San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico

The bus to San Cristobal took 10 hours, a bit nicer than the 12 hours we were told. We stayed at the Iguana Hostel which a few people had recommended and Andy, who we met in Mexico City, was staying there too. A lot of people head to the same places so we were constantly bumping into people we knew which was nice. We hung out with Andy and went and explored the markets, which were huge, and walked around the city. San Cristobal is a cute city with some nice pedestrian streets and we were surprised to find lots of Italian restaurants and French bakeries. We also found an English book shop and I finally decided to buy a Spanish phrase book so I could improve my Spanish.

The next day we went with Andy to a small town called San Juan Chamula. The main attraction of the town is the church which was full of candles and pine needles all over the floor. There were lots of locals in the church chanting and they had chickens with them. After reading about it later it seems that chicken sacrifice takes place. We read somewhere that if you are ill, the illness can be passed onto the chicken and then it is sacrificed. We also explored the markets in San Juan Chamula which had lots of traditional clothes, bracelets and handicrafts.  

Earlier that morning Anthony and Finn, who we met in Puerto Escondido, also arrived at the hostel. We all pre-drank at the hostel and after unsuccessfully trying to find a bar written about in the Lonely Planet, we headed out to some local bars. 

The next day we left around 11am to get a bus to Palenque.

Markets

 One of the pedestrian streets

 Church in San Juan Chamula

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico

After another overnight bus we got to Oaxaca early morning and, after getting wrong directions from the bus driver, we finally made it to the hostel. We set out to explore the city and wandered around the markets and then headed up to the Monte Alban ruins. In an effort to save 9 pesos, the equivalent of about 60 cents, we decided to catch the local bus not knowing that it would only take us halfway up the mountain. Not our smartest idea! We had quite a walk ahead of us with a slightly increasing gradient the further we walked but we looked at it as training for the Salkantay Trail in Peru......just another day in the adventures of Nicole & Louise! By the time we got to the ruins we were pretty exhausted but we walked around and tried to take in all the information. We decided that this group wasn't so smart building their city on top of a mountain. We decided to be a bit smarter on the way down and got one of the tourist buses. Once we got back to the hostel we went and had dinner and a couple of beers with some guys from the hostel. On the way to dinner we tried some grasshoppers at the market. You can get them in a few different sizes and flavours and they don't taste too bad. We crashed reasonably early after not having a whole lot of sleep and having done a lot of walking!!


We booked a tour for the next day which included going to see a 2000 year old tree, a textile factory, a Mezcal factory, a ruins site and a waterfall. It was a big day but was really interesting! At the textile factory they showed us how they get the colour red for the threads by using the insects off a cactus. They can then change the shade of red by using lime juice. They also use different plants to get lots of different colours. They also showed us how they weave the rugs, they can take a couple of months to weave depending on the size and complexity of the pattern. At the Mezcal factory we learnt how to make Mezcal from the agave plant. Tequila is also made from agave but uses a slightly different process. Mezcal tastes like smokey tequila and then they also make lots of different creamy flavoured ones. We got to taste lots of different flavours and I bought a choc mint flavoured bottle which we are yet to drink (the creamy ones taste a bit like Bailey's). The waterfall didn't have water but I think it is called a petrified waterfall where the limestone on the rocks looks like water (refer to photo because I am having trouble explaining it). There was also a natural pool on the side of the cliff that had a great view. The ruins were also pretty cool and you could actually walk down into some of the tombs. Once we got back to the hostel we had a couple of hours just to relax before another overnight bus to San Cristobal!

Monte Alban ruins

Grasshoppers

 Part of the Mezcal process

Natural pool

Petrified waterfall

Mazunte, Oaxaca, Mexico

When we got to Mazunte we asked for the prices of some of the cabanas near the beach and decided on the cheaper ones. The guy gave us the cabanas right at the top of the hill because there was a nice view of the beach. They were cheaper for a reason and were very basic with a little curtain as a bathroom door. We were happy with it because it was just for one night and went off to spend the afternoon at the beach. When we got back to the cabanas we were all quite keen for a shower because we were sticky and salty but we discovered that all 3 of our cabanas didn't have water. The guy finally suggested that we could go down to some of the lower cabanas to have a shower. We were very confused because the cabanas were much nicer and roomier and were the same price - and more importantly had water - so we asked to move!


The next day we hung out at the beach again and I finally got a hair braid which I had been wanting for awhile. Louise and I were getting an overnight bus to Oaxaca so we said goodbye to new friends (yet again) and the journey continued...

 Our small waterless cabana

Group shot at lunch

 Girls at the beach

Getting my hair braided

Saying goodbyes

Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico

In Puerto Escondido we stayed at Tower Bridge Hostel. The owner is an English guy but he was away so his brother, Chris, was filling in. We arrived reasonably early and we were pretty tired but before we could relax Chris gave us a tour of the hostel. You have to understand that Chris is absolutely crazy and so it was a reasonably long tour and full of contradictions. He was so relaxed about everything with rules like don't go in the pool after 12 because we don't want people swimming when they are drunk but lots of people go swimming at 3am so go swimming if you like.....??? Also his explanation for everything was "It's Tower Bridge". Tower Bridge was an awesome hostel with a pool, hammocks and lounges outside, and a bar. We also met a really cool group of people and it was really social. 


The first day we hung out at Carrizalillo Beach which is the closest to the hostel and was really beautiful. The weather was really hot and humid and there were lots of stairs to get down to the beach. By the time you climbed back up and walked back to the hostel you were hot and sweaty again so luckily we had the pool. That night around 7:30pm we headed down to Turtle Beach to free the turtles. Chris drove us down and we had 11 people in the back of the ute (pick-up truck for those non-Australians). The turtles hatch and then instead of just dropping them into the ocean, if you let them free on the sand and let them walk into the water themselves they remember the smell of the sand and they will come back to the same beach in 10 years. Later we headed out with a group of people from the hostel to some bars down at the main beach. It was ladies night so the girls got free drinks from 10pm-12am. 


After a big night we had a pretty slow start the next day and just hung around the hostel and played pool volleyball. Kyle, who I stayed with at the beginning of my travels in Whistler, has rented a place in Puerto Escondido for a month with an American guy so we met up with him late afternoon and grabbed dinner with them. They came back to the hostel with us and we swam and pre drank before heading back to the bars on the beach. 


We went back to Carrizalillo Beach the next day and met Kyle down there. Louise and I then decided to check out some of the other beaches, Puerto Angelito and Playa Manzanillo, which were also really pretty. We booked a bioluminescent algae boat trip through the hostel for that night. It was so much fun and such a surreal experience. We left around 8pm so you are driving out into the lagoon in the pitch black with the only light coming from the drivers torch. It was so quiet and you could see the fish jumping out of the water. The algae move everyday so we drove around for quite awhile before we found it. When you put your hand in the water and move it around the algae lights up, it looks like sparkles in the water. Jumping in the water when you can’t see anything is a bit creepy but the water was really warm and the water lit up as we moved. You could lift your arms out of the water and it looked like lights were running down your arm. We swam around for awhile and they took us back to the hostel around 11pm. Everyone was pre drinking back at the hostel so we joined in and headed down to the bars. They were having a salsa night at one of the bars and we all had a bit of a go which was a lot of fun.


We met a group of English people who were heading to a small beach town about an hour away called Mazunte. We had talked about going there as well so the next morning we packed up our stuff and tagged along with them. 

 Carrizalillo Beach

Freeing the turtles

 Night out at the beach

 Driving into the night

 Tower Bridge pool

Pool volleyball

Taxco de Alarcon, Guerrero, Mexico

Our hotel in Taxco was owned by a cute old man who used to be a doctor but has retired and likes meeting people so opened the hotel. His english was quite good and he gave us lots of advice on what to do while in Taxco. By the time we got there it was late afternoon so we walked around for a bit and then got some dinner. We went to a restaurant with a terrace on the roof that had a beautiful view of the city. It looked like a storm was coming and we had a great view of the lightning flashing over the mountains. When we got back to the hotel the old man made us a drink and played guitar and sang mexican songs to us.


Taxco is a silver town so there were lots of shops with silver jewellery. It was a very cute town that reminded me a bit of Guanajuato. There were lots of narrow steep cobblestone alleyways and white houses with terracotta roofs.


We wandered through the markets and looked at lots of the silver shops and then headed up to the Christ statue for a good view of the city. We then got a random gondola into the mountains on the other side of Taxco. Louise was freaking out because the guy pushed the gondola onto the cables. However, we got over safely and they let us walk through one of the hotels for a view of the city. The hotel was really nice and had an awesome pool....if I ever return to Taxco and have a bit more money it would be an awesome place to stay!


We just stayed one night and then got an overnight bus to Puerto Escondido. We had to stop in Acapulco and then change buses. All up it took about 13 hours.

 Dinner with a view

 View from the Christ statue

 Cool hotel

Steep narrow alleyways of Taxco

Mexico City, DF Mexico

My flight arrived just before Louise’s (a good friend from home) so I met her at the airport and after getting a little bit lost we managed to navigate the metro system and make it to the hostel! One of the guys I met in Guanajuato was also staying at the hostel....such a small world!

We booked a tour to the Teotihuacan pyramids for the next day. On the tour we first stopped at Tlatelolco (Aztec ruins) and saw the memorial for students that were shot in 1968 for protesting. We then went to the Guadalupe shrine and had lunch at a place where we learnt about how liquor and textiles are made from the agave plant. We got to try some tequila and some pickled pear and almond liquor. Next stop was the Teotihuacan pyramids and we learnt that noone seems to know who built the pryamids but they were abandoned and much of it was destroyed by fire years later. The Aztecs discovered Teotihuacan around 1320 and today part of the city has been recovered. We climbed up the largest pyramids, the Pyramid of the Moon (45m) and the Pyramid of the Sun (65m) and walked down the Avenue of the Dead (2km). The pyramids had extremely steep stairs and it was hot so it was a bit of a workout!

The next day we went to the Anthropology Museum to learn a bit more about the Mayans and the Aztecs. A lot of it was in Spanish which made it a bit hard but there was some information in English and there was lots of stuff to look at. We also read about a lot of other native Mexican groups who we had never heard of before. 

Later that afternoon we got a bus to Taxco which is about 2 hours southwest of Mexico City.

Memorial

Guadalupe Shrine

 On top of the Pyramid of the Moon with view of the Pyramid of the Sun and the Avenue of the Dead

 Awesome carvings

Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico

We had to bus back to Guadalajara and then change buses to Puerto Vallarta. It took about 9.5 hours altogether and we finally got to our hostel in Puerto Vallarta around 9pm. The staff were really friendly and gave us a cold corona when we arrived! We could definitely feel the change in heat as soon as we arrived...it was extremely humid! We were taco’d out so we went and found an Italian restaurant for dinner and then crashed out reasonably early. 

The next day we went to the beach and then just hung out at the hostel in the afternoon. The hostel was really cool with a rooftop area with a view of the water and then another lounge area. We went out to dinner with one of the guys from the hostel and enjoyed the $1 beers and margaritas.

Thursday was Chrissy's last full day so we booked a booze cruise which went from 10am – 5pm. They gave us some breakfast and then took us out on the boat to a snorkelling spot. They didn’t have enough gear for everyone but the snorkelling wasn’t very good anyway so we just went for a swim. The water was so much warmer than Cabo! From there we had a choice to hang out on Las Animas beach or hike to a waterfall. We decided to hike to the waterfall and some people took horses. It was so hot and the waterfall was so nice and refreshing. You could climb up a bit of the waterfall and then slide down and there were also kids jumping off the rocks. After the waterfall we had lunch on Las Animas beach and then the cruise headed back to Puerto Vallarta. There was an open bar on the boat and the drinks were reasonably watered down but the staff loved us and kept adding more tequila to our drinks. The cruise was majority families but by the end lots of people were up dancing and one of the staff taught me some Mexican dances.

It was ladies night (free drinks for girls) at a local bar, Harry's, so once we got back to the hostel we got ready and headed out with the other people staying at the hostel and the staff. There are two Oasis hostels owned by the same guy so we met up with the people from the other hostel too. This was great because Chrissy and most of the people from the hostel I was staying at were leaving the next day so I was able to meet some more people. After Harry's we headed to a nightclub down at the beach and danced until early hours of the morning. 

One of the staff, Brad, cooked us pancakes for breakfast the next morning and then we went to the beach for a little bit before Chrissy had to leave to fly back to the states. I just relaxed and hung out at the hostel for the rest of the afternoon. The other hostel invited us to a BBQ that night so we went over and had dinner and then played drinking games. It was nice to have some food other than tacos and quesadillas! I organised with an Australian guy and a German girl at the other hostel to go to a beach up north called Sayulita the next day. It took about an hour and a half on the bus each way and was a really cute little town and beautiful beach.  

Saturday night was my last night so I headed over to the other hostel with Brad to hang out for a bit. On Sunday morning Brad cooked me french toast and then I had to head to the airport to fly to Mexico City to meet Louise. 

The hostel was awesome, it became like a little family!

 Hostel rooftop

 Booze cruise

 Hike to the waterfall

 Cute secluded beach

 Drinking games

Sayulita