Petrified Waterfalls and the World's Widest Tree

Located just outside of Oaxaca City, are a number of pueblos and points of interests for which everyone and their brother offers a tour.  Our hostel advertised an inexpensive tour to see the sights in the surrounding countryside so we geared up to travel in a small van with 7 fellow hostel guests.  At least that’s what we thought was going to happen as we'd seen a small van taking people away the previous morning. 

What we actually did was spend 10 hours on a huge, air-conditioned tour bus with roughly 40 strangers that we kept picking up at different hotels.  The places we visited were beautiful, but the process of being herded like sheep in 15-60 minute intervals was kind of awful.  Here’s a quick summary of our adventures for your reading pleasure, and future planning purposes should you desire to visit Oaxaca (which you totally should!).  

Landscape at the ruins in Mitla.

Hiking with views at the end of the day.

One of the many beautiful sights along our tour.  

View from the tour bus. 

Here she is - our beast of a tour bus. 

Stop 1: El Arbol del Tule.  The widest tree in the world asked for a 10-peso entry price, which I deemed too steep because a) I'm cheap and b) I had a limited amount of change for public restrooms.  Fear not, I was able to view the tree and take pictures through the iron fence so I didn't miss out.  This Montezuma Cyprus has a trunk circumference of over 130 feet and an estimated age of more than 1,200 years.  We realized what we were in for when we arrived here and saw the throngs of tour buses and tourists with color-coordinated dots on their shirts.  Our guide did not give us any colorful dots or other manner in which to distinguish who was part of our group so our 15-minute stop turned into a 30-minute stop as he tried to round everyone up. 

It's hard to fit the full width of the world's widest tree into a camera shot. 

That's the tree next to the church.  As you can see, it's big :)

Stop 2: Teotitlan del Valle.  This was an awesome tour stop!  Here we enjoyed a great presentation on how textiles are woven by hand by locals who maintain the Zapotec culture and language.  It was fascinating to learn about the weaving process and how colored dyes are created.  Local children start learning the trade at age 6 (or earlier) and essentially grow up to weave and farm corn.  The local guide told us that school was an option but not a priority for youth because their weaving and farming traditions are so strong.  He also said that we were welcome to live and volunteer with their community to learn the weaving process and/or help identify new markets where their cooperative could sell products.  New life goal identified: learn how to weave carpets and create colorful dyes from insects that live on nopales.

 Foot pedal loom.

 Hand-dyed materials.

Finished bags. 

Close-up of a great rug.

Hall of carpets.

Display in the hall of carpets. 

Stop 3: A mezcal distillery.  This was my least favorite part of the tour because our guide was literally running from one spot to another, and we were weaving between several other large groups of tourists.  It was cool to see the plants and learn more about how mezcal is created, and I appreciated the free samples at the end, but I had to say “no” after three tastings because it was super-hot and like noon (and that mezcal is strong).

We arrived at a fairly isolated restaurant for a 140-peso buffet lunch in a large building packed full of tourists.  The food looked good but we had a minor group anxiety attack sitting in a confined space with a sea of tourists and an insane amount of people hovering at the buffet.  So, we bolted to the tiny shack across the street where we enjoyed cold beverages and nuts while our fellow volunteer Peter went wandering down the road.  He called 15 minutes later to say he found a woman who would cook us quesadillas with beans for 10 pesos each.  Score! 

Pics from the distillery. 

Stop 4: Mitla.  This was my first time to see any ruins in Mexico so I was stoked!  We really wanted to wander on our own but were placed in an English language tour group, which was curiously led by the local artisan from Teotitlan del Valle.  You would think that I could tell you more about this site since the tour was in English, but I was distracted by the artistry and literally remember nothing.  There were tons of stands with handcrafted goods outside of the ruins, but we didn’t have time to explore them as we were herded back on the bus in less than an hour.  As we started to leave, a young man informed the driver that his friend Marco was still in the bathroom, so - lucky for Marco - we stopped and waited.

Mitla ruins.  

 That's our friend with the awesome cheek highlighter in the front of the picture.  

Wall and ceiling in an interior room.  

Me and Mickey with an awesome wall :)  

Close-up of wall artistry. I blame this lovely wall for my lack of any knowledge about this site.  

Stop 5: Hierve el Agua.  We arrived at Hierve el Agua about an hour before sunset and rolled up to see two people sitting in camp chairs in what can only be described as the most idyllic setting.  The petrified waterfalls at Hierve el Agua are a site to behold and were worth the long day on a tour bus.  The online pictures for the pools above the waterfalls suggested that we would have a tranquil soak in mineral springs while enjoying a beautiful vista of mountains and valleys.  The reality was that hundreds – if not thousands – of people had entered those pools on the day of our visit and at 6 pm, tranquility was not a word one could use for what we encountered.  While the pools were beautiful to view, we sadly we could not bring ourselves to wedge our bodies into that huddled mass of wet people.

Natalie pointed out that the plates on the car parked by the idyllic camp chairs were from Washington, so I made my way over to talk to these strangers with a view.  There I met Pete, who was traveling with his fiancé from Spokane, WA down to Argentina.  He was the perfect embodiment of what you would picture for a super cool guy who just got back from a few months traveling in Asia and was now sleeping in his car while making his way through Mexico and South America.  His fiancé was a returned Peace Corps volunteer from Benin who had wandered off just before we arrived, but we talked and laughed with Pete for a good 20 minutes.  Our group was feeling a little beat down after such a long day of travel and time spent with so many other tourists, so Pete was just the jolt of energy and joy that we needed to make the journey back to the big city. 

 This was a seriously beautiful place - even with all those people. 

Pools for soaking - finally free of people at the end of the day. 

Petrified waterfall.

This was the view from Pete's camp chairs. 

Super large, beautiful flower. 

Long story short, the landscape around Oaxaca City is beautiful, but I recommend you rent a car or hire a driver if possible.  Or you can take one of the many tours offered - just be prepared to participate in an armada of air-conditioned tourists all visiting and arriving at the same spots together in mass.  However you get there, don't be afraid to walk up to strangers and engage them in conversation, because you never know who you'll meet.  Your super cool version of Pete is waiting to meet you and bring joy to your day somewhere in Mexico, so go find him! 

Spotlight Oaxaca City (aka Foodie Heaven)

Oaxaca – it was everything I hoped for, and so great that it gets two blog posts!  Granted, it took a full 15 hours to get there, but the journey is half the fun and this trip was no exception.  I headed out bright and early on a 6 AM bus where I passed thousands of religious pilgrims making their way to see the Virgin of Talpa, a large pig running free down the highway, and a man on a motorcycle with an adult bicycle strapped to his back.  That dude was super mobile. 

I finally found my name in Oaxaca - that's gotta be a sign.

 And I found a building that totally looks like it's from Harry Potter.

 One of many, many picturesque churches in town.

Lovely landscape.

I arrived at the airport for the first of two short flights to find that I could have been in any airport in the US, with Johnny Rockets, Chili’s, Subway, California Pizza Kitchen, Starbucks and The Body Shop.  I also saw a little girl with a Kate Spade purse who was moving her suitcase around with a remote control.  Is this happening everywhere now or am I on the front edge of a new technology wave here?  I changed planes in Mexico City and finally got to see some of its legendary sprawl and density.  I sat next to a man who had never flown before so I had to explain that I was super excited because I was not accustomed to airplanes with so much legroom, overhead storage space or free drinks (including tequila).  I also had to explain where he needed to put his bag, how to fasten his seatbelt and how to find his connecting flight using the reader boards.  

I arrived in Oaxaca to join four of my fellow volunteers in a 13-bed dorm at a hostel, and was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was (and that I survived 5 nights sleeping in a room with 12 other people).  There’s nothing like time in a hostel to make you rethink your life and how you want to live it.  We met people from Germany, Britain, Australia, Mexico and elsewhere, all of whom seemed so happy and free – and on their way to/from the great Oaxaca coast for some surfing.  Our hostel also had a great rooftop terrace where we rehydrated at the end of each day while listening to music, playing bananagrams and Uno, viewing fireworks and watching a few thunderstorms roll through.  

Art in the hostel.

Hostel rooftop.

So many beautiful churches. 

 All our chocolate purchases gave Peter a good workout.

So many beautiful, colorful buildings. 

This one was next to a great mercado with food and handmade goods. 

This was one of my favorite pieces of art, inside the mercado. 

Here’s the most important thing you need to know about Oaxaca: chocomío.  It’s essentially heaven in a liquid chocolate form from Chocolate Mayordomo.  I will always remember who I was with, how I felt when that liquid hit my lips, and how my life changed on April 14th when I drank my first chocomío.  I cannot emphasize enough how much you need this in your life.  If I was a nicer person, I would have purchased this drink in powder form and brought it back for everyone to try but… yeah, I didn’t do that.  Instead I went there three times in four days, savoring every sip of that cold frothy goodness, and enjoying their hot chocolate, which was also drool-inducing. 

The beloved chocomío beverage, with Peter and Natalie.

This drink is so delicious, it gets two pictures!

We started each day searching for another local coffee shop to taste the legendary coffee of Oaxaca, and finally got to try tlayudas, which I could easily add to my weekly meal repertoire if they were available in my region, a quesadilla with grasshoppers (a little salty for my taste), Oaxaca cheese, pan de yema and stale churros from the night before.  Even cold, slightly stale churros taste like heaven in Oaxaca.  We ate two times at the restaurant La Biznaga, awash in the glow of foodie heaven.  If you want to eat food that makes you savor every bite, and that you keep thinking about for days afterwards, put this restaurant on your list. We ate so much on this trip that for dinner the last night we could physically only fit in a hot churro and hot chocolate.  

 This was our lunch spot for two days. 

I drank this but it wasn't my favorite.

Artistry and flavor at Biznaga: salad with mangos, beets, avocado and craisins.

Awesome floor tiles at a local coffee shop.

Clearly, food was a highlight in Oaxaca, as was the art.  “Street art!” – that was a constant cry as we walked down city streets and cameras were raised to capture the beauty around every corner.  One thing I’ve honed in Mexico is the ability to find art and beauty everywhere.  You can always find a beautiful door, a well-designed plaza, a band playing guitar and wooden pipes, or bright colors blowing in the breeze to give you a moment of pause and appreciation.  We toured several different mercados admiring and purchasing alebrijes, hand woven rugs and table runners, local chocolates and mezcal, and other beautiful goods for ourselves and loved ones.  We also found the textile museum and a maze of never-ending crooks and nannies filled with art.  We explored natural art in the ethnobotanical gardens where we were placed into a tour with a group of roughly 30 visiting students from BYU who really, really needed more sunblock.

 Cactus pond at the ethnobotanical gardens.

Cool tree and plants at the ethnobotanical gardens.

 Cactus wall.

Art near the textile museum.

On our last day, we took a tour of Monte Albán, the former ceremonial and military capital of the Zapotecs, about 15 minutes away.  Here we ran into our friend from Anaheim who was on the same tourist route with us and who we had met two days earlier at Mitla.  She was on point with Jeffree Star skin frost highlighter that immediately endeared her to us, and we helped each other take photos with the ruins to document that we did in fact do more than just eat in Oaxaca.  The ruins at Monte Albán were incredible and climbing to the top made you appreciate how much work went into creating this compound and how much shorter stairs are today. 

 My crew in Oaxaca: Natalie, Mickey, Peter and Brennen.

 Prepping to climb some steep, steep stairs.

  View after climbing all those stairs.

  This was a really beautiful place with sweeping views.

  Historic artistry.

  This dog latched onto us as soon as we entered the site (especially me), so I named her Pickle during our time together. She stayed with us for 2 full hours and climbed all the stairs with us. Sweet Pickle.  

I completed a final 15-hour travel day with one cab, two flights, one Uber and a bus to arrive home full of happy memories and a strong longing for another chocomío.  Seriously, I’m always gonna need more chocomío so if you want to visit Oaxaca, just let me know!   

*PS: We spent one full day on a tour to explore sites outside of the city, which is too much to write about here, so stay tuned for more tales of adventure and beauty from Oaxaca next week!