Oaxaca

After spending a couple of days with Adele and Charlotte , the English girls I met in Mexico City, I decided to travel with them through Mexico for a bit. We took a bus from Mexico City to Oaxaca which was around 8 hours and 400 pesos.

We booked a private three bed room room in the Casa Angel Hostel – another really good hostel! We arrived at 01.00 am and there was someone on reception and really helpful checking us in.

Tour around Oaxaca- 14th

– Visited the widest tree in the world (apparently!), which was 53metres wide and 2000 years old called El Arbol de Tule Tree and was a cypress tree.

-Teotitlan De l Valle. This was where world class wool rugs were made. We watched a demonstration on how they mixed imported New Zealand wool and then some From Mexico together and then dyed it . Then you got to see them working on the loom, and learnt that it takes them months to make one rug.

-Mitla. We visited this lovely town which has an amazing market , church and ruins. We wandered around the market and colourful town for hours, stopping at stalls to get bracelets and other bits. The fresh mango sold here was really good!

-Petrified Waterfall- Hierve el Agua. This was one of my favourite places I’ve been to on her trip so far, it was absolutely stunning! We had to trek down to the natural pools but stopped at lots of points to take photos and look at the incredible views! Once you reach the natural pools we just swam for 45 minutes and took in the breathtaking surroundings.

-Mezcal Factory. We stopped here on the way back to the city and saw how the spirit was made from the agave from Mexico. They then give you a tasting session but by this point I was too tired to start shotting strong alcohol.

Oaxaca City Centre

On one of our days here we spent the day walking around and exploring the main city. It is absolutely beautiful, with some amazing architecture, restaurants and markets. We stopped at little stalls, went to the main market at the bottom of the main area and stopped off in a lovely bar to have a drink. There is a huge cathedral in the middle of the main area and some great shops too. We also had a great evening out with loads of travellers from the hostel in the city too, meeting a lot of locals too.

Mexico City

So I have now been in Central America for a few weeks now and it’s about time to post on all the amazing things I have been up to so far.

I arrived in Mexico City on June 10th around 19.30pm. It was getting dark when I arrived and I ended up waiting nervously for a taxi for around an hour.
I have to say this was the worst day of the trip so far. Upon arrival at the hostel I went upstairs to the dormitory I had booked. There was only one other American girl in there at the time and when I said hello she shouted at me some random stuff I couldn’t really understand but I thought was odd. I needed to get out of the dorm so I went downstairs to the bar and spoke some extremely shaky Spanish. After a while I went to bed but the American girl proceeded to scream out during the night which was terrifying, and it gets worse, the day after I woke up after being attacked severely by bed bugs.

Tour around Mexico City – 11th June

On my first day in Mexico I really needed to get out of the dorm and do some sightseeing so I booked onto a tour around Mexico City costing me around 500pesos.

-Visited the 2nd most important Catholic centre after The Vatican City called Basilica of our lady Guadulupe which is the national shrine of Mexico. It was a beautiful building and when you go in you can see the service going on, take a walk around the cathedral and up the stairs where you can get a view of the whole city.

-Visited Teotihuacan, which is about 30miles northeast of the city. It is the most visited archaeological site visited in the country and was established 100years BC. It was absolutely beautiful and a good workout too, climbing up hundreds of steep steps to reach the top of the pyramids. Once you have done all of the climbing, there was also a great market you could wander around after.

-The Cactus weaving and alcohol tasting, was something we did before lunch. You get a really good demonstration on how the locals make these amazing brightly coloured blankets and fabrics using the string from the cactus and natural dyes from Mexico. They have a great shop you can walk around after and buy locally made souvenirs.

I met two really lovely English girls on the tour and after telling about my awful first night they invited me to move hostels and come to their one which was Hostel Cathedral in the historical centre. This was such a good move, the hostel was cleaner, friendlier and had such a good atmosphere. One of the best ones of the whole trip. That night the hostel workers put on a delicious rooftop BBQ for us and then took us on an amazing night out to this house club In the city which was so good!

Mexico VS Cameroon FIFA World Cup game – 13th June

This experience was definitely a highlight of Mexico City. Watching a foreign country play and win in their capital was insane! We watched the game in the main square of the city where they had set up massive screens and were handing out clappers and free popcorn. There were Mexican TV stations filming us as the only young white girls there. We got really involved cheering for Mexico and everytime they scored everyone was throwing beer around and screaming! After this we went to this amazing kraft beer bar and had a guacamole making class. They brought out a pestle and mortar and all the separate ingredients and then we put on these crazy hats and made the most amazing guacamole !

A complete headache to plan

I decided shortly before Christmas that I was going to travel to Central and South America after my placement and before I started University again so from June-End of August (Around 3 months).

Well it has been a complete nightmare to plan, from people deciding their coming with me and then dropping out and tackling my parents to let me go as a solo female traveller it had taken me months to get to this stage where I really need to gather all my information and get a real plan into place.

I was going to try and do South America but started off the process quite naive to the sheer size and versatility of the area, and was recommended by the travel agent on the phone to do Central America. After looking into it a bit more, I found certain blogs and sites which gave me a wealth of information, but not exactly all in one place.

Because I am going alone I feel like I need to do as much research as possible before I go so I can have a good plan of the geography of the countries, travel requirements, hostels and tourist sites and other must do things whilst I am out there.

A map of Central America

So as it stands now, I am going to fly into Mexico and travel throughout the whole of Central America through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Hondoras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama and of course jumping on and off the aray of Caribbean Islands on the way. Being over in this part of the world, I want to fly from Panama to Somewhere in South America (undecided), and do a couple of countries briefly there hopefully meeting up with various friends out there.

It is a massive trip, not only will it take a lot of planning, money and travelling I am now doing the majority of it by myself which is quite a daunting prospect.

Anyway, this part of my blog is dedicated to me planning my trip and trying to put information together in one place which I haven’t been able to find easily and whilst I am out there of course documenting my journey.

I am so excited to go and see a part of the world which I have never been to, and although travelling alone is going to be weird and scary at times I know I am going to meet some incredible people and have such a good time. Bring on some of the best beaches, history and of course rum in the world….

Beach in Belize