Oaxaca City

We travelled to Oaxaca City for a few days of sight-seeing, eating and relaxation. We seemed to hit peak 'mass time', but eventually found a moment without a service and got in to see the inside of Santo Domingo church. (For a clip of a very Mexican 15th birthday celebration outside the church see Pabs' Facebook)



Rosie was pleased to see the faces of some of the 'Telegraph greats' in the main square.



Our 'old culture' bit was a trip up to Monte Alban - the deserted Zapotec site above Oaxaca Ciy.




A highlight was the cooking course at Casa Crespo - we learnt how to make 'Mole Fiesta', 'Sopa de Flor Calabaza', 'Horchata', hand-made tortillas and rose-petal ice-cream - marvellous!



Daisy found the whole day both exciting and a little tiring,...

Sarah & Ian arrive (with Mungo)

Our dear friends Sarah & Ian have come out to Mexico for a couple of weeks.




They visited the project (La Chozita), where I introduced Ian as the British Chess Champion (well he has played before) to take on the local Chess whizz-kid, Victor. It was a close, tense game, but in the end the Mexican, with support from the home crowd forced a defeat from the visiting champ.


We went with Ian & Sarah up to Chamula and out to the Museum of Mayan Medicine.




Daisy was delighted to have to extra helpers/adorers. She also rather enjoyed Jeremias' birthday party with Tio-Luis and lots of bendy balloons.

Madeleine in San Cristobal

We returned to San Cristobal to spend a few days there with Madeleine.



We took a trip up to San Juan Chamula to show Mum a Mayan village and the unique church building in the centre.




We think Madeleine enjoyed seeing her granddaughter and Daisy enjoyed spending time with her Abuelita.

La Playa

We traveled down from Taxco to the Pacific Coast, to Acapulco, then on to Pie de la Cuesta - a strip of sand lying between a lagoon and the ocean.




Daisy thoroughly enjoyed the swimming pool and the sand on the beach, oh and the fresh prawns!







The sunsets were spectacular and afterwards we retired to a restaurant for some supper and a cool beer - fantastic.

Meeting Madeleine

Madeleine (Paul's Mum) has come out to Mexico for a few days to see her granddaughter, us and the place. We went us to Mexico City to meet her.


We then traveled to the nearby old silver-mining city of Taxco. It's where Paul did his Spanish course back in 1999 and where our good friend Yareri runs an excellent restaurant called 'El Sotavento'.


It was Good Friday whilst we were in town, so there were processions of men carrying crosses and women in black with chains or white with candles - the children were dressed as little angels.




We marked the solemn occasion by buying Daisy/Rosie a helium balloon and Pabs a light-sabre.



Daisy's great-grandmother (Connie) had sent some chocolate and a Peter Rabbit to wish us a Happy Easter.