Monday 17 June - Saturday 22 June

Oaxaca (pronounced Wahaca)

We eased into the first of many bus trips, with a 6-hour GL (luxury) service from the Capital to the quaint city of Oaxaca. What a breath of fresh air (literally) this gorgeous little town was from MC. We loved wandering its low rise, colourful, cobbled streets, trying out traditional Oaxacan cuisine, including Agua Yoli (a fruity infused water), Chicken Mole (a spicy chocolate sauce) and Tlayunas (a Mexican type pizza topped with refried beans, grilled meat, salad and Oaxacan stringy cheese.) My newfound favourite street snack is sliced up mangoes with chilli powder and lime juice...I'm constantly on the lookout for the mango ladies when we're out and about. Delish.

We took it easy here, spending a few days exploring the city, visiting the Cultural Museum which is housed in the Santo Domingo Cathedral (trying our best to decipher the Spanish Only descriptions for the artefacts), checking out the ethnobotanical gardens with its beautiful cactus gardens (we decided a cactus garden would suit us - since we don't seem to be able to keep any of our house plants alive), drank micheladas (beer + chilli & lime) and palomas (tequila & grapefruit soda), were taken for a ride in the Meat Market...being charged 'tourist prices' whilst eating next to locals who were clearly paying less for the same food (lesson learnt in checking prices before you commit to sitting down), and learnt some more Spanglish from an Aussie girl in our hostel who had just finished up volunteering at a school teaching english in Managua, Nicaragua. She gave us some great tips for our next bit of travel in Central America...don't overstay your welcome in Guatemala...the fines are huge.

Lastly, we headed up to the hills of Oaxaca for a few days of chilling out by the pool at La Villada Hostel, which was run by a local family who had built it from the ground up and served up really delicious local food. We went for walks in the hills and spent our time getting our blog up n running - finally!