So Jennifer left you on the day of the dead enjoying traditional dancing music and food. The next day we had decided to go and see Monte Alban which is a Mayan ruined temple just near the city of Oaxaca. We were a bit late getting into gear so caught the 11 oclock bus up the hill to the ruins. Oaxaca is very high above sea level already so the bus took us way way up, when we were there you could really see why they built a city up there , the views were amazing and so serene and picturesque i would have loved living there. we had a nice couple of hours walking round reading about the pelota like ball game they used to play, the losers being killed in those days, better than the victim of tabloid headlines perhaps. we saw a few frescos and some very large temples with cunning underground passages that allowed the priest to appear , like a shopkeeper, as if by magic. (Jen: by the way they built this city, right on the top of a massive hill that they leveled out without having invented the wheel which is quite impressive.)

the bus took us back into town so we grabbed some food in the market again. people can easily get confused between all the types of mexican food. but basically Taco´s are usually made from corn and can be hard as well as soft (but mostly only hard when you buy them in the USA or UK). tamales are also corn but mostly filled with something nice and steamed in a banana leaf, and Burritos are made from Little donkeys.

This time Jennifer had a Tlayuda which is a large crispy corn tortilla with beans on top then oaxacan goats cheese, avocado and tomato, bit like a pizza.

when we had eaten our fill we decided to walk back to our hostel to get changed for the evening. The very grand looking local theatre was hosting a free nights classical music which just happened to feature a reknowned mexican cellist accompanied by a pianist, probably jennifer whould write this bit really but we had decided it would be a good free entertainment so were hoping to head out early and bagsy a seat. as we were heading through town back home we heard a few shouts in our direction and looked round to find the mexican Family who had befriended us via our poor communication skills the day before. we exchanged pleasantries and sat down to join them for a minute on a wall. having said we´d been to monte alban and discovered they were going the next day they asked us if we were going to mexico City which we are doing in december. IT was immediately agreed by them that we should stay no where in mexico but in their casa. just like that they were giving us phone numbers and saying call me! well we were very grateful for the offer and when they asked us out for tea as well we accepted and made a date for post cellist.

the cellist was good and seemed to hit the right notes and strummed away nicely for an hour or so. jennife rmay have more to add on that. (Jen: it was obviously a little tour to promote this young guy´s first CD, he played a few wellknown tunes that I have on occasion had need to troll out myself, Vocalise, apres un reve by Faure and naturally the Swan, everyone´s favourite encore. He also played some showy offy numbers which were fun. He was very good of course, but the theatre arch slightly swallowed his sound, and his vibrato was a bit one speed fits all for me at times but all very jolly. The funniest bit was that in between pieces, a glamourous lady rather like a game show hostess came out and told us about the music, but actually more about how passionate and amazing the evening was, rather than what the music was and who it was written by and when. So no programme notes, just lots of melodramatic blah in Spanish by a lady in a big frock. How funny)

then we met the family and they took us to a local taco joint that did marvellous tacos and we conversed stiltingly and via mime with them for an evening (Jennifer: not stiltingly, we used our phrase book to crack witty jokes of course). We managed to get across that i knew Bob the Builder and they were mightily impressed! we exchanged more phone numbers and emaills etc and now have a delightful time with them to look forward to at the end of our travels before our flight home, how cool is that!

we walked home past more street music and dance. the next day we were on a bus to San Cristobel leaving at nine in the evening, a cunning plan to save a nights accomodation by travelling all night on a cold windy bus journey, (it seems clever at the time but you regret it about 4 in the morning)

the bus was at nine so we had time to walk to a few more churches and markets and pick up a few nice souveniers and a lote more food of course and then take the bus.

reading our guide book we had thought about travelling south from Oaxaca to the coast for a seaside break but it turned out the towns south were famous for their dirty beaches. it turned out this meant there coastline was filthy rather than being mexican for their women were of ill repute, so we decided to head on to san cristobal and some mayan villages and another 6th to 9th century set of jungle city ruins.

arriving there we managed to bag a dead cheap room which had vaguely warm showers but having gone higher into the mountains the air was cold and the evenings very very cold, armed with numerous extra blankets for the night time we had a leisurely day wondering round after a short nap had caught us up with some sleep. San cristobal turned out to be home to some very reasonably priced great tasting donuts so i was happy. We toured the tour agencies finding the best prices for trips and quickly commited to the villages, the ruins and a bus into guatamala for the next three days.

(Jennifer) Our trip to the mayan villages of Chamula and Zinacantan was very interesting indeed. Our guide had been brought up near the villages but becuase one of his parents was not indigenous maya, had had to leave the village, they are quite strict on that count. You also get chucked out for converting to christianity for example. Anyway... so he offered great insights into mayan traditional life. Their religion is a kind of mix of traditional with a hint of catholicism. They worship the saints and each spiritual leader in town looks after a particular saint, which involves some ceremonies where you light very dangerous fireworks ( hence there are always bangs going off in this part of the world) and light red, yellow, black or green candles, whcih represent the different colours of corn. Also white candles which are tortillas for the saint. We visited the church in Chamula which is a very moving experience. The whole floor is covered in pine needles and the church is open all day every day. There is no priest, apart from once a month for baptisms, and people can come at any time of night or day to perform a ritual, pray to a saint perhaps to help someone who fell down in an accident perhaps or is ill. The rituals can involve chanting, lighting candles, drinking fizzy drinks (some westerners think that the mayans are stupid becuase they have willingly fallen for coca cola propaganda, but in fact they use soft drinks to represent the colours of corn, coke for black corn, strawberry fanta for red etc..etc.. they drink it then when they burp they expell the evil spirits.) the rituals can also involve killing a chicken... we saw one on its last legs. This is to offer the earth a chicken in exchange for part of the person´s spirit that was perhaps lost when they fell ill.

Our guide was very interesting on the subject of mayan medcine, he had been a sceptic as a child but as an adult having witnessed it work for him a lot, was a lot more into it. He was also very interesting on the subject of all the different religious sects who try and come and convert the mayans to their religion, they get mormons from Utah, jehovah´s witnesses and of course the original one - the spaniards at the time of the conquest. Even to this day the mayans are resisting being conquered as it were. There are regions that are controlled by the Zapatistas who are fighting against the colonials. Anyway, as our guide said, the mayans are just minding their own business, they don´t trek to utah to tell the mormons to kill chickens and drink coke, so why on earth to the mormons trek to mexico to try and convert some people who are perfectly happy as they are.

Our next village was Zinacantan, a more western peoples where the conquest was more successful, they have a sign up saying no killing of chickens in church for example. they still wear traditional dress, and we visited a house to eat some lovely tortillas with ground pumpkin seeds and view some lovely weaving.

Quite a cultural and informative day indeed.... followed up by the longest day ever in a mini van... our trip to Palenque. If I never see another waterfall as long as I live I will be happy. any of you who have ever been travelling will know that whenever you sign onto a tour the agencies want you to feel like you are getting value so they throw in a few waterfalls. Most of which are really lovely but there comes a point of saturation. So a 6am start, a couple of waterfalls later and it´s 2pm and we´re at Palenque. This is another wonderful example of a mayan civilisation, which was at its height around 600-700 AD. This time it´s set in a jungle which gives it a really spiritual feeling, plus there was hardly anyone there and it´s always nicer to wander round these places when there are not 10 tours groups behind you! Our group was quite nice, contained a couple of professional 20 something male travellers, the type who tell you their opinions as if they were hard facts, and who make sweeping statements about how they are intellectually so superior to everything on TV then reel off a whole load of TV that they watch... hmmm. Evan will probably rant more on that score.

Got home utterly exhausted at 9pm and went straight to bed. I guess our adventures in Guatamala will have to wait for next time!