are we there yet?

Well, I am now in Bucharest so this small wonderful trip ended. Managed to backup the whole photo catalog from the Asus netbook and do a backup, unpacked, did the laundry, started work – everything is back to normal. More or less…as I’m already dreaming of a next destination.

A lot of people asked me how the trip was, how many times did I hiccup (it’s said here that when someone talks bad about you – you hiccup) – jokingingly, when there will be more pictures online, and a recurring question is “how expensive was it all”. Maybe as a rationalization for “travel is expensive”, maybe because the further away a destination is the more exotic it is and that means expensive for some. So, I will do a short breakdown of costs as the information is still fresh in my mind. I will put prices in Euros, and converting from pesos I will use Google (which is somewhat inaccurate).

• flight ticket Bucharest – Amsterdam – Mexico City and return – 475 Euro (KLM)
• flight from Merida to Mexico City – 95 Euro (Interjet)
• long distance busses from Mexico City to Oaxaca (6 hours) 300 pesos, Oaxaca – San Cristobal de las Casas (11 hours) 400 pesos, San Cristobal – Palenque (day tour – stops at Palenque ruins, Agua Azul, Misol Ha) 350 pesos, Palenque -Tulum (11 hours) 250 pesos – I started using second class buses as I got bored of being freezed, Tulum – Merida (5 hours) 200 pesos – so a total of let’s round to 100 Eur
• entrances to museums and ruin complexes were generally 51 pesos, with Uxmal and Chichen Itza the exceptions at 111 pesos (each)
• accommodation (stayed only in hostels, dorm rooms, generally hostels recommended by Lonely Planet or by fellow travelers) – cheapest 50 pesos in San Cristobal, most expensive 150 pesos in Mexico City and Palenque. In total I think 110 Euro
• food was starting from as low as 6 pesos for a taco from the street carts or 5 pesos for fruits, 8-10 pesos for freshly squeezed fruit juice to 40 pesos – 80 pesos for a meal in a restaurant (starting with 50 pesos you can find ‘menu del dia’ which means a 2 or 3 course meal, generally good value). Water bottles were starting at 8 pesos and going up to 15 pesos (1L bottles). This unfortunately I have no idea how much was in the end
• ING Homebank shows I used a total of 670 Euro, which added to the KLM flight ticket puts the grand total at 1150 Euro – while not cheap in absolute terms is not bad value
• if I had PADI training probably the costs would’ve gone up by another 70-120 Euro in the Tulum period
• in the end it’s the experiences that count, and min-maxing budgets is somewhat pointless 🙂