Bienvenidos a Mexico!
The flight to Mexico City was a long one. Once landed, I found myself in a climate of rain rain rain. It was pooring down from the skies. I guess that´s what ¨rainy season¨ means… 
Luckily in the daytime it´s quite warm and sunny. Mexico City is absolutely huge. With 25 million people, there is nothing but people, traffic, smog, busy-ness and chaos. The city definitely has its charms though. The entire center is just one big market. Every inch of every street is filled with little stalls and rugs, and every salesman is yelling and whistling to get the attention of people passing by. The city is just vibrant with life.
Nevertheless, after a day of siteseeing I´d seen enough of the place. Too big, too dirty, and not the Mexico I want to visit. So I took a day-trip to lovely Teotihuacán, also known as Las Pirámides, an ancient Maya city with piramids, temples, ruins, houses. Nobody knows the real history behind it, but the whole site has a magical feeling about it. The piramids are comparable to Egypt, a little lower, but also with wicked analogies to the solar system and strange light phenomenons and yet to be explored caves inside.
The hostel in Mexico City was pretty great too. Met a bunch of cool people, and have been enjoying the Mexican cervezas. After three nights there I packed up and went to the bus station. On my way to Colola!
Turned out that Colola takes a full day of bus travel. In fact, Mexico is a whole lot bigger than you´d think if you looked at a map. To cross the entire country it´ll take you 4 days (non-stop travel). But I´ve enjoyed the changing landscapes. From the concrete heaps that is Mexico City to banana fields and palm trees and little villages and an absolutely stunning coastline. The nature here is amazing..
Colola is a tiny village and quite easy to miss. The rickety-rackety buses on the rickety-rackety curvy mountainous roads don´t announce where it stops and people just get on and off wherever they want. I found out I´d already passed Colola an hour after we came through it. I got out of the bus at the next village, which consisted of three cottages. I was welcomed by little kids: ´Mira el gringo!´
After a long wait I managed to catch a bus back and happily met up with Ferco and Sietske, my Amsterdam neighbours who are volunteering here for the endangered turtles. The volunteers lead a lazy holidaylike life here. In the evenings they do a bit of turtle egg collecting, and for the rest it´s just hanging at the magnificent beaches, swimming, chilling, making campfires, drinking and smoking. It´s great here.
We sleep on the beach in huts that are made out of palm leafs and branches. Wooden shelves serve as beds. There´s no running water for the toilets or showers. At night the only sounds you can hear are the wind, the waves, and the crabs. All the stars can be seen, I even saw the milky way for the first time in my life! It´s all very back to basic here, but it´s totally absolutely fckng cool!
Right now I´m in Tecomán, the nearest civilized place from Colola and a two hour drive. We get around in the back of pickup trucks. Hanging on for your life while the driver speeds over the curvy mountain roads with 120 kmph 
The weekend is over now, and tonight there´s a turtle watch again, in which I´ll join in. I reckon it´ll be quite an experience to see an old turtle in the wild from so closeby.
I´ll probably be leaving the camp, an oasis of relaxation, tomorrow to continue my own travels. Zihuatenejo is the next stop. I´m really enjoying my trip so far, and am looking forward to what the next weeks will bring.
James
