I haven´t written in a while because I have been travelling more in the past days. I wanted to conlude on Mexico city because my experience there was amazing! I think the city itself has some amazing districts, and weekends are so lively. The whole city istoo big,noisy and polluted to consider it super nice onlyin itself, but two things: it certainly does not deserves the reputation it has or at least right now. I heard from Mexicans that it has improved a lot since the region is governed by some left wing party (or so was the opinion of the person I was conversing with). Secondly: if you dont like the city,you have to love, adore or more the people!!! It is a strange feeling but peopleI have met so far,I met them only3-4 times maximum and somehow I feel really connected and like I have made true friends. I guess it is partly due to the fact that they are quite hospitable people by nature and we have the common interest of enjoying the city together!!
Since then I have been to Oaxaca. The trip to Oaxaca was 6 hours in a comfortable bus. I made the trip with a CS host actually. But it started a little differently than expected. The joys of Couchsurfing also mean that you might not necessarily look for the same thing as your host. This young guy was really nice but had planned to party all night and host about 10 people at the same time in a house located 20 minutes away from the city with no electricty and no gas (meaning no hot water) because his cousin forgot to pay the bills... I mean nogas and electricty is bearable for 3 nights (cold showers are not uncommon in Mexico) but with so many people in the house it a little bit like staying with animals. So I moved on to another host and it was really such a good experience. He showed me around and recommended I take a tour the next day. I partiedwith his friends, one of whom tried to teach me a bit of Salsa dancingandI had a great time. I think it is also because itwasvery easy to speak with him about a lot of subjects and his character makes him a really laid-back and openminded person. So I spent a bitless timethan I originally planned in Oaxaca but I thinkit was enough time to taste a little bit of food,although Iwas expecting to try Chapulines and I didn´t!!! (they are fried grasshopers). I have had a nice hot chocolate though (speciality from Oaxaca) and some other really nice foods. My stomach got a little bit weird but not too badly,I think it is getting used to the food. But it is kind of funny because there is an expression for foreigners getting sick because of food here. It is called "the revenge of Moctezuma". I will let you google it to find out the meaning. I also met french guys living in Oaxaca and they simplyjust liked the place and stayed.
Anyway, I moved on from Oaxaca to San Cristobal De Las Casas last night. This was a 11 hour- journey. But I slept through most of it so it was absolutely fine. The only little hiccup was the stop in the morning in Tuxal Guttierrez. We had to get off the bus for 2 hours at the bus station because there were some strike actions in San Cristobal.But eventually it was resolved fairly quickly. The bus was mainly filled in with tourists. I have booked a hostel here which was also quite cheap and walked up there. The city is not very big so it is ok to walk all of it.I heard many good things about San Cristobal but I am now taking them with a little pinch of salt. The city isvery pretty and it is true that there is akind of hippy feeling when you see the people in the streets. But I thinka really big bunch of foreigners have settled here and actually own souvenir shops. So it is not really the "authentic" felling I was looking for. Maybe it doesn´t help that I am staying in a hostel because everybody speaks English here and also in the city centre. Otherwise as already stated the city is very charming,the market is really nice and the landscapesaround at beautiful becauseit is so much high up.My ears even got blocked during my first hour in the city!!
Anyway I will stay 2 nights so I will have little time before I go to the jungle!!! Palenque will be the next stop!!
