Well, we did it…we got all the way through Mexico! Mexico is a gigantic country, just like the other two countries it shares North America with. Because of that size, it was a lot to offer. From delicious and sometimes sketchy regional food, to insane history you can interact with, to stunning geography, Mexico has been a wild adventure.
Mexico by the numbers: Keep in mind, none of these numbers include Baja. We have no good rational for this except that Baja felt like familiar territory, while mainland Mexico was a whole new adventure.
Days in Country: 60 total in the country. We landed in Mazatlán April 6th, left for the Bay April 22, and didn’t return until July 1. We crossed into Belize on August 12.
Miles Driven: 4862 miles through mainland Mexico! We crossed the border into Belize at roughly 318,897
Nights spent indoors: 17! 87 if you count the 70 nights we spent in a hotel in the Bay Area
Things we weren’t expecting: The middle of Mexico is very lush and green and mountainous. That was wildly unexpected because Mexico is shown as rough desert or beautiful beach and nothing in between. Turns out there is A LOT in between. Also! It surprised us how cold it got at night in some places. I’m not talking about the 8000+ft places, but the places in the foothills, and in some of the forests. We were also very surprised by the couple of lake regions we visited in Bacalar and Montebello. The colors of the lakes were tropical paradise water blue, but were fresh instead of salt, and very very warm. Lastly, we were extremely surprised to discover the water around Cancun is actually as blue as it is in pictures. It doesn’t get more perfectly tropical than Cancun water
Things we didn’t enjoy: Feeling scared to explore dirt roads was pretty crappy since those are our favorite, but we didn’t feel like the cartels were something to take lightly.
Some things we recommend:
- The roads into and out of Durango: MX 40 (El Espinazo del Diablo (Devil’s Backbone)) and MX 23 respectively
- El Chiflon: An amazing waterfall hike
- Uninajab: A weird little town with so many swimming pools
- Edzna: Super cool Mayan ruins
- Las Guacamaya: Beautiful riverside resort with monkeys and macaws
- Prof Roberto Barrios: A crazy waterfall swimming hole
- Any cenote you can visit
- Chichen Itza: The biggest, best preserved ruins in Mexico
- Yax-Ha Resort: A lovely campground on the ocean with NO BUGS
- Oaxaca: A super cool city with great food and cool art
How we got there:
Stay tuned for Belize!!
