I'll have a bag of grasshoppers and some cheese ice cream, please.

Culinary craziness:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=164429&id=510568119&l=2e1f18d38f

Why is it that I can fall asleep within the opening minutes of a training conference, regardless of how much coffee I drink to try to stay awake, and yet I can't get to sleep at 4am on a sleeper bus? This was one of many questions I had plenty of time to contemplate as the hours dragged by on our nocturnal journey from Palenque to Oaxaca. Actually, the answer to that question was easy - I couldn't sleep because the man in front had reclined his seat so far back it was difficult to breathe, the bus driver kept stopping, switching on every light in the bus and allowing hordes of people to clamber noisily on and off, and every now and again armed soldiers would get on to look for drugs and fugitives. The joys of travel...

Fortunately, Oaxaca was a destination worth making the journey for. Known as the culinary capital of Mexico, Oaxaca is also a cultural hotbed of artists and local craftsfolk; a beautiful, vibrant colonial city and somewhere I'd been looking forward to coming back to for a long time. Top of the list of things to do was reaquaint myself with the amazing Oaxacan hot chocolate, served delicately flavoured with orange and cinnamon. Yum. Less appealing, but equally essential on any trip to the city, was a trip to the market to sample the local delicacy - chapulines. Or, as we would call them, toasted grasshoppers. Watch Rich's reaction to his first crunchy critter here:



And what better way to celebrate your first toasted grasshopper than with a nice bowl of cheese ice cream? Well, there are probably many it turns out - given the choice I think I'd rather have more of the grasshoppers...