San Cristobal to Tuxtla to Oaxaca

The Treda drugs seemed to kick in overnight, but I didn’t sleep that well. I felt pretty bad when I woke up. Sophie went out for a bit and left me in bed, this is becoming a routine!

I got a bit more rest, and then we walked down to get the bus from the main road. $50 mx (about £1.95) to get to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where our flight to Oaxaca was due to leave from later that evening.

In the bus I was on high alert, but I think started to feel a bit more human, but I do have trouble remembering these two days. I must have been pretty sick. I think I managed to drink a bit of water and I had finished the rehydration drink by then. It took me about 36 hours to drink, Soph finished hers in a few minutes.

On arriving on the outskirts of Tuxtla, right by a busy highway we were swiftly bundled into a taxi to the centre zocalo.

It was really HOT.

I was wearing my comfy but thick tracksuit trousers after the sickness and the cooler climate of San Cristobal. I needed to get into some air conditioning, or to get changed pronto.

We wandered to a coffee museum, and Sophie almost passed out from hunger.

We had a confusing conversation with the receptionist about coffee and cafe, as we’d read that there was a cafe at the coffee museum and had hoped that they might be able to feed Sophie.

But we didn’t really understand the complication until a few minutes into the conversation, turns out the Spanish/English meanings for the word cafe differ. You know because they are two different languages.

But as they were speaking perfect English we asked if they had a cafe. When cafe means coffee and we were at a coffee museum, it was slightly confusing. So we asked if they had a cafe, and they would smirk and say, yes of course. So we asked to get food at the cafe, and they looked confused.

This went on for a while.

So I fed Sophie my crackers, and she had the two coffees which were included in the price of going into the museum. She was buzzing. More than usual.

Cafe Museum was small but interesting. We had a VR tour tablet, which gave us some English info. We then grabbed our bags from their store room, and headed back out into the warmth of the urban industrial Tuxtla.

Sophie denied that she needed food, but we went for tacos and she had two good ones, and one of the slimy pork fat and skin local delicacies. It was a mistake. The vendor had a good giggle at her reaction, and did not charge us for it.

Mexicans in general seem to be fair, happy and helpful. Meeting and chatting to lots of people makes me understand better why they protest injustice so vehemently. Uprisings and protests seem common, along with corruption at a government level. These two things don’t really seem to go hand in hand.

As it was getting close to our flight time we went to watch the chiming of the bells at the cathedral before heading to the aeropuerto in a taxi.

Our driver spotted a family member on the street waiting for a bus, so she jumped in with a cheery buenas tardes and we got going to the airport.

On the flight we saw some great scenery and it gave us a great view of the sunset and the Oaxacan countryside. I actually did start to feel better. I ate some of the airplane snacks and felt okay.

Here as we have seen all over Mexico the transportation system was fluid. We grabbed a ticket ($125 mx) from the ticket office and were escorted to our minibus.

The drive through the suburbs took about 45 minutes, or maybe an hour. But we were dropped at the door of our accommodation, Posada Don Mario.

Found yet again on booking.com just a few days ago. It’s a real gem, we’re on the second floor in room 11 up a spiral staircase.

We have a large shared balcony, and the posada is situated north of the centre, but in an area with lots of bars, restaurants, galleries and a small market.

We had a nice chat to Conception, the receptionist and she directed us towards a place with restaurants.

We found a super cool place and I ate my first meal in a few days.