Oaxaca

We spent Christmas in Oaxaca, pronounced wa-hacker, which is a beautiful colonial town in Central Mexico.

On Christmas Eve after dinner, Steve and I went to midnight mass in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. Unfortunately the mass actually finished at 23:30 so we just arrived in time to hear Silent Night sung in Spanish and the priest wish everybody a Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve is the main event in Mexico and walking back to our hotel we could see lots of families in their living rooms sitting down to midnight Christmas dinner.

We stuck to the English way and had lunch the next day by the pool, cooked in the little kitchen attached to our hotel room. Steve made lots of mojitos and by the evening we felt totally bloated, tired and tipsy just like we usually do at home. The Fellowship of the Ring even came on TV in English, for us to veg out in front of.

On Boxing day we went to Monte Alban , a historical site near to Oaxaca. Now if we hadnt been anywhere else like it before, we would have probably thought it was amazing. However to me it seemed a bit like a smaller, less impressive version of Teotihuacan.

Probably Pyramid fatigue is setting in. Similiar to the Cathedral fatigue you get when travelling around Europe, where you walk in to the twentieth stunning cathedral in a row, wander around aimlessly for a few minutes and then decide it would actually be more fun to go and get a cup of coffee.

We are now in San Cristobal de las Casas, a pretty town in the hills with very clear light.