Het is weer tijd voor een verhaal.

Time to catch up on my stories. After last time in Colima I took a bus to Morelia. Morelia is a real cute city with lots of pink roses and violins playing in the streets. In the main plaza a lot of families play chess outside. I went to 3 museums and had dinner with a Swiss lady (who was slightly paranoid). In the evening we saw fireworks by the cathedral. Next day I took another buz to Patzcuaro, one of what they call los pueblos magicos (magical villages).
I walked around the city, saw indigenous dancing with music and went to the lake. Next day I wanted to take the bus to Uruapan but there weren´t any buses going because there was a protest of students and teachers from the university and they wouldn´t let any buses through. I felt frustrated because I couldn´t even leave the busstation but of course I could understand why people were protesting. After waiting a couple of hours I decided to take a bus back to Morelia, my only possibility, and see from there what would happen. From Morelia I took a bus to Toluca, the nearest next city.

In Toluca the city was packed with marketstalls with candy skulls, chocolate lollipops in the shape of skeletons and tons of other sweets. There weren´t any hostels so I checked into a colonial hotel, it wasn´t that expensive but sooo luxurious. It had a massive patio with stained glass windows. There was a cute, old but gorgeous lady working there and she was explaining to me in full detail how the remote control of the television was working. Awww <3 I was worn out from the journey so I bought myself some chocolate and sat myself down to watch some old bad mexican movies and some brazilian jiu jitsu.
Next day in Toluca I walked around a bit, had a veggie hamburger, went to the botanical garden with stained glass and watched some of the nice architecture, then took a bus to Taxco.

Taxco is a gorgeous little village, another pueblo magico which does a lot of justice to its name. With streets going up and down, couples in love sitting on benches and tons of little lights at night it feels like a fairy village, but then with mexicans. And all the taxis are beetles. So cool!
Bought some nice jewelry, went biking and took a ride on the cable cart all up onto the mountain, it had a fantastic view!
I couldn´t sleep for two days straight ´cause the guy in the room next to me snoooooored, holy shit!

After Taxco I left to Acapulco, which didn't bring me any luck, except for some gorgeous botanical gardens I didn´t like it at all. The hostel I wanted to go to was closed so I went to a hotel. I also found out later the hotel I stayed at double charged me, and when I ordered some vegetarian enchiladas they came with chicken. Hmpf. Unless you like massive resorts and shitloads of people I wouldn´t recommend anyone to go there. Ever. So yeah, moving on to Puerto Escondido, where it was hot as balls but I finally met tons of people there, finally because I didn't meet that many before. 90% of them were Australian and I had the best time with them!
I went to the beach everyday, ate shitloads of good food, played pool and partied at the hostel, had drinks while watching the sunset at the beach and went to a nice salsabar.

I joined an Australian guy and an American girl to Mazunte, a nice little hippie beachtown with just 2 streets an hour away from Puerto Escondido. We found the cosiest beach house made of wood and palmtree leaves with good musquitonets for just 60 pesos a night (about 3,50 euros).
The next day we took a tour to see some dolphins and turtles. We were on a boat and the dolphins were swimming under the boat (remember the titanic, I'm the king of the world? It was just like that) and I could see them so up close, it was amazing! We also saw turtles and I could even tocuh one, when I petted her head she closed her eyes and was so relaxed, they're such beautiful animals. They put in a lot of effort to protect the dolphins and turtles and only work with ecoturism, so siked voor dat. Next day I went with ashley (the american girl) to the centre of turtles, on a rowing boat this time. We saw iguanas (green and orange ones), birds, crocodiles and monkeys. Next day we went in a pickuptruck (the local bus) sitting on the rooftop to the next village called zipolite. When we went out to dinner all the electricity in the village stopped working so every place was covered in candles. I was actually a little disappointed when it started working again.

After breakfast Jeremy (the Australian) and me took a busride (or actually a minivan) of 6 hours to Oaxaca. It was a really curvy, bumpy ride and I would have have horrible if Ashley and another English girl hadn't given me carsickpills and sleeping pills. So I felt fine because I was knockout for a couple hours straight. Anyway, I am in a girls only hostel now in Oaxaca, it's a bit of a kippenhok but wel gezellig. I needed a little break from all the mexican food i had been eating so I ate great morrocan food the other day. (Vegetable couscous with caramelized onions and falafel with mint-garlicsauce. Hmmm.) The family who runs this hostel are so hospitable, I feel like I am already part of their family. I ate mole (a typical oaxacan dish with chili and chocolate, usually put in a tortilla with chicken), sipped some mezcal (an alcoholic drink which is too strong for me actually) and the day before halloween we walked in a huge march downtown with marriachis, mezcal, food and everybody dressed up like skeletons, dead people or something else scary.

On the 31st of of october we went to the graveyard of Oaxaca and Xoxo. A lot of families were spending time there, sitting around the graves of their beloved ones. Again everyone was dressed up (as pretty much anything, brides, superheroes, cats) and people put candles, flowers, food, drinks and skeletons on the graves.
The 1st of november is dia de los angelitos (day of the little angels), a celebration in remembrance of children who have died. The 2nd of november is day of the dead, shrines are built with flowers, candy, spices and scented candles and it´s a day for resting. Everyone has their day off in this day. I like the relationship that people have with the dead in Mexico, it´s less sad in the way that people sit with their whole families around the grave of their deceased beloved ones and that way it seems like they are still connected to them. They're not necessarily supposed to feel sad, they can also feel happy or be partying.
Anyway, the next couple of days I'm gonna take a little break on travelling. I need to sleep a gazillion hours, practice some more spanish in the workbook that Ashley gave me (Thanks!) and cook again.
After that I´ll go sightseeing again and then move on to Chiapas. Tengo ganas ir!