Even though Guadalajara is a huge city with tons of things to do, it's always nice to take a break from the city and see the more traditional side of Mexico. So, 12 of us decided to go to Mazamitla, which is a small town just a couple of hours south of GDL that has plenty of "tourist" activities from horseback riding and hiking to quad bikes and an adventure park! Whee!

We all met up, crammed into two cars, drove to the airport to pick up a third car ('cause 6 people to a 4 person car just doesn't work, ya know?), and headed out in the darkness of night to find our cabin in Mazamitla. After a few hours of driving (and searching...) for the poorly labeled road to our cabin, we finally found the place. I think it was about 2:30AM by the time we got settled in, but we all claimed our rooms and most of us went right to sleep. A few of us stayed up, though, and drank some wine and listened to Martin strum the guitar. We were dead tired, but it was nice to destress before we went to bed...

In the morning, Martin, Sascha and I woke up early and headed into town to pick up some breakfast food. We realized that the town was pretty much a confusing maze of poorly labeled streets, but after a little searching, we made it to the main road and found a little store that had everything we need for breakfast. I offered to be the volunteer cook, and as soon as we got back, I started whipping up food for everybody. Breakfast was simple, but pretty good if you ask me - eggs, sausage, bacon, quesadillas, coffee and juice. After we ate, we all figured out what we wanted to do, and decided to drive into town and go hiking and horseback riding. We pretty much splite up into two groups - one for hiking, one for horseback riding - and started our trek to the main destination, which was a waterfall at the base of the trail.

I hadn't been horseriding since I was...12 maybe...but it was a lot of fun. Some of us named our horses during the ride, mine being Kevin, Martin's being Charlie, and Sascha's being (despite her vehement protests) Leopold. ;) The entire ride was a lot of fun, even though I felt bad for the horses having to walk on cobblestone paths. Afterwards, we all went into the town center to walk around and grab some lunch. All in all, it was a fun day in town, and we decided to head back to the cabin for the evening. I was exhausted, so I took a nap in my room. Sascha said she walked in and I had pretty much passed out just a minute or so after lying down, which I almost never do. I must've been pretty damn tired! When I woke up, everyone was just hanging out and drinking, so I joined them for a bit before going back to bed.

The next day, Malin G. and I made breakfast, Martin made his famous coffee again, and we all decided what to do for the day. We all decided to go hiking for the afternoon and then head into town for dinner. The hike wasn't bad, but I realized just how much the altitude affects you when you've lived at a low elevation for so long. Dinner in town was pretty darn good. We ate at a bar/restaurant that was recommended to us by a street vendor that we bought some food from. Sascha and I both ordered the salmon and really enjoyed it. It was a lot of food, but I made it through. :)

After dinner, headed back to the cabin to gather up all of our things, and headed out on the open road back to Guadalajara. We went in the same cars, and I rode again with Sascha, Martin and Stephanie. I was really tired and grumpy, so I mainly kept to myself for most of the trip, but after a bathroom break, though, we all felt a bit more energized and had a fun rest of the way home. It was a fun trip in all, but I think I'll stick with smaller groups from now on. ;)