The southern states of Mexico have such varied landscapes. Jungles, mountains, beach towns and cities – often not that far from each other. And, one of the things that struck me most during this month in Oaxaca state was how quickly the landscape changes as you travel around. There were times that a drive of just a couple of hours would completely transport you. Hard to believe you were in the same country let alone the same state.

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Puerto Escondido

My time in Oaxaca state started in the town of Puerto Escondido on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after a 13-hour night bus, the heat and humidity were in stark contrast to the cool climate of San Cristobal (at 2200 metres elevation). It was time to get the sun cream back out!

Of the 5 nights I spent in Puerto Escondido, three were at a hostel before deciding to treat ourselves and spending 2 nights in a hotel with a private beach club! With its beachfront swimming pool, sun loungers and restaurant, Hotel Suites Villasol was the perfect place to relax. Plus, it had high-speed WiFi – a rarity in Puerto Escondido.

You might think that a swimming pool on the beach seems a little unnecessary. But, the waves in Puerto Escondido are world-famous for surfing. If you so much as dip your toes in the water, there’s a good chance you’ll get wiped out by a wave! And, when it’s 30 Celsius and humid as hell, cooling down in the water is a must.

But, undoubtedly, my favourite activity in Puerto Escondido was releasing a newborn baby turtle into the ocean. The turtles are only a few hours old when they’re released, so they’re absolutely tiny (and adorable). Life is tough for a baby turtle in the big, wide ocean, so you have to give them lots of good energy and luck. My turtle, who I called Jesse (nicknamed JFinz – if you know, you know), has been in the ocean for a month now. I think about them all the time and hope they’re doing ok!

> > > RELATED POST: Playa Bacocho, Puerto Escondido (Complete Guide including Vivemar Turtle Release)

> > > RELATED POST: 17 Oaxaca Beaches You HAVE to Visit in 2022

> > > RELATED POST: Getting from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido (2022 Transport Options)

Lagunas de Chacahua

An hour’s drive (plus a boat ride) west of Puerto Escondido gets you to the beautiful and unspoiled paradise that is Lagunas de Chacahua. A remote national park with pristine beaches, a mountainous backdrop and hardly any infrastructure. No roads, no hot water, no telephone lines (only satellite WiFi), no phone signal. It’s a place to be off the grid.

My life in this remote paradise was easy. Swim in the lagoon, eat in the restaurants on the beach and relax in the shade. Easy, until I almost ended up panic buying flights to the USA!

We’d been in Chacahua for three days when I saw an article online that all the beaches in Oaxaca were closing for the next few weeks and that all tourist-related activity would cease. Quickly followed by a second article that said the locals of Chacahua had evicted lots of tourists the day before we arrived.

With Chacahua being so remote we had no one to ask about how true it was or if it would even be implemented. So, I set about planning a trip to the USA in case we needed to leave! Luckily, our beautiful on-the-beach accommodation in Cabanas La Isla Chacahua had the best WiFi on the island.

In the end, we decided to head back to Puerto Escondido (after 5 nights in Chacahua as planned) to assess the situation. And, as it transpires, only half of the beaches there were closed and things were operating like normal! We decided to carry on with our plan to travel overland through Mexico. So, booked a night bus to Oaxaca City for the next day!

DETAILED POST > > > Lagunas de Chacahua, Oaxaca

Oaxaca City

Night buses are not great but they’re an efficient and inevitable way of travelling when you’re backpacking. Night buses in Mexico are just normal coaches with slightly recline-able seats, so they’re not comfortable. Plus, there’s a lot of quick accelerating and sudden braking as well as windy, bumpy roads. Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca City was my 4th night bus of the trip – and the one with the scariest experience to date.

At 3 o’clock in the morning, the bus suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, in the middle of nowhere. In front of us was a parked single pick-up-style car. The next thing I know, the bus driver is frantically talking (in Spanish) into his radio barely stopping for breath. This went on for at 5 minutes, while a man outside of the bus walked around occasionally shining a torch into the bus. To this day, I have no idea what the bus driver was saying. But panic is panic in any language. As soon as it started, it ended and we drove off again – still alive.

Oaxaca City turned out to be one of my favourite places in Mexico so far. It’s like a slightly warmer version of San Cristobal. It’s about 25 to 27 Celsius every day, there’s good WiFi and there’s plenty to see, do and eat. In total, I spent 2.5 weeks in Oaxaca City (with 3 days in the middle in San Jose del Pacifico – see below). I visited the impressive ruins at Monte Alban (pictured below). I climbed to viewpoints and wandered the charming streets. And, I played a lot of darts (badly) at Iguana Hostel. I could’ve stayed forever since the hostel had the best WiFi, actually hot showers and a perfect rooftop terrace with working areas and chilling areas.

San Jose del Pacifico

San Jose del Pacifico is a small mountain town in Oaxaca famous for two things. Being a place where magic mushrooms are legal (the Amsterdam of Oaxaca) and being a town above the clouds. The biggest downside to visiting however is you need to take a 3-hour minibus ride along narrow and windy mountain roads.

Sitting at 2500 metres of elevation, it was unsurprising that it rained pretty much the entire time I was there. And, with night time temperatures of 6 Celsius, it was certainly a shock to the system. I spent the three days wandering around the small town, with any slight incline leaving me absolutely reeling from the altitude.

On the last day, we finally had a few-hour break from the rain and climbed (slowly) up to the Mirador. A word that translates to viewpoint in English. And, oh boy, we were not left disappointed! The views were incredible. I was amazed by how quickly the landscape changed. One minute there’d be a wall of cloud before clearing up and having views of the surrounding mountain peaks.

> > > RELATED POST: Read my complete travel guide to San Jose del Pacifico

From San Jose, I headed back to Oaxaca City for a few nights to plan my next moves. After a month in Oaxaca, it’s on to Puebla and then Mexico City!

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(Weeks 7 to 10) Chiapas: Palenque & San Cristobal de las Casas

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(Weeks 15 to 19) Puebla, Mexico City, Toluca & Taxco

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After 2.5 weeks on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, we were ready to head inland. We wanted to explore a city and get away from the business and harshness of tourist resorts. With a rough plan to do a loop from Playa del Carmen to Mérida, Valladolid, Holbox and back again, we set off on the 4-hour bus journey!

Mérida

We’d been checking the weather forecast for Mérida for about a week before setting off. And, we were slightly worried given that the daily highs were typically between 35 and 37 Celsius. I was sure I would melt. Or worse, not go out and spend the whole time laying under the air conditioning unit in the room begrudging my pale skin and lack of heat tolerance. However, I needn’t have bothered worrying. Our week in Mérida coincided with a week of wet weather and Caribbean storms!

But, we didn’t let that deter us. Within a day of arriving we extended our hostel booking from 2 to 7 nights to take several day trips (the huge king-sized bed and pool also helped convince us to spend longer at Nomadas Hostel!). We’ve quickly learnt that having days where you do nothing and have no expectations of yourself are as important when travelling as weekends off are when working. Being on the go is exhausting!

Mayapan & Cenotes

Our first Mérida excursion was on a group tour to the Mayan city of Mayapan and then three nearby cenotes (natural freshwater sinkholes). We were initially grateful for the group tour aspect as we had easy transport to the ruins and cenotes, as well as a bilingual guide. But, it wasn’t long before we realised why we always prefer to do these things by ourselves!

Between the limited time at the ruins and our guide taking three phone calls whilst trying to explain the history, we did however manage to enjoy the various parts of the site! Mayapan is one of only a few Mayan ruins where you can still climb the stairs of the pyramid. Although, this is no mean feat as the steps are steep and not in the best condition being around 1000 years old! But, the views at the top over the dense jungle as far as the eye can see certainly make it worthwhile!

After the Mayapan ruins, the next stop was a set of three cenotes. The entry fee included the use of bikes to move from one cenote to another. The other option was the less ethical donkey-pulled train, which was out of the question for us. As beautiful as riding bikes through the jungle to underground cenotes sound, the day was only about to get worse! Having worn trainers since I knew I’d been climbing up a stone pyramid and riding a bike in the jungle, I was unprepared for the walk from parking the bike to the cenote entrance. Once, I’d got wet from the first cenote, I didn’t want to put my trainers back on, so rode barefoot and then got stung by a fire ant (there were tears)!

All in all, the cenote part of the tour was rather disappointing. As beautiful as the cenotes were, they were crowded and there was nowhere to leave our things. So, after visiting all 3 cenotes our bags and clothes ended up soaked through. Plus, we were constantly worried that someone would have stolen our things! If you want to visit cenotes in Yucatan, I’d recommend hiring a car and doing a DIY tour!

Progreso

When I saw that Progreso, a town just 40 minutes north of Mérida, was home to the world’s longest pier, I was confused. I immediately found myself on the Southend pier website. Like every child of the home counties, I’d grown up knowing Southend as having the world’s longest pier! But alas, Southend is home to the world’s longest pleasure pier, and indeed Progreso has the longest pier, full stop.

I had to visit. I proclaimed to Adam that we would be part of a very elite (as I called it) group of people who had visited both the world’s longest pier and pleasure pier! It was fate as I love going to Southend for the 2p machines! Which, Progreso sadly did not have! But, it did have an actual sand beach, was in the Gulf of Mexico and not the Thames Estuary, and had water actually worthy of swimming in!

After taking the 21 peso (21p) bus from Mérida, we immediately headed to see the pier in person! It was long – 6.5 km in fact, dwarfing Southend’s 2.1 km! We also got to visit El Corchito eco-park. Here, we swam in the cenotes to cool down from the heat of the day and got to see some racoons and fish!

Progreso is usually exceptionally busy in the summer as cruise ships dock on the pier bringing 1000s of tourists. But, with the pandemic, there have been no cruise ships for over a year. And, the town is definitely suffering as many shops were closed and the open restaurants had reduced menus. Hopefully, things are looking up for Progreso!

Uxmal

The last of the three day trips was to the archaeological site of Uxmal Mayan ruins. The site is huge, but, apparently, to help maintain social distancing they have closed off most of it and you have to stick to a set path around about 20% of the ruins. I mean it’s counter-productive af, but I tried not to complain as we are lucky to be travelling. (But I still begrudge paying full price for 20% of the product!)

Nevertheless, the ruins were spectacular! The cream of the crop was the viewpoint over the main pyramid towards the end of the loop. We had arrived at the viewpoint just in time for the daily, rainy season downpours! After hiding under a tree until the rain eased, we saw the last of the ruins and headed back to the bus stop. Three people were waiting already but the next bus wasn’t for another 2.5 hours! After trying to flag down a taxi, trying to order an Uber (both unsuccessfully) and realising the nearest town was a three-hour walk away, we resorted to hitchhiking! Luckily, a lovely Mexican couple (who spoke no English) dropped us off in Mérida. Saving us several hours and many pesos!

Valladolid

Valladolid is just a 2-hour bus ride from Mérida, where we spent three nights to have two full days of exploring. Nothing reminded me that I might miss some home comforts than when we checked into our room at Hostel Casa Xtakay and I came running out of the bathroom, bottle in hand, shouting ‘Adam, there’s shampoo! Proper shampoo!’ After 3 weeks of shampoo soap bars, it was a luxury worth indulging in!

On the first full day, we spent the morning exploring the town. And honestly, Valladolid was everything I’d expected Mérida to be – colourful, cute and colonial. We wandered the small streets finding churches and squares, boutique stores and monasteries.

Another gem of Valladolid is Cenote Zaci – located right in the centre of the town but giving you the feel of being in the middle of the jungle. We managed to squeeze in an early afternoon swim (although I was not happy at the number of fish – I prefer to swim alone!). Then, it was back to the hostel to watch the highly anticipated England-Scotland game (yeah, you remember that 0-0 game… ). But don’t worry lads, it’s coming home (I write the night before the final)!

Chichen Itza

Our second (and last) full day in Valladolid saw us visit Chichen Itza – another Mayan ruins site. But this one has the accolade of being one of the modern wonders of the world. It was my second world wonder (after the Great Wall of China), but Adam’s first. So, we have a few more to go…

Unlike Uxmal, the whole of the Chichen Itza site was open and the main pyramid is most definitely spectacular and worthy of its world wonder title. We had arrived when the site opened at 8am to avoid the crowds. But, this luckily also saw us avoid the 1000s of vendors who had just started setting up for the day. By the time we were leaving a few hours later, every path was lined with vendors (aggressively) selling t-shirts and souvenirs! It was like being at a theme park where there’s more shops than rides! But, at least the rides (ruins) were bloody amazing!

From Valladolid, our next stop was Holbox! And, after 10 days or so inland, we were ready to get back in the sea!

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(Weeks 2 and 3) Puerto Morelos and Playa del Carmen

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(Weeks 5 and 6) Holbox and Bacalar

It’s official! zoegoesplaces is going on the road!

After years of talking about it and saving up, I am actually going travelling. This has been something that I’ve wanted to do for so many years now. So, the thought that I’ll actually be sat on a plane, in less than 2 weeks, with a one-way ticket still seems totally surreal.

Despite my years of being a professional writer and having had this blog for a year now, it’s actually proving quite difficult to write this post. (Unsurprising, as writing about myself is the worst!) So, I’m going to take an FAQ-style approach…

Where are you going?

I am flying from London to Cancun on 22 May. Mexico doesn’t currently have any entry restrictions in terms of negative tests or quarantine and I’ll get a 6-month tourist visa on arrival.

After landing in Cancun, I’ll probably spend a few months exploring southern and central Mexico (Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Mexico City). Then, the tentative plan is to head south through Central America before crossing the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia and exploring South America.

I have a lot of places that I want to visit along the way, but the order will largely depend on any travel restrictions and transport links. Although, I’m hoping that after spending a few months in Mexico and we get nearer to 2022 that there will be fewer restrictions.

And, after South America, who knows? Come back in a year and see what I’m doing!

How long will you be going for?

I don’t have a certain amount of time in mind. Based on the current state of the world, I imagine my plan above will take about 12 to 18 months. However, if I have to stop in one country for a while due to restrictions then it may be longer. I’m not in a rush to come home by any means!

But, what about your adult life?

Well, I am now officially homeless and (f)unemployed! I’ve moved out of my rented flat in Leeds having sold half of my belongings and the rest going into storage. I’ve also quit my job, although I do plan on returning in future… when (or if) I finally get bored of gallivanting around the world!

Having done a PhD, I feel like my twenties were delayed – I’m 28 going on 23 as I only had my viva in early 2019 and my corrections signed off in early 2020! I was supposed to be living my best, finally-not-a-student life last year! So, other than a rented flat and a job, I have no commitments and do minimal adulting.

Who are you going with?

My favourite travel buddy in the whole wide world and the most annoying person I’ve ever met. What’s 18 months of being together 24/7 when we’ve put up with each other for nearly 10 years anyway…

Why are you going now?

Because people won’t stop asking me when I’m having babies, buying a house or getting married… So, I’m running away from them all! And, I’m only half-joking (I’ll let you work out which bit)!

But, in all seriousness, this is something I’ve wanted to do forever. But, with being a student all my life until 2020, I never had the time or opportunity. So, education out the way (completed it, mate!), having worked for 3.5 years and having survived three UK lockdowns, I can’t wait any longer!

Tomorrow is not guaranteed and who knows what ‘normal’ will be or when it will get here. So, I’m off to see the world for what it is now.

What does this mean for zoegoesplaces?

Lots of Central and South American content! Although, I do have a backlog of at least seven more UK posts I want to write first. But, with my new funemployed status, I’m hoping to get through these as quickly as possible.

Plus, I am starting a travel diary part of my website! Here, you’ll be able to read about my travels in chronological order and see where I am in the world. I will try to keep this as up-to-date as possible. But, for the first few weeks at least, just assume I am partying rather than having been kidnapped if I don’t post anything!

I’ll be posting more day-to-day content over on Instagram (@zoegoesplaces). So, if you just want to check I’m alive, then there is the best place!

Can I come with you?

Since I’m only going with hand luggage, the answer is, sadly, no. But, if you’re ever in need of holiday or travel tips, hit me up. Or, you can come and visit where ever I am in the world if you so wish!

As always, if you have any questions just let me know! Otherwise, hasta luego!

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(Week 1) Cancún & Isla Mujeres, Mexico