Overlooking Oaxaca City and surrounded by gold!

It's been a few days since we've had a decent hike, although we were due for a bit of a rest after our Guatemala trip. However, our host Susana here at the apartment offered to go with us up the Cerro del Fortin mountain that sits in the center of Oaxaca City, so we eagerly accepted her offer.

First impressions

We've only been in Oaxaca City for two days, but so far we're on the fence. Seems to me that everybody raves about Oaxaca City, so we were trying not to get our hopes up. Looking at the map, we saw a river running near the central part of town and figured there must be some kind of walking path along the river.

Eating fried grasshoppers

A cold front passed through yesterday and it was mostly overcast as well. The high only went up to 17C (63F), but it's supposed to be nicer today and then getting back over 27C (80F) by Monday. So far today, the sun is shining. Yesterday was supposed to be a day of rest, but we still managed to get out exploring and it turns out we were gone for over four hours!

Roadblock!

Yesterday was a LONG day. It was going to be a long day anyhow, and then we had a detour that added another hour and a half of driving. Not fun, but we have safely arrived in Oaxaca City. Here's how it all went down...

Sidetracked by a cave and a waterfall

We had been planning on visiting a giant sinkhole where thousands of green parrots live. But we got sidetracked by a fantastic cave and underground river system, so the sinkhole will have to wait for another visit.

February Expenses

Considering everything we did to keep busy in February, including driving all the way the Guatemala (!), we did pretty well in the expenses department. But you're not surprised by that anymore, are you?

Surprise visitors!

We woke up yesterday morning and checked our computers to find that Dave and Bonnie who we had met in Acapulco, are also currently staying in San Cristobal! There was a message asking if we wanted to get together, and we did!

We are back in Mexico!

Now that we've finished telling you about our six day hike, and the blog is now back to our regular morning updates, we can tell you a little bit of our recent activities and current plans. The biggest news is of course that we are back in Mexico!

Todos Santos and heading home!

Our last post left us at the side of the road waiting for a bus to take us to Todos Santos for the night. Our hiking was finished and we were going to explore the town before heading back to Xela early the following morning.

Last day of hiking. But it's a good one!

Now into day 5 of our hiking trip. We've done 45 kms (28) miles over the past three days of hiking and we're about to start on our last day of hiking. Day 6 is just a travel day to get us back to Xela.

Early to bed, early to rise! (day 4)

When you hike 18 kms (11 miles) in a day and you had been up since 4:30am that morning, it makes sense that you would go to bed early again. Especially when you're not sleeping well to begin with!

Tough hiking day...

But very rewarding. This is day 3 of our six day excursion with Quetzaltrekkers hiking through the remote western highlands of Guatemala. Check the two previous posts for day 1 and day 2!

Hiking the Guatemalan highlands (day 2)

Day two of our six day trip is actually our first hiking day. (Check the previous post for day 1!) We were told that our first hiking day would be not that difficult, with a distance of about 13 kms (8 miles). Only one problem with that.

Our Six Day Trip with Quetzaltrekkers. (day 1)

Here's the first installment of our six day excursion with Quetzaltrekkers. We're going to give you updates twice per day for the next few days so that we can get caught up! I hope you enjoy it!

Getting Ready For Our Next Hike!

You would think that we would be resting up for a while after the weekend we had. Well we did take a bit of a rest day. But some of it was spent getting ready for our next hike, the 6 day grand excursion from Nebaj to Todos Santos that leaves today!