I have to send out a special thank-you to the owner of the hotel that we stayed at in Zipolite (Posada Brisa Marina)... the place and the town were a total haven... THANK YOU SO MUCH DANIEL!!!

Ok... so after spending three VERY EXPENSIVE but pretty days in Bayas de Huatulco (took a six hour boat ride yesterday which felt much like a real estate cruise see above), we headed off last night on a 10 hour bus ride into the centre of Chiapas to San Cristobal de las Casas... It was a LLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG bus ride and for some reason all of the long distance buses in Mexico are FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZING!!!

Very pretty colonial town with lots of indigenous people... ENJOYING listening to other indigenous languages in the street....

arriving at the bus station in the morning to discover that we were 2,000 meters above sea level... and it was absolutely FREEZING. Will tour around here for a bit and then on to Palenche. Photos soon to follow... I promise... oh and happy belated bday mom.

The town itself is cool in terms of tourists unlike Acapulco and Puerto escondito... lots of human rights workers... lots of coop type folks... oh and lots of Zapatistas... and amber

So people have been asking me if I am still in Cuernavaca.... the answer is no...

I rather sporatically decided to leave just before Christmas... spent two days in Acapulco (tour Eifel... scummy hotel near the clavadistas but nice view of the ocean)... my biggest culture shock in Mexico is the fact that there doesn't seem to be any real coffee around here... I am now fully equipped with a bialetti cafetera and three plastic spoons

three days in surf mecca Puerto Escondido (Chez Ines... amazing hotel... pool... the works and cheap)... spent lots of time watching fishermen fish for shrimp and oysters holding their breath for up to 10 minutes... i think I want to become a fisherman...

have spent the last three days in Zipotle... small beach village inhabited by Mexicans and Italians... enjoying the sun and the fact that everyone left the state of Oaxaca because of the riots... lots of vacancy... am considering buying property here... and the food ROCKS!!!! Leave it to the Italians!!! Eating lots of guacamole, prawns, and Cajeta. One day we managed to encounter this tiny tiny shrimp that had been living in my beach bag... itsy itsy bitsy.


Promise to add pictures as soon as I can find some electricity.

Will be here for xmas (tomorow)... and will head to Palenche and San Christobal for New Years:)

For those who don't know already.... I plan to head back to Van starting Jan 11th to work for a month before returning to volunteer.... anybody know of places to stay let me know...

Ciao for now:)

Last weekend and yesterday I went to Taxco, town famous for silversmiths and looked at way too much jewelry and little kids eating bugs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sewjE9E4VbQ

Jumiles (the bugs in the video) are supposed to be a delicacy (you eat them while they're still alive). And yes, we paid the kid 50 cents to eat one (it's 50 cents for a bag of living jumiles).

Yesterday was the holiday for the Virgin of Guadalupe. I went to church and watched lots of little kids dressed up and saw lots of images of the virgin... if you don't know the story, google it. I went to the church where the virgin is (it's in mexico city) a month ago... didn't feel like going because it would be reallllllllllllllly crowded.

This last week was fun with my friend Lisa from Van (in the US)... but she's gone home now... and am starting to get itchy feet.

So I'm starting to get complaints that I haven't written in my blog for a while.... so where to begin?

The last three weeks have been a lot of fun because there was a girl at my school from Munich and we spent a lot of time hanging out (see pic above of Claudia, Jan, and Cathy)... going to local museums and hanging out around town.

Two weekends ago I headed to Tepoztlan a small village famous for UFO sitings, and wierd energy.... complete with church and empty convent... hiked to the top of the mountain with Oscar... no sign of UFOs... just possums that made funny noises and ate garbage (click on youtube link):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufQSwpm0uU8

The next day I headed to Iguala with my family... ate possole and beef tongue...


This last friday was the official inaugeration of the new president... so I ran away to Acapulco and spent 4 days basking in the sun with Oscar and family. Our hotel had an amazing view, three pools and one with a waterfall that you could jump off of!!!!

Hung out around town, playing in the water and watched the clavadistas:

Note picture of me with clavadista (above). This is a four minute link of me watching the clavadistas (if you scroll to the end of the clip you can watch them jump):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq9IIo7zsP8

Was hard to leave the beach. At the moment I'm back at school.... puttering with my irregular verbs. There is a new girl at the school my age with two kids.... plans to go out dancing soon!!!!