http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/sbonnette/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from sbonnette en-us Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:23:25 +0000 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:23:25 +0000 We ended up having three weeks of canceled class because of the swine flu epidemic and halfway through the first week I think I started going a little crazy and decided that the best way to deal with this whole swine flu thing was to travel According the next day I hoped on the first flight out of Guadalajara to Veracruz the state of Carnival small people and witch doctors.I arrived on Monday http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Xalapa/blog-401310.html Dearest Friends and Family This is just a quick message to let anyone worrying back at home know that I'm fine safe in Guadalajara away from mexico city and other infected areas and am sitting tight. Its been a pretty surreal week to be honest and its kind of left my head spinning at how fast its taken off. On friday I had no idea what was happening and by Monday you could see facemasks and http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Guadalajara/blog-395003.html Happy Easter everyone I hope it all went as well for you as it did for mum dad and I. It literally went by in seconds. unfortunately I only had two weeks to play with for easter so Mum and Dad arranged for a week i Mexico Guadalajara and Mexico City and a week back in childhood at Disney World in Florida. Mum and Dad arrived at about 8pm on Palm Sunday surprising not as jetlagged as I tho http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Florida/Orlando/blog-391852.html So the Mardi Gras just happened in Australia and I'm happy to say that Mexico does pull out all the confetti for its own carnival too. The main spots for carnival over here are Veracruz too far away for me to get to or Mazatlan which is on the west coast of the country about 89hours north of guadalajara. IT WAS AWESOME We could only stay for three days but in those three days they closed off http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Sinaloa/Mazatlan/blog-380888.html Hello guys I've done a couple of trips since I've been back at uni first to Tequila the little town that produces the great drink and the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. Tequila is this cute little old town with nothing much in it but Agave cactus fields and tequila processing plants. We whiled away an afternoon having lunch wandering about the town and taking a tour through Jose Cuervo where http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Michoac-n/Morelia/blog-373743.html Dear family and friends. Apologies for the long absence without word but now I'm back in Guadalajara and have free access to the internet for more than one hour at a stretch I'm going to attempt to update you all on what has happened over the past 6 weeks travelingShelle and I after Christmas headed through the centre of Mexico to a city called Guanajuato. I have been there before i think you c http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/blog-368805.html Sorry only a short one this time but lots of photos for you So shelle has finally arrived and we spent a few days looking at all my local hangouts before heading to Mismaloya for a Christmas beach holiday. Upon arriving at Mismaloya we indulged ourselves in cocktails and sunshine snorkling and just plain relaxing. Here's the evidence. Love soph and Shelle.p.s. We are now heading on to Gua http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Guadalajara/blog-358244.html Wow. I mean seriously wow. This week just gone I was amazed at how different a place like Oaxaca is in comparison to the rest of Mexico. The place was a whole new side of Mexico you could almost have been in another country the language style was different the people were different the whole vibe and I loved every minute To begin at the beginning...Wednesday afternoon at around 2pm we hoped http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Oaxaca/blog-337438.html Hey guys my bad for not writing on the blog for a while its been well not crazy but I'm definitely settling into life Mexican style. So I haven't had any traveling adventures so to speak rather I've been getting to know Guadalajara and the people here. Exciting things that have occurred include going to my first ever soccer match attending a concert of spanishfrench singer Manu Chao who c http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Guadalajara/blog-331989.html I've just gotten back from a week wandering down the Pacific coastline of Mexico and it was amazing No I didn't blow off uni to travel I'm not that kind of girl. September 16th is Independence Day for mexico and as such we got Monday and Tuesday off uni so all in all Katherine and I were looking at six days of no uni and that is an opportunity too good to pass up. So Wednesday afternoon after o http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Puerto-Vallarta/blog-324494.html I'm very sorry I can't write much this time but I think the photos and whatnot are better experience than anything I can describe. Last Sunday in the centre of the city the International Mariachi Festival was held and it was MAD Last Friday Katherine and I decided to visit Lake Chapala which is about an hours south from Guadalajara and the largest inland lake in Mexico or something like that. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Guadalajara/blog-321040.html Its been a scarycrazyfunnyannoying week our first week at the University of Guadalajara universidad de Guadalajara. I'll start from the beginning but I'll say now its been an pretty stressful. As of Monday we had to both attend classes enroll in subjects and generally get through all the normal administration that you have to do at the start of any semestre at uni... in spanish... not know http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Guadalajara/blog-317708.html Its only been a couple of days since my last post but a couple of things have happened that I know you'll want to hear about....Monday was a big day for us as it was the deadline in which we had to get our visas processed you have to register with the government so they know you're here and of course my alarm didn't go off so we're running humungusly late etc lots of panicking and one expensi http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Guadalajara/blog-314358.html Instead of traveling Katherine and I kept to the city this week settling into our new place and exploring the surrounding area. Even though we're still in our own city its still been a pretty eventful week we've found our local supermarket which is like ours but on steroids its huge our local park which is actually all boarded up and inaccessible some places to eat bus stops etc. All t http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Guadalajara/blog-313646.html I've had both an a really cool and a so not cool week this week. Don't get me wrong it was 99.9 awesome Guanajuato is just fantastic But there were a couple of bumps along the way this week. Ok so to keep everyone updated katherine and I have managed within like three days to find a nice house close to uni with great internet access and we'll be living with 2 spaniards and 1 mexican so spa http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Guanajuato/Guanajuato/blog-310676.html It has been only a short while since my last blog one day but I've found some more stuff to tell you. We've found a place to live in Yeah I'm happy to annouce that we have found an awesome abode that is safe close to the uni has fully decked out bedrooms for us with all the furiniture wireless internet a proper kitchen even a rooftop sunbaking area if we so choose and best of all Katheri http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/blog-307665.html Another few days have passed and I'm still here pottering around and trying to settle in to life Mexican style. Katherine my loyal sidekick and fellow wandererUdeG exchange student arrived on Tuesday. I took a trip on the local bus down to the airport which took around an hour to get 20km. OH and S doesnt' exist down here I was sitting on the bus in one lane and it had just rained so another http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Guadalajara/blog-307302.html I've officially been in Mexico for one week and I'm having such a great time. It is so completely different from anything in Australia its mindblowing I'm currently living in Hostel Guadalajara which is in the centre of the old quarter of the city 'Centro Historico' and is within walking distant to the majority of sites in Guadalajara. I've spent the majority of the week getting my bearings http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Guadalajara/blog-305653.html