Hostal de la Noria Oaxaca

For my last day in Mexico - and my birthday - I decided to treat myself and not to return to the Centro Historico. Insteat I went to the more upscale Zona Rosa. A nice place, really, with dozens of good restaurant (and not that expensive), clean pedestrian streets, pink-colored pavement (hence the name) and a friendly, lively ...

... jump and someone takes a picture of you in mid-air. I got one too!

And the first time I jumped, I landed on both feet but with only one flip-flop on. My other flip-flop went over the side of the pyramid.

And our awesome education coordinator, Dave, climbed down to get it for me! In reality, it only went about 30 feet down the pyramid but probably could have flown down the entire edge! A big thanks to Dave for rescuing my shoe!

It's now 6 ...

... to go to the giant pyramids just outside of Mexico City. We waited for another Dutch bloke as well but he had got so wasted he fell down the stairs the previous night and we figured he was not coming.
While we walked to the underground at 7:00am we noticed that the main plaza was full of army personal just standing around. We wondered what was going on, then from the palace just outside across the road from the plaza came hundreds of soldiers. They marched ...

... a cross dripping with fake blood.  Oh yeah—and at the front of the procession are a couple of guys who alert the public to the approaching spectacle by detonating obnoxiously loud firecrackers.  Yay Catholicism. 

 

 

Day 4:

 

Good morning.  Since the giggling Swedish girls next door aren’t going to permit me to sleep any longer, I might as well backtrack a little bit about yesterday while Jurni is asleep beside me.  So here’s how ...

... the grasshopper...hmm.. have to find out... Sunday...motivation has left me this morning inviting lazyness to take over. Happend to see a Chaplin movie last night in one of the local plazas, accompanied by the eco of laughter and rythms of jembes.. "Semana Santa" has crowded the streets with ppl, properly prepared vendors, music and comic acts...the fresh fruit and juice vendors are replaced with taco, hamburgesa, perro caliante, corn and etc vendors so my ...

... to call back in 5 min but I ran out of minutes so I went to go get more and I ran out of gas. I about lost my mind today. It makes me appreciate America so much. In the US, people just say "I don't know where it's at", here people just make stuff up. I was told that people did that but this was definite proof. I will be here 2 weeks so hopefully I will learn something.

... very popular revival assemblies illustrate, I believe, some discontent with a Catholic church that continues to be politically conservative. Although you can enjoy wine, women (or men), song and cigarettes and still be a Catholic, you still shouldn't mess with the church hierarchy, with the status quo, the established order. And the Oaxaca economic, political, social and ethnic mix can sometimes make for very dicey situations.

Today I will be going to El Pueblo where I am going to stay with my uncle. I will pay him $150 for that day. I decided to go because I thought it would be fun just to hang around by the hills and just relax. I went by the hills, and also went fishing it ...

... stuck with beer (I kept getting half cups so I ordered doubles till he got the point). I sat there drooling with antiapation "I wonder if theres gonna be Midgets" I said "Maybe a royal rumble of them" I guessed. There is a god and boy does he love me. Two crazy tiny Midgets popped out and they were put up against two of the biggest guys. There was tons of mid air ...

... as Oaxaca is, I`m leaving after two nights. It`s really hot here, a dry heat that leaves me woozy by midafternoon. Also, it`s a bit too touristy for me. I don`t mind the backpacker/ bohemian types, but the tourists here are the suitcase/ pack-a-hairdryer type. And if that makes me sound like a snob, so be it. My apologies.

Question time! If you HAD to choose the following to eat, what would it be?
a) Menudo Soup
b) Cricket Quesadilla
c) Both a & b!