It has been suggested to us to go to Puebla and spend a few days there to accustom ourselves to Mexico. I liked the idea as was told it was a small colonial town. It has over a million people! Any advice on accomadation, things to see. Can one get back on the ado bus to continue the journey easily? I can't see any other places on route to Villahermosa that look good to stop at. Thanks

Obviously, your information was false. Puebla is large. I've never been to Puebla, so I can't say anything good or bad about it.

If you are heading to Villahermosa, I presume that it this is to see Palenque and Yaxchilan. Your not stating how much time you have, nor your interests or your goals on this and your other post makes it hard to help, but I can try a little for now.

You can get to Villahermosa on an overnight bus from Mexico City. If you arrive early enough, you could see the INAH museum, see a bit more of the city and be off on an overnight bus. See my thoughts on them at http://www.mostlymaya.com/overnight_bus_travel.html.

I presume that your wanting to get to Villahermosa suggests that you want to get to Palenque and Yaxchilan. What more do you want to do and see? How much time do you have?

We are heading to Villahermosa as we have friends there to spend Christmas with. We will use their place as a base, but don't want to impose too much. With our teenagers we do want to see lots of ruins and want to get to see some jungle. We have 3 weeks. I'm having trouble figuring out where places are in relation to Villahermosa, but it seems there isn't much between Puebla and Villahermosa so we would want to bus straight through?

Actually, looking at the map you might consider going via Oaxaca and spending a couple of days there. Monte Alban is stupendous and a friend of mine convinced me to see Mitla if I ever go back. I liked the Hotel Reforma as a nice and inexpensive place.

Villahermosa has a very good regional museum and you must not miss Parque La Venta with its Olmec artifacts. Comalcalco is a good day trip from Villa, but it is annoying with its 10 am opening time.

You could probably see Palenque as a very long day trip, but why? There is so much in the area.


You would do well to head to Palenque and see that. Your teenagers would probably love staying at one of the hotels at El Panchan, which is very multi-national in its tourists, just outside the official entrance to the ruins and jungle-like. However, like most places in Mexico, there is a place with Internet.

They would probably also enjoy an overnighter to Yaxchilan and Bonampak via a tour from Palenque. This usually includes a very basic cabin stay near the Lacandon village, Lacanha Chansayab. I have done this alone, except that I didn't want to return to Bonampak, but there are some extra difficulties without tours.

There are some quite interesting trails at Yaxchilan, where you walk through some wonderful jungle and on some you run across a small ruined building. Bring a flashlight!

There is also a campground sort of near the village that does rafting trips. See www.prodigyweb.net.mx/explora/ingles/index.html
I plan to do the day trip to Bonampak via rafting the Lacanha River in February. I'm not sure how I ran across their website. I can never find it with google.com and I have to check favorites.

San Cristóbal is a good place to spend a little bit of time and mostly do day trips. Na Bolom and the market are worth a visit each. Have a great trip!

Thanks so much for all the ideas got lots to work with now. I've been trying to figure how to work Oaxaca in as I'm a weaver so will try that angle also. The rest of the family really likes the idea of ruins and jungles, I do too as it's a part of Mexico I've never seen.