the same quality. They were quite basic but this was reflected in the prices and the views from each were stunning. From my balcony I was treated to a shoreline where 2 rivers met with the sea, palm trees and lime trees side by side and still more mountains encircling the bay. The lack of noise from everyday life (cars, road works etc) added to the ambience wonderfully.
Whilst there were no restaurants that would get into any good food guides, the places that I did eat in treated me to large portions of basic but satisfying cuisine for prices so cheap I almost felt embarrassed. The locals too were very friendly, happy to show me the sights and I was even invited to watch the European football cup final with them, an invitation I accepted with relish as I was not really expecting to watch European football in a tiny village on the coast of Mexico.
The majority of my time in Montepio was spent either on the beach which I had almost entirely to myself, apart from some crabs and the occasional horse and rider, or indeed taking one of the aforementioned horses and riding up through the jungle that surrounds the village. For less than 2 pounds an hour you can hire a horse, plus a guide. They will take you, firstly, across farmland through fields of cattle, into the foothills of the mountains to find beautiful waterfalls, rivers and increasingly majestic canopies of trees and vines. You can then swim underneath the waterfalls in the crystal clear river (as I did frequently) before taking a gentle trot back to the hotel and a huge steak for around a pound.
All in all, this short excursion was wonderful. It was sublime to be off the beaten track, to see places that generally aren't visited by people who are not from Mexico. The warmth of the locals, when there, added greatly to the atmosphere and I wholeheartedly intend on going back to this little piece of tranquil ideology located at the end of the world.
|
