Have you wanted to ride on the tracks of the new Mayan train with the logo, but need a travel advisor to help you?
I’ve been curious about exercise Maya since plans for its structure were first announced in 2018. I feel a certain nostalgia for the exercises I did in Chicago as a kid and I wanted Mexico to have more travel features for exercises available. There are many controversies and discussions surrounding the exercise, with its detractors saying it would be the worst thing that could happen to the Yucatan Peninsula and its supporters saying it would be the best. In the end, the effects will most likely be mixed, and that’s it. which I discovered on my vacation as I walked all the way from Cancun to Palenque.
After 8 days and seven stopovers, I can tell you that the biggest challenge I faced was not the exercise itself, but the shipping infrastructure from the stations to the destinations where we stopped. This consultant deserves to help you avoid some of the pitfalls I encountered. .
I suggest that you buy your tickets online in advance in case of any problem. Keep in mind that in each and every one of the sections of the year – with the exception of the one from Valladolid to Mérida – the air conditioning worked very well at the beginning and gradually deteriorated. as we went along. This has never been all bad, however, there have been many times when I’ve wanted more.
Cancun Station looks majestic, like one of the old European stations seen in early 20th century movies. There were a lot of people on the day I boarded, as the stretch from Cancun to Merida is one of the most popular routes. On the train, I met Lucy and Javier, two retirees who traveled all over Yucatan on the Mayan train, warning in Valladolid, Mérida and Campeche.
“We used to do an exercise from Guadalajara to Mexico City,” Lucy told me. “We take it all the time. ” The couple couldn’t wait to see what this new exercise would look like.
This scoop to Valladolid was exciting. The exercise was brilliant: new logo, in white and super soft. I bought a drink at the snack bar and chatted with the other riders. The view out the window at this time of year was more commonly a dry jungle, however, inside, cyclists seemed content with just chatting and relaxing. There was no Wi-Fi on board, which I then noticed throughout the tour. The staff told me that some cars had Wi-Fi, but even though in some sections the network gave the impression on my phone, I was still without internet.
Getting to and from the train
Upon arrival at Cancun Airport, there are free shuttle buses that take you to the station from Terminals 2, 3, and 4, with daily departures.
Take one of those ride services, or taxi drivers will rip you off and charge you a minimum of 800 pesos, or $50 USD, for a 10-minute ride to the exercise station.
The city of Valladolid is chic and old-fashioned, with a growing number of department stores and very decent regional restaurants. It’s a wonderful starting point to explore the amazing wildlife of the nearby Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, especially its pods of electric flamingos, or to stop at Las Coloradas, the area’s famous pink salt flats. I stayed in one of Hotel Oriundo’s lovely natural villas outside the city, but most of the hotels and restaurants are right in the center of town. There are also plenty of captivating cenotes nearby to spend a day swimming and picnicking.
Getting to and from the train
There are still no taxis waiting at the station (although I think there will be more and more arrivals), so when you arrive in Valladolid your option is the bus that takes you from the ADO bus terminal to the city center. Prices are 35 pesos and it takes about 20 minutes. The fact that Valladolid is a small city and that most of the action takes place in the center made it the most convenient connection of the whole set. I spent the night in Valladolid and took the same bus back the next day and the agents at the ADO desk were fully informed of the situation. Bus schedules.
With its ruined mansions, sweltering climate, and exquisite restaurants and bars, Mérida is one of my favorite cities in Mexico. I stayed at the Diplomat, my favorite hotel, and took advantage of its proximity to the Santiago market to savor local dishes. Mérida Despite everything, it has a population willing and able to enjoy its dozens of perfect restaurants and bars, as well as charming art galleries and shops.
Getting to and from the train
Arriving in Mérida at night, there were no taxis, but several electric trams, part of Mérida’s public transportation formula, were waiting to take arrivals to La Plancha and Paseo 60 stations for forty-five pesos. The adventure lasted about 30 minutes. The bus driver knew little about the rest of the connecting direction through the city, so I took a 70-peso taxi from the drop-off station to my hotel. Merida offers Uber and Didi, and both apps are affordable and work well, wait. Times tend to be longer than in a big city like Mexico City. It makes it simple to get around the city and while I’m a big fan of public transportation, I stopped looking for perception in Merida and just took a taxi or walked.
The journey back to the station was easy, but I had to take the tram from La Plancha the day before and check the timetables of the exercises that are not advertised anywhere online and that I can easily locate. When I arrived, the schedules were written on a small piece of paper taped to the counter. When I asked the woman if the schedules were posted somewhere, she said no; “They weren’t ready yet. “Anyone who wanted to know had to come to the station to check it out. I came back the next day and the bus to the exercise station left on time. It costs forty-five pesos, like the mío. la city.
When I left Merida, I made the decision to move on to Edzná to see if it would be imaginable to see the ruins there before they closed for the day. On the way, I met Paulina who was traveling with two other women from Merida to Palenque. where they lived. I asked him how their vacation had gone and he told me that their exercise vacation was less expensive than the bus and took four hours less, so for them it was a no-brainer. They seemed to be a satisfied bunch, even though at the time we were all sweating during this stretch of the holiday.
The archaeological ruins of Edzná, once a harsh regional capital of the Yucatan Peninsula between 400 and 1000 A. D. , were impressive. It’s small, the buildings impressive and there were only a handful of tourists. I proposed to go early in the day, as there is little forest canopy and walking in the midday heat almost wastes my time.
Getting to and from the train
When I arrived at the exercise center in Edzná, things more or less fell apart and I had to not forget to go through it and settle for chaos. I had already asked other exercise workers about transport in Edzná and they told me that there would be taxis there, but when I arrived, it was just me, a warm breeze, unhappy palm trees and a stray dog. Zenaida, the woman who worked at the station, was incredibly cool, though a little surprised by my assumption that there would be some transportation.
Zenaida told me that a bus line is under construction that is not yet evolved because “the station is not finished”, so there were no department stores there either. I don’t know how unfinished a station is when it’s already cozy. passengers, but I kept my opinion to myself. Zenaida called me a mototaxi which is perhaps the only one in the city and also introduced me to a car service through one of the station workers who uses his vehicle as a kind of Uber for tourists who need to get to the ruins of Edzná.
The ruins, the only charm of Edzná, as there is no town worth mentioning and only one shop along the highway, are 15 kilometers away and the warm wind in the back of the mototaxi made it seem like driving in a microwave. Abram, my driver, a super cool guy, told me about the hotel and government works near the site that would allow other people to stay overnight once it opened at the end of June, the same date. Zenaida said the Edzná station exercise will be complete.
So, in the long run, it turns out that there will be shipping and hosting; For now, be sure to bring water and food, as there are also no large warehouses in the ruins. Since the exercise arrives in Edzná only in the afternoon and doesn’t leave until the next morning, I took a combi, a small shared van. – to return to Campeche. The employee of the ruins said the arrival at 3:30 p. m. to a brake on the road. Instead, he arrived at 3 p. m. , right in front of the ruins. I almost missed it.
Campeche is another gem. The walled city of Yucatan was occasionally attacked by pirates during the colonial years, and the city’s multicolored facades and remaining sections of its Great Wall create a captivating atmosphere. The seafood is also excellent. Don’t walk down 59th Street with its cafes and bars lit up with twinkling lights at night. If you need to see Edzná, I suggest you stay in Campeche and turn it into a day trip.
Getting to and from the train
Since I didn’t come to Campeche for exercise, I didn’t have the pleasure of coming to town from the exercise station. Now I know that the buses are waiting for the exercise to arrive to take passengers to the center of town. in front of the boardwalk, where the large letters denoting Campeche are located. From here, the restaurants and hotels of the historic center are just a short walk away.
The return to the station was painful. There is no online data for some articles from December 2023 that claim there are stops in 4 other editions of the city. I ended up going to the bus station and was told that there was a bus that picked up passengers at 6:30, 10:30 and 11:30 at the same place as the drop-off point. I got there at 11:10 and waited until 11:34, but no bus came.
“Sometimes they’re early and they’re late! A gentleman dressed in a Mayan Train hat told me. “That’s how we do things in Campeche, in every way!”his friend said. My recommendation for Campeche is to take a taxi to the exercise station, which will charge you from 150 to two hundred pesos from the historic center.
The home of one of Mexico’s largest archaeological sites is also known for its waterfalls and swimming holes, so that’s what I chose to do this part of the trip: I had noticed the ruins before. The waterfalls of Misol Ha, Roberto Barrios, and Agua Azul are lovely places to spend an afternoon avoiding the heat and communing with nature, especially during the week when there are fewer tourists. The town of Palenque itself has never appealed to me much, but it’s a smart base for exploring the area.
On the train, the scenery from Campeche to Palenque was a bit more exciting, passing small farms, farm animal ranches, and greener jungle. The Palenque station was probably the grandest and most charming of all the stations along the route, and many of the passengers I met along the way were vacationing from Campeche or Merida directly to Palenque, so I think this station will be used a lot in the future.
Getting to and from the train
The day before heading to Palenque, I stopped in Escárcega, where, again, there was no public transportation. The station workers called me a taxi. When I returned the next day I was told that the exercise had technical difficulties and that it would arrive at least an hour and a half late. We nevertheless arrived in Palenque 2. 5 hours late, and the station attendant confided in us that there was a public bus that would take us to the ADO bus station in the center of town, but he didn’t. It never happened.
Instead, there were taxis that charged 150 pesos for the city’s hotel zone and 200 for the hotels located on the way to the ruins. From the town’s ADO station, I found that buses to Maya station leave every day at 6 am. and expect arrivals at five o’clock in the afternoon. Exercise each and every afternoon. When I told him that when we were late, there was no bus waiting, he said yes, if they tell us the exercise is delayed, we don’t wait.
With the exception of Edzná, all of those cities are major exercise stops and are therefore the most likely to have transportation. Still, as you can see, it wasn’t well organized at many of the stops. Some of the smaller stations along the direction are not yet fully operational and many lack critical infrastructure. Those little stops are more likely to be more useful to locals traveling the peninsula than to tourists like the two women from Campeche I met on my way to see their mother in the tiny town of Carrillo Puerto.
I think some operational issues will actually be solved as the exercise approaches its first anniversary, however, for foreign tourists who don’t speak Spanish, it will take a lot to make the adventure smoother, adding data dashboards, a map of the direction to stations, reliable and easy-to-understand public transportation, and English-speaking staff. Although it was an adventure and I enjoyed working out again, I think I’ll wait for some other exercise on Maya until it’s a bit more on the slopes.
Lydia Carey is a freelance editor and translator based in Mexico City. He has published articles online and in print and has written about Mexico for more than a decade. She leads a double life as a local excursion consultant and is the editor of Calles de la Ciudad de México: La Roma. Follow his urban adventures on Instagram and see more of his paintings on www. mexicocitystreets. com.
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