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Persevering with from the place we left off final time, after Cancun we headed to Merida.
Since this was the primary time we travelled with a child, I used to be reluctant to go anyplace that required a protracted bus trip. A 5-hour bus trip for a pair is a breeze. A 5 hour bus trip with a shrieking 5-months previous who refuses to nap and always threatenes to unleash Montezuma’s revenge into his diaper is a nightmare.
However then I examine Tren Maya.
I had first examine Mexico’s new prepare on a journey weblog again in December after we had been nonetheless within the mist of journey planning. I had fully dismissed Merida since I assumed it could be too annoying to get to with a child from Cancun. However then these journey bloggers talked about that the prepare could be operational by the tip of December which meant that it could be an possibility for us in January!
One in every of my favorite issues about Europe is how handy it’s to make use of my favorite mode of transportation—the prepare. Mexico at all times fell quick as a result of again after we visited in 2017 there wasn’t any prepare protection in any respect. Getting in all places required buses, vehicles, or flights. However now, Mexico was stepping up its recreation by constructing an entire rail community within the Yucatan, enabling vacationers to go to locations as soon as thought of off-the-beaten-path like Palenque, Valladolid and Merida with ease. Tren Maya is a $29 billion mega challenge that’s Mexico’s new delight and pleasure and everybody was excited for its inaugural journey.
So, I reached out to some House Exchanges in Merida, and lo and behold, acquired 2 acceptances instantly despite the fact that it was the tremendous busy in excessive season.
We had been on our technique to Merida and we had been going to be one of many first folks to trip Mexico’s shiny new prepare! How thrilling!
Little did I do know, getting on the prepare was not what I anticipated in any respect.
We booked prepare tickets an entire week prematurely as a result of we knew from analysis that tickets promote out quick. Plus, there have been solely 2 departure occasions a day, one at 8am and one other at 9am.
Our first hurdle was getting via the glitchy web site which we needed to refresh a number of occasions to just accept our entries. Then after we lastly acquired via to pay, it refused to just accept our bank card. Some extra analysis on journey boards revealed that they’ve bother accepting non-Mexican bank cards. Fortunately, we had our Sensible card which not solely acts like a debt card, it lets us pay in a number of currencies.
We high-fived one another after we lastly acquired the ticket e-mail affirmation. Surprisingly, solely the receipt was hooked up however we figured an e-mail with the precise tickets would quickly comply with.
It didn’t. After ready for minutes, then hours, then days, we realized our tickets weren’t coming. A number of e-mails to Tren Maya’s buyer companies went unanswered. There was no cellphone quantity to name both.
The day earlier than our prepare was set to go away, we nonetheless didn’t have our tickets. Wanderer figured we may in all probability wing it and assume they’ll be effective with our receipt as proof of buy the day of, however with our damaged Spanish and an toddler to maintain, I didn’t need to likelihood it.
Since we had been on Isla Mujeres and must take a taxi, then ferry, then taxi to the prepare station, we most popular to not waste money and time attempting to kind it out in individual (plus it takes perpetually to go anyplace with a child). So, in desperation I contacted each social media platform that they had, to attempt to get some solutions. Throughout my search, an article got here up saying the prepare was going to be delayed for the subsequent few days resulting from points with the monitor.
F*CK.
After numerous nervous pacing, aggressive e-mailing, and social media shaming, I lastly acquired an e-mail response from customer support. Our prepare tickets had been hooked up. This ended up being one of the annoying journey days in the course of the 2 months we spent in Mexico, although nonetheless not almost as unhealthy as our worst journey day ever .
PROTIP: For those who resolve to take the Tren Maya, ensure you contact information@ventaboletostrenmaya.com.mx. That was the one e-mail deal with that responded again to us. Additionally, if you happen to run into points utilizing your overseas bank card like we did, use the Sensible Card (full disclosure: that is an affiliate hyperlink so we could get a small fee if you happen to enroll).
After lastly getting our prepare tickets, we breathed a sigh of aid. There was no farther communication about monitor work or prepare delays so we thought we had been on straightforward avenue.
Turns on the market was one other hiccup within the escape room that was “attempting to get on the Mayan prepare”. It wasn’t apparent what time we would have liked to be on the airport or which terminal to take the shuttle from the airport to the prepare station. So, we determined to be cautious and get to the airport early at 7am from our resort (I can’t stress how vital it’s to guide an additional resort day in between locations when you find yourself travelling with an toddler). We occurred to go to the precise terminal (4) which was the primary one the shuttle arrived at. And searching on the shuttle schedule (which wasn’t posted anyplace on-line by the way in which) we realized if we had come at 8am, ready to get to the prepare station for a 9am prepare, we’d’ve missed the shuttle.
That’s after I realized being one of many first folks to trip a model new prepare with a model new route could not have been the best thought.
When Tren Maya lastly pulled out of Cancun station, I breathed a sigh of aid. We may calm down and there have been no extra warnings about delays resulting from monitor work or some other paperwork we needed to current.
Seems the prepare ended up being far more than I anticipated. I used to be fairly certain we’d one way or the other teleported ourselves out of Mexico and into Europe as a result of it was trendy, spacious, and the accessible lavatory conveniently got here with a altering desk! It was simply nearly as good as any of the numerous trains we’d taken in Switzerland, Germany, or France. There was additionally a little bit cafeteria the place you would purchase sandwiches and drinks. And as anticipated, Little Matchstick began to get fussy after about midway via the 4 hour journey. It was no downside in any respect as a result of Wanderer was in a position to put him in a child service and stroll across the prepare automotive. He had a good time urgent buttons to open the doorways between vehicles and settled down simply after that. For this reason I’d slightly take 100 prepare rides over 1 flight or automotive trip. We even met an area from Merida who supplied to indicate us round her metropolis as a result of Little Matchstick was being tremendous lovable and smiled at her.
Once we acquired to Merida, I couldn’t imagine how a lot it had modified because the final time we had been there in 2017. Right here’s what it was like to remain in Merida for over a month with an toddler:
Authenticity
I lastly acquired the genuine Mexico vibe I used to be in search of. Little or no English was spoken, the locals had been tremendous pleasant, particularly to our son since Mexican tradition could be very household oriented they usually adore infants. Apparently, whenever you take your child travelling, it’s a lot simpler to make mates with locals. They get tremendous impressed that you simply love their nation sufficient to deliver your treasured child and because of this, they exit of their means that can assist you.
We discovered from our new native good friend Abbi that the perfect time exit in Merida was within the night because it will get scorching in the course of the day. We ended up going to the Domingo en Merida evening market on Sunday based mostly on her advice, and it jogged my memory of the evening market in Chiang Mai!
Wanderer, inexplicable, was determined to do that bizarre avenue meals referred to as “Tostilocos” or “loopy chips”, which is that this abomination concoction consisting of tortilla chips, cheese, chilli powder, lime juice, and peanuts, all mashed collectively and served inside a inexperienced Tostitos bag.
I tasted precisely prefer it appeared. I wasn’t drunk/excessive/frat boy sufficient to understand it however Wanderer appeared to, despite the fact that it wasn’t 2am within the morning and we weren’t getting back from a rave.
Word from Wanderer: What are you speaking about? It was good!
Me: Uh huh. Have a look at the image and choose for your self.
I made a decision I would like to scrub the style of stoner meals out of my mouth with some actual meals, so I acquired some maquesitas (crunchy crepes with nutella, banana, and cheese inside). The mix is ideal mixture of salty and candy, similar to the meals cart women who smiled at me and pretended to not discover how badly I used to be butchering their language.
We additionally acquired some poc-chuc (Mayan grilled pork), pavo en relleno negro (black turkey stew), and cochinita pibil (gradual roasted pork) they usually had been all scrumptious and significantly better than the overpriced burgers, pizza, and “tacos” within the Cancun resort zone.
This was genuine Yucatanian avenue meals, eaten by the facet of the highway on a crimson stool, surrounded by locals. Not a single burrito, fajita, or nacho in sight. Simply the way in which I prefer it!
Instagram-worthy Meals
Again in 2017, the meals scene in Merida was not nice. For a metropolis of one million folks, I used to be anticipating extra various meals choices, however apart from quick meals and Yucatanian delicacies, there was little or no else. I used to be horrified to seek out their definition of “sushi pizza” consisted of a soggy tortilla shell with a couple of microscopic items of tuna drenched in soy sauce. There was a lot soy sauce I ended up utilizing a stack of napkins to absorb the surplus. No bueno.
However now, not solely have they got Uber Eats (the uber one subscription was 1/3 the value in US/Canada!), however the choice was additionally means higher than I anticipated! I even counted not one, not two, however 6 bubble tea retailers! 7 years in the past, they didn’t even have primary tea retailers. This made it tremendous handy and inexpensive to order take out and grocery supply—a Godsend when you could have a household.
Plus, I used to be amazed to seek out that I may go to a Korean restaurant, an Asian grocery retailer, and there have been too many Japanese eating places to rely. A number of new co-working areas had additionally popped up everywhere in the metropolis.
7 years in the past, the factor that attracted me to Merida most was security. In spite of everything, not solely is Merida thought of the most secure metropolis in Mexico, it’s ranked the second most secure metropolis in all of North America! However that got here at the price of comfort (arduous to get to, no subways, no uber/ubereats) and meals selection. The primary phrase that got here to thoughts to explain Merida was “boring”.
Now, one way or the other Merida has morphed right into a meals mecca, virtually rivalling Oaxaca (okay, I wouldn’t go that far, nevertheless it’s severely stepped up its meals recreation).
Feast your eyes on a few of the unimaginable meals we had been in a position to have whereas we had been there:
Chilaquiles at “Chill-Akil Centro”:
Octopus and shrimp ceviches at “La Chichi Merida”
Octopus ceviche with fig and mango at “La Chichi Merida”
Sashimi bowl and Shoyu ramen at “Miyabi Japanese Delicacies”
Fusion pork ramen and pork stomach bao at “Wah Bao”:
Mango Bingsu (shaved ice) at “Korean Grill & Ice Cream”
“Los 4 Yucas” (Yucatan tasting plate) and Mucbil Pollo (hen tamale, Yucatan fashion) at Chaya Maya:
Comfort
Not solely was it straightforward to get inexpensive meals supply, Ubers had been additionally inexpensive and plentiful. The final time we had been right here we needed to depend on native buses, however now it was straightforward to get an Uber from the prepare station to our House Trade, which took lower than 30 minutes and value solely $9 USD. This was an enormous enchancment over the taxi mafia in Cancun that costs a minimal $50 USD for a 5 min drive! (PROTIP: if you happen to ever want a taxi to/from the Cancun Airport, use Didi, which is able to cut back the price by half. Ubers get threatened by the taxi drivers so that they keep away from the airport in any respect prices.)
And if I didn’t really feel like bringing the automotive seat/stroller with us (Merida sidewalks are the peak of a small canine and notoriously NOT stroller pleasant), I may take the brand new, air-conditioned “Va-y-Ven” bus straight down from the suburbs to downtown Merida in lower than 30mins. Plus, it got here each 7 minutes and value solely 12 pesos (lower than $1 USD) per individual. All you want is a card that you simply load with money and you are able to do that on the Tremendous Aki grocery retailer. Merida had fully overhauled their bus system!
Sights
Since our adventurous actions had been restricted by us having to haul Little Matchstick round, we had been further grateful we acquired to benefit from the Mayan ruins and Cenotes that we acquired to go to final time. For those who ever go to Merida and you’ve got older kids or aren’t travelling with youngsters, you’ll have a ton of enjoyable at these sights: Uxmal, Cuzama sinkholes (together with a horse drawn carriage trip via the woods to go to 3 cenotes/sinkholes!), Celestun (pink flamingos!), and Progreso (seashore city solely an hour bus trip away!).
Household-friendly Sights
Travelling as a household meant doing extra low-key actions and solely selecting to do one exercise a day to save lots of you and your little one’s sanity, so we spent extra time consuming out, going to zoos, parks, and museums. Amazingly, Merida additionally had a ton of free actions to do as a household. These ended up being our favourites:
Paseo de Montejo:
The one avenue that’s extensive sufficient and flat sufficient for strollers with wonderful shade the whole means because it’s lined by mature bushes throughout many metropolis blocks. It’s lined with lovely stately mansions and upmarket eating places and has a Parisian “Champs-Elysees” really feel:
Merida Zoo:
This was a surprisingly huge and FREE zoo close to downtown Merida! We noticed giraffs, tigers, lamas, monkeys, hippos, birds, and so forth. The tigers had been gawking at Little MatchSticks fats little sausage legs so we shortly moved on from that space. He slept for a great a part of it so he had no thought what was occurring:
La Plancha
This was a large out of doors park with pond, a playground, and previous decommissioned trains. It additionally had a pleasant lined out of doors meals market. Excellent spot for locals to hang around and simply chill.
Plaza Grande
That is the middle of Merida and the place the place you’ll be able to see cultural performances. It’s additionally the place the evening market and different performances occur on Sundays throughout Domingo en Merida.
Museo Casa Montejo
That is the free museum that could be a stately 18th century mansion. It used to accommodate troopers again in 1540 however was transformed to accommodate the Montejo household within the 1800s.
Free Lodging
Top-of-the-line issues about our journey to Mexico with is that we acquired to remain in superb House Exchanges free of charge.
The primary house change in Merida was a 30 min stroll or 10 min Uber trip to downtown Merida and it got here with its personal personal pool within the yard!
This place should’ve been a renovated manufacturing facility as a result of it had 20 ft ceilings! There have been two bedrooms every with their very own lavatory and the large trendy kitchen was a pleasure to prepare dinner in (and I don’t even like cooking). We took full benefit of the pool within the yard and went swimming almost day by day. Fortunately Little Matchstick wasn’t cell sufficient to make us fear about him escaping into the yard and stepping into the pool.
The second place we stayed in was a model new 2 mattress 2 tub rental with shared pool on the primary flooring. Once more, we swam so much to work off all of the energy from consuming out.
I’m not usually a suburbs individual. I would like every thing to be inside strolling or public transportation distance. However surprisingly, I loved this location higher despite the fact that it was within the suburbs as a result of it was within the San Ramon Norte space and proper exterior was the R63 bus which got here each 7 minutes and will get to downtown in simply 30mins.
Conveniently (geez I’ve been utilizing this phrase so usually on this submit to explain Merida, I ought to flip this right into a consuming recreation), this constructing had the Tren Maya headquarters downstairs, so after we purchased our tickets again to Cancun, we may simply take the elevator downstairs and get the tickets from them. Coincidentally, the neighbourhood occurred to be the identical neighborhood of the Airbnb we stayed in seven years in the past! I didn’t acknowledge it at first on account of how a lot it’s modernized since then, however I found that was the case after we went purchasing on the acquainted Tremendous Aki! That appears to be the one factor that stayed constant although.
For those who’re ever in Cancun and are interested by go to Merida, I might suggest it with out hesitation. It’s so protected, handy (there’s that phrase once more), and inexpensive that I might take into account residing there. For those who ever need to get free lodging, I extremely suggest House Trade (use my referral code “kristy-d61e2” to get 250 visitor factors after you make a reserving), as they’ve the greatest hosts and customer support.
Right here’s how a lot we spent in Merida:
| Class | Price in USD/household of three per day | Price in CAD/household of three per day | Notes |
| Lodging | $5.59 | $7.49 | Since we stayed in House Exchanges we ended up spending almost nothing on lodging, aside from the hire again house ($53/day for a household of three).
We did should pay for 1000 pesos for the cleansing price for certainly one of our House Exchanges and we additionally spent 1 evening (1909 pesos) in a resort close to the prepare station as a result of we didn’t need to threat having to get on a number of taxis and a ferry with an toddler to catch an early morning prepare. This works out to be an additional $173.36 USD, amortized over the 31 days we stayed in Merida, provides us a median price of $5.59 USD/household per day. |
| Meals | $40.88 | $54.79 ($31.39 consuming out; $23.40 groceries) | We ended up spending much less consuming out in Merida than we did in Isla Mujeres/Cancun however for means higher meals, which isn’t stunning since we had been now not paying vacationer costs. |
| Transportation | $4.69 | $6.28 | Transportation prices consisted of the prepare to and from Merida, ubers to and from downtown to the prepare station, and buses to downtown which totalled just below $150 USD for our household (youngsters underneath 2 trip the ferry free of charge. Averaged out over 31 days, it ended up averaging solely $4.69 USD/household/day (youngsters underneath 2 trip free of charge on the prepare and ferry) |
| Leisure | $0 | $0 | Surprisingly we spent $0 on leisure as a result of all of the household actions (parks, zoo, museum, paseo montejo) had been all free. That is additionally as a result of we didn’t hassle with any excursions since we’d already gone on the perfect ones again in 2017. |
| Child | $2.13 | $2.85 | Child stuff consisted of solely diapers and wipes since I used to be solely breastfeeding and value us solely $66 USD for the time we had been there. Averaged over 31 days, that’s solely $2.13 USD/day |
| Misc | $1.39 | $1.87 | We spent $43 USD on toiletries and cell information, which common out to be $1.39 USD/day |
| Whole | $54.68 | $73.28 | Merida ended up being extraordinarily inexpensive. Groceries had gone up considerably in price in comparison with 2017, however in comparison with different components of North America, remains to be very inexpensive. There have been a number of free actions for households, you barely should spend a lot cash in any respect to get pleasure from your self. |
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