Wow – so much has happened since our last blog. I think that we were caught up in the laidback lifestyle of Troncones that we lost track of time. It's not only our blog that was neglected, but also our personal diaries that are now very very out of date. Ahh... Troncones. We made some really sweet friends there, and several towns down our journey we are still reminiscing about our time there. To bring you up to speed:
After the last post, we spent about another week in Troncones. We became fascinated with how clear the night sky was out in the middle of nowhere, and had fun trying to piece together constellations of the northern hemisphere. We enjoyed a delicious and cheap meal of local lobster (thanks Mikhael!), went on a fishing charter (and only caught one fish), ate almost every night at a little local restaurant called Rufi's (oh how we miss Rufi's!), attended (gatecrashed) a 15 year olds birthday party, went kayaking on a remote river somewhere, and made some fun friends along the way. Shoutouts to Rev & Anne-Marie, Dylan & Mikhael, Andrew & Leeza, Lee & Betsy, Ron & Henry... we had fun with you guys, and you definitely made up the best part of our time in Troncones!
After kayaking, we hailed a bus on the highway in our wet clothes, and made a 7 hour bus ride to Acapulco. We got an awesome deal, the bus driver wanted to make some cash on the side so he charged us half the usual price and pocketed the money himself. We were a bit confused because he negotiated the deal in Spanish, but we got to where we were wanting to go very cheaply, so it all worked out! In the last half hour of the bus journey a busker came on board and stood right next to our seat playing awful music with a harmonica, snare drum and a cow bell. The cowbell was directed right into Nyall's ear, he gave us both headaches, and then afterwards expected us to pay him for his beautiful (ergh!?) music.
Acapulco is a huge tourist destination, but didn't interest us at all. After a mere 2 hours in the city, we caught a midnight bus out of there to our next point of interest: Puerto Escondido. It was a little scary travelling by night on the bus, as we were constantly stopping to let people on. Once during the night I woke up and looked out my window to see the bus driver letting somebody into the baggage section of the bus, I am not sure how long he travelled in there for!
We arrived tired and eager for a place to rest in Puerto Escondido. PE is a quiet town still on the pacific coast, it seems to cater for tourists, but Mexico's tourism is really being hit hard by the the economy problems in the States. This is the peak tourist season, but we learnt that it is down by 40% compared to other years. When we arrived it was dead quiet, it almost felt like a ghost town. We enjoyed our stay immensely though, but we realised that we are way behind our schedule and needed to get moving. We were only in Puerto Escondido for 2 nights.
From PE we travelled in a van through 6 hours of winding roads inland to Oaxaca, known for it's unique handicrafts. We had a lot of fun shopping in Oaxaca, it has been the first real shopping that we have done since being in Mexico. Our favourite product of Oaxaca are Alebrijes, which are little wooden figurines of mythical beings, animals and combinations of both that are painted with very vibrant colours. Some of the pieces sell for thousands of dollars, but we were able to find cheaper variations (that really are just as good!) in the local markets. A box of Oaxacan souvenirs is on its way home (to Mum: expect a huuuge box in your mail soon!)
In Oaxaca we also visited some ruins (which had the most expensive admission fee yet... we nearly said no when we learnt it would cost $5 to get in!). It was fun to visit, but not nearly as impressive as the ones we saw near Mexico City, maybe because we didn't have an informed understanding of it's history. We have also tried some of the famous Oaxacan chocolate, wandered through markets, and watched processions and fiestas that are likely to break out on any street corner at any time of day.
That just about brings you up to date with where we are now. We are currently sitting in our hostel room in Oaxaca procrastinating about packing our bags once again, and preparing for an overnight bus journey to the Chiapas in the highlands of Mexico.
We have really intermittent internet here, so the photos of Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido will have to wait. For more photos of Troncones visit our Flickr page .
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