Mexico

We arrived in Mexico City late at night and shattered on 22nd April. Checked into the 'luxury' accommodation we had booked.... Mexico City Hostel, which according to hostel ratings, was the best on offer.... perhaps by Mexican standards but I guess this is what we have to get used to! It was 'basic' but clean & the staff were very helpful and friendly and it couldn't be better located for the historical centre.

It was Pauls birthday the following day so being organised, both myself and Leanne had between us managed to get Paul absolutely nothing... no present, no card, no token gesture, nada. We opted for making it 'his day' and proceded to do what he wanted for the day.... he was not so impressed by this arrangement! Off we went sightseeing around the old town (which incidently is beautiful and compares to any European city for its architecture), settled down for some beers in a friendly local establishment & some tacos from one of the many taco stalls with a plan to find a good restaurant and late night bar later to celebrate...... a few beers and some rather large G&T's later.... a littel drunk, we rolled back to the prison cell block H room at the hostel only to fall asleep for several hours.

We did manage to get up and roll into a traditional Mexican cantina for dinner. It was here we decided to sample the local speciality of 'mole Poblano', a paste/sauce made of red chilies, chocolate, nuts and anything else they can find. It has a very peculiar taste, resembles a plate of melted chocolate and is definitely an aquired taste!

The next day we took a tourist bus around the city to take in the suburb of Coyocoan, a leafy bohemian district in the south of the city which was really cool. Like most other British tourists abroad, we opted for the open top bus tour in the 30+ deg heat at the hottest part of the day.... Once we arrived in Coyocoan, we wandered to the Frida Khalo museum only to find 5 'masked' attendants tell us it is closed due to 'the epidemic'! We laugh this off, having not heard of the Swine Flu issue yet & and wandered back to the square. On arrival back at the hostel, the scale of the situation was becoming more apparent with the police handing out masks and all public events cancelled, which included the 'nacho libro' wresling we had booked that evening. Fortunatley we were leaving Mexico City early the following morning - fully equipped with face masks!

... Leanne was somewhat drowning under the weight of her pack.... 9 pairs of shoes, jeans, trousers, a dozen tops, shirts, dresses... something for all occasions.... all lovely but not at all pratical when trying to carry it all!

We head to Oaxaca with a stop off in Puebla after thinking we had read somewhere that this was a small quaint old colonial town.... it is, but it also has 1.6 million inhabitants and the size of Birmingham... not quite the quaint leamington size town we pictured! A 15 min bus ride to the town centre and it was in fact lovely and worth the stopoff! After meandering around for a few hours, we take a bus to Oaxaca.

We arrive into Oaxaca at 1am and head for the hostel.... another great hostel, this time with a shared bathroom within the lounge area/courtyard... nothing wrong with that except the toilet and bathroom doors were glass and you could see anybody on the toilet or taking a shower.... not want you really want to see whilst eating your cornflakes! We move to another hostel the following day and take a walk around the town.... taking 5 kg of clothing to the post office that we have encouraged Leanne to send home...less than 1 week in...

We took a 6 hour white knuckle mini bus ride over the mountains to the coast, to the Mexican Pacific surf haven of Puerto Escondido, we got a really nice bungalow right on the beach. Really nice place, totally laid back as you would expect - & although we have only been in the cities for a few days, it was really nice to get out of the hussle & bustle & just chill for a few days.