Haven't really done a lot since my last post, just been doing a lot of shopping and going to see bands.

Today is thanksgiving so if we can find any supermarkets which are open we will make lunch/dinner.

Tomorrow we go back home again and I am devastated. I can't stand the thought of going back to my crummy job and doing everything I was doing before. It is time for a change!

So LA is crazy! I was hating it when I first got here but it is growing on me. At first it just reminded me of a big King's Cross but as I am exploring more I can see that it isn't as bad as I first thought.

We are staying on Sunset Boulevard at the moment just around the corner from Kat Von D's tattoo studio. We went and did some shopping on Melrose yesterday and saw some really cool concept stores then in the evening we went to a rad venue called the Knitting Factory and saw the Aka's and then the Dickies 30th anniversary show. The Dickies were just so great, they really got in to if for men their age and it was just really fun!

Today we had breakfast at this awesome vegan place just up the road from where we are staying and it was pretty cheap which was even better, some of the best mock chicken I have ever had, with full bellies we went to Hot Topic where I am eyeing off some tartan jeans and caught a movie at Mann's Chinese Theatre. American Gangster was a really good, intense movie, Denzel Washington always genius.

Vegas to San Fran to San Simeon and Beyond!

So since my last blog I have been all over the place! I will go through everything in order...

The drive to Vegas was great, we had our big black 300c and stopped at fashion outlets along the way. By the time we arrived it was night time so it was just amazing looking. We spent our days shopping, exploring the inside of the casinos, going to shows and eating. The Titanic exhibition we saw was great, it had lots of artefacts which have been removed from the boat. And the liberace museum was just crazy, there was a mirrorball car!

From Vegas we flew to San Francisco, it was raining and cold the first day we got there so we just went to a mall and did some more shopping. The next day we went to Haight street where we spent some serious money, Amoeba records was there, the store was so big there were shopping baskets! On another day we ventured out to Gilman Street in Berkeley where the punk revival started and all though no one was around it was just awesome, we caught the daly city train back in to town. Alcatraz was up another day which was a really cool thing to see, they didn't know which cell Al Capone had been in though.

San Francisco is a really nice city with beautiful architecture but there are a lot of crazy and homeless people there which gets a bit much sometimes.

So now I am writing from San Simeon, we arrived here last night. The drive down highway 101 to the 1 was awesome! We passed a beach where the seals come in to rest and watched them laying on the beach and we saw some squirrels playing in the carpark! They were so cute!

Now we are heading up to Hearst Castle and then down the LA.

San Diego, it's German for a whale's vagina.

So we safely departed Mexico and are now safe and cold in San Diego.

The journey home from Mexico was very laborious, it took 3 flights, one of which we didn't even know about. We were teriffied when we landed somewhere that was just trees and mountains, we couldn't ask the flight attendants what was happening because we didn't know enough Spanish! It turned out it was just a stop over for refuelling in Los Cabos which is on the tip of Baja California. It looks like a great place for a relaxing few days on the beach.

Haven't really done much since we arrived here, we saw a lithium picnic exhibition yesterday that had a few nice prints in it.

Went to an outlet store today and I bought heaps of awesome make up really cheap. Just hanging out at the new macbeth office while Dan is doing some work.

Going to Seaworld tomorrow and seeing the Falcon in the evening.

Oaxaca Post 2

For the last couple of days we haven't really done a lot of specific things, rather a lot of shopping and wandering around the city. We have bought so many skull things its not funny! On the evening of the 31st the owners of our hotel Francico and Marina gave us a traditional dinner and explained a lot of the meanings behind the Dia Los Muertos Festival. We drank Mezcal (I only had a sip) and ate chicken and mole tamales.

After dinner Francisco took us to the Xoxocitlan cemetary, he gave us flowers to put on the abandoned graves. It was a very weird experience being at the cemetary, it was not as fun as I expected it to be and I felt like I was being very intrusive being there. It was really sad at one point as I passed a grave which had a sand carpet of Winnie the Pooh, it was a childs grave and the family around it was crying.

We then went to the old Xoxocitlan cemetary which had a much better vibe as there was not as many people there it was much more serene. There was the remains of an old church and there was a band playing in it and singing and it was amazing.

Yesterday we went to Santo Domingo De Guzman a church which is over 500 years old and absolutely massive, I think it took us about 3 hours to walk around it. Then I went and got a hot stone massage for $50au!

Last night we went and saw the folkloric ballet of Oaxaca perform the ballet of the dead. There were fireworks going off everwhere and a bush caught on fire next to the church!

I am so sad as this is my last full day in Oaxaca and I have been feeling a bit sick for the last 24 hours. I hope I can pull myself together enough to get through today!

Oaxaca

Ok so here is my first blog since arriving in Mexico. I am going to be very careful and not make generalisations about Mexico as a whole as I have only experienced part of one state and don't want to give the wrong impression.

Oaxaca is one of the most amazing places in the world. The people here are very friendly and have been very patient with the fact that I speak very little EsSpanol. The owners of our hotel, Francisco and Marina are very friendly and helpful and we get breakfast served to us on the roof each morning. The toast here comes pre-toasted in the packet so when we eat it, it is cold, on the toast we have what I think is homemade strawberry jam which has whole strawberries in it! We also have a nice home brewed oon caffe. Yesterday we had mexican scrambled eggs too, I don't normally eat eggs but I just had to try them they looked so good!

So far we have been to the archeolgoical site of Monte Alban which was a Zapotec temple in the mountains which was built in 650BC. There was a lot of peddlers there selling reproductions of artefacts found in the temple. I bought a stone Gato (cat) for my Mum.

From there we went to some outlying villages where I thought we were going to die we were going through dirt roads on mountains with no seat belts on. We arrived at a workshop of a family who make alebrjies (prounounced aleebreekees) travelling on to a church in another town I have forgotten the name of but it was past xoxoticulan it was built by the spaniards and part of it was left open in the traditional way that the locals worshipped to help convert them to christianity. It was depressing to hear about how many cultures were destroyed by christianity.

We then had a buffet lunch in an open restaurant, by open I mean it only had 3 walls! I have learned the safest drink to order is a Limonada! I also discovered a local dessert which is pretty much caramel watered down with milk which is amazing. After a late lunch we visited a black pottery workshop and saw a demonstration on how they are made.

Then it was home to bed as I was exhausted!

Yesterday we went out on another tour this one lead us to the town of El Tule where we visited the Tule tree which is the widest tree in the world and also one of the oldest. A Spanish church was built by the tree as the locals had once worshipped the tree.

Throughout Mexico there are often Spanish churches either built by or on old aztec or zapotec worship sites this was done as part of process of converting these people to catolicism. From Tule we went to Mitla we were saw an ancient Mixtec temple, this is the only temple of its kind and the architecture is amazing photos won't do it justice. One of the temples was knocked down and a church was rebuilt with the remains.

After Mitla we were told that we had to drive over the mountains, I thought that this was going to be a short cut back to the next town but I was wrong, what happened next was one of the scariest things I have done in my life! Dan was 95% sure we were going to die! We had to drive over a mountain where the road was built by the locals and not by the government which means that no engineers were used and it was literally built in to the mountain. We were at such a height that it was a little hard to breath and we could feel the mist on our skin from the clouds. When we got down the other side it was worth the sheer terror as we found a natural wonder! A mineral bath which was formed on the mountain, I only wish that I had bought my swimmers! No words can ever explain what this was like. It was only photographed for the first time in 1987 as it had always been kept a secret.

We traversed back over the mountains as it was the only way to get back, we passed some men shepherding goats across the mountain and a village at the bottom where women were washing there clothes with rocks at a river. A lot of women here carry things on their heads as well. We had lunch, I have no idea what I ate but it was yum and I think it had mole sauce on it. I accidently ordered two lemonades because I got the spanish for 1 and 2 mixed up!

A mezcal distillery was up next which we discovered is a more primitive version of tequilla I did not try or buy any as I had tried some the day before and was sure my insides were still burning! There are sooo many mezcal distilleries throughout this area its not funny!

On our way home from a long day on the road our vans tyre broke. I was sure at this point that we were bound for highway robbery but sure enough the tyre was changed and we got back on the road and I could take my money back out of my underwear.

Everyone warned us before coming here to watch our money and our organs but I really feel like we are in a safe city and with lovely warm people. The only thing to fear is the roads. It doesn't really seem to appear that any road rules are followed, people overtake on double lines, travel through red lights, don't stop at pedestrian crossings, most motorbike riders don't wear helmets, people ride in the back of pick-ups, there are no reflectors on the roads, people drive drunk, don't wear seatbelts and there is no signs or markings for speed bumps. You can rest assured my kidneys and valuables are safe!

The other interesting point to make is the number of street dogs there are here and I mean they are everywhere!!! A lot of people have dogs for pets but the number of strays far outweighs that. I have never seen so many dogs in my whole life.

Since getting here I haven't been able to get my sleep patterns right and I pass out around 7pm each night and find my self waking around 3pm.

P.S - Photos by Dan!