See! The market here is really nice!

They have flags...

And the fruit is very nicely arranged...

San Cristobal de las Casas

Ah, it's pretty here. Lots of brightly coloured buildings, markets and fun places to go out at night.


Have been hanging out with a pretty international crowd - Three of us from London and one from Leeds! Am making the most of my exotic location to investigate various other cultures....

Everybody go surfing...

Or don't...cos it hurts a lot. I had 3 days of lessons in Puerto Escondido with a random bloke who had been banned from the local surf association for fighting. It mainly resulted in severe exhaustion, cut feet, bruised knees and elbows, burned legs, and drowned rat demeanor....and that was just after meeting the surf teacher (heehee!)

I think the main problem is choosing to learn in a place where pro-surfers from around the world gather for the massive, fast-breaking waves. Next time, Brighton beach!

It was fun though, lots of water wildlife...Manta Rays surfing on the waves alongside me & leaping (HIGH!) into the air. And hopefully i can practice my new found surfer skills further down the coast in El Salvador and then amaze my friends with my new talents next time we visit the Gower!

Jim thanking Christy for driving...

Hey You!

Get your shell suit out of my photo! Don't you know this is one of ME and The Pyramid ONLY...?!


This is Monte Alban near Oaxaca. Some nice Peace Corps volunteers I met kindly took me out here for the day in their car, so was a very nice easy day of wandering around the ruins, trying to capture pictures of shell-suit wearing guides in front of the temples.

I learnt two main things about the temple:

• The inhabitants played squash!
• The priests made holes in the ceilings so that they could track different constellations that would help them predict when the rains were coming / when they should harvest their crops etc.

This is not very much for a whole day i know...but it is tricky in Spanish :)

And another thing about Oaxaca....

People there like nuts. A lot.

Oaxaca

From what i'd read, Oaxaca sounded quite dangerous. Strikes, political protests, imprisonment of anyone who opposed the government, whole villages wiped out by local government 'armies'.... Ok, so I did arrive in the middle of Mexican independence celebrations, so a generally more upbeat affair, but other than that, as a tourist you see NO sign of any of this stuff going on.

Apparently a female American activist was killed near Oaxaca last year. She was acting as a kind of human shield to local activists trying to improve the lives and rights of the indigenous populations nearby. The theory is that government-backed groups are less likely to knock off a foreigner because it creates an excess of paperwork in Mexico City and a little too much noise.

Not all of the strikes are what they seem either. A few years ago there was a strike of newspaper workers from Las Noticias. The rumour was that the people 'on strike' in the town square were not strikers at all, but people hired by the local government as a cover for the attempted close-down of the publication, which had been constantly critical of government policy.

As I said, none of this has any impact on general tourists to the area. It's a nice colonial town, pretty churches and buildings, lots of little markets....very lovely (see pictures below).

(sorry, am liking the car shots at the moment, this is less wobbly too!)

Name that Cloud!

Sianie....I'm lookin' at you kid...!

Pretty Picture of Mexico City at Night

Sorry, it's a bit blurry.

Pants on fire!!

Well, not quite but almost. Went to do my laundry in La Lavanderia yesterday and couldn´t help but notice that the dryer was on fire. I'd already handed over my clothes, so was understandably quite concerned - "Argh! Su Maquina esta en fuego!" (argh, your machine is on fire)....the laundry lady didn´t seem worried so i thought maybe i was having a bad spanish day and tried "¿pero, la maquina es muy caliente, no?" (but the machine is very hot isn´t it?).

After trying twice, i figured she must know what she was doing...but literally, there were FLAMES coming out of the top of the machine!!!!

I went back later, fully expecting at least to receive a bag of ashes instead of my clothes, if not find the whole laundry place burned to a crisp. Miraculously, i was instead presented with the cleanest, nicest smelling, best folded laundry i´ve ever seen!!!

How is this possible?!

Morelia

It`s a very nice city, but there are a lot of pigeons - Nat, i don`t think you`d like it!

Lucha Libre 2!

Before you start to think I`m obsessed by wrestling, please be assured, it`s not me....it`s the Mexicans!!! (honestly)

A night of too many of these:

Led to the creation of two new wrestling sensations.....Introducing Bob & Barbara!!!! Yay!!!!

As vicious in the ring, as they are relaxed at home...

Heehee!!

Los Pyramides in a silly hat

Made a trip out of town to Teotihuacan to see some pyramids built by the guys in charge before the Aztecs. The name `Teotihuacan`, rather dramatically, translates as ´the place where men become gods`. Though there are some pretty nasty deities in Mexico, so you might want to pick and choose...!

It was really hot, so was forced to pay an extortionate amount of money for a hat I looked stupid in. Here is the evidence:

On the up-side, there were many other unsuspecting tourists who found themselves in the same, unstylish boat...

Lucha Libre!!!!

Went to see Mexican wrestling (Lucha Libre) last night - it was SO MUCH FUN!! Large men in skin-tight lycra and sparkly masks might not be everyone's idea of fun, but it certainly entertained me! For large men, they are amazingly agile.

Was slightly concerned by the etiquette of using midgets as mascots, but Sal & Nat will be pleased to know that one of the wrestlers went one better by using a primordial dwarf!

I got my camera confiscated on the way in, so i don't have any photos of the actual event i'm afraid...you'll have to make do with the following reconstructions of events....

Eco-Mexico

This is a bin I saw today encouraging Mexicans to recycle their plastic bottles. Bert...i thought Sprout could take on board some of the interesting design elements presented here...?

Day One in Mexico City - Don't worry, I won't subject you all to a new post every day :)

So, here I am in lovely Mexico City. Just ate my first proper Mexican meal in a small cafe with men playing dominos and old, frazzled cinema posters on the walls. Am slightly concerned about the effect the food might have on me....it tasted nice, but looked like green and red splodge with small, white worms sprinkled on top (actually cheese).

Have had a lovely first day, I REALLY like it here. Walked down the Paseo de Reforma, all the way to Chapultepec Park. There are loads of impressive monuments along the way, commemorating independence from Spain, the last Aztec leader,and, more ambiguously, a naked female hunter named Diana.

The park was nice too, though i got told off for sitting too close to the lake. Didn't mind though, cos they told me off in Spanish and I actually understood what they were saying!!! :)

In fact,my Spanish was so impressive today that i made friends with an archeological man in the anthropological museum, who insisted showing me around the ENTIRE place for FIVE HOURS!!!

I learnt many interesting facts though like:

• The emblem on the Mexican flag is an eagle eating a snake. This is because in 'ancient times' nomadic tribes would pick a spot to settle where they saw an eagle eating a snake. Unfortunately, this led to the Aztecs having to build a city (and connecting roads) to a small, muddy islet in the middle of a lake.
• The equivalent of yin & yang in Central America is the winged, or feathered, serpent. The wings represent birds, which are close to the gods...and the snake represents the underworld (der der deeeer!!!). Apparently this symbol is used to describe the balance between good and evil, love and hate, or the balance between a man and a woman (personally i think the lady is the one chatting away to the gods :)
• High-born Mayan babies got their skulls squished between two wooden plates everyday so that they would grow conical heads
• Duty Free shops in Mexico are called DuFry shops...heehee!

So. Tomorrow I am heading into the centre of town. This may, or may not still exist as a plane crashed into the downtown area 2 days ago....killing all people on board (which interestingly included a minister who had recently been trying to clean up some of the drug gangs in Mexico...), 8 people on the ground and injuring 40 people.

Well done if you got right to the end....i got a bit carried away i think!

Speak soon x

Welcome to the new, improved Steph Travel Communication System!

Given my previous attempts at diary-keeping, i'm crossing my fingers that where blogging is concerned a more diligent Steph will magically emerge! At least a blog will give my parents more regular confirmation that I'm still surviving the wilds of Central America ok :)

So here's my first photo, about to jet off on the 10.40 from Chesterfield Train Station, carrying little more than several varieties of torch (maglite, head & wind-up) and my trusty penknife....well actually quite a bit more than that...

Well, off I go!!

See you on the other side of the sea!
xxxxxxxxxxxx