Today we left Puebla at 8am to go to Oaxaca (kinda pronounced Wa-ha-ka down to the way they use x’s)

When we remembered to look, the mountainous country we passed through was stunning.

We didn’t arrive in Oaxaca until mid afternoon. The city was even nicer than Puebla and we spent the rest of the day exploring it and it’s markets. The markets must have been good because I didn’t mind going around them!!! Shock horror!

Cindy took us to a local place that made chocolate. They even made some for us to try. Whatever you think, pure chocolate is NOT sweet, lol. To be fair, there sweetened (normal) chocolate was really good. I may have bought some if I had any luggage capacity. Admittedly, when it came to having a drink I had coffee. What do you take me for? 🤣

In the evening we went back to one of the rooftop bars (definitely do this if you go!)

The next day we went to the ancient city of Monte Alban (not the original name by any stretch of the imagination!).

Wow, this place was beautiful. The impressive Mayan structures were surrounded by mountains. The first phase of building started around 600bc and was only fully abandoned during the Spanish occupation. While the pyramids at Teotehuacan were more impressive, the setting of these was just so stunning (not that you can tell from my phone pics!). Oh, and please ignore the daftie in the hat!

Today we left Mexico City and headed north to the ancient Mayan city of Teotihuacan. It is believed to have at one point been the 6th most populous city in the world. It reminded me greatly of Deep Thought from hitchhikers guide

The city was really cool to see (definitely a must). It was good that we went as early as we did as there were not too many tourists yet and the souvenir venders hadn’t got into full flow yet.

In the afternoon we headed south to the city of Puebla. It had a colonial feel to it (like there was in Coyoacan) as the buildings were also protected. We only really had the afternoon/evening to look around as we were leaving the next day.

We all really liked the hotel as well. It had been converted from an old market.

What follows is an account as to what NOT to do!!! It ticks several of the ‘don’t do this’ boxes which are there for a purpose. Would I change it? Hell no

So, to start with I was up for a full 24 hours before going to bed. This led to my body not really knowing when when was when or even would be when. In other words I didn’t sleep well and woke up around 4am. This was even earlier than my planned early start of 5:30am ready for my first running tour of Mexico City.

https://www.mexicorunningtours.com/en/an-imperial-path-to-a-castle-tour

Enrique met me at my hotel and we started the tour there which meant subtle tweaks to the route. This run was the first of the things I ‘shouldn’t’ have done in Mexico City. Basically, without acclimatising, I went for a 10k run at 2250m above sea level in what was once the most heavily polluted city in the world. It was really good though.

Yes, it was dark when I started! As it was Christmas shortly before my visit there were still big star piñata hanging all over the place. There were also loads of different manger scenes that different companies and locals had put together. The one that I included was amazing. It was made by local artists using a very detailed and manual process, you will not be able to see but the coloured sections are tiny raised points.

The furthest point of the run was the only castle in México (although it still didn’t look much like one to me!)

I returned to the hotel still in time to have breakfast and, more importantly, coffee.

It was a good if difficult start to my trip. Mexico City is very polluted! I ended up spending the rest of the morning in my room before heading out for lunch. Veronica at runmexico had suggested a good restaurant. It was great. Looked amazing and the food was really good.

In the afternoon, I followed my morning footsteps and a little bit more in order to visit the anthropology museum. As it was a Sunday it was free. I would definitely recommend a visit. The museum covered several of the major civilisations (including Aztec, Maya and several earlier ones).

The next day was an even earlier start with a 4:30am alarm to leave the hotel in time to walk to my volcano tour start point. Just FYI, this is what they tell you NOT to do as it is still dark at this time. I actually had less hassle at this time than during the day. Less people and much less traffic. You should probably get a taxi or an Uber (these work really well in Mexico City)

The tour itself was quite mixed. On one hand it was great to get out of the city and see the volcano. On the other the tour was too slow and had too big a group. We had to keep stopping for head counts. I was also the only English speaker so I missed lots of information. Most were locals who were VERY excited to see snow!

My third and final day in Mexico City started with another early start. This time it was a visit to the coyoacan area which involved getting an Uber as it was about 10km away from my hotel. I met Enrique outside the Frida Kalo house. Apparently she is famous in the uk as well. She was an artist and outspoken advocate of women’s rights. She was also involved in bringing Trotski over from the ussr when his life was in danger. He was still assassinated in his house in Mexico City but not before becoming an important part of Mexican evolution.

The Coyoacan area is completely different than the Reforma area that I was staying in. It was very pleasant with the majority of the buildings being colonial and protected. The streets were also fairly narrow and lined with trees. Running around here was much easier as the air was so much cleaner, in spite of me being quite tired for some reason. Enrique gave me a great tour around the area including a really interesting park. It was used as a nursery to grow plants for the other parks. In addition to this, it was something of a runners mecca as it had a 1km loop of really nice running surface. Enrique’s running club goes once a week for circuits along with many other clubs and individuals. It’s called Parque National el Historico Coyoacan and worth a visit.

On the way back to the museum, Enrique treated me to a coffee at his clubs normal post run hang out. I can’t remember the name but it was near the north east exit.

The only thing that I did for the rest of the day was swap hotel, well I was tired so I chilled until I met the rest of my tour group.

It was with some trepidation that I approached this flight. This would be my first visit to Mexico (and a few days on my own), and my first business class flight. It was made up of two parts as I changed aircraft at Charles de Gaulle.

Choosing to fly Air France to Mexico had an unexpected quirk. By the time I arrived I was getting used to using my very broken French. I then had to work hard (and fast) to reprogram my ‘speak foreign’ mode!! 😬

For the flights themselves it was nice to have priority boarding (getting to be one of those annoying whatsits for once 😂). I was also amused by thinking that I had brought too much luggage in spite of being a maximum of a third of my allowance.

The first flight was a good example of pointless business class (it was an A320 btw). The seats were almost identical to normal and didn’t feel like they had any extra legroom, plus it was a fairly short flight so…

That seat wasn’t mine but it will give you an idea.

On the other hand, breakfast was definitely acceptable!

The second flight was the one I was looking forward to, top deck of the airbus A380.

Tbh, the Air France A380 business class felt a bit old and dated but it was still cool. If I travel on one again I wouldn’t get a bulkhead seat again as the screen has to be stowed for taxi/takeoff/landing and I like to get film viewing value from my flights!

The headphones were very good, I couldn’t hear anything else while I was wearing them. However, they were very tight and for much of the flight I had to alternate between ears in order to give the other a break and I couldn’t see how to use my own headphones.

I must say, complimentary champagne before takeoff was awesome!!

Other than a small amount of turbulence on a couple of occasions (it was an Atlantic crossing!) the flight was pretty smooth, which was good as it meant I could enjoy the food and drink.

The last image was the Confit Lamb and was ever so slightly better than EasyJet 😂

I didn’t like Charles de Gaulle airport so would probably go out of my way to avoid in future. I didn’t like the feel of the airport and the lounge didn’t really win me over.

I was reasonably impressed by Mexico City airport. It was nice that I could arrive without any pesos (I ran out of time) and get a fixed fee cab to my hotel using my credit card.

Here are a few videos to give an overview of the first phase of my travels. No expense has been spared in achieving the incredibly high production values. The acting and voice over is also awesome!!! Please ignore the giant hand in the background, it was following me around and just wouldn’t leave me alone!

For everyone that watched all of that, SORRY lol
I may change the way I do this for future legs!!!
But only completely 😉

Today’s progress is around the exciting topic of insurance!!!

Seeing as the three phases of my trip are longish (Americas:73 days Australasia:125 days Asia:102 days), this puts my trip outside ‘normal’ travel insurance parameters as I will be out of the country for more than 3 months at a time.

Next up was the search for policies that include all of the countries I will visit. This was pretty straight forward as worldwide minus USA pretty much covers it!

Luckily, I have done a reasonable amount of planning so I know what activities I need to get covered. I have not been able to find a policy that includes everything ‘out of the box’.

It was well worth looking closely at this, as none of the cheaper policies covered hiking above 1000m… I AM GOING TO PERU, MOST OF THE TOILETS ARE ABOVE 3000m LET ALONE ANYTHING ELSE… I also know that Vinicunca is 5200 m tall (its a rainbow mountain and I am climbing it :D). Last time I went to Peru this wasnt a tourist venue, but that is global warming for you.

Other things not covered include Shark Juggling, Naked Bungee Jumping while eating lobster, and sea kayaking. Just as well I dont like doing any of them! Ok, a bit miffed about sea kayaking as I am going to New Zealand and may have already signed up to several days worth of trips. Still, at least it is possible to add (the kayaking NOT the rest!)

So, long story short. I am covered. I just need to figure something out for my camera now.

Next update: Progress on Mexico to Peru itinerary unless something else takes my fancy first

Hey, thanks for visiting.

Why LandedFalcon? Well, that is a long complex answer that requires beer and a comfy seat in the pub. I would expect it to take almost a minute! Yes, any excuse for a beer.

The challenge for 2020 is to inflict myself on the parts of the world represented by the Green and Yellow pins on this map, and to make it back so that I can bore people with my photo’s.

With 300 days of travel planned, I hope you will join me on my journey when I depart for Mexico City on the 2nd of January. I may even post some of the trials of trying to plan this much stuff. I intend to have an idea of what I will be doing for every single day of the trip before it starts, cos my brain works like that.

I will leave you with a photo of the trip that started me on my love of travelling. Try not to laugh too much! I know I was fat and sweaty, lol!

Charles