After a week in Seattle, we flew down to Mexico City and from there meandered made our way via bus and taxi to the small town of Tepoztlán, about 75 km away.  In comparison to the capital city, Tepoztlán feels more like a village.  The streets are made of cobble stone, the pace of life is leisurely, and everyone seems to know everyone.  Surrounded by mountains, including the Tepozteco pyramid located high up in the hills, tourism is the town’s main industry.

We were quite pleased to be enjoying temperatures in the 70’s (F) during the day, although it did get noticeably chillier when the sun went behind the clouds (and at night, of course).   It was nowhere near as tropically warm as our vacation on the Yucatan Peninsula a few years back, but it was a pleasant change from the rainy climes of Seattle and Northern Germany.

Although we arrived shortly before New Year’s, the town was still decked out with Christmas decorations, which often meant colorful pinatas and streamers and lanterns along the streets and around the street side shrines.  A photographer’s dream!  I was in love.

And the food, let me tell you.  It goes without saying that good Mexican food in Germany is hard to come by, so I ate to my heart’s delight the entire week.  I loved the informal street food culture too.  Ladies would simply set up a folding table on the sidewalk, relatively at random it appeared, cook their tortillas and offer up various sauces out of tupperware right there for you.  Often there would be one or two small stools so you could sit down for a quick bite.  And then of course, there was the more formalized street food culture of the markets, which were awesome too.  Our favorite was a stand offering up large varieties of fruit  and juices on the go.  Almost daily we also ate a steaming cob of corn sprinkled with chili and lemon (but without the mayonnaise that normally goes on it!).

And to work off all that food, it helped that we walked everywhere and that it was super hilly.  In fact, my calves were tight the first couple of days because of all the hill walking!  (Bremen and Berlin are terribly flat in comparison.)  Otherwise, our days were very relaxed, spent sitting in the sun or looking at old photos with  mein Schatz‘s father, and listening to his tales of life in Latin America.

But before officially ending our vacation, we spent two days in Mexico City before our flight back to Europe.  What a contrast!  More details on our adventures there (including a visit of Frida Kahlo’s house) soon…

Until then, you can find the complete album from  Tepoztlán here.

Looking for more posts on Mexico?  Check these out:

• Mexico City
• Tales From the Yucatan Peninsula