Well the weekend is here. Not the best start being woken up by the neighbours dog at 6.00am. Happens just about every morning. But as they say"toughen up princess". The plan is to wander the streets in the north eastern section of the city centre. Passed by the Parque de Beisbol Edwardo Vas Canales stadium. A fairly imposing baseball stadium on the north eastern tip of the centre. Down random streets and ended up at the Parque Juarez El Llano where there w...

Okay this learning Spanish needs a serious approach. On the way to the centre this morning I bought a notebook that i can do homework in. Not sure what it is about developing countries but shopkeepers always seem to be short of change. The notebook cost 35 pesos and i handed them a 100 peso note. That's like handing someone $5 to pay for a $1.50 item. They asked me if I had anything smaller and when i showed them my wallet contained a 200 peso and 500 peso n...

Well my resolve to learn Spanish has been cemented. Arrived at the Centre to find everyone from workers to kids to EVERY volunteer speaks the language. I'm a minority of 1. So the first day was a bit challenging. Played a few cards games with some of the children who are all early primary school age and then had a crack at translating some letters that the children had written to their sponsors. Between my near zero grasp of the language and their poor spellin...

It's Day 2 in Oaxaca and i am settling in well. My host, Rosa, is a lovely woman and thankfully she speaks a little English. However my formal Spanish lessons start tomorrow and we have agreed that Espanol will be the main language spoken once i start. That should make for some interesting conversations. Also staying here and working at the same school as me is a 17 year old girl (Natalie) from Los Angeles. She is doing a 3 week stint during her summer holid...

Today we are heading to Playa del Carmen via the Mayan site at Chichen Itza. About a three and half hour drive away. At the Mayan site we decide to hire a guide which turns out to be a good decision. The site is quite large with a lot to take in. Her English and knowledge are both excellent. This site dates back to about 600-700AD. There were hundreds of Mayan tribes/communities in Mexico but they lived quite separately with little to no mixing between the...