Sam said:
Interesting. Tell me more about your Mexico trip. When, where, how many in your party, etc... I'm about to leave for Mexico for a month long trip myself.
Sam, where are you going in Mexico?
I found a few posts I wrote earlier about the topic. If you want to peruse my other posts about mexico, click on "search" at the top of the page, the "advanced search", then search on mexico and put "justin" in as the user. Looks like 10-20 posts by me.
Here's what I wrote in an earlier post (it's long):
http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=4975.msg87732#msg87732
"It was like the typical "backpacking through Europe trip that college grads do after graduation (except I did it over the summer while still an undergrad). We mostly traveled by bus for long distances (including 1600 miles from Raleigh NC to Laredo, TX on Greyhound - it as an "experience"). We crossed the border on foot into Nuevo Laredo, hopped a bus to Northern Mexico (Monterrey), went to Tampico on the gulf coast, then traveled down the gulf coast, stopping occasionally. We ended up in Veracruz, MX for a week (nice beaches and Caribbean atmosphere, and summer is the off-season apparently). From there we went to Jalapa (namesake of the jalapeno pepper, nice quaint college town, bohemian, very hilly, chilly at times due to high altitude). Then to Puebla for a while, then on to Mexico City (Distrito Federal or D.F. to locals) for about 10 days. Then we went to Cuernavaca for a week where I had lived for 6 weeks the previous summer for study abroad. Met up with the host family I stayed with and knocked back a few 4 for 1 coronas at the town square. Bumped in to some buddies at the bar. Took two side trips at this point to show my wife (gf at the time) some neat spots I went to while in Mexico a year prior to our vacation. The first was Tepoztlán (big pyramid after a 1000' almost vertical hike, lots of new-agey mystical powers there supposedly - think Taos, NM). The second side trip was to Taxco (old silver mining town - lots of cheap silver) I think for the day. After that, we went on the long bus ride back to Monterrey where we stayed for another 4-5 days or so to recuperate (I got pretty sick) before the long bus ride back to Raleigh.
I think we stopped at a few other places along the way that we decided didn't look too pretty, so we continued on, and as a result, I've forgotten their names. We made a general schedule of where we'd go before we left, but it changed from day to day depending on how cool a city was, or if we needed more time. We were exhausted at the end of the trip and decided to skip Queretaro and another city and just relax in a sweet little hotel in Monterrey. The route was a big loop around the northern, eastern and central parts of Mexico. We walked a lot, especially once we dumped our luggage off at the hotel. But 1-2 miles with luggage was pretty much the norm. We picked hotels mainly based on price, but tried to get in the center of the action.
Great trip overall, but we did get homesick at points due to culture shock. Very relaxing though. None of the typical one week vacation crap of getting up at 6:00 am every day to cram as much activity into your day as possible. We'd wake up at 9 or 10 or whenever the maid started knocking to clean the room. Go out for a pastry at the bakery or pick up something at a street vendor or the local market. Go check out something on our touristy list. Stroll through the parks, sit and watch people, lots of amazing museums and artwork (loved the murals). Went to the National Ballet. It was a very amazing trip that changed my life I'd say. I hope to do a similar trip again sometime in the near (and far) future.
Here's another excerpt from an earlier post of mine on this topic:
"My last vacation to Mexico was 6 weeks. My wife and I spent $1400 total. This was in 2000. This amount included everything we spent from when we left North Carolina till we returned (from buying souvenirs (lots of silver!) to the transportation to/from Mexico). We were very stingy with money. We didn't have to pay for health insurance, but I think we had to buy some pharmaceuticals. This works out to about $1000 a month. We stayed in crappy hotels frequently. We ate out a lot, went to some touristy things (museums, attractions, etc), travelled extensively by first class bus (they have cafes on those buses!!!). We also spent a lot of time relaxing and buying food at the grocery store/bakery. Getting by on $1000 a month in Mexico would be possible, but it would be lower class by our US standards. Double that amount, and you could have middle class probably. For $3000-4000/month, you could live the high life (within limits). Take a month off and rent a place down there to see for yourself."
