Mexico Uno

After hearing a few bad stories about Mexico City we weren´t expecting much when we arrived. Flying into the city at night was pretty spectacular, a sea of lights going for miles in each direction. The city and surrounding sprawl is just massive. Anna´s friend from University, Charlotte had kindly invited us to stay at her lovely apartment in Mexico City. It was so good to be out of a hostel for a few nights and great to catch up with someone from home. We spent the first few days looking around Mexico City which contrary to what we were told was a really cool place, as long as you stayed in the right parts of town. We took a ride on the Turibus (tourist bus), which as touristy as it is was actually a really good way to see the main sites around the central city and get your bearings. So many impressive tree filled parks, beautiful old buildings and lots of sculptures. The city has got it´s traffic and pollution problems but all in all we really liked the place.

After spending a few days in Mexico City we headed out to Oaxaca City. The old part of town is really beautiful, lots of old white stone churches, one of which has an interior decorated with the most ridiculous amount of gold. The city had a really friendly vibe, lots of people out and about in the plaza´s and markets. We visited a few of the touristy sites around town and the surrounding valleys. The most impressive was Monte Alban, an ancient hilltop Zapotec city.

Oaxaca is pretty famous for its food, which we felt obligated to sample our share of. We had lunch with the locals in a smoky bbq hall where this entertaining little kid cooked us meat, chillies and spring onions on the bbq. Once you get your meat and greens, they give you a selection of salsa´s and guacamole then wrap it all up in some Tortilla´s which these old lady's were fighting to sell us. So tasty. We also tried other local specialties like sweet buns dipped in hot chocolate for breakfast and chicken with a chocolate sauce for dinner. No need for desert after that meal. Anna did a cooking course there so hopefully we will get to eat some more Oaxacan cuisine. Browsing through the Oaxaca markets was a real eye opener and explained a lot about why so many tourists get sick over here. The butchers just cut up the meat and hang it up in the open air, no refrigeration required. Seeing all the chicken lined up incubating in the Oaxacan heat put me off eating anything resembling Poultry for the entirety of our stay in Oaxaca.

We stayed in Oaxaca for a couple of really enjoyable days then headed out to the Pacific coast. We found our way to a really beautiful beach that also had amazing waves. The town was tiny and only really got onto the map after a world tour surfing event was run there a couple of years ago. The perfect waves breaking along the sand point have turned the once sleepy little village into a very popular destination for visiting surfers. The locals seem happy as it brings in much needed money for them but hopefully it doesn´t get too crowded as it´s a beautiful spot that is already starting to suffer from the influx. We spent 4 days here surfing, relaxing at the beautiful white sand beach then relaxing some more in the hammock outside out rustic little cabin when it got too hot at the beach. It´s pretty crazy here, the water is so warm that during the hottest part of the you have to get out and seek shade otherwise you get fried and dehydrated pretty quick.

Our next stop along the coast was Puerto Escondido, which is pretty famous for it´s big, heavy and hollow waves. The day we arrived the surf was pretty big, heavy and messy. We had lunch on the beach and watched the few surfers who went out get smashed and break a couple of boards. Puerto is famous for breaking boards. The mornings were the best time to surf and I got some good waves before the wind came up an wrecked it. Also got quite a few beating but managed to leave town with my body and boards all in tact.

After Puerto we spent a couple of days at a little place called Mazunte. It´s a tiny little town with a beautiful beach which if you go there at the right time of year is a big turtle nesting ground. The rest of the year it´s home to a few locals and chilled out tourists. Not much to do here except relax on the beach and eat tasty Mexican food.

We made our way back to Mexico City where we spent a few more days looking around the city. We visited the Anthropology Museum which was the most amazing place. Absolutely huge, even by Mexican standards and full of really interesting exhibits. Mexico has a lot of history and this was a great place to learn a little about it. We were there a few hours and only manged to see about a quater of what was on offer. Definitely recommend a visit here and to the big Castle in the park about a 5 minute walk away.

Intrepid travels in Costa Rica

Our journey on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica began with Jaco. Not the most beautiful spot as it is slowly being built up with condos and apartments but it was a good base for us to meet Ed and Will, friends we would be travelling with over the next few weeks.

Luckily though just up the road is a beautiful beach called Hermosa. We managed to find an awesome spot to stay right on the beach. The beach was beautiful with black sand and really warm water. The boys got some good waves but you had to pick them as there were quite a few closeouts.

From Hermosa we headed further South and got the full experience of Costa Rician roads. Pretty much you pass when you want to, pot hole dodging is the style of driving and most of the rivers have dodgey bridges; though later on in our journey we would come to appreciate rivers with bridges.

Our next stop was Dominical, a really cool relaxed town. We managed to find a place right by the best smoothie joint in town, so good and the perfect breakfast each morning. The boys got some more waves, we went for a couple of bush walks and Anna got some diving in. I dived at Cano island, a wildlife reserve about an hour off the coast. It was quite different diving in sea currents and the water visibility was amazing. It wasn't a coral reef rather a volcanic one but I got to see lots of cool stuff; schools of parrot fish, white tipped sharks, sea snakes, eels etc. The dive trip ended with a bit of a twist when the van got stuck on the beach, so I got the full experience of Costa Rica's rainy season getting drenched for 2 hours on the beach. Who would have thought you would get just as wet out of the water as in it??

We headed back up to the coast to Manuel Antiono, a favourite holiday spot for tourists. It has an amazing national park which is set right on the water. We visited the park early as it does get rather crowded. Finally managed to see a toucan, though it was only a fleeting glimpse as it flew past us. The park was really cool full of sloths, howler monkeys, racoons etc.

Back on the road again we drove up to Puntarenas to catch the ferry across to the Nicoya peninsula. Here we fell for our first Costa Rican scam. There was quite a queue at the car ferry and we were a bit worried that we wouldn't make the ferry. A ¨helpful¨ local, honest John, as we would come to call him said he could get us on a ferry going now for $20. Seemed too good be true and it was. We ended up on a different ferry, not going to our intended destination and we could have easily got on the other ferry. The end outcome wasn't too bad just meant some extra driving through some beautiful scenery and reminded us not to be so impatient and trusting!

Our next destination was the town of Santa Teresa, which consisted of just one dirt road separated from a beautiful white sand beach by the lush Costa Rican bush. The town had a really relaxed vibe with lots of places to chill and relax. We found an awesome little 'cabina' to stay in which even came with it's own friendly cat. We were woken up every morning by Howler Monkeys in the trees and Squirrells runnig over our roof. The boys hit the waves again and I made good use of the hammock and beach close by. We had some fantastic food at a place run by a Kiwi girl from New Plymouth and her Costa Rican boyfriend, the fish was amazing especially the black tuna steaks.

The journey from Santa Teresa up to Ostinal was a bit of an interesting one. We reached Ostinal (about 80km away) approximately 24hours after we first left Santa Theresa. Our plan was to follow the road up the coast but one small problem, a big river!!! Not all of them have bridges and one rather large one stood between us our our destination; 11km up the road. We then got a flat tire, which took about 3 hours to change as our tire iron broke but a friendly farmer helped us out in the end. We ended up heading back to Santa Theresa covered in mud and started our journey again the next morning. This time taking the long route, around 7 hours.

Our next stop was Ostinal, a really small town which like all Costa Rican towns has a soccer field in it's centre, a church and a soda (local cafe). We stayed in a cool place called the perfect wave and the boys not surprisingly managed to get some more waves. We were also hoping to see the turtles nesting but unfortunately we had missed them by just 4 days. We did see a few turtle eggs on the beach that the vultures had dug up but that was as close as we got.

After a few more river crossing, a bit shallower this time, we reached our next destination Avellanas. Avellanas is close to the famous surf spot Playa Negra from the Endless Summer II. Unfortunately the waves at Playa Negra were small and crowded but the boys managed to catch some good ones at Avellanas. Avellanas is a beautiful spot whose beach goers include a pig called Lola, the waves are fun, the sand is white and the water is warm, bliss!!! The boys surfed with tropical fish and turtles while I relaxed on a beautiful deserted beach out front from our ¨cabina¨. We stayed in Avellanas for a few days, it´s quite remote so there are limited eating options but we were lucky to be staying across from a cafe with amazing Israeli food. We got to indulge in fantastic falafel, shashuka, homemade pita and shawamas each day.

Our last stop in Costa Rica before we headed back to San Jose was Tamarindo, another town made famous by the movie Endless Summer II. Thanks to the movie and the resulting influx of Gringos it´s a ¨bit¨ bigger now but still has a nice feel about it. There weren't any waves so we just relaxed around town and had a fun night out on our last night there. Costa Rica was yet another amazing place to visit, such great scenery, beaches and really friendly people.