A Taste of Mexico - Markets and Mayan Sites

Arrive in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico and truly the heart and soul of the country. With so much rich history to discover, the city is filled with historic buildings, landmarks and the largest number of museums in the world.

Due to the number of evening flights into the international airport, your Leader plans to do the welcome meeting on the morning of day two, and will leave a message in reception with details on timings and everything else that you'll need for the day. There are no activities planned today, so you are free to arrive into Mexico City at any time. If you would like an airport transfer today, you'll need to arrive into Mexico City International Airport (MEX) which is approximately a 30 minute drive from the hotel.

If your flight arrives earlier in the day, you may want to get out to one of the city's incredible museums, and the Museo Nacional de Antropologia is particularly acclaimed for its astounding collection of pre-Hispanic artefacts. In fact, spending an additional few nights in Mexico City before the tour starts is well worth considering for those who have the time available.

We have a big day planned for our first full day in Mexico City, starting with the ultimate street food tour. During our culinary exploration of the city, your tour leader will introduce you to some of Mexico's most famous exports-think Barbacoa Tacos and Tamales. We'll visit downtown, including the famous Metropolitan Cathedral and the Zocalo (main square). Here, you will have the chance to try 'tacos de canasta.' Afterwards, we'll head to the Jamaica Market-one of the city's most traditional markets. The market is an explosion of colour and fragrances. Often these markets are filled with locals, so expect the service to be quick and a bit frenetic on busy days! At the market, you can enjoy green sausage tacos, known as 'longaniza verde,' jicama, which you can mix with different flavours or ingredients like chilli powder, coconut cream, grasshoppers, or esquites.

Later, we'll drive to Coyoacan in the south of Mexico City's Federal District, famous for its local arts and crafts market, as well as its coffee and churros culture. Founded in the seventh century and later conquered by the Mexica, the 'place of coyotes' retains its small-town charm with cobbled streets, colonial churches, and colourful markets. We will have the chance to try coffee, churros, and ice cream featuring interesting flavours such as black zapote, avocado, guanabana, or Chamoy. Don't worry though, there are also regular flavours available. After this, we'll have some free time to explore. If you'd like to visit the Frida Kahlo Museum, this is the perfect time to do so-tickets must be purchased in advance.

This evening, if scheduling permits, we may have the opportunity to watch a performance of Ballet Folklórico at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Departing from the city, we will journey north to the pyramids of Teotihuacan. Abandoned thirteen centuries ago and once the largest city in the Americas, Teotihuacan's influence permeated throughout Middle America. Maya craftsmen adopted its decorative motifs and architectural designs, and centuries later, the Aztecs revered it as 'the Place of the Gods.'

After exploring this remarkable site, we will continue our short journey east to the city of Puebla, passing between three of Mexico's most iconic volcanoes: Ixtaccihuatl, Popocatepetl, and La Malinche.

Along the way, we will make a stop for a fascinating demonstration & workshop on the cultivation and use of nopal- a staple in Mexican cuisine and culture.

We start our day with a visit to Puebla's Sweet Street - the 'Calle de los Dulces'. Puebla is a great stop for those with a sweet tooth and the city has an entire road dedicated to producing and selling sweets and biscuits.

This will then be followed by a visit to the former convent of Santa Rosa, the alleged home of the creation of the 'mole poblano'. Both Oaxaca and Puebla claim to be the creators of mole, pronounced 'mo-leh', and it comes in many forms and colours. The most famous is the dark chocolate one from Puebla. A good mole is thought to have over 20 ingredients in its mix including chilli, tomatoes, garlic, cinnamon and many more, and is normally poured over chicken or tacos. We will have the opportunity to sample the local varieties over lunch today, before driving south through cactus country to Oaxaca, one of the most charming colonial cities in Mexico.

We have a free morning today, during which you may like to visit the nearby Zapotec site of Monte Alban, which flourished over 1,500 years ago. This impressive complex of temples, pyramids and enigmatic rock carvings was built literally on top of a hill, which means that there will be some hill walking and steps to conquer in the site. The incredible views over the Sierra Madre and the fertile valley are well worth the effort. For those who would prefer to remain in the city, Oaxaca is a charming place to while away a morning. Try visiting one of the local bakeries, or the 20 de Noviembre market for a morning 'pan'.

At lunch we will drive out of the city a little way, stopping off at a traditional mezcal factory en route. Mezcal means 'oven-baked agave cactus' and you will have a chance to the see the process of how this is made, as well as trying some of course. Lunch is taken at the 'Caldo de Piedra' restaurant, named after an ancient cooking techique where raw fish, shrimp and vegetables are cooked when a red hot stone is added to the broth. We'll return to Oaxaca in the late afternoon.

Today we have our first-hand experience in a Mexican kitchen when we join a cooking class. We start the day by going to the Centro de Abastos - one of the biggest food markets in the city, where we will see the enormous selections of fresh ingredients used in Oaxacan cooking. Our chef will talk us through the variety of tropical fruits and vegetables that we'll see, and we'll purchase those needed for the meals we will be preparing together. With our ingredients in our shopping bags we head back to the restaurant to prepare several separate dishes, which we will then eat for lunch. The daily menu may vary, but its likely it will lean heavily into Oaxacan coastal cuisine where seafood and fish are the specialities. We may be making tamales, learning how to stuff chillies or preparing a local mole. Usually the chefs give us a typical hot chocolate or coffee and some fruit on our arrival, and we'll be sure to enjoy some tequila along with our meal.

This afternoon has been left free to explore Oaxaca further.

Today is a full day's journey that will lead us up through the winding roads of the Sierra Madre Mountain range and we'll make several stops along the way.

Our first port of call is a 2,000-year-old swamp cypress tree in Santa Maria del Tule, close to Oaxaca. The tree has a circumference of 54 metres and has the shortest trunk of any in the world. Next, we'll head to the small town of Teotitlan del Valle, a region where it's more common to hear the Zapotec language than Spanish. Here, weaving has been a local technique since ancient times, and we'll see how the craftsmen make fine works of art.

We'll continue to the ancient Mixtec site of Mitla, where we'll have an explanation of the ruins.

Finally, we'll journey on to our hotel in Chiapa del Corzo, the provincial capital of Chiapas state. Note, our drive time today is ten hours, including stops.

Today, we visit the spectacular Sumidero Canyon, a unique 41-kilometer-long rift carved by the Rio Grijalva, with depths reaching up to 1,000 meters.

This historically significant site is where, in the 16th century, 1,000 Chiapa indigenous people chose suicide over submitting to Spanish rule.

We'll embark on a speed boat trip to fully appreciate the towering gorge before driving two hours along a scenic mountain road to San Cristóbal de las Casas. Located at 2,210 meters above sea level, San Cristóbal can get quite cold at night, offering a sharp contrast to the climate of Chiapa del Corzo.

We will start our day with a visit to the food market. In contrast to the markets of Oaxaca, the ingredients differ here in San Cristobal as do the traditional meals. You will see a range of produce such as coffee and cacao and our Tour Leader will explain their use in local food. According to the Popol Vuh, the book on the creation of the Maya, man was created from yellow and white corn. Corn grows throughout the Chiapas highlands and is used today as their main ingredient in traditional indigenous cooking of the Tzotzil and Tzeltal communities.

There is a unique atmosphere to this small colonial town, high in the scenic Chiapas range. The indigenous groups from the surrounding hills fill the town and marketplace with their colourful dress including the distinctive Tzotzil Indians who still retain much of their Maya customs and language. They are noted for their bright textiles and weavings in bold designs and this is the place to bargain for some colourful souvenirs. This afternoon you may wish to visit Na Bolom, the House of the Jaguar, which is dedicated to the preservation of the Lacandon tribe and displays many of their artefacts.

This evening we will visit a traditional restaurant in San Cristobal, serving up delicious authentic dishes like enchiladas, mole stews and San Cristobal's 'bread soup' (packed with vegetables, boiled egg, banana slices and corn bread).

Today, we leave the highlands and journey to the jungles of Palenque. Along the way, we'll stop at a traditional cacao ranch to learn about the cultivation and processing of cacao into chocolate. After exploring the ranch, we'll enjoy a delicious lunch of deep-fried mojarra (freshwater bream) in a picturesque setting overlooking Lake Nezahualcoyotl, with a vegetarian option available for non-fish eaters. Our journey then continues through the state of Tabasco, heading toward the Gulf of Mexico, and finally arriving in Palenque.

This morning we will start early with a guided visit to the famous jungle ruins of Palenque, a fascinating and important Mayan site. Once the choking forest was cleared, the ruins revealed the tomb of the high priest Pakal, his body adorned with a marvellous jade death mask - one of the most prized relics of the Maya culture, discovered only in 1952. Only 1% of the site has been excavated, and with its shroud of the steamy rainforest it has an aura of deep mystery.

In the early afternoon we drive along the Gulf coastline to the pleasant colonial city of Campeche, the state capital and once one of Spain's main ports in Mexico. It's a long drive, and we'll take plenty of snacks, with the aim to arrive into Campeche in the late afternoon, before the sun sets. Campeche, although less visited than many parts of the Yucatan, boasts one of the most elegant and well-maintained colonial quarters with 18th and 19th century houses painted in soft pastel colours.

Before departing today your tour leader will take you on a short orientation walk around the historic fortified town of Campeche.

We then take a short drive to Uxmal. Encircled by hills, Uxmal is expansive in its design, with majestic palaces, temples, pyramids and long geometrical friezes that rank amongst the most splendid examples of ancient American art anywhere. The incredible Pyramid of the Magician and the beautiful Governor's Palace must also rate as two of the finest examples of Mayan art on the entire continent. Today we will visit this extraordinary site, spending some time exploring what for many is considered the crowning glory of Puuc architectural style, with its classical lines and abstract designs. We will then break for lunch at the Ppapp Hol Cha Uxmal, a restaurant serving the traditional regional dish Pibil. The word Pibil means 'cooked underground', and it is a technique where the meat is wrapped in a banana leaf, marinated in a sour orange and annatto sauce and baked in a barbeque pit for several hours.

Following lunch we continue on to Merida, a city famed for its beautiful Spanish-Moorish style architecture. Known as the 'White City', Merida is the capital of the state of Yucatan and its centre reflects its colonial heritage, with a church or mansion on every street and its plazas alive with markets, entertainment and visitors.

This morning, we'll visit the ruins of Chichen Itza. Founded in AD432, re-founded in 987 and conquered by the Toltecs in the 10th century, the culture of the Maya and the Toltec gradually fused. The pyramids, palaces, temples and ballcourt (where death was the penalty for defeat) are adorned with astonishing sculptures. Under the pressure of the civil war, the great monuments deteriorated, and the Maya civilisation collapsed, but undeniably Chichen Itza remains one of the most outstanding sites in the Americas - its main pyramid was denoted as the Seventh New Wonder of the World in 2007.

This afternoon we will return to Merida. We will have the opportunity to visit the Colon ice cream parlour, which has been making ice cream and cakes for over 100 years; there will be lots to choose from!

The trip ends in the morning at our hotel in Merida.

There are no activities planned today, so you are free to depart from Merida at any time. If your flight is departing later in the day luggage storage facilities are available at our hotel. If you would like an airport transfer today, you need to depart from Manuel Crescencio Rejon International Airport (MID) which is approximately a 20 minutes' drive from the hotel.