San Cristobal de las Casas

On our way to Guatemala we decided to stop in at San Cristobal de las Casas. We'd heard many good things about it, including having the chance to watch live chicken sacrifices in a church. We didn't end up watching any religious rituals but enjoyed it all the same. It's a cute little city with a beautiful backdrop of mountains. We found an awesome hostel that had free cocktails twice a week and an amazing free breakfast (Breakfast has become a big part of our lives. Nothing excites us more than free breakfast and towels in a hostel). 

If you're in San Cristobal visiting this canyon seems to be the thing to do. You get to boat through this amazing canyon that's about 1 km high taking in the views and the wild life. 

I could imagine fairies living in this waterfall

Found some crocodiles. We also got to some little monkeys and heaps of birds!

After the canyon we also visited this little town as part of our tour. There wasn't really anything to do there except each lunch but we found a fun statue!

Some sights from our walks around San Cristobal. I loved being able to always see mountains in the background:

In San Cristobal we had our first experience with bumping into a fellow traveler we had met in another town. We were walking down the street and saw a guy we had hung out with in Merida eating in a cafe. We hung out for the afternoon, walking around town, visiting this church and eating falafel. (Apparently San Cristobal also offers the best falafel. We hadn't even known falafel was on people's radars until having multiple conversations about it here).

View from the church

Chiapas was the State we were in

Throughout Mexico there have been protests in regards to the missing 43 students believed to have been killed by a drug cartel who was working for a politician. Just as we were preparing to leave Mexico the protests really kicked off. During our last night in San Cristobal there was a huge protest just outside our hostel, complete with loud chanting and graffiti. 

(I apologise for the terrible formatting, now and forever)

Ready to leave for Guatemala at 6:30 am

A week at the Beach

After Oaxaca, like everyone else, we decided to head to the beach. As was the same for most people this meant heading south to Puerto Escondido. To get there you have two choices - a 6 hour van up a mountain or an 11 hour bus somewhat around the mountain. We opted for the bus as we had heard people often got sick on the van and it also counted as a night's accommodation. 

We had booked a hostel for our second night in Puerto Escondido but had to find somewhere to stay for the first night at 8 in the morning when we got off the bus. I didn't feel up to trudging around a new town with backpacks trying to find a cheap hotel so we just went with the fist place we tried and we were glad we did. We ended up having a room on the top floor with access to this balcony that we had to ourselves. As you can see the view was pretty good. The next day we made our way to our pre-booked hostel.

We pretty much did nothing for a whole week which was quite a change. We went to the beach, swam in the hostel's pool, went to a different beach, pottered about. I don't know if I could have handled much more anyway, with the sweat dripping off me just from walking from the room to the kitchen. The heat was quite a shock as Oaxaca had been surprisingly cold.

On our first day we wandered along the beach in search of food. We hadn't eaten for about 12 hours and I was getting desperate. This was the only place with some life so we decided to go for it. It turned out to be a Canadian ex-pat bar that consisted of mostly senior white people playing horse shoes. We had a white man's version of Mexican food. The price of letting yourself get too hungry. 

Everywhere we have been in Mexico (except Cancun) there has been some kind of festival happening. Puerto Escondido was no different. They have a festival going all through November. This meant we got to see more giant puppets!

There was an international surf competition as part of the festivities. Apparently just before the competition started all the waves dropped off. 

My favourite beach in PE. 

A glimpse of the pool that we hung around for 5 days. 

On our last evening it decided to pour rain for maybe an hour. I enjoyed the imagery of the soaking hammocks. 

More of Oaxaca

There was more to Oaxaca than Day of the Dead.

Oaxaca City - it's easy to think you're in a small town when you're just hanging out in the historical center but we were surprised how big it was when we got up here.

There are bugs everywhere here!

 We went on a day tour just outside the city:

The widest tree in the world!

We visited a textile "factory". I have a much greater appreciation for have woven rugs now. 

This is what a Day of the Dead altar looks like after a few days

We visited an amazing petrified waterfall

The views were amazing

Saw some Aztec/Zapatos ruins (I was confused about which it was by the end, but it was cool)

And of course there was a mezcal tasting

Which wouldn't be complete without the worms....

Oaxaca is known to have some of the best food in Mexico so we thought it would be the place to do a cooking class.

It included a tour of the market. Lots of colours and many many smells. 

mmmmmmm

The end product - yellow mole with vegetable, complete on Halloween plate :)

Dishing up! It was one of the most amazing kitchen's I've seen! Very inspiring. 

Stuffed chilli, black beans, home made tortillas, guacamole,  and some extra stuffing from the chilli (chicken, tomato, onion etc.)

Oaxaca was very nice and if you ever make it to Mexico I recommend it.

Dia de los muertos

Long long ago back in Australia we did some research to find the best place to celebrate Dia de los muertos, or Day of the Dead. Oaxaca was the name that constantly came up so that's where we went.

Day of the Dead is a tradition that stems from pre-Hispanic times. It's a time to celebrate and remember your loved ones who have passed away. The story goes that during this time the spirits come back to our world for a visit, children on 1st November and adults on 2nd November. Families make altars in their homes decorated with photos, flowers, candy and the deceased favourtie food and drink (because they'll be hungry after such a long journey). Families also decorate the graves of their loved ones and hang out in the cemetery together all night waiting for the spirits.Hanging around in a graveyard all night doesn't sound that fun but there's food, music, mezcal and family bonding. It really does feel like a celebration.

The main days for celebration are between the 31st October and 2nd November but in a lot of places preparation and celebration starts days before. Almost every night we were in Oaxaca there were street parades where a band would play, walking and and down the streets, and a horde of people in costumes would dance and follow them around. There would be 2 or 3 of these happening. Random people would be throwing lollies into the streets. People dressed up their dogs. Delicious food stands were everywhere and heaps of decorations.

Ever since I discovered Day of the Dead existed I've wanted to go and I'm happy to report it was not a disappointment, not at all.*

Sorry in advance for the quality of photos, night time photos are hard with a point and shoot.

People are always getting their photo taken with the people in the best costumes. There was the best costumes I've ever seen here.

Street Party

Some of the Decorations:

Altars representing the different areas of the state of Oaxaca

Decorated grave

A more elaborate altar

Chocolate de leche con pan de yama (Hot Chocolate with bread made from egg yolk - the little head represents the soul. This is also part of the traditions. You have to dip the bread in your hot chocolate because it's so stale)

Candy Skull

Sand Art

*Ok, the one disappointment I had was that the Candy Skull I bought to eat didn't taste good. But that's it.