19- America: Welcome to Chi-town

I haven’t looked up the exact definitions but I’ll make a guess and say that our arrival to Chicago signaled us returning to first world countries for the first time since New Zealand in February- apologies South and Central America if that’s not true. It definitely signaled our return to English speaking first world countries, how about that? Funny how many times we were in Chicagoan cafes or restaurants and without thinking said “gracias” to the wait staff! It becomes reflex and sure who’s really to say that we’re not part Mexican or Colombian!?

Chicago is a really cool city. It was our choice of stopover on the way back to Europe to visit friends, Kyra and Peter, who’d emigrated there so they provided us with swanky accommodation in a 46^th floor city centre apartment. Sweet as. There’s a lot to do within the city itself and we were kept fully occupied for the five days.

Our introduction to Americans came at the airport where at passport control we were talking to an Officer Ramsey- I’m not going to say he was a stereotypical American but he certainly managed to turn himself into some sort of clichéd version of what foreigners think of Americans. Why would any American officer of the law have a problem with two law-abiding citizens such as ourselves? Well, the problem stemmed from the fact that we hadn’t lied on our entry form- we were asked to list where we had been beforehand on this trip and included Cuba in our (longwinded) answer. Officer Ramsey was none too impressed. The general gist of the conversation went as follows:

Ramsey: You know it’s illegal for American citizens to go to Cuba?

McCarthy: Yes, but we’re not American citizens

Ramsey: There are 12 reasons for American citizens to be allowed to enter Cuba and you have to go through a strict process in order to be allowed to visit that country

McCarthy: Yes, but we’re not American citizens

(at this stage he began looking over both shoulders for someone to assist him, presumably to confirm to him that there are in fact people in the world who are not American citizens)

Ramsey: This is going to be a problem

McCarthy: What’s going to be a problem?

Ramsey: It’s illegal for American citizens to go to Cuba

McCarthy: Yes, but we’re not American citizens

(continues to look around for help. At this stage he still can’t find anyone so  flicks through all the passport stamps)

Ramsey: What do you do for a living?

McCarthy: We’re accountants

(He seemed disappointed, not sure was this a trick question where he was hoping for “Communist sympathizer” as the answer)

Ramsey: I suppose I can let you through because you’re not American citizens but you’re going to get a lot of hassle from the Customs guys

McCarthy: Why?

Ramsey: Have you brought stuff from Cuba with you? Cuban cigars, rum etc

McCarthy: Yes, but per the US Customs website we’re allowed bring $100 worth of goods into the country

Ramsey: I KNOW THE LAW

(At this stage I looked over my shoulders to confirm I wasn’t on a TV show and then relook at Officer Ramsey to see if he’s auditioning for a scene in “A Few Good Men”!)

Ramsey: When did you look up this website?

McCarthy: Yesterday

(Not sure if he thought that non-American citizens spend significant time reviewing old US laws but anyway….)

Ramsey: Well you’ll have to prove how much they’re worth. Do you have receipts or credit card statements?

McCarthy: No they’re from Cuba. They don’t really do receipts or credit cards.

Ramsey: Well that will be a problem for the Customs guy. The Customs guys will take everything out of your bags and ask you loads of questions because you’ve a lot to explain. They’re really going to grill you.

McCarthy: That’s fine, they can have the cigars if they want them.

Ramsey: Right, go ahead to Customs

(Stamps passport)

We then proceeded to walk through customs without anyone looking anywhere near us! Happy days, the Cubans cigars are in the country! Thankfully we didn’t meet any more Officer Ramsey’s and had a lovely time with all the other Americans we met and even more so with the Irish Americans we were visiting! 

After the meet and greet was done, we set about exploring the city, a city I didn’t know much about but you get a sense of déjà vu when you walk around either because I lived here in a past life or it features heavily as a backdrop of so many TV shows and movies. Even if we didn’t get to meet Dr. Mark Green from ER or any other characters, we did get to see the L train and the tracks which weave in and out of the city, above ground, below ground, through buildings, over roads, over rivers, over bridges. It’s really amazing to see it. So while the L is a main character weaving around Chicago, its what it weaves around is the real highlight- skyscraper after skyscraper. The best way we found to get to know these skyscrapers was by taking an architecture tour through the city. The tour is two hours and is a boat ride down the river to Lake Michigan while taking in all of the amazing buildings all round. Really different to any other tour we’ve done and well worth it.

Speaking of amazing, the picture shows "Cloud Gate" which is a sculpture erected in Millennium Park in Chicago in 2006- more affectionately known as "The Bean". On a sunny day like we had, you can spend ages walking around or under it, as the reflections of the city bounce off it. Very cool. Lots of time to be spent trying to get that perfect photo! 

Another touristing highlight of the city was a day spent cycling around it. They have the city bikes which cost $7 for a day and once you switch bikes every half an hour that’s all you get charged. Very flat city so easy to do and gave us a chance to visit lots of other areas of the city around Lake Michigan including Lincoln Park, Navy Pier and Soldier field football stadium. They have a really good zoo inside in Lincoln Park too which was a nice bonus- loads of really cool animals inside and things are always better when they’re free!

One thing that still confuses us having left the country is how to navigate your way through eating or drinking out in America- so fricking confusing:

• You add on tax to what was on the menu
• You must add on a tip
• What should we tip though?
• I’m positive 15% was a good tip last time I was in American, now it’s 20% minimum. Weird
• Is the same for all meals? How about drinks?
• So should the tip be calculated before or after tax?
• Does the standard of service even matter?
• What should we be getting for this 20%?
• How much do wait staff earn? They seem to get an awful lot of money for doing very little
• Does the restaurant, café or bar pay these people anything? What an amazing business model on their part- genius altogether! 

All very confusing, basically it means that until you hand over the cash you’ve no clue what you’ve spent! How they could possibly think this is a good system is beyond me!?

We had good timing in our arrival to Chicago with their ice hockey team, the Blackhawks, playing in the Stanley Cup final. Great atmosphere around the place with posters up everywhere, buildings lit up in red at night and obviously the bars full for the games. Last night in Chicago, the four of us headed to Second City comedy club- highly recommend it as a stopping point. Sketch after sketch for a few hours, absolutely hilarious. It’s a famous club because a load of celebrities started their careers here- Dan Ackroyd, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell, Bob Odenkirk (Better call Saul), Mike Myers, Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson himself) and load of others. Should be very high up on any to do list for Chicago and was a great way for us to finish off our few days.

Great hosts certainly help to make a visit to any city worthwhile and with great accommodation so centrally located along with more food, drink and tour information then we knew what to do with, it all helped to make for a great few days. 

And so with the Windy City visited, clothes for the wedding in Spain purchased, it was time for one the penultimate flight. With heads down, we got through airport security without meeting Officer Ramsey one more time. Better to be safe!

On we go, Vive Espana…….

Click here to see a selection of photos from our Chicago trip

Our route:

Fly to Chicago, fly to Alicante, Spain

18- Cuba: Rum, cigars and 1950’s cars

Out of all the countries we’ve visited, Cuba is the one that seems to hold the most intrigue for people. Spending fifty years in the international wilderness and seemingly stuck in a time warp will do that to you. When we told people we were going there, people always answered jealously and of course made the obligatory remark that it’ll be great to go there before the Americans ruin it!

We too were intrigued by the place and when we were queuing to check into our flight from Mexico City, it became very clear that this was not a regular place we were going to. I had noticed on receipt of our flight tickets that the baggage allowance was an unwieldy 50kg. I didn’t give it much thought besides being amused by the unusual generosity of a communist regime to baggage allowances. When we joined the queue for the flight, we begin to understand why- as tourists queued with their sensibly sized bags approaching the 20kg mark, all of the Cubans, thankfully in a separate queue, appeared to have just come to the airport having cleaned out several Harvey Normans! How many flat screen TVs does one person need? Every one of them looked like they had a minimum of 5 packages all containing the latest in technology which clearly was not available in Cuba- trips to Mexico are obviously shopping sprees for Cuba’s nouveau riche or returning expats.

To top off the surreal check in process- we had a novel meeting with a Cuban man trying to make friends. Why? He was looking for someone to bring a package for him to Havana- a mule of sorts you might say! Clearly the guy hadn’t seen “Banged up Abroad” as he wasn’t having much luck with his not very enticing request. So even before we had set foot in the country, the Cubans were proving to be a different sort of breed altogether. We were already entertained!

The majority of postcards you see of Cuba all revolve around the cars, a very unique thing to Cuba. It didn’t take very long for us to see exactly what all the fuss was about. The 1950’s never left here and the cars are the real indicator of this. There are loads of other things that are stuck in the 50’s but the cars are the ones that stick out like a sore thumb. Every street is an antique car rally. Wherever you look, a car that has no right to be still working chugs past you. The more you look around, the more we fell in love with them. They really don’t make them like they used to. These cars are huge. So long, so sleek, so very cool.  In lots of cases, the cars will drive past and leave you a present of a nice cloud of black smoke- they can keep them running but they can’t make them any better for the environment!

It’s funny; all the postcards that you’ll see have the sleek convertibles, the flashy cars that are still around the place. No place on the postcards for the array of junk cars that are still around. I haven’t seen a Lada in a long, long time. The Soviet Unions finest is in full flow on the streets of Cuba but neglected in the postcards- I can’t imagine why! Even if trade opens up the flashy cars will be here for a long time as a tourist attraction if nothing else. Currently being used for everything and anything but the tourist attraction is where the money is at. It didn’t take long for us to decide to take a tour of Havana in one of them. Deciding what type and colour car we would take was the one that took the time to figure out! As city tours go, taking one in Havana sunshine in a 1957 orange convertible Ford Fairlane is a pretty good way to go- sure beats the bus!

So with our friend who owned the 58 year old car as guide we were shown around Havana. For a city of 2 million people, it comes across much smaller. Certainly the lack of traffic helps that impression. You do have lots of people on the streets, just hanging around chatting or using the payphones. Seemingly not doing much most of the time but who are we to judge! It didn’t matter what time of day it was, any bank of payphones that we saw were always being used. So strange to see but then you have to bear in mind that it was illegal for anyone to purchase a mobile phone before 2008. Different world. So it really is the little things that you see around the place that makes it so intriguing from the black market sellers to rickshaw runners to street sweepers smoking big fat cigars. You never know what you’ll see. Take our first day as an example, walking through Havana on a Saturday afternoon and we heard raised voices ahead as an argument was going on between two men- a few steps on we realized that one had pulled out a machete and the other guy was defending himself with a large plank of wood! Lots of onlookers trying to calm the situation but we chose not to be included. In my mind it all ended amicably and they shared a bottle of rum afterwards. You never know what you’ll come across in this place.

With Cuba as it currently stands, its not one thing that intrigues you or one thing that makes you laugh, its literally everything here that bamboozles you. It delights you and it frustrates you at the same time. Even the simplest things can lead to frustration. Something that you thought would take you five minutes ends up taking an hour but at the same time you find yourself taking a deep breathe and reminding yourself that there’s no place else like this. The modern westerner will no doubt proclaim “Thank God for that”. When I refer to small things- that could mean “I want to buy a bottle of water”, no point in starting with the more difficult queries like “I want to buy toothpaste”! You see, Cuba really doesn’t have shops. I don’t mean shopping malls or supermarkets either I mean shops. You can be in the main tourist area and still struggle to find out where to buy the most basic things. The fact that the licenses for shops seem to restrict the sellers to only specific goods obviously doesn’t help. When you do find shops, quite often you’ll walk through and see that the majority of shelves in the shops are empty. Seriously, how these people manage to cook a coherent meal still amazes me. If you ever doubted that the Cubans were in a time warp then a visit to a furniture shop is a must. There you will find a whole array of furniture decked out in floral patterns that surely went out of fashion in the very early 60’s- they’re actually probably so old that they’ve probably come back into fashion as retro designs numerous times! It is a window into a Cuban living room- speaking of which….

As we’ve mentioned Cuba does many things differently to the rest of the world, another thing to add to the list is their accommodation. Here there are hotels, not many of them, and there are no hostels- the main type of accommodation you have are “Casa Particulares”- in most cases this is simply renting a room in someone’s home, effectively AirBNB without the fancy website. The joy of this is that you get to spend time in the home of Cuban families, see how they live, avail of their hospitality and in many cases eat your food there. We stayed with a number of wonderful families who were so welcoming. Communication was a struggle at times given our Spanish speaking abilities but you always got through. The breakfasts they served were better than any we’ve had anywhere else. Superb. We wouldn’t need to eat for the rest of the day. You’d assign at least an hour for it as the food tended to just keep on coming. You really felt like you were the prodigal son coming for a visit. This linked with what I just said about the shopping made it all the better. Served the freshest fruit and some of the best coffee I’ve ever had. The joys of them not being able to export their good stuff!

Obviously you need to take the good with the bad, the good was described above, the bad is actually trying to book and find the places! I will never take for granted the ease with which you can book accommodation online again. Presumably due to trade restrictions none of the established booking websites operate in Cuba so you are forced to use Cuban based ones. It’s a tedious process as availability of accommodation isn’t shown on the site and every casa particulare has only one maybe two rooms so there are hundreds to choose from with no clarity as to which are good and which are not, which are available and which are not. Oh how we take the internet and its wealth of information for granted. There’s no connectivity in the country either besides in a few 5 star hotels. The basic things again are out of reach- using the internet to book accommodation, directions to places, confirmation emails, the random questions you put into Google- no longer possible! But these fun struggles are always what we’ll remember, booking something with three clicks on Hostelworld isn’t that memorable. “Cuba gives you memories”- there’s one for their tourist posters!

From Havana we went west to Viñales, one of Cuba’s most scenic regions- an area famed for its cigar manufacturing. On the journey through the countryside to get there, we spotted lots of billboards along the road. However none of them carry conventional advertising, all of them are covered with some sort of political message and generally contain images of one of the Castros or of Che Guevara. The favourite one I saw was one, which combined three pictures- one of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, the second featured Fidel, himself and the third randomly featured Nelson Mandela! I don’t know what the caption was but I’m sure the family of Nelson Mandela didn’t sign off on the poster!

While in Viñales, we did a tour to give us an idea of the manufacture of cigars. I’m not a smoker but the whole thing is amazing. All done by hand. Over a hundred different processes involved in making the cigars. We visited a farm where the tobacco is grown. There we met the farmer, a right character, who greeted us with rum and cigars he rolled himself. At ten in the morning it was a great start to the day. They say smoking’s not cool, well I respectively disagree- when it’s a cigar that big, how can you not look cool! So after seeing the beginning of the process we were then brought to various factories to see more of the processes. Our favourite part was in the cigar factory where the finishing touches are put on- such delicate work. Depending on the size of the cigar each worker must do a minimum of 100 cigars a day and they then get paid extra if they go above their quota. They also get to keep two cigars a day for themselves- perks of the job! Our tour guide assured us that most of these freebies would find themselves on the black market and sold for much more then what their wages were. Meanwhile in a booth In the corner they have a guy employed who’s job is to read to the workers from a book over a microphone all day long. Todays book of choice was by Che Guevera! Oh the entertainment.

From Viñales, we moved east again to Trinidad, another place caught in a timewarp only this time the timewarp began in the 1850’s not the 1950’s like Havana. Lots of really old buildings, lots of cobblestones, lots of horse and carts. Charming place where we spent time walking through every street in the place. The pace of life here makes Havana seem like Manhattan! Funny to see the horses tied up against the front gates of the houses. Here having a car from the 1950’s puts you well ahead of the game! 

Another of the many strange things about Cuba is the fact that it has two currencies, not in the way that many European countries did while they transitioned from their old currency to the Euro, but they actually have two operational currencies and to complicate it further neither currency is convertible in FX markets outside of Cuba! Basically, tourists and middle/ upper classes in Cuba have access to the CUC while the peso is the currency used by the majority of people. 1 CUC is worth 25 times 1 peso. These two currencies have unintentionally resulted in a two tier society- those who can get access to the CUC and those who can’t. The link to us is that for those Cubans who are not rich, the easiest path to get access to CUCs is through tourism. So you get to a system where all government workers are paid in pesos which isn’t much so everyone is now striving to work in tourism- for example a taxi driver who gives 3 trips (to tourists of course) from Havana airport to Havana will earn more then what a doctor earns in a month! It’s all very strange and it really results in tourists paying way over the odds for everything as we have no access to the cheaper currency! For comparison, we found Mexico a much cheaper country to travel in. As far as we could see, there were no benefits to this system and there’s a reason nobody else has two currencies. The sooner they get rid of this, the better for everyone!

As we felt we hadn’t maximized the communist part of our trip, our next stop was to Santa Clara or as I like to call it, the town that loves Che Guevara the most! The reason behind the love is, this was where one of the most important victories of the rebellion took place led by Che Guevara himself- it involved a digger wrecking the tracks of the train line to stop the train containing military supplies getting to Havana. Amusingly enough the same digger now sits atop a pedestal in an open air museum right next to the train carriages involved- best museum ever! The town also has a number of statues of him and any number of paintings and murals of him. Popular man around here although having heard differing views as to his actual popularity, seemingly due to things he did once he got power, it seems that more reading will be required by me to actually understand where he lies or should lie in their history.

And so after two weeks of trekking around Cuba as the locals see it, we spent our final few days in Cuba as the tourists see it! Varadero is a town built around its sandy beach where ever since the 1990’s lots of beach resorts have been built - three days around pools, beaches and all-inclusive bars and restaurants- surely the exact opposite of what the Castro’s fought for! Anyway, we check the politics at the door and head for the buffet………!

Click here to see a selection of photos from our Cuban trip 

Our route:

Fly to Havana, bus to Viñales (day trip through Viñales valley and Pinar del Rio), bus to Trinidad, bus to Santa Clara, bus to Varadero, bus to Havana, fly to Mexico City

17- Mexico: sinking our teeth in

After our little holiday within our holiday in Belize, it was back on the road to Mexico. Relatively easy to get from one to the other as a boat goes each morning which takes you directly into Chetumal, Mexico and from there we hopped on a bus bound for Playa del Carmen.

We hummed and hawed on what our first stop would be in Mexico and Playa was the final decision- the main reservations being that it is very touristy as it is a major American holiday destination, smaller than its neighbor Cancun but similar idea. We said we’d go for it anyway and see what all the fuss was about.

The first thought that comes at you when you get to Playa del Carmen is “where am I?”. You thought you’d gone through Mexican immigration but you’ve found yourself in an American town. It’s a funny place, obviously beautiful as why else would so many people go there but has been so overrun with tourists that it has definitely lost the charm it must have had to begin with. The shopping there is incredible for a Mexican town, more high street stores then you can imagine. It cracked us up when we saw ATMs that issue only US dollars- so many tourists who happily spend weeks in another country but never touch that country’s currency. Very weird! I have to say that Mexico was one our favourite countries- so beautiful and the people are wonderful but we really didn’t experience any of that until our second stop. Playa del Carmen is Mexico in name only and everyone seems to know it.

Thankfully our itinerary for the majority of the two weeks covered “real” Mexico as we worked our way west towards Mexico City. Our second stop was Tulum, an hour from Playa del Carmen and our stop off point to get our teeth into some Mayan ruins. From here we did our day trip to Chichen Itza- voted in as one of the Modern Seven Wonders of the World. It is the postcard you’d see most of Mexico- either that or a Mexican lad with a sombrero swilling tequila- whichever you feel encapsulates the country most! The main pyramid is a spectacular site and as it is cordoned off to stop people ascending it, you just get to stand back and enjoy the view uninhibited as it towers over the surrounding areas. Besides the spectacular site, it is also world famous for the way it was built and the way it interacts with the sun at certain times of the year- similar to Newgrange and Stonehenge. It’s hard to assess sites like these as to their worthiness to be listed on the Seven Wonders of the World but it is hugely impressive and well worth a visit.

We found that all of the Mayan sites had different charms so didn’t get “templed out” at any stage- Tikal in Guatemala was the most rustic as it was right in the jungle and you could go and climb all of the monuments for views out over the jungle, Chichen Itza has the most spectacular single monument, meanwhile on the outskirts of the town of Tulum was one of our favourites. We cycled there one morning and thought it was absolutely gorgeous. Mayan ruins set right on the cliffs overlooking a beach and its turquoise water. If I was a Mayan emperor I don’t think I could come up with a better place to build my temples!

It was in this area that we spent time visiting cenotes- these are swimming holes formed when underground rivers erode away the limestone underneath resulting in the collapsing of the ground above. They are a feature of this part of the country with some being hugely deep, others being beautiful, others you can go scuba diving between them through caves. We just went the swimming route and loved it. When it’s 38 degrees and 60% humidity, a nice ice-cold swim is very much appreciated. We had been in this one for a couple of hours when we took the waterproof camera into one of the caves and photographed back out- wasn’t expecting this spectacular a photo but it worked out pretty nicely!

So with just two night buses to go we said it was time to set a personal best and hopped on the bus from Tulum to San Cristóbal de las Casas - nineteen and a half hours of fun and games later we arrived. Go hard or go home they say! In fairness it is a big distance that we travelled but the fact that the bus stopped four different times during the night for immigration officers to come on and check our papers didn’t impress us much! 3 white people on the bus and we’re the ones who’s papers you’re checking, one time they came on and only checked mine! I’m sure Mexico must have a huge problem of white people illegally immigrating here! Focus on the important issues lads.

San Cristóbal de las Casas is a lovely town. We used it as a base to do two day trips but the town itself was great to walk around too. Lots of locals selling their wares, lots of cafes and restaurants and as with any good Mexican town, lots of churches!

The first day trip we did was to Sumidero Canyon, a huge canyon formed around the same time as the Grand Canyon. It’s an hour out of town and you can do an hour boat trip through the canyon. Really beautiful views- the canyon walls are up to a kilometer high in parts and as you wind through the canyon we got to see loads of wildlife, especially birds. Our boat driver was more then happy to drive his boat at full speed towards any flock of birds resting in the water which gave us a few opportunities to catch all of the birds “flying up out of the water through the canyon” or “flying away for their lives” as I’m sure they saw it.

The second day trip we did was to two different indigenous villages. I’m not sure what I expected from the trip but expectations weren’t too high, we’ve done a number of these type trips before with differing results. However this was one of the best days we’ve had on our trip. The reason we visited two different villages was to compare and contrast them- one is a relatively modern indigenous village where they are generally in line with Mexican customs, religion and life. The other village has their own way of doing things and they’re sticking to them!

A walk through the village is literally like visiting another world- they have their own laws, their own spiritual leaders, all 200 of them each acting as protectors for a different saint and their statue. They have their own political leaders elected each year. They have their own jail which is on public show so not only do you have to spend time in a urine soaked jail with appropriate iron bars but you have to do so in full view of the village- crime is low as you can imagine and the jail was empty when we passed! Men can have multiple wives. They even have their own time- they couldn’t be bothered adhering to Mexican time so they’re half an hour behind- this one village with 20,000 inhabitants on a different time zone- hilarious.

The real highlight was when we visited the local church- from the outside it looks like any other Mexican Catholic church but what goes on inside bears no resemblance to Catholicism. With good reason, cameras are banned inside and they have people policing to make sure this is adhered to- probably for the best as otherwise I would have spent hours inside there! Oh, where to start? I’ll go for the basics and work from there- there are no pews in the church, there is no priest, it is open 24 hours, no mass ever occurs, there are pine needles all over the floor, various statues of saints are placed around the church for worship. With me?

But amongst the pine needles you’ll see gaps and in them people will have lit and stuck candles on the ground with wax- no candle holders here!, I don’t mean a few candles either I mean thousands of candles. People will come in to pray and light a bunch of fifty candles of varying colours depending on what was required. It’s an incredible site but I’m not sure what the insurance companies think about it! In front of a number of these masses of candles a number of people gathered. From what was explained to us these people were the people praying but in case of emergency they brought along some loved ones as well as their shaman of choice to help out. Depending on the emergency, the shaman would be praying on their behalf and amongst the tools to assist the problem were bottles of Coca Cola & Fanta (a modern adjustment- they used to bring black and orange corn instead but soft drinks are easier these days!) and a live but soon to be very dead chicken! That’s right, we’d walked into what surely must be the only Catholic church where chickens are sacrificed in prayer to Jesus! Necks were snapped right in front of us- now you know why tourists weren’t allowed bring cameras in! They’d have a field day.

As I said it’s a different world. Of the Mexican population, 15 million of them are Mayans out of 115 million total population- obviously most of them don’t sacrifice chickens in Catholic churches but quite a lot of them don’t seem to recognize the Mexican president as their elected leader and live a life completely separate to Mexicans- that’s a hell of a lot of people. Our guide spoke to us also about the problems they’ve had with foreign missionary’s coming to try and convert them and the locals just wanting to continue doing what they’re doing. His quip was “they fought the Spanish now they’re fighting the Americans”. The Mayans aren’t for changing was the general gist.

So after that feast to our senses we took our final nightbus (tears at midnight!) to Oaxaca, pronounced Wa-hacka, where our taste buds were the focus of our attention. Between here and Mexico City, our final stop we went into overdrive to taste as much food as we could. Mexican food is world famous but per the Mexicans what we know as Mexican food is only from the border region with America- burritos, fajitas, enchiladas etc. All world famous but only represent a small part of Mexico- this would be Tex-Mex, we wanted Mexican.

Most street corners have taco stands- a taco will cost you 10 to 15 pesos (about a $1) and you’ll be stuffed after two. A fine cheap dinner. We tried to follow the crowd where possible- if there’s a pile of locals around a taco stand you’ve a fair indicator that it’s good. You’ll have a choice of main topping that they cook and put in the taco and from there you pick and choose from the big bowls of toppings they have all the while playing Russian roulette that you don’t end up with a salsa picante i.e. a sauce that will result in a serious heat explosion in your mouth or even worse a bout of Montezuma’s Revenge, the Mexican version of the Delhi belly! Easy to avoid and a little bit surely won’t do too much damage! As we went on we got more and more adventurous with the foods and enjoyed them more and more. Definitely the best food we’ve had since Asia. For us it still doesn’t come close to toppling Asia as number one but it does a good job of competing.

Oaxaca is famous for its food and we took a couple of trips to food markets and restaurants to taste our way around town. A few highlights: molé, which is a Mexican chili sauce that comes in seven different varieties of varying spice and gravy like consistency. Grasshoppers are surprisingly common in markets but also in restaurants- once we realized what it was they were selling we started seeing them everywhere. They fry them with a variety of things such as garlic and chili- chopped up they could be anything, I’m told when eaten whole they’re a lot juicier then you’d expect! In one of our favourite markets they have installed barbecue grills and chimneys at the side of the street so after a lot of figuring out the process, you walk down and choose meat from one of the stalls to be cooked for you, you can then find another stall to sell you sauces, guacamole or maybe even some onions to also be grilled (whole!) then you find a third seller who’ll sort you out with tortillas. As simple as that! Now all you need to do is find a seat and you’re good for another great taco eating session. Love Mexico!

It also wouldn’t be fair to talk about food and not mention the Fruit- this is true for all of South and Central America of course but the fruit is just so good here, so juicy and full of flavour, I suppose it makes sense that they’re so much better at source, obviously dehydrated after flying thousands of miles around the earth for us to consume.

In Mexico City, we went on an organized food tour- what a great idea. As we’d been to lots of markets before we went for the restaurant option which involves them bringing you on a walk of a neighbourhood and bringing you to recommended restaurants to eat different Mexican dishes. What a great day! A whole array of tastes consumed from tamales, to tacos (traditionally Mexican tacos are soft corn tacos not flour tacos- Tex Mex strikes again), to ceviche, to tostados, to Mexican chocolates, to Mezcal (tequilas less famous older brother) to Mexican ice cream. In a city as big as Mexico City I’m sure you can do a lot yourself but its great to have the good stuff picked out for you.

Mexico City, our final stop, was a wonderful surprise. It’s a really gorgeous city with lots to see and do. Just an hour from the city centre was the final Mayan temples on our journey, Teotihuacan, again really spectacular this time consisting of a number of different pyramids with the added bonus of being able to climb them to get views of the others. Well worth a morning of your time. All over the country we’ve seen Mayan buildings but there aren’t any in Mexico City- the reason? Mexico City was built on top of ancient Mayan ruins and as a result parts of Mexico City have a very real problem in that they are sinking and there are lots of buildings which are showing very visible signs of it. Maybe this is their final revenge?

Mexico City has a very good metro system that makes it easy to get around and one of the quirks we noticed is that all of the stations are represented not just by names but also by symbols (e.g. the stop for the zoo was a snake, the stop for the market was a bowl of fruit)- the reason for this was so that people who couldn’t read could still relatively easily use the metro- they say a picture tells a thousand words. Definitely true and in my case I’m a few thousand words in so for those who just look at the pictures, I hope you like them!

All in all, Mexico was a fantastic stop on our journey. It’s a big, big country (they all seem to be!) but from what we saw it a must visit country in the area. Next stop for us is another must visit country- Cuba. If we had a dollar for every time someone said “go to Cuba now because it’ll change completely once the Americans get in” we’d have at least 20 dollars. We’ve heeded the advice so off we go…………

Click here to see a selection of photos from our Mexican trip

Our route:

Boat and bus to Playa del Carmen, Tulum (day trip to Chichen Itza ruins, day trip to Tulum ruins), night bus to San Cristóbal de las Casas, night bus to Oaxaca, bus to Mexico City