Travelling Trappies

Hola from Pelanque, where we are sitting by the pool having a rest day. It’s 2pm and we’re just waiting for lunch to arrive - getting into the whole late breakfast, lunch, dinner thing although we still seem to be leaving when whole families arrive at 9.30/10pm to start eating!!!  So I thought I’d do a wee post while I was lounging about (although we all know I like to talk so it’s unlikely in fact to be ‘wee’)! We had a slightly eventful bus trip to Oaxaca as I had inadvertently booked the wrong day, so we had to buy another ticket, leave a couple of hours later from a different station!! However we got there in one piece with just slightly sore bums. Wow Oaxaca (actually said owaka, so no wonder none knew what I was talking about)! Really cool buildings in the historical area where we were staying, large paved streets, lots of markets and the obligatory dozen or so churches! We largely just wandered around for a few days exploring, enjoying some nice (although expensive for Mexic...

Luche Libre is the best 30 bucks you can spend on entertainment!  Absolutely hilarious – highlight for me were the little people in Teletubby outfits fighting (see vid below)!!!  The atmosphere was electric, the passion palpable and the noise deafening. Screaming, clapping, stamping, booing – the Mexicans reaaaaally love their wrestling! And we did too.   Mystico seemed to be a local hero and there was near hysteria when he entered the arena – he played to the crowd, raising his arms, blowing kisses etc – took about 10 mins for him to get to the ring!  He did a lot of acrobatics – probably why he’s so popular, but the villains team seemed to get the better of his (the goodies) team, so not sure what all the fuss was about!!  I would definitely recommend going to a show. And so easy to organise – tickets through ticketmaster, uber dropped us near the entrance, usher showed us to our seats, then the refreshments people bought beer, popcorn, hotdogs, soft drinks et...

Hola, bienvenidos a la ciudad de Mexico. We are loving Mexico so far - vibrant, clean (in our area anyway) and cheap! However if you don’t speak any Spanish then you’ll have a bit of a challenge - there is some English spoken, but relatively limited and the menus for the street food are only in Spanish. Luckily I can remember enough from the Sth American trip 15 years ago to be able to largely understand the menus, and do basic communication! We’ve got a Mexican sim now so that makes it a little easier to use google translate when out and about!! Although this is a little dangerous in Trap’s hands - especially after a couple of beers! Our hotel is in an historic building that has been renovated, so the rooms are modern but the lobby and floors still have some of the original stonework. I’m not sure whether the statues are creative or scary, but they’re definitely different.  We’re a couple of blocks or about 400m from the Plaza de la Constitution and the Cathedral, so we’re in a fa...

The weather has warmed, the humidity increased and the wind has died down a bit, so I was able to break out my new purchase last night. You will see from the pics below that there was no way I was going to be able to resist these - they are so completely me!! And I’m pretty sure I won’t see anyone else with them when we get home or basically anywhere else we go!! So with a population of over 2.3 mill, you’d think downtown Houston would be bustling, but over the last week, we have been largely alone with the other tourists and homeless people wandering the streets. We were thinking that Houston must be suffering like many other cities post-covid with people working from home and not coming into the city etc. However there’s all these parking buildings and giant skyscrapers! So where is everyone? Turns out they’re under our feet - quite literally. Houston has this network of subterranean, climate-controlled, pedestrian walkways that link 95 city blocks 20 feet below Houston's downtow...

Houston has been an interesting experience so far! Getting through Houston immigration was a breeze - no one asked how long we were staying, no proof of onward ticket was required and the officer smiled!! There were no customs to speak of - we picked up our bags and walked through the door! We were a little taken aback by our uber - a Chevy Silverado truck - with not a prius in sight - in fact all uber’s seem to be big SUV/truck type vehicles. We had an interesting conversation with our driver - a late 50’s bearded fellow who gave us heaps of tips on places to eat while in town. Somehow we got onto the conversation of driving and he was surprised to hear from us that America was not the only country in the world that drives on the right side of the road. We did let him know that Europe does too, but I’m not sure if he believed us…. The hotel is great and everyone really helpful and friendly. There’s lots of street art and murals on building walls around the city, but a lot of homeless ...

We’re finally on our way to Houston, Texas where selling Limburger cheese is not allowed on Sundays! Apparently it has a strong pungent smell, like body odour, and can be considered offensive on a day of rest!!!!! I’ll leave you with that incredibly interesting fact and see you on the other side… Over and out ya'll. J&T

  You can't beat Wellington on a good day and we've had a few of those this week! Have done some nice walks around the city re-familiarising myself, had to go round the block a few times in car till I remembered where the road I was looking for was - not helped by all the road works in town as they create multiple cycle ways!! Caught up with friends and fam and unsurprisingly drank waaaaaay too much!!  Washing's done, bags are packed (well Trap's anyway), Wise card is prepped, ready for the off tomorrow... J&T xx