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vampyresheepAnyone who has spoken to me over the past year would have heard all of this already, however for the sake of documenting the planning process on my DW blog - and an excuse to look at pretty photos ...... We're going to Mexico in October!!!
I've long had a fascination with the Aztecs, Mayans and Latin America in general ( I think the TV series Flight of the Condor in the 80's triggered my interest in the Americas) and as a child, whilst most kids were fascinated by Egypt, for me it was the temples and pyramids of the Americas that I longed to visit but never thought I would - after all, its all dangerous isn't it? ;-)
Plans were set in motion after the James Bond film, featuring the then-fictitious Dia de Los Muertos parade, and my talking about it with my Mexican/American colleague who convinced me it was totally doable.
Going for Dia de Los Muertos would combine my love of skulls with my Aztec interests and I managed to persuade Rob that we should do this. Originally saying we'd go on a package tour, then that we'd travel with friends, now going it totally alone!
Mexico is a big country. We'd only scratch the surface on a two week trip, so where to go? This was decided by flagging up places of interest on Google maps to see where the biggest concentration ended up, which was not in too "sketchy" an area and easy to do by public transport.
Oaxaca, in the central southern part of the country is one of the main areas reknowned for its Dia de Los Muertos celebrations, so we decided on a week here, to take in a combination of costumes, parades, food and the more spiritual aspect of the festival.
After making several hotel changes, I decided on this rather cute one - mainly because it has a swimming pool!
So much to visit in this beautiful part of the country, it will be difficult to pinpoint the priorities but Monte Alban pyramid
and Hierve de Agua, one of only two petrified "waterfalls" in the world and uncharacteristically, my only place to go for a swim, are must-do's
Oaxaca itself looks rather pretty too!
From there, we travel northwards to Puebla. The city recommended to me by my colleague and we're staying in this stunning, bright pink, hotel!
Puebla is known for its great food, bright colours and many baroque churches.
Also the church featured in the first picture on this post - which is not on a mountain, but built on top of what was the biggest pyramid in the world! You may also note a rather active volcano in the background, we're keeping everything crossed that Popo will behave itself.
if all goes to plan (keeping plans flexible in case we have to change to avoid volcanoes, earthquakes, drug cartels and protests), our final stop will be Mexico City. I can't pretend that this prospect doesn't scare me a tad, one of the most populated cities in the world
but it has murals, art (so much art) and art deco/art nouveau, that I couldn't miss it off our list
and we appear to have picked the more leafy, upscale and bohemian areas to stay in. Which will be nice.
One priority here will of course be Teotihuacan, the third biggest pyramid in the world (above this are Giza in Egypt and that one in the pic above with a church on top) - so this year is entailing trying to get myself fitter so I can make it up all those scary looking stairs. This has effectively been booked as a conversation with the host of our Coyoacan accommodation revealed that her son was an archaeologist and took people on tours to the pyramid - sorted!
This being our first trip outside of Europe, we are somewhat nervous about the prospect but stupidly excited too! Just 136 days to go! So far everyone we've contacted have been so friendly and helpful, so it seems that Mexican hospitality and pride in their country is no myth. There will be so much souvenir shopping, we'll probably give their economy a bit of a boost too! :-)
Edit - for my own reminder, the other interesting challenge will be altitude, visiting the 8th highest capital city in the world:
Mexico City - 2250 metres above sea level (7382 feet - gulp, I've been telling people its 5000 feet!)
Puebla - 2135 metres - and an extra 50 metres if we climb up the pyramid to visit the church on top
Oaxaca - a mere 1555 metres
I've chosen mountains over sea for this trip, that's for certain. The greatest hight I've been to date was that of Snowdon, at 1085 metres, so now trying to visualise just existing for a week at twice that height, let alone do anything!
Save
I've long had a fascination with the Aztecs, Mayans and Latin America in general ( I think the TV series Flight of the Condor in the 80's triggered my interest in the Americas) and as a child, whilst most kids were fascinated by Egypt, for me it was the temples and pyramids of the Americas that I longed to visit but never thought I would - after all, its all dangerous isn't it? ;-)
Plans were set in motion after the James Bond film, featuring the then-fictitious Dia de Los Muertos parade, and my talking about it with my Mexican/American colleague who convinced me it was totally doable.
Going for Dia de Los Muertos would combine my love of skulls with my Aztec interests and I managed to persuade Rob that we should do this. Originally saying we'd go on a package tour, then that we'd travel with friends, now going it totally alone!
Mexico is a big country. We'd only scratch the surface on a two week trip, so where to go? This was decided by flagging up places of interest on Google maps to see where the biggest concentration ended up, which was not in too "sketchy" an area and easy to do by public transport.
Oaxaca, in the central southern part of the country is one of the main areas reknowned for its Dia de Los Muertos celebrations, so we decided on a week here, to take in a combination of costumes, parades, food and the more spiritual aspect of the festival.
After making several hotel changes, I decided on this rather cute one - mainly because it has a swimming pool!
So much to visit in this beautiful part of the country, it will be difficult to pinpoint the priorities but Monte Alban pyramid
and Hierve de Agua, one of only two petrified "waterfalls" in the world and uncharacteristically, my only place to go for a swim, are must-do's
Oaxaca itself looks rather pretty too!
From there, we travel northwards to Puebla. The city recommended to me by my colleague and we're staying in this stunning, bright pink, hotel!
Puebla is known for its great food, bright colours and many baroque churches.
Also the church featured in the first picture on this post - which is not on a mountain, but built on top of what was the biggest pyramid in the world! You may also note a rather active volcano in the background, we're keeping everything crossed that Popo will behave itself.
if all goes to plan (keeping plans flexible in case we have to change to avoid volcanoes, earthquakes, drug cartels and protests), our final stop will be Mexico City. I can't pretend that this prospect doesn't scare me a tad, one of the most populated cities in the world
but it has murals, art (so much art) and art deco/art nouveau, that I couldn't miss it off our list
and we appear to have picked the more leafy, upscale and bohemian areas to stay in. Which will be nice.
One priority here will of course be Teotihuacan, the third biggest pyramid in the world (above this are Giza in Egypt and that one in the pic above with a church on top) - so this year is entailing trying to get myself fitter so I can make it up all those scary looking stairs. This has effectively been booked as a conversation with the host of our Coyoacan accommodation revealed that her son was an archaeologist and took people on tours to the pyramid - sorted!
This being our first trip outside of Europe, we are somewhat nervous about the prospect but stupidly excited too! Just 136 days to go! So far everyone we've contacted have been so friendly and helpful, so it seems that Mexican hospitality and pride in their country is no myth. There will be so much souvenir shopping, we'll probably give their economy a bit of a boost too! :-)
Edit - for my own reminder, the other interesting challenge will be altitude, visiting the 8th highest capital city in the world:
Mexico City - 2250 metres above sea level (7382 feet - gulp, I've been telling people its 5000 feet!)
Puebla - 2135 metres - and an extra 50 metres if we climb up the pyramid to visit the church on top
Oaxaca - a mere 1555 metres
I've chosen mountains over sea for this trip, that's for certain. The greatest hight I've been to date was that of Snowdon, at 1085 metres, so now trying to visualise just existing for a week at twice that height, let alone do anything!
Save
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Date: 13 Jun 2018 20:22 (UTC)As to altitude sickness, I think you will be ok, it's not as high as Cusco and that was manageable for me and (almost!) everyone on the tour. You may feel headachy, but the trick is to amble very gently for the first day or so and stay hydrated until you get used to it. You're both reasonably fit so I'd be surprised if it took you more than a day to acclimatise.
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Date: 13 Jun 2018 20:53 (UTC)Yep, the furthest either of us have been before now is Iceland and Romania. Nearly went to New Orleans but hurricane Katrina happened, so we ended up going to Leipzig instead ... and discovering WGT pretty much put paid to any plans of travel elsewhere!
As we're starting at Oaxaca and finishing at MX, I guess we'll gradually acclimatise to the altitude. However I didn't realise until checking those stats that Puebla was nearly as high - as it's described as being in a valley, I naively thought it was lower terrain. :-D