The Volunteers + Sandra

Swine Flu is Fun!

Potential Travel to Teach webstie photo?

Gettin' the Hell Outta Dodge

It's really not as bad as it looks.

Or is it?!

Mas out of order

Lost our way in Orea Del Monte

Someone took a puke on my seat in the bus.

So they gave me a bag to put over it.

We painted a playground with a bunch of kids.

They were really great.

On the road to Oaxaca from Xalapa

The road less travelled

More out of order

I made a 10 pesito donation so Abby could do this

In the Collectivo

On the way home from the beach.

A view of our secret beach

Your blog writer

A Day Out Of The Sun

Children of the guy that makes the secret beach possible... I think.

That is his dog under the sand.

Pictures/out of order

Santa Domingo

Oaxaca, Oaxaca, MX

Los Chicas

Monte Alban

Monte Alban

Abby eats a cricket

Actually very good tasting, and we 

have some to take back to home

Fog makes Connor worried

Xalapa is very foggy

Holy Week(s)

We're back from our two week vacation extravaganza (I still can't believe that Easter gets everyone in Mexico a full two weeks off).  Let me catch you up on our zany adventures.

We took a bus south-west for eight hours to Oaxaca, a little town which we've heard great things about.  We arrived in Oaxaca at about 3:30 in the morning with our roommates and were able to find a great youth hostel to stay in for the night.

Oaxaca is a huge tourist draw for Mexicans and foreigners, and although we found the town very charming, we were there at the peak of tourist season and it was a little overwhelming.  Despite the touristy crowds, we were able to see some cool stuff: there's a church called Santa Domingo, a Dominican church that was gorgeous, made in the late 1500's.*  There's a beautiful old monastery connected to the cathedral that has been turned into a museum.  The museum, aside from being very gorgeous what with its courtyards and fountains and old medieval paintings, was very impressive: it had everything from ancient artifacts to stuff from the revolutionary wars.  It was such a great use of the space.  There was so much to see, but we were pretty tuckered out when we were looking through it, so if my  description of the museum is vague, I apologize.

We also spent an afternoon at the ruins of Monte Alban (about 20 minutes outside of Oaxaca), where the Zapotec tribe had a thriving city going for about 1000 years.  Again, I'm a little vague on the details because my Spanish isn't what it should be, but there were plenty of old buildings to climb on and in and around, and we all got good and sunburned and had a pretty splendid afternoon.

Oaxaca also has tons of great shopping places lining the streets and this amazing, lively market place and really excellent regional food, but at the end of the day we were pretty drained out from a tourist and money-spending overload.

It was a god save when we heard word of a secret beach**.  Our friend's friend (who was soon to become our good friend Adres - who also happens to be Connor's Mexican clone) told us about a beach where a man named Carlos lets people stay for free if you eat at his place. The whole thing seemed a little sketchy, but we decided to go for it, and soon enough we found ourselves on a rickety old bus flying through these terrifying mountain roads in the middle of the night for an eight hour bus ride to "Carlo's island."  We arrived in Rio Grande at about 5:30 in the morning and got a cab to someone's house who gave boat rides to the island.  It was a surreal experience riding on a tiny boat through this beautiful, discreet, mountainous area to the Pacific Ocean during sunrise; it one of the most beautiful things I've ever witnessed.  

We were supposed to meet Andres and his friends at the island, but alas, no one was there, and we had to meet Carlos all by ourselves.  We felt mighty awkward, but Carlos was an old laid back hippy whose catch phrases were "No pasa nada" and "No te preocupe," and he soon made us feel right at home, giving us hammocks to sleep in and mezal shots to put our minds at ease while we waited for our friends.  Despite being burnt to a crisp, Con and I had the time of our lives playing playing in huge Pacific waves and eating some of the best seafood we've ever had in our lives.  On the last day, we climbed a mountain (OK, maybe it was a very steep hill) to a lighthouse where we saw an absolutely beautiful view of the ocean.  It was such an amazing experience!

I only have ten minutes of battery left on the computer, so have to wrap this up mighty quick.  I'll tell you about the kids with painted a school with in another blog - but they were adorable and we had a great time playing Twister and singing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.  

Another fun fact: a legitimate pharmacist actually advised Con to take tequila for his stomach problems.  I love Mexico!

*Side note: it's hard to concentrate while writing this blog.  We're in this awful, touristy, faux-french cafe for internet access, and it's playing some of the worst elevator music I've ever dealt with.  Right now I'm trying to ignore "The Dog-Gone Girl is Mine."  Wait, now it changed to "Reunited and it Feels So Good."

**Further distractions from the internet cafe: Now playing - James Blunt's "You're Beautiful."  Oh Lordy!  I feel yucky here.  There are more white people here than Mexicans.