(This is a temple in Palenque with a larger, unexcavated temple behind it.)
One of the great privileges of the way I live now is that I can be proved completely, totally and utterly wrong. When we first started sailing we planned to spend ‘six weeks in Mexico’ and then zip further down the coast.
(The market in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas)
I’d never been particularly interested in Central America. Mexico’s cliché was overwhelming to me and I had zero interest in it – an endless Cancun or Acapulco, lots of drunken holiday makers in bikinis and t-shirts about tequila (one tequila, two tequila three tequila floor), lots of crowds, lots of hassle – and believe me, you’ll see scads of that sort of thing, but Mexico… Mexico is so varied, so beautiful, so unique. I was wrong. Happily, totally, completely and utterly wrong.
(Sunset on Mexicos Gold gold coast, Pacific side)
The country is so damn big that different regions are, to all intents and purposes, different countries. The people of Chihuahua are completely different looking, speaking and acting to the people of Tabasco. What people in Oaxaca eat wouldn’t even be recognized as food to people of Quintana Roo. The landscape of Baja,
with its cactus’s, desert and looking like ‘a giant kitty litter’ (as one friend put it) is Mars to Chiapas’ Venus 
(lush, verdant, fertile, full of lost cities and possibilities).
(Incredibly blue ocean, Isla Mujeres, Yucatan)
And the food. Oh my God, the food. Mexico has the most unique, delicious amazing flavours of any place I’ve ever been. Every region has a totally different cuisine each as tasty and interesting as the next. Don’t go on a food tour of Mexico. You’d never leave. Fish tacos in Baja, Moles in Oaxaca, choose-your-own-filling-tacos in Zihuatenejo, Sopa Azteca in the south…but I’m getting ahead of myself.
(Girl looks at dinner, Zihuatenejo)
If I were you, before I went I’d get a hold of ‘The Peoples Guide to Mexico’ by Carl Franz and Lorena Havens. It’s brilliant. It won’t tell you one place to visit or one hospedajes name but it’s an amazing look at Mexico – culture, sayings, music and food, weird customs and beliefs, which things to buy in which part of the country, even which bizarre herbal remedies to try!
It’s written by some people who went there in a VW bus in the 60s and totally love the place and it shows in every chapter. I can’t tell you how many puzzles it cleared up for me!
One of our first stops in Mexico was in a place called ‘Turtle Bay’ in Baja. 
(It’s actually a nice place. This Pic doesn’t do it justice).
Slater got sick and we were stuck for weeks and was out on my own a lot. I got totally freaked out by the way men and boys were looking at me in the street. The book put this in such a good context that I was able to laugh and shrug it off and it has NEVER BOTHERED ME SINCE. It sounds pathetic and stupid I know, but I can’t recommend the book highly enough!
It was ‘The Peoples Guide to Mexico’ that introduced me to jamica (HAM-ica). DO NOT leave Mexico without trying jamica. It’s basically hibiscus Rasa (raspberry cordial, to those of you not from Cork). You can buy it by the glass (vaso) or the jug (jarra). It’s gobsmackingly great, delicious and thirst quenching in the heat. Every single little restaurant sells it, not one will have it on the menu – just like Rasa I guess! The guide books often just lump into one sentence under ‘fruit water’ which is weird and unnecessary. You’ll often be able to get a tamarind drink too, which is definitely worth trying, but jamica is worth coming to Mexico for…
Sopa Azteca. I discovered Sopa Azteca fairly recently, probably because it’s an old Aztec thing (Duh!) and we’ve only just moved into the Aztec realm of influence in Mexico. It’s a soup with a base of chilies and has tortillas, cheese, avocado and (sometimes) chicken in it (its often vegetarian though – ask). Sounds weird and revolting, doesn’t it? Nope. It’s delicious, spicy and refreshing. Actually, soup is almost always delicious and a cheap way to eat in Mexico. The vegetable soups are home made and chock full of fresh vegetables and they’re super cheap. It’s a pity you’re vegetarian – if you can get a vegetarian ‘pozole’ it’s definitely worth trying – it’s a soup with a base of corn husks. Mmmmmm. Also, Chile rellenos are great and usually just stuffed with cheese, battered and fried.
I don’t know if you came across ‘churros’ in Guatemala. They’re often sold on the streets in the evenings. You. Must. Try. Bags of fruit with chili powder on them. So much good stuff…
Well that’s a fairly pathetic rundown on food, but you’ll discover your own favourites.
San Cristobal.
I was going to do all kinds of fancy things here. I even started photo shopping a map with numbers and all that stuff, but the learning curve is just too steep and I no longer have time so you’ll have to cross reference this with a map in a guidebook or summat. Sorry.
Staying.
We stayed here for a week and a half in three different places in three different price ranges. Each one was great. Avoid the ‘hostels’ – they were all more expensive than nicer places and full of annoying gringos. Or, find somewhere just for one night and go exploring to find a place you like – it’s a good excuse to find hidden corners in the city.
Posada Los Morales
Ignacio Allende 17
This is about 5 minutes walk from the main square, if that. It’s a huge, 17thC hacienda sprawling up a hillside with loads of old furniture and nooks and crannies, an all you can eat buffet breakfast Slater hankered after. Accommodation is in lots of little cottages with fireplaces, huge beds and amazing views over the main square.
It’s the best view of the city and it gets chilly at night, so being able to light a fire and sit in bed watching dusk fall over the busy central square is pretty amazing. Apparently it’s usually very expensive, but there was no one there when we visited and we were able to stay for, I forget, not more than $15 a night for the two of us anyway. It’s worth staying here if you want to treat yourself – it is a beautiful place and very peaceful and quiet – there are terraces and verandas everywhere. We stayed for a night or two and then moved on.
Blue hotel, on Guadalupe
Neither of us can remember the name of this place, but there are a million like it in the city. It’s a block and a half from Plaza 31 De Mayo, right in the centre and pretty cheap (a hundred pesos a night, I think). It’s convenient. We stayed here for a couple of nights. Rooms on the top floors tend to be nicer – have windows and light, for example. Ask to see all the rooms they have available before you choose.
Posada 5 on Comitan, opposite a little plaza just behind the church Santa Domingo where the big ‘craft’ market is held every day.
This would be my top choice for a ‘long term’ place if I were you. This place is brilliant. It’s cheap (75 a night, maybe, for the two of us?), a big kitchen, free tea and coffee (and gooood coffee), a veranda and big garden out back with hammocks and a fire pit and free internet.
The best part though, is that the people are great. Everyone was really friendly. There were three unrelated Irish people there – which was a first on my travels, let me tell you! There were retired people and 20 year olds, women with children and backpackers all hanging out and interested in each other – not that jaded, too cool atmosphere you get everywhere. Lots of the people were staying there for a month, or two, or three. One man was from San Cristobal and had stayed there for THREE YEARS!!
Eating
There’re a million places to eat, but there is one street, Madero, which has three or four restaurants with a set vegetarian menu. It comes with a drink, the food is wonderful (seriously delicious) and filling and even the desert is edible!
San Cristobal is a café town. You’ll have no problem finding your own favourite coffee house, complete with coffee roaster and relaxed atmosphere. Count on whiling away at least a couple of days wandering from café to café. A great bonus is that enough baking Europeans have moved there to make the cakes AWESOME. The hot chocolate is great too, different from everywhere else I’ve been.
Café Yik. There are a couple of Café Yiks – one on 31 de Marzo, which is fun, and one just up the street on Av. General Utrilla (a pedestrian street that goes from the main square to the market by Santa Domingo). The cake is surprisingly good and they have a coffee roasting machine right next to the counter. It was the cheapest good coffee we found.
There’s an Israeli place that does good falafel.
Guadalupe
I’m putting Guadalupe under its own little heading ‘cause there’re two or three places there to mention. There’s the hotel we stayed at (which is nothing to write home about, although I seem to be doing just that) and there’s also THE BEST CAKE SHOP IN THE WORLD.
THE BEST CAKE SHOP IN THE WORLD is a tiny little store, just one door wide, that you will miss if you’re not on the lookout for it. I recommend – well, everything actually. It is the best cake shop in the world. The little bags of jam-tart looking things are very good. So are the meringues. And the…you get the picture.
Centro Cultural en Puente Real de Guadalupe 55 has an extremely expensive organic-type restaurant (don’t go there), but also a pretty good cinema that shows alternative and Zapatista films. There’s a health-food type place attached with good bread and interesting stuff like local hot chocolate for pretty cheap. In the restaurant space itself there’s an organic market once a week – we bought some of the best chocolate Slater had ever tasted there (I’m a crap-milk-chocolate-only snob).
Almost next door is a shop that’s run by a lovely Zapatista lady – not that she’d ever say that, but get talking to her – she’s really interesting. It sells the same sort of tat you see everywhere in the city and at the same price, or even a bit cheaper BUT all profits go directly to the villages school or the families that make the stuff. It’s where I bought all my Zapatista – themed presents. Really interesting.
We went to Simojovel, the amber mining town up in the mountains. It was really interesting – an hour taxi and then an hour in the back of a pickup to get to a town clinging to a mountainside. Do something like it. It’s a completely different take on Chiapas than you’ll ever get in San Cristobal.
The market by Santa Domingo is very good and cheap – you can bargain them right down. Buy a thick wooly cardigan. The food market at Mercado Municipal is well worth checking out – very cheap, very fresh fruit and vegetables (we got 20 mandarins for 50 cents when we were there. you’ll be there in mango season, you lucky bastards). They make a lot of leather shoes on the streets there. I’ve always regretted not buying myself a pair of sandals.
Palenque
From San Cristobal use the bus company AEXA. It is fully 50% of the price of ADO and just as good.
Don’t stay in Palenque. It’s pretty boring. Get a collective or taxi out to Panchan, which is right in the jungle at the entrance to the ruins. 
In fact, we walked back there from the ruins the day we visited them. It’s cool and quiet with streams running through all the accommodations and lots of quiet paths and hippie drumming every morning. Panchan is worth going to just for Don Muchos, an open pavilion where they have live music every night, a restaurant crowded with gringos and Mexicans (the Mexicans tend to arrive just as the gringos are going to bed) and FANTASTIC FOOD cheap. This is where I had my great introduction to Sopa Azteca, but the portions of everything are so big you’ll be eating for days.
No one takes reservations, but if you can get there early enough stay in ‘Margarita and Eds Cabanas’, which is definitely the best spot. All their rooms are great, they have good showers, filtered water and I think an area with a kitchen (although I can’t be positive about that). It’s quiet too. We did spend a night in the place right across the track from them, but it was full of noisy Israelis when we were there, shouting into the night. If you do stay there (it’s cheaper), try to get one of the stand-alone huts. It will be quieter. The showers are brutal.
Other places: If you’re heading down the Pacific side Zihuatenejo, Barra de Navidad and Bahias de Huatulco in Oaxaca are great.
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I’m so jealous. Not only are you spending the summer in Mexico, but you’re going to be seeing it for the first time. Have a fantastic trip.
(You’re not actually allowed dig in historic sites in Ireland, but you can look through debris. Mike’s trying to fall into the rabbit hole here, by the looks of things)
you could get a 900F fire going. We work 16 hours a day when the weather is right and none when it isn’t, and it always feels like a privilege. It’s a multi-generational family extravaganza and the highlight of my year – I wouldn’t miss it for the world! www.wildfarmorganics.com