October 2015
San Cristobal is a gorgeous town set deep in to the mountains of Chiapas, we arrived (after another delayed flight) via bus from the
airport winding our way through the misty mountains. We had been told about how great the tapas bars in San Cristobal were so once we finally arrived in the city we dropped our bags and went out in search of one. We didn’t have to search far and settled in for the night to drink $2 wines and endless tapas, a welcome reprieve from drinking constant Corona (The only beer in Mexico so low in wheat its considered gluten free).
We rose to explore the gorgeous colonial town with cobbled streets and ancient churches, wandering through the local markets and ended up at the Mayan museum of medicine. Later that evening we returned to the tapas bar we had so enjoyed the night before. Unfortunately the waitress had a terrible attitude and Hilary overheard her calling us Ingles Putans (English Whores) to the chef so we promptly left. Although this was the rudest waitress we met sadly it wasn’t the only rude staff we encountered. Although we spent another day visiting churches and wandering through the town we felt an overwhelming hostility towards us as tourists and some of the rudest people I have ever come across.
On our final day we took a day tour out to a beautiful river canyon 
in the Chiapas valley. The canyon had been formed at the same time as the grand canyon and looked like aerial shots of Isla Nublar (the fictional island Jurassic Park is based on for non nerds out there). On the trip we met two other lovely New Zealand girls who of course we had friends in common with, we ended up spending the last day hanging out with them and going to dinner before jumping on an overnight bus to Puerto Escondido.
We arrived to Puerto Escondido after a not too terrible 13 hour bus ride, found our accommodation and decided to go to the beach
immediately. Although we had booked accommodation walking distance to the beach it turned out that the Zicatela the closest beach was actually only a surf beach and too rough for swimmers. Reluctantly we caught more public transport (via a shared truck called a collectivo) to the beautiful Playa Carrizalillo and spent the day lounging on Cabanas. For the next day we switched it up to Playa Manzanillo which was even more beautiful and subdued.
We had only two days in Puerto Escondido before travelling down the coast to Mazunte, a smaller coastal town. We decided to forgo 
the larger buses and caught a local bus and then collectivo to Mazunte. Here we have stayed for the last three days doing nothing but lying on the beach and on the last day mixing it up by visiting the turtle sanctuary. Tomorrow we travel via local bus to Oaxaca for my last stop with Hilary before she goes home. I will stay in Oaxaca for three weeks completing a language course to improve my Spanish before heading on to Guatemala.
