Mexico

Over Winter break in january 2000 I took a greyhound bus to brownsville texas, and from there took mexican busses to mexico city, amecameca, oaxacca, zippolite, puerto angel, etc .. here are some pictures from my trip.

My first stop was in mexico city. I met a guy on the bus there named guillermo. He invited me to come and stay at his house so I did. It was interesting staying there, He didn't speak much english and I didn't speak much spanish. his family didn't speak any english. I arived at his house at 6:30 am on the morning of new years eve. I had a good time there, The food was good, I watched him play socker one day.. we drank a lot of mescal, he took me to see the pyramids. here are some pictures

One night I drank some lemonade that I am guessing was made from tap water. I threw up all night long .. and I was kind of getting tired of mexico city, It's pretty dirty there.. I even saw some people wearing dust masks.. So the morning after being sick I felt better and decided it was time to go, I said goodbye, and took a bus to amecameca where i climbed on a volcanoe called Iztaccihuatl..... The story is something like this .. there was a warrior, Popocatepetl, in love with a princess Iztaccihuatl, and he went off to war, she killed her self, he came back, layed her on her back on one mountain, and stood on the other holding her funeral pire... i may have something wrong there.. thats what i remembver someone telling me.. so from mexico city, or from amecameca or something like that izta is supposed to look like a woman laying on her back, there are 5 peaks, los pies, los rodillos, el estomach, el pecho ,and la cabesa.. I probably spelt some of those wrong, my spanish isn't great.. you can guess what they mean probably.. I think i climbed the knees or something (los rodillos) I kinda got a little altitude sick I think.. I was getting pretty dizzy and having a hard time hiking, it was right after puking all night in the city, and i guess i wasn't all that aclimated.. I also didn't bring that much water.. I know I wasn't at the highest peak anyways.. but It was fun and I got some good pictures. here they are

next I headed south to oaxacca.. I stayed in a realy nice hostel there for about 5 US$ per day.. there where many interesting people there from all over the world, many of them had trips planed out which they would often invite me on .. going to check out different aztec ruins or some such thing in nearby towns.. I had a lot of fun there, and I think it is probably my favorite of the cities I've been to..

here are some pictures from oaxacca

after oaxacca, I took a bus down to the southern coast, first I went to puerto angel, which was a pretty neat place, but I only stayed there a couple of days.. when i got there it was late, I had to take a cab from pachutla because the last bus had stopped running.. I just had the cab drop me off at a hostel or hotel or something, but when i went in they where full... so i started wandering down the street looking for somewhere else to stay.. I was a little nervous.. because it was about midnight and I wasn't even sure if I was walking into town or out of town.. I had a map but i couldnt really read it because there where no lights.. eventually I saw someone walking down the road.. I tried to kinda of ask for directions, but I don't think he really understood me.. he just told me to come with him, and he let me sleep on a hamock on his front porch.. It's amazing how helpfull people can be sometimes.. the next day I slept in a regular place by the beach, and while laying on the beach getting sun I bought a hamock from some guy.. it was pretty cheap but i don't remember how much.. he said he made it himself.. after that i went to zippolite.. a nude beach just down the road.. I slept in my hamock there right on the beach.. It was a little more touristy being on the beach but it was nice.. they didn't have phones or anything but they had resturaunts that where kind of catered to tourists.. here are a couple of pictures of the beach

the last day of my trip there was a lunar eclipse.. there was a fire on the beach, and I stayed up late with people i met there, I saw some people that I'd met in oaxacca there too.. then began my long bus ride home the next morning .. it ended up taking 6 days to get home because i got stuck waiting a long time for buses to change, and then in virginia the greyhound bus got snowed in.. but even though i was stuck in a bus station in virginia for 36 hours I managed to meet some people and have fun.