Mexico Part Three: Oaxaca!

It was a million years ago now, but I thought I might continue with my Mexico posts!

After Mexico city, Jack and I hopped on a bus and made our way on down to Oaxaca. Oaxaca City was one of my favourite towns in Mexico. It's so quiet and pretty and full of beautiful old colonial architecture.

On our first full day, we visited the Monte Alban Ruins, about ten Ks from the main town. I was excited for my first Mexican ruins, and was definitely not disappointed!



It was such a beautiful landscape - particularly the dry yellow grass contrasted against the bright blue sky.





On our second day in Oaxaca, we went on a tour with Fundacion En Via - a charity organisation who provide interest free micro-financing loans to women in the Oaxaca region. If you're anywhere near Oaxaca, I would definitely recommend going on one of their tours. All money raised from the tours goes directly towards providing more loans, and it is such a great experience. It really was a wonderful opportunity to see some of the villages surrounding Oaxaca City, as well as hear the local languages and understand a little bit more about local handcrafts.



On day three, we hopped up bright and early to take the bus to Llano Grande - a teeny village in the mountains, a few hours from Oaxaca city. We stayed in a sweet little log cabin and spent two days hiking, sitting by our smokey fire and sipping on bowls full of Oaxaca hot chocolate in the village's only restaurant (which happened to be in a family's lounge room).







We made our way back down the mountain to Oaxaca City that night, tired and sore from all of our hiking, and ready for tomorrow's beachy adventures!

a little bit of mexico: part two - Mexico City!

In Mexico City, our little group doubled and went from three to six! We had a lovely few days exploring the city, visiting Frida and enjoying perhaps a few too many coffees and cake.





I was so excited to visit Frida Kahlo's house and was definitely not disappointed! It's fascinating to be able to look inside her bedroom, studio, kitchen and dining room - I also loved the little facts such as "this is the bed where Trotsky slept when he stayed in 1937".



After a couple of days, my friends continued on with their journey, while Jack and I stayed to see a little more of Mexico City. We explored the Centro Historico, attempted to visit the Diego Rivera Museum (unfortunately it is closed on Mondays!), hunted for murals and spent an afternoon floating around Xochimilco on a colourful boat.

























Like a lot of Mexico, I was surprised by just how pleasant Mexico City was - so much pretty architecture, history, art, good coffee and yummy vegetarian eateries! Next stop - Oaxaca!

xox

a little bit of mexico: part one

Our Mexican adventures began in the Northern town of Monterrey, after a seemingly endless bus trip from Austin, Texas. We enjoyed a few days wandering about the winding cobbled streets, acclimatising ourselves to our new Mexican surrounds and making friends with the sweetest little pup!





We then headed on down to San Louis Potosi, where we spent a rather lonely Christmas, surrounded by the town’s beautiful cathedrals and colonial architecture.












With New Years in mind, we made our next destination Puerto Vallarta. While the beaches were a little too covered in sunburnt Americans and the night life resembled Jersey Shore a little too closely for our likings, we discovered Planeta Vegetariano – my very favourite Mexican eatery!





Yearning for something a little less touristy, we made our way back up to Sayulita where we spent a few days enjoying the beach, hiking and celebrating the new year!







We made Urupan our next destination so as to climb the spectacular active volcano! It was a rather difficult task, involving hours of scrambling over mountains of lava before we even reached the volcano! The volcano itself, and view from the top, however, was well worth the climb!



















Thus marked the end of our first two weeks of Mexican travel and the end of our time together as a little threesome. Next stop: Mexico City!