Tues 29 May - Before we left San Cristobal we went on our tour to see some "Grutas" (caves to you and me) a huuge series of beautiful waterfalls and some lakes that all seemed different colours depiste being alongside each other. Proper thunderstorms seemed intent on joining all the lakes up to each other and obliterating this phenomena and us at the same time but we made it back in one piece.

Wed 30 May - A quiet day spent in fruitless search for a Corona for Kym which rewarded us with Sol, Pacifico, Dos XX, Montejlo etc etc but no Coronas. How lucky is Kym (she was even cheated on the toppings of her Pizza!). Read books in the afternoon in hammocks waiting for our nightbus to the Oaxaca coast.

Thu 31 May - Dropped of by the bus at 6am then took a series of taxis to Manzute, Zipolite and Puerto Angel. Stopped of at the Turtle Sanctuary in Manzute which was v.quiet (turtles not due to dig up the beach until July). The nude beach of Zipolite was a rundown hippie ghost town and we finally settled in Puerto Angel. Only booked for 1 night as nothing to do and taxis to get around were expecting us to make up for the seasonal shortfall in tourists - first time in Mexico we've felt ripped off a couple of times.

Fri 1st Jun - We're outta here! All the respectable coaches take 10 hours to get to Oaxaca but the camionettas ("A" team type van that shares the ride with as many as they can get in) go the direct route over dodgy highway 175 with its bandidos and massive climb over the southern Sierra mountains at half the cost! The ride was good didn't get held up even once!

Sat 2nd Jun - Had a wander around a v.crowded Saturday market in Oaxaca somehow resisting the local delicacy of fried grasshoppers (I was up for this but had just eaten) and then slouched into the local main square to have a lazy evening watching the world go by.

Sun 3rd Jun - Went to see the Mayan ruins of Monte Alban (we promise to give up ruins sooner or later). These were quite impressive as they cut the top of a mountain before building the temples. Honda in Japan were famous about 5 years ago for doing this to 7 mountains to build a racetrack / test facility but I think they used the odd metal implement rather than stone tools.

Mon 4th Jun - Went to see one of the world's biggest and oldest trees. Called El Tule its only 42m high but a staggering 58m around the base. Its over 2000 years old and one of the largest living objects in the world. Moved on from there to see some rug weaving and then on again to some absolutely stunning petrified waterfalls. Water bubbles up from underground and basically does an outdoor version of the stalagtites you see in caves. The journey there was over a pass that was more than 3000m high and dirt track. The guide was the worst, most inattentive driver on the planet and half spun the car once almost putting us over the edge, had to be rescued from a ditch by JCB on another occasion and then hit a speed bump that fast the windscreen cracked and the CD player never functioned correctly again! Kym who said she didn't really want to taste any Mezcal at our final stop downed every one and then we washed them down with lots of Corona when we finally got back Oaxaca happy to be alive!

Tue 5 Jun - Today is a lazy day. Booked the bus for tomorrow, picked up the laundry, looked at some local churches, me (Jon) update the blog and Kymbo dowload some more photos. Tomorrow off to Puebla.