Mexico: Mexico City

Dear Olive,
Flying into the biggest city of the world*, for the last leg of our Mexican holiday, was daunting to say the least. How large it loomed beneath our plane! We had bid a sad farewell to the last few of our fellow wedding party in Oaxaca, and to tell you the truth, it was somewhat of a lonely couple of days adjusting to being back to just the three of us. But on the cab ride from Mexico City airport to our flat, I started feeling really excited. Really, really excited. I remembered how much I love cities! And how cool the street names were - viva la Avenue Revolucion! We dropped our bags off at our flat**, and immediately set out for a walk in search of lunch. It all felt kind of familiar, and yet, excitingly different. Amazing food ... check. Good coffee ... check. Organic supermarket ... check, check, check! But on top of all those things you expect from a big city, were the beautiful, uniquely Mexican side of things - people in uniforms sweeping parks with brooms made from sticks, incredible looking street food, and serious plumbing problems. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there - and we managed to cram a lot into our week. The Frida Kahlo Museo was a big highlight, wandering through the Chapultepec (the Mexican City version of, say, Central Park - which houses most of the big galleries and zoo and museums, complete with thousands of friendly squirrels) was also great, and you loved the Zoologica. We ate amazing food (lots of non-Mexican, actually - Japanese has never tasted so good!), and we did what you do in all big cities ... we walked and walked and walked. I have a lovely friend living there who came over with a map and some great tips over red wine on our first night and we felt really looked after. (Hi Roxy!) It was unreal. Shane and I were rather sad to leave when it was time to start our long journey home. (Not to mention, not looking forward to the long journey itself. An 8 hour layover at LAX comes highly unrecommended.) You, of course, were excited to leave, having gotten pretty homesick. But that long journey was pretty challenging to say the least. (If anyone was on board a recent LA-Syd Virgin flight with a child sitting on the back of the chair hysterically screaming "Pepper", I apologise. I really, truly, apologise.

The funniest moment of the week (again) goes to Shane: sweating, and doubled over with cramps, he frantically stopped our cab in the middle of the road and ran across five lanes of a Mexico City freeway in desperate search for a bathroom. He made the toilet. But he will never live it down. Montezumas revenge strikes again!

Pretty much only photos I have left are of the series I started (when I still had my camera) of Mexican signage. And thrown in for good measure, our family portrait from Mexico City. Adios, Mexico! Thanks for the good times.

*I just googled and it's listed on World Atlas at number 3, after Tokyo and Seoul. But the third biggest city in the world, well, it just didn't have the same ring, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, right. 9Sydney sits at a paltry number 73 if anyone's interested.)

**No meant feat - our flat was up three flights of stairs and my bag alone was 7kg's oversize departing Oaxaca! A quick reshuffle and we were back under limits, needless to say we nearly broke our backs with our hand luggage. Overpacking is so uncool.

Mexico: Oaxaca

As soon as we landed, we could feel we were going to experience the 'real' Mexico that we'd been craving in Cabo. Oaxaca (pronounced Wa-harka) is a gorgeous little city - the centre of the town has street after street of low rise, Spanish-influenced architecture, with all the colours you'd expect from Mexico thrown in over the top. It was a busy week: we visited ancient ruins, took guided tours to small out lying craft towns (including a traditional rug weaving place - where we bought a rug!), sampled the local delicacies, like mole and grasshoppers (although I wasn't brave enough to try the grasshoppers - some of our group ate them fried on fajitas with guacamole!). And, of course, we did more than our fair share of local handicraft shopping at the town markets. We were there with a couple of friends from the wedding, which made it all the more enjoyable.

I don't think anything could have prepared us (especially you) for the onslaught of colour, music, dancing, firecrackers, flowers, parades, skulls, noise, face paint and costumes that came together for the day of the dead festival. Run over two days (one day for the adult spirits, one day for the children), the spirits of lost loved ones are celebrated with such joy, it's hard not to think of it as one of the most magical and beautiful things I've ever seen. You got a bit scared by some kids dressed up on the day we arrived, and when you heard the parade was to come into the courtyard we were hanging out in, you were terrified. We heard the marching band first and you screamed when you saw the first puppets coming down the street (they were about ten feet tall!) and for the first few minutes we had to watch the party from an upstairs balcony. You warmed up to it, though, and after a while we came back downstairs to join the revellers. You started loving it when Shane bought you your very own little diablos (devil) costume - you wore it for four days straight, it was literally the talk of our hotel, until Shane held you down and tore it off for a wash.

We visited a local cemetery and it was the most beautiful and moving sight to behold. The outside was thronging like the big day out, crowds of people carrying armloads of flowers and jostling for tables at makeshift cafeterias, with all sorts of drinks and food on offer. Inside, the graves were barely visible beneath stunning pink and orange flowers and family members sitting around, laughing and drinking.

I will remember our time in Oaxaca mostly for the warm beer in cans on the mini bus, the local markets, you as little diablo, and the colour and the music and the life of the day of the dead festival. Oh, and Shane setting fire to a pair of shorts hanging over a lamp in our hotel room while trying to communicate on the phone to a Mexican in his own personal brand of broken-English-spoken-with-a-thick-accent. But that's a whole other story.

Next stop: the biggest city in the world! Mexico City.

Photos 1 - 9 extremely kindly supplied by Paul Mason (that's his gorgeous bride striding out in the first photo!). The rest taken by Shane and I on a little camera lent to us by Liza. Thanks guys!

Hello Hello Hola

Dear Olive,
The holiday is over, and we are home. The happiest about this turn of events, was you. You got pretty homesick (and more and more tired) as our trip went on*, and as soon as we walked in, you ran into your room, closed the door, and joyfully reunited yourself with every single toy. The trip was pretty big for little you. You travelled so well, but we've heard over and over and over just how happy you are to be back. Arriving home was not necessarily a bad thing for Shane and I, either. A home made salad has never tasted so good! And a big shout out for decent shower pressure too. As opposed to say, a limp trickle. For the first few days, we all - embarrassingly - continued to say gracias as an involuntary reflex to being served anything, anywhere. I'm glad that stopped because I was beginning to feel like a real wanker. But since being back, I find myself in the throngs of a somewhat-forced blogging break. Forced because, in a huge, enormous, devastating blow, my camera now resides in the lap of the Mexican Camera Gods. And un-forced, due to a severe lack of inspiration. I have, however, managed to wrangle a few trip photos from fellow traveller, great amigo, amazing photographer, and ever so handsome groom from the wedding Paul, so (all going to plan) I will be back soon with a recap of the rest of our trip in Oaxaca and Mexico City. Will just have to jog my memory with my diary first. Because it already feels so long ago.
(Photos below courtesy of Paul Mason. Thank you, Paul!)

*anytime you fell over you would scream that you were never coming to Mexico EVER AGAIN. That, or you'd yell for Pepper.

Mexico: Cabo

Dear Olive,
We spent our first Mexican week living it up in the lap of luxury in the touristy little coastal town of San Jose del Cabo. Set towards the Southern end of the Baja peninsula, Cabo is surrounded by an amazing backdrop of mountains, huge cacti dot it's land, and stunning rocky headlands shelter it's beaches - it is a truly beautiful place in the world. We were there for the wedding of our friends, Paul and Liza, along with a small bunch of our friends. There is something so special about being overseas with friends, and the mateship was definitely the highlight of this week. The wedding itself was absolute perfection, held in a mind blowing private villa, with every last detail fabulous, including the radiant couple. (Oh, if only I had taken a photo of the table setting! The colourful flowers, the cactus, the gold plates, the mexican floral cloth serviettes ... right down to the matchboxes with pictures of Frida Kahlo with a glitter border. Painstaking details I tell you.) Much of the week was spent having fun in wedding party related group activities - generally involving a slew of margaritas. Time off was largely spent in the pool. With beer. You amazed Shane and I with your travel legs and party pants. You coped so well with everything, staying up late, and sleeping in like a rock star. You were a champion on the 22 hour start to finish journey from Sydney to Cabo on only a few hours sleep.
If our Mexican holiday began and ended in Cabo, I would have felt a little disappointed that I hadn't experienced the "real" Mexico. Cabo is very Americano - everyone speaks English and US$ are accepted everywhere - most times, the bill comes with two totals, one in US$ and one in pesos. (The prices being very Americano also!) But it was a terrific week, and ever so fun. I will remember it fondly for the dancing, the wedding, the margaritas, the pool, the views, and most of all the good times with great friends. The final photo shows one of my favourite memories - the Mexican captain of our yacht turned the boat home after an afternoon of snorkelling, turned up the music, and led the dancing. The moves on that guy were beyond belief! He even did the splits.
Next stop: we enter the craft heartland in the Mexican town of Oaxaca, and Day of the Dead festival.

Hola Amigos

Dear Olive,
We're here. And we're loving it. The tacos, the salsa, the huervos rancheros, the margaritas, the beer, the guacamole. The pool, the view from our house. The gorgeous Mexicans. All of it. All of it, that is, except the bit where I walked over a cactus plant without shoes on*. But you know, even as the spines were being dug out with tweezers and a pin, it seemed ok. Because after all, we're in Mexico!

* jet lag and margaritas make for a regrettable combination

Down Mexico Way

Dear Olive,
Passports have arrived. Tickets are booked. Bags are (mentally) being packed. In less than four weeks time, it will be all tequila and guacamole. We're off to Mexico! We're having a week in Baja for a friends wedding, and then we've got a bit over two weeks to visit Oaxaca and Mexico City. If anyone has any travel tips/places to stay/things we must see/things we must eat/where to get the most amazing margaritas in town/Mexican blogs, I'd so love to hear them!

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