Mexico had always been one of the countries I most wanted to visit, and if you have been there and written about it, there is a good chance I have commented on your blog posts about it and said how much I dreamed of going there. That is why I was both ecstatic and nervous a little over two weeks ago, when the day finally came for me to see this country with my own eyes on my first ever trip to the Americas. Mexico is on the other side of the globe from Indonesia, and it was a very long journey to get there and back – each way took around two days with long stopovers in Istanbul. But oh how the exhaustion paid off once James and I arrived in Mexico City!
Ideally, this trip should have been longer so we could visit more places. But 13 days (not including two days of transit in Turkey’s largest city) were all we could afford given the limited days off we get from work. Apart from exploring the capital (which offers so many great things to see and experience), we also went to the states of México, Chiapas, and Yucatán, mainly to visit a number of ruins left by different ancient civilizations who once built great cities in this part of the world before the arrival of European colonizers. Regular readers of this blog might have noticed my fascination toward structures constructed centuries and millennia ago, as well as the sophisticated artistic expressions often applied to embellish those monuments. And seeing the photos online of the unique and intricate sculptures and carvings created by the ancient Mesoamerican civilizations to decorate their palaces and temples further fueled my desire to go to Mexico – home to many such magnificent edifices – as they look so different from the ancient art I’m more used to seeing in my part of the world.
On this trip, we visited some of the country’s most well-known ancient sites, including Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza, and Palenque, as well as a few others that receive a lot less visitors. However, seeing the ruins were obviously not the only thing we did. We also sampled a wide variety of authentic Mexican dishes (which are rather hard to come by in Jakarta), from tacos al pastor to different types of mole, as well as some regional specialties like papadzules and sopa de lima, all washed down with various traditional drinks that include horchata, pozol, agua de chaya, and our favorite: tejate. My Indonesian upbringing really prepared me for that extra kick habanero chilies give to Mexican dishes, and despite the repeated warnings I received from the locals that they were muy picante (very hot), I actually very much enjoyed adding this pepper to almost everything I ate. To make sure we got the real taste of Mexican food, we went to restaurants (from somewhat fancy to trendy), local eateries (both at a traditional market and a neighborhood hole-in-the-wall), and a cantina. And how lucky I was that James was still able to speak Spanish despite the many years that have passed since his time in Salamanca, Spain!
Prior to this trip, I looked up information online regarding personal safety in Mexico. But in the end, common sense was all we needed. We took the metro and the public bus in Mexico City, jostling with many other people who call this magnificent city home, yet we never felt unsafe. We walked down the streets of Mérida, the capital of Yucatán, and never encountered any situation that would potentially harm us, even at night. In fact, shortly before the trip, I found out that this city is in fact as safe as Tokyo and Seoul according to the 2025 Crime Index. My travel stories from Mexico will eventually be published on this blog, but for now I will take a rest since we just arrived last night from two days of traveling with a lack of sleep since we checked out from our hotel in Mexico City. There were so many things about Mexico that we loved (which I will delve into in separate posts), as well as a few other things that we thought could have been better. One thing’s for sure, however: James and I agreed that one day we will return to Mexico despite the long distance we have to travel to get there.
