Adios Mexico!

Oaxaca City

So I'm a few days behind in writing this one, as I'm now sitting at my computer back in Seattle.  After leaving the beach, I stopped in Oaxaca for a few days.  Oaxaca was definitely my favorite city in Mexico.  It felt like the city that Antigua and San Cristobal are trying to be.  It was nice and clean, minimal traffic (comparatively), and the food was amazing.  Tlayudas, pozole, fruit in a cup with lime juice and hot sauce, elote, grasshoppers (!), 7 different varieties of mole, oversized empanadas, and much more.  Though I did a fair bit of walking, I definitely made up for it with some ridiculous eating habits.

When I first arrived at the hostel I had an entire 10-bed dorm room all to myself.  I made friends with the only other two people staying there (the girl had another dorm to herself, and Will from Spain had a dorm of his own too).  Luckily we were all over 27 and had no problem calling it bedtime at 10:30.  Even when a group of younger more partyish kiwis showed up, it was great to have two folks to give me an excuse to skip out on the heavy drinking.  Anyway, Oaxaca was great, and I'll definitely be returning.

Chapulines (Grasshoppers), a Oaxacan specialty

I jumped an overnight bus to Mexico City with a buddy, and spent my remaining day and a half wandering the city and eating whenever I could manage to fit more food in my pie hole.  Though I'd had a ton of warnings about Mexico City, I didn't feel any more unsafe than I would in any large city in the states.  Just pay attention to where you are, and maybe don't take sketchy looking cabs.

I wish I had given myself another two days to explore, but oh well.  Mexico is a short (and cheap) flight away.  If I can keep up on my Spanish, I'll be vacationing down there again real soon.  I probably have some stories to tell, but I don't feel like writing them up.  I'll save them for the campfire.

It's a bit strange to be back in Seattle again, though at least the weather was nice for my brief stay.  I'm hopping the Amtrak tomorrow towards Montana to begin the next leg of my trip.  I'm ready to lose another 20 pounds or so in the next 1,200 miles of hiking.  I've almost got all my food prepared,