http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from North America , Mexico en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:09:01 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:09:01 BST Saa saa man lige os tage til Puerto Escondido stillehavssiden af Mexico ankom efter en laaang bustur med ildelugtende og skrigende boern. Da vi ikke just havde sat os ind i omraadet slog vi bare op i Lonely Planet og fik en gammel taxachauffoer der lignede en bondemand til at koere os til Zicatela stranden. Her vidste han lige hvor vi kunne bo billigt..... for 500 pesos 250 DKK hos hans f http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Puerto-Escondido/blog-304535.html The Oaxaca festival lasted most of the time we were there so we saw plenty of dancing music and had a cheeky afternoon at the mezcal festival sampling all the flavours literally all. On Tuesday Ricky and Samantha went on a day trip to swim in waterfalls at the top of a mountain a mezcal factory a big old tree and an indigenous village Daniel had fallen victim to a combination of mexican f http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Zipolite/blog-304512.html Man oh man the days are long. I've actually resorted to drinking some coffee in the morning to help me get going which is sad but seems necessary. All of the other volunteers rely heavily on a cup of joe in the mornings. Last you all heard from me I was sick and luckily it seemed to only be a 24 hour bug. Not bad at all. I finished up the descanso last weekend strong with some shopping I fi http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Morelos/Miacatlan/blog-304489.html WOW...AMAZING BEAUTIFUL PLACEIsla Mujeres is a privileged place with a unique natural and cultural wealth in Mexico. This beautiful island combines the beauty of the Caribbean the dense tropical jungle and the wonderful heritage of the Mayan civilization. It stands out as one of Mexicos natural treasures a truly delightful paradise on earth.In addition to its beaches and the stunning natural ar http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Quintana-Roo/Cancun/blog-304197.html Spanish classes have been hard. They cram a lot of knowledge into the 2 and a half week course. We have learned 100 verbs over the last week and a half. I have lots of homework every night and often ask myselfhelliprdquoWhat was I thinkingrdquo But even as stubborn as I am getting every day I am able to understand more and more. Even recognizing words that quickly fly out of my nei http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Guanajuato/San-Miguel-de-Allende/blog-304183.html Comida FoodEverything in Mexico seems to come with hot sauce or limon and chili. Here in Oaxaca there is mezcal flavored ice cream with chili in it. The salsa that people eat is either green or red. It is never chunky. Never. Sometimes the red sauce is not too hot just kind of smokey. The green sauce usually contains jalapeos and avocado. Sometimes the green sauce does not contain avoca http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Oaxaca/blog-304163.html Chichen Itza was a major regional focal point in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classic through the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the Early Postclassic period. The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles from what is called ldquoMexicanizedrdquo and reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico to the Puuc style found among the Puuc Maya of the northern low http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/blog-303879.html Palenque is a fine example of a Mayan sanctuary of the classical period. The city was at its height between 500 and 700 A.D. The buildings are decorated with reliefs showing Mayan mythology.The Palenque templecomplex now is situated in junglelike surroundings. The numerous partly restored remains of the Mayaarchitecture are quite wellpreserved. Only 34 of the estimated 500 constructions in http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/blog-303874.html Another early start for me again Can't sleep for some reason up an hour and a half before everyone else. Thank god for the laptopAfter breakfast we decided we would head across the border to Tijuana Mexico and then come back and spend the afternoonevening at Seaworld. We drove the 20 minutes to the border and parked up then began to walk across before changing our minds and jumping on a shuttl http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Baja-California/Tijuana/blog-303859.html We must be honest we stopped at Tulum for the beach but it is also home to another famous Mayan ruin. So we decided although we had seen our share of Mayan ruins we would definitely check this last one out. Tulum is a funny kind of place being a very small almost one street town. The beach is about 45km away and is really just a long road set almost out of site of the beach with small beach http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Yucat%E1n/blog-303778.html Dear family friends and loyal fansA while has passed since I have updated you on the most important aspect of my trip to Mexico my work at Centro Para Los Adolescentes CASA. Things are going quite swimmingly and continue to improve as I get to know the organization better and better. For those of you who are wondering what CASA is...let me try to break it down. It is somewhat complicated. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Guanajuato/San-Miguel-de-Allende/blog-303485.html Well I left Nicola in Palenque so coming to San Cristobal a couple of days ago was my first solo travelling since being in Mexico. Upon arrival at the hostel I joined in on a slasa class which is my third since being in mexico so definitely improving. I hope to do a few more as I continue to get to some sort of a standard. San Cristobal is very colonial and reminded me of the north India town o http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/San-Cristobal-de-las-Casas/blog-303358.html The other water features I visted were Agua Azul and Misol Ha. Misol Ha was a stunning waterfall that one could walk behind and get refreshed by the spray. Agua Azul was a series of falls that was once again set in the jungle. It was extremely dramatic due to the obvious force the river had forming the falls over huge rocks. I loved the huge trees that were groing alongside the bank and anted to http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/Agua-Azul/blog-303341.html Palenque was the site of these incredible and vast Mayan ruins a city to rival Guatamala's Tikal which I will visit at the end of my trip. I got to explore them the first day we arrived and although it was raining for most of the day I was still awestruck. I'm afraid I have no words to do them justice but I spent a good three hours exploring all the ruins and the surrounding jungle whcih giv http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/Palenque/blog-303328.html Mexico City is wonderful I was expecting it to be crowded dirty and dangerous but Ive been pleasantly surprised. Well maybe its crowded dirty etc. in other parts of the city but not where Ive been Ive been here for six days now and have managed to change my flight to Guatemala so Im flying there tomorrow. Despite all my whining about how expensive things are in Mexico I think I http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Distrito-Federal/Mexico-City/Plaza-de-la-Constituci%F3n/blog-303323.html I have the Sunny Yucatan state. We visited Isla Holbox in our first travelling from Merida an island just off the North of Cancun. Holbox as lovely a true paradise except for the incessant biting of the snad flies who make the mosquito seem saintly. We did our first bit of beaching around and enjoying a carribean blue sea. From Holbox we carried onto Tulum where we proceeded to truely relax. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/El-Panchan/blog-303320.html Friday night we went to see mexican wrestling at Arena Mexico this was crazy we had near ringside seats and saw 6 midgets fighting to start with and it ended with the much anticipated Dr Wagner v Perro Aguayo we were gutted when Dr Wagner lost and so were 15000 mexicans who started launching beer at the ring so we joined inSaturday through the day we went into Condesa and Coyoacan some nice http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Oaxaca/blog-302763.html This morning we knew we were in for a treat. Our good friend Dianne the owner of the Casa Luna BB invited us to join her for breakfast at her inn. Breakfast is always served at 900am so we had be sure we were up early enough to catch a cab down to El Centro. When we got to the door and rang the bell a peepdoor opened up and a lady asked us in Spanish how she could help us. Glad for my in http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Guanajuato/San-Miguel-de-Allende/blog-302482.html Efter en haesblaesende bustur i bjergene naaede vi frem til det beroemte San Cristobal de las Casas en rigtig gammel mexicansk hyggeby oppe i bjergene. Byen har vaeret omdrejningspunkt for zapatistbevaegelsen og der har foer vaeret en del ballade. Vi oplevede dog intet farligt i den retning. Da vi ankom travede vi rundt i gaderne for at finde et vaerelse...til sidst fandt vi dog et... ikke saer http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/San-Cristobal-de-las-Casas/blog-302336.html After living in the United States for 16 years Irsquove decided to visit my grandparents. I donrsquot know why I did not do it sooner theyrsquore full of love and generosity. My plan was to stay only a week but when it was time to return to the States I was heartbroken. Their life style is very different from ours Irsquove come to realized how much we have and all the luxuries we live http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Estado-de-Mexico/blog-302048.html This is just a quick update for all of you. Yesterday was Day 18 of my time here and yesterday I finally got sick. It was a sad and defeated time for me spent mostly in the bathroom throwing up. I can't quite peg what it was that caused this sickness but I do know that it was food or possibly water inside the house at Miacatlan as I hadn't eaten out in awhile. It's all good though I appear to http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Morelos/Miacatlan/blog-301992.html Mexico270608 Mayan Ruins.290608 Sunday.Gabriel arrived at 9.00 am to take us to some Mayan temples. As we drove he explained that Mayan is the most common language spoken in the area with the people bilingual speaking Mayan and Spanish.Uxmal.The first was Uxmal a temple that had been largely restored. The restored pyramid was built in 3 stages each stage being built over the previous http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Yucat%E1n/Uxmal/blog-301633.html MexikoNach unserer Ankunft in Cancun haben wir dieses Tourimoloch gar qnicht erst betreten sondern sind direkt weiter nach Playa del Carmen was zwar auch sehr touristisch ist aber das angenehme Backpackerhostel La Ruina bietet. Nach unserem Checkin sind wir sofort zum 25 Meter entfernten Meer und haben die letzten Momente in tuerkiesblauen Wasser mit weissem Sandstrand verbracht. Absolutes Ka http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Yucat%E1n/Merida/blog-301620.html One of the things our landlord Eleanor was the most excited about sharing with us was the Tianguis....the Tuesday Market. It is a traveling market that goes around Mexico and on Tuesdays it makes it's stop here in San Miguel. It is very much an old world style market with just about everything you could ever think of for sale. Piles of clothes shoes toys and more all waiting to be dug into.. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Guanajuato/San-Miguel-de-Allende/blog-301597.html After being here for a little less than two weeks things are finally starting to fall into place. What is taken for granted in the U.S. cannot be in Mexico. Sometimes this is downright charming and in other cases one is left wondering what to think.Perros de la calleor Dogs of the streetMario had told Tessa and I stories about or more correctly stated cautioned us about the dogs in small town http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/San-Cristobal-de-las-Casas/blog-301587.html