Adventures South of the Border

(Jess writing)

We are back in cold, rainy Mexico city- I am actually kind of glad we came here during the raining season- apparently the air is practically unbreathable in the dry season. The rain cleans the pollution out of the air alot (though not out of the metro...) We have definintely gotten to the point in our trip where it feels like we are just holding our breath, waiting to be home again. Clove is showing up in all my dreams- I can still see her tiny little face and big eyes gazing at me fearfully from under the kitchen table from the last time I left her for this long. Hopefully this time she will not run away again.

However, the homesick blues has not prevented me from enjoying more sights and sounds of Mexico. We spent two nights on a really chill, fairly empty beach on the Pacific Coast. We were trying to get to Mazunte, which is sort of a hippy, backpackers beach and ended up on St. Augustino or something... I think it was a lucky mistake. The waves were pretty rough- one of them sent both me and shannon sommersaulting (how does one spell sommersaulting) under the current- luckily it did not slam us into the sand or anything. The beach was actually really shallow, so I was never terribly worried about rip-tide or anything. Maybe I should have been...

We went on a tour of a swamp near by run by a community of 24 families that have set up an eco-reserve to preserve the endangered wildlife and habitat there. For only 35 pesos (3 dollars?) we took an hour long boat ride through the swamp where we saw about a douzen crocodiles, a bunch of bright green, huge iguanas and a handful of incredible birds. The tour guide actually beckoned a crocodile to come right up to our boat- seriously maybe two feet from my face, just by splashing his hand around in the water. I swear, i had hoped never to get so close to a crocodile, but it seemed not to want to try to snatch us out of our boat, which I guess is a good thing...

Then we wandered into the town of Mazunte to visit the turtle center, where we got to see hundreds of turtles, including tiny little baby sea turtles. The center is devoted to educating people about the reasons not to poach turtles and also to help raise and release sea turtles back into the wild. It was pretty sweet. We even saw slider turtles like Stella (if only I had had that yellow lid...)

The only downside to the beach is that it left me with about 45 mosquito bites... c'est la vie.

After the beach we went to Oaxaca city. The whole point of the excursion was to shorten the bus ride to Mexico city, though I think we failed because, despite the guide book tellig us the bus ride would be seven hours, it ended up being more than ten. I never want to ride on a cross country bus again...

Oaxaca city seemed like a nice city from what I could gather from one day's wander. It is the chocolate capitol of Mexico, so I bought some hot chocolate with cinnamon which I am excited to try when I get home. It was sort of a mix between the clean, brightly colored, mountainous charm of St Crisobal and the busy, faster-paced Mexico city. Only with more Oaxacan arts and crafts all over the place (like Monas dragon and giraffe). The best part of it is that everything is smothered in Oaxacan cheese (kind of like American string cheese, only it tastes like cow and is a lot thicker). I am going to miss this cheese...

Anyway, we are now back in Mexico city. We are either going to go explore Aztec ruins in downtown Mexico city or take an excursion to the pyramids outside of Mexico city, depending on how ambitious we feel. Mostly I think we both just want to go home to our kitties and drinkable tap water. Mmm... drinkable tap water.

If we are feeling ambitious, we might post photos today. Otherwise, we will certainly post more upon our arrival in Minneapolis TOMORROW!!!!!