Choosing your Journey
We are available to help you create a wide variety of journeys. You could say that our central skill is in being a bridge, for you to reach whatever corner of Mexico City you want. We also help build relationships, facilitating encounters between people of different worlds. To help you with your journey, we provide background information, accompaniment to all visits, and simultaneous or successive translation.
We have structured our service into types of journeys, for ease of explanation. You can create a mix depending on your interests and budget; for example, we can do one day together, and I can help you plan a couple of days but not accompany you (cheaper).
Per-day fees vary greatly, depending on what you want to do and how much help you need. It also depends on how many people are in your group. For us, it is the same amount of work if you are one or six people. However, we charge less if you are just one or two people, to make our service more accessible to small groups. The highest rate would be for large (20 or more people) groups.
Our fees range from USD$130 to $280 per day for a full (9-hour) guided day, PLUS DONATIONS (for educational journeys only, see below). The fee covers the preparation prior to your journey, and the accompaniment, guidance and translation during your journey. The fee does not include transport, museum entrances, food or any other expenses.
Cultural Journeys can focus on the important national sites usually seen by first-time visitors, or can involve an exploration of specific aspects of the every-day life in Mexico City.
Independent Cultural Journeys mean that you do the exploring on your own, with the information we provide. This option costs between USD$30 and $70 per day, depending on your group size and how complicated a day you want to organize. It includes the planning prior to your arrival, and the suggestions/information to carry out your independent journey.
Educational journeys can include up to three visits in a day to individuals or organizations that receive us and give us a talk. These visits can only be done with one of our guides (not independently). Each speaker that receives us also receives a donation to support their work. Donations depend on group size and on how long we stay with the group/person, but they range from $30 to $80 per visit.
Translation only is a good option for visiting researchers or business travellers who have their own agenda, but need reliable translation during their meetings.
ONE DAY consists of 9 hours
HALF A DAY consists of 4.5 hours and costs 60% of a full day.
Please write to us using the following form:
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A note about translation
We do not use any equipment, although we can rent equipment if you have the need and budget for it. Simultaneous translation means that we will be talking softly in your ear(s) in English, while the speaker speaks in Spanish. Then, when you talk to our speaker, we switch over to his/her ear and translate. It feels funny at first, but after a few minutes it comes very close to feeling like a "real" conversation. This works well for small groups of up to 5 people.
Successive translation is used for larger groups: the speaker talks for a minute or two and then pauses, while we translate everything s/he said into English.
Lodging
We will be happy to provide you with suggestions of hotels, and the contact information for you to make your reservations. In Mexico City, there also exists the option of a homestay, either in a beautiful upper-middle class neighborhood (Colonia Roma), or with low-income families in a neighborhood with a very interesting history of community action (Santo Domingo de los Reyes). References to Santo Domingo homestays can be found in the Testimonials page.
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