The Alaroni Big Trip: From Cabo to Oaxaca

For the first time in an amazing 10 months, I enjoyed a short break from the family by spending five days with childhood and college friends in Cabo San Lucas for 'a guys weekend'. Starting from the time I met everyone at the airport arrival bar in Los Cabos on Wednesday afternoon, until I flew out on Sunday, it was nothing but fun and laughs with good buddies include 3 Marsocci brothers - Bob, Chris and Dino, high school friends Jim and Ben, my college and livelong friend Dom, and two new friends Cory and Mack. We rented a huge house high on a hill with a great view of Cabo town and the sea. The house also had a swimming pool, horseshoe court, and much more. If we weren't drinking beer and laughing about old times, we were fishing, jet skiing, quad-4ing, and of course eating lots of tacos. I hope we can do it again sometime.

After leaving my friends on Sunday, I flew to Oaxaca, Mexico (in the mountains 1.5 hours flight south of Mexico City) to reunite with the family and where we've rented a flat for two weeks in the historic part of the city. Oaxaca is situated in a valley (elevation 5,000ft), is surrounded by mountains, and maintains much of Mexico's traditional culture in terms of architecture, dress, cultural festivals and food. We're fortunate to have Nadia's good friend Holly joining us here for a week from Washington State. We've been taking walks through the city daily and are constantly coming across new things to see and explore.

Two days ago, we walked around the ruins of Monte Alban, which had been a spectacular planned city built by the Zapotec high in the mountains above Oaxaca town and inhabited from 500BC to 800AD. I was in awe when looking at the size and quality of engineering and craftsmanship that went into building this place so long ago.

A week-long Oaxaca festival starts today so we're looking forward to seeing what this entails. I may even take the kids to a wrestling match (the Mexican version of WWF) where the wrestlers wear cheesy masks. I have no idea what to expect but it could be a good laugh. Nadia will miss the festival though because she flies to Jordan today on a week long consultancy and will reconnect with us in Mexico City next week.

Even after all the adventures experienced and locations we've traveled to, the trip continues to inspire and enlighten.

Cheers, Rob

Poolside at the house we rented in Cabo

Dom and Ben feeding our fishing bait to a visiting sea lion on the way back to port

We stumbled across this bar called Fenway's (no pun intended) while walking through the streets of Cabo - Ben, Dom, Soch, Jim, Dino, Chris, Mack, Cory and me