Oaxaca was my first stop in Mexico and I was amazed by how beautiful and colourful it was - much prettier than I had expected Mexico to be (although I don't know exactly what I imagined). It was an interesting mixture of Spanish-style big squares and grand churches with side streets that had a 'Wild West' feel, scattered with countless Volkswagen Beetles, plus ruins of ancient cities on the outskirts of the modern town.

When Helena and I arrived late at night we went straight for dinner in the main square; we tried some Mexican specialities - green enchiladas and tamales con mole. 'Mole' is a special sauce made from, among other things, chocolate, and normally served with chicken; there is a lot of fuss about it but I wasn't really a fan.

I went on a tour of some of the nearby sites and lapped up the hot sunny weather. The local people seem to be very proud of 'El Tule' - a tree that is over 2,000 years old (one of the oldest in the world), 42 metres in height and 58 metres in circumference. It stands next to a church, which looks like a little toy model by comparison to this giant.

I visited a workshop in Teotitlán where indigenous Zapotec people weave all types of rugs, clothing and other works using traditional hand-operated looms and natural dyes - a painstakingly slow process. They produce some beautiful pieces - some artistic as well as functional, including a very impressive representation of a Fridha Kahlo self-portrait.

I also visited a small, rudimentary, mezcal distillery - mezcal is a spirit, basically the same as tequila but from a different region (like champagne versus sparkling wine). I saw the different stages of the process of producing the alcohol from the locally-grown agave plant. This didn't sufficiently put me off trying it afterwards, nor did the worm with which it is bottled (a particular type of worm that is found on the agave plant). They make lots of different ages and flavours and the aged mezcal did taste distinctly better than the younger, cheaper, version.

I went to the Mitla ruins of temples and residential buildings of the Mixtec and Zapotec peoples who occupied it from about 500 BC until the Spanish arrived in the 1500s. The walls were decorated with interesting geometric patterns carved into the stone - even some of the original red paint is still visible. The Spanish conquistadors destroyed some of the buildings and, shockingly, took stones from Mitla to construct a Catholic church and other buildings nearby (sadly this seems to be a common theme across the former Spanish colonies in Latin America). Parts of Mitla were being reconstructed while I was there and some of it had been re-painted red to give a better idea of what it would have looked like when it was in use.

I also went to the ruins of the ancient Zapotec city of Monte Albán, from where there was a lovely view over the city of Oaxaca and the surrounding mountains. There is a museum on the site, housing some of the artefacts found at the site - carvings and ceramics of people and animals as well as the skulls of children that were reckoned to have been human sacrifices. The site itself is impressive - spread over a vast area with many pyramid-type structures that were once temples, tombs and palaces used between approximately 500 BC and 1,000 AD. There is also a ball court, typical of ancient Mexican cities, where a ball-game would have been played between two teams - there are different stories and theories about the rules of the games played here, often involving human sacrifices. Surprisingly, there were very few visitors at Monte Albán. There were, however, some local men skulking around, trying to sell pieces of stone from the structures to tourists as 'souvenirs'!

As I was walking around town with Helena in the evening we heard someone shouting at us from a window above - it was Gregorio, a guy Helena had met earlier in the day who worked as a tour guide in Oaxaca. It turned out he was also a salsa dancer and teacher and he invited us into his studio. It all seemed a bit dubious to me - going into what looked like a dark abandoned building with some guy we didn't know - but Helena was really keen so I reluctantly went along with it. Gregorio turned out to be a lovely genuine guy, very helpful and welcoming, but I still felt very uncomfortable and this was compounded by being forced to dance salsa! Meanwhile Helena was loving the impromptu salsa lesson as she had been taking classes in London before she went travelling.

After a while we had to leave the salsa guys to grab some dinner. Gregorio recommended that we check out a particular 'tlayuda' place. It seemed to be a restaurant set up in the courtyard of someone's home with all the family serving and cooking, even the little children tried to help out; the menu was just a selection of four different types of tlayuda and a few different soft drinks. Tlayuda is a dish particular to Oaxaca, made from a big thin crispy tortilla type base folded in half with meat, beans, salsa and cheese inside - huge and very tasty.

The next day I did some sightseeing around Oaxaca city centre, the highlight of which was the fabulous Santo Domingo church and museum. The museum is set in an absolutely stunning, ornate, building with several courtyards, fountains and beautiful gardens. It charts the whole history of Mexico, covering every aspect from the earliest peoples, the different civilisations, the colonial period, independence though to the problems faced by indigenous people in Mexico today, with acres of interesting artefacts and exhibits. Inside the church is lavishly decorated with elaborate carvings and lots of gold - it was magnificent!

Before we left Oaxaca we bumped into Gregorio on the street again! This time dressed in his tour guide uniform, which looked a lot like a police uniform - such a funny little man and he seemed to be following Helena all around Oaxaca!