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'Tehuantepec' in the narrowest part of Mexico!
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Day 9 - More historic Oaxaca sights, then onto 'Tehuantepec' in the narrowest part of Mexico!
Awaking, trying not to electrocute ourselves by charging the camera in the shower (the only place a plug was!), we set off to view some more ancient sights around the city. The massive 17th century 'Basilica de La Soledad' was stunning inside with a gold interior, then completely (even though I am not religious); taking my breath away was the inside of the church of 'Santo Domingo.' The church is considered to the best examples of baroque style in Mexico, opening in 1608 and its golf leaf inside has to be seen to be believed, I was literally gob smacked when I walked in, it was just incredible. The detail, design of the statues, ceilings and walls was stunningly beautiful, it even made me want to be abit more religious! Not sure it worked its charm to that degree on Adam though. Finally, laden with our many kilos we went back to our trusty coffee shop then headed to the bus station. Ads went to practice his Spanish with the taxi driver at which the driver seemed to assume Ads knew the language easily and chatted continuously for the entire journey, the nods in the right places seemed to work and even I thought Ads had understood every word he had said!
We then hopped on our next plush bus for our 4-5 journey east to a small village called Tehuantepec, most travellers from here seem to get on the 12 hour night bus to another main town, but we decided to break it up abit and not miss the views enroute, so laden with only a few lines about this place and no map, we were pretty nervous about what lay ahead. The town 'Tehuantepec' was meant to be home to many indigenous groups, mainly Zapotec, where the local dress is still worn and we were keen to see a remote Mexican town off the tourist trail to experience more of how the Mexicans really lived, plus in this heavily jungled area only 210km separates the Pacific from the Atlantic which sounded kind of cool to see!
The bus journey was again laden with beautiful scenery familiar to that of Laos, heavily forested/cacti mountains, lush green, a beautiful deep blue lake and lots of windy mountain roads. I hate to admit it but I seem to now be suffering from travel sickness with the many turns, what 'annoying travel habit' will I have next! On arriving the heat and humidity really hit us as we got out of the bus, such a constrast from Oaxaca, it must have been 35 degrees plus and in a minute we were sweltering wet. We found a local hotel called Oasis that was basic but okish. The bathroom left a lot to be desired and the turquoise tiles/sink vs pink toilet, lack of loo seat, cracked/broken cistern, dodgy electrics, leaking tap, broken/missing window and bizarre concrete lump to secure the shower was very reminiscent of our earlier 'toilet' days described in the Asia blog! Dodgy toilet experiences are back! The tree in the middle of the hotel though was pretty funky as the entire place seemed to have been built around it and the Tucan in the cage as you walked in was different if a little odd.
The town was small and kind of cool, the Zapotec ladies stood robustly in their 'moto-carro's' flying swiftly around the zocalo, there was a lot of hustle and bustle about the place whist older men sat chatting all day around the bandstand, shading in the trees. It was good to see what could be described as more of the 'real Mexico' in that everything wasn't as supremely painted and clean, just rustic, hot and busy! It didn't take long to do 'the circuit' and we decided against 'asking the caretaker to open a museum' for us! After eating some good food in our hotel café, we turned in for the night and slept for many hours!!! More thumbnails ...
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