HE SAID... Today we were leaving Mazunte and travelling northwest to Mexico City. We woke early, as we had to carry our packs up the steep zig-zagging path to our hotel’s restaurant (La Fragata). We arrived exhausted, as the humidity (even at 8am) was debilitating, especially when you were required to exert energy. We dropped our packs, settled at a table overlooking the Pacific Coast and ordered breakfast. I opted for yoghurt and granola, while Ren had a sandwich de jamon y queso (ham and cheese sandwich). We refreshed with banana and melon liquados (smoothies). We checked out around 9:30am, bid farewell to our marvellous beachside retreat (Altamira Mazunte Bungalows) and spent the next 60 minutes bumping along Oaxaca’s narrow coastal roads on our way to Huatulco International Airport. We arrived around 10:30am, re-organised our packs ... read more

HE SAID... Tonight we were leaving Oaxaca City and heading south to Mazunte on the Pacific Coast. However, before leaving on our late-night bus, we were embarking on a day-long road trip to explore the outskirts of Oaxaca City. We woke early, as we needed to check out of Oaxaca Real Hotel at 8:30am, even though we weren’t leaving Oaxaca City until 9pm. We organised our packs, stored them in a small room at the hotel and jumped into a minibus – we were travelling to Tlacolula, a small town 30km southeast of Oaxaca City. Our breakfast destination was the Mercado de Tlacolula, one of the oldest markets in Mesoamerica. After cramming ourselves into a long thin table at a small market stall called Adolfa, we started with an amazing hot chocolate served in a large ... read more

HE SAID... Today we were leaving Mexico City and travelling south east to Puebla. We grabbed our packs from our room in Hotel Metropol, checked out and jumped into a minibus, which took us to Terminal Oriente (TAPO), the bus terminal next to San Lazaro. We walked through the terminal, picked up our tickets, had our hand luggage searched, loaded our packs into the under carriage and settled in our comfortable ATO bus to Puebla. We left Mexico City at 11:30am and arrived at Puebla’s bus station at 1:30pm. We jumped into a taxi and sped towards the city’s historic centre. The taxi trip was eye opening and unexpected, as I didn’t realise Puebla was Mexico’s fourth largest city with a population of four million. The outer suburbs were sprawling, crowded and gritty, and as we ... read more

HE SAID... Today we were continuing to explore the wonders of Mexico City. We slept in for the second morning running, waking around 7am. We headed out at 9am, dropped our laundry off and walked to the Balderas metro station, which was reasonably close to our hotel. We bought our tickets, headed underground with thousands of commuters and jammed ourselves into a train to Chapultepec metro station. It was packed – people put their hands into my back and pushed me into the train. I was so compressed between everyone around me that I simply couldn’t move. I was amazed how courteous everyone was – the rim of my cap kept poking a guy in the head in front of me, and he just turned (as much as he could), smiled and said something in Spanish ... read more

HE SAID... Today we were leaving Antigua (Guatemala) and flying to Mexico City. We woke early, organised our packs and walked to Fernando’s for breakfast at 7am. I ordered fruit and granola with yoghurt, while Ren opted for an omelette with toast. My cappuccino was fantastic, as was Ren’s fresh pineapple juice. We had a long travel day ahead, and we were not feeling 100%%, so we wanted to be well nourished for the trip. I walked to the post office to send a few postcards (to Australia and the UK) before dropping into Me Latte Caffe for a cappuccino on my way back to the hotel. Our airport transfer arrived at 10:30am, so we checked out of Hotel Posada Los Bucaros, loaded our packs in the minibus and drove through the bumpy cobblestone roads of ... read more