San Cristobal

San Cristobal is a majestic little town in the south central mountains very close to the border of Guatemala. It is a town full of beautiful churches, lots of artisans and mayan tradition. Although we didn't see any of the Mayan tradition we did hear and see a little bit of the celebration of Sister Guadalupe that continues on until Dec 12. This celebration includes fireworks every night until 9am. Yes, it continues throughout the night all night until 9am. It's not just fireworks, it's a cannon that they shoot off as well. Not only are there fireworks but there is an excessive amount of drinking that goes on. We walked the stairs to the church and found 30 or 40 people at the top drinking and eating and having a great time. It was pretty neat and kinda weird at the same time.

Jesse and I went to the Mayan museum and found a little place in town to see a movie. By the way, i'm not sure what the movie was called but it was terrible. Yup, worst movie ever. Anyway, it was fun to just stroll the town and find little places that have not really been discovered. One of these little places was the Panaderia on the corner of Insurgentes and Don Francisco. Okay, before I tell you what is in this place I have to explain something. I (jessi girl) am on a quest for the best biscuits and gravy in the world. Which as of right now is in Allen's Park, Co. Jesse, on the other hand, is on a quest for the best churro in the world. Ok, now back to the bakery. We saw a woman making fresh churros and of course had to get one. She even put a little sweet cream frosting in the middle which made it even more delicious. So, what i'm getting at here is that this Panaderia in San Cristobal has the best churro in the entire world as of right now. Everyone should go there to get one.

So far San Cristobal has been our favorite city in Mexico.

Music from the Zocolo

Indigenous people of Mexico performing in the town square.

Beautiful day in Oaxaca

Oaxaca has provided yet another lovely day of adventure. Plus! we ran into our Czech friends, Adam and Vernika, from San Blas. Jessi wrote before that she had a feeling we would see them again, and sure enough as we enjoyed a savory marcado sandwich they walked up right behind us. Then we walked around the town and then had a feast at the market, which was a crazy experience. Gail Kerns would have approved of the wide display of beef primed for the grill. Everyone is yelling at you to eat at their place and putting plates of veggies in your face which you then take to a meat person who grills you up a bunch of meat and then the tortilla lady comes over and gives you some tortillas. We never really knew what was happening but the food was delicious and the chance to be a part of the action was even better.

Oaxaca and Monte Alban

We have finished, for the time being, our time on the coast and headed into the mountains. The drive from Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca is only about 158 miles but it took us 7 1/2 hours because of the severe elevation gain and switchback city with the roads. Although it was a long drive it was beautiful and not nearly as nerve racking as driving along the coast because the road was in much better condition. Oaxaca is a beautiful historic city set at about 6,500 feet which has been a central hub for many of the indigenous tribes in this area of mexico. We were able to visit one of the largest archeological sites in the area called Monte Alban. It was quite an experience to see ruins that had been there for up to 2,500 years. The sure don't build them like they used to. Jessi and I have come to love this city because of the diversity of food and a really good price. It is funny because all the best food we have eaten has cost the least amount of money. About 20 pesos for a good carne asada taco, which translates to $1.85. They grill the meat right in front of you, throw it on a plate with some beans, give you ten tortillas with a bunch of spicy condiments and you go to town.

We love the food so much we have adopted that style of cooking and enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner of black beans with onion, jalapeño, cilantro, traditional Oaxacan cheese, and of course hot sauce. We leave Oaxaca tomorrow for San Cristobol but have a feeling that we could spend a lot of time here in the future.

Puerto Escondido

Puerto Escondido is a beautiful town. We stayed about a mile and a half south of the main beach in a cute artsy hostel. It was hammock filled and right by the beach so it was perfect. This as some of you know will be our last beach town for a while, especially on the Pacific side.

Our days here consisted of running the beach every morning, having some beers at night and in between lazing around the beach. This was a really relaxing stop before we headed to Oaxaca for Turkey day. We were also supposed to surf here because it is some of the best surfing in the world but I guess it wasn't meant to be because it was super flat.

We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We will be thinking of you all. XOXO!!!

Adam and Veronica

I forgot to talk about these two in the last posting. So here's the story. Adam and Veronica are the first people we met on this trip and they are from the Czech Republic. We met them in San Blas and they left one day before us. We got their email and figured we would probably never see them again. Lo and behold driving down a street in Zihuatenejo, while we were trying to find a place to stay, guess who we see walking down the street. Yup, Adam and Veronica. I think we both were so happy to see each other in a different place in Mexico. They ended up riding in the van with us all the way to Puerto Escondido lying down in the back. They were also there for the happenings in Acapulco. We stayed next to them in our tent in Puerto Escondido and ate dinner together every night. For some reason I feel that this won't be our last time meeting up with these two.

So of course, we made them take a pic with us in front of our van.

Acapulco

So, I bet you are all wondering how great Acapulco is. Well........................It's not that awesome. Maybe my memory is a bit tainted because we had to pay off a cop to get out of the supposedly illegal U-turn Jesse made. To be clear, it was perfectly legal.

Okay so we stayed in a really cute hotel with a sweet woman named Julia working the front desk. We went to see the Cladavistas. These are the cliff divers of Acapulco. It was about a twenty minute show and they only dove once a piece but it was also only 35 pesos. Definitely worth it. Then we decided to sample some of the local fare. There were two food stands at the end of our alley and we tried both. The first place we got two things, a burrito (it is really 3 tacos) and some tostadas. Soooooooo delicious. Since we hadn't had enough we went to the other lady and got the quesadillas and this was delicious too. Julia watched all of this go down and told us we were going to get fat if we stayed here too long. This would be true because all of those things i mentioned were fried in oil. One of the pictures is of me on the balcony pionting to these two stands.