Mexico: Mayans, Aztecs and Conquistadores This was a very comprehensive tour from Mexico City to the Yucatan Peninsular visiting many amazing archaeological sites, colonial cities, markets, churches and seeing different local products being made. It also gave us the opportunity to sample a wide range of different Mexican foods including a lesson on how to prepare, cook and present a typical Mexican meal. Also interesting to see the varied wildlife and often stunning scenery.
Excellent introduction to Mexico As this was my first group, I chose this itinerary as it alternates days of travel with full days in a location - when I cold choose between group activities and visiting on my own. Everything went very well - the trip leader was competent and provided excellent info and advice.
This is a great trip - very colourful! This was a really well -planned full itinerary with little down time and early starts every morning!
The traffic in Mexico City meant that journeys between locations always took a long time but Berto, our driver was very calm. On the first day you are still recovering from the long day of travel but the visit to the Frida Kahlo House was very worthwhile and the canal boat "dodgems" at Xochimilco was great fun!
It was nice to get out of the City to the site at Teotichuacan the next day - the large pyramids are stunningly impressive but you can no longer climb them.
The best time was in Oaxaca as we spent 4 nights at the same central hotel and we had plenty of opportunity to soak up the festive atmosphere and see plenty of costumes and parades. The food is very good here and, of course, we learned how to make some salsas and mole.
We were lucky enough to spend time at the cemetery with a family where the son was playing the guitar and singing ballads to the dead relatives - very moving and atmospheric.
Monte Alban was my favourite archaeological site, partly because of the stunning views but Palenque was lovely because of its jungle location with the howler monkeys screeching in the background and the fact it was possible to climb the Pyramid of the Cross to have a view across the site.
Unfortunately, we only had less than an hour at Uxmal as we arrived late in the afternoon and our visit to Chichen Itza was quite short as we had to leave for the airport.
We did so many extras and Arturo always ensured we had good places to eat and drink!
