Year 9 Geography told me that Mexico City was the largest city in the world. Cowboy films told me that Mexico was a hot and dusty desert. Despite knowing that both are incorrect we still arrived in Mexico city expecting a sprawling, dirty sweat box. Thankfully this was not the case. Infact, the city is very pretty (at least in the old colonial heart) and was pretty chilly because it's at quite high altitude. We stayed in a nice hotel in the Zocalo which was a per...

After our irritating robbery in Zipolite we decided to go up the coast to Puerto Escondido. We stayed for a couple of days right on the beach rather than in the town itself and had a really nice time. The waves were up (an international surfing comp. was held there the weekend before we arrived), and so we hired boogie boards to make the most of it. What made it even cooler were the small stingrays swimming along inside the waves and sometimes even brushing again...

We headed down from San Cristobal to the market city of Oaxaca to do some trinket and handicraft shopping but it turned out they were all pretty pants. Nevertheless the city itself was very nice with several large plazas and a "festival of lights" in the evenings allowing us to indulge in popcorn and candyfloss. The town also seems to have a penchant for skeletons, prehaps a hangover from the day of the dead a few weeks ago, with virtually every shop co...

Tulum was our last Carribbean beach of the year, and a pretty good one at that, but time is pressing so we headed off to see some of inland Mexico. First stop was the fiesta town of Merida at the top of the Yucatan Peninsula. The town has a regular series of outdoor events and we thought we might have a look at some of the local culture. Most of the events involved bands playing old Mexican music to which the local OAPs were getting down. It was amusing, and some...

Sun, sea, sand, and a few ruins for good measure..... need I say more?