So, how far will YOU walk to save a peso?

Hasta Pronto to Kim....it was a wonderful visit

Kim's plane from Merida to IAH left at 6:01 am this morning. There is only one direct flight a day in/out of Merida to/from Houston so she really had no choice. So, we set the phone alarm for 3:15 and had told Kim we would all grab a taxi out to the airport and say Hasta Pronto from the airport. Living on Calle 70, we have taxis come by the house all hours of the day and night so we weren't worried about hailing a taxi at 4 in the morning. Since it is Sunday morning to us, we weren't thinking that translates to late Saturday night to others, ie, the downtown dancing doesn't stop until 3am!!! Every taxi we tried to stop was full...with early morning/late night partiers. We learned this from the taximetro driver that finally did pick us up 30 minutes later after our arms were tired from flailing them in the dark trying to hail taxis. No worries as it is a short 15-20 minute ride to the airport, and airport security/boarding is very easy here.

This brings me to "How far will you walk to save a peso?" ---- as it refers to Mexican taxis and airports. Let me back up a bit. When we were leaving Isla Mujeres for Cancun on the ferry, I saw a sign posted that read: Taxi fare from Cancun ferry terminal to Cancun Airport $45 USD. That sounds rather steep when we could catch a taxi at the ferry terminal in Cancun and go to the Cancun ADO bus station for 60 pesos...less than $5 USD. When we hailed our taxi at the ferry terminal and told the driver we were going to the ADO bus station, he wanted to know if we were going on to the airport from the bus station. It seems it's cheaper to go from the ferry terminal to the bus station, then hail another taxi and get as close to the airport as you can and walk...we aren't sure how far of a walk this might be. But it seems some savvy airport travelers have figured this out and are willing to make the sacrifice and walk a bit to save taxi fare. We are thinking taxi fares and airports definitely mean the price goes up....air travelers...tourists...taxi fares...
Well, this morning we hailed a Taximetro taxi to the airport and their taxi fares are all metered when you catch one in centro. Our taxi fare was 60 pesos this morning from centro to the airport. When we left the airport, we walked about 3/4 of a mile off the airport rd. to catch a taxi so we weren't technically catching a taxi from the airport to centro. Again, it was metered since it was away from the airport. Then, during the taxi ride home the meter went from premium noche rate to the normal dia rate and the fare dropped even lower....our ride home was only 50 pesos! Let me tell you, the normal taxi fare from Airport pick-up to Centro is 180 pesos.
So, we know we are willing to walk 3/4 of a mile to save 130 pesos....that's around $10-$11 USD!!!!