On days that I feel really bored or uninspired or genuinely lonely for the road, I just scroll through my camera roll and smile as memories come flooding. It’s been such a busy month for me, but finally, here I am about to continue writing and reminiscing about my life in Mexico. I had an absolute blast in this beautiful country, and I can’t stress enough how you should take, at least, one trip to Mexico in your lifetime. I miss, frankly, and I can’t wait to return. For now, though, posting memories like these would have to suffice.
For the second part of this travel journal, I will show you bits and pieces of my life when I briefly left Mexico City to travel around the rest of Southern Mexico. Also, bear in mind that all these photographs were taken on my iPhone using an app called HUJI.
My first stop was Puebla. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much because I’ve previously heard that it’s a really small town with none much to do, so I kept my expectations low so I wouldn’t be disappointed.
Puebla was about three hours away by bus from Mexico City. Although I’m not gonna lie, it felt kind of longer than that, and it wasn’t a really pleasant ride. I mean, normally, I really don’t enjoy long drives and especially long bus rides because I get nauseous, so this wasn’t really something that I was looking forward to. To be fair, I much prefer trains because with trains you get to stand up and move around. You really can’t do much on buses, so I don’t really like it.
However, once you get into Puebla, you’ll feel like all the travel troubles are actually so worth it. I mean, Puebla is a very beautiful and historical city, so it’s perfect!
Oh, the bus station is about a 30-minute taxi ride to the actual city proper so you’ll have to keep that in mind.
If you’re looking for a beautiful and a historical place to head onto for a weekend trip, Puebla is the place to be. It’s so quaint and it’s a tad bit cheaper than Mexico City, obviously, but the Mexican magic is pretty much there!
Just walking around the cobblestoned roads of Puebla, and I feel like I’m suddenly time travelling! Puebla just really gives you that type of feeling, and it made me really happy. Well, if you know me, I’m a sucker for anything “old” or “antique”, and Puebla is definitely those things.
When you go to Puebla, you should try their Cemita. So it’s a type of torta (sandwich) that’s originally from Puebla, so it’s a must have when visiting. Cemita Poblana, as it’s more popularly know, is a typically served on a roll of bread and it has aguacate, fried meat (typically chicken), queso de oaxaca, onions, papalo, a whole lot of chili, and salsa roja. Now, if you’re new to Puebla, you might bite into a Cemita not knowing that it’s full of chili inside…I did that. I love spicy food, but this was one next level…it’s extreme, and I was sweating all over.
It was really good though, but Cemitas are usually massive, so if you’re alone, you might take half of it home.
Of course, do as the locals…if Cemitas aren’t that spicy for you, Mexicans will never let you down. They usually serve it with a whole lot of salsa picantes on the side. Plus, they have pickled onions, carrots and pineapples on the side. All were very yummy and muy picante!
Whilst in Puebla, I stayed on this hostel called Hostal Leonora. It’s an ancestral house converted into a hostel and a restaurant. So the first floor was a restaurant where people (guests or not) can dine in and enjoy a traditional Mexican meal. The second floor was a hostel and I’m not gonna lie, it was beautiful but it was ancient…hence it being really creepy, especially at night.
So I was on the very far corner of the hostel. My room was overlooking the street, and so that was pretty great. What bothered me a lot was that the toilets were on the other wing of the house. If you wanted to take a pee in the middle of the night or a hot shower, you’d have to walk quite a distance to get to the showers.
I mean, this hostel was really beautiful and ancestral houses are something that have always fascinated me…but it didn’t help that when I needed to pee at around 10p, I would have to go through this massive courtyard and into a really shady and dark old kitchen and climb some sketchy stairs in order to reach the bathroom. That was really quite scary for me, and I’m not usually one to be scared so this was quite the experience for me.
If you would like to check out Hostal Leonora, click HERE. This is a really nice hostel, I’m not even gonna lie. The interiors were amazing, and this hostel was actually the location of this photo diary!
Plus, compared to the other hostels in Puebla which were mostly party hostels, Hostal Leonora has been a breathe of fresh air.
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After less than a week in Puebla, I was ready to head back into the city because naturally, I’m a city girl. So I went back to the bus station to buy myself a one-way ticket to Oaxaca de Juárez. The bus ticket was nearly $600 MXN which was about $27 USD, and it’s a pretty good deal considering that I hadn’t pre-booked anything.
First order of business in Oaxaca de Juárez…caramel croissants from a street vendor by the Zócalo!
Taking some to-go snacks from one of my favourite cafes in Oaxaca de Juárez, Boulenc.
Another go-to spot for me whenever I needed to work on my online tasks was Café Brújula. It’s a very nice cafe and you can sit around its in-house courtyard which is pretty cool. Plus, it wasn’t that expensive compared to Boulenc which was a bit posh.
Another work day at Café Brújula, because why not?!
Ah, one of my favourite meals in Oaxaca de Juárez was a nice big bowl of pozole con pollo! It’s basically similar to chicken soup, and they give you a crispy tortilla and cream to go with it. It’s really yummy, and you can choose whether to put loads of salsa picantes or nothing at all. An explosion of flavour, if I may say so myself!
Every sticker on my laptop tells a story, and I’m absolutely smitten by how it looks altogether! Every sticker is from a different place, and I just love how sentimental it actually is.
A small mug of pulque de fresa from one of my favourite rooftop bars in Oaxaca de Juárez, La Mezcalerita. This place also has the best mezcal mojito, trust me on that one!
So the pulques in Oaxaca de Juárez was a tad bit different that the ones in Mexico City. I was told that it really varies from estado to estado so who knows what it tastes like in other states?
Another bowl of pozole, this time it’s with res! Personally I loved the one with pollo better but this one was good too, and it had a different flavour.
Ah, different pickled vegetables con mucho salsa picantes. Quintessentially Mexican. I love it!
We have taken it upon ourselves to eat loads and loads of tacos whilst we were in Mexico, because where else would you get fresh tacos just like these?
Ah, my friends always photobombing my coffee shots. Classic!
This cafe was called Café Choc and it’s actually in Puerto Escondido!
After about a month in Oaxaca de Juárez, I left the city with some of mis amigos to go to the mountains. So we headed off to San José del Pacífico.
If you want to read more about our time in San Jose del Pacifico, click HERE.
All we ate in there were these quesadillas because our hostel was one the top of the mountain and they only had one restaurant, hahaha. It wasn’t bad though, and we actually really liked it.
Trying to work and capture how the clouds were dancing every single day. It was such a magical place and we had such a magical time…thanks to some magic mushrooms, heh!
This was the view from our own balcony which was just outside our windows. How mysterious and beautiful at the same time?!
We stayed at Cabañas La Cumbre and we paid around $400 MXN or about $18 USD for a room that fits two people. I had to share a room with my Texan friend, Viraj, and we always had a blast! Thankfully, none of us snore so that was super great. Hahaha!
If you are headed out to San José del Pacífico, Cabañas La Cumbre is the place to be! To check them out, click HERE.
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This meal was one of my favourites. We ate at this restaurant in town before we all headed out of San José del Pacífico and into Mazunte. On this plate, I had two chile rellenos (chili stuffed with queso de oaxaca plus chicken for me) con ensalada y frijoles. It was super delicious!
After a weekend in chilly San José del Pacífico, we had arrived by the beach on the Oaxacan Coast of Mazunte.
This was around Christmastime, and we spent all our days by the beach. It was such a dream.
We had a favourite spot just a few minutes by the beach and we always had fish tacos and fish tlayudas (pictured above) on this spot.
Ah, coffee, por supuesto! This was at our hostel and they had this in-house restaurant and cafe. We never really ate there because it was super overpriced and mostly for tourists, but on times when we would just be lazy, we would just sit here and order coffee.
It was called Posada del Arquitecto, and it’s one of the more popular hostels in Mazunte. You really can’t miss it when you visit.
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A very Mexican breakfast: torta con pollo, yogurt y chips.
Mon ami français préféré, Timothée, avec un chat et une bière.
My hostel had a Chinese restaurant right in front of it, and I was tempted once and had to give it a go!
Surprisingly, this one was a tad bit better than the rest of the Chinese restaurants around Mexico. I was casually impressed, not even gonna lie!
When you travel through five continents, you accumulate power adaptors, heh. I mostly got rid of most of them now because I now have a universal adaptor (which i can’t find at the moment, annoying).
After a week in Mazunte, I headed over to Puerto Escondido. I got a bit sick so I opted to head out here than heading over to Zipolite since Puerto Escondido had proper hospitals. So here I was with my Danish beer pong buddy, just a few days after recovering from a stomach flu.
Honestly, there are no burritos in Mexico. This was my very first burrito in Mexico and it was Indian style from an fusion restaurant. So if you’re coming to Mexico for their burritos, you’ll probably be disappointed because they’re non-existent.
My go-to breakfast, peanut butter and jelly! I’m not even ashamed of this, it’s so good! Also, crunchy peanut butter is the only peanut butter!
Mosquitoes love me so much…and I spent most of my days lounging by the pool at our hostel in Puerto Escondido.
This was our Christmas dinner, prepared by our hostel owner, Tommy, who was British. We had roasted turkey, cheesy broccoli, roasted potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a whole lot of wine! We had to pay $200 MXN which was about $9 USD which was a great deal! Plus, we were all travellers on the road, so spending Christmas with a bunch of people was really reassuring that you were not alone. I loved it.
If you’re in Puerto Escondido, head over to Vivo Escondido and stay there because it’s the best hostel in town! Plus, tell Tommy that Dani sent you, heh!
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Dante, por supuesto!
Unfortunately, I had to head back out to Mexico City to meet my friends for New Years. Christmas in Puerto Escondido, then New Years in Mexico City. What is my life? I’m genuinely so blessed, and I miss the road so much! It’s so crazy how much I love travelling and how annoying it is that we can’t all get back out there.
Soon though, ojalá.
So yeah, that was my adventure around Estado de Oaxaca and Puebla. I had such a lovely time running around Mexico, and I can’t wait for the day that I get to come back. It’s not easy, I know, and we all have to be safe and take extra precautions. So until the world is fully healed and until whoever says it’s safe to get back out there, we can all take refuge in knowing that everything will be fine. Travelling will never be the same again, that’s a given, but it’s always thrilling not knowing where to go next. That’s the beauty of travelling.
For now, I’m headed to bed because I’ve got work tomorrow, heh. Yes, this is pretty much my life now, but I’m not really complaining. I’m still super blessed to be working amidst a pandemic and I’m super blessed to be at home with my family. Honestly, no matter how many times I say I’m bored, I can still have the peace of mind knowing that I’m not exposed to the virus. So, it’s still a win-win, really. We just have to wait when we can travel again.
Again, be safe out there, friends, and I will see you all on the road! Blessings! x
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!'”
Matthew 25:21 NIV
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