Bright Side of the Road
Travel+Leisure|December 2016

Stranded on a Mexican highway, an American couple gets a lesson in true hospitality.

Jesse Ashlock
Bright Side of the Road

Chi and I are married now, with kids, but this was our first trip out of the country together after we met. We were standing in a trash-strewn patch of weeds beside the 180 Libre, the free federal highway that runs east–west through the Yucatán, waiting for a bus back to Valladolid that may or may not have been coming.

This was after the $20-a-night room in Mérida with the horror-movie lighting that I’d tried to convince her was charming, but before the amusingly overdesigned suite in the boutique hotel in Playa del Carmen with the bathtub in the middle of the bedroom. I’d already survived a bout of severe gastrointestinal distress while riding in a colectivo in the countryside, but she hadn’t yet had the bike accident en route to the cenote in which she scraped most of the skin off her knee. We’d kissed among the ruins of Uxmal, but not yet danced on the beach in Tulum.

This story is from the December 2016 edition of Travel+Leisure.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the December 2016 edition of Travel+Leisure.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM TRAVEL+LEISUREView All
Oodles of Noodles
Travel+Leisure US

Oodles of Noodles

Slurping through a lantern-lit alley in Sapporo, Japan, where miso ramen was born

time-read
3 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
The Sweet Spot
Travel+Leisure US

The Sweet Spot

Just an hour south of Miami, Nora Walsh finds a candyland of tropical fruits ripe for picking.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
Freshly Brewed
Travel+Leisure US

Freshly Brewed

In the Cederberg Mountains of South Africa, Kendall Hunter discovers the powerful effects of the humble rooibos plant.

time-read
4 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
SHORE LEAVE
Travel+Leisure US

SHORE LEAVE

Raw, wild, and mind-bendingly remote, yet peppered with world-class wineries and restaurants-Australia's South West Edge is a study in contrasts.

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
Of Land and Sea
Travel+Leisure US

Of Land and Sea

Savoring French flavors on a gastronomic trail between Marseille and Dijon.

time-read
4 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
FAMILY-STYLE
Travel+Leisure US

FAMILY-STYLE

Food writer MATT GOULDING couldn't wait to get back to the hushed omakase restaurants of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. But would his young kids love the country-and its cuisine as much as he does?

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
HAPPY MEAL
Travel+Leisure US

HAPPY MEAL

Many tascas, the no-frills dining spots in Lisbon, have vanished. But others, Austin Bush discovers, are being lovingly reinvented.

time-read
7 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
A City Abuzz
Travel+Leisure US

A City Abuzz

In underappreciated Trieste, Taras Grescoe finds some of Italy's most storied-and spectacular-coffee shops.

time-read
4 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
FJORD FOCUS
Travel+Leisure US

FJORD FOCUS

Norway in December? Crazy-and crazy beautiful. Indulging a family wish, Akash Kapur discovers a world of icy enchantment.

time-read
9 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
DESTINATION OF THE YEAR Thailand
Travel+Leisure US

DESTINATION OF THE YEAR Thailand

Full disclosure: I didn't like Bangkok at first. I didn't get it—the chaos, the traffic, the fact that everything was hard to find. But like all good love affairs, my relationship with Thailand—which deepened when I moved from Vietnam 12 years ago to work at Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, where I'm now editor in chief—took time to blossom.

time-read
9 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)