Blogs from Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, North America - page 14

1/5/09 = A church and stormy day in Oaxaca :( Actually had a half decent nights sleep, only ruined by the bitten body I woke up to...my body that is! Been really lucky in Mexico so far; not even seen any mosquitoes, but they got me good and proper last night…arms...legs... back...everywhere! Curse my tasty blood! Skipped out for the tasty eggs and toast breakfast had seen advertised only to be brutally shot down when the lady announced it was ‘Mexican Breakfast’ day. What even is a Mexican breakfast? I’m sure it doesn’t involve anything by Kellogs! To this day, we don’t know for sure what was on that plate, only that it consisted of 3 things: 1) A dark, black and slightly sticky pot of coffee (yuk!) 2) The same sized pot, but this time ... read more

30/4/09 = V.scary arrival in Oaxaca Another bad sleep. Still awake when a guy came in just before midnight and then kept awake when same guy fell asleep instantly and snored for rest of night. Don’t need to re-iterate how I feel about snorers! Did the half-sleep thing until 8am, then got up, packed up, had breakfast and headed out just after 9:30 to visit Zona Archeological Cholula = a church on a hill/former pyramid. Not going for the church - had quite enough of those - going for the amazing view of the volcanoes you get from the top. Stored bags and pottered off to catch bus; only 5peso = v.cheap. Nice bus man told us where to get off, but didn’t tell us where the church on a hill was. Walked generally until came ... read more

Sur la route de l'ocean pacifique, nous avons fait un arret supplementaire a Oaxaca, la ville, pour 3 jours...enfin 2 et demi si l'on compte que l'on a dormi partie du premier pour recuperer da la nuit passe dans le bus Oaxaca est une tres chouette petite ville au centre de la sierra madre....montagne desertique, il fait chauuuuuuud la haut. Nous avons craque sur le marche artisanal...deux fois :D mais c'etait vraiment trop beau et la premier paquet en direction de la maison est sur le chemin. Dans l'etat de Oaxaca, le textile en laine est une specialite et encore fait a la main...impossible de resister, surtout quand on va visiter un atelier, Teotitlan. Nous ressemblons donc maintenant un peu moins a des touristes et nos petits sac a dos sont remise au placard tandis que ... read more

Saturday, March 14th. We are now in the city of Oaxaca at San Felipe Trailer Park in the hills above the city. Our host, Doug French is an American. The past two days from San Cristobal de las Casas to Oaxaca (pronounced wa-HAH-ka) have been the most exhausting and frustrating days we have had on this entire trip. Our Church RVing Mexico guide said that it would be 357 miles and take 12 hours. Mike recommended we overnight in the city of Tehuantepec. We were supposed to bypass the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, a city of more than 500,000 people because it lacks any colonial buildings or interesting sights. However, we wound up nearly going thru the city center because we either missed a road construction detour or didn’t know where the heck we were going. ... read more

Apparently the best way to get to Oaxaca from Puerto Escondido was on one of the frequent express van services. These went straight over the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range rather than taking three hours longer going via the highways and avoiding the high peaks. It was a pretty straight forward choice as we had already clocked up over 25 hours on Mexico’s buses so unnecessary extra hours was certainly not desirable. If the Americans are in search of an alternative form of torture to the much condemned practice of Waterboarding then we’ve discovered it. Neither of us are easily made travel sick particularly to the point of nearly vomiting but our express van service conclusively did the job. The mountain road was an endless series of hairpin and near hairpin bends and for four ... read more