We have finally reached the coast again! After several months without any serious beachtime due to rain in Oz, general wrong season in NZ and so far sticking to the inland cities in Mexico we were both well ready to just lie on a beach, with palm trees, drinking coconuts and generally chilling out.

Before heading westwards, spent a nice couple of days in colonial Morelia, staying at Tequila Sunrise hostel, one of the best I have stayed in so far. Hit the city at the right time (for once!) and enjoyed a parade and massive firework display to celebrate the city´s 469th birthday. Also got chance to sample a lot of the amazing street food including Gazapachos, chopped mango, pina and melon topped with cheese, orange juice and the obligatory chilli and limon. Absolutely amazing mix!

Following Morelia we swopped the cities for the countryside and travelled up to the tiny village of Angahuan two hours west. Here we made one of our biggest mistakes so far... never got anywhere without cash and assume you can use visa. Or that there will be a cajero automatico anywhere remotely close. There won´t be! The tiny Parapechan village barely spoke spanish let alone had a cash machine. Everyone still galloped around on horses, to quote Miss Hearne ´like a one horse town...just full of horses´. Had to literaly scrape everylast peso and dollar together to get enough for our nights accomodation and dinner. Breakfast was a luxury we had to forgo! The up side of this was the remoteness of the area combined with the fact it is low season in Mexico meant we didn´t spot any other tourists for the whole time we were there. Anyway the next morning, bright and early we got on our horses and set off for the real reason we had come to Angahuan, to climb Volcan Paricutin still active and spewing out ash although stopped violently erupting in 1952. A long day in a wooden saddle but well worth the next day's pain, scrambling up the final two hundred metres ourselvesthen walking round the top of the craterwhich was still hot underfoot and looking down at the mini volcano to the left which was still spewing lava out.

Next stop Oaxaca for a nice weekend of leather bag buying, ruin exploring and just general eating. The food markets in Oaxaca are some of the best so far especially anything with the city's famous Oaxacan Mole, a mixture of chilli, chocolate and various other special spices and ingrediants. Amazing with tamales and chicken which we had one evening while sitting overlooking the Zocalo! Also (very food related paragraph) can't not mention the chocolate caliante, best hot chocolate ever!