Stop Trying to Rip Me Off!

I’ve been traveling for a little over two weeks now. I’ve been to five locations and am beginning to get a handle on what the right questions are to ask and what I should be paying for lodging, food, buses and taxis. For example, today I wanted to go about 30 minutes outside of Acapulco. I wasn’t in the mood to figure out the bus route so I asked the woman at the front desk of the hostel how much a collectivo ride should be. She said it would be about 13 pesos. That’s a reasonable price so I flagged down a collectivo and went through the normal routine:

“Puerto Marques. Cuanto Cuesta.” I said.
“Puerto Marques?” said the driver.
“Si”
“Cincuenta.”
“Cincuenta Pesos!?! Para Puerto Marquise?”
“Si”
Knowing the price should be around 13 pesos and not 50 I simply got out of the collectivo and slammed the door. I’m not even going to bother haggling down the price of a ride that he should be charging everyone 13 pesos but wants to try and charge me almost four times the actual price. Looks like I was taking the bus. Price? 5 pesos.

When planning this trip I figured for my first month I would be spending about $30 per day. Partly because I would be getting used to traveling on a budget and also because I’m in Mexico. Compared to the U.S. Mexico is cheap but in comparison to the rest of Central America it’s the most expensive country to travel in except for maybe Belize. Most people and books I’ve read said I should expect to pay between $25-$35 per day if your backpacking and doing it right. Over the past two weeks I’ve been tracking my expenses and can say that I’m spending right in the ball park of where I should be. Lodging, transportation, food and any miscellaneous costs are totaling out to be about $31 per day. Lodging is by far the most expensive expenditure and constitutes about 40% of my total costs.

Update: There are some new photos in the ‘Mexico Pacific Coast’ Photo Album.