So obviously that wasn´t the whole week.

Great new, I have an apostrophy/ee button.

I am currently very cold, odd - since I am finally out of the cold. But it is only 7am and all the

windows in this place are permanantly open.
The lady is mopping under my feet as I speak. She is warm - knowing to wear her jeans and jacket. But that is okay because TONIGHT....

OFF THE TO CARRIBEAN OCEAN! At last, the time has come.

But sorry, now we are backtracking.

FIRST: Where I left out was San Cristobal.

I arrived on an overnight bus from Oaxaca, this took about 11 hours. We changed hostels and then were off to the market. Solo for veges coz none of us could be ARSED (hanging with the Irish) doing much but eating. We made a pasta and befriended a British lad, Martin, Asian-British .,. which is of course what excited me - never met an Asian-decent person with a semi cockney accent!

That night we had a bonfire... they are supposed to have them everynight at 8pm but they are also supposed to have Salsa on Mondays and Tuesdays and that didn´t happen.

But I had bought marshmallows and Roisin found some kind of meat skewers, we sat enthusiastically by the empty fireplace until about 30 mins after 8 when a girl went up and asked for us.

Because, Child - it was COLD. This place is ABOVE the clouds. It is beaut during the day, but run for a llama when the sun sets.

Interesting fact: LLAMA is one Spanish word that Euros fail to correctly pronounce. In Spanish, double L is a Y. We have succeeded with this rule for Tortillas.

The bonfire was a great success. These 2 middle aged couples (Canadians aye Ma) who are travelling the world on their motorbikes (not all at once though... but they came from Toronto and were in South Mexico 4 days later... IMPRESSIVE) anywho. They had bike NZ (probably in half a day, but the Interislanders speed may have screwed that up) and guess what was their fave city... NELLLSSSOOOOnnn.

They mentioned it before me! Did you know that in the new NZ Lonely Planet they have ranked ABEL TASMAN NAT´L PARK as the top thing in NZ??

I have been spreading this gospel since I got to Uni.. I should´ve got paid for this....

Anyways, they were all ¨I could live there¨ and then I dropped the ´I´m semi-oneofyou, my Ma is Canadian aye´ and they weren´t suprised that a Cancuk was in Nelson. Then they wanted her story and the whole KFC-working-TableTennis-Playing-Illegal-Accountant Father came in to the story. I have always wondered if my reasons for my father being in Bermuda are true... but never wanted to ask for clarity incase I have had the marvellous tale incorrectly in my brain for years.

That night we headed to a crepe place for dinner. Well, they did. Unfortunately, I was called across the road to a place with my FAVE Churros (stick doughnuts) and these were Rellenos aka Filled aka you pick a sauce and they pour it in! Sooo good - and clever. Once I had Choc sauce I also needed icecream so a choc-vanilla sundae with Caramel sauce helped that. All traditional mexican, of course.

The next day we hit up this river in a boat. It is the attraction that Chiapas is known for. It was beautiful because of the huge clifts. But we saw about 100 crocs, some beaut waterfalls and even 2 monkeys. I am starting to love monkeys again after a traumatic chasing in Cambodia.

They dropped us in town so I walked up towards this church on a hill. My Irish friends had tried this walk already, only to be greeted by to little ´´Money for the school¨ Oliver Twists.

They came out 29 pesos short. But i knew better because of them. The boys get you to write your name, then make you pledge an ammount... their English is only ¨Your name¨and ¨Money for the school¨. I rejected them both individually, then on the way down asked if it was for the school - the boy was saying ¨Siiii¨ in this way grown men say it, SO convincingly - he must´ve learnt it from his papa because his face scrunched in a very adult-manner.

Anyways, on the way up I came across a girl I had met at school in Oaxaca, Veronica. This was weird because although travellers (who all take the same route) bump into each other frequently... she had left Oaxaca a week earlier for Mexico city and then Cancun, and I was supposed to be heading off in the opposite direction.

After the one church, I spotted another on the other side of town(it had a GREAT view) on another hill so trekked up their. I walked down a closed off tourist street where almost every shop and international restaurant was run by expats. I was in a 2nd hand book shop, run by an American lady, and she had an oven at the counter - she was baking AMAZING SMELLING Cookies and Brownies... with Icing of course. I stood their staring at her thinking ´´This is actually my dream¨.

The other church was beautiful and had great views again.. .everyone described SC as ¨A pretty little town´´ but the place is HUGE. All these people, up above the clouds.

Unfortunately, either on the bus or the street, me Irish lost their camera. The company of course, was no help with this. I wonder who has it now?

So dinner was a bit of a downer, but we all followed Roisin to a Pizza place, where they were playing Anaconda movie in Spanish. That is one bad movie with some bad graphics.

Next day we rose, had our AMAZING included breakfast (the hostel was 119 a night... about 12 dollars NZ), AMAZING was used because I saw and used a toaster for the first time since I was staying in the OC aka Amanda´s house week one. It was toast, coffee, yogurt, fruit... wow. We got on what was supposed to be a 5 hour bus ride to Palenque. The whole trip was through small villages with about 500 speed bumps (was in the bathroom for a whole run of them, getting tossed around viciously). We wondered why all the villagers were staring like they´d never seen a bus before, when buses to Palenque were frequent. Turns out, they may not have.

The highway was closed, so the 5 hour bus ride was almost 8 hours.. I was urked. But, we did see a lot villages and Mexican life. We passed about 100 schools, most with one room - some with 2. They all had full sized basketball courts. I guess this is where the Mexican basketball teams come from, since everyone else is playing Soccer.

We arrived at Palenque and booked the tour for the next day. The hostel here was SO beautiful... actually, all the hostels have been - they are all sister hostels. I wish I had taken more photos but at this stage my camera was full. It was resort style (without pool unfortunately)... so clean too. We were happy to be back inthe heat, especially after the freezing AC they insist on shooting outof the buses here.

The tour was unique. We had an ass of a driver - a bit of a prick... I could tell from the 1st second. He did not want to be there. We went to the Palenque ruins first, which was beautiful... photos say 1000 words I guess. Our Mexican student IDs got us off the 51 peso fee - although I am sad to not being able to hoard the tickets. But I think my stingyness outways my hoarder tendencies... RA may not agree. Gaz would, traits from him. We are proud tightarses.

The bathrooms were also free - a rarity for Mexico.

I got whistled down by a man for being a badass and walking on this grass. We were up on a building and he was all

The tour guide said we were to meet him back at the cafe at 12. We were SO hungry so practically ran to the ´´cafe´´at about 11:30 (we got to the ruins about 8:30)... only to find 20 tables, a coffee machine and a half filled snack machine.
The thing is, if they put a cafe there - they would RAKE in the money. About 100 people came trhough looking for food in the hour we were there. Yes, hour. One hungry hour.

The tour guide didn´t even come back... another bus driver had to call him for us. We got on the bus (us 3 and 3 turkish guys we met -THE FIRST TO RECOGNISE MY ACCENT!! Turkish Guys!! really), to discover a mexican couple and American trio who had joined the tour... One of the Turkish guys mentioned in a friendly manner to the driver that he was late... the driver didn´t care. I said ¨no one tip him¨ and the american girl hollered ¨I´m with ya sister¨ (on the tour in San Cristobal we had virtually no choice about some tippings...the guy on the boat was like ´Now everyone gives me tips... usually 10 pesos each¨, which everyone was willing to do coz this guy found animals and such... effort was involved. The driver of the bus wanted tips too - only one lady did.. you gotta work for your money! He didn´t say a word...and potentially stole the Irishmens camera).

The American girl was already fuming about the driver... I donñy know what haapened but she was not happy. His driving was NUTS.. he went to pull out infront of a truck with 10 people hanging off the back, but had to swoop back behind after we nearly a corner. Everyone screamed (and swore) and the people on the back of the bus were screaming at him and he didn´t move his eyelids from half way down his eyes. Didn´t apologise... well, as expected the American lady (with fluent spanish) went NUTS... she did a great, rapid speech about how we don´t want to die. The tension became awkward until we got to the next stop, a huge waterfall you can walk around.

We got out and the driver wanted our funds (you have to pay extra money on tours ALL THE time ... for entrance fees and here Zapatista fees for the rebels too), the American lady wanted him to produce tickets, because she knew he would keep the money. We stood their as they raged at each other, then her 2 male friends got involved... I wanted to take some photos of it but didn´t want her rage on me.

We were so hungry, so we broke from the action (but continued to watch it, especially as multiple mexican drivers got involved to try and calm her) in the cafe.

The waterfall was beautiful - only needs about 5 mins, but you walk under/behind it onthe rocks - get sprayed. I was falling everwhere coz I was in my crocs.

Next stop was Agua Azul... a river of the MOST BEAUTIFUL COLOUR,unfortunately the phots just don´t do it justice. There we swam for a few hours until the rain turned us cold.
We got back to the van, all shivering. Our driver was asleep but we had to wait for the mexican couple so we all got fries.
Here I learnt that the film NACHO LIBRE, from the Napolean Dynamite director, was based on a Oaxacan story and filmed in Oaxaca. So that´s the first thing I am going to watch on my way home!

Right now, gotta run - we are going to CHITCHEN ITZA; the most fmous ruins in Mexico.

Apologies for only writing about a few days here.. more will come!