Luggage, Pyramids and Oaxaca

Hola de Oaxaca,

Yesterday we spent an infuriating day waiting for our luggage to be delivered from the airport. Mexicana kept promising to have it with us by certain times of the day but didn't show and then stopped answering the phone. So instead of heading to Oaxaca as planned we had to schlep back to the airport in the late afternoon on the offchance the luggage might be there. And sure enough it was there, behind the Mexicana desk. We went Wolverine. But at least we finally got our bags - we've never been so delighted to see our stuff before - and were able to hop on a coach to Oaxaca this morning.

The drive south was breathtaking, if scary - the road snaking its way over and around soaring cactae-covered mountains. Oaxaca is just lovely. We spent the afternoon wandering around the main square, going into a market crammed with little eateries, colourful clothes and fresh fruit and veg. Unfortunately all the museums are closed on Mondays, but it was so nice just to potter around in the sun. Hace mucho calor aqui, but because it's quite high up there's a refreshing breeze to keep you cool.

On Saturday we went on a day trip to the Teotihuacan ruins outside Mexico City, visiting some ruins in the city first then going to the Church of the Lady of Guadalupe (the Virgin Mary) - the second most visited catholic church after the vatican - some 10 million visitors a year.

We had a really yummy buffet lunch at a place just outside the Teotihuacan pyramids that also makes incredible cloth and tequila out of cactae. The guy there taught us how they do it all by hand and then we had to have 3 shots of tequila each! Then we spent 3 hours being guided around the ruins. So interesting. Teotihucan was the 4th biggest city of its time, once having a quarter of a million residents, after Rome and Athens' half million, and i think Alexandria was first... This was over 1000 years before the Aztecs. They don't know the exact reason why the city was deserted but possibly due to the fact that they ran themselves out of natural resources because they were constantly cutting down trees and burning stones all through the night to make concrete to build their pyramids!

They had an obsession with building pyramids - one ruler would build one and then the next one wanted to build a bigger one, so he covered up the first and built on top of it, then the next one did the same and the next. The 65-metre-high Sun pyramid is the top one of 7 pyramids (6 have been found underneath). We climbed to the top of it. It has steps, but they are so steep, when you look down from the top it's almost vertical! Scary going down them. But we got some great pics. The one of us was taken above the Church of the Lady of Guadalupe, another is of the view from halfway up the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan, and the other is of the Plaza de San Domingo in Oaxaca.

Tomorrow we're off on a trip to see a massive tree, some more ruins and a petrified waterfall!

Hope all's well. Lots of love x