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Ok, Apologies if you are still sat here next week reading through this blog. As Faye quite rightly pointed out I am a lazy biatch but I also have been enjoying Mexico far too much to sit in front of a computer writing about it!
So last Tuesday we left Mexico City to take a bus east to Oaxaca. We were like two little lost sheep at the bus station trying to work out how and where to buy our bus tickets. Call me silly, but i just assumed everything in the world would be written in English as well as the language of the country we would be in. Well its not! Since Faye had dealt with the taxi driver in her best spanish I had the task of trying to get us bus tickets. After looking like two fools for 10 minutes and pointing at the screen as direction for what we needed, we eventually managed to buy two tickets (but not before the damn ticket lady jipped us out of 50 pesos on the sly!). The buses in Mexico are fab. They are actually big coaches with air conditioning, toilets and Tv's! We arrived in Oaxaca in one piece and very pleased with ourselves indeed.
Oaxaca is beautiful. Its a small town (anything is small compared to Mexico City I guess) and the houses are all really close together, as are the cobbled streets. We stayed at a hostel called Don Pablo de Casa right round the corner from the Main central Plaza and spent the evening walking the streets just taking in the surroundings. We went out for dinner that evening and newly confident since we managed to navigate ourselves out of Mexico city we attempted to order our meal in Spanish.. Faye, the jammy cow, managed to order us a lovely starter of tortilla soup (tomato broth with tortilla chips, cheese and avocado), Tamales (tortillas baked in banana leaf stuffed with mole sauce chicken) and quesadillas. Me with all my drinks expertise was in charge of our beverages. " Promocione: jarro cerveza 2X1" Easy! Promotion : 2 beers for the price of 1..! Well that was true..but it turns out jarro means 3 litre pitcher because we were god damn given 2 of them to get through during our meal!!! Anyways other than our bloated stomachs and pissing every 3 minutes for the next 24 hours , we had a lovely time in Oaxacha and highly recommend it to anyone visiting mexico! We were also there during the birthday of the Virgin Guadalupe (that they celebrate for an entire week!) which meant there was lots of parades and more people about than usual. We spent the following day visiting the ruins Monte Alban (photos to follow!!) and waited for our second bus journey. This time to San Cristobal De las Casas and this time travelling overnight!
There are two reasons we took an overnight bus. Firstly we save on the nights accomodation (yes we are that poor) and secondly it means you dont miss out on a days activity as all the travelling is when you are asleep. Luckily our bus wasnt too full so we were both able to have 2 seats each. We slept good and got about 4 solid hours each. We arrived early morning and headed straight to our hostel. San Cristobal is as pretty and charming if not more - than Oaxaca. It is situated much higher up in the mountains so was alot colder. It warms up though as the day goes on and is sweltering by midday. On the first day there we went on a village visit to the town of Chamula. This place is quite famous in Mexico and like no other place we have ever seen. Everyone wears sheepskin clothing and they practice the same way of life they have been doing so for hundreds of years. We visited their central square which was full of people selling veg, dancing, and there was a band playing outside their church. This is what happens everyday here and there wasnt anything particularly special going on. We were also allowed to go into their church where i swear to you, there were hundreds of little mayan people drinking coca cola and burping!!! This is apparently something they do get rid of any evil sprits in their bodies. There was also some sacrificing of chickens going on too but we chose not to watch. You arent allowed to take pictures in the church however so you will have to take my word that it one of the weirdest sights we have ever witnessed... We then went to another local villages a couple of miles away and went to a friend of our guides home. Out back there was loads of little (i keep saying little because all of the women here are no taller than 4ft! wait for the pictures) Mayan women weaving clothes and accessories. One of them then proceeded to dress Faye up in their traditional garments. It was absoltuely hilarious to see this person not even reaching Fayes shoulder fastening and tying all this clothing over her combats and hoodie!! After about 50 pictures of Faye stood there like a pleb, we went in to their kitchen area and they handmade us some of the best tacos (yes better than Mexico City, sorry Mario) ever! They literally made everything from scratch and even grew the corn to make the tortilla's in their back yard. Faye and I both agree that this was by far the highlight of Mexico. The people were absolutely wonderful and our guide told us so much about the culture and ways of each community. The following day we went for a boat ride (Faye went on a boat!) along the sumidero canyon. The sights were amazing and we saw some huge crocodiles really close to the boat. The only downside however was that we didnt realize the tour would be entirely in spanish so we sat in the boat for 2 hours staring at the sky trying to pretend we understood what the hell he was blabbering on about. Our last evening in San Cristobal was spent on one of their main streets. It was the last day of partying for the lady Guadalupe so everyone in town was out playing and dancing to music. We started at the bottom of the road and headed up stopping at every little stand selling tacos along the way. 15 or so tacos later we ended at the main church - which was lit up like a disney ride and had a big Mexican rock band playing from the side of it. The next day we booked a full day trip to Palenque ruins with a stop at Agua Azul (Turquiose blue waterfalls) and Misol Ha (huge waterfall).... I have been typing for an hour and a half however so will have to catch you all up on that trip next time I get to a computer!
Adios x
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