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Maya México Information Updated 08/14/08
The Maya area of México includes the most southeastern area of the country. For travel, here as elsewhere, buses have the advantage of going places more cheaply than other means and México has an excellent system. Rental cars are handy to get to odd places or if you have a serious time limitation, but be aware that the insurance and total cost can be bad. Use the next links to skip ahead or just scroll down.
Ruins Airlines Buses Ferries Local Car Rentals
Tourism Info
México Official State websites (in Spanish)
Other Useful Links
Mexican Laws in English.
Quintana Roo Business Directory
See Travmed.com for travel
medicine considerations.
The current time in Cancun
Current exchange rate of peso to US dollar
See 123teachme.com's list of Spanish Schools
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Find the Map Location and Population of any Village in:
Links to find Local Information by Area, City or Region
This doesn't have many listings yet, but looks promising.
Mérida Map of downtown Yucatán Living in English Motul (in Spanish) Progreso Quintana Roo Business Directory Tenosique This Spanish language website doesn't have much info yet, but the town does not have many tourists yet either. I liked it though. Discussion of where normally to stay near Tulum. Don't miss an excellent chicken BBQ place there. Villahermosa info and Museums Yucatán Today is quite informative and useful. It also provides links to commercial sources for car rentals and hotels without inundating anyone with them.
Schedules and info: Grupo TACA to Belize, Cancún and Guate. See TACA Flight Schedules between Guate, Flores and Cancun.
for possible better prices Volaris has a free shuttle to Toluca from the Santa Fe area in Mexico City.
The Shuttle may start a ferry service from Tampa to the Yucatán Peninsula at some point, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Playa to Cozumel and back ferry schedule. Isla Mujeres and Punta Sam schedules _________
Some of these have VW bugs, but don't expect great gas mileage. Check to see if prices are cheaper locally after checking more major companies online:
Campeche
Buster Rent a Car appears to allow International crossings (plus the usual multi-nationals)
Chetumal
Cozumel Car and scooter rental directory
Mérida - EcoRent (also rents bikes),
Playa del Carmen
Puerto Juarez
Tulum The Playa office appears to have a branch here.
Villahermosa
Compare prices taking into account paying for the extra insurance. Be sure to get all of it unless you use a gold card to pay for the rental. Make sure that your company covers collision damage to the car and when renting, decline only the collision damage coverage.
Cancun Airport to downtown Mexican Bus Companies and their websites.
ADO is a good first class bus to take in Maya Mexico. Use this for description of the company and its routes only. ADOgl is better for overnighters. Uno for luxury overnight buses. Ticket Bus is the most useful bus site for southern Mexico. It will show you schedules for the first class and better buses. If you need to, you can book with them within a few weeks of travel and pay when you get there. If not, copy, paste and print the times and the toll free number for future reference when traveling. Linea Dorada buses between Chetumal and Flores Autobuses Aexa in Chiapas shows schedules from Tuxtla Gutiérrez to Palenque and Tapachula Getting to or from Belize or Guatemala
Getting to the Cancún Bus Station from the Airport is now easier. There is now a bus that runs directly to the First Class bus station in Cancún and makes no stops along the way. It costs 15 pesos and is run by the same company that does the bus to Playa del Carmen.
The Savvy bus traveler. This is on a website done by the People's Guide to México, which also has a lot of other information about traveling there in general.
If you are going on to Isla Mujeres, get off at the bus station and take the ruta 8 bus north to Puerto Juarez and hop a ferry. Bus schedules from Cancun Airport to Playa del Carmen and back. Check when you get there. See that and other ways to get to Playa.
ADO is better than Greyhound of the USA for riding The regular ADO official website has been offline for a while. I hope they return some day.
Cristóbal Colon Uno is more expensive. I've never tried it, but it sounds comfortable. All go to the city and hotels. Altournative goes to Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Akumal and Puerto Aventuras too. Mayalink goes to the above and Mérida too.
Bus, boat and bus from Palenque to Flores with any agency in Palenque. Scroll down the page looking for Palenque. Most outfits charge $50 plus tax, but you can probably do a lot better if you pay as you go.
Online Road Maps Campeche Chiapas Quintana Roo Tabasco Yucatán
Use this Trip Planner to put in the dates for your intended trip and see how the average weather in Cancun is then. To find the same for another city, click, try another city and type in its name followed by - , Mexico
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Some Mostly Maya Pages about México
What if you just have a few days after flying into Cancún? Seeing Chichén Itza en route to Mérida Hotels in Maya México Day Trip Suggestions From Cancún Getting to Palenque from the Villahermosa airport Bonampák without a tour. Going from Palenque to Flores, Guatemala on your own. Getting from Chetumal Mexico to Flores. A 2005 bike ride from Mérida to Punta Allen. _______________
This list is not alphabetized. The most recently added link is usually at the top. ____________ Some Yucatan Region Area Birding Guides Ideas of where to eat in downtown Cancún A discussion of the origins of Cancún Fun Web page for adding Spanish Vocabulary Satellite Photo of Mérida US CDC discussion of malaria in Mexico A trip through Sumidero Canyon including Yucatán and Quintana Roo. Mayan Riviera Mileage grid . The Mexican minimum wage. Virtual Library of "Yucataneidad" (In Spanish) The story of La Peregrina and Gobernador Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Photos of many mostly Maya areas and a few others as well. Long list of Dentists in Cancun and Quintana Roo People's Guide to México's view on buying prescription drugs Mexican Recipes even has Pollo Pibil. Here is another Mexican recipe site Some thoughts on sleeping in the Chetumal bus station and the Cancun airport Mérida, Palenque and Villahermosa without a tour group. How to not travel from Palenque to Flores. Some Cozumel webcams. A Good RV Guide for the Yucatán area and México, for that matter. Read about and see photos of of ruins of missions in Chiapas. See some wonderful photos taken by a diver near Cozumel. Rios Mayas Coalition has photos (including Yaxchilán and Piedras Negras) and lists of sources of info about saving the Usumacinta watershed. Some distances from place to place Food and shelter costs there as estimated by Lonely Planet. Dan Mennill's Bird Songs of Yucatan Find cyber cafes in México
To call Mexico from the US, dial 011 52 and the local number. To call from another country, 00 52 and local number will work from many, but not from all Try this link to make sure. Search for volunteer work in Mexico. Mexican Travel Distances, but only good between major cities. For Cancún, for some reason you need to use Puerto Juárez. Last of the Cupules. An online novel about set among the eastern Yucatec Maya in the early 20th Century. About.com archaeology links about México.
Find the Current exchange rate. Toll way info: Don't take it. It is a waste of money unless you are in a very big hurry, in which case you are probably in the wrong country anyway.
Travel Health Info Web Cam in Cancún
Spanish Language Classes and/or Informational Pages.
Especially helpful with general info and comparisons is 123teachme.com
School Information by Area Try an online Spanish Language Proficiency Test
Cancún See general Cancún school info, prices and ratings, for the two following websites. Cancun Spanish Language Institute.
Chiapa de Corzo
Mérida Instituto de Lengua y Cultura de Yucatán
Progreso Spanish Immersion class for health and human services workers
San Cristóbal
Valladolid This List includes the Yucatán email
Study abroad options for México
Need more travel related info? Ask questions at Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree for Mexico. It is courteous to check to see if yours is a common question that has been answered already. If you register, the suggestions from readers can come straight to your email address. Just remember that they reflect people's opinions and are not necessarily wholly accurate.
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Online Radio Stations Radio Universidad in Mérida XEVT in Villahermosa.
Muyil
Cancún and Quintana Roo
Mérida and Yucatán
A view of part of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere
Need to get more information on México? Try Lanic
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Chichén Itzá, a lot of photos and a Tour
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Ek' Balam. I understand that there is an Oriente bus that leaves Valladolid main square (in front of the visitors center) daily at 9AM. For 40 MP they provide round trip service to Ek Balam and return to Valladolid at about 1 PM. You will have about 2 hours at the site. El Cayo Hochob Photos Kinichná photos
Lacanhá photo
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See many photos. Read updates about new discoveries at Temple XX and see a film. See also a video that descends into the Uxmal or see map. Yaxuná Project and see a video
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National News
In English
El Orbe (Tapachula)
Estesur, a weekly paper about Chiapas.
If you want to keep up with whatever is going on with the
fight against the proposed dams on the Usumacinta see
this weblog. at gomaya.com .
Por Esto has lots of photos.
(Synopsis of Info Taken From the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree and Personal Experience)
You will want to get from Cancun to the Chetumal bus station in time for the 6:00 am bus from Chetumal to Flores, Guatemala. This is painless and pretty straight forward and inexpensive. That 6 am bus is the only one linking the cities directly.
You can do this by taking a late night bus from the Cancún
bus station or from the airport to Playa del Carmen and transferring to an onward
bus there. If you need to do an overnight stay, Chetumal is the logical
place to stay due to closeness and being more pleasant.
The following was the song commissioned by Felipe Carrillo Puerto to commemorate his love for Alma Reed, "la peregrina" from the United States. While she was home arranging to return to marry him, chaos broke out in Yucatán and he was executed with others in the Mérida cemetery. His last request was for Alma to receive a particular ring of his. Here is an account of the story.
bajo el cielo de mi tierra, de mi tierra tropical.
La PEREGRINA
(Ricardo Palmerín/Luis Rosado Vega)
Peregrina de ojos claros y divinos
y mejillas encendidas de arrebol,
mujercita de los labios purpurinos
y radiante cabellera como el sol.
Peregrina que dejaste tus lugares,
los abetos y la nieve y la nieve virginal
y veniste a refugiarte en mis palmares
Las canoras avecillas de mis prados,
por cantarte dan sus trinos si te ven
y las flores de nectarios perfumados,
te acarician en los labios, en los labios y en la sien.
Cuando dejes mis palmeras y mi tierra,
Peregrina del semblante encantador:
No te olvides, no te olvides de mi tierra,
no te olvides, no te olvides de mi amor.
Las canoras avecillas de mis prados,
por cantarte dan sus trinos si te ven
y las flores de nectarios perfumados,
te acarician en los labios, en los labios y en la sien.
Cuando dejes mis palmares y mi tierra,
Peregrina de semblante encantador:
No te olvides, no te olvides de mi tierra,
no te olvides, no te olvides de mi amor.
Chamax is on the road to Punta Allen. It is a small site and apparently has two stone buildings.
There is one visible on the right as one is heading toward Punta Allen.
For wonderfully prepared barbecued chicken in Tulum, look for a place on the left as you are heading south. If you pass the ADO bus station on the right, you just missed it by around a block. I neglected to record the name, but the sign includes pollo al estilo Sinaloa. The chicken was among the best I have ever tasted.
http://www.mostlymaya.com/Trips/2009_Rio_Bec.html
