Wednesday 29th September Hello peeps, Jill here......Leon's not feeling too good this morning so he decided to miss out the Mexico City history morning walking tour.......so you have literary skills for this morning's blog!!. I wandered (all by myself...hehe) from the Holiday Inn over the zocalo to the Moneda hostel to start the tour. Luckily it was the same guide from yesterday's tour,Pepe, taking it this morning. Only 2 other couples this morning, one couple from Switzerland & the other from Holland. We headed back towards the zocalo to take a right turn to Templo Mayor, which was one of the main temples of the Aztecs in the capital city of Tenochtitlan, which is now Mexico City. Only the foundations are visable today. After a photo oppertunity we headed to the National Palace, (Palacio Nacional in ... read more

Wednesday 22nd September After a mammoth overnight bus journey lasting 12 hours we arrived in the city of Oaxaca. (pop 265,000). Oaxaca is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of the same name (Oaxaca). There had been Zapotec and Mixtec settlements in valley of Oaxaca for thousands of years in connection with the important ancient centers of Monte Albán and Mitla. We will be visiting Mitla amoungst other sites this week and we're looking forward to it. Its only 9am when we arrive at Hostel Don Nino and our room isnt ready for us until 10pm so we dumped the bags and went for a stroll around town. The hostel is located right beside the Parque Benito Juarez which is a park dedicated to a president and local hero from the 19th Century ... read more

Wednesday 15th September We arrived via overnight bus at Pochulta which is only 15 miles from Mazunte (pop 702) which is in the Oaxaca region. Considering we've just been on a bus for nearly 11 hours we are feeling fine and its not long before we hire the 15 minute taxi to Mazunte. On arrival we are greeted by Marianna, a Uraguayan who run's Casa Pan de meil on the Mazunte Coast. The round shaped eating area overlooks the infinty pool and the views looking out from here are breathtaking. Large rocks reaching out of the beutiful blue sea are constantly being pounded by large white waves. We are treated to a free continental breakfast of tea, toast, yogurt and granola which is served to us by maids who are super friendly but speak no English. ... read more

Friday 10th of September We are staying with a Guatemalan family today and we've got a 3 hour bus ride to Panachachel where they live. Its on our way to San cristobal so it should break the journey up more than anything. we went to the supermarket and bought rice, beans, pasta, salt, pepper and flour as a wee thank you for putting us up. I bought some sweets for kids if they have any as we don't really know what we're getting ourselves into to be honest. We left Antigua at 12.30 and drove over the roads that were closed earlier on in the week and the devastation was plain to see. Landslides had cut off most parts of the duel carriageway and there were rocks the size of cars blocking other parts so we ... read more

Monday 6th September It took a hour to get to the island of Flores from Tikal and we checked into a nice little hotel called De las mayas which was situated in the middle of this small island situated on Lake Peten Itza. (The population is 13,700). Flores is less than a mile long and mile wide and is very pretty as its buildings are painted in greens, blues, reds and yellows. There's not much to do here apart from boat trips around the lake but its perfect for stopover before our flight. There is a large choice of restaurants all along the shore line of this circular island and its very cheap. We We went for a walk around then stopped for a meal on the shore which was probually our best meal to date. ... read more