Taking the Mayan Train

On Saturday Jeff and I took the Mayan Train to the town of Izamal. The train is new and a bit controversial. It was built to increase tourism and is beautiful. Many people think it’s a waste of money because it won’t be run correctly.

Once it’s all built, if it’s all built, it will be amzing.

The Merida train station is way out of town, but really big and well organized.

We chose the town of Izamal because ot was only 35 minutes away, perfect for a day trip.

The platform was so orderly they had us stand in the area where our assigned train car would stop.

When the train arrived everyone clapped.

We were all ready for our 35 minute trip. They even mopped the floor after everyone boarded.

Forty five minutes and two more moppings later we we’re still at the station. My heart sank when a man boarded with a megaphone. No good news is ever said through a megaphone.

They had overbooked the train. We all had to move to a bigger train on the opposite track. No one clapped for this new train.

The train finally started, then stopped. More mopping, then it made it to the first stop. Tixkokob. Two people got off, one person got on. More mopping.

The train sat there for hours. Luclily there was a really nice woman and her college aged daughter seated across from us. It might have been Stockholm syndrome, but we became fast friends. The daughter went to university in the city of Queretaro which we’ve been intetested in.

We all agreed that next time a train arrived we would boo instead of clap. Finally after three hours our train made it to Isamal.

The town was beautiful. I’ll post about that next.