Hasta luego Mexico

Our last days in Puerto Escondido were just spent lazing about and swimming which was pretty fun. Then we flew out of the wee airport back to Mexico city. The flight was so fancy, I bet that's how classy planes were in the 60's. So much space and peanuts. When we landed we caught a bus to a town just outside of Mexico city, Puebla. It was pretty nice, just the right size and also it happened to have an arts festival in the zocalo which was 2 blocks from where we stayed. We watched some sort of who's line is it anyway comedy thing that was done in a wresting ring, some acrobat/juggler/comedians in really tight white Lycra suits, a band in Mexican wrestling masks, and a jazz band.

One of the days we were there we went to watch some biesbol. It was super fun. They got so excited about it, and the Puebla Pericos beat the Oaxaca Guerroros! Yay! Oaxaca had better uniforms though. Sam liked it so much he bought a hat in support.

While we were there we went out to another town 20 mins away to see a church built on a giant pyramid, in front of a volcano. The photos and descriptions were somewhat misleading in regards to the volcano - it would be like saying Christchurch was built amongst the southern alps. But it WAS built on a pyramid, which is kind of funny because they didn't realize it was there because it was covered in dirt for reasons unmentioned. We were looking forward to going into the tunnels of the pyramid, but they were closed. Sad. It is the biggest by volume in the world, but did look a lot like a hill.

After Puebla we headed back to Mexico city. We went to the zoo which is free, and therefore attracts a lot of school groups. It was a pretty fun zoo, but the orangutan had dreads and looked so sad. He had people eyes which made him seem sadder. There was a super cute monkey family, and a capuchin who had some pesos that he really liked.

The next day we finally went to the pyramids. I'm glad we left the til last because all the other ruins would have been boring after them. They're so big, and in such nice condition. It's on about 20kmsq and is has 2 really big pyramids, a bunch of other buildings, frescos that are still detailed and bright and a podium for speeches that echoes off the surrounding pyramids that was pretty fun.

Today we left Mexico for Seattle. The customs guy took some convincing that it was me in my passport. He said I was too brown, in the photo I had no freckles and today I have lots. But I convinced him and made it! Yus!

Tomorrow we head back to Vancouver then Alaska! Exciting!

flying fish

Yesterday we went on a somewhat seaworthy vessel with a Mexican man who promised us turtles and dolphins. It was pretty fun because it was just the 2 of us and the man who spoke very little English. We didn't really find any turtles, we found a boat who had already caught one who we got to look at after. I felt pretty sorry for the wee turtle because he looked like he really wanted to go swimming, but it was still pretty nice to be able to talk to him. As for the dolphins, I think the boat man had given up on them and was just heading for the lagoon to drop us off, but we spotted some in the distance so he took us toward them. It was a pod of them and they were so good at backflips even Crusty Demons would have been impressed. Then a mama and baby dolphin swam by the boat. They were pretty cute and freckly. As we were heading back in we saw some flying fish which are speedy little fellas. Pretty impressive.

Then the boat guy took us to a lagoon which he'd pick us up from in a few hours. When we got off the boat he told us to follow these two guys, which we did. They led us to an umbrella which we didn't realize we would have to pay $60 peso for as soon as we had sat under it because most places let you use them if you buy stuff. I guess they have some sort of deal together. Anyway, the beach was pretty nice and clear and a lot safer than the one near where we are staying. The water is so warm around here, and we had a pretty fun day of swimming.

When we were picked up by the boat man the umbrella/cafe owner gave home a Corona to say thankyou for bringing us and our pesos. As soon as we headed off he popped the top off, judging by the empties, his 8th beer of the day. He thought it was hilarious and yelled something in spanish about cerveca. Sam says probably cerveca 4 lyf.

The past two days we have gotten fairly burnt as a result of two winters in a row so today decided to hang around our hotel. So today has mostly been spent reading and practicing underwater handstands while trying not to peel. Nice and relaxing!

Puerto Escondido

So we spent our last day in Oaxaca looking at ruins, which is pretty hot work. We went to see Monte Alban which was the strongest of the Zapotec civilizations, they even had stone carvings of upside down leaders from other towns just to show how strong they are. Then they abandoned the town though, and no one really knows why. There were so many massive monuments and things, it was pretty impressive. We bought some guide book anticipating a lot if Spanish signs, but it was in english as well so it was ok, any way the guide book made this one tomb sound really amazing, but it looked like a closet when we went to see. I guess they took the stuff out so no one would steal it. Other than that it was a fun trip. The mini bus ride up was an experience, it was about 70km p/hr in a 20km one lanes area with judder bars.

Anyway, turned out that trip had nothing on the trip to puerto. It was about 260km but took 6 hours because it was like driving on traffords hill ( takaka hill for the south islanders) all the way, with donkeys wandering on the road nibbling. Also, I guess speed limit signs don't work that well here, so throughout villages there are brutal speed bumps every 100m or so, which act to slow people down only just before they hit them. For all this speeding up and slowing down fir 6 hours you'd think they'd go through a lot if petrol, but the tickets were only about nz$15 and there were only 6 of us. I have no idea how anyone earns a living here, but they seem to be doing ok. We arrived safely, and are really excited to be here. We've been swimming so much in the pool were we're staying, not in the beach yet because we need beach towels, but it's on tomorrows adgenda. Where we're staying is nice, it's an apartment which means we get to make pancakes for breakfast every morning and it'll be nice to cook for ourselves again. There is a pool which is nice, and it's super close to the beach. We also have our own patio which is pretty cool, and our room is pretty cute. All for only $35 a night! Bargain!

Everyone seems to speak English in the town which is popular with Americans, but not so much that it's like Cancun. It's so nice and tropical here with coconut trees, and mangos, so many they're in the gutter, in Canada they were like $5 each. Limes here are 70c nz a kg which seems pretty nuts also. So we're here til the 24th then we fly back to Mexico city and probably will go to a city called Puebla from there then back to Mexico city for a few days then back to Vancouver to go on our cruise.

We haven't heard anything from any job prospects yet, so we've booked tickets back to NZ, so we'll see everyone on the 28th of may, after which I will be joining the Westpac Christchurch ranks once again!

Montezumas revenge

On Saturday night Sam came down with a case of montezumas revenge, which involves a lot of spewing etc. so Sunday was mostly spent drinking Gatorade and eating imodium. Sam was too sick to leave the hostel so it was up to me to brave the markets alone to get some fruit so he could eat some thing. Numbers are not my forte in Spanish so I was a bit nervous but luckily the fruit was $20 and the water was $8, which are two of the only numbers I learnt, which made me happy even if the fruit was pretty pricey.

Today we explored Oaxaca, we looked through the markets, saw a dancing mascot (so funny I almost choked on my churro), had some chocolate snacks, and bought some trinkets. While we were out I saw a cute bag in the shape of a pig but it was about the size of a jack russel so way to big to get home, but I later found one the size of a piglet so bought that one with some successful haggling. He's so cute.

To get to Puerto Escondido it's 5 hours faster to get a second class bus so today we tried to suss out the second class bus station, but it smelt like poos so we went elsewhere and got minibus tickets, which will hopefully be more successful.

Tomorrow we are probably going to head out to see some ruins then off to Puerto Escondido the next dat

EXPLOSIon!

Woah totally forgot to mention:

Gasoline Tanker Explosion En Route To Oaxaca

We passed the still smoking wreckage of a gasoline tanker as it lay upon a flatbed tow truck. The proud road was decorated with an immense CRATER as the minstrel trees looked on. Holy shit. Too real.

Taxco- Mexico City-Oaxaca

On Wednesday we got up bright and early to march up to the church of Guadalupe which overlooks taxco, which was pretty cool. But then Sam made me walk up to see Christo (Christ) on the very top of the hill. He was so far away and I got so puffed. We had to walk up a million stairs and roads with an incline of what felt like about 50 degrees all in jandels and a dress which isn't the best hill climbing outfit and all on narrow cobbled roads built ages ago while dodging vw beetles (taxcos favourite car. I think its because that's all that will fit up the wee streets). But we made it, but it wasn't very exciting. He was no rio de janeiro Christ. It looked like they had spent the most time carving his moustache. Anyway, so we wandered back down and looked through the markets in taxco and then headed back to mexico city on Thursday.

This time we stayed in the centro historico which is the area around the zocalo which is the 2nd biggest town square after the red square. It's a really fun area with lots of museums and monuments. Also it had a really impressive bakery. It was about as big as a Deka and had so many treats all for about 4 peso, which like 40-50c. Upstairs was also exciting because they had so many cakes on display. They had wedding cakes were like 10 tiers tall and some that weighed 110kg. They also had cakes for Jesus, Mexican wrestling, birthdays and graduations. And people went nuts about this place, everyone left with boxes of treats. Lucky.

Today we caught a bus to Oaxaca which is about as big as Christchurch and seems to be closed on weekends, which is a bit sad since we're here for only 4 days and 2 will be weekend days. Oaxaca is famous for it's cuisine especially chocolate. Yum. Upsetting that we're going to be at the chocolate capital just before we go to the beach though..

Taxco

Today we went to taxco by bus, which was super fancy. It was better than the plane we came on, we got pepsi, nuts, and got to watch kung fu panda all with ample leg room. We arrived in taxco which is about 2 hours from Mexico city and went to our hostel which is really cute. It's run by a retired doctor who is really kind and who gives out welcome cocktails. After that we walked around taxco which is a really cute town with cream buildings and teracotta roofs and narrow cobbled streets. We went to see some churches and looked through some shops and wandered around the streets. Tomorrow we might go to see another church way up on the hill if we can wake up before the heat, and maybe we'll go see some caves. Taxco is really cute. If we were retired doctors who could speak Spanish we'd open a hostel here too.

Tengo vomitos

On Saturday we caught the underground to coyoacan, which was surprisingly easy, to see the frida kahlo museum. It only cost 55 pesos to get in and was really cool because it was in the house she had lived in so it was really fun and colourful. Then we looked through some markets and for some reason there seems to be a big market for adult costumes because there are heaps for sale. I found a really sweet harry potter costume but didn't go for it. Then we headed home for tequila night. There were only 4 of us and the only rule was once the bottle is open it's got to be finished. The bottle was 1.75 l and I have never been so sick. We tried to get lunch but I made us leave half way through to vomit in a garden. I couldn't keep anything down, even water. So pretty much Sunday was spent sleeping and vomiting. Then this morning I still couldn't get out of bed so Sam brought me some toast down from breakfast and after laying still for about an hour so I wouldn't puke it up I felt much better. Then we headed our to see the basilicas for the virgin of guadalupe. They were so cool and massive. One was really modern and extreme built in the 70's and the other was old and classical and was sinking like a lot of buildings in Mexico city. Within the grounds of the churches there were 6 churches. I don't know why they have so many, but the were all really pretty and ornate. I touched so many statues to try and cure my sore belly, but then I had a pepsi and was pretty much back to normal. It was probably a holy pepsi since I bought it at a church. After the churches we stopped off halfway home to see some ruins which were the last fortress of the Aztecs before the Spanish conquered them, so they were pretty old, built in 1325, and impressive. Lizards like to live there, but it was too hot for us so we headed home for a siesta. Tomorrow we're off to taxco for a couple of days, which is a smaller city famous for it's silver, so that should be fun!

Mexico city, day one

Today we set off to the zona rosa, which is an area near where we are staying. We went to visit a giant gold angel called glorieta angel de la independencia. She was really cool and everything in that area is so tidy with such nice lush gardens. While we were there we met a fake policeman with a Velcro badge who tried to sell us a trip to the pyramids, we didn't take up his offer. Today is good friday, meaning everything is closed to mourn Jesus and reenact the crucifixtion, but most people seemed to be in the gardens we went to which were also really cool, there were heaps of museums, galleries and a zoo to see, but we're going to explore more when it isn't a public holiday. There were lakes with pedal boats but the water was an opaque green so we'll test them out when I'm not wearing a white dress. We resorted to dominos for lunch because it was least confusing and pretty delicious. Siesta time now then maybe we'll study some menu ordering techniques, and maybe off to the pyramids tomorrow.

The Union Forever

4 out of 4 Americans are not willing to trade airline seats so you can sit next to your girlfriend. And we were in the air again. From Seattle to dust etched Houston was a 6 hour flight and then short layover, enough to imbibe some tex-Mex, before we belted into our connecting flight. High above the gulf of Mexico at night we could see the torchlights of far off cantinas and lovers flames and taxicabs and pure fire until the endless sprawl of Mexico City formed absolutely. Once arrived our trepidation becomes tepid in the mixture of new air and foreign status. Our taxicab peels off it's rank and through crest filled highways we motor at inappriate speeds. Comfortably delivered to Bed and Breakfast Mexico, we rest our bodies upon our bed made of an unfurled blanket on soda cans and breathe our new home.

Today we are in Mexico.