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I have sat down this time determined to finish writing my travel blog up to this moment in time. Time is going so fast now and I have reached the 5 month mark since I left (it was yesterday). Not quite halfway from when I am meant to return to Australia. Where i finished off last time was in Mexico City. Mexico City really is an amazing place but only a part of a really cool country. One night we went on a roadtrip to a neighbouring city to pick up the brother of the first guy i stayed with in Mexico city. It was a cool drive as we got to go through some of the new parts of Mexico City. I was amazed by some of the overpass roads which looked really complex compared to any you would see in Australia. It was worth staying a bit longer then I wanted to see Ella (a friend from Australia) and to go out with her and her friend Kavita one night.
From Mexico City I caught a bus down to Oaxaca. I had heard a lot of good things about the city and so I was really looking forward to it. The guy I was couchsurfing with (Jose) picked me up from the bus station and took me on a bit of a sightseeing drive on the way back to his house. I planned on staying only a few days but ended up staying for a week. It was really good because I had a lot in common with the guy I was staying with and in the week I was there we went rockclimbing 4 times which I hadnt done since Thailand. I was quite out of condition though which kind of sucks but I am looking forward to doing it more in South America. The first time we went climbing at this spot out of the city and we got a bit lost and because of the rain the car got stuck down an embankment and for over half an hour we tried to get the car back onto the road. Eventually it got up and we found the place we were meant to go. We went out quite a few nights aswell. I found myself really liking the lifestyle there as it is really laid back. We hung out with his friends quite a bit and they were all cool but there was a bit of a language barrier. The city itself is really nice. Its got a lot of traditional Mexican architecture and a lot of big old churches. The main square of the city has been taken over by the teachers who have been on strike for a few years but on my last day they had cleared out so it was good to see it without all the teachers. I really cant say enough good things about Oaxaca and the people I met, and the family I stayed with and the things that I saw and did. Its up there as one of my favourite places I have been. But all good things must come to an end...
From Oaxaca I caught a night bus to San Cristobal de Las Casas. It resembles Oaxaca in a lot of ways and was good for a day trip but I was really tired from not sleeping the night before. I had to make a hard decision. I only had a limited time frame and I am running out of money so I had to skip the Yucatan in Mexico and start heading down to Panama where I have to be on the 15th for my flight to Colombia. So I got another night bus to Tapachula on the Guatemalan border and then connected with another bus to Guatemala City. The border crossing was wuite hectic with a lot of people trying to get money off me but luckily I had none on me... On the way to Guatemala City I met a couple from Costa Rica who helped me out a lot when I arrived in the city. They were really friendly and helped me find the guy that I was staying with there. The guy I stayed with was really helpful and gave me some good advice. I was not felling like staying in the city so I stayed only 2 nights, the second of which the streets flooded because of a really big downpour. I then moved onto Antigua which is another one of my favourite places now. I stayed with a Guatemalan girl (Maria) and her mother for 2 nights which was really fun because i met all her friends and we went out on Friday night. Probably up there as one of the coolest things I have ever done was climbing Volcano Pacaya just outside Antigua. It was an active volcano and when we got to the top we were able to walk across the volcanic rocks which only a metre below was glowing molten hot magma, we got to take photos poking a stick in the lava flow but even better was on the way back across the rocks a new flow of lava started and I was able to capture a video of a river of lava cascading over some rocks. When i can I will upload all the images. The night after I stayed with Sofia, a friend of Marias and there was a party at the house I was staying in. I had to spend one night in a hostel because Sofia had to go back to the city but then I moved on to Lago de Atitlan. It is a really scenic place, it is a massive lake formed between huge cone shaped volcanoes. I enrolled in a language school so I was studying Spanish for hours a day for 5 days and it only cost about $80 for the week. I even took a salsa lesson. Its a survival skill in Latin America that I need to learn. I stayed there for a week in San Pedro, a small village by the lake. I went kayaking which was really cool. There were a lot of foreigners there though so I would have left a lot sooner if I was doing the classes. Accomodation at the lake was only $3 a night for a whole room which is the cheapest accommodation I have found anywhere in the world. Met some cool people there. Yesterday I returned to Antigua and had a really fun night last night which ended with us swimming in the fountain in the centre of town. I have heard a lot of hype about how dangerous Guatemala is but I havent felt in danger yet. And here I am now, sitting in the internet cafe. Tomorrow I start to travel down through central america. Tomorrow night I will stay in El Salvador and then travel down through Honduras to Nicaragua for a week. There is no real plan yet but it looks as though i might be staying in colombia for a few months and getting a job. If so it is quite possible that I wont return back to Australia until middle of next year as I would not have enough time to really explore South America. Everything is really good at the moment. This blog is a bit awkward to write seeing as I have been only writing in Spanish lately. Its a bit of an update and I will update a bit more regularly now so it isnt so much work.
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