On the cast iron stomach scale of 1-10, I would rate about -2. It is a small miracle then, that I am the only one who hasn’t been quite violently ill to ‘montezuma’s revenge’ over the past few days with Liam, Sofia and Iris each having their turn in quick succession. Thankfully in each case, it has passed quickly and everyone is now healthy again, or on their way to it.
Illness aside, our time so far in Oaxaca has been good fun. The kids are loving their spanish classes, and really enjoy the acitivities like making pinatas and other little crafty projects. Iris and I are really benefiting from our classes and conversations with our host ‘mum’. It’s not only great for our spanish, but also an excellent way to learn about Mexican society and culture which is proving quite fascinating.
We’d typically have breakfast with the family at 8am, have our lessons from 9am until 1pm, rest in our house during the hottest part of the day until 3pm when we eat lunch with our host family, and then get out and about in the city after lunch for a few hours.
It’s a pretty cool city just for absorbing the atmosphere. In particular, Zocalo, the town centre is a lively and interesting area which is great for people watching. There are also several good markets. One of these – Central de Abasto – is on a grand scale and sells pretty much anything. A day is really needed to fully explore it, and that’s our intention over the next few days.
What is missing though is parks in the central city meaning no playgrounds for the kids to burn off energy – The kids tend to reach their limits quickly in markets or anywhere where there are crowds – which is most places in the central city. For this reason, it’s quite difficult to relax here and we might move on a little bit earlier than we’d intended a few days ago.
Staring contest
Sofia finally looks to be overcoming her longstanding fear of dogs
Clowning around in Zocalo
Zocalo in the lead up to Semana Santa
Business was good!
Making decorations for a pinata
