What things cost in Mexico -- 2026 edition.

 It's always interesting to find out what things cost when you travel.   Here are a few random observations from our two weeks in Mexico, where $1CAD = 12.6 MXN Pesos as of today:

• Cost of two hours in a cheap hotel, as per signs posted out front:  150 pesos ($12 CAD) in Xalapa, 100 pesos ($8 CAD) in Papantla, Veracruz..  Papantla is a small city, gateway to the ruins of Tajin, and home to the astonishing Voladores. I suspect that in Papantla (pop 160,000) you might want to budget an additional 100 pesos to bribe the desk clerk to keep their mouth shut about your illicit tryst. In a place that size everyone knows everyone (or at least, knows someone who knows you).
  
  Los Nichos, the most distinctive pyramid at the ruins of Tajin
  
  
• Nightly charge for the best hotel in Papantla: $831 pesos ($65 CAD).  The Hotel Tajin has seen better days (perhaps in the 1920s?) but is centrally located and has a lovely patio.
  
  
  
• Cab fare to the bus depot from the Hotel Castropol in Mexico City: $48 peso ($4 CAD), as booked through the DiDi ride-sharing app in 2026.  In 2022, we paid $250 pesos for this same trip using a cab called by our hotel.  I don't mind paying tourist prices for things (what else are tourists for?), but 5X the going rate seems a bit extreme. 
• Enchiladas Suizas: outside of the capital, typically $90 pesos ($7 CAD) a serving. Enchiladas Suizas is a dish of 4-5 tortillas wrapped around shredded chicken, bathed in salsa verde, and then baked with a topping of cheese.  A reliable and tasty choice for a meal.
• Fancy meal in the best restaurant in Papantla: $600 pesos ($48 CAD) The meal included an artesenial beer for me, a fancy smoothie for Harvey, and Harvey's delicious entree of a whole fish baked in a savoury vanilla cream sauce (and a less memorable entree for me). The restaurant had live entertainment and at one point the the whole staff sang the local version of 'Happy Birthday' for someone celebrating with her friends and family.
  

Vanilla is native to the area around Papantla

• Two Chicken Schwarmas, two lemonades, and Babaganoush: $600 pesos ($48 CAD) at a low-end Lebanese place in the fancy Mexico City neighbourhood we stayed when we returned o the capital for a few days before leaving for Bogota.
• Freshly made yeast donut: $20 pesos ($1.60 CAD) in Xalapa and in Mexico City. Both donuts were super-fresh, and very tasty. In general I find most Mexican pastries kind of dry, but donuts are a different story.
• Mexico City Metro or Bus Fare, unlimited distance: $5 pesos for the Metro, $6 for the bus ($.40/.50 CAD).  No transfers, but who's complaining at that price?
  

The metro does get a little crowded at rush hour

• Private taxi from central Mexico City to / from Teotihuacan (1.25 hour trip): $323 pesos, plus $110 pesos for road tolls each way from the DiDi ride-sharing app in non-peak hours). ($35 CAD total) We've done this trip by public transit in the past for far less, but our CDMX hotel was inconveniently located for transit, our backs were bothering us, and we're richer than we were in when we first visited the archeological site in1995.  
  

We really need to up our selfie game. (Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan)

• Our most expensive meal in Mexico: $1027 pesos ($81 CAD) Sadly, this is what we paid for the the perfectly-okay-but-nothing-special tacos and lemonades that we had at the airport while we waited for our flight to Bogota.  I’d almost forgotten about price-gouging in airports, given that most Canadian airport authorities have taken measures to eliminate ridiculous prices. Thank you Canada!

Anyway, that concludes my blog posts about our two weeks in Mexico.  I intended to write more often, but life is busy when we’re travelling, and it’s tiring to operate in Spanish when your fluency is as low as mine (A2, according to both the Babel and Duolingo language apps). 

On to our next adventures in Colombia, where I expect we’ll be birding from dawn to dusk most days!