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Published: November 19th 2008
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So Oaxaca was similar to Puebla only slightly larger. Same kind of set up though, the Zocola and the main streets surrounding it.
We were staying in a cute little hotel called El Quijote with Emillio and Marta (the owners) who helped us learn Spanish more and we helped with their already great English.
The first day we spent the day wandering the sights, of course the Cathedral was first on the list, and again was as lovely as the others. We went to another Museum and spent the day basking in the Oaxacan sun.
Day two we decided to do the tour to Monte Alban, which would be our first really "real" Mexican ruins. We did the tour with some really nice people, an American girl Sarah and a Australian Lochlan (from our new town of Bris!!) and a couple from Oxford.
Monte Alban (Meaning white mountain) was amazing, and to make it all better it was the most beautiful day! So gorgeous and hot that I in fact got sunburn, yes I claim I never burn so I´m claiming it was a one off freak incident!
Our guide was fantastic, although his English wasn't´t great so when he kept
telling us how the Russians came every night to destroy the ruins, especially when it rained we were slightly confused, until we worked out it was actually the Erosion that happens every night, makes more sense I guess.
Overall a fantastic day, we all really enjoyed it.
Back in Oaxaca we went to the food markets, these were so interesting, you get to pick your own meats then they grill it in front of you, obviously health and safety was not an issue when Luke pointed out the huge (and I really mean huge) build up of fat on the rafters and calmly told me it would only take one spark to send the whole place into a huge fireball, needless to say I quickened my pace after that!
And the time came again where we had to move on, so this time we boarded the 12hr night bus to San Cristobal de la casas.
The journey started off pretty much the same, high up in the mountains, although this time only the moon to light the views, which would have been incredible had the driver not been doing 100mph round hair-pin bends over 1000ft drops. Bags were falling
from the storage compartments onto peoples heads, and I clung to my pillow for dear life.
Finally after seeing two quite horrific car crashes Luke and a Spanish girl asked the driver to slow down, to which he first asked "faster faster?" but after a few minutes of pure begging for our lives he slowed down to moderate 60mph (still to fast but at least we´d more of a chance of arriving in one piece.)
7am we arrived, and first impressions were great, another cute little town, tiny in fact with the whole same idea of the Zocola and main area surrounding, and were pleased to find they had a music festival on, what great timing!
Day one consisted of doing the whole foot tour, and seeing all the major sights. San Cristobal is a really nice little place, somewhere you could just hang out for a while and go at a really slow pace.
The first night we went to see a little of the festival and we got to see a Mexican "rap off" (horrendous) followed by a Mexican Rock band (even worse that the rapping) so we headed back to our hostel.
Our hostel here was so
nice, they have a bonfire every night and everyone crowds round chatting and drinking. So with a couple of the biggest bottles of beer you´ve ever seen we sat round drinking with the nicest bunch of people you could ever meet (bar one slightly scary Canadian who threw firewood at everyone and ate fags!).
The next day on one of the girls advice we had booked onto the Sumidero Canyon tour.
We were picked up and it wasn't´t long till we realised everyone else was Spanish including the driver, who once we arrived for the boat he forgot who we were and sent off our boat without us, then finally called it back and we were made to look like the retards who missed the boat! The tour was amazing though, its likened to the Grand Canyon only on a slightly smaller scale, although Luke didn´t see much of a resemblance and he´s been to both.
On the sides of the banks we went crocodile spotting and we spotted 6 wild crocs, of which we went so close and when they see you they come into the water and straight towards you, and just to prove a point to Mommy
Lesley and Auntie Hazel we did what you are not supposed to do, yes we smiled at a crocodile, and we live to tell the tale!
That evening we watched more of the music festival, this time it was a few DJ´s doing there bit in the Zocola, slightly strange, felt like we were in Ibiza with a slightly different background.
Excusing the being forgotten and the bumpiest boat ever, overall it was a great day!!
So its the end of our time in Mexico for now, and we after venturing off to Guatemala next before returning here in a few weeks.
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