Mexico: San Cristobal de las Casas, Oaxaca, Puebla, Mexico City

After all the Mayan ruins and jungle exploits, the last part of our Central America trip has been like a series of city breaks.

We were shocked at how cold it was when we arrived in San Cristobal - at an altitude of a mile it was to be expected, and the cafes served good hot chocolate which helped! San Cristobal is a mountain town that was the focal point of the Zapatista revolution, which fought for the rights of indigenous Mexicans. We visited traditional Mayan villages nearby, which still govern themselves according to Mayan rules for certain issues, use their own language and have some very odd customs like healing the spirit by killing a chicken (which we saw in a ´church´). In the evenings we went to a local cinema to watch a Zapatista documentary and to a bar to watch a local jazz funk band (so much for traditional local music...)

Since then we have visited numerous art galleries, exhibitions and museums, in Oaxaca, Puebla and Mexico City. Oaxaca is a lovely colonial town which is renowned for its good food, and Sascha also sampled some of the local booze - mescal, which comes from the cactus and is meant to have hallucinogenic properties (though not in such small quantities). After a quick stop in Puebla we arrived in Mexico City, and although people say it is a dirty and dangerous city, we have loved it. Particularly interesting was visiting the house where Trotsky lived in exile and was murdered, you can see the bullet holes from the first attempt in the walls.

Adios y muchas gracias Central America, we´re now off to New Zealand!