MEXICO: M.Albán>Puebla>Teotihuacán>M.City>Acapulco

  Acapulco, Mexico
Friday, May 5, 2006

 Monte Alban:

Today was hilarious now looking back so I will recap the bus incident..... We were due to visit yet anooooother ruin site near Oaxaca only 15 minutes away... However, the main road was closed so our bright yellow bus was forced to go another way around steep windy roads during early morning rush hour traffic like. Result was that the back of the bus scraped the foot of the hill and within a minute further up the driver turned the engine off as there was oil streeeeaming down the hill...

Tank and frame had been damaged so we couldn't continue. What pursued was mental... we were stuck on a steep recline with traffic coming either way and overtaking galore.... slipping and sliding and screeching in the slick with pissed off drivers... entertaining... so we all got off the bus to act as traffic wardens and the such until rescue services had been called and tow truck... we all got taxis to the ruin site but our poor driver spent the whole day and evening with the engineers and mechanics as the engine was fulllll of oil and the tow up truck had to remove the entire front frame of the bus in order to merely tow it away! took ages......

so that was a bad start to the day... 1 stressed out german guide and us lot taking photos and loving it all. journey was only 25 minutes and we were 1/2 way there more or less. o well, that was a great hiccup.

The ruin site was amazing anyhow...... nice panorama of the valley benneath.. Y shape..... we caught a local bus back down to town.... this afternoon was spent being a bum lounging in nice cafes over afternoon tea and chat.. frenchi style... as for the evening, we ate crepes and just played drinking games AT a cafe in front of the general public who thought we were crazy... even our guide joined in to let her hair down! meanwhile one poor mid aged ozzie bloke had been administered 2 jabs up the bum for some virus he had contracted. wasnt looking good at all so we were all a bit concerned. mended a few days later tho.

Following day consisted of a drive to Puebla where we arrived around lunch time. we passed huge cacti on the way where we posed for a group foto....I was wiliting so just couldnt resist a McDonalds nosh up unfortunately upon arrival... this town is even more built up, colonial like with impressive squares, plazas, and smartly dressed locals... liked the feel for it.... definitely another university town...Time wasnt generous to us as we just had 1 afternoon and evening there.... so we did the whole stroll around taking photos of main attractions, japaense style... the evening was spent relaxing in a traiditonal mexican coffee shop-come-library with live music.. pretty much had to caf to ourselves so joked with the musician....

early to bed in prep for a 7 am leave to our final and most vast ruin site, Teotihuacan on the outskirts of the capital, Mexico City. This ruin site consisted of 2 huge pyramids about 70m high, 1 temple of the sun god and 1 of the moon. we climbed these to the top and were completely out of breath and feeling dizzy. At an altitude of roughly 2,300m above sea level, Mex city is the worlds more densely populated city including suburbs (120 million). We then had some wacky ritual with candles and incense in pitch black, withing 1 tomb of a temple....... where our Aztec descended guide chanted and gesticulated and got us involved, narrating the history and prayers etc..fascinating and creepy....

Our final mini drive was to the city itself, based on the ancient Aztec capital, Tenoxtitlan...Here we certainly felt the smog, fumes, and crowds of people the moment we got off the bus... felt like a meat market for the women with dodgy men whislting all the time at the blondies and crime apparently omnipresent... ....

Aaaaanyhow, there was a little run in at the hotel where our guide snapped at 1 of the Ozzie girls who she deemed our peer leader asking her what THE PLAN for EVERYONE was that FINAL night. so that was baaaaaaad... cooled off afterwards so we went on brief orientation then a nice local mex sytle dinner all together in a restaurant... had group snaps and free tequila shots on house to celebrate last night all together...sad Friday 28th.....

Half a dozen of us were sticking round so we rallied together exploring the centre without an agenda...yay...we happily bummed around the metro network and such like. the evening was cool as one of the ozzie girls on our tour has a mexican b/f living there so we were showed a good time on the town in a fancy district... had to say farewell to her then. Saturday was pretty much touristy to the bone with a double-decker round trip of the city centre and outskirts........lazy but most efficient way to encompass so much in so little time..one 34 year old ozzie dude and an english lass even got their faces painted in the park. that night we met with another pair and saw basic instincts 2 at the cinema in english after japanese cuisine. nice different way to spend our evening times instead of drinking card games. felt like i was back home though momentarily. again, a couple of people had to depart at this point so it was another case of cheerio.

Most of the crew, especially the non spanish speakers really felt trapped and insecure in mexico city after 2 days so a few of us not heading to the states or home decided to large it and got a ticket to acapulco for the sunday for a couple of days just to party and hit the beaches.............TRIP HIGHLIGHT! We booked a lush last minute hotel room for 4 of us right off the port in acapulco for a fair deal... felt like we were on a family holiday as this hotel had 5 pools, bars, supermarkets, gym, kiddies club etc....cant complain! atfer our 5 hour bus ride we dumped our gear and took a walk around the golden beaches...by the way, acapulco is regarded nearly as touristy and busy as Cancun......lots of concrete and long beaches with life bustling day and night.

we timed it well as the gringos had left after spring break masses.... sunday evening was spent watching a spectacular moonlit 35m cliff diving show with fire etc.

Monday 1st May, a local bank hol - we opted for a lazy subathing and beach sports activity day eg banana boat and a couple of the group ended up being suspended 50m in the air by parachute with roped tied to a speed boat in the middle of the ocean.. v cool panorama from above apparently..another guy separately came down to meet us as well. the night was once again a send-off for a tour member, so a meal and clubbin it had to be.... we ended up at this wacky place serving a buffet with different tequila shots on the house.we arrived after the kitchen had closed but i used my charm and spanish skills to blag entry... had dinner warmed up especially and had a free beer thrown in. we were alone so the hosts were all the more pleased to offer us free samples of tequila etc... mind blowing...

we then got in the craaaaazy beetle taxi, normally a 3 seater.. this was converted into a disco machine with banging sound system and flashing lights and objects in side. the driver was cool and drove like a maniac but he saw how ecstatic we were getting. absolutely hilarious with music pumping and us lot jumping about in the back in fits. great experience. we drank in senor frogs, a bar chain in mexico blatantly tailored for gringos...then checked out the nightlife on the beachside..the night ended with the second holiday romance for another couple on the beach front.

Tuesday - all of us actually decided to head back to mexico city together as we felt like we were cheaing ourselves living it up at a beach resort . the whole goodbye alarky the previous night had thus been in vain.. we ended back at the same mexico city hostel that evening and hitthe sack earlyish. saw off mate Roj at airport on Wed morning - girlies a bit tearful, and the 3 of us boarded another bus to head to Veracruz, 6 hours easward on the cetnral coast.. it is a nice moderately populated colonial fishing port city so has a nice character to it.

Today we are just discovering the town more and planning our separate onward journeys now. Reunion with my faourite tour buddies will happen in the near future for sure! lata