The small city of Guanajuato made quite an impact on us as we approached it. The taxi went through a number of tunnels and the city was all cobblestone and steep hills. We were dropped on the street and sent up some stairs to Casa Bertha. We walked to a quiet plaza and were pointed the right way by an internet cafe guy. He also mentioned Casa Pita around the corner so we went there first. The lady was nice and spoke English and her house was beautiful with lots of tiles and ornaments. We accepted a charming room with a [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Queretaro around 11 am and were considering continuing to Jalpan but it was 5 hours away and I (Rae) was suffering a dose of diarrhoea so we decided to stay put. We took a prepaid taxi from the bus terminal to Posada Aqueducto which was lovely and colourful. We got a king-size bed and a balcony for P$320 (US$30) a night. The lady at the hotel was all smiles and spoke slowly for us. The laundry guy down the road was equally friendly and helpful. And the tourist info guy was great. The whole town was full of [View Full Entry]

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Morelia is a state capital of pink stone. A UNESCO World Heritage Site we decided it was worth a visit and would be a great base to visit the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. We stayed in the lovely old Hotel Colonial, not far from the centre, where we had a balcony in a recently renovated room. We found the city beautiful and only a little cold feeling. We booked our trip to see the butterflies at a tourist info booth with a tourist police officer. First time for everything. It was a full day event and would cost P$600 each. We were [View Full Entry]

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For once, we had not heard any horror stories from other travellers about this capital city, and indeed we felt perfectly safe there and not at all intimidated. There had been a history, particularly in the 90s, of taxi crime, so we were a little cautious of taxis, but the historic centre was quite easy to walk around and the metro system was cheap (cheapest in the world at P$2 or US$0.20 a ride) and easy to use. We had booked ahead with the Hotel Isabel, knowing it was quite popular with foreigners. A beautiful old building, our room was huge [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Cuernavaca quite refreshed after a 'Super Turismo' bus ride. With only 3 seats across and 24 seats total it was tremendously comfortable and spacious. We were even given a little lunch box. We found a pleasant hotel, the Hotel Hortensias, for P$320 (US$30) and went out immediately to see if we could get to Xochicalco, some 38 kms away. There was more than one route we could take and a special service had already departed so finally we decided to leave it for the morning. There were some sites to see in town that would be closed the [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in the city of Puebla (population over 2 million) we were greeted by the biggest bus terminal we had ever seen. In other Mexican cities there were often individual terminals for the different companies and at least they were split between first and other classes of bus. But in Puebla they were all in the same location, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. We were only staying for one night and didn't want to waste time looking for a hotel. Taking a Lonely Planet recommendation we took a taxi straight to the Hotel Puebla Plaza. It was a little [View Full Entry]

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We arrived on the night bus from San Cristobal at 9 am and went to the Hostal Pochon which we had booked ahead. We couldn't get our room until after the 1 pm check-in so took off to find the bus to Monte Alban. At the Hotel Rivera del Angel we brought our P$38 (US$3.60) round trip tickets for the special bus service and had time for a rotisserie chicken brunch. We had been getting a little braver lately, the chicken on the spit looked delicious even though we were not sure how long it had been there. On the bus [View Full Entry]

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It was a pretty bus ride from Palenque to San Cristobal. 5 hours of windy roads that took us from the jungle to high pine forest. We had booked ahead with Posada Mexico which was a good thing because they had no room available otherwise. We got a big room in a pleasant complex of buildings. It was Monday so we found museums closed but we enjoyed a walk around the town which was beautiful with a colourful red and yellow cathedral, pleasant plazas and picturesque colonial houses. We found the craft market and were impressed with the amount of hand [View Full Entry]

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The town of Palenque is not historical and not particularly pretty but we found it lively with lots of restaurants and shops and internet. We could have stayed on the road out to the ruin but didn't want to feel isolated out there and pay over the odds for a cabaña like our Tulum experience. However, in retrospect we also shouldn't have stayed at the Posada Kushul-Ha either. It was cheap at P$200 (US$19) a night but not that clean and we think they had bed bugs. There were lots of tour agencies so we picked one for our trip to [View Full Entry]

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Campeche is a walled seaside city. Approaching by taxi from the bus terminal we were amazed by the change when we got inside the wall. It went from a fairly normal looking clean Mexican city to an image of cobbled streets and colourful colonial houses and lantern style street lights. We had booked the Pirate Hostel and it lived up to its name with authentic nautical stuff, canons and all, and a skeleton dressed as a pirate. Our room was tiny but we had a loo and shower in separate compartments and space to sit on the roof. At P$240 (US$23) [View Full Entry]

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