While enjoying the first days in Oaxaca and at our amazing Airbnb with the Carlos family, we already thought about doing some day trips around the city.
Getting to know Oaxaca…the state!
After the carnaval experience we booked one big day trip that we were also really excited about. It consisted of five different stops:
“El Tule”, Mitla, “Hierve el Agua”, some traditional weaving in Teotitlan del Valle and a Mezcal distillery.
Our first stop was “El Árbol del Tule”, the “Tree of Tule”. It is located on church ground in the town center of Santa María del Tule.⠀⠀⠀
With a girth of about 50 meters the over 2,000 years old tree is the widest in the world. It was amazing to walk around the extremely large and ancient Montezuma Cypress tree. 🌳
Place of the dead
Next up was the archaelogical site of Mitla, which was the most important city of the Zapotec culture. The name Mitla derives from the Nahuatl name “Mictlán”, the “place of the dead”. Therefore it was the main religious center for the Zapotec. This archeological site is most unique for its mosaics and geometric designs that cover tombs, panels and entire walls. We even had the possibility to go inside two different tombs. This was a weird experience as it was dark, had bad airflow and of course really small passages. Sadly the time for Mitla was a bit short, but we saw everything and were still amazed by all the history Mexico has to offer.
Boiling water
After a quite long drive up into the mountains we arrived at “Hierve el Agua”. Our third stop the “boiling water”, is a petrified waterfall and is not boiling at all. The natural formations were created by mineral water pushing through the rock depositing the falls onto the mountain’s edge. At the top of the cliff you can find mineral pools for a relaxing bath. As we had one hour at that place, we hiked to the bigger waterfall first and took some obligatory photos. Since it was quite windy we just watched the other people in the pools instead of going in ourselves…
Downside and upside
So far the tour was really nice but as almost always, there is one downside involved…We had to visit a small family business of weaving in Teotitlan del Valle. The small town tries to preserve their indigenous traditions as they all still speak Zapotec. Also almost all families still learn weaving at a very young age, around five or six! We learned once again how to naturally dye wool and how to make carpets. Yes it was really interesting…Afterwards you could of course buy one of the handmade carpets and lots of other stuff…
Finally to the end of the tour we arrived at a Mezcal distillery. We got a little introduction on how they make the liqour before we could taste some. It is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the heart of the agave plant. Tequila, by the way, is a specific type of Mezcal made from the blue agave. We tried different aged Mezcals, some cream-mixed ones and even one with a worm in the bottle! It was a tasty end to a very long day trip!
