How to Survive a Bus Robbery in Southern Mexico
And then some
Being denied entry onto a plane is one thing. Being denied exit from a bus unless you relinquish all your valuables is quite another.
The adjective “Southern” is in the title because the North is mainly where the cartel action is and the South is more of a Wild West. Don’t believe me? Let’s hope you never find out.
Long-distance buses in Mexico are freezing. Despite this, we were able to fall asleep.
After some time, the bus jolted us awake. It was the middle of the night. We were traveling from the Yucatan Peninsula to Chiapas, more specifically from Merida to San Cristobal de las Casas.
“What’s going on?” my newly made Dutch friend asked a local. He was a PhD candidate doing fieldwork in Guatemala. His Spanish was better than mine.
“The bus some kilometers ahead of us got robbed. The driver says we should stay the night in the closest town.” Such stoicism.
We were completely down with the driver’s suggestion.
When we got to our hostel in San Cristobal de las Casas the next morning, we were met with a surprise: One of the backpackers who had checked in along with us had been on the bus that got robbed. He was younger than me and British. Spoke with a bit of a…
