The Journey begins: Mexico City and Oaxaca

---

Mexico City

We arrived late Tuesday and managed to navigate to the hostal using a very friendly and informative taxi driver named Freddie. The hostal wasnt quite like the photos on the internet but did the job ie clean sheets, towel and a bed! Breakfast in the morning was excellent, sitting on the roof terrace with a great view over the city and we were just a block from the main square (Zocalo) where we started our day's adventure.

Places visited:

• National palace with huge murals by Diego Riviera
  
• Cathedral which is similar in style to Catholic churches in Europe (lots of gold adornment)
  
• Templo Mayor the location of Tenochtitlan a large pyramid city founded where the eagle ate the snake
  
• Anthropology museum housing some great artefacts from the pyramids and pre-colonial peoples of Mexico + outside we saw some upside down flying men
  

Teotihuacan - quick run up to the pyramids (first of many we will no doubt see), serenaded on the bus on the way and accosted by countless tat sellers - no gracias, no gracias. Rush back down the hill, across the city to grab bags and catch bus to Oaxaca. Kate's paranoia actually paid off as they took 3/4 hr to print our tickets.

Started sampling some of the local cuisine and found a cool bakery where you serve yourself using large metal trays and it was hard not to fill it to the brim with all the yummy cakes, biscuits, sugar bread and jellies(!)

Oaxaca

After a 8hr journey with a crazy bus driver determined to run at least 3 cars off the road we made it into Oaxaca at around midnight, rang the bell at hostel Paulina only to find they didn't have our booking and we had no bed for the night. Fortunately there were a couple of dorm beds spare, complete with a slightly odd frenchman as a roomie.

Explored the town: took about an hour tops! Very beautiful though, definitely nicer than Mexico City. Santo Domingo church is an amzing place all that glitters is gold (paint at least). Afternoon took us up to Monte Alban the next of our pyramid ruins (this could get quite repetitive) but spectacular views and peaceful setting. Got a lift back down the hill in a VW camper with a family of authentic Germans to boot (they even had the mad Mexican driving down pat).

Tlacolula - Our failed efforts to find a bus to San Felippe took us out to the Tlacolula Sunday market instead - FANTASTIC just what you imagine a market to be and more...even cup-fulls of fried crickets for sale (we opted against sampling them!)

Hierve El Agua - Against the advice of the hostel receptionist (who ummed & ahhed and thought we should take a tour) we headed out on public transport for Hierve El Agua the next day. According to our travel guide (Footprint) it was straightforward 2 buses and a 3km walk - what it failed to mention was the walk was over a mountain range about 1km in height! Fortunately for us there were others headed for the same place so we opted to share a taxi/truck ride from the local village at the botom of the mountain, 40 minutes of great views & hair-raising tight corners. Well worth the effort though, really spectacular mineral waterfalls and hot springs including two natural pools to swim in.

---

Photos

Hierve el Agua
Mexico's version of the pink and white terraces

Comments

[Annie]

That picture of the dog is a real winner - hope you don't mind but I've downloaded it and am gonna print it off for my office wall - so I can have the occasional laugh and wonder how the hell he got in that position in the first place!!!! Hope you are both fabulous - can't wait for some more travel updates!

[Jens]

Authentic Germans
Did they serve bratwurst and sauerkraut in that VW camper? Otherwise, they may have been fakes :-)

[Ruth]

great adventures so far - stop teasing, whats next!! beaches and heat, nich so mal!

[Josh]

Flying men
Eh? Did you say flying men? I'm intrigued - why were they flying and was that big merry-go-round being turned by something or were they pulling it around using their powers of flight, like donkeys around a millers wheel?

[DnK]

Flying men
It is like a merry go round, which they carefully wind the rope onto and then the weight of the men with 4 ropes tied to their waists means the merry go round slowly unwinds and the flying men descend!