Looks like we're making an unplanned trip to Kazakhstan!

As regular readers know, we are heading to Kyrgyzstan in May where we have a one month campervan rental booked. We're flying Mexico City to Madrid, and then Madrid to Bishkek.

Or at least that's what we had booked. Until the other day when I received notification that our flights from Madrid to Bishkek have been cancelled.

It had been a connecting flight from Madrid to Ankara and Ankara to Bishkek. It was the Madrid to Ankara leg that was cancelled "due to operational issues". 

Anyhow, of course we get a full refund. But it left us scrambling to find flights that are only a month away. The next scheduled flight with the same carrier was three days later. And we really don't need to spend three more days in Madrid when we were only there last year. And of course it would cut three days off our campervan trip. Turkish Airlines was one option, but they were almost double the price we had been paying.

We walked through this pretty coffee plantation on our way to town yesterday.

So, I started thinking outside the box. Maybe flying from a different European city, or into a different "stan" city. It was Ruth who suggested maybe we could fly into Almaty, Kazakhstan and then take the bus from there to Bishkek. We had done that bus route in the reverse direction a couple of years ago, so we're familiar with the procedure.

So that's what we're doing. We now fly Madrid to Istanbul, and Istanbul to Almaty. The cost is actually slightly cheaper than the cancelled flight, plus we get extra legroom seats on both flights!

With that all planned, we had some lunch and then walked into the town of Coatepec.

Coatepec is another of Mexico's Pueblo Magicos.

The Pueblo Magico program is a tourism initiative from the federal government. The only problem is that there are now 187 towns in the program and it's kind of lost its meaning because originally, the town had something special to offer. We feel there are now towns (such as the gringo tourist beach town of Sayulita) that have no right being in the program.

Coatepec has a lot of pretty churches.

One of the main streets.

Cathedral at the central plaza.

Nice old building.

This is in the coffee growing area of Veracruz... hence, a lot of coffee shops!

Another pretty church.

There is a viewpoint overlooking town, but there have been reports of security problems on the paths leading up there. It was the middle of the afternoon, and there were quite a few people around so we decided to head up there, depending on the number of people we saw doing the same thing.

Long time readers will remember when we were mugged in Zacatecas, Mexico in November of 2012.

We haven't forgotten the lesson learned that day. 

So when we got to the base of the stairs and saw a shady looking character just sitting there, and no other people heading up, we turned around. It looked to be a similar setup to that Zacatecas situation. A guy who watches for potential targets, and then calls to give a heads up to his buddies who are waiting further up. We also had a similar experience in Colombia where we turned around. Call us paranoid, but we prefer the term "smart, experienced travelers". There are a lot of other viewpoints in the world!

Heading home through the coffee plantation.

We've got some major cleaning to do with Igor after his experience at the mechanics last week. Also, they had somehow misplaced his air filter when they had things taken apart, so we did the short drive the other day without an air filter. We stopped at the AutoZone here in town to buy a new one, so I have to install that. I think it will be a relax around the campground day.

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