Cuernavaca

The first day in Cuernavaca didn´t go so well for us.  I was beginning to think we should have picked somewhere else.  After taking a bit longer than the directions had suggested to walk to the first hostel in the midday sun, it turned out that the hostel was now a school.  I considered asking if we could stay there anyways.  We then jumped in a taxi to another hotel that we had found on thorntree.  Cuernavaca is a funny one, because all the hostels (well, the two that actually exist) are about a half hour out of town.  We all showered, and while we were getting ready (in our 4 quid a night each hotel room), the boys headed into town to have a look around.  They returned to report that there was nothing in the area we were in at all, which was strange, because on the drive in on the bus it had looked lovely.  We went for some food in a Chinese the boys had seen, which turned out to be gross - the sweet and sour chicken balls were even served cold.  (It´s just occurred to me that any time I´ve written about food, it´s not been Mexican.  We did eat Mexican food, it´s just that I´ve never had much reason to write about it.  I just thought I´d clear that up.)

We decided to jump in a cab, and check out the area the hostels were in.  At least that way we might meet some other people.  The taxi man knew one of the areas, which was about 20 mins away, but wasn´t familiar with the street.  After driving round and round for ages, we eventually found the first hostel.  Rick and I went in and had a look around, but there wasn´t anyone there.  We asked the lady there what area was good for restaurants and bars, and she told us downtown.  How confusing, that was where we had just come from.  She suggested a bar, and told the taxi driver where to drop us off.  It turned out to be about 500m from where Rick and Mike had been earlier.  Boys really are made in the Stupid Factory.  We had a few beers, and the boys were very happy when they discovered that the club we ended up in was a strip club.  It was a bit mad, we ordered a round of vodka and Red Bull (Ricky B was feeling a bit tired), and the barman suggested that maybe we wanted to buy the bottle.  Ah, why not, we´re on holiday.  And he threw in 5 free soft drink mixers - that took a while to explain to us.  As I´m sure you can imagine, it was a bit of a messy night.  We loved our waiter though - that´s him in the photo.

These guys are gonna have to stop going out if they can´t handle it.  The next day was a total wipe out, and was spent, as has come to be the general trend, eating McDonald´s and lying in bed all day watching tele.  Mike and I went to the laudrette, just to do something with the day.  We headed to an internet  cafe for a bit, and then returned to bed and tele.  That was a mistake.  We watched a film called 'Requiem for a Dream', which was a good film, but the most upsetting, unsettling thing I've ever seen.  Don't watch it.

The next day wasn't a great one.  It was really hot, and I was not feeling good.  Maybe I was having a delayed hangover, I don't know.  (Precautionary note to self: stay away from Vodka.)  We decided that we had to do something with our day though, so we started off by googling some things to do, and then it was time for some breakfast.  That but didn't go so well for Nicky, and Rick and I weren't feeling so hot either.  I got some fruit and what turned out to be pancakes (they were 'hot cakes' on the menu - I was expecting a scone-like food), but the boys were a bit less lucky when they got what was basically a thick slice of beef in hot sauce.  With tortillas.

We headed up to the Cathedral, I think it might be the oldest one in Mexico, although I'm not sure about that.  It was certainly pretty old.  After that, we jumped in a cab, and headed to what I know to be the highest waterfall in Mexico.  There was a bit of a bridge you could walk across that allowed you to look down on it, it was pretty cool.  After that, we headed back to Cuernavaca.  Everyone was so knackered from the heat that that turned out to be the end of our sightseeing.  The boys headed to the internet cafe, and Nikki and I headed back to the room.

We went out for dinner that night to an Italian restaurant, which was nice.  I've decided though that from now on, I'm just going to order whatever Rick does, he almost always gets the best food.  I opted for the veggie pizza (I thought it would have to be pretty good in an Italian), it turned out to be mostly a cheese and olive pizza.  That could have been my ending to 1984.

The boys headed out for the night, and Nikki and I decided to give it a miss (did you hear that Shane?  Probably not, I doubt you're reading this.), and headed back to the room.  There were two unbelievable thunder storms that night, it was without doubt the loudest thunder I've ever heard.  At one stage I thought the sky had actually broken in two, it was nuts.

The next morning, the boys were predictably hungover, so Nikki and I went out to get food.  The town was packed, and it turned out that there was some kind of demonstration going on.  We didn't find out what it was for, could have been the elections, or related to what has been going on in other parts of Mexico recently.  There were loads of police about though, it was mad.

Nikki and I got some breakfast, then picked up some greasy fast food for the boys. (Even Mike who had been a narky little girl that morning.)  We headed back to the hostel, and were told that check out time was in about an hour.  Uh oh.  We managed to sort our mess out, and left the hostel at about 1.  We ended up paying 100 pesos, although we never really found out why, despite Nikki´s and my efforts to have a conversation with the woman in Spanish.

We decided to head straight to the bus station, and try to get an earlier bus to the airport.  We had booked one the day before for about 6pm, but we figured we would just head there.  After heading to the wrong station, attempting to ask them about changing tickets, we eventually got directed to the right place, and got on a bus for what should have been an hour and 40 minute journey back up the twisty mountain road towards D.F.  There was a mad traffic jam, you could see it for miles because of the layout of the road, and the journey ended up taking over 3 hours.  When we got there, well that´s a nightmare for the next blog...

Mozzie bite status:  4 new beauties on the second night.  Great.

Click here for all the Cuernavaca photos.