After four long and arduous days of travel riddled with delays, ticket changes, tears, hotels, waiting, multiple flights, a 6 hour bus ride and a lot of cheese and tomato toasties I finally arrived at the Casa Colonial in Oaxaca, Mexico.

I’m the only guest at the Casa due to it being off season and I feel like a bit of a princess sitting at the head of a huge table to be served breakfast with the gardens and library all to myself as well as a huge private room and studio. It’s all a little surreal. The rainy period has started meaning there are often afternoon showers and thunder storms. It’s a good thing I packed 2 of my favourite rain jackets! I’m beginning to settle in, getting over my jet lag and cold I seem to have developed from all the air con on the journey. It’s warm and humid here so I’m enjoying never having to wear a jersey and ever so glad I’ve missed the snow in Christchurch.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went for a stroll to the town centre and ended up smack bang in the middle of the markets. It’s so vibrant and colourful here and all the craft is amazing. I’m pretty much the only white person around so I get stared at a lot but it’s nothing a smile can’t fix it seems. I bought a kilo of fresh mango’s for about $1.00 as well as my dear Oaxacan cheese and some tortillas among other fruit n vege. You can also buy about 8 avocados for 80c. I went to a couple of art and craft shops to suss out some supplies for my projects, they have these whole shops dedicated to craft and party supplies so I ended up buying an odd selection of objects haha. I also came across this awesome fluffy bag with the batman insignia at the markets that I think I’m going to have to go back and purchase at some stage.

Tomorrow I’m going to visit the collective I’m to volunteer with and check out their store and amazing selection of ceramics from artisans all over the Oaxaca area. Hopefully they’ll be able to get me working soon as I’ve got heaps of ideas and am keen to get started. Time in Mexico is a lot like Island time, everything just runs at it’s own pace and nothing really goes to schedule haha. So I’m learning to readjust to this more relaxed and slower pace of living too. Ahhh the good life. On that note it’s almost time for some mango and a siesta, I’ll have more news to talk of in the coming days.

Buenas tardes todos!