Departure to Oaxaca (pronounced: Oa'hacka)

Our plane was supposed to take off at 6 o'clock, which meant getting up at 3 o'clock, the taxi to the airport was ordered for 3:30 ... everything was supposed to go according to plan, check-in, security check. Thanks to Andy, we were able to kill time until the departure in the VIP lounge. Our flight had only half an hour delay. There was coffee, croissants and scrambled eggs. The boarding was delayed again, we had already been up for four hours and ordered white wine. Finally, we took off with a two and a half hour delay, barely made our connecting flight and landed in Oaxaca in the state of Oaxaca in the south of the country at noon.

We took the public bus to the city and looked for the agreed hostel at 30°C: fully booked. The next hostel, still carrying our backpacks in the midday heat: fully booked as well. Finally, we found a place to stay right next to a specialist store for earth furniture... Lucky us.

Before a two-hour city tour in the late afternoon, there was time for a coffee in a quiet courtyard next to a bookshop. Peaceful and at pleasant temperatures, I could finally leave the stress of the day behind. Outside, a blind street musician was playing the Beatles classic 'Hey Jude' on the pan flute.

Through the city tour, we learned a lot about the heritage of the indigenous Zapotecs, the Spanish conquerors, the origin of street food, the influence of street art on social protests, the significance of the regional Algarve schnapps Mezcal and how popular the city was among backpacking tourists, especially from Germany.

For dinner, we had mole and chapulines - savory cocoa sauce and marinated grasshoppers.