There and Back Again

Well, we are back in Mexico City and our tour of Mexico is coming to a close. Monte updated the pictures finally, and just to warn you, there are a lot of them but he really got some great shots. The pictures start off in Oaxaca and then follow chronologically with our travels. Enjoy!

Despite all the turmoil that Mexico is experiencing with the drug cartels, we always felt quite safe. It was not very comforting to read people had been decapitated and shot execution style in neighboring states to us. On Mexico's Independence Day, there were a couple grenades thrown into a crowd during the celebration in Morelia, similar to the celebration we attended (see pictures under Zihuatanejo). As it turned out there were around 7 people killed and many more injured. That didn't happen too far away from where we were. As far as we can understand it, all this turmoil is erupting because President Calderon has a deal with the U.S. called the PPP to put a stop to the drug trafficking, and the cartels are rebelling to prove to the president that he cannot control them. It's quite the sad and scary situation.

With all that aside, it has been a fun journey. Mark and Colleen gave us a week at a timeshare in Zihuatanejo and let me tell you, we've never lived so fancily. We went from staying at the cheapest places possible to staying at a luxerious resort where they placed flowers on your bed every day. The town of Zihua was a lot of fun as well and we explored it in the first couple of days and took the rest of the week to live like kings and queens. We snorkeled and saw some amazing fish (and our backsides got sunburned...again...). The little fish would come up and swarm aroud us which was a weird but neat feeling. We saw a beautifully colored lobster as well. Monte is already planning his saltwater aquarium...

But then our week of the timeshare ended and we had to get back to reality. We went to Taxco which is a silver mining town. The town is built on this steep hill and the streets were very narrow. We visited the famous cathedral of Santa Prisca, checked out a few museums, explored many silver shops, and rode a gondola up to a fancy hotel overlooking the city and ate lunner. We wished we would have spent more time in that town because of its charm. It definately had the most character out of any town we saw.

Now that we're back in the city we will get ourselves prepared for our departure to SE Asia. We've been doing such a good job at living in the moment that the fact that we go across the world is a bit overwhelming (but incredibly exciting). We will fly out on Tuesday (tomorrow...aahhh) afternoon and will get into Bangkok on Thursday morning and from there we will head to Phnom Penh. Hope all is well! Love, Gretchen & Monte

Alotta Posadas

Yeah, yeah, Gretchen´s been writing all the posts. That was the agreement, I do the pics and she writes the posts...But here it goes anyway...It has been just over three weeks since we embarked on our journey and I think we are becoming accustomed to life on the road. The transition has been easier than we thought it would be. This is perhaps in part due to our luck in finding the very nice, yet cheap, posadas throughout Mexico. Every where we go we find friendly and hospitable people. Six nights at the Casa de los Amigos, four nights at La Villada in Oaxaca, four nights in Posada Ziga in Mazunte, five nights at El Gite del Sol in San Cristobal, two nights at Tower Bridge Backpackers, and finally the luxerious Villa Vera Puerto Mio in Zihuatanejo (thanks dad and Colleen!). What a trip it has been. It has been a blast meeting fellow travelers, exploring local markets, visiting ancient ruins, and experiencing the many museums.

Gretchen now holds the record with over 100 mosquito bites from her knees down, our sun burns have turned to tans decorated with vibrant freckles, and our Spanish vocabulary grows daily (albeit, ever so slowly). All in all, we are having the time of our lives, just as we knew we would. We hope you are all doing well back home! Much love, Monte (and Gretchen).

Tan Lines

Hello!
Monte and I are continuing to have an amazing time. We visited the town of Oaxaca (wah-hah-kah) and loooved it. We visited Monte Alban which was really neat. It´s a Zapotec ruins site. The place we stayed in was amazing. It overlooked the city and it had a pool. (If anyone goes to Oaxaca, let us know and we´ll give you the name.) The people were super nice there, and one spoke English which was a relief for us....the whole lack of Spanish is awkward, but it has really been fine. We do a lot of smiling and pointing. We´re learning more vocabulary words every day but it´s not enough to have a full-on conversation. We can get by, though, and we´re SLOWLY being able to communicate even more.

After Oaxaca we went to Mazunte, a tiny, tiny, fishing village on a really beautiful beach. The first thing we did when we got there was layer up in SPF 70 and jumped in the water. We didn´t stay in the sun for long but we kept applying more and more sunscreen and covering up our bodies and yet we still got burned. It turns out the beach is less fun when you´re covered from head to toe in clothing, but you´re sweating like a pig because it´s humid and frickin´ hot, and you´re hiding in the only ounce of shade that exists on the beach, but then the shade moves because the sun moves....so....Monte and I learned that we´re bad beach bums. We had originally planned to stay on the southern and western coast of Mexico for the rest of our time, but since we don´t mesh too well with Mexico´s sun, we´ve decided to move on to Chiapas.

Ah, the darn bugs. Our bed had bed-bugs and there are of course mosquitos and Monte and I have bites all over us. Monte counted 22 bites on his right hand alone...Ah well, though. They only itch, so I guess we can handle it.

Monte got a cold and then passed it on to me. It´s not too bad, just affects the energy level and your ability to breathe, but no big deal... :)

We will leave for San Cristobal at 7 tonight. We´re really excited. We will visit Palanque, an ancient Mayan ruins which will probably be the coolest out of all the ruins so far. We will have internet access there so expect more posts! I hope you are all well!