Hilton Guadalajara

... second I was about to grasp it. Looking down I was confronted by the biggest insect I have ever seen in my life! At first I had no idea what it was, but my American friends recognised it as a Praying Mantis from its distinctive posture. It had a fearsome leap but eventually we managed to trap the beast in a glass and release it into the shrubs outside.

I could sleep easy again. Or so i thought.

The next night I was awoken by a tickling sensation as ...

My twenty-first birthday conveniently fell on a Friday this year, and I made the most of it with an eventful four day weekend. It was certainly a birthday to remember, despite tentative plans of going to Las Vegas being scuppered by a collective lack of funds.

The celebrations started on Thursday night in "Mutualista", where I saw a number of familiar faces from both CEPE and last week's trip to Michoacan. After a couple of poor ...

... us, including a variety of soups, tacos, and other local dishes. Practically every meal in Mexican includes some form of chili, lime, avocado, refried beans and tortilla but I have yet to grow tired of it. One thing I would not recommend however is a "Michelada", a Mexican larger served with tomato juice, chili, lime and salt. Try it at your own peril.

Having arrived shortly before the start of term, we still had a few days to settle in and explore the city. During the ...

... Mexico and Columbia last night, and had a great conversation with some brits who´ve been travelling around the U.S. and Mexico for the past few months, and were totally filled with wonder and delight at everything they´ve seen. That´s the attidude that I really want to cultivate in myself on this trip and beyond. Ultimately, I think that´s what travelling is all about...really feeling deeply the delights (and sometimes lonliness) of exploring new ...

... meet some really great folks and become fast friends with a few. A lot of the people here actually study or work in Guadalajara, and most are from Mexico, so I've been hearing (and speaking) lots of Spanish and improving a ton. My telcel phone is filling up with names and numbers, and I have offers (that I'll definietly take advantage of) to stay with some new friends in Monterray and Mexico City. Surprisingly, hanging around and playing Lotteria ...

... knew anything about the country before I arrived but I was still surprised at how developed and functioning it was. Far more than Vietnam (the only other developing country I can compare it with).
In the evening I went with the other student living with the host family to the Lacho Libre. Lacho Libre, sound familiar? Well there is a Jack Black movie called Nacho Libre, and it is about Lacho Libre wrestling, a fantastic Mexican sport. Similar to WWF, Lacho Libre ...

... now, am being present, and am feeling good. Had a great day today, including an amazing run. I have big plans for the next several days (including running the marathon!), but everything's still unfolding. Will update from Ecuador next week, and Peru the week after, and then it will be over. Just like Guadalajara, my time in these places aren't much about traveling... more about people actually, but I'm excited for it, if not entirely prepared.

... I know, I chickened out, but I wasn't quite ready for that kind of adventure. It came with onions and cilantro, which we were all hesitant about as we were told to avoid all raw vegetables given you didn't know what kind of water they were washed in. It was impossible to avoid them though, and I ended up psyching myself out for the rest of the night, sure I was going to get sick. Whaddaya know? I survived. We walked back and bought our bus tickets ($300 pesos a person ...