EASTER BREAK 2010
(MARCH 27 TO APRIL 11 2010)
MEXICO CITY
PUEBLA - OAXACA

This long backpacking trip was the longest one in almost 4 years!  Yes, it has been a while since we have been 13 nights on the road.  (Here, I don’t count our road trip down to Mexico nor times we rented villas for a week or two).

We covered over 2500km by bus.  From Torreon, we took the overnight bus to Mexico City where we spent 3 nights and celebrated Cynthia’s 35th anniversary.  We visited Frida Khalo’s house (now a museum), and the amazing Sun Stone (known as the Aztec Calendar) at the museum of anthropology.  We ate good food, and relaxed a full day at the Embassy suites Hotel for Cynthia’s birthday!  We took a long Sunday morning walk along Boulevard Independencia (the busiest street in Mexico City) as it is closed every Sunday morning for thousands of cyclists.  We saw the
Monumento of El Angel where the ashes of 12 great Mexicans
(including Hidalgo) rest inside the monument.

We spent three nights in Puebla, a smaller colonial town located about 2 hours south of Mexico city (see a map) and very close to the volcano Popo (known as popocatépetl).

My goal on this trip was to taste all the crazy dishes Southern Mexico has to offer, so everyday, we had fun eating chappullines (fried grasshoppers), roasted flies, huevos de hormiga (ant larvaes), brain tacos, eye tacos (tacos de ojes) , tongue tacos (tacos de lengua) and finally skin, stomach & intestine cow soup (mole de panza). 
See a movie of me eating ant larvae.  
See pictures of some food including chappullines here.
See a movie of Alixe eating grasshoppers.
I can say that all of them were really yummy, except the brain tacos where the texture was smoochy and the taste simply disgusting.  Alixe loved the grasshoppers, and ate them the entire trip, considering them as chips!

We spent a day in Chollula, a small town located 30min.from Puebla and the sights of the volcano were phenomenal.  For the first time, we saw the Voladores de Papantla, a traditional ‘’dance’’ where guys are attached to their waist at the top of a 45m pole and dance and move around the pole as they jump down the pole.

We moved on to Oaxaca (see map) for 6 nights, and spent days wondering the streets of Oaxaca, art galleries, museums, churches & cathedrals.  What a pretty city!  We rented a car and drove the Valle Centrales (towns south of Oaxaca).  We drove through fields of blue agave plants –or maguey plants- (type of Aloes) producing all the Mezcal and the Tequila the world drinks everyday!  Although due to the region of production, all the bottles produced around Oaxaca can only be called Mezcal.  Of course, some bottles include the worm (maguey worm) that is added to the bottles for taste.  Part of the crazy dishes on my list, I had to chew one worm just for the fun of it.

We drove 2hrs to Hierve Al Agua, to see an open fossilized waterfall.  Crazy!  Like a huge stalactite in a cave, but outside!  The views were amazing and the pools refreshing.

We also visited the El Tule tree, the biggest tree in the world.  14m in diameter and over 2000 years old. 
See the size of Alixe & Cynthia next to the tree here!

We visited many more amazing villages and sights, and 5 days before the end of our trip, Cynthia got chiken pox. 
Yes, yes!  Fever & body aches for 2 days, and then a nice rash!

We came back to Mexico City for two more days and visited castles, more museums (including the Diego Riviera museum), went to IMAX, ate tacos and bought more pirated DVDs.  Mexico City is such a cool city!  We took the overnight bus back to Torreon. What an amazing, relaxing holiday.