Oaxaca

Well we adored San Cristóbal. I didn´t want to leave, but we knew we´d love every town in Mexico, and had better move on. We drank a lot of yummy Chiapan coffee and walked all over the lovely colonial town. We cooked our own breakfasts at our hostel from fun things we bought at the market and ate as much street food as we could...later in Oaxaca we ate even more :)

Next we went to Chiapa de Corzo, another colonial town alongside a big canyon. We took a lancha (a small speed boat) through the canyon, which took about 2 hours, and were delighted to see crocodiles, monkeys, tons of birds, and iguanas. We have in general been so delighted with the wilderness in Mexico--both in and outside the cities. There are great forests and fields and deserts and within the cities there are so many trees and plants. The hostels and restaurants are bursting with them. Everything in fact seems so alive. All the time you are hearing birds chirping and live music from near and far, and interacting with humans and dogs, and seeing luscious plants, trees, and fresh food being sold all along the streets. It´s like being in a jungle, except for the cobblestone streets.

Now we are in Oaxaca and we are again finding it hard to leave. The food is sooooo good here. The moles (sauces made out of various spices, nuts, chocolate, ETC) are incredible and entice me to eat meat, which I haven´t done in abundace (every day) for years. Hot chocolate is big here too, but I have to say I liked it better in Guate and Chiapas where it´s not as sweet. With the exception of a date at a fancy restaurant last night so that we could try the regional specialties of mezcaltinis (martinis with mezcal), prepared grasshoppers (chapulines), and a black fungus which grows on the local corn (huitlacoche), we´ve eaten strictly on the streets and in the market. We realized with our date, that it was actually the first ¨proper¨date so to speak that we had been on with each other.... our first ¨date¨ involved a walk in Albuquerque´s bosque with Justin pointing out coyote poop (what the coyote had eaten, etc) and then him making me dinner. We got dressed up as much as we could...he in hiking boots and his clean pair of Carharts and me in a summer dress and flip flops, albiet both with greasy hair :)

The buses are a lot less eventful (stressful/scary/uncomfortable) and certainly less diesel fumey than in Guatemala, all of which we are grateful for. We spend our days basically walking around the beautiful streets, eating, people watching, and reading about where we are. We´ve stopped taking any tours to conserve $$ and are saving our museum money for Mexico City.