Jonno and Diana's adventure: May 2018

Very hot and very dry

Now, onto the next in our colonial town crawl of Mexico- Oaxaca (pronounced wah-ha-ka, makes no sense to us either). We were not sure how long we wanted to spend here, so booked 2 nights initially.

Here, we had the most wonderful Airbnb host, Potter,- he was so excited to greet us, kept checking up on us and even came for cuddles in our bed! Although we were not so pleased to find one night he had emptied the contents of the bathroom bin all over the apartment and stolen my underwear from the room. All was forgiven though after some snuggles and nose licks.

Potter- 'Welcome to my Airbnb apartment. Please note; daily strokes are mandatory'

'These are the rules of the house, listen carefully'

.'So now we are bestest best friends, right?'

The first day, as usual, we spent wandering around the city exploring. It was another place where the Zocalo (main square) was the hub for everything going on for both locals and tourists. We had heard that the museum of 'las Culturas' was worth checking out, although apart from the great views of the gardens it didn't impress us massively and wasn't helped by it being completely in Spanish.

Shaved ice with flavoured syrup- So refreshing in the intense heat

Gardens at the museum with Agave

Museum courtyard

Inside the Culture Museum, just a bit shiny

Wazzzzaaaaaapppp

We decided to do a day trip from Oaxaca the next day, which meant booking another night at our accommodation. Unfortunately, it had already been booked by somebody else (why did you not stop this, Potter??), which meant that to stay in the city we needed to move accommodation, which took most of the morning up. The day trip would have to wait for the following day, before our night bus. We had a spare afternoon, which we had initially thought we could visit some nearby ruins and go to a lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) but it turned out the ruins were not so easy to get to and the lucha libre wasn't on. So not a very successful day. Also, the streets were filled with people who had set up tents and tarpaulin across the road which we later discovered was a teachers strike which didn't make doing anything else easy either.

Teacher's strike Mexico style

A chilli with a pasta sombrero- Hours of entertainment

The next day we decided to make the 2 hour bus and collectivo trip to 'Hierve El agua', a waterfall without water. It was a site of natural springs which have water with a high level of calcium carbonate, leaving white deposits on the rock to create what look like waterfalls. After a rough ride in the back of a collectivo truck along some very steep mountain dirt tracks, we were taken to the site of the 'falls' and enjoyed time cooling off in a pool of the spring water before the 2 hour trip back in time to grab our bags and dinner before our night bus (last night bus of the trip, woooo!)

The steep dusty drive in the collectivo

Crazy nature

The 'petrified waterfall' with no water

Natural springs

Nature's infinity pool

After another uncomfortable night bus, we arrived in the definitely cooler San Cristobal de las Casas (a town with it's own theme song, played on repeat in the center, what more could you want!) and only had a couple of hours to kill before we could check in to the accommodation.

When we had researched San Cristobal, it looked like there were a lot of day trips we could do from there, so we had booked 4 nights. Unfortunately, the day trips were all outside activities (canyons, lakes, nature reserves) and the weather forecast was not looking too promising with most days forecast for rain, and the review for the lakes had said if it's a sunny day, the lakes are beautiful colours but if it's overcast they are just grey so check the weather before. We did decide to risk it for the canyon day trip which we booked for the following day.

Some sun would be nice please?

This little one wanted to be involved in EVERYTHING

All ready for the day trip?

When we left San Cristobal that morning it seemed pretty chilly (San Cristobal is at altitude) and we had packed waterproof clothes and more layers in case the weather got bad. These all became redundant after an hour in the minivan when we left altitude and the sun started beating down. We were taken to a boat for our ride along the river in the canyon, and although seeing some monkeys and crocodiles along the banks, was pretty uneventful and definitely more focused on making money from the tourism, they took us far down the river and before they turned back, went along the boat for tips and then magically a floating Oxxo (a chain convenience store) came past and tied itself onto our boat to sell us their wares. Once everyone's pockets were empty we then we're expected to applaud the shop on a boat before we could return to the dock.

Sneaky crocs

Lanky monkeys

Floating capitalism

Seeing the canyon from EVERY ANGLE POSSIBLE

Yup, still there

Sneaking a look at the main building in the town of Chiapas before retreating into an Oxxo

We were then taken to 4 viewpoints at the top of the canyon, each time dragging ourselves out of the nice air conditioned minivan into the scorching heat to see yet another angle, and then made a last stop in the town center of Chiapas, where the main point of interest in the main plaza was surrounded by metal fences for rennovation, and the outside temperature felt like we were in touching distance from the sun. We decided to spend our precious time in this place walking up and down the aisles of the local air conditioned Oxxo before making a dash back to the minivan.

As we arrived back in San Cristobal, we were greeted to the anticipated downpour, and even though the next morning was deceivingly clear, the rain came back for most of the day after. Again, on the final day, the weather looked promising at the start, so we decided to check out one of the viewpoints of the city by climbing 200ish steps, only to find that it was too overgrown to see much. We carried on to get a collectivo to the nearby town of San Juan Chamula, where apparently we would find a rather different kind of church for the indigenous community. We got into the collectivo, and shortly we were joined by women in back hairy skirts. When we arrived in the tiny Town, the numbers of women and men in Black hairy outfits had dramatically increased, and they were all headed towards the initially regular looking church. We followed them in, and we were immediately hit by the heavy incense fumes, along with rhythmic chanting and some kind of accordion music. There were no pews, just hay strewn on the floor (with a very nice tiled floor underneath) and the only source of light was from hundreds of candles on the tables and the floor. The combination of being surrounded by candles in close proximity to hay and people in highly flammable clothing did put us on edge a bit, but nobody else seemed worried. As we were about to leave, the door became blocked by a mariachi band. Aaaand then the rain started again. Abandoning any idea of exploring further into the town, we decided jumping into a collectivo back was a better option, although the rain was still so torrential when we got back we had to take shelter for another 40 minutes before venturing back to the room and even then we were wading through rivers rather than streets.

San Cristobal, your theme tune was catchy but your unpredictable weather lost you the points.

Goooo away clouds!

But pup, take this bread because you look hungry!

Viewpoint of San Cristobal with the views fairly hidden

The indigenous church- no photos allowed inside unfortunately

The only sneaky picture we managed to get of the hairy skirts

Our next stop was Palenque, which would have only been a 4-5 hour journey, but the frequent road blocks and robberies on the direct road meant that the buses took a 4 hour detour which was not so fun but I guess better than the alternative.

Quick, we found the letters! Now all is well!

We think they were biscuits, but the whole pack contains 19,000 calories in case anyone wanted a challenge?

The main reason for visiting Palenque was for the nearby ruins, a short collectivo ride away. We got to the ruins, and we were approached and asked if we wanted a guide. Sure, why not, it might be more interesting to know the history of the place in more depth. About 10 minutes into our hour and a half tour, Jonno's brain decides this would be an ideal time for a migraine, so we apologise to the guide and it's a race against time for me to quickly run around the ruins while Jonno waits at the entrance so we can get him back to the room. Not quite the day we had planned. But we are now on a schedule and have a bus booked to Campeche the next morning.