Mexico - Chetumal and San Cristobal de las Casas

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David here...

We got up early and headed straight to the bus station in Corozal to jump on a bus to Chetumal in Mexico. We arrived at the border after about 30 minutes and got through the Belize departure very quickly, paying B$37.50 each to leave the country. We then got back on the same bus that had waited for us and got taken to the Mexico border. The queue here was massive. We got our FMM form from an official at the front of the queue and then walked round to the back of the building and the end of the queue. We filled out our arrival cards and waited...and waited...and waited. In all, it took about 90 minutes to get through into Mexico and by that time, our bus had already left. We jumped on another bus to Chetumal and had to pay again. We got dropped off near a bus stop and found a bus that took us to the 2nd class ADO bus terminal in town.

We had considered staying a night in Chetumal but were told that there was a bus at 22:00 that night to Palenque and that the buses left from the main bus terminal 2km out of town. We tried to find a bus or collectivo that might take us there, however ended up having to admit defeat and get a taxi out. We then found out that the buses to Palenque for the next 2 days were fully booked up, so after some thought we decided to book tickets to Villahermosa at 22:40 that night as that was in the general direction we wanted to go. We left our bags at a shop in the bus terminal and hoped into another taxi back into the centre of town as we had a good few hours to kill before our bus.

We got dropped off on the esplanade and sat down for a while, when we were approached by a man claiming to be a Baptist minister from Chicago who had lost his luggage in Mexico city and his wife and family were in a hostel that the American embassy had put them up in for 72 hrs as there was nothing that could be done during the 4th July weekend. Also his wife was diabetic and he was trying to get his luggage back but no one could help him. He´d been to the police, the bus company he´d used etc etc. If only he could travel with someone to Mexico City, or somewhere on the way...and that he had a watch that he could give us as a deposit, if only he could travel with us. He had an answer for everything we suggested he try but there was no way we were going to give him any money with such an obvious scam. We quickly left him behind and walked round the town.

After seeing what the town had to offer (not much) we went to Sergio´s, a highly recommended pizza restaurant and enjoyed a lovely meal. We then got a taxi out to the local cinema intending to see Cars 2 and use up more time before our bus. However when we got there, we found that the film was dubbed and not subtitled, which we should have realised as we had read that all kids films were dubbed. So we ended up seeing Transformers 3D instead, which was alright, not Tron:Legacy bad but not a great film, and it did use up more time and only cost £3.20 each, which was great for a 3D film.

We then rushed back to the bus station and after paying to use the toilets and sitting with the general riff-raff we went through our Gate and found that we were on a first class bus and had free facilities and our own lounge. We got on the bus on time and the 9hr overnight journey went by quick enough. When we arrived at Villahermosa at 07:20 we bought tickets straight away for a bus to Tuxtla Guiterrez at 09:00 and when we got there, we got straight on a bus to San Cristobal de Las Casas, the next place in our plan that we wanted to see after Palenque. We'd decided to skip Palenque as the only thing to see was the ruins as the town itself is not supposed to be much to look at and we have already seen so many ruins and had more coming up, so didn't feel to aggrieved in the end by our change of plan.

Suzanne here...

David has very kindly not mentioned the slight meltdown I had in Chetumel when we found we couldn´t get to Palenque for three days. In my defence, it had been a very long day... So San Cristobal needed to be good to perk me up. Luckily, it is a fantastic place. We fell in love with it straight away. What a beautiful town. It´s surrounded by hills and has kept it´s Spanish colonial layout and architecture. The town is full of pretty churches, unexpected little plazas and lots of little cafes and restaurants. It´s the sort of place people visit for a holiday and never leave.

Really there is not much to tell about our stay. One day we went out to Las Grutas, the nearby caves. That was as energetic as it got. Most of the time we wandered around the pretty streets, we sat in the sun and took advantage of the 2 for 1 beers, we had some really delicious chocolates from Kakao Natura, and the best coffee of our trip at Tik East cafe on the main square where they roast their own coffee beans.

There were lots of people selling things, but none of the really hard-sell we´ve had in some places. One little boy tried to sell us somthing and when we said no he just asked us if he could have one of the slices of lime on our table. He looked so happy with his bit of lime sprinkled with salt that it really tugged at my heartstrings. That evening a group of children had stopped selling for a while as they huddled around a TV in a shop window watching The Simpsons without the sound. It makes me feel very humble.

San Cristobal is undoubtedly touristy, but is still a charming little town. All in all it was a delightful and relaxing stop and we could have stayed longer. Still, plenty more of Mexico to see so we limited our stay to three nights and booked ourselves onto the night bus to Oaxaca.

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