7 de Octubre

Llegamos al aeropuerto del DF sin ningun problema despues de un reencuntro apasionado en el aeropuerto de Londres... 
Desde la terminal pillamos un taxi que nos dejo en el hostal que habiamos reservado por internet y ahi nos encontramos con 2 parejas que estaban en el avion con nosotros. Estamos en pleno corazon de la ciudad, en el Zocalo, y nos preparamos para pasar la primera noche de nuestra aventurilla (eso si, hemos ido a la terrazita para tomar una Coronita).

After saying our sad goodbyes to our families/ friends and having a 5am start, we were eventually reunited again after a month apart in London airport. Although the flight was 10 hours, it flew in thanks to our excitment and british airways comfort! Then we arrived in the crazy place that is Mexico DF. Thankfully we got to our hostal in the city center without too much trouble and although pretty wrecked we made it up to the rooftop hostal bar to take our first sip of the mexican culture! 

8 de Octubre

5h de la mañana...el jet lag nos juega una mala pasada y ya estamos los dos despiertos. Con un poco de esfuerzo conseguimos dormirnos de nuevo hasta las 8h. El hostal ofrece una vuelta a pie con guia, al rededor de la zona historica asi que nos apuntamos. Con Annemarie somos un poco anti-paquete turistico pero esta vuelta es de padre (expresion mexicana para decir que esta bien). Vemos las primeras ruinas del templo mayor, al lado de la cual los españoles construyeron una iglesia para evangelizar a los indigenas. Vemos tambien los murales de Diego Rivera en el palacio nacional y seguimos hasta la plaza de Santo Domingo donde probamos nuestros primeros Chapulines! (Saltamontes fritos...deliciosos, tomados con lima).
Por la tarde proponemos a una pareja de Alemanes si nos quieren acompañar al parque de Chapultepec y cuando llegamos los 4 ahi, resulta que esta cerrado...vuelta hacia el Zocalo para tomar unas birras. Cena con 1 ingles, 1 holandes, 2 alemanes, 1 irlandesa y un gabachin...Viva Mexico Chavo!

Thanks to a dose of good ole jet lag we were wide eyed at 5am, however we managed to doze til the free breakfast was served at 8am! Breakfast was an interesting mix of everything from cornflakes to refried beans! Not exactly what you want to see first thing in the morning! After that we decided to join a walking tour put on by the hostal, normally we are totally against guided tours but it seemed like a nice easy option for our first day. It was a good idea as we got to meet some sound people as well as find out a good bit about Mexico DF. The tour started with a visit to the Templo Mayor which is right beside one of the first churches which the Spanish built on their arrival in Mexico to try and convert the natives to Christianity. We then went to the National Palace where we saw some amazing murals painted by Diego Rivera which explain the history of Mexico, everything from how the Spanish came and took over Mexico, right up until how the Mexicans won back their independance. The tour also included a visit to a very typcial mexican market square where we got to try some local snacks, one of which was grasshoppers with lime! YUMMY?!?!? The tour around lunch, after which we invited the german couple to come with us to visit one of Mexicos biggest parks, Chapultepec. Unfortunately after our trip out to it in the metro we found it was closed! Apparently Mexicans like to take it easy on Mondays! We then brought our first day to a close with dinner and beers with the German couple, an English and Dutch guy. so far so good so watch this space.

9 de Octubre

Salimos a las 9h de la mañana en un mini van para ir a visitar varios monumentos. Empezamos con la Iglesia de Guadalupe. Es un recinto enorme compuesto por varias iglesias. La mas antigua se esta hundiendo en el suelo asi que la esta reformando. La mas reciente, alberga a la virgen de Guadalupe (Lo que nosotros llamamos la viergen Maria...) y estando ahi vimos gente que se arrastra de rodillas desde fuera de la iglesia hacia dentro...Aqui acuden unas 20 millones de personas al año!
De ahi, nos vamos fuera de la ciudad a un pueblecito cerca de Teotihuacan donde nos explican los productos que se obtienen a partir del Magei. Es un cactus que se parece bastante al Yuca. De esta planta hacen alchool como el Mescal o el Pulque. El Pulque era la bebida reservada para los Dioses asi que solo la bebian los sacerdotes. En la botella de Mezcal siempre hay un gusano y se puede comer, esta vez no lo probamos, quizas en otra ocasion...
Despues de una buen comida, vamos a las ruinas de Teotihuacan. Hay varias piramides que conformaban una ciudad entera que llego a albergar a unas 200.000 personas. Se instalaron ahi en mitad de la nada ya que el Dios de los Mayas habia tenido una vision en la que veia que ellos se intalarian ahi donde encontrarian a un Aguila sobre un cactus comiendo a una serpiente. Y segun la historia, lo vieron ahi en Teotihuacan y por eso construyeron la ciudad. Enfin, no os voy a aburrir con estas historias, supongo que es interesante cuando lo ves pero si te lo cuentan asi...
De vuelta al hostel, recuperamos nuestros macutos y nos vamos camino del metro para ir al barrio de la Condesa donde viven unos amigos de mi primo Diego. Despues de 50 minutos andando por las calles con nuestros 20 kilos en la espalda, damos con la Calle Mexicali. La rudeza valio la pena visto la amabilidad de Seb, Gus y Pierre que nos reciben como reyes. "Su departamento esta de padre". Un amigo aleman de Gus, Toto, tambien esta de visita asi que los 6 nos tomamos unas cervezas de relax. Pobrecitos, no se si mañana iran a trabajar con tantos animos, sabiendo que nosotros estamos de vacaciones para todavia 51 semanas !!!

Since its still only day two we decided to do another tour and not have too much hassle, plus the trip sounded good and included a few places we def wanted to see. We got a small bus from our hostal after breakfast and headed to our first stop which was a religious area with different churches inside. It was a truely unique place and felt quite sacred, one of the churches is supposed to be in the top five visited holy places in the world, not far behind the Vatican. The faith the people of Mexico have surprised me, we even saw people trailing across the square in front of the church in their hands and knees to show their gratitude to God. Once that stop was done we went to a small roadside place where we were shown all the different things that the mexicans can get from a cactus.....they use it for everything from paper, to needle and thread, to ink and of course for making alcohol. After a traditional lunch there we went to the ruins of Teotihuacan. The ruins consist of various pyramides and temples which housed up to 200,000 native Indians, known as Astecs, in prehispanic Mexico. It was def worth a visit and we roamed around the pyramides for a few hours before heading back to the hostel. We once again got lucky on the tour and met some nice people, Italians, Germans, and Dutch. After that we got our bags and made what we thought was going to be a short trip to the flat of Seb, Gus and Pierre. These are three great guys who let us stay with them even though they didnt know us! Seb is a friend of Antoine´s cousin and he did us the big favour of letting us stay for a while. The journey to their flat turned out to be longer than expected as we wandered for 50 minutes with our backpacks unable to find the place!!!! We eventually did though and then recuperated by having a few beers with the lads and another friend who was staying with them, Toto. The area they live in is called La Condensa, full of nice bars and cute cafes.


10 de Ocubre

Los trabajadores han ido a currar, Annemarie, Toto aprovechamos para ir al parque de Chapultepec y visitar el Castillo que esta ahi. Despues de la visita, nos sentamos en un restaurantito para comer. Menu del dia, sabroso y por 35 pesos = 2.5€ ...que bueno.
Tarde tranquila, organizando la ruta por Mexico con la ayuda de Toto que ya ha estado pateando por Mesoamerica. Por la noche salimos a cenar y tomar unas cervezitas. 

We woke up in the guys flat with just us and Toto, since they had all gone to work!! ha ha Since Toto had been to Mexico loads he became our guide for the day and took us to the huge Chapultepec park where we wandered and visited a museum. I cant even remember what it was called, what a disgrace!! After that the three of us went for lunch and got a whole three courses for just 35 pesos...2.5 euro!!!! Soooo cheap and yummy! After that we were all lazy and tired so went back to the flat and then we persuaded Toto to help us plan our trip of Mexico. He was the ideal person for the job since he had travelled loads in Mexico and is totally in love with it. That done we rested and when the lads came back from work that night we headed out for some beers and dinner. My kinda day!! :-)

11 de Octubre

This was our first day out an about on our own in Mexico so we went to check out some nice places we heard about. First we got the metro to an area called Coyoacán, its the oldest part of Mexico city and I would def recommend it to anyone who comes here. It is probably the most beautiful and well preserved part of Mexico city, full of 16th - 19th century building, two fab squares, gardens etc. It really is idyllic and has some great places for lunch. After that we felt we were on a roll so decided to squeeze in another part of the city we had heard about called  Xochimilco. It was supposed to be nice with canals running through it and the least polluted part of the city. Yeah right is all Ill say to that! We found it almost more polluted and crammed than the city center, plus def not recommended for anyone who doesnt like dogs as each corner has about 10 dying looking dogs at it! So glad i got my rabies shot!!! We made it back then to the lads flat late that night and ready for bed. I think ive walked more in the last few days than in the last year!

12 de octubre

Although we were not planning to go north at all from Mexico city we heard so much about a few colonial towns there that we decided it was worth a look. This area just north of Mexico city is known as Central Mexico, the colonial heartland. For centuries the mines in this region churned out much of the world´s silver and a fair amount of gold and precious stones too. When Spain took over Mexico it used most of the gold etc from here to finance its wars and conquests in other parts of the world. So we got up and got the bus from Mexico DF to our first stop, a cute little town called Querétaro. The journey only took 2.5 hours and we left our big back packs with the lads so we were travelling light. When we got there we went in search of a hostel and found one owned by a Canadian guy. He was French Canadian so it was a good test for my French!! He was full of advice and persuaded us to rent car the next day to visit the rest of the area. Although we didnt take much persuading as a road trip sounded fun!!!
 
13 de octubre

We thanked our Canadian buddy for the advice and headed off at 9am to the car rental place. On the way we realised that we both had left our licences in Mexico with our stuff!!!! umm renting a car without a licence, how was that going to work! Well actually in the end perfectly! We ended up having to wait over an hour for the place to open, eventhough it should open at 9am, and when the girl did arrive she didnt hesitate in giving us a car eventhough we had no licences! You gotta love Mexico! The car was a Nissan Tzuru and seeing Antoine there behind the wheel made me crack up...let the mexican road trip begin! The car had almost no petrol and there where no petrol stations in sight for ages, then just when we thought we were going to run out we EVENTUALLY found one. Thankfully as it wouldnt have been a very good start to the trip! Once fulled up we made our way to Bernal, once of the smallest cutiest places ive ever seen, from there we went to Tesquisquiapan - San Juan del Rio - back through Queretaro and on to San Miguel de Allende. The last place mentioned has been taken over by the Americans, they are everywhere! From there we went to Dolores Hidalgo where we spent the night. The accomodation saituation wasnt looking great when we arrived late enough that night, we saw one cheap room that was so rotten you couldnt even breathe in it and the rest was too expensive! Finally we found somewhere for our budget and it even had tv! We watched a film that night and it felt like quite a treat! 

14 de octubre

After a stroll around Dolores de Hidalgo we countinued on into the mountains, which we had to cross to get to our next destination Guanajuato. However as we were already high up in the mountains we came apon a tiny village which seemed to be full of people. Nosy as we are, we parked up and when to take a look. Turned out it was the village festival and they were celebrating Mexican independance from Spain. There were people dressed up like the Spanish and others like the indigenous indians and they were reinacting a bit the battle for independance. Kinda scary the guns though! After we finished our trip by driving to Guanajuato where the biggest arts festival in Latinamerica was taking place, and then back to Queretaro. We had gone 541 kms in two days which wasnt bad and I had managed to drive an automatic car in Mexico and survive! 

15 de octubre

After staying in La Jirfa Roja Hostel for the night we got up and left back the car. We had a bit of hassle as they were trying to charge us more than the agreed but we stood our ground and didnt pay it. Speaking the language does help. We later went back to Mexico city and back to the lads flat for the night. I still hadnt managed to speak to my Mum since I had arrived but I got her tonight at last so that was nice.

16 de octubre
We had a much deserved lazy day around Mexico, we went back to the park and sat in the sun for hours before having lunch and going to pack our stuff. We said goodbye to the lads, thanked them loads, thanks guys! and got a night bus from Mexico DF to Oaxaca. Bus wasnt the ritz but we managed to sleep a bit before arriving there at 6am.

17 de octubre

In Oaxaca we got really lucky and found a great Hostel called Don Mario, the beds looked too tempting so we ended up sleeping for a few hours that morning. Hey we got off a night bus so we deserved it! After that we walked around Oaxaca all day enjoying the sites...one of which was a very naked black guy who was strolling the streets! We also arrived in the middle of a town parade and got the chance to try some very strong home made Mescal...similar to tequila so imagine!
Here is the video of the naked man...

18 de octubre

Today was another active day, we got a bus with another couple who turned out to be Spanish and went for a three hour hike in the mountains outside Oaxaca. When I say mountains i dont exaggerate as we were at 3200 m. We had an indigenous man as our guide and he led us through the forests, through caves and up small paths showing us the amazing views and explaining to us the different plants which they use as medicine. not sure i belived that part! Then he took us to his village for lunch and we had a look around. Amazing to see!! They are almost self sufficient and grow nearly all their own food. So much talk nowadays about organic, well you cant get much more organic that what they eat! 

19 de octubre

This was our last day in Oaxaca so we took advantage and went to see the ruins of Monte Alban. Its full of pyramides, tombs, terraces, sculptures etc from the Zapotec culture, another group of indigenous people who lived in Mexico before Spain took over. Very impressive place as its all built on a hilltop and has amazing views. Finding the bus to get there was an experience but it was worth it. That night we opted for a more western dinner of hamburger and chips and caught the night bus to Puerto del Angel. When we arrived from Mexico we came into the first class bus station, but to go to Puerto de Angel we took a second class bus, we were not ready for what we saw in the second class bus station. It was full of homeless people settling down to sleep for the night, the bus itself didnt evoke much confidence either so we said good bye to our backpacks in the boot and hoped for the best. 
Even if a video is little compared to the real place, this is a short vid of Monte alban...