Movin´ On Through

Tonight we board a bus southbound, for a 12-hour ride to Chiapas, Mexico. There is supposed to be some cool shit there. We´ve booked a hostel and hooked up with a guy who´s letting us crash on his couch for a couple days, but have little to nothing specific planned. After that we´re crossing into Guatemala, where we will probably stay for at least a week, week and a half. We´ve heard fantastic things about the country from some other travelers at the hostel in Puerto Escondido, and we´re psyched to discover it for ourselves.

Today we took a Taxi to a nearby town where there´s a great market every Sunday. Tons of tiny, huched-over Mexican ladies draped in colorful shawls selling seasoned crickets. They´re not as crunchy as I thought they´d be, particularly when drowned in delicious, spicy sauce. Sort of mushy, actually. There were also lots of tents with people selling homemade rugs, leather bags, belts, and hats, and massive machetes. I´ve seen a lot of phenomenal masks to add to my collection, but I´ve saving my pesos for Guatemala to buy a mask where they´ll be cheaper and I won´t have to haul it around as long.

Yesterday, when we taxied to some ancient ruins in a little town just outside Oaxaca, I tried some Mezcal. The stuff is fairly ubiquitous down here. It´s liquor made from I believe the Agave cactus, and it comes in varieties like cream, apple, and coffee. It´s delicious and I´d buy some to bring back home if it wouldn´t be such a pain in the ass to carry it with me in my backpack everywhere.

For breakfast in Oaxaca we´ve been eating Tortas y Memelas. Tortas are sort of Mexico´s answer to the Panini. Memelas are corn tortillas covered in beans and your choice of cheese, veggies, or seasoned chicken or beef.

Tonight is intense for Hannah, as shes been living here in Oaxaca working for over three months, but it´s exciting to move on and adventure through new places.

Real mexican food is delightful, although the Tex-Mex of the north country will always have a place in my heart.

I feel very tall here.

Tonight before we board our bus we´re getting sushi for dinner. I´m told that the Mexican interpretation is a perfectly delicious one, but we´ll see.

So far I haven´t had any gastrointestinal issues, which is always great when you´re traveling in the third world. I´m excited for Belize, where we´ll go after Guatemala, but we won´t be there long because we won´t have much cash left and its much more expensive there in comparison. Hannah sold me a bunch of Malaria pills, and we´ll start taking those today or tomorrow to prepare for the onslaught of disease-ridden tropical parasites that will come as we begin to move southeast. I´m psyched to see some Central American Jungleland. Beware of jungle cats and rowdy, curious primates!

I feel bad not jazzing this thang up with some photos, but its just not technologically feasible living out of a backpack. You´ll have to be satisfied with text-based reports of our adventures.