One of the tours we booked from San Cristobal was to Las Grutas, El Chiflon and Lagos de Montebello. It was an all day tour. We left around 8:00 a.m. and returned approx. 7:00 p.m. At first it was strange because we were picked up in a taxi. Typically during there guided tours we travel by van. We proceeded to pick up another couple at another location. It turned out it was just the four of us and the taxi driver. Regardless of how it started it turned into a great tour and a wonderful day with our Mexican companions. Our [View Full Entry]

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After recovering as much as I could, we finally went on the tour we had booked days before. They tour agency was very understanding in letting us postpone due to my illness. This tour was to the local villages of San Juan Chamula and San Lorenzo Zinacantan, both part of the Tzotzil group. Chamula is approx. 10km from San Cristobal and Zinacantan is approx. 11km. Chamula was our first stop followed by Zinacantan. This is one place that we can honestly say that you have to see it to believe it. We have done our best to include interesting information in [View Full Entry]

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After a good breakfast (which will be discuss later) with Carlos' family...we were off, but this time, we didn't need to take the bus. Carlos' family offered to take us to San Cristobal de las Casas, which was a nice change of pace, so the 7 of us carefully organized ourselves in the car. Lucky for us 2 of the 7 were lap sitters, Grace on my and Johnny on his mom, Carla. It was less than an hour, at least for us because Efren was driving. The drive from Tuxtla to San Cristobal literally lifted us into a different world. [View Full Entry]

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We continued our journey to the adventurous and mysterious state of Chiapas. We arrived into the Tuxta Gutierrez airport mid-day, which was our first stop. We spent the first two nights with Carlos' family: Aunt Carla, her husband and three children: Stefano, Johnny and Grace. It was a great first two nights with the family, especially for Carlos because he had not seen them in years. We definitely had a great time, especially with the cousins. Grace, who is 6 years old, helped me with my accent, Johhny, 10, practiced his tour guide skills giving us plenty of useful information and [View Full Entry]

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After an incredible and very relaxing time on the coast, we headed back to Oaxaca for a few days. Our best option was to travel during the day because a storm had rolled in, which lasted for a few days. Once again, our timing was perfect as everyday was perfect on the coast for us. It was quite an interesting journey back to Oaxaca though. It was suppose to be a more direct route, meaning not as curvy, but I don't think there are any less curvy routes in Mexico. You have to give these bus drivers a lot of [View Full Entry]

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Our last stop on the Oaxacan Coast was to Las Bahias de Hautulco. Las Bahias de Huaulco is Mexico's newest big coastal development project. This stretch of coast had just one small fishing village until the 1980's, but now within its nine bays, it is thriving. It seems the Mexican government has learned from its other developments on the coasts and this, if all goes according to plan, will be both a tourist and ecological paradise, in addition to employing thousands of local people, when complete by 2020. With the help of Carlos' cousin, Paola, once again, we were fortunate enough [View Full Entry]

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Monte Alban, one of the most spectucular ruined cities among Mesoamerica, is located just outside of Oaxaca City. We took at bus from a local hotel in Oaxaca City with many other tourists, which was the most economical way. It was a 20 minute ride up and over the mountains on a one-lane curvy road. We are still not sure how other buses passed us coming from the other direction. Upon arrival to Monte Alban around 10:00 a.m.the fog was quite thick, but little by little the fog lifted and the sky opened up a bit. We were lucky that [View Full Entry]

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We took a day trip to Mazunte, which is only 1 mile/ .62 km from Zipolite. We simple got lost in its beauty though. Our main objective for visiting Mazunte was for the Turtle Museum, which will be the next entry. We won't bore you with the all of the details in this entry. You can simply view the photos and read the captions to get a taste of our experience. We had a late breakfast early lunch of our favorite chiliquilas and fruit with a pitcher of agua de limon and then spent the day just relaxing on the [View Full Entry]

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Our next day trip was to El Museo de las Tortugas/Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga in Mazunte. The turtle industry was banned in 1990. With the help of government action and community cooperation this former turtle processing factory has been converted into a center for the recovery of Oaxaca's Pacific Sea Turtles. All seven of Mexico's marine turtle species are represented here at the center. This was one of the highlights of the trip, especially for Carlos because of his love of turtles. Carlos has his own turtle here in Mexico. Her name is Cucalaloca and she just got a [View Full Entry]

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After our tour in the Valley of Oaxaca, it was time for some fun in the sun. We boarded our night bus at approx. 11:00 p.m. for a 9 hour trip to Puerto Escondido. Ironicially, our Italian friends were on the same bus and sitting right behind us. It was an uncomfortable night on the bus, but worth the night bus trip because we didn't want to spend money for a hotel that night nor travel during the day. The night buses are safe for travel as well. Most of the travel books warn against night travel because of past [View Full Entry]

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