Words and stuff

Needless to say I love living here, but for a while I have been feeling a little tired and burned out about traveling. Being out too long the excitement around new things has faded and ive seen it as pointless and insignificant. And I suspect, weighed down by the distance I have put between home… and life. 
But when you are so lucky that your loved ones comes to you, to explore YOUR country. It brings the spark back! The proudness of showing them why you love it here, what you have learned, the people you have met.
It has been 2 amazing weeks with my mom, sister and Peterman. And Im pretty sure we got to see the most incredible parts that Mexico has to offer. :)

And... I love you guys! ♥

San Cristobal and palenque, Chiapas

We arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas at 6 in the morning and checked in to our dungeon of a hotel in the main street. It was freeeeezing! After a little nap we went to the indian market that surrounds a grand church. I was in heaven! J Leather, wool, figurines, JEWELERY! Happyyyyy!

BEAUTIFUL!!

WTF??

<3

We didn’t have much time left as we needed to be in Xalapa by Saturday. So after some discussion and bus schedule checking we had the next 2 days planned down to the minute.

The Sumidero Canyon is a must when in San Cristobal. You need to get in to Tuxtla Gutierrez to get to the boats, but as we didn’t know this we hired a driver from the hotel which was crazy expensive.

The Canyon is a 90 minute experience on a fast speedboat with some stops underways to explain what were seeing. It was gorgeous and so nice and fresh to drive with the wind in ur hair.

There are also big crocodiles resting on the sides of the river that we got pretty close to. Super!! :D

The next morning we moved on to Palenque to see the grand mayan ruins. Which are the most amazing ruins I have seen yet in my life. AND you can walk on them, inside of them, under them. So beautiful! (Btw: These are the ruins that are photographed on the front of the latest lonely planet for mexico, and a MUST see:)

My mom is cool :)

Mandatory bridge picture on the ruins ;)

A manifestation on the road where they put out planks with nails so people had to pay to be able to pass.

Since we had to be in Xalapa the following morning and we were still a days trip away we didn’t have much time and had to jump on a bus to Villa Hermosa where we had time for dinner and then the nightbus to Xalapa. The supreme highclass nightbus to Xalapa I must add J Ur own tv, reclining seats, eyecovers, pillows and blankets. None of us had sleept this good in weeks J

We got to Xalapa at 6 in the morning as my family checked in to this gorgeous posada in the centre and I went home to my apartment for a little nap. I was pretty excited for my family to see the town I have been living in for the past 8 months and for them to meet some of the people I have been talking to them about for months.

And as I also expected, they loved Xalapa. 

Then the time came to say goodbye :( 

<3 <3 Thank you for an amazing vacation! <3 <3

Oaxaca City

My experience is that traveling always takes more time than planed, everywhere in the world. And Mexico is no exception, but we got there happy and ready to see this beautiful city that everyone loves!
We settled in at our beautiful, quiet, flowerfilled hotel that everyone should stay at when in Oaxaca, Los Golondrinas. http://www.hotellasgolondrinas.com.mx

Absolutely perfect J 

As the sun was about to set when we got there it got freezing cold very fast! Very hot during day and very cold during night.

This is when the shopping started! we went to the markets and bought colorful blankets, ponchos, pants, scarfs and so on. At the end it looked like a mayan had thrown up on us :P The handycraft is beautiful and we filled our bags with hammocks, figurines, jewellery u name it.

Peterman taking a nap while the ladies shop :)

A wonderful artist that peterman bought a piece from. Loved this guy!

                                               
                                         

sleeping beauty #1

Sleeping beauty #2

My mom, the hammock addict ;)

Street painting with threads! pretty cool! 

Monte Alban are beautiful ruins located on a mountain that rages over town. (A mountain they allegedly cut the top of so they could built on it. How does that work?)

There are minivans that goes from the city bus station that costs 20 pesos a head.

Truly impressive and higly recommended if ur in the area.

Another mandatory attraction to see in Oaxaca is Museo de las culturas in the old convent of Santo Domingo, located next to the GOLD covered Santo Domingo church.

There you walk through several rooms that takes you through the history of Mexico. The convent is gorgeous and the artifacts are impressive.

WTF?!

Many cozy rooftop terraces in Oaxaca :)

A Oaxacan snack, and now that ive tried it i dont really recommend it, is crickets. Nasty little buggers...

skeptical...

After two beautiful days the show went on to Chiapas and the cute little town of San Cristobal.

Puerto Escondido

We arrived in Puerto Escondido on the Oaxacan coast the following morning and checked in to our hostel with an amazing view of Zicatela beach. Since the others came from freezing Norway and I live in Xalapa which has no beach to brag about, we all wanted to spend a few days just soaking on the different beaches in the area.

Puerto Angelito was our definite favorite. It is secluded, with nice beach restaurants where we got beds, coconuts and delicious seafood lunch.

Part of a reason for them coming, second to seeing me I hope, was to celebrate my moms 60^th birthday, which we spent on a boat, snorkeling and looking for dolphins and turtles (who never showed up for the celebration btw) It was only us and a bunch of mexican tourists, the party music was booming and the liquor floating :P 

To my big happiness, as this is something I have always wanted to do, me and my sister went to check out liberation of baby turtles on another beach some 20 min away. And it was AMAAAAZING!

We get there and see around 200 tiny baby turtles that was born the day before, crawling around in this little tank not having a clue on what adventure awaits them!

We got a couple of 20 babies that was our responsibility and we got to play and photograph them for about an hour before we all went down to the water to let them go. Oh my monkey, sooooo cute!!! And the little babies knew exactly what they were doing! We put them down on the beach and they ran out into the sunset as nobodies business. It was absolutely beautiful!

After a few days of suntanning (or burning for some of us who never learn :/ ) we had to move on if we wanted to get through everything. So Monday morning we met up for a bus to Oaxaca City some 6 hours away, on 1^st class we thought. Not really true…. It was a tiny van which was full after a few minutes. And it wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that the road over the mountains is twirly and nasty. So the young couple with a baby next to me couldn’t really handle it and they both threw up like crazy, in the same bag I might add, which they kept with them for the next hours until the break. Great!! Breath with your mouth....

Oaxaca City, are you ready? :)