The Spirit of Mexico with OWR Travel: Abhijit’s Story

Joining OWRs New Year’s Eve trip to Mexico City turned out to be a memorable experience for Abhijit, filled with incredible people, vibrant traditions, and a deep dive into the this lively city. From Lucha Libre, rooftop drinks, and Frida Kahlo’s home, to a floating fiesta in Xochimilco, this trip was the perfect mix of adventure, connection, and celebration.

When we hear the words “spirit” and “Mexico” together, first thought which comes to our mind (well, at least to my mind) is tequila or mezcal. But I am not going to talk about these “spirits” for which Mexico is famous for; Mexico is so much more than that. It is about food and the people. It is about heritage and culture. It is about music and art. But most of all it is about living life to the fullest. 

I had the opportunity to go on this amazing New Years Eve trip to Mexico City with Other Way Round Travel in December 2024 and I am glad I took this opportunity.

This was my first trip with OWR, and this won’t be the last. It will surely be one of the memorable trips of my entire life.

“I WASN’T SATISFIED WITH WHAT’S OUT THERE, TILL I CAME ACROSS OTHER WAY ROUND TRAVEL”

I have only recently started travelling and I am a novice in the travelling world.

For quite sometime, I kept browsing for various travel companies which would likely suit this so called ‘solo with a group’ style of travelling and I wasn’t satisfied with what’s out there, till I came across Other Way Round Travel. 

I was quite intrigued by all the almost perfect five-star reviews on their trips. To be honest, it felt too good to be true.

But I kept researching a bit more by following OWR’s Insta handle and looking up live feeds of real people and that’s when I was content that OWR is for real indeed haha!

I was particularly hooked with OWR’s target group “solo travellers in their 30’s and 40’s”. And the best part is, you are not solo, but with a small group of people who probably feel the same as you do.

And so, the quest began to search for an ideal trip to really test the waters before diving right into it. 

“OWR DID NOT DISAPPOINT, LET ME TELL YOU THAT”

Luckily for me, I found this short trip to Mexico City over  New Year’s Eve in the mix.

This short trip was perfect to test the OWR waters.

With that in mind, I went ahead and booked this trip with lots of excitement to be honest! And OWR did not disappoint, let me tell you that.

“THE BOOKING PROCESS WAS PRETTY SMOOTH”

Thanks to Paula, who handles all the initial communication and booking requests, the booking process was pretty smooth. Paula answered all my questions and that also helped cement a positive first impression about OWR. After all was said and done, I was booked on this trip almost three months in advance. This provided me with something to look forward to. 

Being a tax professional, I am occupied with work for a good part of 6-7 months of the year. October/November is one of the busiest periods of the year.

So as the days rolled by and December crept in, I was very excited to end the year with a bang and was very much looking forward to this trip after an arduous year.

And slowly but surely, Christmas Holidays began which meant that the trip was almost here.

I had a decent amount of downtime going into the holidays which meant I would be physically and mentally ready to just enjoy the process of spending some time with strangers exploring a foreign land which I haven’t been to before.

Being an introverted personality of sorts, it is necessary to be able to prepare yourself first mentally to let it go and just cherish the moment.

This trip was surely a foot in that direction.

“MOST OF THE PEOPLE WERE VENTURING INTO SOLO TRAVELLING FOR THE FIRST TIME WHICH WAS KIND OF EXCITING”

We had a WhatsApp group formed one week before the trip to get to know our fellow travellers and our awesome tour leader (adorably addressed as “la jefa” – the boss, more on her later).

We were 14 people on this trip, all of us strangers to each other! Most of the people were venturing into solo travelling for the first time which was kind of exciting. 

This was indeed a brilliant idea to create a group for all of us to communicate with each other and plan for additional activities together.

All of us promptly introduced ourselves and then we quickly started planning other activities together, sharing things to do and just engaging with the whole group.

I was unfortunately sticking to a tight schedule and had my arrival and departure just a few hours ahead and later at the beginning and end of the trip, respectively.

As a result, I couldn’t find time to do additional activities with the group. But quite a few of my fellow travellers who either arrived a day in advance or departed a few days after the trip, did end up doing some fun stuff together!

I did manage to take a hot air ballon ride over the pyramids (not a part of the tour) myself, in the morning of the day of arrival.

And it was indeed an awesome experience!

And finally, the trip began officially; we had our first team meeting as a group where we had a few ice-breaker moments and got to meet our fantastic tour leader Tlilal.

She is a local from Mexico City and was enthusiastic to give us a flavour of Mexico in a brief period of three days.

And we very well got the flavour of Mexico City and Mexican culture in general indeed!

We started our tour by going to watch live Mexican wrestling called Lucha Libre, which is a popular sport in Mexico.

It was electrifying to just sit amongst a live foreign crowd and participate in one of the popular sports in that land.

We all had our drinking stocks filled up and soaked up the live action for the next couple of hours.

After that, we headed to have some amazing food (tacos; when in Mexico, the first thing you must try is obviously tacos!).

By this point, we all had gotten comfortable with each other. We shared some good laughs over drinks and good food to cap off the day!

The next day started with a tour of the El Centro Historico de la Ciudad de Mexico which was quite informative and fun. This is the most important part of the city, the downtown where three time periods converge seamlessly and provide the resilience of Mexico City as we know it today.

The prehistoric Aztecs, the historic colonial Spaniards and the modern-day Mexican government are all located in the same plaza! How cool is that!

The plaza itself was filled with a lot of activity and preparations for the impending new year. So it was quite refreshing to find myself in such a huge open space bustling with different activities.

After strolling through the plaza and visiting the first colonial church established by Spaniards, we explored around a bit before taking a short break at a cute rooftop café.

We have a very cute group photo up here which is one of my favorites.

“AN AMAZING FOOD AND WALKING TOUR”

The next part of this day was an amazing food and walking tour through the La Roma neighbourhood of the city.

This was certainly one of the highlights of this trip.

The variety of food we got to sample from across the Mexican regions was simply outstanding. One of the stops even included a vegan restaurant!!

Hard to imagine in Mexico City, isn’t it? 

Not to mention another awesome tour guide who was specifically guiding this food tour.

It was evident that Stephanie is passionate about this job and she really made an effort to indulge all our senses on this tour.

Bonus points for providing us with some interesting bits of pieces of information about the neighbourhood.

The entire group really bonded over some awesome food and drinks which we sampled leisurely over a couple of hours. 

“YOU DON’T NEED AN INVITATION TO HAVE DRINKS WHEN IN MEXICO”

Post this, Tlilal had made a reservation at a bar for the entire group to have a few more drinks.

You don’t need an invitation to have drinks when in Mexico.

We spent some time winding down further before heading back to the hotel for Day 2.

Then came the last and probably the most fun day of the trip, New Year’s Eve.

We started our day early as we headed into the suburb of Coyocan, a bit of a drive from Mexico City.

Our first stop here was the city centre plaza and the local market.

The local market was quite an interesting place as it had everything under the sun. This is where I bought my red undergarments to wear for New Year’s Eve dinner (more on this below…).

After the shopping spree, we headed to the main stop for the day, the Frida Kahlo Museum.

Frida Kahlo has an iconic status in Mexico. I am not a huge art museum fan, but this was a refreshing visit.

The latter half of the day was a highlight for me personally. After our museum visit, we headed to Xochimilco in the afternoon for lunch on a boat.

Xochimilco is a place where Aztecs had built a canal system for irrigation, which is still functioning to this day.

“WE ALSO HAD A MARIACHI BAND PERFORM LIVE ON OUR BOAT”

Today, people can enjoy a boat ride on these beautiful canals and have food and drinks along the way.

This is an ideal and local’s favorite way to spend a weekend or the holiday with friends and family. So we spent the next two hours on this huge boat called ‘trajinera’ riding along the canals.

We had our lunch on the boat and then it was time to just relax and soak in the atmosphere. We also had a Mariachi band perform live on our boat.

It was just awesome.

“OUR GROUP HAD BECOME LIKE ONE BIG FAMILY”

After our canal ride, we came back to the hotel for a little downtime before heading for the New Year’s Eve dinner.

This was a very special dinner indeed in an upscale restaurant in one of the nicer neighbourhoods in the city.

The whole atmosphere around the table and inside the restaurant was just so upbeat and joyous, in anticipation of the upcoming year and all the possibilities it would bring.

The three-course dinner was of course excellent and the drinks outstanding.

There were live performances in the restaurant too and our group joined along in the fun. By this time, our group had become like one big family! 

Soon it was going to be the dawn of the new year.

We were provided with a glass of champagne to toast and a pack of 12 grapes.

As per Spanish tradition, each grape represents a month, and one is supposed to eat the grapes for the 12 bell strikes to rope in luck for the new year.

Of course, we went all in for this. Also, if you wear red undergarments, it is supposed to attract love while yellow attracts money. I went for the red….

The party was not over yet; we all went back to the hotel around 12.30 am and then some of us (me included) with Tlilal, went to check out the EDM party which was happening two blocks from our hotel.

It was just crazy to be amongst this wave of unknown people under the open skies.

Definitely one hell of an experience.

We came back to our hotel past 2 am and that concluded my most amazing three days in Mexico City. I was on an 8 am flight early morning flying back home…

“THE ARRANGEMENTS FROM OWR WERE VERY GOOD”

As I jot down my thoughts, I have literally lived all these moments once again. The arrangements from OWR were very good.

Logistics were all taken care of, the hotel was a decent enough stay for three nights with huge rooms and good beds and awesome breakfast, all activities planned as meticulously as possible and most importantly we were in the hands of an amazing tour leader.

“SPECIAL KUDOS TO TLILAL FOR MANAGING EVERYTHING WITH SUCH GREAT CARE AND PASSION”

Special kudos to Tlilal for managing everything with such great care and passion.

She made sure everyone in the group was comfortable and had the most amazing time.

By the end of the tour, she was one amongst us, a friend, and our beloved boss (la jefa).

She carried the same passion throughout all three days and made us all feel part of the Mexican culture. 

I can’t forget how Tlilal answered my questions at 1.30 am on my day of arrival.

I wasn’t expecting her to reply to me till morning. I was pleasantly surprised by her level of dedication even at the cost of sacrificing her own sleep, just to make sure that everything was fine with me.

No words can thank her enough…

If you are reading this blog and wondering about booking your next adventure with OWR, just do it already.

This is coming from one of the most introverted persons you will come across.

As I finish writing my Mexican adventure, I have already planned my next one with OWR… what are you waiting for??