A night in a Mexican Prison

29 December 2014

You find out lots of little blessings once you are married. One of those blessings is that Andrew & I both love to wake up early. This allows is to see and do so much more! We woke up this morning around 7am in the Weary Traveller’s Hostel all refreshed and ready to go. Usually our adventures begin around 6 or 7 in the morning because we both love to enjoy the peace & quiet of the morning. I didn’t realize until yesterday that all the hotel rooms we have stayed at this far have not had AC. My month in India conditioned me well for fan-breezed rooms. Andrew & I have enjoyed our local hotels & the kind inn keepers much more than we would enjoy a luxurious hotel.

We gathered our belongings and headed off to the bus station to catch the next available lift to Chetumal in the southernmost tip of Mexico. The next bus was to leave at 10:30 giving us plenty of time to adventure around the city. We found a cute little fruit juice place inside what appeared to be a colonial garden. The juice was delicious & after watching two groups of tourists struggle to communicate with the locals, I quickly became grateful for my Portuguese & Andrew’s broken Spanish. Just knowing a little of the language has helped tremendously! Andrew said that once we perfect our Spanish a little more we can your around South America.

After we drank our juices we ventured out I find snacks for the bus ride to Chetumal. We picked up some granola cookies & popcorn. After our mercado adventures we styled upon a little hole on the wall taco place near the bus station. For only 30 pesos we ate a delicious burrito & watched the little lady make it for us while explaining how to make it. That was probably the best 2 hour cooking class I have ever been to!

Right now we are on our way to Chetumal where we will stay the evening before we head into Guatemala. Andrew has been building forts out of the Turkish blankets that the Lutz family gave us prior to our departure. It has been a fun adventure & Andrew keeps we laughing the whole time!

-Kylie

Day 3: Chetumal

Today has been another amazing day on the Yucatan peninsula. This morning we gathered up our belongings and set out for the train station. We didn’t buy our tickets the night before because our first bus to Tulum was nearly empty. Slight miscalculation since the only bus available to Chetumal was 2 hours later than we expected. With a couple hours to kill and not much left to do in Tulum we wandered the streets for a place to eat. Kylie wasn’t super hungry so we got a couple fruit juices from a local vendor before heading back to the train station…. But I was still hungry so we grabbed some snacks at a local gas station… But those were for the bus ride… So finally we found a little alley shop run by this little Mexican lady. We wanted to see if she had pastor (the delicious meat from the night before) and she did! As she cooked we chatted with her about what she was doing, what ingredients and so forth. All the while Kylie snapped photos as the lady cooked. Totally worth the 2 hour delay from the morning for two reasons: (1) made a new friend, and (2) got a stellar photo of a cute little lady smiling at us! Shortly after we boarded our bus.

Bus ride was mostly uneventful with a couple naps, snacks, a smelly bathroom compartment and a cute girl resting on my shoulder. Well, uneventful if you don’t count the moment I built a mini blanket fort in my seat to stay warm from the blaring AC… Yeah, that was fun. We arrived in Chetumal without much hassle.

Once we arrived we started to investigate where we could potentially stay for the night. The hotel we’d hoped would have a spot was closed so we asked for a recommendation for another location. They said a hotel by the name of Cristan would be another option. We walked across the street to investigate. The hotel room looked decent enough for Mexico but… Man, the room layout looks like a prison guard constructed it. Rooms lining a long narrow hallway with a similar structure above. Oh well, a one night stay in a ‘prison block’ should be pretty exciting! 🙂

When it came time to eat Kylie and I wandered the streets without much avail. It’s been hard to get a read on Mexican culture (ie. When do places open/close so we can eat!). After passing by a couple of taco shops, pizza establishments, and burger joints, we found a little group of taco stands near our hotel. Most delicious tacos ever! Spicy pico de gallo, juicy meat, and fresh avacado. Delicious! Best of all, only cost us 4 dollars till we were full. A great little find here in the city.

We’re doing well and living well here in Mexico!

-Andrew