We decided to go to Central America this summer to convert the South American holiday that we have been thinking about for a long time but we can't make time for the winters. Although we plan to travel more than one country first, we decided to go to Mexico, taking into account our transportation, security and limited time. Although our time was two weeks, there would be no freezing in nyc air, and when we took the time to America, we were shortened 🙂
In fact, it all started with the Frida & Diego exhibition at pera museum and the film Frida, which we watched afterwards. It was impossible not to be impressed by the art of Frida and Diego, and the idea of seeing the reality of colorful scenes in the film was when Mexican food merged with our dream, we found ourselves buying our tickets to NYC- Cancun- Mexico City. We didn't consult anyone until we got the tickets, so we were going to america's neighbor. But then, when a lot of the people we talked to talked about talked about about security issues in Mexico, drug cartels, we started questioning our choice. We e-mailed the Turkish Embassy in Mexico, and then consulted my cousin, who works at the embassies of different countries. We're really lucky at this point because a very close friend of my cousin's was working at the Turkish Embassy in Mexico. After e-mailing him long and receiving detailed advice on our trip, we waited for the day of travel in an increased way…
NOTE: If you enter Mexico from the United States for those who are curious, an American visa is enough. But one thing to note is that you give the form you filled in when you entered the United States and delivered it on your way out to the attendant when you boarded a flight to Mexico. Because the same form is filled when it comes from Mexico.
NOT2: Even if the USD passes in Cancun, it's also worth $200-300 where you first found it. For Mexico City, make sure the USD is almost exclusively in places selling souvenirs.
We flew to NYC in mid-July and took a full day off in this bubbling city (donuste again) and then flew to Cancun early in the morning. You can fly from the United States to Aero Mexico or Jet Blue. Cancun is an old fishing village in The Yucatan region of Mexico, which was bugunku by the Americans in the 1970s, and now it is a holiday town like Miami and Antalya with its white sand, turquoise sea giant hotels. Our goal of going here was to see Chichen Itza, one of the largest Mayan temples besides the sea.
We arranged the Hilton hotel in Cancun and made sure it wasn't all-inclusive like most other hotels because we were going to use the hotel mostly at night. The rooms, the ocean view and the beach were very nice. The breakfast they served in Mexican food was incredible. You can do it with a shuttle that you can arrange when you arrive at hotels from the airport. We didn't think about renting a car, but then we realized that the places we planned to visit were too far apart and rented a small car from the hotel.
Attractions in this bolge are Chichen Itza, Playa Del Carmen (night main street, spectacular beach during the day), cozumel and isla mujeres islands, Tulum (Mayan temples by the sea), Cancun city centre and XELHA. We were able to stay three nights, and unfortunately we couldn't go to some of these, so we could stay a few more days.
Go to Chichen Itza with a tour you can arrange from hotels. The tour bus picks up from your hotel in the morning and after 2.5 hours, it takes a meal and shopping break near a small Mayan village. You can swim here in Cenote. Then half an hour later you arrive at Chichen Itza. The English-speaking guide also describes his works and Mayan culture in detail. Since the road lasts a long time, you have to separate 1 full day here. We arrived at the hotel in the evening, but we were tired around 9 pm. There's also an icy Corona treat in the bus:P
Playa Del Carmen is an hour and a half from Cancun. It's more of a Place where there are Europeans and reminiscent of Ibiza. It's fun to walk down the main street at night. There's a lot of restaurants and shops. Ozellkle Mexican handicrafts are very enjoyable to visit the shops. The beach is amazing during the day.
By the way, you have to go to Cozumel and snorkel. We arrived at Cozumel in about 45 minutes by ferry from Playa Del Carmen (the round-trip ticket price was $34 per person). And when you get there, you can do your snorkeling tour, but if you want, you can arrange it before you get on the ferry. The sea is very clean sand white and surrounded by colorful fish and corals, must be seen.
Unfortunately, we didn't see much because we were late (around 6:00 p.m.), so museums were closing at this hour, but the Americans we met in Cozumel said it was overwhelmed. If we had another day, we would surely take the Tulum & XELHA tour, which was set up from hotels. XELHA is a water and amusement park set up around natural laguns. $100 per person and there's unlimited food and drink inside.
As for the food, Mexican food is really, really nice, we've always loved it, but we've eaten more TexMex so far and what we ate here was much better… My favorite was Tamale, I'd never eaten in Tükiye, but I heard the words of praise in a section of Jamie Oliver and wrote it down in a corner of my mind. Tamale corn cobs consist of steamed tortilla dough and meat or chicken with sauce in it. You can find it anywhere. Other than that, the tortilla chips and salsas that preceded the various kinds of tacos were really nice. And you shouldn't skip guacomole. Most places have fresh juice, my favorite was Jugo Verde, which consists of green fruit vegetables such as cactus, Kiwi, Apple, Celery stalk.
After touring cancun and the surrounding area, we flew to Aero Mexico and Mexico City. We were still excited because in fact, Cancun looked more like America than Mexico, but we felt that Mexico City would be very, very different. A huge city of 20 million people was waiting for us 🙂