Week 3 Mexico

Week 3

Tuesday, we caught the ADO bus from Tapo DF and 6 hrs later we arrived at Oaxaca. Now this is something I didn't expect to see in Mexico, a snow capped mountain!

El Quijote is a lovely hostel and it immediately got '10 points' because there was a resident friendly cat, who I have called meow meow.

After a little lounging we dragged ourselves out to see the sites of Oaxaca...we were both a little tired from the early start. We walked up the pedestrian street  Macedollo Alcala which led us to the San Domingo church...probably one of the nicest churches I have seen so far in my lifetime. The photos below really do not do it any justice.

Tacos, Tacos, Tacos, if we eat any more tacos we would turn into one! It was time to try something new, so for lunch we tried something different....ew ew ew....I wish I hadn't!  I ordered this - Tamal Oaxaqueno it was gross, and after tasting Roland's soup, I had food envy! Roland ordered -  Sopa Oaxiaca -  which had literally everything in it, pig skin,  cheese, tacos, avocado, chili and black beans. It sounds gross, but was really tasty!

Wednesday. Adventure day to Monte Alban.  But before we caught the bus there, we fuelled ourselves up on a  the typical Oaxacan brekkie of hot chocolate and a bread roll to dip in it, followed by an empanada covered in brown source ...delish!!

Hmmmmmm

Entry to the site was only 57 pesos and we spent 2.5 hours exploring the area. It was so nice to escape the hustle and bustle of the city below and breath the fresh mountain air. I fully recommend a visit to these ruins.

Cactus Hugger

Not deterred by our previous attempts to try different Mexican food we were advised (by an alcoholic Alaskan man  on the roof terrace of our hostel) that the local speciality of mole would not disappoint ... So in search of this dish we headed out to the local food market on 20  de November  It was lovely, the Mexican equivalent of curry....yum yum yum and well cheap at 40 pesos a meal!

Thursday. Last day in Oaxaca. Because we had to check out of the hotel at 11am, and our bus was not until 9pm, we decided to book ourselves on an all day tour (clever eh?). The tour included:

Visits to a very old tree - Tule

A petrified water fall - Hierve El Agua, only 2 in the world, the other being in Turkey, Pamukkale (seen them both now!).

A small village where they specialise in weaving - Teotitalin

Spinning is harder than what you think...I was rubbish at it!

Another ruin in the area called Mitla

And finally  Mezcal (Mexican death drink) factory.

The tour only cost 150 pesos when booked through Monte Alban Tours on Macedonio Alcala

There is something quite exciting catching a night bus, must be because you leave one place and wake up in another. 9pm, and our 11hr journey to San Cristobal De Las casas had started with OCC premier class ( 497 pesos).

Friday. Surprisingly I slept for almost the whole journey, same can't be said for Roland, I think the excitement had got to him! We caught a taxi to the hostel,Dakota's, which is more of a home stay than a hostel. We were greeted by their daughter, who at about 9 years old spoke no English. This made for a funny start to the day, managed to communicate something, which resulted in us being fed eggs and potatoes for breakfast.  Note to self, I need to learn more Spanish.

Laura  (the daughter) gave  us a map of the city and we headed out to see what we could find.

The city is surrounded by mountains which makes it picturesque.  I am starting to realise that Mexicans do love their churches, and San Cristobal has quite a few of them, considering that it is quite small.

We though we would do some museums today and learn something, but we are absolutely crap and couldn't find any of them, except the Kakaw museum  which was not really that good, I was hoping that we would get lots of free chocolate!

We did find a great place for lunch, as recommended by Arturo ( hotel owner). We both had soup, and were absolutely stuffed by the end of it! 

Saturday - Our first boat adventure! For 280 pesos Arturo drove us and another couple ( Lauren and Doug from Scotland, also staying at Hostel  to the  Sumidero Canyon. We donned our life jackets and headed out on the speed boat.

It went really fast!!!

Spotted first croc of the little adventure

After we visited Chiapa de Corzo.

In the evening we met up with Lauren and Doug for a few beers.  They were a really nice couple and we laughed a lot, some really funny stories were shared which had me crying as some points,  I will never look at Veet with the same eyes again.....1200 pesos and 4 hours later (budget completely out of the window) we headed back for the night (didn't want to break the 10:30pm curfew)

Sunday. Chill out day, a much needed rest after the 3 weeks of constant 'doing something'. We did manage a little walk to see the church on the hill to get some views of San Christobal from above.

Neon Jesus!!!

On the way back I spotted a really lovely jewelry shop, with a really friendly guy running the place - El Pendulo, on Real de Guadalupe - I couldn't resist purchasing a gorgeous ring with a beautiful opal from Afghanistan set in silver.

As it was the last day in Mexico, we treated ourselves to a delicious cake from Oh La La...OMG they were delicious!

A little map to show you where we went today...

In the evening we made most of the kitchen facilities at the hostel, cooked a home made meal and shared it with Lauren and Doug, who make a killer prawn cocktail (didn't really work out cheaper than eating at a restaurant as hoped!). A nice way to say goodbye to Mexico.

Monday - 11 hr travel to Guatemala. Surprisingly the border cross was relatively easy, no problems at all.