Oaxaca city

My time in Oaxaca city was SO MUCH FUN that I forgot to blog. First off, I must describe THE TREE. The Arbole d´Tule is the world´s largest tree but I could not have prepared myself for the life-altering impact it would have on me. It is one of the greatest and yet simplest things I have ever seen in my life. It is so beautifully and intricately constructed. It looks like 40 trees intertwined in to one. It looks like something from Avatar. And yet it is (obviously) natural and took over 2000 years to grow. I became emotional and went back to see it twice. And yet it is a TREE. It is so incredible how small moments like that make you realise just how much beauty there really is in the world and you just need to SLOW DOWN, live and breathe each moment and appreciate life´s fine details.

With the tree I felt very privileged to have visited it and I had the same experience when I visited the Hierve el Agua - Oaxaca city´s own petrified waterfalls, created when too much sulphur got in to the water system thus creating a ´frozen water´ look. (Or something like that, I have never purported to be good at science.) Here, the waterfalls were not what I enjoyed seeing the most but rather the astonishingly expansive view. Whilst tourists frolicked in the natural pools, I sat (alone) at the edge of the cliff and watched the Mexican vultures soaring over the trees and the valleys for hours. It was an intense experience.

Similar to my visiting of the two great ruins in Oaxaca, Monte Alban and Mitla, both of the ancient Zapotec civilisation from whom the Nahuatl peoples originate. Surprisingly I am still not sick of ruins and continue to eek out great enjoyment from sitting atop the highest of the pyramids and contextualising myself within lifetimes of civilisations. Also, I was really impressed with the traditional Oaxacan rug-making technique, typical of the Teotitlan del Valle area of Oaxaca. I was fortunate enough to witness five generations of women from the same family - chatting Zapotec language and Spanish with each other - as they wove together the beginnings of one of their lavish rugs, all the yarn dyed using natural colours of flowers and beetles and organic compounds like indigo.

I seem to be perhaps exaggerating my appreciation of all my experiences but this is only because I have come to realise what I do not enjoy; tourgroups, tourists, crowds, ¨holiday snaps¨, cheesy hostels and people who only speak English abroad. So long as I avoid these things, I am happy and can continue to enjoy my exaggerated happiness out here. It is of course difficult when you are someplace and wish to visit a certain attraction (it is afterall a sight-to-see for a reason) as these things tend to attract aspects on my avoid list. But when tourists go to one of the world´s wonders - the tree or ruins for example - they would be happy with a bit of an explanation (in the English language of course) and OBVIOUSLY the requisite photos of them-in-front-of-tree and them-in-front-of-view. YOU are not the attraction you fugly douche! And once these rats swarm in to one of the aforementioned places, their very presence depreciates my enjoyment. It is as though my pleasure is inversely proportional to that of others´. Not ALL others of course, just the shit ones. Nevertheless, I have found a good way of coping with such situations - just IGNORE. And I mean almost to the point of rude. Of COURSE I will be polite to them I just won´t initiate their conversation, because trust me I have tried before (I´m a friendly person!) but it always proves absurdly dry. And so I remove myself graciously from their company and continue to have a personal, individual, overwhelmingly existential experience between myself and the various places of interest.

I´m being a bit of a self-righteous wanker I know. Whatevs.

Anyways, another reason why I enjoyed Oaxaca city so much was because of the people I spent my time with. I hung out a lot with people from my hostel and we met a totally cool local Oaxacan (Medicine student) named Fermin who took us out, showed us the sights, invited us in to his home, spoke SPANISH with us, cooked with us (I tried and failed to cook with Nopale, the cactus leaf... unfortunately I didn´t realise the market is supposed to skin it for you so I ended up with and continue to have annoyingly small but painful cactus prickles in my hands!) and we just had a totally rad time with him! Oaxaca city can definitely party and is so buzzing all week long! The bars are spilling out with people and the clientele are so energetic as they dance frenetically to the music - usually Mexican/ Salsa fused with contemporary Western popular music. Surprisingly, a really exciting combination!

My favourite day (easily, and possibly one of my favourite days in Mexico yet?) was when Fermin took myself and Andrea, a Swiss guy, to a an ex-convent dated from around the 15th century. There was an entrance fee which we did not appreciate and so instead we just chilled outside in the convent´s grounds, bought a couple of cheap plastic kites and flew them for hours with all the local kids! I felt so happy and free all day long... It was a really lucky and beautiful feeling. And as the sun set, I took some of my best footage yet... Probably will never use it for anything but even if it is just for my own memories, I am so glad I was able to capture our childlike glee of that day... Later we went to watch Alice in Wonderland/ Alicia en el Pais de las Maravillas in 3D (excellent Burton-work, poor scriptwriting) and then flew the kites in the carpark until the early hours of the morning... Extreme kiting :) Who needs artificial stimulants?!

Elliot, Fermin, Andrea and myself

SO after a wonderful week in Oaxaca city, I realised it was time for me to move on ot the coast. So I ate my final tacos with Fermin and Andrea (and the American brothers Steven and Charles who I bumped in to yet AGAIN on my travels!) and jumped on the 10hour busride to Puerto Escondido. And here I am and it is STUNNING. Awesome waves, big white beach, few tourists, chilled hostel vibe, loads of sun... I am in my own paradise :)

Playa updates to come,
A x