Traveling on other continents always requires an initial journey in the first place. The flights I booked via STA Travel (a provider of offerings for students and young people with amazing customer service - highly recommendable) should bring me from Munich to Amsterdam, Mexico-City to my final destination at the pacific ocean, Puerto Vallarta, following a 1-2h journey by bus to my first destination Sayulita.
Since my travel buddy Samantha arrived 4h later than me in Puerto Vallarta, the overall travel duration included also 4h waiting in the Mexican sun at the airport, which I already used to prepare this blog. Overall 31 hours, of which 16h were spent in airplanes and 10h waiting at airports, sounded boring in the first place, but I met so many interesting people on this journey, which is why time was flying.
There was for example Sarah, who just headed to the production of one of these 'Love Island' copies as one of the participants. Telling stories about her plans to prevent being filmed on the toilet up to the organization around the production, like getting picked up by a private driver and handing in her smartphone for 2 weeks, made my day and was also refreshing input to shorten the time. Plus, she promised to quote me during the show. To be followed upon. And there was Lea, who is a German education student who just flew back after her Christmas holiday to proceed teaching small children in a newly founded elementary school in Puerto Vallarta. Showing pictures of her children and sharing a lot of enthusiasm about her job in a charming and captivating way filled the 2 hours flight within Mexico. And this was the reason, I was running around with a teddy bear on my shoulders at the airport - thanks :)
Arriving in Mexico City the first hurdle came up. To travel in Mexico, there is no Visa required as a European citizen, but Mexico needs to grant you a duration of stay for the time you want to spend in Mexico. This granted time can be 0 to 180 days and can be randomly decided on by the customs officer. Since there were stories in travel communities about people getting only 5 or 10 days granted, forcing them to fly to one of the borders and do a Visa run (mostly to Belize), made me a bit nervous. In the end, everything worked out, I got more than the 70 days I needed and that I asked for in my yet poor Spanish.
The only thing that did not work out as expected was my food supply. I had a lot of fruits, buns, and snacks with me, but did not need them, because even on the short 2h flights, food was provided, and in the end, I dumped lots of my food before entering Mexico, because it is officially not allowed to bring food - especially fruits or meat - to the country, which I just learned during the flight. But this was the only small thing happening other than expected.
After welcoming Samantha at the airport and convincing her to take the local bus instead of uber for the full experience, we headed to Sayulita [50$ (Mexican pesos, which use the Dollar sign as well) ~ 2€ for a 1,5h bus ride]. After a 10 minutes walk with our luggage we arrived in Selina, one of the most beautiful hostels I might have ever been in and our place to be for the next week, opening up the beauty and the vibe of Sayulita, this "pueblo magico", this surfers dream and digital nomads balance.
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